Day off

Well, certainly the morning off. I've only just got up and I'm sitting in my pants. Hurrah!

The site build I've been working on for the past few months is coming along really nicely now. I'm launching on Tuesday, so watch this space.

I've also handed my notice in. Hurrah! Maltpress Web Consultancy is go. Because I have nothing really to go to, I'm working a long notice period. As part of that I'll be using up the masses of holiday I have left, so I have roughly a month of working three-day weeks towards the end; that'll be the time to get all my final things set up. I'm looking forward to it. In general, I'm very excited (if a little scared) about the whole thing. It's been a real relief to hand my notice in and, if nothing else, it means I can get advice from people at work about things... there are some really good designers, marketing bods and managers there whose brains I'd like to pick.

Right - I'm going to shower, get on my bike, go in to Cambridge and meet an old friend. Then I'm buying iWork, coming home, finishing the website ready for Tuesday, and relaxing as much as humanly possible.

Pip pip!

Done it

...quit my job. Eeek. In three months' time I'll be unemployed, unable to sign on, and having to fend for myself.

Does anyone want to buy an MG? Or give me some money? Or hire me? Or just tell me it'll be OK and I won't be poor at Christmas?

Still here.

Still swearing at Internet Explorer (actually, swearing at Firefox and nested relative font sizes... although technically correct it's still annoying when you're working to IE...)

Still hanging in there on the day job... by days... more to follow...

Still working very very hard trying to get a site launch done on time despite technology...

Still enjoying the radio over the internet.

Very, Very. Very...

Tired. *Yawn*. See?

BBC 6 Music is ace. This afternoon, I've had Dandy Warhols, Weezer, Menswear, and the new Thom Yorke single.

I've also been told to stop using the word "monster", which is a shame. Because all of the above are indeed monster.

A rant and a hurrah

Rant: "does what it says on the tin". If one more person uses this phrase to describe anything - except perhaps a tin of buzz-word spouting marketing person poison - I will scream. They even said it in Hollyoaks the other day. Is nothing sacred?

Hurrah: Javascript in another language - it just makes me smile to see "new String(Request.Form("messaggio"))". I don't know why.

Doing drawing, listening to music

Redesign work continues apace at the moment. Cambridge.ishome (still experimenting with the capitals) build should start Wednesday, when I have a day off work. Maltpress.co.uk rebuild has started and, despite a few early IE/Firefox issues it's now working on both browsers, and on Macs too.

Yesterday I set up my office round at Dad's house; I'm about to go buy memory for the old computer I'll be using and a wireless thingy too.

I'm learning GIMP more than ever before. My CSS and HTML are coming along very well. PHP holds no fear for me. I'm saving money well, helped by not driving in to work any more.

All is well with the world.

Damn him. Damn his eyes.

This bloke got there first - it seems he's doing all that I want to do and being all that I want. JuicyFly should be what this bloke's brand is. And, damn him, damn him all to hell, his design stuff is utterly incredible. Doesn't work in IE, but hey. Maybe it will in IE 7.

As lame as it may seem, my goal is to kick ass at anything thrown at me. As marketing fluffers would say, I want to provide compelling and unique design that ultimately helps your bottom line. But that's crap, I'll let my fingers do the talking, thanks.

OK - so I don't do design, I do information architecture and "stuff" - but that's an ace philospohy to have. Good on you, sir, but damn you some more for getting there first.

To celebrate a month of not spending done well

Let me kill your connection:



Ace. Utterly ace.

I love YouTube.

Last night

I watched the Spiderman 3 trailer on my mac.

It was almost *too* good. Shiny.

Once again...

I'm glad I got out of pharma marketing. I'm sorry to say nothing in this article surprises me in the slightest; it's stuff I've actually helped people do. I feel dirty. Thing is, most people involved are good people under pressure to perform because that's what they get paid for, and they want to pay the bills. No one person ever goes out there to say "let's make everyone afraid of some natural feeling which is rarely a problem - then we can make money". They say "how can we make more money for our company so we can research new drugs?". No-one gets around to researching the right new drugs, though. They're all thinking about making more money in order to do something altruistic. And the altruism never surfaces.

That's business, and it sucks. At least it sucks when you're talking about people's health. To be honest, Coke can do what they want, because it's my decision whether I buy their product. They're not telling me there's something wrong with me which can only be cured by their product. And if they try, I know they're a consumer product and I shouldn't trust them. We all think that we should trust pharma because they wear white coats.

Here endeth the rant.

I'm having a confidence crisis at the moment. A recruitment agency told me I don't have enough commercial experience to run my own business. Now, the plan is to do it part time for a while while I get that experience, but it's one of those things you don't want to hear. Especially when it's a fear I have anyway. Still, if commercial stuff means getting back into pharma and things, that's probably for the best.

I think I need to focus on the positives for a bit. Last night I did some work on Cambridge.IsHome and fell in love with WordPress, and my Mac, all over again. I could just kiss them both. If one wasn't some zeroes and ones and one wasn't a box made to hold zeroes and ones.

A proper update for a change

I thought I should take five minutes out to do a proper update for a change. I'm in the middle of doing some site-build work for my day job, trying hard to get caught up with everything and the site launched on schedule. It's been hard work and there's a bit still to do, but things are coming along nicely and the end is in sight. I've started to become quite good at the RedDot content management system now.

I've also found working from home suits me brilliantly. I get more done at home in the evenings than I do in the office during the day - simply because it's impossible for colleagues to ask me to help them with anything. My problem is I can't say no - whatever people want help with, I'll help them with it, whether it's my job or not. Sitting in the kitchen of an evening with the stereo on, plugging away at a website, I'm getting tonnes done. I can have a straight four hours on the site build and get more done than in a normal working day. I can also get caught up with my emails.

Cambridge.IsHome is ticking over at the moment, and not much more. I've got a load of photos to convert to banner images, and would have more had my camera not decided to commit bizarre battery-saving suicide the other day (I think it's salvagable - if not, it's just the memory card which needs replacing). There's a lot planned - regular features, a weekly update (although I need to sort out the timing on that), a contact form, and soon a .kmz file I'll keep updated with links to venues and things I visit. I keep thinking there's a lot of potential with the site. Once I reach a critical mass with content, I'll start promoting it around town a little. Then there are some seasonal themes I need to get prepared - Halloween (which I already have an article planned for), Bonfire Night, Christmas... I know, I know. Planning too far ahead already...

As for Live Like A Monk Month, I had a shaky middle to the month but things have sorted themselves out well. I think I'll make it now, and I've not even had a really bad time or anything. In fact, the only monk-like elements to the month are the head-shaving and the chastity. And the filthy habit, ha ha ha.

So... eleven days to go until the end of the month, when it'll be all change for me again. The back of the day-job site build should be broken by then, I can spend again (although I think I'll choose to keep the budgeting thing going), and I should have my own sites slightly further along by then too.

Oh, one last thing - I'm advertising the Midget. Contact me if you want it - adam@maltpress.co.uk

Whoops

I've only just noticed I deleted the top banner from this site a little while ago. Damnit.

I'm not going to fix it now: I'm off to bed, it being an ungodly hour. Sorry everyone. I have deadlines which I really want to exceed - the sooner I meet them the sooner I can leave my job. :D

In the mean time, ha ha ha ha...

Utterly painfully busy

In the next month and a half...
- five sites to build for day job
- normal day-job stuff as well
- two personal sites to redesign, write, and build
- two blogs to run, one of which needs me to review stuff
- business plan to re-visit

Cripes, eh? That's why I'm not around much at the moment, and when I am around I'm in a bad mood. Sorry. Normal service to resume soon.

Look at the beautiful sun!

My god, it's wonderful. I have to get out there.

Today I am planning to bike into Cambridge to do some photography for Cambridge.IsHome. I need to spend as little as possible, though. Live like a monk month isn't going brilliantly. Don't get me wrong, I'm saving loads, but if I want to keep to my budget I have to spend even less. There's a leaving do for someone at work next week and it's going to be pricey. Especially because it's her birthday too and I want to get her a present.

It's not as if I've even been frivolous. Strawberry Fair cost me little as I was drinking coke all day. Went to a barbeque and took food, but not that much. Been cycling in to work. Did spend on cold drinks the other day but I think that's OK.

If it wasn't for this leaving do I'd be well on track. Oh well - I'll have to see how best I can budget for now...

Cambridge.IsHome

Time to reveal the new project. Cambridge.IsHome is a new site celebrating everything great about where I live - Cambridge. As you could probably guess from the title.

You can find Cambridge.IsHome here: http://cambridge.ishome.co.uk

Last night I did some photography in Cambridge, came home, put together a mock-up title bar and had a quick go at the style sheets.

I'm using WordPress to build the site - it's blogging software but I'm using it as a content management system. The main benefits of this system - which work well with what I'm planning to do - are the categorisation of posts, nice control over comments, and a really nice clean look. I'm not messing with the standard look and feel that much. Writing's the main point of the site.

Having said that, I have some nice images from Cambridge today. I'm sure I'll share at some point, probably on Flickr.

Photos look lovely on the mac screen, by the way :D

For sale...

My lovely car. Sob! Get in touch if you want to buy it.

Shiny shiny shiny shiny shiny...

...shiny shiny shiny shiny.

Yes, I've got a MacBook. Yes, it's the most excellent thing ever.

Now I'm doing a lot of testing of open source software - MacGIMP, OpenOffice, that sort of thing, in order to make the most cost effective use of it. There's a lot of learning to do - I've (obviously) got the hang of the basic browsing stuff and some of the basic apps, so now it's time to start making best use of the thing.

I've never seen a screen like it though. So amazingly sharp and clear. I really, really want to start using this for image manipulation, hence MacGIMP being the first download...

Live like a monk month - an update

Well, it's funny how my social life explodes into action the minute I tell myself not to spend any money.

Still, I seem to be doing OK, even if I am driving in to work at the moment in a real display of laziness. I'll start biking again next week. Honest. I have 28 days left (as the new countdown timer - from Free Flash Toys shows) and most of the money left at the moment.

Please don't break in to my house to steal it.

Work is very, very busy and very, very stressful. I'm wound up tighter than a very tight thing at the moment. But its's nearly the weekend. I have fun things planned, including partying, Strawberry Fairing, computer shopping, and sleeping.

Just ignore that bit about computer shopping, OK? If we pretend it's not really happening, then it won't count against live like a monk month.

Names and sole tradership

So... I'm not going to be JuicyFly limited. At least not at the start.

It's a shame because I love the name and the designs Oli did for me. But for financial and administrative reasons I've decided to go down the route of being a sole trader, which means I have far less paperwork and far fewer costs like accountants. I could be a sole trader "trading as..." but that looks a bit fly-by-night.

So say hello to Maltpress Web Consultancy.

JuicyFly will remain, however, as will the JuicyFly Empire. It's going to be a far less formal "thing", where I'll be playing with new toys, trying some PHP stuff out and having a creative outlet. Maltpress.co.uk will become the official company website and the redesign work will commence tonight.

It's very exciting. Timelines are set, goals are set, stuff is moving along nicely... it's all I can do to stop myself jumping up and down with glee.

Plus I've decided that - if I'm having to sell my car - I need something with which to impress girls. So I'm getting a MacBook. Much drooling will occur. I'm watching the phone, waiting for them to tell me they have some in...

As of tomorrow...

HM Revenues and Customs recognise me as self employed. Well, back-dated, they will.

I am now a sole trader, trading as "Maltpress Web Consultancy".

And what's happening to JuicyFly? More news tomorrow.