Hello, my name is Jhames

Since 2003 I was doing all my design work on a 17″ PowerBook G4 with a 17″ Studio Display. Five years later, I upgraded my design studio for a desktop and larger display. I decided to transfer my files from the PowerBook and sell my older studio on craigslist. The ad short and sweet and the sticker price was under $1000. I received a few responses from people who disappeared after an initial round of communication. Then I received an e-mail from a guy in New York City. To be honest, his response didn’t raise any red flags since he seemed interested in the studio and, frankly, it’s a great deal. He inquired if I would accept payment via PayPal, I replied yes. I took the studio to a shipping store for an estimate and e-mailed the total costs of the studio and shipping. … Continue reading →

Watching the Inauguration on television this morning, I went from one emotional extreme to another during the event. For the first time in eight years, I felt like I no longer had to live in fear of my government. That I can speak my mind without worrying that I would lose additional civil liberties or be labeled a terrorist for my staunch opposition of Bush and Cheney’s politics. I listened to the broadcasters on NBC elaborate on Americans in all their myriad dwellings. Latinos were lumped into barrios and black were ushered into ghettos. The broadcasters were stumped for a description of Asian communities. One word would have been far better and more powerful: home. Despite the historical precedent of today, white privilege remains omnipotent in our mainstream media. And despite the historical precedent of today, America and the world were deemed not ready … Continue reading →

I have to say, working with WordPress is a lot easier than MovableType. My physical involvement with the theme components has focused mostly on the style sheet. I looked at the themes offered by WordPress, viewed the source code of the sample page, then revised the default CSS file to match my theme. I uploaded the files, activated the theme, and made minor changes to the stylesheet thereafter. Working in MovableType was never this easy. Also, if you are using an iPhone or iPod Touch, you will now experience a very light version of my blog courtesy of iWPhone WordPress Plugin and Theme. Many thanks to Grapefeed for the tip.

Get burned enough times and you find yourself coming up with trademark phrases like Learn From My Mistakes™. A lot of little mistakes with past projects added up to one giant mistake: overlooking the importance of risk management. During the course of a project lifecycle, it’s important to mitigate any and all risks so neither you nor the client waste time or money.

The critics – my friends – have spoken about this year’s Winter Mix collection: I have been carefully and purposefully going through the music in your Winter Mix 2009 and I am blown away by how many great artists there are in this great mix. You do broaden my musical horizon so. I know like four of the bands. But I am excited to hear new ones. I have more friends than this—I do, I tell you, I DO! This year’s mix was a collection of 80 songs from all walks and genres of music. The mix is available to friends only, I’m a tease like that, but I’ve been known to lose touch with people. If you are such a person, let me know and I will send you the mix. For all the haters out there that complain about a lack of … Continue reading →