Well, ok, not right now.  Right now there’s Summer Schedule info and some information about me.  Stay tuned for more information soon!

this is the kids and the puppy

We have a long-term commitment to our clients. We strive to develop a relationship with our clients that means not only are we there at the beginning of a project, when it’s new and exciting, and through to the successful launch of an application, but we’re there to help maintain the application in the months and years to come.

As a part of the strategic plan we develop with our clients, we take this all into account. Looking to the future, we develop applications that can grow and change as the web, and your business, evolve.

Wake Up Vibes Blog

Good call!

Lead by Example

The best thing is to build your portfolio.  You do have a portfolio don’t you?  Make sure /your/ site is the best site you’ve ever built, and make sure you keep it up to date.

Find gigs that are high profile, or can be sold as high profile, and get them into your portfolio.  Try not to do too many gigs for free.  If you do have to do it for free, make sure the client knows how much it /should/ have cost them.  Bill them… treat them like a paying client… then put a line on the bill that says “Charitable One Time Discount 100%” or something.  Don’t advertise that you work for free; and only do it enough to get some stuff in your portfolio.  Community Organizations (especially busy ones), Charities, Clubs, Dance Studios, etc, are all places that need websites, but can’t necessarily pay.

Doing gratis work for them will increase your presences and status in the community, broaden your contact base (many of the people in those groups will have businesses that will need sites), and, with excellent work, also increase the value of your portfolio.

Limits are good

If you do free sites as well, set up limits to the amount of free maintenance you’ll give them.  With one of my clients in particular, I’ve given them a lot of free work,  or given it to them at half price, but I also charge them.  Now, design work is 75-100% of my normal rate, but regular updates are about 25-50% of normal, as they don’t take as much brain power.

BUT YOU HAVE TO LET THEM KNOW THE VALUE OF THE WORK THEY’RE GETTING.  If you don’t tell them, they won’t know; if they don’t know, they won’t value it; and all your hard work will be for naught.

He’s got a contest on now where you can win some great prizes. Some of the sponsors of this contest are

1. Logo design from David Airey. Add a touch of professionalism to your business with one of my logo designs. If you’re unsure what his designs are like, check out his graphic design portfolio.
2. Custom WordPress theme design from Nate Whitehill of Nate Whitehill dot Com. It’s vital to set yourself apart from the crowd, and Nate will help a great deal with your very own custom WordPress theme.
3. Personal marketing / advertising plan from Maki of Dosh Dosh. Maki is an expert where blog advertising is concerned, and he is kindly donating his time to help you make the most of your new custom blog.
4. One year’s hosting and blog setup from John Boardley of I Love Typography. John has kindly donated his time and will do everything you need to get your new custom blog hosted on one of Media Temple’s dedicated servers.
5. Signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle VanFossen of Lorelle on WordPress. I bought this book myself, and it contains excellent blogging tips for beginners to pros.
6. One hour SEO consultation with Lyndon Antcliff of Cornwall SEO. Lyndon will conduct a Skype consultation with the winner of this prize, and he comes highly recommended for search engine optimisation and linkbaiting.
7. Logo / blog header design from Jonathan-C. Phillips of Smart Wealthy Rich. Jonathan has donated his expert skills to help your blog stand out from the crowd.
8. Behringer Podcastudio USB Podcasting Kit, kindly donated by Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog. Looking for a new way to express yourself? Ever wanted to be a famous producer? Then podcasting is the answer and the BEHRINGER PODCASTUDIO USB bundle has all you need to make high-quality podcasts and home recordings.
9. $25 via PayPal courtesy of Gayla McCord of Mom Gadget. Free money! Who doesn’t want free money? Very kind of you Gayla.
10. 2GB USB storage key x 3 courtesy of Jamie Clague at Terinea Weblog. Three USB sticks will make up three separate prizes, with free worldwide postage. Jamie, Edinburgh Computer Services, has also kindly donated his valuable time to helping with the prize draw administration.
11. Two 45 minute coaching consultations with Mark McGuinness of Wishful Thinking. Mark specialises in coaching creative professionals, and is a real expert in his field. The first session will involve goal setting, with the second session reporting on progress and making adjustments.
12. 4 hour business growth consultation with Rebecca Caroe, via telephone / Skype, or face-to-face in London / Cambridge. Rebecca is a business growth consultant for creative agencies, so if you’re looking to expand your company then this is the prize for you. If you want Rebecca to visit your offices simply pay her travel expenses.
13. Tele-Coaching with Tammy Lenski. A one-hour, private telephone consult with professional mediator and conflict coach Tammy Lenski. Figure out how to deal with a challenging client, strengthen your contract negotiations, or confront difficult conversations with more confidence and success. Free call within the U.S., via Skype outside the U.S.
14. One hour product launch consultation with Design Translator (DT) of Design Sojourn. Whether you’re launching a line of t-shirts, custom furniture, electronics, or any other product, DT will lend you his product launch expertise.
15. Blog improvement or monetization advice with Easton Ellsworth of Business Blogwire. You choose, do you want to generally improve your blog or do you want help making money from it? Easton has kindly offered his help.
16. Revolution Premium WordPress theme package (personal package) from Brian Gardner, WordPress designer and consultant. Brian’s WordPress skills are second to none.

There are soooo many prizes, it boggles the mind!  Make sure you check it out!

My basic belief system is Christian, although I’m pretty sure God doesn’t give a rats ass over who wins the Stupor Bowl, nor any other sporting event for that matter.

I believe that although God may not like homosexuality (but really, I have no idea), he’s probably REALLY FREAKING PISSED OFF at the way people get treated if they happen to self-identify as gay.

I believe that it’s none of my bloody business who you sleep with, how often, or how.

I believe that we have a God Given Duty to look after each other. I’d rather pay more taxes and make sure that the poor and disadvantaged get the health care and social services they need to get buy.

HEY: SMARTASS: not everyone is as smart as you. Not everyone has the gifts or resources that you have. Not everyone can live the ‘American Dream’ and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Some people NEED HELP, and GOD expects us to look after each other where we can. For crying out loud, Jesus did it all the freaking time.

I believe that God probably is a socialist. I think that capitalism run rampant makes God want to puke.

I do NOT believe that ‘what is good for business is good for the people.’

I believe in the freedom to like or dislike a country or person based on their actions — no matter how often they invoke the name of God in their justifications for said actions.

I believe that once the Chinese get their act together and get out of the 3rd-World-Developing-Nation club, we’re going to have to find another group of people to exploit to be able to maintain our decadent North American lifestyle.

I don’t know if I believe in global warming; the jury is still out on that.

I do believe that not finding ways to live with and protect our environment to the best of our ability is just wrong and FREAKING STUPID.

I believe in social health care, free condoms, welfare, unemployment insurance, GAY marriage, straight marriage, LOVE and families of all types, as well as the freedom of religion/non-religion.

You can believe what you want. I can believe what I want. I’d love to talk to you about what you believe and what I believe; just don’t beat the shit out of me if it’s not the same as what you believe, and I’ll offer you the same courtesy.

Oh, and one more thing:

I’M A LIBERAL. AND I’M PROUD OF IT!

Benjamin

No Spinning Heads, But…

Fortunately most clients aren’t asking for flashing text and spinning heads any more (although I still get some asking for waving flags and sparkle text). But after completing my web masterpiece, I get clients who surf around, find something flashy at some other site and say “Hey, we should ad this to our front page”.

Um… yeah… where?

Just like feature creep in the design phase of a site, ad-on-itis can wreak havoc on the integrity of a design: New front page links, banners, ads, etc can ruin a nice clean design. Extra pages can seriously stress, or even break, the well ordered flow of the navigational structure.

What’s a boy to do?

So when the client is constantly coming to you with requests for additions to the design or content of a site, what does one do? “No” can only be said so many times before they go and find someone who will say “Yes” while “Yes” can only be said so many times before a site becomes an unwieldy, jumbled mess. Fortunately there are several steps that can be taken to avoid both extremes.

Solutions

1. Just say “Yes” if you can. Take a look at the site (which you should probably know very well anyway) and see if the requested item can added in a way that is consistent within the current build of the site. If not…
2. Don’t say “No” say, “Later”. Explain to the client exactly why their brilliant idea won’t work so well in the current incarnation of the site. Then make a point of recording their idea and saving it for a future release of the site.
3. When the clients list of wants gets to a critical mass, it’s time to work on the next version of the site. Now that you’ve been working with a client for a while, developed an excellent rapport and have an even deeper understanding of the clients needs based on the work that’s been done in the past six to twelve months, it’s time to talk to them about building a new, updated and better version of their website.

Mark II

With this deeper understanding of their needs, you’ll be able to accomplish two things:

1. Incorporate all of their desires into a shiny new site that will knock their socks off once again, and
2. Build the new version of the site taking into account the way the site will probably grow in the future.

Which is what we should have done in the first place. Isn’t it?

The other night it was very hot & humid. Ms GF & I where driving on the back roads to my place when we stopped to switch drivers. We got out of the car, and were stopped in our tracks by the sight which greeted us. The field by which we were parked looked as if it had been festooned with a million tiny blinking Christmas lights. Fireflies. Thousands of them.

Fairyland

It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Eventually we got back in the car and drove on a little further. It got more beautiful. Tiny glens were filled with the flickering light; in the grass, in the air, on shrubs and trees. It was beautiful. It was a real life fairyland.

Ms GF looked at me and said, let’s not go swimming… wake your kids up and show them. Or words to that effect. I waffled. It was very late, the kids had been out to a movie with the Grandmother… I decided that rather than wake them up at that late hour, I’d save it for a night where they hadn’t done anything exciting. Say, the next night. Great plan.

Storm Clouds Gather

So the next day I got up and went to work, full of excitement about the surprise I had in store for my offspring. It was 30 degrees by coffee time. It would be perfect. Except that by lunch it was pouring rain, and there were severe weather warnings.

I’d missed my chance.

The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and I missed sharing it with my kids. I’ve skated with them on this lake when it was a mile long skating rink of the most perfect ice I’ve ever seen. I’ve gotten them out of bed to look at a sunset, listen to spring peepers, watch bats. Beautiful, if common, events to be sure. But in all my years, I’d never seen anything as beautiful as fields of fireflies.

Clearing Skies

That afternoon it got hot and the skies cleared again. My hopes rose with the climbing temperature. But by supper time it was storming again. By time I got home, it was over cast and chilly. Surely the fireflies wouldn’t be out on such a cold night.

After dark I got in my car and drove out to see. The first field I came to was empty. My heart fell. I drove to the next field, remembering that even the night before, that particular field had been empty. With out much hope I pulled up next to a fenced in paddock. I saw one, then two, then hundreds of fireflies. The show was on!

I rushed home, calling ahead so the kids would be out of bed and ready for me when I got there.

Magic Moments

We drove out and stopped next to the road. The kids were amazed. They chased and gently caught the flashing insects. They marvelled at them. The stood in awed silence watching the field light up before their eyes. I almost cried.

We went a little further to a small glen. I’ve never seen so many fire flies in all my life. It was the most beautiful and amazing thing. The over cast sky hid the moon, and the fireflies were even brighter. And this time, I got to share it with my kids.

Stop and Smell

I got lucky. I thought I’d blown it, and yesterday was preparing an article about disappointment, and not letting chances slip you by.

Sometimes though, you get a second chance to share in the delight that the world has to offer. But don’t take the chance. If you have an opportunity to share something wonderful with someone, take it. You don’t always get a second chance… But sometimes, you do.

See, here’s what happened. We had plans. Ok, to be honest, I thought we had plans. We kinda had plans. She called me and said “I think I’m going to change our plans” & I said “Oh, OK, No problem.” Problem is, I didn’t mean “Oh, OK, No problem.” What I meant was “WTF???? THAT REALLY SUCKS.” So, the next day, I calmly told her that I wasn’t happy. She hung up on me.

She Hung Up On Me

She was wondering why I hadn’t just said what I felt at the time. I said, “‘Cause you’d get mad at me and hang up.” She hung up on me.

Still later on, she uttered the sage words quoted above “What’s wrong with having someone mad at you?”

So, what’s wrong with having someone mad at you. It’s not pleasant, to be sure. No question. But, if we’re being honest with ourselves, and honest with the other person, what’s wrong with (politely) speaking one’s mind, fearless of the impending possible angry response?

Social Security

The real issue here, is security. People in serious relationships are going to do and say things that piss off the other person. People in relationships with other humans are going to have the other person do and say things that piss them off. It happens. It’s normal. If one is secure with one self, and just as importantly, if one is secure with the relationship, then a little anger now and again is not going to bring the world, well, the relationship, to an end.

The Wisdom of Friends

Ok, so, I’m now going to brind in a life lesson from ‘Friends’. It’s pretty early in Chandler and Monica’s relationship. They have a fight. Chandler is essentially (after they’ve made up… sort of) saying ‘Good-bye’ to Monica.

Monica: “What? We’re Breaking up?”
Chandler: “Well, yeah… we had a fight, didn’t we?”
Monica: “That doesn’t mean we’re breaking up!”
Chandler: “What? Really?”
Monica: “Of course not. This is a relationship. People fight. But I love you…blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda” (or words to that effect)

So what’s the lesson here? Fighting’s not the end of the world. Holding things in (like your’s truley did) just tends to keep things bottled up building pressure until they explode. (Suffles feet, trying to look innocent: fails miserably). Then, when you’re listening to dial-tone, things get really stressful.

Gloves back On

So my point is this. A fight shouldn’t mean the end of the world. Remember, she’s in this with you because she loves you. You’re in this because you love her. When issues arrise, it’s much better to be honest and say what you think and feel. That way there’s no surprises.

And if you do catch an earful of dial-tone? Well, you’ll be in a much better headspace to deal with it, won’t you? And you’ll be much less likely to escalate things into a full, gloves off, ulitmate battle. And that, you really don’t wan