New things inbound, watch out.

Another thing that I found out this afternoon was that Matt Thomas (of WordPress) not only went to SCAD around the same time as me… he also lived in the same apartment complex.

Pretty funny because I’m sure our paths must have crossed at one point.

Last thing… I just realized I started at CRG around the same time as my new job… 5 years ago.. how time flies, and how things have changed.

So I was like, crap I really wanted some of those pads a while back and forgot all about it.

I just bought 3 packs of 3, free shipping is a good thing, hehe. Hopefully I’ll have them by the end of the week to take in to the new job as my new notepad of choice. It really fits how I take notes, and really should work very well for the type of things I do on a daily basis.

I’m finally getting used to what streets connect to what and have been driving different ways to and from Mzinga at my new job. Speaking of which Josh even pointed me to (another) Andrea’s in downtown Woburn where I snagged some pizza last night before heading home. Nothing like good pizza after a great second day to just be the cherry on top.

Today we went to Flatbread’s for lunch, which was a great time, despite the fact that I guess they forgot about me on the first trip down there only to realize, wait, where’s Matt.. I didnt know, and they came back, so meh just a funny part of the day. I’m a big fan of Flatbread’s in Portland and had mentioned last night that I had no clue they had 6 other locations, much less one like a 1/2 mile down the street.

Enough about food, I should be getting pictures on the wall finally in the next couple days, and I’m probably gonna move one of the computers into the other room and set the scanner up in there so that when I draw I can just digitize it in there. It didnt occur to me until the other day, but seems like a good setup for that computer. Then I think I’m finally gonna setup the touchscreen monitor on the kitchen table and have some geek fun with it.

Getting some of the shared server stuff moved over to the newer (month-old) virtual dedicated server is still on the goal list, I might move this blog over in due time. Faster, Better, Stronger is never a bad idea.. but only if its worth my time right now, haha.

They seem happy, which is good and already put it out there if I have more ideas to let them know. A creative outlet is always a good thing.

I’m definately on track to work with the new 360 UI in time, which should be a lot of fun.

Last week, around this time, in fact really a little over a week. I was struggling between two job offers. It’s great to be wanted especially after a couple months searching for the right opportunity to come along. Finding 2 that were serious and within 24hrs all of a sudden have serious decision to make.

On the serious, overly dramatic side, you could say, this kind of decision shapes your future to a certain extent. The other side would say, OMG A JOB, cash flow is win! I was caught in between. Two very different oppurtunities presented themselves… I chose to go with my gut, and my heart and the place that represents the culture, atmosphere, people and job that fit me the best. Overall, the people, and the connections I made with them was the deciding factor. I accepted a position as Social Media Designer at Mzinga and I look forward to starting on Monday.

So that would seemingly be enough. However, in the middle of the mix of craziness, I was prepping a second xbox 360 theme to send to DP, my publisher.. yes I have a publisher. That is cool to say. I was also preparing for my first theme to go live on the marketplace to be potentially viewed and purchased by millions.. an intriguingly interesting concept that is still both frightening and cool.

Throughout this process, several people from the gaming community that I’ve gotten to know have been very supportive and helpful. Ms. Mcbloggy deserves a well deserved shout out for even featuring me on her blog, thanks girl!

The theme started out as a fun project to get my mind off a couple things that were going on as my parents were in the midst of the largest move I’ve seen firsthand, and I was looking at moving myself. Originally the contest from which the first theme was ‘born’ out of was intriguing from one prize.. and one prize alone.

The winner got their theme published.. published, as in, people could buy it and adorn their gaming box with something I made. There is something gratifying about that fleeting thought. Even ‘giving away’ the HDTV and all the other prizes to other gaming friends if I won.. because to me, that wasn’t the prize I wanted, I could have cared less.

I’m an artist, I’m a designer, I may not have much of an ego, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there.

Well, needless to say, fruitful ambitions of a naive artist just looking to stretch his craft and dream big.. was crushed by the ever growing mass of thoughtless submissions that blatantly verged on copyright infringement to outright embarrassment of people passing things off as their own work.

That didn’t sit well with me, one person of increasingly strong morale and ethical fiber that doesnt waver on much anymore. Needless to say, after a long email and discussions (and the voice of reason being the above mentioned BS Angel) I stuck with it.. looking towards the possible goal of at least maybe having still a flickering hope to get it published because it was obvious winning was far from a reality based on the process of picking the winner.

Fast forward a couple months, not much mention of any forward progress in dealing with the contest organizer, that of Disruptive Publishers, in between this time I’d dug around the moat of the xbox fortress to attempt to figure out even the remote process of how one accomplishes such a goal on their own. Short answer, they don’t, at least not that I could figure out, or that of Xbox employees, MS employees some of which are close friends.

Over a month ago I decided, that this was still of interest to me, and while looking for a job, the idea of a potential revenue stream, albiet small royalities, isnt something I was likely to dismiss without serious thought. Especially since through specific groundwork and other ventures in the last year; I’ve tried to provide the foundation of getting more passive income revenue streams.

Jump ahead, and a week and a half ago, I had not yet interviewed at either position I got an offer on, and while my publisher had the theme in tow, I was expecting the process of publication to last weeks, months really. To have this all happen, now.. is exciting, and I thank everyone that has supported me.

Who knows maybe this ease of blogging will actually start a new series of Blog Wars because Dan now has ecto.

It started out as a way to show on my design reel, that I had 3d experience, and it was something very different than most people were doing. Later I just used the last stage of the animation, then I started really liking just the silhouette of the object, which later became what I called my personal mark.

Now its been tweaked to go along with some other branding, and some other ideas.

Thats why the name of this site is, Design Evolves, because I it does. Artists and designers that dont normally get left behind. All the greats have periods, and that only comes through evolution of ones design sensibilities.

The good uses of flash.. and the designers taking advantage of it, one namely is actually a group of developers working on SlideshowPro and SlideshowPro Director.

While both are amazing, and I used the former on a client project for a really simple dynamic look that couldnt be achieved for the cost any other way, I finally however got around to installing ‘Director’ on this domain (unlike SSP is per-domain) but at $29, its a steal. Amazing. Beautiful. Sexy. Yes.. web apps are sexy again.

This thing is so pretty, they hit the nail on the head to create an automated, dynamic system through the use of xml, html, javascript and flash in masterful way, all to benefit SSP.

I implore you, go check them out at www.slideshowpro.net