So I’m an internet guy. I work on the internet all day, and I use it all the time even when I’m not at work. Maybe it is because of this obsession or simply because of laziness, but I do a terrible job blogging. Well, I actually have time opening up in my schedule, and I am going to try to do a weekly blog. We’ll see how it goes.
It is finally official. The Vintage 106 website that I built a while ago is now live. I’m very pleased with the final result, and any Hammond, LA folks should definitely check it out for some retro shopping needs. Also, I recently wrapped up some work on a couple of other sites that I’ve been working on. Those were both just a matter of taking an established design and converting them to code, but they’re done and live on the web. With all of the freelance jobs finished, I’m taking some time off to hang out with the newly expanded family and to be able to have some time to try new things both online and in the artistic world.
Speaking of which, this week I returned to eBay for the first time in a long while to find a cheap copy of Photoshop. I tried using Paint.net and Gimp as potential replacements for my design software, but I just couldn’t find all of the options that I wanted to be able to use. Plus, all of the options that are there use different shortcuts and controls in order to make them work. Yeah, I know I’m being picky, but it took me a long time to be able to figure out Photoshop. The solution: I bought a copy of Photoshop 7 online for $30. I may be going retro here, but I believe that this version has all of the tools that I actually use. Hopefully, I’ll have some work to post here in the future.
Last but not least, I’ve been thinking for a long while about how to engage audiences online. It’s part of my job, but I also have been looking for ways to make reading a story online enjoyable. Even as an avid reader (both real books and comic books), I still struggle to read much online. Well, this morning I pulled out a box of stuff from my childhood and dug out my “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. How would a story like that work online? I’m sure that some people are already doing something like this somewhere, and it’s really the basis for practically every role-playing video game out there, but I’ve never tried to tell a story in this format. And I can build websites now, so I can customize the experience as much as I want (or at least as much as I am able). So I go to tinker to see if I can find something fun to bring to the Great Big Internets. We shall see.
Have a great week, and hopefully I’ll be back next week!
Other random notes:
I wrote a review for a new comic book that I enjoyed called 7 Psychopaths. It’s a WWII tale that is set up similar to Inglorious Basterds but is told with incredibly different sensibilities. The book was written by a French writer and translated to English.
This t-shirt made me smile this week…
If interested, this shirt is available over at redbubble.com.
