Since retiring from freelance life at Debut Creative I haven’t been writing posts about web stuff. I quickly found that I missed it. My posts on DEBUT weren’t anything earth-shattering either. That wasn’t their purpose. I likely was writing the same stuff as hundreds of other people; but the goal was to show prospective clients that I was knowledgeable and passionate about my work.

I have toyed with the idea of writing more nerdy web stuff here on ArleyM.com (and that may happen), but this is a personal website and it gets read by family and friends who I bore enough with that sort of thing.

I love writing for Six Revisions (my third post there is being published this week), and I plan to continue doing so when I have a unique idea for a post. Even with this great outlet I still found myself longing for something different to call my own. Something beyond typical web design industry articles.

Introducing August Lark

I  have been brewing the idea for August Lark since February. I’m designing this site to be something that I’ll always be excited to work on without some of the pressures that usually come with website management. Blogging consistently daily or weekly is a lot of work and pressure. Consistently delivered content in terms of quality and timeliness really aren’t really optional for today’s audience.  This is why August Lark is going to be a site that is essentially active for one month of the year.

Beginning in August 2011 August Lark will have daily posts that are geared towards being inspirational and getting the reader engaged in their own creative process.

To me August has always been the month of squandered potential. In any job I’ve ever had it’s a really easy month – everyone is laid back and cool, lots of people vacation. Then September comes and there’s a huge change. Budgets have to be used up by year end, school is starting and the Christmas countdown starts. Everyone kicks it up a few gears and the August mentality is gone instantly.

So what if in August you were getting ramped up with articles that look at common web design, technology and development challenges in a new light? That’s the goal of August Lark.

Get Involved

This site will be different in that I don’t plan to write it all by myself. I am welcoming submissions (in a slightly picky fashion) that will help us all think outside of the box and get reinvigorated about this amazing industry we’re pioneering.

Early September be on the look out for more information at augustlark.com.

This is the single coolest, most profound and monumental thing that’s happened to me in ages. Rather that expound on it in a blog post, I think I’ll just shut down my computer and go spend time with my family.

In recent years my Dad has done a lot of deep studying into food and nutrition; and he and several other family members have started discovering some pretty big allergies.

This week I followed my father’s suit and I went to Red Paw (don’t mind the website) for electro dermal testing. I wanted to have directly comparable results, so it was no surprise to see so many similar results.

The terrible downside of this is that it looks like I need to cut some seriously favourite foods from my diet. It seems as though I have a strong sensitivity to dairy products (including cheese), wheat products (but not gluten), corn (which is in everything), alcohols (including wine), anything deepfried, and so much more…

As far as allergic reactions go I only have the occasional upset stomach to speak of – however bodies deal with sensitivity in different ways. In the case of an Uncle with similar sensitivities, cutting out corn products and gluten meant going down from something like 12 heart medications to one. Heart disease is just one thing I could realistically be avoiding by changing my diet.

I’m not 100% convinced. I plan to go off these foods for a bit and get a second opinion. For one thing the testing location had a strong presence of cats – something I am allergic to; which could affect other results!

So, I went from a easy-going to “one of those” tricky hard to feed people. It’s pretty discouraging.

It’s been two days, so it’s too soon to say if there’s been a difference definitively. I am pretty sure however that I’m waking up way faster. We’ll see.

I’m including my allergy results here mostly for my own on-the-go reference, but I think this might be of interest to other McBlains who are closely related.

Food Allergies

Chemical Allergies

Environmental Allergies

Food Alphabetically Listed

What the Scores Mean

Our house in Kincardine had the best water. It was amazing to drink right out of the tap – heck, even the hose. Once we moved I really got thinking about the affects of water.

We stayed at Kristi’s parents house for several months. Milton’s water is a lot harder, and I think it requires a lot of water softening. This is the kind of water I grew up with; it doesn’t taste fantastic, and in the shower the water feels extra frictionicious. This radical difference in water got me thinking about all the ways we interact with H20.

Water is the primary ingredient in the food we make, it’s thoroughly involved with our clothing, and we bathe in it. Inside and out, the water we use affects everything about us. My theory is that the kind of water that comes out of your tap will affect the way you smell and taste, right down to your breath and the scent of your clothes.

I think the only way to conclusively prove this would be AB testing, but since I wasn’t born a twin, once again humanity loses.

They say the three most stressful things in a man’s life are:

1. Starting a new job
2. Moving
3. Having your first child

I’ve been doing that. My new job at Thrillworks is a blast! It’s very challenging, and I’ve been learning a lot. I get to work with a pretty great team.

The new house in Burlington is wonderful. I’m thankful that my in-laws put us up and were so good to us. I like the shock value of telling people I lived with my wife’s folks for over six months. Reactions are usually pretty great; but in reality I don’t think there are two people who could have been easier to live with. Living on our own again has been great; it’s strange but the thing I missed the most was cleaning my own house. Sick, I know.

We are now six weeks away from having our little bundle of joy. Kristi’s enormous! She’s constantly hungry, tired and uncomfortable. It’s adorable. This week was the first time my daughter kicked me in the face. I don’t expect it will be the last.

All this to say life has been way busier than it’s ever been, but it’s pretty amazing. At the end of the day I’m less inclined to work on the computer on my own stuff! I’m guessing this will be the year of blogging less.

In 2006 I was using a Dell P4 computer. I bought a copy of Norton Antivirus for it, and felt good for going beyond the simple open source titles. Later in 2007 I bought a new computer which came packaged with another AV title, and the old P4 fell into disuse.

In 2009 I was shocked and outraged to see that I had been charged somewhere in the area of $50 for a subscription update (and had presumably, but not noticed the years before). I somehow got a hold of Norton and asked them to stop charging me. I wanted a refund, but it was too hard without the serial number I had long since lost, and the spokes person I spoke with had unintelligible English speaking skills. I gave up and took it as an expensive lesson never to use their software again.

Today I discovered that I had been charged AGAIN! I instantly felt about as irate as I get. I went to the Norton site and tried to contact them. What I found was the worst user experience on a site I have ever seen.

After clicking Contact Us in the footer, then Customer Service on the following page, THEN the hidden Contact Us link on the following page, I was directed to a page with a few terrible choices

First I tried the email form. Horrendous. There are so many mandatory fields – including the serial number (which I don’t have) that it’s unusable.

This is how I contacted them last year. I remember going to a torrent site and getting  a keygen to pass this. I shared this with Symantec hoping they’d make their form usable for people in my situation. I guess they didn’t.

Next I tried the chat. Here you the user are invited to input your personal information so you can view your complaint on an uninteractive blue window. Nice touch.

Finally I gave in and tried to phone. I’m not a “phone person”, and last year when I spoke with them I had to struggle to understand the broken English. After jumping through more phone hoops I was shown another screen:

I called, and was greeted with what felt like a 20 minute diatribe about their products or website or something. When I finally entered my so-called Priority ID I the phone went through about 20 rings, and then they told me my ID was wrong.

Goodbye $53.31. Goodbye Symantec. I’m calling my bank and cancelling that credit card.

The really ironic thing is today I’m supposed to buy new Anti Virus software for my desktop. I’m now leaning towards Vipre. Let me plug them.

I might start making mini ten-song mixtapes. My first one is folk rocky. Not sure if the videos are any good, I just open in another tab and listen.

Enjoy.

I began freelance / contract work out of a need – there were no web related jobs in the Kincardine area. I have learned so much through Debut Creative. One of the most important lessons is that I hate being an accountant, and wearing several other hats that a one-man-operation requires.

When we moved back to the GTA at the end of last year I began to keep my ears open for job opportunities. I was in a very privileged position to be picky with the kinds of jobs I would apply for. I want to make high end websites that challenge me – and sites that are actually used and seen. During some mild mannered Googling I discovered Thrillworks in Burlington. The job ad for “Web Designer” sounded too good to be true!

I start Tuesday.

I wanted to share how this came about; getting a job can sometimes be a remarkable journey.

I want to be a Thrill Worker

For the average person applying for a job means sending a resume. Being in the creative industry doesn’t allow for anything average. I’ll admit there were several instances of simply chucking a resume to a prospective employer, but in hindsight those jobs didn’t really grab my eye. None did – until I found Thrillworks.

When I saw the job posting for Web Designer at Thrillworks I was super excited. It wouldn’t be fair to simply send a resume – I’d never wanted a job so badly, so my application should reflect this.

As with any project the first step is research. I read the ENTIRE Thrillworks website. I memorized the names of everyone working there, and thoroughly investigated the work they do and how they talk about it. I even waded through code on several client sites.

Using my research I was able to pick a good tone that would not only get their attention, but would reflect the values they have. Their website paints the portrait of a fun loving, creative and extroverted team environment. This tone plays to my strengths as these are terms that could be used to describe me.

I did some writing, recorded some videos (for the personal touch), and did some designs that I hoped would help me be top of mind in their search for an employee.

My goal was simple: I wanted an interview.

This was my application: “i want to be a thrill worker dot com!”

As this was a web job, I also made sure my code wasn’t an embarrassment (well, there were some shortcuts I took, but I made sure to make quirky remarks about it throughout). Instead of naming the sections of the design like “Header”, “Footer” etc., I used the names of the employees there! Even my CSS had the call to action:

I heard back from Thrillworks almost right away – I got the interview! This was no time to rest though; I spent the following week brushing up on my ASP and did research on some of the specific software they mentioned using (as well as all that pesky “work” I had!).

I then prepared some print materials including my references and a tent card leave-behind piece (my rationale was I wanted something that would take up space on a desk that would make them think of me the following day).

My experience in working in agencies in the past suggested that some people who may have no say in the hiring process may be asked to review the work of applicants, so I also made some cheesy “Guerrilla HR” materials catering to them.

the result

My interview was scheduled for 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon. I was pretty nervous; though I actually love job interviews. They are a meeting to talk about ME. I am the world’s leading authority on the subject, so I was confident that I would be able to represent myself well.

I prepared an interview page on the i want to be a thrillworker site complete with links of some work examples I wanted to talk about. You can see the interview page here.

I was introduced to the team, and some seemed impressed that I knew the names of everyone there. I was pretty excited that they all knew me as well – my application had circulated, and I felt like a bit of a celebrity!

Oddly enough it wasn’t a job interview however; apparently I had the job before I even woke up that day! I was told that barring any “creepy serial killer” vibes, I was in. Quite a few had applied for the job – but only one was even considered for the interview.

Needless to say, this made my day.

“how does this apply to me?!”

Obviously this kind of obnoxious approach won’t work just anywhere, or by just anyone! Also, if everyone applied in this way it would quickly lose what makes it stand out from the crowd.

Using creativity you can create a resume that will not only stand out, but that will

• Capture your personality, and play up your strengths
• Speak in a tone that the employer will respond to
• Be memorable.

If you’re thinking ahead to applying for a job at the end of school that’s awesome. Treat this as you would any other project in Graphics. Start with your keywords, then start collecting various resources that capture not only different moods, but different sides of you.

Doing this prep work well in advance is a great head start – when the dream job appears your prompt application will show your interest (that said it shouldn’t sound like a template!).

In the wee span between January 15th – 30th Kristi and I:

• Moved back in with the inlaws
• Bought a car
• Heard our unborn child’s heart beat
• Dealt with aggravating  issues with our old car
• Sold our house
• Dealt with a heart-rending family tragedy
• Bought a new house
• I found my dream job
• I got the interview

Since the 30th I had the interview – and I got the job! (I expounded about this in more detail).

2010 has certainly made it’s mark on us, and has been a brainful. We would be content for some routine and boredom at this point. I hope the year isn’t setting us up for this pace.

More about the new job soon.

January 12th: My kid is making facial expressions and possibly sucking his or her thumb. He, she or they are the size of a lemon.

December 29th: Today Kristi found out that her cravings “haven’t even started yet”. If that’s true we’re in big trouble.

November 27th: I’ve always been a bit of a nerd; and nothing was more exciting than finding something new. A new idea, a new toy, or a new piece of the work-flow process. It’s all over. This week I ordered a new Mac Book Pro and new Google Android phone. Sure, I’m happy about it; but it’s not that big of a deal. I’m going to be a Daddy. No gadget / computer / website / music / anything will ever excite me like it used to. Family is colour, all else is sepia tone.