trying to believe

How would you describe your job to a complete stranger?

I’ve often wondered - and struggled - to come up with a good answer myself. Here at PowerServe we’re all multi-taskers. One moment I’m a Designer, another I’m a Creative Director, another I am a Project Manager of sorts. We all wear many hats, and that’s one of the cool things about PowerServe: you encounter new things every day.

• I’m a web designer.
• I’m a graphic designer.
• I design.
• I make things pretty to look at and easy to use.
• I help businesses improve their business.
• I get paid to play.
• I help others to grow as designers and coders.
• I meticulously write valid markup.

I think my favorite would have to be “I get paid to play.” Jobs aren’t supposed to be fun, right? It wouldn’t be called “work” otherwise. So I feel rather blessed to have a job where I feel like everytime I’m creating a site for a client in Photoshop, or messing with code in Dreamweaver, I’m playing.

A recent conversation I had with a friend and former coworker gave me better insight on how to describe what it is that I - and others in my profession - do. It’s easy to tell someone you design websites or business cards. Most people get that. But many people trivialize our profession because the tools to make websites or business cards or whatever are available to anyone, regardless of their level of skill. Would you trust the maintenance or repair of your car to just anybody? Of course not. You might save a few dollars by going to Mechanic A, but if he doesn’t fix your car correctly, it could end up costing you more money to repair your car when you bring it to Mechanic B. Hindsight is 20-20. I get that.

Website design and development is like working on a car. A really beautiful car that is ugly under the hood isn’t going to be winning the Indy 500 anytime soon. An ugly that runs like a charm is going to do well. How else do you expect sites like CraigsList to prosper?

Anyway, I digress. How would you describe your job?

I found a show earlier this summer quite by accident. It’s name? Kyle XY.

Kyle XY is a blend of family drama and sci-fi. The main character, Kyle, is a boy that appeared out of nowhere with no memory of where he came from, who he was, or why he has no belly button. It may not sound like it, but it’s a lot like Lost in that once you start watching it, it’ll suck you in. The show even borrowed a page from Lost with it’s own Kyle XY offline game… with it’s own evil(?) corporation [MadaCorp and clues that appear in ads, within episodes and online through KyleXY.com.

Tonight the first season came to a close. (It’ll be rebroadcast Friday night on ABC if you’re interested.) It’s an awesome show that you ought to give a chance!

Got this via email today…

It’s here. Finally — the word we’ve been waiting for. The announcement of ALL the TRANSFORMERS appearing in the film.

On Friday, 8/18, at 11am, the screenwriters - Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman - will announce the character names via a live webchat on Yahoo.

For fans, this is our chance to interact with the screenwriters, ask them questions via text and hear their answers live!

A live chat. With the writers. Of TRANSFORMERS. ‘Nuff said.

On Friday morning, go to www.TransformersMovie.com for the link to Webcast!

I posted this on the PowerServe blog and figured I’d mention it here as well. We’re looking to bring another programmer aboard. Here’s a brief summary on what we’re looking for. More details can be found at: jobs.powerserve.net.

We’re looking for another full-time programmer/analyst. Must have one to three years of experience developing web-based, database-drive systems using ASP and SQL Server. B.S. in Computer Science (or related field) preferred. Strong problem-solving and organizational skill srequired. Must be proficient in ASP, VBScript and JavaScript. Must have experience with SQL Server, MySQL, and MS Access. ASP.Net, COM/DCOM, ADO, XML, Crystal Reports, a plus. PowerServe offers competitve salaries and benefits. For immediate consideration, please email your resume to Jeff Partl. For additional on this position, please visit: jobs.powerserve.net.

At this time we are not considering candidates for sponsorship or relocation; candidates must be both local and eligible to work in the United States.

Salary commensurate with experience and skill level.

Please Note: Resumes will only be considered if sent via email. Walk-ins and phone calls not accepted. Thanks.

Please Note: Resumes will only be considered if sent via email. Walk-ins and phone calls not accepted. Thanks.

Wouldn’t it be cool if someone came up with a way to get CampaignMonitor and Basecamp to communicate? We use both of these tools in our day-to-day operations. We use Basecamp to manage all of our projects, and with each project we have a number of contacts listed for each of our clients. I’d love for their to be some sort of automated way to make sure each of the contacts we have listed in Basecamp are also added to a mailing list within CampaignMonitor… Not sure if anyone has done this sort of thing before, but I figure since there is an API available for both apps, this is surely possible.

Man, I had a busy night last night. PowerServe will be moving into a new building in a week and a half, and we’ve been doing some painting before we move all our stuff in.

I was at our new office last night until 9:30pm putting the finishing touches on the room. We opted to go with 4 shades of blue in the Creative Services office. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it’s come together nicely. We’ve got some lime green as an accent color, and semi-gloss white for the trim. The fun thing about painting - especially when you do something a little different like we’re doing - is seeing it all come together at the end.

It was important for me and the rest of the creative team to create an environment that was unique to our new offices. I think we’ve succeeded. In the next couple of days, I will try to add some pictures of the finished project onto Flickr. There is still some detail work to be done, including the addition of some green “designs” that tie all of the walls (and the PowerServe brand colors) all together, but that will be done soon enough.

We’re excited about the move. We’re moving into a building really close to where we’re at now. The new space will provide us with more room, more flexibility, and most importantly - room for growth. I’ve loved the office we’ve been in since I started working here over two years ago, but it no longer meets our needs like it once did.

Things are going to be in limbo on the site for a little while. I’ll continue posting when I can, but I am not sure how quickly I will be able to incorporate the new design I am working on into Wordpress. Your patience is appreciated. In the meantime, I may switch to the Chaotic Soul WP theme by Bryan Veloso, but I’m not sure.

Site Stability Issues

From time to time, my site has been getting MySQL errors. I finally figured out what was causing my site to have so many issues as of late. It had to due with low disk space on the primary drive on the server. My site is hosted on a seperate drive on the server, but the MySQL database was on the main drive. We cleaned up the drive a bit, deleted a bunch of old log files - and presto, no more problems. I wish all problems were that easy to fix…

Look, Mel Gibson might be a little crazy. That’s a given. I was saddened when I read about his latest mishap, but it got me to thinking. It’s human nature to judge the shortcomings of others. I bet for many of us, we judge others because when we see other people (even celebrities) mess up, it makes us feel better about ourselves. The media plays off of this because it gets eyeballs on their site/channel/etc.

Yes, Mel Gibson professes himself to be a Christian. Does this change the fact that he’s a human being capable of making mistakes? Nope. The difference between Christians and non-believers is that Christians have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior who died on the cross for ourforgiveness. I struggled with this for a long time before I became a Christian, and outsiders might seem to view it as being rather convenient… but Christians aren’t and won’t ever be perfect. No one can be perfect, except God.

Mel Gibson’s not perfect - he’s a man (albeit a famous one, but I digress). He has/had a drinking problem. He may have said some things offensive to Judaism. He, like the rest of us, has made some mistakes. And this is why we need to pray for him and his struggles. Judging and condemning him without first looking at our transgressions is hypocrisy.