UnrealisticExpectations 3.0

Fatwallet is teh Awesome.

And, if you flip through the first page of this thread, I’m pretty funny, too.

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/18/707865/

Enjoy, while I go play some Xbox360 and/or Wii.

Thanks for all the feedback–I ended up going with the logo shown and pushed the blue color to something a little more… “Elmer’s”, I think.

I’ve been diligently working on trying to put together a design for the website–it’s a struggle as design isn’t my strongest point, but I’ve got the basics of positioning, etc. set-up so the rest should start to fall into place.

But, alas, what’s a company without a website? What’s a company with collateral?

Well, anyone who’s done anything with design knows that if you make such things as business cards and you cheap out… people will know, and you’ll just look, well, cheap.

Especially the business cards.

But, I’m a bit of a miser about this sort of thing, so I decided to explore some online options. In the end, I wasn’t comfortable with VistaPrint for business cards–I don’t like things tooooooo glossy gloss, so even though they were an inexpensive option, I keep remembering some people passing out their free cards at networking events and how… tacky it felt–even though it was going to be 100% my own design and not the freebie stuff.

So, I kept looking. I found a bunch of different places for a bunch of differnent things. From 4by6.com to OvernightPrints.com and the aforementioned VistaPrint, I’ve found reasonably-priced resources for just about everything I could ever need.

My business cards arrived today from OvernightPrints–I uploaded my order on Thursday night, it printed Friday, shipped Monday and arrived today for the low low price of around $66 for 500 business cards with a 14 pt stock with a satin finish and rounded corners. Good quality stock, good printing and that’s the important thing.

I’m awaiting envelopes from VistaPrint before I get too carried away; I’m currently exploring the world of new gigs as my contract is up at the end of May and I grow weary of being a contractor, however, if a solid, fun contract keeps me in that world a bit longer, then it may be high time to go and seek out some additional collateral (post-its, pens) to leave behind.

Vote for me!

Thanks again for the input. Now if I could just be better at visual design, I could be happy. Happier. Or something.

I do a lot of different things out here on the web, but one of them is generally as an extension of “what I do” in real life. So, knowing that I’m not as much of a designer as I used to be (hahahahaha!!!), but knowing I can handle project management, estimations, production and some development, I keep around a Design site or two that I have.

Mostly, though, I work in User Experience.

So, given that I’ve turned on registration in order to comment so that I don’t get 3000 spams in a day that I have to approve / disapprove, the ol’ commenting has sorta stopped–not that it hadn’t all but up-and-died anyway… Anyway. Update on this: Comments shut back off for non-registered users; too much spam for me overnight. No worries, I’d never sell off all 8 of your names, anyway.

I’ll turn it back on to see what people like for the name of a new thing I’m doing: UserGlue

That’s where it’s at currently, but there’s a whole page of them here.

Sydney’s taking swimming lessons. She’s kind of a natural and in the big kids class, even though she’s a first timer. My baby girl’s an aqua rock star.

Barack Obama announced his campaign for the Presidency of the United States.

Never has any single person–man, woman, black, white, etc. etc.–ever touched on so many points that I, personally, feel pretty strongly about.

The political swarm around 2008 is going to be something to behold. I’m glad to get to be alive for this; no matter how ugly it gets or what the landscape shifts to, to get to witness it all unfolding will be awesome–and I’m not assuming anyone is the winner, or loser, at this point, I’m just saying…

I’m just saying. The world’s finally going to get to a point of feeling like people are wrestling for something better instead of wrestling for that which is less evil or the devil you know versus the devil you don’t.

Neat.

In the world of everyone fighting for my dime and my time, Netflix is a current winner.

For starters, I hate hate hate going to video stores. Hell, I used to manage one back in college and I loved the job, but it was a task to hire people who either didn’t steal from you or who actually took pride in their work and cared about the customers.

Yeah, that was me at college. I even worked my ass of 3-4 shifts a week so the Store Manager could take all the credit of keeping his store in order. Pathetic, but I digress.

Video Storeheads are also a bit elitist–they know all about the movies, they silently judge you as you check out (oooh, another Steven Segal for you, sir?) or they pretend to have so much more knowledge than you because they actually work “in the industry”–but, here’s a secret for you storehead: Everyone knows that everything comes out on Tuesday and you don’t get a SAG card for working at Blockbuster, okay? Okay. Now, shut up and hand me that Van Damme movie without giving me your better-than-me look because you get a handful of these rentals for free each week; it’s a guilty pleasure and I’m in the mood for staying up late, eating White Castle and enjoying some Van Damme-age while my wife and kid are out of town.

But, enter Netflix.

For my monthly fee, I get a couple of more movies, no late fees, no driving out at 11:50 on a week night to return that damn video and snotty little 23 year old store manager on a retail power trip.

And, honestly, that was enough for me. I’d sometimes supplement this $18 a month fee with a trip to the local store to find a video game or a handful of different movies if I knew I’d have nothing to do and could use the extra entertainment, but with the inclusion of the XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii into my life, well, I’d just as soon buy a single game and not have to deal AND I’ve got something to do when there’s nothing to watch–and let’s not forget that thanks to the DVR, I’ve got tons of television stuff that I’m missing. And don’t get me started on iPod Videos that make their way down from iTunes or other sources.

But, here comes Netflix with a PVT (Previously Viewed Tapes, at BBV (Blockbuster Video), so maybe it’s just PV) program. Not only are they kind enough to make recommendations (and Netflix, take this hint: Make it easier for me to find the stuff out on DVD this week, okay? Okay. Let’s keep my queue fat without much effort on my part), but they’ll even show you every single item with a little highlight noting when it’s available to purchase as “used”.

But wait. Waitwaitwait.

It gets better.

Easier, even.

Once you click to let them know you’re interested… this little Ajax-like div/popup lets you get right to the action and decide right then and there if you’re ready to have that Pirates of the Caribbean shipped to your home.

Not only that, but since you’re most likely already logged-in, they let you know that by pushing ONE MORE BUTTON Pirates will be shipped right to your doorstep where your subscription goes to and will be billed right to the card your subscription is billed to.

Take that, Amazon! I love Amazon and spend more money there than I ever probably should, but when you purchase a Prime membership, you find ways to make it worth your money–and it generally is. The problem with Amazon is that their checkout process–even when using that beloved 1-click–is TOO DAMN TEDIOUS and there’s too much for me to look at and review.

My ADHD does not like this.

My ADHD likes pushing one more button and being finished with the process, having a movie on its way and me back to browsing the next movie that is going to my queue when I should be designing screens for some online functionality for my bosses.

And if that wasn’t cool enough, Netflix has been adding 250,000 users per week of their “watch it now” service which gives, well, me, 18 hours a month of free, on-demand content to watch. Sure, just at my computer, but I’ve got dual monitors AND I’m on these computers far too much as it is. And if I’m travelling for work, it beats the hell out of porn per view, right? Sure, the selection isn’t great just yet, but they’re preparing for a future where this getting movies by mail just won’t cut it, which is something the Blockbusters of the world should have been doing while they’ve been raking in profits for years.

So, Netflix, keep those top couple of buttons open on that shirt of yours. The Sternum Bush is rocking my world.

And keeping me away from the Video Store Ninjas that I hate so much.