13 Jan 10 Lorem Ipsum: Previews of 2010 Updates!
So, there are a couple pretty exciting updates coming your way this month on The New Mirador:
- The long-awaited short story The Traveler. It’s a short story set in the far future of man’s recurring contacts with a unique form of extraterrestrial life.
- My much-requested 20 Things I Love list. A lot of people wanted to see what I loved after the hate list. Awaiting permission from the honorific superhero of the list!
- I am finally getting some professional photos of myself taken. They’ll be posted here first!
- A grand movie review of Avatar. I’ll be seeing it in 3D…let’s see what the morally relative atheist thinks of the blockbuster.
- I also am working on two side projects. My first two clients are developing new websites. I’ll be writing and showing my methods and work here!
- Westgate Technology Group, a new tech firm supplying Minnesota and Wisconsin.
- Studio One Portraits, a critically-acclaimed and regional superstar portrait and photography studio.
I’m also pleased and proud to announce two new contributors to The New Mirador: a horror story writer and an emerging artist and photographer!
- JD Billo will be writing some of his new horror story content for the New Mirador. His work will be cutting-edge and excellent topics for my short-stories section.
- BridgeyAnn Artisan Studio will be posting some of her latest work, which has lately been focused on charcoal portraits of icons in the prime of their life. She has a bunch of cool new work in the wings that will be coming out in 2010, including a sensual exhibit called The Lady in Red!
Tags: artwork, Avatar, bloggery, business, contributors, drawing, Mirador, movie review, photography, science fiction, short story, website design, website development
31 Mar 09 Impressions of Houston, TX
Last week, I took a business trip to Houston, TX through work. It was my first major business trip (if you don’t count the 30-minute drive I once too from Morris to Benson to review some designs for Morris Commercial Printing).
Houston was different. I read online that it had no specific zoning laws, and the city felt like it was kinda thrown together, with people building whereever there was land. As a result, its size was huge–urban sprawl was unbelievable. It seemed massive compared to Minneapolis. It also had an interesting rhythm of neighborhoods–mall, then an oil refinery, then a drainage ditch, then a residential development. It didn’t seem to happen in any specific order.
The business meeting went very well. I was well-prepared, but felt like I needed to improve my own facilitation and recap capabilities. Since a lot of the technical discussion was way over my head, it was hard to keep track of everything. Thankfully, I was with two senior developers and a managing director who was once a senior developer. As a result the team was fairly well-set to discuss things with the client and it went well.
The food was amazing. I had barbecue chicken pizza the night we got there, and then the night after I had chicken carbon with jumbo shrimp and butter (fresh from the Gulf, I’ll warrant). Overall, the trip was a success. I didn’t take a single picture, unfortunately.
