Ionrock Dot Org

Once again I seem to have a few moments to spare because the server being used for my project is down or at least not working very reliably. It is very frustrating since I am really trying to get things going with it. It is hard to develop momentum programming when you can't test things to see if the great ideas you had actually worked. In any sense it does give me a second or two to blog and that is a good thing.

I am very excited about getting back to Houston. Lauren and I have been practicing like crazy and working on new songs. I think we are really going to focus on writing new songs this summer. It is very frustrating to only get to really play about 4 months out of the year. The plan is that whenever I am done with school in a year or so we can all move someplace and really make a go at things. I know that sounds kind of like hitch hiking to San Francisco but in reality it makes sense. We have really grown since getting out of Houston. It is a big deal to be on your own at some point where you realize that your reputation is on the line. Your actions really do have an impact and finding that out can be pretty scary but in a good way. In any sense I think it will be good for Lauren and I to be out of academia and it will be good for Jeff to get out and see more of the world. On the whole, we are hoping the experience just makes us better people.

Of course we can live the crazy rock star life, I have to finish school. In order to finish school, I will have to get an internship. I started thinking about this pretty early and while playing with phpwcms and blogging I found WordPress. Since I have told this story before, the short version is that I found that the guy (Matt) who made WordPress works for a company in Houston called Verve. I had actually seen their site before and thought it would be really cool to work for a company that has more of a marketing and design background (COW is really more focused on development). So I emailed them about a possible internship. Since I am still a little unsure about my abilities and beggars can't be choosers I said I might be willing to work for free. This is, of course, a pretty nice deal since others have paid me handsomely for my services. In any sense after getting a response from Greg, who seemed to be interested in learning a bit more about me. I gave him a call and things went very well and offered to allow me to work on some projects while I am in Houston. This made me very excited to say the least. I really love working with technology and I need to develop my skills as a designer, so this should be very good experience.

I doubt I will get to do much design, but I have a feeling that I will have ample opportunity to see some very good designs and hopefully a little artistic talent can rub off on me. What I really want to do more than anything though is just to get to know more people interested in what I do. I realize that sounds a little petty, but I really like the idea of having many many friends (who wouldn't) that all like different things. I do have friends that are into design and things but none of them actually DO design (although I think they could). I also don't know many other web designers/developers who are really dedicated to the trade. COW has a foot in so many different walks of technology that, while I learn a ton, I don't get to learn as much about things like web design as much as I would like. So, to say the least, I am pumped.

So, I am back to school crap yet again. I am still waiting for the stupid servers to quit acting dumb by not letting me run my code. Someday I won't have to worry about these kinds of issues but for now I do and I have to make the best of it. Wish me luck.