I’ve used Windows since 3.11 (Windows for Workgroups). We’ve had a pretty crazy ride, through the fun of the “Start menu” (95), the efficiency of 98, the crap they called “Me”, and the pretty Luna in XP. Our relationship has been fairly standard thus far, a little give, a little take. But tonight, that all ended.

I bought a Mac.

Not just any Mac, mind you - this is a gorgeous 24″ iMac, decked out with 250 gigabytes of hard disk space, a full gigabyte of RAM, and two cores of Intel goodness. Not only that, but I get a free printer - and Parallels Desktop for an extra ten (how else do I get to run Ubuntu?).

I’m sad on a few levels. Obviously it’s a big jump to leave the comfort of Windows products, and move into the crazy-expensive Mac world (that’s the worst for me, I’m stingy). Regardless, its a decision I had to make. Windows isn’t designed with creative types in mind. Those horrendously stereotypical and slightly offensive (yet completely hilarious) Apple commercials were made for a reason - Macs appeal to the creative crowd.

Already, I’m planning on recording music in GarageBand with my brother. I’m looking into transfering my Photoshop license to my new Mac (so I won’t need to use it in Parallels). I’m contemplating starting a fun little video project with iMovie. I already know for sure that the next few PodDevs will be edited on a Mac.

So I’m excited, but reflective. Creepy, I know - reflective over a computer, but I can’t change that so I might as well accept it. By next week, if the planets align right, I’ll be using my new iMac doing something fun.

And I’ll be excited to share the experience here.

I’m playing around with some ideas in my head for a new design for RO.

I’m pondering some ideas that Chris Pearson spoke of in our last PodDev and I think that I’ll try to apply some of that to my redesign. I want to make it different… so you come here and don’t get the “Blog” impression, rather a “wow, that’s damn cool” impression.

I want to have the ability to include all sorts of goodies. Blogrolls, delicious widgets, revver embeds (I’m trying revver, more on that soon enough), odeo widgets, well, basically lots of widgets. I want them to feel like they are a part of the site though. The site needs to be modular, easily configured to suit different environments. Stylish is a bonus, I’m a designer, I should be able to design a decent site for myself.

I don’t know what colours I want yet. I’m sick of the red and would love a slick black site but black is picky across monitors… white is safest. I’ll probably end up with blue since that’s in (thank you Apple iTunes logo!).

I don’t have a clue how I’ll achieve this, I don’t know what will make me different, but I do know in the end, regardless of what happens I’m sticking with it. I’m far too sick of redesigning my own sites.

By the way we aren’t recording PodDev this weekend, too many conflicts. No worries, we’ll work something out!

Chris

[no tags cuz i’m lazy]

First order of business - why such strange titles? Honestly, I don’t know…. needless to say, I’m not very creative in my naming schemes. “The Bet”, “The Adventures of Stickman”, “The Last Manifesto of a Convicted Rebel”; not too ‘inspired’.

Well I’m sick, something with the throat. I have to work tommorow night too so I can’t say I’m looking forward to it.

I am happy though, I have tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert when they roll through my area (specifically, Syracuse, NY’s OnCenter). I saw their show in Albany (the state capitol) last year and it was not only my first “real” concert but by far the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve been involved in theatre and stage stuff for most of my life so seeing their level of professionalism (and not to mention sweet tech) was quite the experience. Talented folks!

I just spent about an hour rendering a new version of “The Bet” that I’m going to put on Revver… only to realize that I had muted the volume and had no audio in the render. I think that pretty much characterizes my day today, but I won’t get in to that now.

I just finished a website for Jesse Bachman’s Death and Taxes. The result is very cool, and I learned some PHP along the way (a note - I’m not a PHP person, although I wish with every bone in my body I was… I have some ideas for “Web2.0″ sites that would be so cool, but alas I can’t code. I leave that to Jacob ) Perhaps I’ll post more on this later when it’s “officially” launched on Saturday.

Pandora is insanely cool. It just started playing Candian singer “Paul Anka“. It is very good… and it is definitely not my usual music style.

I think that’s all I felt like saying…

Oh yeah, I’m not taking new web design clients UNLESS I already promised you a site (you know who you are, and if you don’t, email me and ask!). We have a new PodDev recording on Sunday, school is getting in the way as usual, I work a very weird schedule, blah blah blah, so until I clear everyone through I won’t take anyone on.

(you can ask nicely though)

Chris

Postscript: I believe this post justifies the blog’s name.

[tags]titles, comitar studios, the bet, trans-siberian orchestra, revver, death and taxes, pandora, paul anka, web design, poddev, life, ramblings, filmmaking[/tags]

It’s out - check the site for more download info!

We have quite the lineup this show, a “Browser Bonanza” featuring Microsoft, Mozilla, and Browzar, a Technorati v. Google debate, an overview of AJAX, and an interview with Chris Pearson, designer of websites.

[tags]blog,microsoft,google,ajax,web design,ie7,mozilla,technorati,search,blogsearch,browser,internet explorer,browzar,podcast,poddev,chris pearson[/tags]

We just finished recording PodDev episode two. It was fun and we had better luck than last time. Peter’s uploading the files now and after they finish I will download them and begin the editing process.

We talked about a lot, it was our “browser bonanza” today, as well as a bit about pageviews, info architecture, blog design, keeping readers longer, etc.

I have some clients waiting with websites who get high priority (heh) but I should be able to do a lot of the editing tommorow.

By the way, have you checked out my sweetly awesome portfolio?
Chris

I have a feeling that PodDev two is going to be interesting… Let’s put it this way… my experience with computers has not been stellar this past night. You’ll hear more in the show. Maybe I’ll replace that “weird AOL” bit with a rant.

Huw is joining us (yay), Peter again, Jacob’s away, me, and as usual, special guest.

PodDev 3 will be better, if, for once, we can get all four of us together to record. Someone’s always on holiday.

Chris