This doesn’t really cover all of the things I like to do, but that’s what the blog’s for. I wear a lot of hats both on and off the clock, so I’ll try to cover stuff I work on within a typical three week period:

Webhead: I design, maintain, edit and update various websites that I’ve created, installed and modified… from flat html pages to CMS systems like DotNetNuke to Wordpress, as well as specific web applications typically based on php, asp, and even Flash. I like cleaning up code, CSS included. Less is more.

Photography and Photoshopping: Most graphic designers, digital artists, and photographers would agree that Adobe Photoshop, no matter what version, is pretty much the best thing ever for photo manipulation and raster-based editing/rendering (although Gimp is a really close second, and it’s free). What you have to understand is that with the right tools, anything is possible… from subtle stuff like this:

…where I’d taken a rushed photo of one Mr. Major Coleman for a public document, not realizing at the time I had a busy mess of coffee and condiments ruining an otherwise good photo. I went back, reorganized the background, and took the room shot from a slightly different angle. Some hue/saturation changes to everything were done, and now at 300dpi, there is no way to tell that this was ‘chopped.

Here are some basic color corrections, contrast enhancements, the removal of a big ornamental light, and the reconstruction of part of a building poking up between the last two gentlemen on your right:

Can’t Do Photos Without Mentioning Video..

I love documenting in nearly every way you can do it. From DSLR’s to point-n-shoots, from analog tape-to-digital conversions to SD or HD filming, editing, and dissemination.

At any given moment I’m ready to take a photo or shoot video of any event that I’m attending. I can also edit photos and video on the field, and get those deliverables where they belong, with or without internet access.

I’ve filmed and interviewed two former Louisiana state governors, several academic scholars, middle, high, university, and college students, and constantly film and edit work-related meetings and various skateboard outings. I’m petty well versed in “what plays on what,” meaning I can encode on and for Windows, Mac, Linux, univerally, Flash, DVD, DVC, back to tape, and pretty much every codec known to mankind. I also do some interactive video stuff, which can be pretty neat.

Vector Illustrations, Logo Designs, and Doing Weird Things to Them

On the left, a vector-based logo for a state-wide program called Louisiana GEAR UP (note how literal the logo is). On the right, the same logo made to look as if it had been through a hurricane (the distressed version of the logo was used in a Hurricane Katrina/Rita related public document):

Web Development and Design

Whatever it takes, whatever you got. From running an online community on an Access database to full on content management systems… I love this stuff.

Flash:

From full-on Flash sites and navigation systems to little oddities like this:

Fixing, Upgrading, Building and Experimenting with Computers

My home office alone has six machines running on most evenings. This is one of them. With a couple of terabytes of storage here, and nearly limitless storage for official day-job projects at work, I’m sure to practice redundancy from local RAID drives, external storage devices, and network storage and user profiles, I back up my backups. I also like to salvage parts and build Frankenputers when I can. My workbench has every cable, AC adapter, video card, peripheral, and type of RAM you can imagine. Mac, Linux, and Windows 95 through Windows 7… not skipping Win 2K Pro SP4 and Mac OS7 along with Leopard. If it works, it has a purpose. I know the secret to getting discs unstuck from the grasp of Macbook Pro slot drives, and I can fix your VCR. Remember those?

Illustration:

I really enjoy doing illustrations… from maps and diagrams to cartoons and my own custom clip-art, in nearly every medium… pen, pencil, charcoal, acrylic, digital pen pad, vector, raster, and basically any other way you can make a picture. I can throw down with an Etch-a-Sketch, too.

I have a significant print portfolio, and as such, I tend to create most of my work print-ready (either working in an all-vector environment or working with really huge 300dpi raster images). It’s better to have too much than not enough!

Writing:

From coauthoring geek books to being one of those busy-body types that writes letters to the editor, mayor, senators, food companies, and software corporations, I just like writing. I have somewhat of an academic background in short fiction and poetry, but my writing tends to be either very technical, pleading, or full of sophomoric humor. Or all of the above.

Skateboarding:

It’s the best thing ever.

I do a lot more, but right now I have to go do some stuff.