Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Expanding My Horizons

A couple of months ago I was contracted to build a website for my father's Mac user group (mentioned in a previous entry).  Actually, the job was sort of thrust on me unexpectedly.  I attended one meeting and my father not so subtly let slip that I was, among many other things, a graphic designer.  They said, "Great, you can be the one to finally build us our website!"

Having never actually built a professional website (everything I've done previously was for education purposes), this was a little daunting.

Still, two months later after trying a couple different programs, re-educating myself, and constantly consulting with my very web-talented room mate, the end product is this.

The site itself is not done.  There's still a lot of content that hasn't been generated or been given to me yet.  And I'm still working on a couple of options for making the news blog and Q&A experience better for the group membership.  But, overall, I'm rather pleased with the end product.  The rest of the group seems to be pleased as well.

With this complete, I feel much more confident about any future web projects I may take on.

Monday, March 19, 2012

There and Back Again

In a few short weeks, one of my closest friends will be taking his first steps on the Appalachian Trail.  The AT is a hiking path that runs 2,181 miles from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.  It runs through 14 states and the thru-hike that he is attempting will probably take him at least six months to complete.

Here's a map of the trail (courtesy of the US National Park Service), just to drive home how incredibly monumental this journey is.

This week he's doing a smaller trial hike to try out his gear and get used to backpacking before he starts the trail.  By the request of his family, I've set him up with a Blogger account so that he can keep everyone updated on his progress (and continued state of being alive) from his iPhone.

Apprehension and affectionate worry and concern aside, I do truly hope that this experience will be legend-wait for it....




...-dary!