Week 2 -- Due To Technical Difficulties ....

Week 2 and the fun continues. After experiencing problems with my computer crashing, the scanner not working, lab attendants who aren't familiar with iweb, and suffering through movie sing-a-long at the Computer Lab, I have a half-finished product to submit to class. Seven hours of my life that I will never get back. Not my finest hour.

As for what I actually managed to finish ... I wanted to put together some photos I took at the Midwest Soarring powwow a couple of years ago. Call me old school, but I still like the richness of film. Because this project is only half-completed, I'll focus on page 2, my bio page. Not because it's especially good, but because it's the one page I managed to finish before the rest of the project went to hell.

The Q & A session is pretty straight forward. As for the photos, the first thing I noticed at the powwow was the explosion of color, so I wanted to photograph as many of the costumes as possible. I then cropped the images to hone in on the individual dancers and the delicacy of their beadwork and feathered costumes. These were dancers who were obviously very proud of their heritage and were very gracious in sharing their traditions with non-native people. The powwow was a coming together of tribes, where Indians met with old friends and communed with each other through dancing.

cmm

Week 1 -- Holy Crap! What Have I Gotten Myself Into This Time?

Greetings, all!

This is my first ever blog, so please, bear with me. I'm trying not to be overwhelmed by the fact that everyone in this web design class already knows each other, and they already know what the @*#! they're doing. Meanwhile, here I am -- still a blog virgin. I predict that it won't take too very long for the other students in class to get tired of me pestering the crap out of them for information. Justin already looks like he wants to switch seats with Jerry just to get away from me ... but I digress.

Nathan asked us to say a little something about ourselves. That seems simple enough since I conduct interviews for a living. As it turns out, I currently recruit for two South side car auctions. When you move a couple of thousand cars through 14 auction lanes every week, it takes a lot of manpower to make that happen. Of the folks I've hired, the majority have been retirees, followed by students and housewives.

It's kind of ironic, but when I was an art student at SXU a million years ago, I dreamed of creating that one masterwork that I could be proud of forever. I actually succeeded, but I did it with people, not with paint or clay. The folks I work with are some of the nicest folks you'd ever hope to meet, and they've come to us from all walks of life. It doesn't really feel like a workplace, so much as it feels like a community of friends.

I also work part-time at Triton College (Yikes, the competition!). On Sunday afternoons, I produce and host a four-hour radio program called The Old Neighborhood featuring THE BEST music from the '40s, '50s, and '60s. I'm really stoked about bringing the musical stylings of Kay Starr, Rosemary Clooney, and Frankie Laine to a new generation of fans. I also play a lot of show tunes. Love that Ethel Merman! Voice like an air raid siren, but damn, she knew how to belt out a tune.

As for the websites I visit regularly, they're actually pretty tame: Yahoo, Google, suntimes.com, Youtube, and the Internet Movie Database (my personal heroin). I've probably said too much, so for now, I bid you adieu.

cmm