Duna 4/21/15 Duna 4/21/15

2015 Midwest Gaming Classic Pinball Tournaments

That was seriously fun. Walking into a giant room full of rarely seen pinball machines (or machines I've never seen before) is like an awesome dream.

I think I did better than expected, but I definitely need to keep working on my skills.

My results:

2015 Midwest Pinball Championship

My first IFPA competition!

Overall: #39 out of 125 (The top 37 went on to the final elimination tournament. So I almost got there.)

Metallica: #45

Mustang: #87 (ouch, I have to practice this one more!)

Super Soccer: #5 (YES! I was holding at 3 until the end of the day.)

The Dailies

Saturday: The Walking Dead: #38 of 77 players

Sunday: Wrestlemania Limited Edition: #30 of 51 players

Team Split Flipper, with my Solenoids teammate Jesse on the left: #15 of 30 teams.

Duna 1/27/15 Duna 1/27/15

Pinball Dream Log

So I had this nightmare about pinball. Tell me it’s gonna be OK!

I don’t recall where we were going, or who was there, but I remember feeling that I really didn’t want to go. Our van pulled into a dusty gas station and it was my job to go inside and get supplies. The place was a mess, falling apart, and no one was there, not even a cashier. It was filthy and dark with packages strewn all over. The floor was covered with stains which suggested that something messy and stringy had been dragged across it. Then I looked up and saw some pinball machines. Unlike everything else in there, they were lit up and clean.

I pressed START on the nearest one without even looking at it, because I felt this intense desire to play; as though I believed I’d never see a working pinball machine again.

As the ball popped into view, I heard the voice of Rocky the Squirrel say, “Bullwinkle, how are we going to get all these zombies out of the prison?” Someone had created a mash-up of The Walking Dead with Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Then the alarm went off just as I was saying, “what in the F*** is this?”

Duna 1/21/15 Duna 1/21/15

Gratitude

I’m taking a moment to reflect on how wonderful it is that so many friends and family are helping to get the word out that I’m going freelance and am asking for help finding clients. I’m just overwhelmed by the response. Thanks to everyone who is helping out, it means the world to me.

Duna 1/16/15 Duna 1/16/15

Hello Freelance!

I’m a web developer and designer with 18 years of experience making web sites and apps. I’m now available for freelance work.

So, this happened:

Me: “Hi, freelancing, it’s been twelve years since I’ve seen you. We had to part ways for a while when the dot-bomb made ‘us’ untenable, but it’s super-nice to see you again.”

Freelancing: “Hi, I’m so glad you’re back, now let’s rock this party.”

In short (TL;DR): I’m a web developer and designer with 18 years of experience making web sites and apps. I’m now available for freelance work after twelve years of building amazing things as an employee. Hire me!

The notion that I want to get back to freelancing has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while, and the opportunity to do it has arrived. When it came time to amicably end things at my last full-time job, it was terrifying and exhilarating at once. Terrifying because of the big blank book my future just became, and exhilarating because now I get to fill those pages with new things. I have a lot planned, freelancing work is only the first thing.

This Can Work

Over the last twelve years as an employee I’ve taken my skills in both design and programming to the next level, and then the next. I researched, designed and built a web app for recruiters from the ground up by myself. Then at the next job, I spent two years working on a team and learned a ton more about making content-heavy sites perform well under high traffic.

I’m primed and ready to build more great things.

I Need Your Help

Friends, colleagues, and friends I haven’t met yet:

The clock is ticking. I have a brief window of time to get this off the ground.

It’s go-time. I’m getting things rolling by updating my website, telling everyone I know about what I’m doing, and building up an audience through social media and more blogging so that people might think of me when web work is needed.

I’m asking you for your help in connecting me with companies and people who want to put my talents to work for entire projects or to pitch in on one. I’m looking for companies and people who value design, quality code, and care deeply about the experience their users have interacting with their websites, apps, and products.

If you have a project or prospect or proposal in mind, please contact me here. Thanks!

Duna 1/14/15 Duna 1/14/15

Yosemite Spotlight Leaky Bug

“a new glitch discovered in OS X Yosemite’s search threatens to expose the private details of Apple Mail users — including IP addresses, and more — to online spammers and phishers”

— Luke Dormehl, reporting for Cult of Mac based on a story in on the German site Heise

In hindsight this may seem like an obvious thing that should’ve been caught. As a programmer, I understand how hard it is to imagine and account for every real world contingency, and even the best are going to miss things sometimes. Hopefully this will be patched up quickly.