Let's try this again...

So, I have been working in the web industry for over a year now.

I started out freelance with a couple of clients, just as a side project while still working my regular job as a cook... trying to feel it out and see if I enjoyed it. I found that I did, so I started looking for something more. I got a small taste with JR Custom Cycles and the Blue Flame Tattoo and I felt immediate gratification and knew that I needed to make the push to get more involved.

I contacted a friend who works in the industry as a freelance web guru, Mark Dickson, about looking for a job or internship and asked what he felt the best way to go about doing that would be. Mark had introduced me to Drupal when Drupal 5 was still in Beta development. He suggested that I put together a resume and also said that he knew of someone who might be looking to hire an intern. He contacted his friend Jim Craner of the Chicago Technology Cooperative and it turned out that Jim was hip to the idea of bringing someone on! Absolutely stoked, I talked with Jim, we worked out what I would do (learn and increase my skillset), how I would do it (from home and regular communication with the rest of the team and eventually, clients), and when I would start (immediately). This was at the beginning of April, 2007.

At the beginning of December of 2007, I was contacted by an old high school friend, Shane Easton who needed some advice on content management systems. He works for School District 300 in Carpentersville, IL and needed this information to weigh his options in order to begin the process of re-imagining the entire school district's web presence. My experience with Drupal had slanted my opinion heavily but after doing research on other CMS options and several installs of various applications such as Joomla! and the like, I am still convinced that Drupal is the best option out there. So after going over the feature set and potential extensibility of Drupal, I convinced Shane that he should use Drupal to redo District 300's site. In doing so, I placed myself in the position of unofficial consultant and go-to guy for all Drupal related advice and information. After a few short talks with Shane, and a couple more with Jim and the rest of the CTC, I began the formal process of becoming a vendor and finding myself in the world of freelance, contract based web development. This project should end mid-2008 but who knows where I'll go from there? I certainly don't.

Keep in mind, I am by no stretch of the imagination a "Drupal ninja". I am not a developer or coder. I am comfortable with theming and anything XHTML and CSS related. I can structure a site's content and users and train people. I know how to use Google and how to ask questions in #drupal or #drupal-support if I need help. But I am not an expert. This is yet another piece of a long and arduous journey on my way to becoming a Drupal (and web development/design) master. Working on this newest project has already taught me a lot.

Most recently, I participated in DrupalCampWI, a BarCamp style event with a Drupal focus. Not knowing what to expect out of it, I was pleasantly surprised. I learned a lot there. Topics ranged from a very basic "Drupal for Users" to "PHP 5.2" and "Druplash and Druplex". I also met some great people. Karen Stevenson, also known as KarenS of CCK fame presented a session on CCK2 in Drupal 6. Larry Garfield, also known as Crell on drupal.org recently became a member on the board of the Drupal Association and led a discussion and Q&A session on the Drupal community. I also met George Holtz of the non-profit Donate A Card and James Carlson, Executive Director of Bucketworks. Organizing this event was Blake Hall, Ashe Dryden, Pete Prodoehl, Jeramey Jannene. Thanks guys for all your hard work!

Very exciting times. Hopefully now that I have a blog, I will be working more on posting and maybe using my phone to take pictures and upload to show you more about what I'm about and what I do. I would like to also host my resume and portfolio on this site as well. All things in time.

Of course, none of this would have been possible were it not for Abraham Williams showing everyone NearlyFreeSpeech, a web hosting company that charges pennies per day, sometimes less. When asked, he said he spends about $20 a year on hosting for multiple domains. Simply amazing. Thanks Abraham for showing the way, and NearlyFreeSpeech for providing such a well kept secret on the web.