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May 31, 2006

Whay So

When Visceraman1 first reared it's ugly (and I mean UGLY) head a couple years ago now, it was in the form of a flash site. It came about shortly after returning from our honeymoon, with 700+ photos in tow, and a desire to post them in a public forum. Somehow in the course of this event, (or even slightly before), I had begun fumbling around with Adobe Nee: Macromedia's Flash program. This hooked me, and after I bombarded Jeri with several hundred .swf files of globes bouncing around the scree, animated words bouncing around, and a few more bouncing animals I began to take the shit seriously. Not being 100% dedicated to coding - I realized I had to also learn Photoshop, and since Jeri had taken to marking any email from me as spam, had to be able to get this crap on the internet.

Around this time, I was also burning out in the funeral industry. A "career" built upon repetition, no upward movement and lackluster pay was motivating me to look elsewhere for a source of income. Could I somehow incorporate my new found fascination with a new career path? All signs indicated a positive and emphatic yes. (We'll get to how wrong I was later). I sped down the path. Html, Xhtml, CSS, Flash/ActionScript were soon learned and (with the exception of really advance ActionScript), I felt I had enough strength behind me to muster. Along the way Visceraman1 evolved from a deeply hidden site on my ISP server, with 0 traffic on a good day (I've subtracted the 500 daily hits from my own browsing), to the beginnings of a portfolio site on my own dedicated server. (Not my own in truth, I of course found cheap webhosting).

The move to a new server also spawned the addition of a weblog to the Visceraman1 site. Now, in addition to the slurry of links that took them to giant mp3 players, paint the screen silly, a few attempts at game making, visitors could also read whatever it was that I felt necessary to post that day. And that was lame at best. (I know, not much better these days either). Soon, the weblog drifted off to a separate link, hidden away from most. This didn't last long. As I slowly realized I didn't quite have the makings of a "professional"web person, but rather that of a decent hobbiest (egos fall quick and hard), I decided fuck it, let's use this blog thing to force myself to write on a regular basis, and about varying topics.

This is actually harder than it seems. I used to go days/weeks without writing, because I had "nothing" to write about. When I would write, it leaned more towards, "The United States of America really doesn't give a damn about you or me", "The Tucson Police Department is a bunch of fucking keystone lackies with no sense of morality", or "Hey check out this shit I did with Photoshop". And those entries, were the better of the bunch. Periodically I would sit down, and force myself to write everyday. I would keep this up for great lengths, but stil I found my content lacking.

In retrospect, what has the evolution of Visceraman1 brought about? Less Flash (hell, I haven't opened the program in several months - I don't even know what the current version is), and less fanatical rantings about government misdeeds. Great. Don't think I'm stopping anytime soon - I just had to come up with something to say. I'm incredibly grateful for the change that did occur in my career however. Each day I'm presented with new challenges, new endeavors and I'm always learning more about the human body - a subject that has always humbled and amazed me. I still look forward to going to work, still smile each morning when I look up at the towering building, and even with the occasional bumps that line the day, I never regret my change.

Contrived by Joshua at May 31, 2006 05:58 PM

Comments

This site makes your wife laugh each and everyday, therefor, is worth it. It reminds me of a little song by Helen Reddy "you and me against the world"

Posted by: doodle at May 31, 2006 07:37 PM

Poor kid that Jeri is. I was just looking at some of the files I still have over at that cox.com site. I think what really pissed you off, was that I would find really lame pictures to use of you, and incorporate that into Flash as well. Shall I post a link?

Posted by: Joshua at May 31, 2006 11:11 PM

If I did mushy, I would do it here and now.

Posted by: Kerry at June 1, 2006 11:29 AM

You just count your blessing that you didn't receive any of that nonsense - although that relic of yours would have frozen up on the shockwave files, so you wouldn't have had to endure it anyway.

Posted by: Joshua at June 1, 2006 11:45 AM

But is your pretty blue?

Posted by: Kerry at June 1, 2006 01:51 PM

No, it's boring black. When I am formally offered the job as Kerry's Assistant, I will be more than happy to accept a coloured unit. Perhaps an Alienware with l.e.d. lighting visible through the plexiglass tower casing. It looks like I have some time to decide that anyway....

Posted by: Joshua at June 1, 2006 03:47 PM

In the mean time, could you figure a way to incorporate a spell checker into the Visceraman comment section?

Posted by: Kerry at June 7, 2006 01:13 PM

I don't see why a spell check feature couldn't be added. Hang on a sec...

Posted by: Joshua at June 7, 2006 03:08 PM

Ok. There's a way I can implement a spell check, but your radical leanings towards Apple machinery will prevent you from benefiting from it. Until I find a better way, there's the Preview button, which reminds me I haven't cleaned up the site entirely....

Posted by: Joshua at June 7, 2006 03:14 PM