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FacebookBurning Man 2007 Here I Come
17 Jan 2007 No Comments
The early bird gets the worm. Just purchased my ticket for this year’s week long mayhem in the desert extravaganza. See you there?
Little green shoes
10 Jan 2007 No Comments
Goodbye green shoes. I’m going to miss you. You were the best eight bucks I ever spent. However, five years is enough! Time for you to go. Time for me to get a new pair of shoes.
I got a job!
18 Dec 2006 No Comments
In the new year, I will be acting as Administrative Assistant for AnswerLab, a consulting firm in San Francisco.
AnswerLab helps companies measure and improve their online presence by providing a unique combination of strategic and tactical insights. We develop customized research studies that uncover key findings about our clients’ web presence through online and in-person user evaluations, surveys and traffic analysis.
I am looking forward to my new role and intend to bring all my years of project management, site building, and general sense of order to fruition by hurtling myself fully into the depths of the laboratory; the lab which my new bosses have been building out of virtual test tubes, analytical potions, and strategic research. Yahoo!, eBay, GM, Autodesk, Honda, as well as many others look to AnswerLab for understanding of their site visitors. It is going to be an exciting ride, keeping company with the likes of these major players. I can’t wait to get to work.
Donovan Watts: Web Project Manager for Hire
07 Dec 2006 No Comments
Dear readers,
I’m searching for employment in the San Francisco area. I thought it might do me well to post this here in case any of you might be able to help. Thanks!
I invite you to read my resume. You’ll find more information on my professional career, including references, on my LinkedIn profile.
A little bit about me and my work style
As an Internet Technology Technophile/Web Project Manager, I am constantly surveying the web landscape for interesting and useful technologies. Then I tinker with those concepts in my own online sandbox until I either abandon them or, if they are worthy, add them to my digital toolbelt.
Others needs are always on my mind when trying out new ideas and tools. For instance, when podcasting was first on the horizon, I followed it closely and created a number of my own podcasts. I knew this technology would be extremely useful to my client at the time, National Radio Project. NRP produces a 1/2 hour weekly radio program that is distributed nationally. I had already set them up with an RSS feed and now, long before most people had even heard of podcasting, National Radio Project was offering up a blog and podcast. My company also completed a major redesign for NRP around that same time by the way.
Another example of my approach to web sites is to put as much control in the user’s hands as possible. I have seen how limiting it can be for people to wait on a webmaster to make updates and changes. It’s frustrating! My solution has been to empower the site owner by encouraging a content management system as their site foundation. Often times this means abandoning their current system, often Dreamweaver or Frontpage, and transitioning to a solution such as WordPress or MovableType. I try to make the process as painless as possible by laying the groundwork for them so that the site owner can focus on using the system, not building it. That is why my business is called Getting Sites Built.
It’s not enough to transition to a new system, however. In addition, I always consider training as a necessary part of the new design. I know how to translate all this geeky tech talk into basic language that most people can follow. Helping others is a joy to me and the process of explaining technical concepts into something edible is a delight.
I hope I’ve captured a bit about myself and my work style to whet your appetite. Please review my resume and contact me either through my web site or by calling 510-604-7789.
Thanks for your consideration. – Donovan Watts
Flickry WordPress Goodness
12 Nov 2006 1 Comment
There are lots of ways to add a photo album to one’s site. I haven’t felt the need to do this for years but now two of my clients want WordPress galleries. So, I’m testing out various solutions and seeing what the web has to offer currently.
With this post, I am trying out a plugin called the WordPress Flickr Photo Album plugin. It draws on my repository of Flickr photos and makes it easy to incorporate them into my posts. I like that idea but not everyone will want to base their gallery on Flickr photos so stay tuned as I experiment with other solutions.
For now, enjoy this photo, easily brought in from my Flickr account.
My Monster or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Get a Job
10 Nov 2006 No Comments
After four years of self employment building web sites, I’m ready to dive back into the full-time working world. I enjoyed working for myself but it’s a hard road, full of peaks and even more valleys. At times, I had money to burn but most of the time, I had to ponder my position on poverty. Not any longer.
I’ve closed down shop at Getting Sites Built and have been searching for work in the San Francisco bay area. Job leads up to this point have been from craigslist and Monster.com. I’m refining my resume, and crafting my interview skills. It’s expensive to live in San Francisco; I want to be sure that I am properly compensated so I am going to be picky about how much of a salary I accept.
On the Monster.com site, I took a JASPER (job asset and strength profiler) test.
Donovan, your answers indicate that you are a Visionary when it comes to your overall work personality. Your JASPER type is a combination of your most prominent work traits and a good indicator of what you’re like at work.
Well, thank you JASPER! That’s encouraging. And now, the real job hunt begins.
Is it a dream or is it a lie? You decide.
05 Nov 2006 No Comments
The drifter has landed. I repeat.. the drifter has landed.
Donovan here. There are changes afoot and i thought I’d shuffle things up a bit. Allow this to be your mini guide to current state of Donovan’s Web World.
In an effort to streamline and focus my energies, I’ve archived Coral Reef Report, Become the Media, and iceplant radio. That’s right. Those sites are now considered archived and may never see the light of day again. I hope they find renewed life someday but one never knows.
It’s hard for me to make this decision but I must consider those projects as a special moment in time and now the best thing to do is to move on.
Which brings me to the current state of affairs. This site, Donovan’s Brain, is designed to act as a top level entity, with pointers to all my online affairs. I’ve added Donovan’s Cloud Atlas, my journal of life in the Pacific Northwest, to a tab on this site for easy reading.
Getting Sites Built, my web business of four years now, is going to get a total redesign next year. It’s going to stand on it’s own, unlike the existing design which looks almost identical to this site. It was a novel idea but I’m ready to grow my business and it needs some attention.
That’s about it. Archive some sites, incorporate and redesign others. It never ends and that’s exactly what I like about this world, the web.
Oh, and by “The drifter has landed” I mean that I am paying rent once again. That means I can put the suitcase away and get to work. And that makes me happy.
How did I get here?
30 Jul 2006 No Comments
This is not my beautiful house. I don’t have a beautiful wife. I’m not living in another part of the world. I am letting the days go by. Into the blue again.. after the money’s gone.
Once in a lifetime… water flowing underground. I’m just talking out of my head. Wondering.. how did I get here?
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was…
I was robbed last night
28 Jul 2006 2 Comments
Last night, while house-sitting in San Francisco, I was robbed. As I slept, someone entered the house, stole my laptop, backpack, wallet, cell phone, and iPod. All while I slept. My life revolves around that laptop and backpack and the loss is monumental to me.
Of course I filed a police report but I’ve already said goodbye to years and years worth of memories; photos, videos, documents… some (very few) of which were backed up but most are now in the hands of a thief.
Fortunately, the crack-head or whomever he is that entered my abode and took my possesions, didn’t kill or mame me. But the loss of my LIFE, which was entirely wrapped up in that laptop, is almost too much for me to bear. All day I’ve been making phone calls, leaning on good friends for support, and changing what passcodes I can in an attempt to thwart the upcoming identity theft, or whatever else the thief decides to do with my personal information.
Wow.. I’ve read other blog posts like this before but it’s never hit home as it is for me now. I hope anyone reading this will take heed… keep an eye on your stuff, keep your backups current, password protect your computer.