Design

Creative Writing, Design, Entertainment, Life

Letting Go and Moving On.

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So, a major step in my future plans happened this week: I submitted my Letter of Resignation at my current job, which happens to be the family business. I am starting 2013 anew with a new venture: my own business. *GASP* Why? How can someone just walk away from their family? Well, it’s not walking away forever, it’s not disloyalty, I will still be related to many of those with whom I’ve worked for over a decade now, but it’s time. I have spent too much time setting my own interests and needs aside to please others, and I realize it’ll never be enough and only burns a person out.

How selfish of me, right? How dare I decide I want to do something else with my life. Most people seem to be supportive, while others seem quick to judge me and everything I’ve ever done, as if they knew me all that well, as if I’ve never done anything for them or contributed anything of worth to the business. At least, that’s how I see it. (Maybe I’m wrong, but this is not the place to delve into further thoughts that benefit nobody.) I suppose it’s to be expected, people don’t think you’ll walk away from something that may very well be a lifetime commitment to them. It’s not like I am unwilling to be supportive or never plan to do anything for my family’s business again; quite on the contrary. But for me, my life is meant to be so much more than it is now, and in order to move forward, I have to let go, to free myself so I can achieve everything I have set out to do from here. They will be fine without me if they’re willing to stay the course, so I hope to see things continue into the future, for everyone’s benefit.

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Creative Writing, Design, Life

Leaps of Faith (Whee!)

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Oh hey there, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Well (deep subject), I’m still juggling a whole bunch of stuff at the moment: helping put on an auction (see my previous post about Gloria’s Angels), plus the big screenplay rewrite (we’re on track to be done by year’s end, with casting to begin in early 2013), and just plain working at the ol’ jobby job. Plus, I have been mulling over and finally decided to take the plunge and strike out on my own, full-time, by starting my own freelance design/copywriting business. I’ve been dabbling in design more as a hobby with little projects here and there, and using my skills on the job for many years, but I want to give it my full focus now, while continuing to follow my various creative pursuits. Never a dull moment; I can’t imagine just doing any one thing forever; I’m a free spirit who wants to embrace as much as I can while I still can. It’s requiring a lot of leaps of faith, but I am at a point where I feel I can trust my abilities and believe in myself, knowing I will land on my feet.

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Design, Site Updates

The Overhaul Begins…

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I had a bit of time today to actually buckle down and start redesigning my site – this is something I have tried to do several times over the years; it’s easy to do this for anyone else but yourself, you know? Seriously. It’s nothing fancy; not meant to be, but I’ve got the “splash page” done and I’ll slowly get things updated on pages and sorted into sub-domains that are going to be kept alive. The others will still be out there, but you may find they sort of get buried amongst the old material and won’t be updated again. Aww, how sad. 🙁 Such is life, my friends.

Anyway, this is a big step! I just have to start something and really mean it, then the inspiration to keep it going isn’t much of a problem. I can be quite the procrastinator, but with the right motivation, I can become quite passionate about what I’m doing. But, aren’t we all like that? No, just me? Ah well, whatever. I am human (I think – sometimes I feel so different from those around me, that I’m not entirely sure). 😛

That’s it for now – I’ll be back. Really, I will. I mean, I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath, but checking back at some point won’t hurt you. 🙂

P.S. – May the Fourth Be With You. Always. Or at least one day out of the lot of ’em. 😉

Creative Writing, Design, Education, Life, Mathnet

Where Have You Been?

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Yes, I’m sure many of you are wondering where I’ve been (okay, so maybe only a small sampling of you), why did I just leave my Website all sad, lonely and unloved for…er…6+ years or so? Has it been that long? Wow. And yes, it’s time for an overhaul…in Internet and Technology time, that’s several shiny devices that have come and gone! Let us mourn those old toys for a few moments…okay, done.

Actually, it hasn’t been that long in some aspects; I’ve been actively using my domain for file storage, occasional micro-updates of sections on the site, but most of that has gone unnoticed to the world-at-large. Well, isn’t that life, though? Get all tied up in life, work, all that fun stuff. I have been quite productive and social in that time, however;  if you know me well enough, you know where I tend to lurk and post regularly. If you don’t know me well, that means absolutely nothing. 😛

In this time, I have also been getting educated! As in, schooled! I decided to invest in myself and my creative skills (that whole “figuring out what I want to do with my life” thing) and studied subjects of interest like Playwriting, Screenwriting and Graphic Design. And in doing so, have really stretched my mind and my talents and have essentially found things that make me happy and that I’d like to spend more of my life doing. So, see, this “hiatus” has been a good thing, and good things come to those who wait, or whatever cliché you’d like to apply to that.

Anyway, without going on too long here (too late), I do promise more updates. More details on my future plans and where things on this site will be going. And yes, this includes an update, or at least a minor overhaul of sorts on what’s probably the most popular part of this domain: The Mathnet Website. Oh yes, there wasn’t much going on for many years, and I feel terrible about letting it just sit, but the need, and time, to update content wasn’t really there (plus the whole having a job and going to school business sidelined my efforts somewhat, too). I’m also a part of the efforts over at SquareOneTV.org, so it’s not like the fandom has dropped off the planet; in fact, we’ve been doing a lot of interacting with former cast members recently and are celebrating 25 years since the show debuted as of 2012. Not to mention in the time since I last overhauled, wonderful sites such as YouTube and Facebook have come along and are still going strong, making it easier than ever to share clips and gather fans in larger groups and all that fun stuff. And because of that, Sesame Workshop has been paying attention and are now taking a DVD release into consideration. So, this is the best time to be reviving those efforts! Stay tuned, I promise you won’t be disappointed. 😉 And on that note, before I let anyone leave, please take the time, if you could, to “like” the official Square One Television page on Facebook – Sesame is using this as an indicator of interest by the fans. Tell your friends! Tell their friends! If you honestly want to see the show gain a pulse in the media again, and hey, it worked for The Electric Company, this is the best way to do it!

Okay, I’m done for now. A lot to digest, but I hope y’all are still with me. Take care, and much love! -Jill 🙂

Design, Education, WordPress

My First WordPress Blog…Aww.

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A lot of what I do, design-wise, tends to be inspired by stuff I find online or through just plain experimentation. This blog is part of that process; while I have taken classes for graphic design and writing and whatnot, most of the “Web Monkey” stuff came through trial and error. I’ve been on the Internet awhile (since 1996), but given not many around me at the time had a clue about technology in general, I was pretty much on my own figuring out how to code HTML, CSS, etc. Looking back on some of it, it’s embarrassing just how BAD previous versions of my existence were – NO, I’m not linking to them! However, it’s made my skill set well-rounded over time, though, and as technology evolves, so am I. Given how long it’s been since I last overhauled my site, you could say a lot of nothing has gone on, but actually, a lot of learning has gone on during the hiatus! Yay! 😀

As for this blog, fortunately, my Web host has “one-click install” features that allowed me to set this up pretty quickly, right here on my own domain. But, I like to customize things and make them my own, so I sought out more information on the subject. Anyway, as I’ve been slowly learning more about WordPress, I came across an ongoing tutorial from HOW Design (an invaluable site and magazine for designers) for building a WordPress site in 30 minutes a day over 21 days (your mileage may vary; given I already have quite the background in editing and tinkering with code and graphics, plus maintaining my own site, the first couple of steps weren’t needed). Just in a couple day’s time I’ve learned a few valuable tidbits, and plan to follow along with the rest of the series.

Here’s where you, too, dear reader, can learn about one of the most widely-used pieces of blogging software out there right now, and how to make it your own, too. (I’m not being compensated for this plug, I simply find it very useful and worth sharing.) I am linking to the author’s page, as it’s easier to find all the parts in one spot:

Jesse Friedman’s Guide to Building Your First WordPress Blog

Anyway, as time goes on, so should this blog, I hope. Stay tuned…