this is how i’m doing: in case you were wondering…

Okay, so I’ve had a bit of a career crisis (bonus points for the alliteration) but I’ve got a new plan.

My career goals haven’t really changed — I still want to teach at the college level — but I’ve been re-evaluating how I’m going to get there.  My initial plan of working in higher ed. until I can earn my degree(s) just isn’t working out for me.  Also, I’ve had a shift in teaching interests which has me starting from scratch on choosing a master’s degree program.

I’ve decided to try my hand at freelancing full time.  I’m actually more at peace about this decision that I thought I would be.  I had an interview scheduled with Lon Morris College last Friday (which pretty much was a done deal) but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I just couldn’t see myself taking a job that wasn’t going to get me to where I wanted to go.  Sure, it would have been a stable income, but people should LIKE what they do for a living, right?

So, Part 1 of my new plan is to focus on building up a client base and pile up some cash.  To supplement the unstable freelance income, I’ll be looking for a part-time job.

If Part 1 wasn’t exciting enough, Part 2 should be!  Over the past few months as I’ve been running, my fascination with health, exercise, and fitness has been rekindled and now I’ve become consumed by it.  I’ve often thought “It would be great to have a job where I could wear athletic clothes all the time; like a personal trainer.”  Well, I’m now at a point where that could become a reality!  There are a few gyms in the Tyler area that are looking to hire certified personal trainers, so I’ve begun looking into becoming certified.  I really like the Cooper Institute’s certification program and will probably go that route.

Now for Part 3.  I’ve started looking into graduate programs at the University of Texas at Tyler.  Specifically their M.Ed. in Health & Kinesiology.  Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to take some undergraduate leveling courses since my undergrad is in Speech Comm and I chose physics and astronomy as my two science courses.  I hated biology and chemistry in high school which is why I avoided them in college.  At that time I really didn’t care about cells and chemical reactions but now I can’t get enough — in the context of health and exercise of course ;-).

So there you have my 3 part plan.  I’m excited to see how all of this pans out!

Oh, and when you get some time, check out my latest web project — LIFE, Inc. — at www.lifeleading.com.

There comes a point in every young designer’s life when they finally get off their butt and put together their OWN site — That day is today (or like two days ago really) my friends.  www.pauljamesdd.com.  Tell your friends!  Preferably the ones with money

My latest project is done. My client was Lon Morris College and the project was to create a site for the admissions office. My goal was to implement a content management system to separate design and development from content. I chose Adobe Contribute to handle the content management for two reasons: It’s simple and it works hand in hand with Dreamweaver. I trained the staff on Monday on Contribute and they’ve already populated the site with content! I guess it was an effective training session (or the product is just that easy to use). Check it out at http://www.beabearcat.com.

If you’re not into geeky web stuff just skip this one.

If you host your own site check out http://www.domaintools.com/reverse-ip/ to see who you may be sharing an IP address with.  I was very pleased to see that Site5 doesn’t share IP Addresses.  What’s the difference?  Sharing an IP address is kinda like sharing a bathroom with complete strangers - hundreds and hundreds of strangers…  eww.

On another note, I think I’m going to start offering web hosting at reasonable prices; and you’ll get your own IP address

<rant>

It’s like a fire truck driving past a burning building without stopping to help. THAT is how I feel every time I visit a UNT webpage… I’m only one man, and there is SO MUCH BAD DESIGN out there. I’m not even talking aesthetics - the organization (if you could call it that) of content is driving me crazy. WHY does everyone think they can do this kind of stuff on their own? WHY!!! I consider it as an insult to the profession…

</rant>