School

This has also been keeping me busy lately, working on a redesign for the Bradley Multimedia Program's website. The site is in need of an update (as I'm sure you all can see), and we wanted to create something that was more representative of the Program, who we are, and where we are going. With this, I also wanted to match the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts' recently redesign website so that the Program's branding was well placed, as well as to keep with Bradley University's image.

As a class assignment, there are a lot of other students with other designs, but this is my take. With any luck, or perhaps just a good pitch presentation, my design might be selected, but I figured I'd throw this out to the world and see what people thought before I do that.

As though it weren't obvious, the orange squares are where photos would be placed; I simply didn't have anything fitting and we didn't get any source media to work from.

Borrowing my title from a great song by Motion City Soundtrack, I thought I'd borrow my theme for this post from my friend Chad who has been doing a series on what he's looking forward to in 2007.

2007 is a huge year for me. I don't mean "burrito as big as your head" huge, but "milky way galaxy" huge. I don't have a particularly long list of things happening or that I'm looking forward to, but the events in my future are big...at least to me anyway. I imagine to most of you these won't seem so huge or impacting or really all that pertinent to you, but it's my blag so I'll write what I feel like. It reminds me of the horribly dumb, but at the same time philosophical ending to Men in Black II, when K opens the door and reveals everything we call existence and the universe to exist in the miniture to a much larger world just outside a door.

I'm looking forward to getting married this July to the most wonderful woman in the whole world. Abigail and I met on the first day of classes Freshman year at Bradley University and have been inseperable friends ever since. We've had our rough spots like any relationship, but we've persevered and worked through it together. The last three and a half years have been the best of my life, though I know the next however-many-until-I-die will be even better.

Speaking of the last three and a half years, I'm looking forward to graduating from the Multimedia Program at Bradley University in May. The Program has changed a ton in the last three years since my friend and mentor, Jim Ferolo, joined as the head of the program and turned it around for the better. In some regards I almost wish that I could start over again now, yet at the same time I absolutely cannot wait to be done with school.

Being done with school means that I can start up full-time with my job at The Iona Group, in Morton, Illinois. I've been interning at Iona since May 2006 and was offered a position as an Applications Systems Analyst in mid-December (two days after I proposed to Abigail, actually) for when I graduate. I really love working at Iona Group; the atmosphere there is awesome; I have some great friends there; and, I love what I get to do there.

On top of all of these big things, Abigail and I are also shopping for our first home. We want at least two bedrooms and renting a nice apartment in a neighborhood we like that's close to ammenities we've found to be pretty expensive. On top of that, I've discovered that Peoria has a down payment assistance program for first time home buyers, and Abigail and I should qualify for that. So we're looking for a house that will cost us the same or less than what renting was going to cost us anyway.