Welcome to my life.

I'm a self-avowed WordPress Whisperer with a specialization in front-end design. I live in Maryland. I take lovely photos, go to the gym a lot, and opine strongly over design, aesthetics, and politics. I'm prolific on Twitter; I used to post to Flickr; I have a moblog and in my spare time I help out at the SemperFi WP Support forums. Read more about me.

Memorial Day is not for shopping

A view of the Maryland WWII Memorial In Annapolis, MD

A view of the Maryland WWII Memorial In Annapolis, MD

I’m an avid reader of military history. The books I enjoy stretch as far back as the Peloponnesian War. Being that today’s holiday is specific to the war fallen, I personally think that going nuts on the shopping is in bad taste. It’s a large commercial tradition, but if that’s the only thing folks care about with this day, they’re missing the point. I guess that’s why I cringe whenever some dolt says “happy Memorial Day.” I understand: many “celebrate” this day, and many take the opportunity to get together with their families. In their own ways, they do appreciate the sacrifice of those who have fallen in war. In living free, they do honor to those who have lost their lives defending our freedoms. However, something has to be said about giving a few moments of reverence and solemnity for those who have died defending our country. I’m not asking for a whole day’s worth of mourning, but a little respect is definitely in order.

May 25 2009, 16:52 | Filed under: Photography | 1 Comment |

A long look back through my archives

The greatest challenge I face as I prepare this site for some kind of relaunch has been the reorganizing of the blog posts’ entries. Years ago as I grew this blog I drew up all sorts of post categories, many of which I never really revisited. Such has been the scattershot nature of my writing, for which I have no regrets. However, it does make sifting through my content a little disappointing. It’s like showing a house buyer a massive mansion, all nice and shiny outside, only to be met with dusty, unused rooms.

Tagging posts has become de rigeur these days, too. It’s a practice with which I’m still uncomfortable. I prefer tagging photo posts, even the ones with narratives, but I find the frequency of tags in text posts to be counterintuitive. It also doesn’t help to have fifteen hundred posts over six years of writing.

I’ve spent most of this night switching category assignments for posts that date all the way back to the beginning. I’ve come across posts I regret, to an extent. Other posts are those that link to now-unavailable resources, blogs long gone to the aether, and news articles that have been filed away forever.

I’ve always had, and always will, have problems with the ephemerality of the online medium. I am working on a series of posts discussing this topic, but for now, as I sit at home going through my archives, I feel like I’m hanging out with an old friend, one whom I haven’t met in a very long time. It’s a strange sensation, like looking at a photo of myself from college.

May 22 2009, 23:00 | Filed under: Blog news | No Comments |

Credit card reprieve preys on the desperate, incurious

A few days ago I my friend asked for my advice when she received her most recent credit card statement. The minimum payment requested was for $0. A disclaimer at the bottom of the pay slip said (and I paraphrase) “you don’t have a minimum payment this month, but any payments made will be credited towards your balance. We will continue to charge you finance charges.” To me, this was a transparent scam and what bothered me more was that it was not transparent to her. Her credit situtation isn’t what I would call desperate, but imagine for a second what a credit card statement like that would look to the unwitting and incurious. To them, it would look like a decent “break” from their responsibility, but to anyone who knows the way credit cards work, it’s a huge rip. Let me explain:

Assume the outstanding balance of $5000. Minimum payment is around $175. April’s payment was $175. Finance charge for this May statement was $103.

Let’s say you bite their offer and not pay for the June deadline. The finance charge for June will, for the sake of simplicity, be $103. In July, your minimum charge will be around $175 again. But now, your minimum payment of $175 not only pays against the finance charge from May of $103, but also the finance charge of the June statementof $103. So, $206 minus your minimum payment of $175 for the July deadline nets the credit card company $31. Imagine this repeated across hundreds of thousands of incurious borrows. Now consider: these $31 are added to the outstanding balance and will contribute to further increases in finance charges. This calculus applies whether your minimum payment is $175, or $15. If you skip a payment, they will make money off of you without them lifting a finger to charge you a late fee and risk your ire.

TANSTAAFL, folks! This is the equivalent of a crack dealer giving you a free hit and then raising the prices on your next purchase. I could think of so many other metaphors to illustrate the kind of travesty that this credit card company intends to perpetrate. Frankly, I feel little sympathy for those who trust lenders to make financial decisions for them, essentially ceding their personal sovereignty to the banks who are all too willing to hand out fake money to make a little bit more real money. Despite my lack of sympathy, I do believe that there will be no revolution, no upheaval on any scale, unless there are open eyes. The silence of the knowledgable is just as contributory to evil as the passivity of the incurious and the belligerence of predatory lenders.

May 19 2009, 10:16 | Filed under: Irritants | 1 Comment |

Thoughts on WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2009: the day after

It may surprise some to know that for a veteran of the blogsophere like myself, WordCamp Mid-Atlantic 2009 was my first ever major meetup. I’ve met up with individuals before, and recently had a medium-sized tweetup, but nothing like what happened yesterday. When I was quoted in the Baltimore Sun as taking the opportunity to rub elbows with some really awesome people, I had no shame in sounding like some kind of social butterfly. After years of being online, none of the speaking topics for the day were truly important to me. Some participants were people I have known online: some for a few weeks, some for a number of years. One, almost from the very beginning. I certainly meant to finally meet them in person.

I learned a lot more from mingling with the likes of Joel Fisher (@joelmoney) of Flush Inc and Brad Williams (@williamsba) of WebDev Studios than from listening in on a talk. Not to cast any aspersions on the value of what the speakers offered yesterday, but they were not geared towards my needs. I am sure that everyone else who attended the talks found what they were searching for, but for me, what I was looking for was in making connections with the people around me: to learn on a personal level about topics that may not have mass relevance. I learned of business practices in both the incorporated and the freelance worlds of Brad Williams and Andy Stratton (@theandystratton) respectively. Matt Martz (@sivel) and Ryan Duff (@ryancduff) shared awesome perspectives in the development cycle and the way developers in general and WP devs in particular work.I spent a lot of time listening to others speak with each other: of clients and service providers from both heaven and hell, of the excitement and difficulties in running a service-based business (and yes, I know, business is hard no matter what). I’ve learned I am relatively lucky that the clients I have had so far have been the clients any designer would ask for.

So many from yesterday were passionate with the reasons for their going: Dawn Casey (Casey Multimedia on Flickr), for example, spent most of her day taking pictures. Watching her gracefully glide through the crowd for most of the morning, I asked her if she was having fun. Her answer? “This is fun.”

For me, though, the highlight of the day was what happened after. There was a small crowd at The Brewer’s Art, where I enjoyed the Resurrection Ale per Aaron Brazell‘s (@technosailor) recommendation. I will admit to a large fanboy element in having met him and Mark Jaquith (@markjaquith), and I was really looking forward to a long-time online friend, Stephan Segraves (@ssegraves). I will refer to the Vegas rule (“What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”) on the fine details of the many conversations during the after-party, suffice to say that it was fun to reminisce on the early days of WordPress. After The Brewer’s Art, a number of us headed to Midtown Yacht Club, which lived up to Aaron’s description: “It’s really not as pretentious as it sounds.” As the night wore on and we started to feel the weight of the day on us, we all parted ways. I gave Mark and Stephan rides to their hotels; they were on my way home, and beyond being the proper thing to do, it was a chance to give them the Baltimore city driving experience.

This has been a great personal and professional experience, and I know I will be attending future WordCamps in, even out of, my area.

Additional coverage:

May 17 2009, 19:17 | Filed under: WordPress | 3 Comments |

Wordcamp Mid-Atlantic

Updates to run through the day.

[1020]: I’ve been around since the early days of the Movable Type vs. WordPress conflict, and having listened to Anil Dash speak today about ongoing evolution in SixApart’s operations makes me feel like I’ve grown up as a blogger. My best takeaway from the talk is his emphasis on convergence of networks. He spoke about the closed nature of Facebook, for example, and how networks need to evolve in a more open manner. Two words: “Ice melts.”

[1359]: Had a great lunch with a panel of nine guys, lively discussion. I spent a lot of time listening. I’ve hung out at the atrium area and bouncing off ideas with people more than listened to the talks.

[0020]: Just got home from the event. I decided to stay unplugged and just rock the place. Recap tomorrow.

May 16 2009, 9:22 | Filed under: Living fine | No Comments |

One Fine Jay in the news

I have spent the past week or so finishing a project for a client, and as such I have gone dark here on OFJ. As with every other project that I do for a client, it has given me a few ideas for a redesign of the site, and a reboot of the content. I’ve been busy as a bee.

I gave Gus Sentementes (@GusSent) a phone interview yesterday and I was quoted in his article on WordCamp Mid-Atlantic. (WC MidAtl site.) I’m particularly obscure by today’s standards but I like to think that the years I’ve spent online have given me a perspective worth sharing on Saturday. I really like how the quote makes me look excited about finally meeting some of the people with whom I’ve connected over the years.

From now till then I’ll be toiling away at redesigning and laying out a plan for content on a far more regular basis than I have been of late. Things to expect:

  • Regular photography posts, at least twice a week. Many of these will be scheduled in advance.
  • Political commentary will be banished from the front page. It will be accessible by a link at the top nav.
  • A series of pages featuring my portfolio of work, including case studies.
  • Frequent lancing of sacred cows, with less snark and more reason.

May 12 2009, 15:08 | Filed under: Blog news | No Comments |

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