We’re currently working toward revision 1.0 of the project that I’ve been contracted to build. This means that the big, heavy-lifting phase is almost over and that it will soon be time to refine, tweak, and polish the thing. I’m getting really excited to see this thing really start to come to life.

Outside of this, I’ve been looking for things to do that could satisfy the need to use my management and organizational skills. I used these skills a lot when I was working freelance and having to deal with multiple clients, pitching myself to new clients, and managing my finances and business stuff. I’m now trying to find a way to bring these talents into something outside of my work that I’m passionate about.

After talking to a handful of people involved in local arts and music projects, I’ve decided to realize an old dream of mine and start a cassette label (yes, cassette) and small-press distribution project. I’ve played in bands before and have made several attempts at self-publishing, both to very limited success, and I think that this new approach is the best way for me to use my strengths in a field that’s filled me with passion since as long as I can remember.

I’m approaching this in a very organized manner, and I’m already making progress toward this end. I’ll write more about these here, along with updates on the other things in my life that I find interesting. Stay tuned.

That’s not to say that my inspiration for blogging was only to find work. There’s tons to write about, but I’ve been concerned with many other things lately. I’ll be back soon - hopefully this week - to write more.

Search Engine Optimization, as explained in the WikiPedia article on the subject, is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines. This process employs a number of techniques to make a site’s content more accessible to search engines’ indexing agents (e.g. GoogleBot), and to make apparent the relevance of a site’s content to particular search keywords.

By default, WordPress structures your blog’s content in a pretty effective manner, but it’s not particularly great at optimizing content for search engines. Thankfully, there are plugins for WordPress that do the job very well. I recently did a search for third-party SEO plugins for Wordpress and found a couple that are quite effective and require very little technical skill to install and configure.

All In One SEO Pack: This is a great plugin, but don’t be fooled by its name because it isn’t the final word in optimizing your WordPress blog for search engines. Here are the highlights of this plugin:

• Easier interface for managing titles. The title of each and every post, page, and section of your blog is very important to search engines, and this plugin makes changing the title format very simple for everyone regardless of technical skill.
• Better management of article and page descriptions. Out of the box, WordPress uses the same set of meta data across all pages and articles to describe the content contained therein. This approach doesn’t make sense when each article is supposed to be unique. The All In One SEO Pack plugin makes it very simple to create unique descriptions and keyword groups for each article.
• Reduction of the amount of duplicate content visible to search engine robots. This plugin establishes simple rules for web crawlers that dictate which pages should and shouldn’t be indexed. It’s all done through one, simple interface, and all your bases are covered with a few flicks of the mouse.

This plugin is great because it does so much through one simple interface and it is simple enough for practically everyone to use and understand.

Google XML Sitemaps Generator: Adding a Google Sitemap to your blog is a fantastic way to get your content indexed by Google and other search engines. This plugin creates a document on your website which search engines use to discover and index your content. Each time you update your blog by adding a page or a post, this document is updated, too, and search engines are notified of the changes. The result is that search engines are better able to find the content on your site that is deemed the most valuable and relevant.

These two plugins do most of the schlepping involved in getting your blog noticed by the search engines. There’s definitely more that can be done - including writing content that is rich with keywords relevant to your subject matter - but by installing these two easy-to-use plugins you will be much better off than if you had only used the options built in to WordPress.

The idea has some appeal: There’s a commute involved, which further separates my Work day from the rest of my day, and it could give me an opportunity to network with other freelancers. The downside is cost: the round trip on BART between West Oakland and 16th Street / Mission is $5.90, and if I choose to not bring my bike the AC Transit fare will total $3.50. $9.40 per day for travel plus up to $10.00 for food and drinks means that it would cost around $15-$20 per day.

Is that expensive? Not if I’m able to focus better and produce more billable work each day. Some of these costs can be avoided if I take my bike on BART, and if I pack a lunch to eat at a park when the weather is nice.

It’s a nice idea, and I might try it out soon. I’ll definitely be eager to try it on a nice day, when I’d rather be out and about than stuck in the ol’ warehouse.

I won’t be going tonight, but I’m sure I’ll be checking it out sometime in the next month. I love good beer, and a good price to match!

I found this blog post, which mentions a new Open Source effort by Amazon to allow users to control/manipulate their EC2 instances via a FireFox plugin. At first I thought it was an odd design choice - controlling a virtual machine with a browser-specific application - but I decided that it’s really, really cool. I would rather have a GUI-based Java command-and-control application, but this is good enough for what I need.

For more information, and to download the plugin, go to Amazon’s Web Services Developer Connection.

This isn’t to say I’ve been idle. Aside from a brief holiday visit in Portland, I’ve been doing a few things to fill the time:

• Catch up on some reading
• Work on some personal Web-related projects
• Set goals for the next six months
• Implement new methods to organize my work life
• Sketch ideas for new art & craft projects, research materials and techniques

I’m currently working on a tool to help me find new leads for freelance work. It’s pretty cool, and I will put a demo online once it’s complete. I’m also eager for the new year to begin so I can use my brand-new red Moleskine daily planner. It’s red. So red. And it kind of excites me. I’m a nerd like that.

Enjoy your NYE2k8. Be safe, please don’t drink & drive, and have lots of fun.

I went through a number of ideas before settling on one. I considered buying folding partitions (probably rice paper stretched over a wooden frame), and sewing curtains using the heaps of fabric I’ve got laying around. I even briefly considered framing and building a separator wall, but it seemed like too permanent a solution for the need. Eventually I decided that the partition would be an array of tiles, 6″ square each, strung together with one-inch gaps in between. On both sides of the tiles will be paper applied with decoupage, using whatever interesting prints I can find.

Material Selection

I spent a lot of time and consideration to decide on the materials I would use to build this partition curtain. I decided that the material had to be relatively inexpensive, lightweight yet heavy enough to not be knocked about easily, and mostly flat. Vinyl commercial flooring tiles were considered as an option but the idea was scrapped after realizing that the tiles are prone to bowing and curving unless adhered to something else. I even considered glass, but it just seemed too impractical and dangerous for many reasons, including the building process and its use later on. Quarter-inch plywood was too expensive and heavy. I settled on quarter-inch composite board because it’s cheap, it’s easy to work with, and it takes adhesive very well.

Home Depot sells this stuff in boards measuring two feet by four feet - easy to transport by bicycle although still somewhat awkward to handle. After taking the first board home I drew a four-by-eight grid of six-inch squares, split the board into smaller chunks with a circular saw, and then cut the individual tiles with the radial saw. I thought it’d be easy to make evenly-sized and shaped tiles doing it this way, but I was wrong for a few reasons. I’ll explain this more later.

I went to Urban Ore in Berkeley to look for printed materials that I could use for decorating the tiles. Urban Ore really ought to be everyone’s first stop when looking for cheap, plentiful materials for craft projects and really anything else - I recently bought an amazing 1980s Yamaha stereo receiver from Urban Ore for $40 and it’s probably the best piece of stereo gear I’ve ever owned, new or used, in any price range.

They have a huge book section and also tons of road maps. I’m fascinated by maps of all kinds for many reasons, including their often-beautiful, simple methods expressing and communicating information and because of the geometric patterns that can be found in the natural and built worlds. I picked up a whole bunch of maps from the past few decades, and also found a book about Silicon Valley published in the early 1990s, filled with tons of corny stock photos and ridiculously idyllic portrayals of life in Northern California. I bought over 100 square feet of interesting and colorful printed material for only $6.00. Sweet!

The Process

Once I had all of my materials (which also include Mod Podge, several foam brushes and a squeegee I made by stapling part of an old flannel shirt to a piece of 2×4), I set about the repetitive, tedious work of making each tile. The process is pretty simple and can be perfected easily. A thin, even layer of decoupage is applied on the back of the paper, after which the tile is pressed into place and is then firmly rubbed from the center, out. Using an X-Acto knife, the outline of the tile is traced and cut. The tile is flipped over, and the squeegee is pressed into the paper, again moving from the center to the edges of the tile. Repeat over and over and over… and over. I think it took four or five hours to make only 32 tiles, but I also spent a little too much time going over the printed materials to choose which images to use.

The goal is to make enough of these tiles to span an area that is seven feet by eight feet, with prints on both sides of the partition. With each tile being six inches squared, with a one-inch gap between each tile, my estimate is that I will need about 164 tiles for the partition to be complete. I made 32. I have a long, long way to go. Once all the tiles are made, holes will be drilled in each corner, through which will be some kind of string or wire, connecting the tiles in a grid. The curtain of tiles will be hung from an overhead pipe which bisects my room, effectively creating two separate rooms within my one, huge room.

Results

After this first round of tile-making, I made a few observations and came up with a few changes to my design:

1. The tiles were cut pretty carelessly. I didn’t foresee that the circular saw would be harder to control when cutting material thinner than 1/2″. The result of this can be seen in the uneven edges on the tiles.
2. I spent way too much time looking for choice images. I realized later that randomly-chosen images can be very pleasing, and the overall result surprisingly intriguing. I will probably be able to spend half as much time making as many tiles if I’m not so picky the next time around.
3. A little extra effort will go a long way. If I take the time to sand the edges of each tile on my room mate’s upright stationary belt sander, the tiles will be perfectly square and create a more visually appealing result. Also, painting the edges of each tile with white acrylic paint will create a very pleasing, modern look that lends a feeling of professionalism and artistry.

I didn’t expect to get it right the first time, but this first attempt is very promising. It will make my room feel so much more comfortable than it is currently. I’ll see how my next attempt works out, and if it comes to plan, I will post more about this as it develops.

I knew of several coffee shops in Portland, many of which I loved to frequent, but let’s face it: there are way more coffee shops per capita in Portland than there are in Oakland. Not only that, but there are so few coffee shops here that I’d actually want to work from. Gaylords’ tables are way too small (even with my 12″ Powerbook) and your chances of getting a table with a power outlet are practically nil. I don’t want to venture north to Berkeley for fear of being surrounded by noisy Cal students socializing and gossiping while I’m trying to work. Being around other freelancers and teleworkers would be ideal if possible.

Does anybody know of any coffee shops in Oakland that are comfortable for doing work? Where do freelancers here go to work when they want to get out of the house?

I might try a few coffee shops when I’ve got some extra money… it should be interesting to see what I’ve been missing.

I moved to Oakland from my home town of Portland, Oregon in March of this year. For six-plus months I lived in a tiny bedroom in the Temescal area of North Oakland, and in November I found my current place in West Oakland on Craigslist. It’s a live/work warehouse space in an industrial area of West-O. I was looking for a living arrangement that had the space necessary for all the projects in my mind, and I was also looking for room that I could modify and decorate however I wanted. I found it.

There are several bedrooms and mine is the largest. It’s 13 feet by 21 feet. It’s more space than I’ve had in years… definitely more space than I thought I could ever afford in the Bay Area. My room mates are all involved in creating art and working on their crafts, and as a guy who just likes to make stuff, I really feed off of their energy. There are plenty really nice power- and hand tools, there’s all kinds of art detritus all over, and everyone is eager to listen to project ideas and give technical advice.

The gallery below shows the “before” side of the story. I’ve done a lot already since then but I’m still working on a number of things:

[Show as slideshow]

When I first moved in I started thinking of the ways I could really make my room my own. There were several things that needed to be fixed and I started making lists of projects that I could take on to solve various issues. First, the paint was old and the drywall was damaged in a few areas, so I patched the walls and painted a coat of flat white, to act as a barrier between the old paint (and some weird murals) and whatever color/design I would paint later. I still need to put on a second coat but it’s hard to deal with painting my bedroom when I work from home… it will get done one of these weekends.

A big issue is lighting. I’ve started a project to make light fixtures, which I’ve written about and will be posting updates on as progress continues. Natural sunlight is also an issue. I’ve got a “hatch” window (think of a “safari window” on a VW bus) which faces the windows in the front of the building, but it opens only so far and doesn’t let much light in. It will be replaced with recycled windows from old homes. That’s the next “big” project, and I’ll of course be writing about that when it happens.

The great thing about this place is that I can shape my space as much as I want. It’s the reason why I moved in. I have all of the room I want for crafts and art projects, and I can also be handy and create some inventive solutions to some interesting challenges. This place is my creative sandbox, and I am so glad that I found it.