A New Friday Night Tradition

So yesterday I started a new Friday night tradition that I hope to continue for a while. Its something that I've been wanting to do to give me more to look forward to other than the usual. What I'm doing now on Fridays is setting aside time to enjoy one of my favorite treats/meals, which is Pizza Rolls. I accompany that with a nice cold bottle of Coke. Now normally a Coke would not be such a big deal, but for me at this time it is, because I've dramatically cut my caffeine intake to almost nothing. With the Coke it is special as well because of its content, the type I'm drinking is made with real sugar and is produced in Mexico. It also comes in an old fashioned glass bottle, which you don't see often any more. Most typically though you may find them in your Mexican/authentic foods section at the store. Anyways not to make a big deal about the Coke I'll just conclude it is a great treat. While snacking on the pizza rolls and sipping on the Coke I have chosen a TV show that I used to watch on Fridays as a kid and one that I enjoyed thoroughly. And that is Quantem Leap. I'm starting with the first season and will work my way onward. May include other shows like, Simon & Simon, A-Team, MacGyver, or Night Court. All those shows I really enjoyed as a kid, I am a product of the 80s, so those shows were the best at that time. That was back when TV was good :) I could write a whole new post about how TV now sucks ass, but I will wait until later.

So yeah, that basically concludes the tradition that I hope to follow through with. Its just something to look forward to I guess. I may throw in some video game time as well, just like I did last night. I started with some old school gaming with the first Mario Bros. game, then went up to the next gen console to play some Uncharted.

Is there anything that you do special on Friday, weekends, that you do often? Just let me know.

Thanks for reading!

Giving YouTube a Try for JMA

Yesterday I created another YouTube account to start putting videos about my design studio and Northwest Indiana onto. The new channel is located here: http://www.youtube.com/user/jmadesignstudio.

Now, I am not making any promises like I always do, so bare with me when I say that I will be creating very useful/entertaining videos relating to design and Northwest Indiana.

The videos will be available for viewing on YouTube of course, and on my website. I will notify any followers using Twitter when I upload a new video. My mind does change alot when it comes to finding effective ways to market oneself. So you may see some changes throughout my website, when I feel it is needed. Those changes maybe necessary in the possibility that it will improve the user's visit.

That's about all I gotta say. Thanks for reading!

Following through with JMA

Well its been a while since my last post. Looks like the last post was done in July, a mere 5 months ago. So yeah it has been a while. This blogging thing can be hard to keep up :)

Anyways I just wanted to follow-up with my previous post about the plans with JMA Design Studio. For those who don't know about JMA Design Studio it is my business where I provide website design, custom illustrations, logo development, multimedia development, and now a new service consultation with Social Media. The plan was to create new business cards, new promotion package, and redevelopment of the website. Well I'm happy to say that the new business cards are completed, and the website is in the process of being redone as I type this (yeah, I can multi-task...I can write this and do web development at the same time...just kidding). Hopefully if all goes well I will have the website completed before the new year. It is my hope to start off 2010 with a new image, new services, and new contacts for my design studio.

Thus far everything is shaping up very well. I will keep whom ever reads this updated about my progress with the website and the business as things progress.

Thank you for reading!

In the works for JMA Design Studio

Right now I'm working on a new website layout for my design studio. This time I'm getting away from the Flash based website, which I've always made in the past. This time I'm making it more like a blog style website with a Web 2.0 feel. I figured its best to go with this type of feel for my audience. I'm trying to cater to more small business owners who are technically inclined and have a good understanding of what it means to have a web presence. I also want to target non-profit organizations and churches because of their good will towards others. I'm going through some design options and trying to figure out the best one for myself.

I'm also working on new business cards. I hope to have them printed on recycled material, so I can start making my design studio more environmentally green. There are so many more ways in which JMA will be going green, which I will blog about in a different post.

Once the business cards are finalized I will be putting together a big self-promotion package to better market myself as well. This will include new polo type shirts and other clothing with my logo on it, signage, direct mail advertising, etc. This is something I needed to do in the first place when I was starting my studio, but really didn't have enough dough for it.

I will continue to network with various businesses like I have been, I will be attending the local tweetup, and new this month I will be attending a day long Business Break-out session for designers like myself.

As you can see I have huge plans like I always do to expand my business. You can always follow me via Twitter, where you will find the latest updates about what I'm doing and you check in on me to see if I'm following through with what I wrote about with this entry. Follow me here: www.twitter.com/jmadesignstudio

Thank you for reading!

Take care,
Jason

Pepsi Throwback

I just wanted to drop a quick few lines to give my thoughts about the new Pepsi Throwback. I had my first sip of it not to long ago and gotta admit it isn't to bad. If you're unfamilar with it...it is a all natural sugar alternative that is a little better for ya. It doesn't contain the corn syrup, which can be harmful, so that's a good thing. When I took the first taste of it, it had a more sugary taste, and does seem to contain more sugar according to the contents, but I could wrong. Anyways not to get into the history of it and bore the crap out of you, I just wanted to say that I liked the taste of it, I like the Can design and the commercial on TV advertising it. It definitely gave it a retro feel. Mountain Dew also has its own Throwback version, which also contains all natural sugar, but I've heard mixed reviews of it. Well, that's just my thoughts about it. Overall, I like Pepsi Throwback.

Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman

Last night for some reason I flipped on the TV to check out one of the late night talk shows, you know like David Letterman and Jay Leno. Usually I watch Leno, but last night I thought I'd give good 'ol Letterman a try. To much of my surprise it was pretty damn good. Now I'm not doggin' on Letterman, I'm a fan of his show, and remember watching him quite a bit back in the day. His guest if you happen to not know was Joaquin Phoenix. I did hear that Mr. Phoenix was giving up on acting and was going the music route to be a hip-hop artist, which when you have a glimpse at him now you can really see the hip-hop look in him...NOT! Anyways, while being interviewed by David Letterman his body language was just comical and his answers were brief. This made for some awkward pauses and many silent moments. David Letterman didn't have much to work with, so he pretty much made fun of the moment and went with it. It was just one of those interviews that you had to see. Pretty funny in my opinion. I'm sure Joaquin was just showing off his acting abilities once again by being the guy he was last night. I sincerely hope that he snaps out of the music scene and gets back to being an actor. Just don't want him to give up on a gift like he has. I mean come on, who else could play Johnny Cash like he did? His performance on "Walk the Line" was unbelievable. Anyhoo, I know that this topic is all the buzz and that many people are writing about it, but I just thought I'd put in my two cents.

Thanks for reading, take care.

JMA Design Studio Website Redesign

So after careful planning and brainstorming I went ahead and decided to give my website a complete redesign. The previous design was good, but wasn't exactly what I wanted for my own site. I was hoping to make the design studio look professional and reach out to more people in the business world. With the new design I was able to provide a neutral background that could have different colors applied to it. The whole website itself is able to be scalable, meaning you can adjust the browser to any width while having the content move with it. There is a blog section and a FAQ section as well. I really wanted to have an area where potential clients can get answers to their questions, so I made sure to have an FAQ page.



It took me 3 weeks to complete the site. I designed it and laid it out in a couple days with Photoshop, then spent the rest of the time doing the development in Flash. It was hard to decide whether it be best to do a Flash site or a traditional HTML/CSS site. When browsering the web for inspiration I stumbled onto a great site that allowed me to get inspired and get the creative energy flowing. The site I referenced was done in Flash, so that helped with the decision of doing another Flash site for myself. I'm 100% happy with the new design, I'm happy and very confident in telling people to check out my website, and I'm happy to see what will happen as a result of the new design. I hope to gain work and continue to build upon the site and offer many more services if possible. I'm including a video that I did a couple days ago on YouTube that also relates to the new website.

Thanks for reading, take care.