Morgan Long

Finally got some stuff added to the portfolio. It shows off the work I have done while at ACTS, which mostly involves project management. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in three major site redesigns this year. The total traffic for all three exceeds 5 million visitors a year, so it’s quite an accomplishment to finish all three in a calendar year.

I’ve also done some minor design tweaks to whiteboard like adding link colors and such. I’m not a fan of the monster header graphic. I mainly wanted to use this theme for its simplicity. I’m no longer designing sites from the ground up, so I didn’t want the perception to be there that I’m a graphic artist.

Trying to learn some new tricks. Seems like I get into these moods once or twice a year where I want to learn something new before it passes me by and something else has come along. Downloaded the Whiteboard theme, which is based on the Less Framework. Gonna try my hand at responsive design, get my resume updated, and show off some of the things I’ve been doing for the past year at Aristotle.

A ridiculous amount of bowl games, but only a few I care about. In chronological order:

Las Vegas
Utah vs. Boise
Why? Utah is leaving the MWC and Boise is on the way in. The way Utah has been playing, Boise belongs in the Pac-12.
Score: Boise, 41-20.

Hawaii Bowl
Tulsa vs. Hawaii
Why? Two high-powered offenses means a ton of points and an entertaining game.
Score: Hawaii, 63-55

Insight Bowl
Missouri vs. Iowa
Why? Missouri reportedly wanted in the Big 10. We’ll see if they could hang with one of the conference’s best.
Score: Missouri, 27-24

Holiday Bowl
Nebraska vs. Washington
Why? One of the most lopsided match-ups of the bowl season. I want to see how badly Nebraska pwns Jake Locker in his final college game.
Score: Nebraska, 52-17

Outback Bowl
Florida vs. Penn State
Why? Two teams that got a New Year’s Day bowl based on their names. They should be thanking their conference powers for guiding them to the big money.
Score: Florida, 21-17

Gator Bowl
Mississippi State vs. Michigan
Why? Only because I enjoy watching Denard Robinson play. I’m a homer and want MSU to win, despite them being Arkansas’s rival.
Score: Michigan, 31-28

Orange Bowl
Stanford vs. Virginia Tech
Why? East coast versus West. Stanford is poised to become a contender in college football and VA Tech is trying to restore their dignity after losing two games they should have won earlier in the season.
Score: Stanford, 33-30

Sugar Bowl
Ohio State vs. Arkansas
Why? A friend is telling me that since Arkansas couldn’t contain Cam Newton that they can’t contain Pryor. I say with a month to prepare and our reputation on the line, the Hogs make it competitive.
Score: Arkansas, 28-21

BCS National Championship
Oregon vs. Auburn
Why? Two deserving teams in the championship and both can score a lot of points. The game will come down to defense and composure.
Score: Auburn, 38-35

Now that I have started at Aristotle, I think it’s time to clean up this design a bit. Kind of backwards, I know, but I won’t be doing ground-up design at Aristotle. My proficiency (or lack thereof) in all things Web are not as critical in what I do. However, I will document the sites I have a significant hand in the layout or final product, as the case may be, then post them here. I will have to figure out the legal wranglings with some of these sites since some clients have non-disclosure agreements and such.

For the time being I think I will keep this stark until I can start building up some of the major design elements. Fortunately, the portfolio section was already themed by the original developer and I won’t have to do much there.

I finished up working on a small site for South Dakota 811 this week. The South Dakota One Call System is moving from a government-run system to the not-for-profit Texas811 system. The government website still hosts the One Call site. Texas now owns all of the related 811 domains, with sd811.com being the primary domain now. I can quickly develop these small, information-based websites with WordPress, especially when I’m working from another theme.

It takes me forever to write all of the code needed for the basic setup and layout. Maybe I’m just slow.

I finished the site for Dayco Construction today. Kriesi’s framework is perfect for portfolios, although it took me a bit to figure out some of the backend code. It’s a really nice example of custom post types for WordPress 3.

I think my next step will be to write my own custom post type and gear it toward inventories. I know there are a lot of themes developed already for e-commerce, but there are still businesses like small car dealerships that need an inventory system, but not an option to purchase through the Web. There are a few themes out there for dealers, but they rely too much on plug-ins to extend WordPress’s functionality. I would like to try and develop something strictly using the WordPress core, then use something like NextGen Gallery to extend the theme.

So I’m realizing quickly that I’ve neglected this site too much. I think writing the blog will help me come back to it more often. At least I was keeping tabs on the WordPress updates. I don’t really use many plug-ins for this install, so I don’t have frequent updates waiting for me to apply.

I started off with a dark background since I intended for this site to be strictly a portfolio. Then I decided to blog and a lighter background color was needed. Now I’m moving toward going with a white background and whole new color scheme. Before I do that, I need to get the minor style details out of the way. The home page needs a lot of work. It’s too stark and boring (which some might say is reflective of the designer). I spend hours in front of a monitor all day and when I get home, I tend not to want to spend more hours in front of one. Gotta push forward and get this finished, then I can focus more on writing and less on designing.

So I’m live, although I don’t have the portfolio finished. I’m using Kriesi’s framework to enter portfolio items as a custom post type. This would be infinitely easier to do in Drupal, but I think I like the challenge of making this work for my theme. I still don’t have a great idea how to make a screenshot of a website look appealing. Hope to have it all completed by the weekend.

I started on a blog design for my friend, Chris Alt. He is a content machine and writes significantly more than I do. He also scours the Web for odd stories so that you don’t have to. He doesn’t want me to publicize it until we finalize a few theme changes, but I will post that here as soon as I’m finished with it. As a note, this is not him.

My next project will be getting an Imbalanced Blog Network icon going. The biggest hurdle will be getting Darren on board with the concept. As Darren notes “… sounds like our old Imbalanced Syndicate idea”. Indeed it does. I thought it had promise years ago, and it can carry in 2010. I don’t ever see us eclipsing 1 million pageviews a month, but a small cult following would suffice.

It’s been years since I’ve written regularly. I can’t put my figure on the exact reason: laziness, apathy, privacy. Probably all of the above. I also get distracted easily. The Web is a vast space with many wonders and shiny objects galore.

I imagine this blog will touch on some of my passions: technology, politics, and sports. I tend to follow Engadget, Bill Simmons, and whatever is going on in the NBA. I’m one of those that is obsessed with the Draft and free agency. I think if I had an alternate career path it would be a GM in the NBA.

I guess every now and again I can post my reviews on films. I watch some obscure stuff, which is probably not that obscure to the hardcore film buff. If you haven’t seen Pandorum yet, do so. I worked for a movie theater chain for about six years, so I’ve seen a lot of movies.

I can’t imagine that I will post with frequency. I think I’ve posted 100 tweets (@the_real_morgan) in the year I’ve had a Twitter account. I think the character limit is imposing. I worry that I’ll go over my allotted character limit and my thoughts will be incomplete. Then you’ll be left wondering what I was really trying to say.

Anyway, I’m hoping this blog will generate some traffic for me and ultimately get my professional work exposed to people that could care less about a web designer in central Arkansas. Hope you’re entertained!