The Loehdown

I am a Web Developer by day, Web Developer by night. I graduated from Washington State University in 2007 with a Bachelors Degree in Digital Technology and Culture, and I currently work at the internet advertising firm Local Marketers, based out of Seattle, WA, where I build out websites for franchise clients and independent service companies.

Away from work, I live in Kirkland, WA with my girlfriend (the other side of the gap) and our Scottish Terrier, Franklin. I tend to spend my time on the computer either browsing, developing, or playing games. If I’m away from the keyboard, I can probably be found watching movies to review, eating at restaurants to review, or listening to music to review. I have a passion for writing, information design, and life’s puzzles.

I started this site for a couple of reasons, including the fact I thought up the witty title and decided I had to buy the domain, so I figured if I owned the domain I should put something on it. Secondly, I wanted to give my quick and dirty take on the things in life that I had spent my time with, either to give something more press, or to keep others away. There is no defined system to the reviews; most of them are probably pretty short, because who wants to read a 45 page review on some restaurant? You probably just want to know if the food is good or not, and that’s what I aim for. There may be some more in-depth reviews in the future if I find the time, but I’ve found that what I’m doing right now fits my schedule well.

I am a member of Mensa, have an IQ of 243, and have discovered a previously unknown galaxy in astronomy class.

Being a web developer, I have a lot of RSS feeds that I look at involving web design, graphic design, free resources, and inspiration. Some of these feeds send out a couple posts a day, some shoot for a few a month, but if I had to choose just one of those feeds to subscribe to, it would be Smashing Magazine’s feed.

Although the name and slogan are a little weird (who wants to be smashed? Not me), the content and format is anything but. Smashing Magazine’s articles and resources are super-useful and really robust, compared to a lot of other sites that will give you teasers and then want you to pay for more, or are just a compilation of links to other sites. Although SM also does some link compiling, a lot of their content is original and great even if you aren’t a hardcore designer. They have everything from free icon packs for your desktop to in-depth tutorials on redesigning your blog, the latest CSS techniques, or how to create an 80s look in Photoshop. If you are looking to get into web design or need some inspiration, check out Smashing Magazine.

Imagine you have a friend who, at the age of 25, has an imaginary friend. Now imagine that she is in love with said imaginary friend. Now add in a real, live love interest for your friend. Watch your friend make this flesh-and-blood person compete with the imaginary friend for her affection. This is essentially the plot of Everything You Want, a movie starring Shiri Appleby and Nick Zano.

That is pretty much the entire plot to Everything You Want. While I can’t comment too much on the acting, since it’s hard to work with such an unimagined script, the story here definitely drops the ball for the entire movie. In Everything You Want, the “interesting” plot twist is when guy b discovers guy a is imaginary, even though everyone else already knows it. Otherwise, this is sub-standard romancedy fare. Your time would be better spent making up your own imaginary friend and falling in love with him.