My Second Career

Even though I live as a programmer analyst by day (i.e. Clark Kent), those who know me at all know that I secretly live as a web developer by night (i.e. Superman). For some reason I've just always been drawn to the creativity of it, the ability to start with nothing and end up with anything. Anything. I can't even remember where it actually started--I don't have a recollection of unwrapping a beautifully packaged Photoshop 2.0 on Christmas or anything--but it has snowballed into something I can't seem to stay away from.

But for whatever reason, it is what has always held the most promise to me. Where else can you reach anyone in the world with only a few bucks, a bit of free time, and a few text and image files? I mean, where else can you:

• Shamelessly promote yourself and get away with it?
• Seamlessly share half of the photographs you've ever taken?
• Start your own business, as my friend Cliff admirably has?
• Create posts like this one?

It's truly an amazing medium to play around in. At any rate, over the past three months or so I've really started putting a lot energy into getting better--into becoming an actual web designer, instead of just playing around in it. The first big step was to make a life-changing decision: come February, I will be an iMac owner for the first time. Supposedly it is light years better than the PC for graphics and creativity, so we shall see. At the same time, I also plan to officially purchase Adobe's Creative Suite, a collection of tools which will allow me to do everything from create graphics to design printed material to streamline web sites. I'm very excited about it, as only a true geek can be. I suppose the only downside is that Kelly has to marry me somewhere in there. :)

Still, it does lead to some exciting creations that are either already here, on the way, or not too far into the future. The first was an interactive application at work that several friends and I completed and donated to the company: MI Guide Coach. We had a lot of fun doing this, in spite of the late hours. Second came AndyMurphy.com, which chances are you've seen before. :) Third has been this site, which was a rather unique opportunity.

Coming up this month is the release of a web site for Bethany Presbyterian Church, nestled in the trailers and mansions of Graham, NC. This is my aunt Tina's church, and she commissioned me to work on the site a couple of months ago. She's done a great job getting the information together; I only hope that I've done it justice. Let me know what you think!

Following that, the next project on the horizon will probably be the most ambitious achievement--one I'm not sure if I'm up to the challenge or not. It will be called Alias Concepts, a full-fledged site representing my design work in a way that might actually draw business. In between the arduous work of wedding planning and invitation writing, I hope to get the majority of this work done in January and February.

So that's what I'm doing (or attempting to do) with the darker, more secretive side of my career at the moment. :) I guess the only reason I'm putting all of this out here is to let you know what it is that I'm spending several hours each week on. Some of it is inspiring, some of it is useless, and some of it is downright silly, but it is what it is.

As a side note, you can see the posts to this site will likely range from serious to wacky to thought-provoking to rambling, but what's life without a bit of variety? I think my only true goal is that be the end of each post, both of us will have learned something.