Jalpuna

The "About" Page

Along with the launch of a complete overhaul of the design of my beloved Jalpuna, I realized I should write a proper "about" page... so...

Let's start with a few links:

Social Media:

You can find me on:
Facebook. Flickr. Google+. Tumblr. Twitter. And I'm also dabbling with 500px, but I may not stick with it.

My Sites:

Jalpuna - You know about this one, obviously, since you're already here :)

Sniction - I created a random writing-prompt generator for a project a few years ago. Sniction is short for Spam-Name Fiction. Each random writing prompt contained a name, a noun and a verb. All of the names were taken from spam emails I'd received. I liked the idea enough that I built a website for it.

robsdemo - I'm Rob. This is my demo. It's my online work portfolio.

This Is The Box - Once upon a time, I thought I wanted to write for a broadcasting trade magazine. I began writing articles and posted them on a site I created for them. I did manage to get published in a trade magazine, but I quickly realized that wasn't something I wanted to do as more than just a hobby. I don't post on the site anymore, but I haven't killed it off yet either. I really like the domain name and may eventually find another use for it.

Twenty200 - This is sort-of like a stripped down even more minimal Jalpuna. Truth be told, I initially had Jalpuna for my blog and Twenty200 for my photography, but eventually, the photos came here too, and Twenty200 became a sort of virtual business card I could give someone I might not want to give my entire blog to.

About Me:

Hi... My name is Rob... and I... am an urbanite.

"Hi Rob."

I live in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon. Previously, I've lived in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and so on and so forth. I'm a Pennsylvania boy by birth, but the Pacific Northwest is where I'm proud to call home.

Politically speaking, I am so independent that I'm not even an Independent. I vote with my head and my heart, political affiliation be damned, and I cling fiercely to the golden rule. Most would call me a liberal, but I simply say I am a man with a conscience who votes accordingly.

About Jalpuna:

Jalpuna is a fake word. Once upon a time, it was my phone number, spelled out.

Years ago, I was hired to build a website for a client who needed a site that included a blog. In order to teach myself how to do this, I bought Jalpuna.com and built a blog for it. And when I had a client who needed an audio player built into her website, in order to teach myself how to do it, I built one into mine. Then came the client who wanted to stream his photos... in the process of building that, I built it into my site as well. This more or less explains how this site became what it is.

The challenge has been to maintain a sense of minimalism while adding content. Hopefully, I have achieved that.

I'm a firm believer that if you want to improve your web design skills, there's no better way to do so than by building and maintaining a blog. A blog is a form of dynamic design. It's a place to crash test ideas and to put new concepts into practice. Dynamic design is the best kind of design to tinker with since, if you eff it up, you'll eff it up dynamically. It's better to eff up your own site than a client's, especially if you're going to eff it up dynamically.

About My Photography:

Some photographers take their cameras to extraordinary places. They hike to waterfalls or travel to foreign countries. Others find beautiful models to pose. I like to hike to waterfalls. I love to travel abroad. And, yes, I enjoy admiring attractive women. But that's not what I do with a camera. Instead, I capture urban fragments. I do this because I enjoy finding and sharing the beauty of the everyday. The beauty of the norm. The beauty of the here and now.

I think that, all too often, people think of beauty as something out of the ordinary. They think of it as something outside of their regular life. I think beauty surrounds us. All we have to do is take a moment and allow ourseles to notice.

That's what I do.

I notice.

::::: | Thursday, Dec 01 2011 at 12:07 AM
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words

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