My animation site, doranimation.com, was launched during the pandemic as my MFA thesis project, and is now in its 3rd iteration. I’ve updated the layout, cleaned up the categories, and added more of my audio work.
It is a tighter presentation of my film and audio work (less the blog). I hope you like it!
I’m giving a talk at UMBC on Friday, June 10, 2022 at 10:00am entitled Marketing Best Practices for Independent Artists.
I started a new project to support the Scientifically Sound Questions videos I’m making. It’s a website to allow people to submit their own questions for investigation.
It’s quick, it’s easy, and the Bureau is here to help! Ask today!
Saturday, I went back to the Hyatt in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore and spoke on blog design [slides] at FitBloggin – how to find/hire someone if you need help or how to do it yourself.
I love seeing how FitBloggin has evolved, and seeing my new old friends from around the country. It was a great conference, as always.
I did my first book signing for Head First jQuery tonight, which I worked on as a technical editor last spring/summer. It’s big! It turned out well. It’s very gratifying to see so many of my suggestions actually made it into the book.
I haven’t posted anything in weeks because I’ve been reworking this site and writing a talk for the FitBloggin’ 2011 conference in Baltimore.
I still have a pretty good list of things to clean up here, especially on the WordPress side of the site. I experimented with Custom Post Types and multisite functionality, and finally decided it was overkill. I decided to let ‘er rip, because I need to get back to posting stuff. So, please pardon the site hiccups as they happen. I’m still working on it.
FitBloggin’ 2011
FitBloggin’ was amazing, yet again. Seeing friends from last year, and finally meeting guys I’ve been talking with on Twitter was fantastic. As before, I’m honored to have been a part of this. Roni Noone has created something truly special that changes people’s lives. That’s amazing. This is my favorite conference, even more than the WordCamps.
Jennette Fulda gave a comprehensive talk on design. Monica Olivas answered questions about privacy and getting started to newer bloggers. Katy was everywhere I looked. The hookers from Shrinking Jeans are always fun! It was great to catch up with Scott Stawarz and wife, Paolo, Matt Dustin, Jen “in real life,” Jack Sh*t (even more charming in real life) and especially Ryan “No More Bacon” Sullivan and his wife, Mrs. Bacon. And everyone else I met, too. It’s all overwhelming. Check the #fitbloggin hash tag on twitter and you can see what I mean.
Regarding my presence there, someone asked me “are you a vendor of sorts?” I am not. Nor am I a fitness blogger, although I did just join a gym for the first time ever and I like it, obsessively so. To date, I haven’t tried to “monetize” my site(s). I haven’t run adwords campaigns, as easy as that would be to do. I am not a “social media guru” with “the answers for driving the conversation in the community to maximize value in the douche-bag space.” I have a lot of knowledge to share, though – WordPress, Blogger, analytics, SEO, code, design, writing, being part of something positive. It’s fun to help and I answered as many WordPress and blogging questions as I could.
This time, my talk focused on photography for blogs. I decided to address “the art of seeing” and how to get better shots. It was a fun talk to research. I recommended doing a 365 – a photoblog where you post a picture a day – as a way to change the way we see the world around us. It trains our eye and forces us to find interesting ways to tell stories in a new way. I thought I’d try it, too – I’ve created a new section on this site for daily snaps (was at jimdoran.net/snaps). Hence to mad rush to rework my dusty old theme.
My slides are here. Thanks to everyone who listened and asked questions!
