As of late, I have been really looking around and trying to focus on growing on what’s important, and take time away from things that aren’t contributing to the overall success of my career. I have been looking up and down craigslist for about 2 months now, taking on odd jobs, and looking for a low key internship environment where I could grow in web development, build my body of work, but at the same time keep my job at Apple. While it is important for me to succeed in what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life, I have worked hard to get where I’m at with Apple, and going to keep that going strong.

Come next summer, there will be a new Apple store location opening up downtown Chicago on 108 S. State St. aprox. 4 blocks north of where I currently live. It would cut my commute to work by more than half, and with the work ive been doing, I’d like to think I will have a good run at becoming a new Genius opening that location.

So, about a week ago, I found a front-end web developer post that was for the south loop in Chicago and I immediately responded once I saw it. Got in contact with the Senior Designer, and did a phone interview talking about my previous experience, as well as where I see myself in the coming years. The weekend went by, and I was called in to have a face-to-face interview with the Senior Developer and VP. All was well, and the offer was on the table for me to accept the position, so I took a few days to figure out if I could pull it off in my availability, and I decided to accept.

www.cleverbridge.com is a business based out of Germany that specializes in advanced e-Commerce. Most of their clients are mainly software developers looking for a solution to have a front/back end checkout process, and it’s actually quite interesting how it all works. My job is to basically take default look and feel of the shopping carts the clients purchase, and match it closely to the theme of their current existing website. People there are cool, its very laid back, and I think it’ll work out.

So currently between Columbia, Apple, and Cleverbridge, I just have enough extra time to eat, sleep, and occasionally tease the cat. 

With the pre-launch of my next website here at ejboyer.com what better way than to use a post for a good cause. Every year in Mid-October “Blog Action Day” occurs where bloggers / developers can post and raise awareness for a good cause. Last year’s cause was environment, this year poverty.

Here are some ideas from the Blog Action Day website:

Actions Each of Us Can Take … Now

We’re told that poverty can be eliminated within our lifetimes, but even so, most of us feel stuck when it comes to taking action. There are in fact a range of things that anyone can do.

What is Advocacy?
Advocacy is speaking up. Before change can happen, decision-makers need to know that their customers, community and constituents want change. Advocacy is letting them know.

Consumer Advocacy
Many businesses are in a position to make positive changes, by letting them know that customers want those changes, we empower them to do so. Some examples of consumer advocacy are:

* Investing in “Ethical” funds that balance social responsibility with financial return - showing businesses that social responsibility is profitable
* Letting your local coffee shop know that you would buy Fairtrade coffee if they stocked it
* Buying clothing from a company that doesn’t make use of sweatshops, so that business sees the profit in being ethical.

Political Advocacy
Politicians are elected to serve the people, so it makes sense that if they have a clear mandate that their constituents are all in favor of something, they will be empowered to chase those goals. Political advocacy is about letting them know, and creating that mandate. Examples of political advocacy are:

* Writing a letter to your local government representative - yes they actually read those letters!
* Visiting your local representative to discuss issues relating to poverty - a little more daunting
* Signing petitions to be delivered to government officials

Community Advocacy
By creating community awareness we broaden the support base for pro-poor action to take place and create a general environment conducive to change. There are many projects that anyone can easily join which are designed for exactly this purpose. A great example is the Stand Up Against Poverty project that falls just two days after Blog Action Day (October 17-19). Participants simply stand up, sometimes alone, most often in groups, to send a message to governments that people demand anti-poverty targets be met. Last year 43 million people participated, this year no doubt will be even larger.

By organizing a Stand Up group in a local school, church or other organization, you introduce other members of the community to the cause and issues and inform and educate them so they themselves become advocates in their own right.

There are a variety of ways that we can use our professional skills in the fight against poverty, that simply require thinking out of the box. Here are some examples:

* Volunteering time with charitable organizations to provide specialist, professional skills
* Getting your business or workplace to engage in pro-poor research. For example industries like agriculture and health are particularly important to developing economies. However even industries like finance and computers can yield innovations like microloans and the 1 Laptop per Child project, that can be of tremendous benefit to the poor.
* Doing business in areas that are both profitable and beneficial to the needy. Bill Gates calls this “Creative Capitalism”, that is using the creative spark of entrepreneurship to bring the benefits of capitalism to the disadvantaged.

Giving is the simplest of all actions that can be taken. There are many, many charities that do great work and benefit from our contributions. Recently giving has also grown to encompass microfinancing - small loans given to entrepreneurs in developing areas to help them life themselves and their communities out of poverty. Participants in Blog Action Day 2008 are encouraged to donate their day’s earnings to either the Global Fund or Kiva Microloans. You can find out more about both these organizations here.

Information is the platform for better decision making, but all too often we don’t know much about what impact our daily actions have. Informing yourself and informing those around you, enables you to make better choices in daily life.

Please go to the Blog Action Day

So a lot of time has been spent setting up our new apartment, working almost everyday, and taking care of our new little friend that has yet to receive an official name. Any suggestions would be appriciated. So far, our thoughts have been “salmon” “ham” “lucifer” and “lucy”… lets get a name for this thing before 2009 rolls around.

Overall our apartment has been pretty fun, the in-unit laundry and dryer has been the most helpful out of everything so far, as well as an amazing kitchen. Shaun and I are now rooming together again, while Thane and Mike occupy the other room. It should be a fun year for school and even more so work at Apple, and freelance work.

Short post for tonight, more to come later… have some work to do. Here are a few pictures:

I’m not sure how much any of you know about what exactly I’m doing out here in New York this week, so i’ll start from the beginning. Throughout high school I had an internship with Frontline Community Church and worked with Kevin Perberg throughout the time while I was there. I really developed a lot of technical skills and found my niche in what I really wanted to do with my life because of this. So with 3 years of college out of the way, I decided I’d go on a road trip and re-live some of the good ole’ days. Kevin and Mark Potter now are living their dream by going Full-Time in their own company which is called The Wave Studios. I’ve always been somewhat involved / in contact with the guys and everything thats going on, because some of the key points in my life were spent with them. It may even be where I end up some day, only time will tell. Late nighters(sometimes all night), running ridiculous amounts of CAT5 and XLR cables, setting up tripods and video cameras, and building projector mounts, its been crazy.

The camp is called NTS and its ran by a few of the leaders of KCC and Daybreak churches, and its hosted out here in Houghton, NY. What the hell is a hoe-ton anyway? We had to drive 17 miles tonight to get an omelet and a jug of water. Its a pretty random in-the-middle-of-nowhere town in the mountains. We’re about 6-7 hours away from the city. (let me know how batman is, I wont get a chance to see it until next week unfortunately.) Its quiet here, its easier to breathe, and I’m covered in misquote bites from head to toe. I barely have phone service out here with at&t, sometimes I can get it if its outside in a clear parking lot, otherwise I’m cornered up in the window trying to check my mail.

Throughout the first couple days, most of the time was spend towards building the stage and setting up for the productions that would occur each evening during the weekdays. I’ve been a run-around guy tieing up loose ends and making sure things are where they need to be, and when its show time i’m running a video switcher for the two main screens.

During the courses of the day, I kind of just wait on standby for the next thing to do, to try to get prepared for the rally’s to occur in the evening, and then doing live video through the performances.

The stage is absolutely incredible, there’s an amazing editing team behind the video clips we show during the production, lighting is awesome, the people are awesome, everything so far has been really cool. I’ll be trying to insert myself in different projects throughout the week before I go, to gain as much experience as I can while i’m here.

Up until now (3am?… ) I have barely had any time at all to sit and write back to anyone, so hopefully my blog communicates what’s going on to everyone. Seems like the easiest way!

Here are a few pictures from tonight’s show… after the normal rally we had a group called Group 1 Crew play, a 3 piece hip hop group that was absolutely amazing live. All the video you see behind them on the lower screens is what i’ve been responsible for, while the top is live footage from the 5 cameras we have.

James at the Video Toaster

Guitar jam session during meetings

Group 1 Crew performing

Shot of the full stage setup

Group 1 Crew again

The rest of the week will be to continue to work out the kinks, and perfect it by Week #2. (which I will not be here for) and then Kevin and I will both be tackling the Week #1 highlights DVD that the kids will be able to pick up at the end of the week.

So far is been amazing, and I could see myself coming back for the full two weeks next year to be more involved with editing/compositing specific tasks. Those guys are getting worked pretty hard right now, so I may end up offering my services sooner than later.

I’ll be trying to take more pictures of the college/area while i’m up here and coming back to write shorter posts throughout the week. So those of you that are really interested in what’s going on here can see. Until then, its time for a small nap before the next day begins.

Night.

Oh, ps. We just sealed the deal on moving into the Fischer Building in Chicago. Our move in date is July 31st, and I managed to get the agent to let us have 50% of the rent off the first month. It should be a really cool place to live, and Allie will be in the same building too. We’ll post pictures of move-in when it happens, we’re all really excited. :}

There are somedays that go by, and I think about how relaxed I am and how I dont have anything going on, when in reality, I’m ALWAYS busy.

The website I’ve been putting blood sweat and tears into for the past 2 months is about to go live sometime in the next 72 hours, and I’m pulling all nighters to make this happen. I will definitely be updating the blog as soon as that happens so I can get some feedback. As it goes live, there is a lot that I wanted to do that I couldn’t do with the time I had, so it will be a live work in progress over the weeks to come tweaking small things here and there.

Outside of the Web realm, I got a promotion at Apple! I am now a “Personal Setup Technician” where my daily tasks range from interviewing customers finding out what they need from their old machines, and what I need to do to make it happen on the new, hardware installs, and computer setup. The idea behind this role is to make it very very easy for anyone coming to Mac for the first time, or even older Mac users, to have a very comfortable transition with no worries. The team I’m with spends a lot of time and effort just sorting through files and pictures, and I was pretty blown away with everything that they put into it. I’ve been very excited about this position for the past few months and can’t wait to see where it will take me with the company! It should be a really good time. I am also going to be training to take a Leopard Server exam sometime this summer, while a small group of us will be going through training videos on Sunday evenings. It’ll give me some good experience in some server side stuff, and spice up my resume a bit.

Shaun, Thane, Mike and I will also be looking for a new place over the course of the next couple weeks as well. Staying as close to downtown as possible, 2-4 bedroom apartment, that will hopefully allow us to spend LESS money on utilities. If you have anything in mind, feel free to let me know! We have a few more places we need to look at before we make a final decision.

Lastly, I will be going to New York soon! For a week and a half in mid-July, I will be tagging along with Mr. Kevin Perberg to help out with some film/video stuff for a big camp that happens every summer. It should be a good time to relax and get away from the repetitive schedule I’m always running in Chicago, and it’ll be good to spend some time with my ole’ friend.

More updates to come later this week! Perhaps even a new look to my site as a whole!

Debbie from www.bigblugmarbleproperties.com just picked me up to work on her new layout. Will be doing the whole thing from scratch, but for the time being just going to try to manage some content and get things situated to make the transition easier. A lot of work ahead of us, but good experience, and a great oppurtunity to build on my body of work for my portfolio. Check back for updates, will have a new look by the end of the month.

(If anyone has any small freelance web projects that need done, let me know, any work will help!)

I have recently been posting on craigslist quite a bit for both the Downtown Chicago, and Grand Rapids areas for part-time Web Design jobs, as well as just freelancing small projects here and there. I want to get a solid portfolio down by the end of the summer so I can go into next semester with experience for an internship. So if anyone has any friends or family in need of help anything web related, I’m your guy.

New track released via pitchfork as of late. I enjoy it quite a bit. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the band, they are mainly heavy instrumental.

Check it.

Hi!

I just reinstalled everything for the LAST time, and changed the blog address to ejboyer.com/blog so I could keep the home directory for important stuff.

Also, I decided that I would be doing music reviews and posting music for those of you who ask for it(which has been a couple lately) so keep checking back.

-boyer