Tonight I had the opportunity to spend a good chunk of time working on a client’s upcoming site. It was really great to just spend the afternoon and evening designing and problem-solving; I haven’t had the chance to do that for a while. I’m really excited to show you this design when I’m finished with it, too.

As I opened up my web design folder to begin working tonight, I found myself hacking my way through woefully overgrown folders full of ancient psds and moldy html files and who knows what else. (Don’t worry Andrew, you won’t be charged for that time. ) After finally installing some sensible organization (A folder each for “Clients,” “Blog,” and “My old sites,” with clearly delineated sub-folders for individual sites), I poked around a bit in my old websites folder. Sadly, most of the designs hidden in this folder never even saw the light of day… well, not so sadly, in a few cases. But the fact is that a large portion of my portfolio never made it to the web, making me wonder if I should cite them as examples of my work.

Even if they were never actually published, however, I know for a fact that each and every one of those shoddy old designs for fanlistings and Star Wars sites contributed a little bit to my development as a designer. So I don’t really feel like I can let them go. They’re a part of my design legacy, if you will! (Even if a few of them did feature typewriter fonts and poorly rendered lightsabers.)

If for no other reason than to amuse myself, I plan to post a few of these designs here sometime in the near future. But that time is not now, because I need to go to bed and am too lazy to take screenshots of them. I will, however, leave you with a glimpse of one of my newest “old” designs. This one hails from a year and a half ago, back when I still had Lylium.com registered and was planning on using it as my portfolio site

Click on the image below to see the full screenshot. The text in the design is just a paragraph from some essay I wrote that I grabbed to use as filler. Also, my intention in highlighting “WEBSITES” in the nav bar was to demonstrate how all of the links would look when rolled over.

Sure, it’s not perfect. I would definitely tweak things, were I to work on it again now. But there are a lot of things I really like about this design: it’s simple, clean, and fun, and it delivers impact. I’m almost tempted to adapt it into a template for my blog. But then again… designing a whole new template sounds like more fun.

So there you go. Since my portfolio is apparently never going to be updated, there is a glimpse of some of my other design work. I hope to share more soon.

1. Kindling.
2. Flower-press.
3. World’s most effective paperweight.
4. Bar-bell.
5. Life-size model of an elephant (a cubist elephant).
6. Foundation for a small island.
7. Murder weapon (think “death by bludgeoning”).
8. Booster seat.
9. Reading material for the next forty years of your life.
10. If you are really desperate, you might even use it as a STUDY GUIDE to the SAT. Novel idea, I know.

(Pictured with person for scale)

All kidding aside, this book is ENORMOUS. It’s like Kaplan wants you to feel the weight of your impending doom via SAT as fully as possible. If they double-spaced the entire Bible in eighteen point Courier, I do not think it would be this big. But despite the dauntingness of this behemoth, I do expect it to be helpful. I was very happy with Kaplan’s PSAT prep book.

Oh, and coincidentally, I’m going to be taking the SAT exactly one month from today: on June 3rd! What a fun time that will be… hours and hours of stressing out over question after question in an agonizingly boring standardized test, sitting in a dank, dark classroom full of thirty other apathetic teenagers who would probably rather be swallowing slugs than taking the SAT. I don’t know about you, but that’s how I always feel like spending my Saturday mornings! Let’s just hope I only have to take it once.

I haven’t begun studying this mammoth SAT tome yet, but I have cracked the cover and read Kaplan’s tips on getting started. Apparently they have some sort of website where I can register my book and develop a “personalized study plan” for how I am going to get through all ten million pages of this book in a finite period of time. I can just imagine my hypothetical conversation with Kaplan’s SAT website (if it were a person):

Me: “So, I’m here for my study plan!”

Kaplan’s SAT website: “Great! We will produce a study plan tailored to your personal schedule. We realize that each student has different demands on his or her time, and it is not always possible for him or her to begin studying as far in advance as would be most beneficial. But as I’m sure you know we recommend that our students begin our program at least twelve years before they are scheduled to take the SAT. Some especially promising students actually begin reading our book in the womb! So, what’s your timeframe?”

Me: “Uh…. I’m taking it in a month.”

Kaplan’s SAT website: “Oh, ah, yes, well, we see. *Pause * I think you had better try our “So Last-Minute That Your Eyeballs Are Probably Bleeding From The Stress” course. If that doesn’t help, I would recommend our “Maybe We Can Keep You From Flunking Entirely” program. Best of luck!”

…

Okay, maybe it won’t really be that bad.

Maybe.

I think I finally have all this relationship stuff figured out. I just need to get any guy I’m ever interested in (assuming I’m ever interested in anyone again) to answer the following two questions:

1. Do you love me for who I am… not who you want me to be?
2. Would you shove cake in my face at our wedding?

The desired answers, in case you are thicker than a brick, are yes, and no, respectively. If he can answer those questions correctly… he’s for me!

… alright. It might, admittedly, be a tad bit more complicated than that.

*wades back into piles of schoolwork and websites and stuff *