2007 was a very busy year for me…and it seems most of that boiled down to the last few weeks of December. The biggest news of the year, I’m heading back to Michigan next month! I’ve accepted a position with Pivotal Communications, an interactive media studio and communications firm located in Kalamazoo. As the new Senior Interactive Developer, I’ll be responsible for  shaping the company’s framework for development, formatting each interactive project’s architecture and user interface design, and directing the focus on new technology R&D for future ventures. Very exciting!

In other news, I finished a couple of websites in the past few months. One is just the beginning, but it’s the start of a site for my father’s business. A lumberyard located in Hartford, MI (www.redarrowlumber.com). This year, I hope to add a customer registration feature for special coupon offers, an email newsletter CMS, and a DIY Q&A section (that’s a lot of initials).

The other website was for a skateboard brand in Australia, Folklore Skateboards. The biggest feature behind this site, is the custom CMS (content management system) that allows the people at folklore to handle all of their own content updates. Seeing as how the site just went live this morning, there isn’t a lot of content yet…but check back often as I think it’ll grow quick.

明けましておめでとうございます！２００７年はとても忙しい一年でした。最後の一ヶ月間が特に大変でした。年末の一番大きいニュースは、来月アメリカに帰る事に決めました。地元の近くにあるメディア会社のオファーを受け入れ、３月に入社します。そして、上記のリンクで最近完成したホームページが見れます。このホームページに、お客さんがすべてのコンテンツを自分で管理できるために、カスタムCMS（内容管理システム）を作っておきました。まだアップしたばかりなので、まだ内容が少ないようだが、そのうち増えるでしょう。

このブログを日本から見て下さっている方が結構いらしゃるので、日本語も頑張って書いておきます（しかし、ネイティブ・スピーカーじゃないので、間違などを許してください m(_ _)m　）！

I’ve decided to try and post as much as I can in both English and Japanese. Peace.

I came across the following link through one of the forums I frequent. It’s a pretty incredible vector tracing system for creating vector images from bitmaps. I may never trace another client’s logo by hand again!

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/

上記のリンクでベクター・イメージをビットマップから作れる。Illustratorのライブトレースよりもすごい！今現在、英語版しかないけど、試してみてください。

My friend Greg turned me on to a free service called, ‘LogMeIn.’ It’s basically an online GUI for remote access to a registered PC. I’m going to give it a try tomorrow as I have a friend who is always asking me to come out and have a look at his PC to keep it running right. If we get it up and working on his machine, all the easier it’ll be for me to help keep him in business.

 ソフトのインストールなしで、オンラインでPCアドミンができる無料サービスです。これで友達のパソコンを直してあげたり．．．いたずらでもしたりしている。

My friends, The Tockman, will be playing at Live House Otsuka - RED ZONE on Saturday, November 3, 2007. The cost is 3,000 yen for all-you-can drink and a full-on evening of hard-rockin’ live music. The show starts at around 4pm and will go on until around 9pm. If you’re in the Tokyo area and want to have a good time, come on down.

Live House Otsuka’s website can be found at: http://www.blue-ocean.jp/

!– UPDATE –! I was mistaken…The Tockman weren’t playing, it was a couple of The Tockman members playing in a couple of their other bands. The concert was a good time, and I got to catch up with some old friends from university.

ザ・トックマンがライブをすると思ったけど、勘違いだった！トックマンのメンバー二人が別のバンドで演奏していた。メッチャ楽しかった！