Busy busy busy

Sorry, too busy for a good update.  Here’s something that made me laugh, though.

Branding 2

Just some more thoughts.  “Creative” wasn’t very popular.  Here are some other thoughts.

Big Ocean Studio (bigoceanstudio.com)
Creative Dutchman (creativedutchman.com)
Dutchman Studios (dutchmanstudios.com)
Msaga (madebymsaga.com)
Msaga Studio (msagastudio.com)
SaltwaterStudio (madebysaltwater.com)
Third Day Studio (thirddaystudio.com)

Words other than Creative that came to mind: Studio (or Studios?), Interactive, Industries

Msaga could be hard to spell, but the domain name version Masaga are also available. I’d just have to buy both and do a redirect.

(btw, Dutchman Studio – singular – is a tattoo parlor in CA, so I probably don’t want to get too closely spelled – maybe madebydutchman.com instead.)

Third Day Studio is a neat concept. A) On the 3rd day Jesus rose and B) On the 3rd day God separated the water from land and called it the ocean.  Multiple meanings is always a bonus.  But would I get confused with (or sued by) the band? … hmm …

I think I’m getting closer.  I just wish there was one name that really grabbed me.  I thought this morning that Saltwater Studios was awesome, but then got discouraged by all the .com names being taken and no real websites made on them.  The one I listed above is a decent alternative, though.

sigh.

Branding

I really want to “brand” myself. I’ve gotten a few freelance web development projects this year and for invoicing and emailing clients, I’ve been going with “Marc Miller Web Development.”

Not very creative.

Plus, on occasion I’ll enlist some of my designer friends to help me, so I don’t want to go with a name that implies it’s just me doing all the work.  And a third reason is “doublem”, one of my internet nickname handles, is very tough to say out loud to people.  99% of the time, people will think I’m telling them “mm”  I have a gmail account with this in the address and conveying it to customer support people over the phone is annoying.

So I’ve been tossing around ideas in my head and thought I’d get them down here to see if anyone had thoughts or suggestions.  Web development is my strength, but I also enjoy doing photography and video, so I don’t want a name that limits me to one form of media.  I also want an easy to say domain name.  (All of the following are available .com names)

Some of my recent ideas play on the theme of the ocean that I grew up near.

Big Ocean Creative
Into The Deep Creative
Deep Sea Creative
Lost At Sea Creative
White Sand Creative
Buoy Creative

Or maybe some sort of animal name.

Creative Goat
Big Orange Shark

Or maybe foreign language, like Swahili (I’ve been to Africa)

Kifaru Creative (Rhino) (uh, maybe not – aren’t Rhinos kinda blind? still kinda cool name)
Kima Creative (Monkey)

In general, I feel the name “monkey” is being way overused right now in website names, but another language would be a new twist.  And I did try looking at some Dutch words, but I tell you – Dutch is not a very attractive language.

Or what if I did do some play on my last name.

Web Mill Creative
Msaga Creative (Miller in Swahili)

Or maybe just make up new words.

Revitalweb

Gah.  This is tough.  Maybe someone else has some suggestions.

Back at work

Phew.  I’m finally back at my desk after being gone about 11 days.  It’s actually good to settle into my normal routine again. Now it’s back to remembering what I was in the middle of before I left for TN.

The weekend wasn’t terribly exciting.  I did a bit of freelance work every second I could.  Monday Alex had off of school for Presidents Day, so I stayed home with him.  Because we had worked the previous 10 days straight and mostly 14 hour days when we were in Nashville, we were allowed to take 2 days off without burning a vacation day.  That worked out perfectly.

After his nap, we went to the mall to play on the playground equipment there. There is a little “treefort” with enclosed circular slide.  I didn’t follow Alex up the steps and just watched him through the railings, but then he surprised me by going down the slide by himself.  I guess I should be proud, but I was a bit nervous not being able to see him for that 30 seconds.

He also very much wanted to ride the little train, so I bought him a ticket for that.  He did much better this time than the last time he rode it (back in October).  So we had a nice little excursion, but he did get a little case of pink-eye.  Bummer.

Saturday evening was very pleasant.  Sheryl came out to babysit while Sara and I went to diner at our friend’s house with the rest of our small group.  It was quite nice to gather without all the kids – it’s been a long time since we’ve all been able to do that.  Not your sterotypical Valentine’s getaway, but for all of us, it was really, really nice.

Prediction

I don’t mean to say “I told you so”, but as I sit here inside on another 7 degree day, I reflected back on a post I made back in August.  I had found a story where the Farmer’s Almanac had predicted this year was going to be cold and snowy for most of the country while the National Weather service predicted a warm winter.  The Almanac was right.  It’s been quite bitter this year.

Of course, that doesn’t make it a government conspiracy, but still interesting nonetheless.

Christmas Vacation

I’m not going to recap the vacation.  If you want that, check out Sheryl’s blog, or Lindsey’s blog, or my dad’s photo page.  Those do a good job.  Instead I’ll offer a quick 3:25 minute video presentation.  Upload the pictures to this site, pick a song and it makes this cool video automagically.

The hardest part is cutting down the number of images to fit the song length.  But a cool website, nonetheless.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos from the trip, too:

Lest you think it was my idea and thus cruel and unusual punishment, it was vice versa: Alex made ME go on the teacups.