The Duck's Nest: online home of mizducky

School's out, so now: "Why a duck?"

I have made it through the final throes of my first semester at Mesa, and so far things are looking good. I don't have my official grade from my intro-level Japanese course yet, but my sensei assured me I would pass--which is a relief, because that course was definitely kicking my butt.

But perhaps more importantly for immediate economic prospects, I completely and totally aced my multimedia web design course, and am now re-equipped with the latest state-of-the-art tools and techniques for modern web design.(I had been down this road before, several years ago when hand-coding in HTML was the state of the art; of course the art, as happens in high tech, has moved on several light-years since then.)

In any case, I'm going to start buffing up the resume to see about landing some better part-time work, and building the ol' portfolio to see if I can land some freelance assignments. And part of doing the latter would be to design a website to advertise myself (and also show off my design sensibility).

But here's the thing--my design sensibility, and also my whole philosophy of life, includes a decided streak of rebelliousness against the kind of mainstream corporate vibe I see embodied by so many designed websites out there. I can certainly do that look, no problem; but the question is, do I wanna?

Or maybe a more pragmatic question is, am I willing to live with the possible consequences of NOT doing that look? Because I suspect a certain demographic of customer needs that look in order to feel comfortable in entrusting their business to a vendor. So if I go with the no less professionally-designed but more whimsical look I'm contemplating, I might be turning off that business.

On the other hand, I might just be turning on the kind of customer who shares my allergy to over-corporateness, and who might appreciate a more hang-loose attitude in design as well as in business relations. I do have a gut feeling that there's a huge amount of competition for the corporate-vibe demographic. I also have a gut feeling there's rather less competition for the alternative demographic.

So--especially since all this is going to cost at first is a domain registration and several hours of sweat-equity, I think I'll go with my whimsical approach and see how it flies.

What is that approach, you may be wondering? Well, it's ... just ducky.

For some years now, I've had a running mental joke about my up-to-now fictitious enterprise named "Whyaduck." The inspiration, of course, is from that classic Marx Bros. routine from the movie The Cocoanuts, in which Groucho and Chico are checking out a map, and Groucho points out a viaduct, and Chico "mishears" him and responds: "Why a duck?" This leads to existential silliness about why not a chicken or a horse or what have you that would have your average philosophy major rolling on the floor. Well, it had me doing so, at any rate.

So ever since then, due to my longstanding "Ducky" nickname, I have laughingly called my "business" things like "Whyaduck Unlimited" or "Whyaduck Productions" or other random things. I even had a little logo--this cartoon fluffy duck with glasses I used to use as my signature logo when I drew cartoons in college. Oh, and I had a slogan: "That's Why A Duck!"

Now, though, I'm thinking of going for reals with it--registering the domain name whyaduck.com and creating a business site for Whyaduck Webworks. "We know web design like the back of our foot! That's Why A Duck!"

Is it really too silly a duck to fly in this crappy business climate? Or would it actually attract attention for being so different from the flock of look-alike cookie-cutter uninspired web business concepts? I dunno--and maybe someone might comment on this post and give me a really good reason for not doing it this way, a reason I hadn't thought of. But right now, the idea is really making me smile, and maybe that's the best recommendation it could possibly have. Stay tuned for further developments.

When the going gets tough the tough get burritos?

Coming down to the wire here on end-of-semester stuff, and as the workload of final projects and exam study begins to rise, other areas of life begin to get a bit sketchier. Thus I present today's lunch offering, courtesy of the school cafeteria - its questionable looks and precarious pedestal may be a metaphor for my mental state as I gear up for a test this very afternoon.

The glammed-up end of campus

A lot of Mesa's architecture is strictly utilitarian and even low-budget (portables that have become non-portable), but then there's this area of spiffy new architecture, with the library and art gallery (right next to the admin bldgs., interestingly enough).

Will blog for food? Will write for money?

As those who have been following my blog know, I have been furiously working on strategies to deal with the job situation and associated financial insecurities. Especially as the standard procedure of simply sending out resumes and networking like crazy has not turned up anything long-term, my strategies have needed to get more creative -- like going back to school to update my computer skills yet again, and buff up the ol' resume.

Or starting to write for Examiner.com to build my portfolio of online writing samples and gain experience with SEO and viral marketing; the actual pay on this gambit is symbolic at best, but it does allow me to claim that I had a paid online writing gig. Plus, God/ess help me, I do love writing about food...

Y'know, a couple of decades ago there was this totally-hot New Age-y type affirmation book called Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow. I always had my share of doubts concerning that philosophy, knowing that several of the things I loved to do more than anything else in the world (writing, acting, scholarship) had long-established track records of not making money for more than a very lucky few. I wish I could track down the wag who re-coined that slogan as "Do what you love, even if the money doesn't follow" ... I want to say it was someone associated with the Artist's Way movement, but my copy of the book is in a box somewhere and I can't verify it through a Google search.

But in any case, over the past several years I have been trying to come up with various ways to do what I love, either combined or not combined with something I do for money. Let's just say it's not succeeding as planned, which finds me in this situation. So ... back to the drawing board once again.

But in the meantime, I figure there's no harm in putting out to the world at large that, hey, if you like what you see in this blog, and are interested in having me come write or edit for you, or run your blogs and other online viral marketing stuff, I'm available.

Mesa College 2nd day so far so good

Once again caught one of the last parking spaces on the roof of the new parking structure. For the time being, if you're not rolling up by 8:18am, you're SOL.

I was so encouraged yesterday that I was feeling so great after hiking all over campus Tuesday, but since I also spent a good 5 hours or more yesterday sitting in front of a computer working, plus other assorted paid gig stuff, now my bod's cranky. Fortunately, the upside of getting on campus so early is I can take my time walking, and walk the stiffness out. In the long run I think this will be the best thing to happen to my bod in some time. Work off some of the weight I put back on stressing over life stuff.

Looking forward to my claases. I especially like my Japanese teacher - Sensei is a charming woman, but also very much in the Japanese rather than the American mold of instructor. I'm gonna have to really bust ass to memorize that hiragana table ASAP.

The campus is a little spartan, but has pretty spots like this.