Update 10/21/08:

Jeez. It's been over a month since I've been even able to do this much on the site. I'm set to add the Wordpress features on my hosting server, I just need to add in the MySQL request and then I can start that all up.

What I've been doing since I was last here is pretty simple: I've been rebuilding my main computer (the hard drive gave out psychically), recovering data, and working a lot at the day job for a go-live that went off successfully.

Other than that, I've been doing chores and I have a lot more to do. I'll probably start up the Wordpress site in November after Dallas...so make it December...there's just too much happening before hand.

Like everyone else, I'm feeling the money crunch. Tightening the belt and going over budgets. It's tough right now and this will be the first year where my personal savings will drop (let's not even mention the retirement/investments!). I'm no different than anyone else. Things is tough.

If you were to ask about the creative projects...well, they've not progressed. I had too much day job/home computer fixing/daily tasks to keep me from getting to them. Wait, I lie. I just did some work yesterday on a project. Well, it's something at least.

Update 9/9/08:

The site has been moved to the new platform and I'll be adding in MySQL and WordPress to start off the first phase of Jason Henke's jasonhenke.com website (wwww.jasonhenke.com); this is according to the new plan I mentioned on 9/3/08.

I also have 2 new site looks I sketched up yesterday. These might work. Time for the colored pencils and sketchbook finer renditions ... that strikes my funny bone for some reason...

I think I'll still have to move to a virtual server when I start adding in the rest of the site, and the multimedia bits, but this is a decent idea to start off with as I get rolling.

Update 9/8/08:

Just making got the div centered and sized in the sample page layout using CSS. The framework is in place now. I'm sketching out some art/border/framing.

I'm not liking the colors yet, but that's OK—it'll come soon enough. Once I start getting some graphic look into the straight code. I'll be able to see where I want to go.

Update 9/3/08:

I've made a decision on how to move this site forward as all the time is being spent developing the multimedia and design: I'm going to install WordPress and MySQL and go with that for now. I've already put in the request to be moved to the new environment and to activate the MySQL bit. Once I get the test link from the inet7 guys, I'll install WordPress.

If I throw in the DisQus module, I should be quite a way along on the basic site. This will make the Jason Henke site become the main spot people could check for updates/information on what I'm doing (should anyone desire to do that).

This would also allow me to push blog entries on www.jasonhenke.com out to subblogs (more niche/specific entries) out in the webisphere. :o)

Update 8/22/08:

I've been doing a lot of work on my web community blogs. I've been setting a ton of things up behind the scenes that are going very well. I've decided to do most of my updates on the blogs as that's where most of the "What am I up to" posts should go. This will save me space on the hosting servers and offers the benefits of being free to do those updates.

One of my new endeavors is still being built and hasn't been rolled out yet. I am trying to "brand" everything as close together as I can. It's exciting in some ways. Granted, I'm not a funneling point for anything online yet, but things will be growing.

As to the www.jasonhenke.com web site design, I've been toying with lining it up to look like the Google blog: jasonhenke.blogspot.com. I really like that clean look. I may ditch all of the basic looks I've been thinking about for www.jasonhenke.com and just match up the feel of jasonhenke.blogspot.com.

No matter what though, the interactivity and multimedia work will be on Jason Henke's web site (www.jasonhenke.com)--as will the games...I just had to throw that 3rd person reference in because it drives me nuts. :o)

I made major progress on some side projects (you can find it on my "creative life" blog or by clicking through to "The odd timing of inspiration")

Update 8/14/08:

I've locked down some more domain names in preparing for the future. This is a good thing.

My home computers and network are wigging out. I've been unable to work successfully and have been spending a lot of my at home time working on things to repair and diagnose what's going wrong. So far, I'm leaning to an XP Pro driver issue on the laptop for my network card and a conflict of some sort with McAfee. I'm tempted to strip McAfee, get the updates in place and then reinstall the anti-virus.

McAfee is a top contender for the issues because I noticed it behaving strangely on my desktop box. McAfee was recently updated by Comcast and things have been a bit off since then.

So far, all security searches/sweeps have not pegged anything. I don't put a lot of stock in it though as things can hide very well.

I hope to have it worked out tonight if possible. Then I can get back to work on my stuff.

Update 7/29/08:

Well, it's apparent that my current hosting package will not suffice for the design of my site (www.jasonhenke.com).

My current hosting company for the Jason Henke site, is a great shop: www.inet7.com and they're local but I'm going to need more than they have I think.

Here are the problem areas for me currently:

• File space is much to limited at 256MB.
  
  • I'll need more than this.
    
  • I can get more than that free at other spots currently.
  • I've asked www.inet7.com for a different package deal, or if they will match other offers, but the customer representatives have never responded--so, I take that as a no.
    • too bad, I really like this shop, they've been fantastic.
      
• PHP version is lower than I'd like
  • I'm after v5 at least
    
• MySQL version is lower than I want (need some stored procedures)
• Bandwidth.
  
  • If I get the games and the site presentation as multimedia based as I want, I'll bury this
• SMFFourms.
  
  • I'll need to install this and it will increase my server space needs

So, what am I going to do?

I'm not entirely sure at the moment, but for now I'm developing the entire Jason Henke multimedia site on my home machines to see what the demands will be. In the interim--for the online presence at least--I'll come up with a basic HTML site to put out w/my resume, news, and such. I guess that I'll use it to link off to blogs and I'll make use of my free space in the other locations for testing.

I may end up needing my own server I guess, but I'm not running a business really (well, I could be in the future I guess) so I'm not sure what I'll do. I'd prefer to not have a dedicated server, but it may end up at that.

I really want to get stuff out there.

Live well, laugh often, love much!
Jason Henke

Update 7/15/08:

• My personal web site www.jasonhenke.com has been paused in development,
  • I'm testing my development on my home server to check on how much space will be needed for everything in the end.
  • It ends up that I may have to switch hosting companies for money and space...
    • This sucks as I like my current spot,
• And, I am upgrading my laptop to XP Pro finally
  
  • This is good, but kind of blows as I'll have to reinstall and reconfigure everything again, but that's just time.
  • I need the Remote Desktop utility for work
  • I had to buy XP Pro before it went bye-bye as my laptop can not handle Vista...it's that or Linux (and I have too much software for Windows that I'll need to run)

Update 7/2/08:

• I've ordered win xp pro for home laptop (I have XP Pro on the Desktop).
  • I really need Remote Desktop, and some other features for work, and it's my last chance to buy the XP Pro software.
    • I'd put it off as long as I could
    • I just have too much stuff that runs on Windows for me to swap out for linux yet.
• I may be getting an older laptop from a buddy. Sweet.
  • This would give me two laptops. The older one can just be for writing and the newer one for development. Cool!
  • Unfortunately, this means I'll have to rebuild the boxes again. Ugh.
    • Yes, it's just time involved, but I just finished doing that.
• I've added some design status notes on www.jasonhenke.com/code/fullheight_footerbottom.htm and have even included a little snap shot of what my screen usage will be like.
• I'm torn between two art style ideas for the www.jasonhenke.com site.
  • I haven't decided on which look yet
    • personal images
    • artistic images.
• It is completely decided that Jason Henke will be building the the Jason Henke site in Flash/Flex and www.jasonhenke.com will use PHP and MySQL for the dynamic bits.
• I may be heading to a new hosting company.
  • I've been sent a number of deals that are better than my Inet7.com package.
  • However, I'd like to stay with Inet7.com but they haven't responded to any new package deals for competition.
    • I like these guys though and they're local.
    • I like supporting my local companies.
• I have new blog stuff to add to jasonhenke.blogspot.com and jasonhenke.spaces.live.com

Update as of 6/13/2008:

• The layoffs have happened and I'm safe. As such, my work on www.jasonhenke.com will slow down a bit but it is still underway.
  • I'm just not feeling any of the mock ups I've thrown together; they're just not sparking me.
  • The brainstorming will have to continue.
• I'm debating setting up SMF Forums this weekend on the home computers ...we'll see.
• I may just continue dorking around with drawing the mock ups for now.
• Flex, Flash, and air will be in heavy use

Update as of 6/11/2008:

• Mock ups are still underway and I'm not happy with them at the moment. They're just kind of looking flat.
  • I'm brainstorming new ideas
• I reinstalled MySQL and seem to have it up and running again. PHP and Apache are good to go. So far everything has tested out and is working. For whatever reason,
  • MySQL was the toughest of the 3 to get in place correctly. Thank God for forums and online documentation. I've tested it out and it works as of last night.
• I put some text in the test layout page to cite that I am not intending that page as a pretty look at me kind of thing, it was a test of styles to get it in the place I wanted with the footer at the bottom correctly.
• I still wish to make the site more like a TV show in the end. Very multimedia, but my hosting price may not justify that.

Update as of 6/2/08:

I've been working on the graphics for the site and tightening up the color scheme. Progress is being made, but slower than I want. I was completely buried at work with a rush, unexpected, and hugely important task that affected all of I. S. I have put some information up on the blogs: jasonhenke.blogspot.com and jasonhenke.spaces.live.com. Things are going a million miles per hour as the live/die date for Jason Henke and his day job approaches on June 16th.

Update as of 5/29/08:

• The basic layout is complete. I'll be using the overall structure found in this test template I put together.
• This template (and the CSS for it) always puts the footer at the bottom.
  • This is accomplished solely with CSS
  • It is a liquid design.
• The example page is not prettified for your viewing, but you get the idea of it.

Update as of 5/28/08:

• Another template layout has been added for testing. I'm debating which layout I like best.

Update as of 5/23/08:

• I have the basic layout framework in place and I have a color scheme ready to go for the basic site.
• Next up is some basic content development to have something out there
• Then some image work to spit shine it.

As many of my friends—and colleagues—will know, I have never used jasonhenke.com for advertising myself nor had I given it a sleek look in the years I've owned it; the sole purpose of jasonhenke.com has been for it to be a playground (and parking spot) for my code tests.

However, because we are having layoffs at work (the axe will fall early summer 2008), I'm going to redo the entire structure of jasonhenke.com.

jasonhenke.com will now be polished up, spit shined, and overdone to serve as a one spot stop for everyone to catch up with what projects Jason Henke is embarking upon and playing with.

jasonhenke.com will also serve as a professional front and portfolio. Hopefully games and other such fun things will appear on jasonhenke.com. There will be sections on Jason Henke's creative projects, stories, films, and art.

The main questions I've been hammering through—starting in March, 2008 (after the impending layoffs were announced)—have been focused upon what exactly I wanted to do with jasonhenke.com's structure. I've also had to determine what languages—and applications—would be used to build jasonhenke.com.

Jason Henke has decided upon the following points:

1. Jason Henke will not talk about himself in the 3rd person as he's annoyed himself in doing it here (this 3rd person junk was done purely as a search engine test).
2. jasonhenke.com will be built using a wild mix of: Flex, Flash, PHP, MySQL, Java, JSP, and SMF Forums.
3. jasonhenke.com will serve as a spot for friends and interested parties to be able to quickly jump to all of Jason Henke's work and efforts.
4. jasonhenke.com will have links to Jason Henke's favorite locations, blogs, and web spaces.
5. Jason Henke will put up sketches of home pages as he brainstorms through it.

Currently Jason Henke can be found on the following web spaces:

• www.twitter.com as JasonHenke
• jasonhenke.blogspot.com
• jasonhenke.spaces.live.com

Web Spaces just starting to be developed (I have little information on 'em yet):

• Comcast personal web site
• MySpace: www.myspace.com/jasonhenke1
• Orkut profile. Under my Gmail account (jasonhenke1)
• Facebook: Jason Henke
• LinkedIn: Jason Henke

Jason Henke will also be accepting the invitations for:

1. Friend Feed

As always I encourage people to vote (no matter their political preferences) and I have kept the "Learn more about the Presidential candidates" page on jasonhenke.com at http://www.jasonhenke.com/vote.htm