New Website for the Music Department at U.Va.

I am still astounded that after a month of starting a new job at U.Va. I was assigned to redesign the Music Department's website. Out of almost 100 different Departments that I could be assigned - I got MUSIC. I believe it is a sign from the Universe.

After almost three months of hard work, I launched the new website on Wednesday.

The McIntire Department of Music's new website.

Binary Mix Sessions Coming Back To Life?

Yesterday I filled out an application at WTJU (the radio station at University of Virginia) to get a radio show. I used to have a radio show there from 2002 - 2003 when I worked at U.Va. before. When I moved to Washington D.C. Santino and I resurrected it on an internet radio station called BREAKS.FM and then another internet radio station in the U.K. called Global Funk Radio. This continued on until 2007 when we decided we needed a break. That brings us to now, when I have been both simultaneously missing having the show, and looking for a way to promote our label locally.

This morning I received an email from the Station Manager (he remembered me!) to go in for a training session the day before my birthday. After I complete that, I will find out if I am going to get a slot and what time it will be. If they can only give me one at 3AM I am probably going to turn it down... otherwise, The Binary Mix Sessions could be coming back to life!

What is neat is that WTJU now webcasts its broadcasts. That means I will be doing FM and internet radio at the same time. Woot!

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Mid-Summer Progress Report

At the beginning of 2008 I was in a pretty sorry state. I suffered from quite severe case of depression last winter, had put on some pounds and was feeling pretty suicidal. It was quite tragic since last summer I was pretty much at a peak in regard to being in shape.

I have made a considerable turnaround since then, all starting with going to visit an Acupuncturist. That critical step put me on the path of really getting better. That path has  been lined with mushrooms and a few visits to a counselor who also happens to be a yogi. I also have started taking a hatha yoga class every week. I joined the U.Va. Aquatic and Fitness center and went swimming (once). I am struggling to keep pushing it so I do yoga and swim more than one instance of each week. I did go swimming in our pond at the farm twice last weekend so that was a good sign. :)

Last weekend I bought an eco-friendly yoga mat (I was allergic to my old one) and a great yoga DVD by Shiva Rea. My goal is to do yoga at home twice a week in addition to my class. I have not been riding my bike very much because it has been HOT, but I plan to when the weather starts to cool down.

Other things I need to keep working on is getting back into spinning, dancing, and making music frequently. I just applied to WTJU to bring my radio show back to FM College radio. I am anxiously awaiting a call to see if my application has been accepted. I have a feeling that if it is, it is going to bring great things into my life in regard to music!

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The Music Website Design is Finished!

I finally finished the home page design for the U.Va. Music Departments website.

It was very difficult process that has been stressing me out all week. Happily, they really like the final product. I do as well! I tried to design the site with the goal in mind make it my dream school to attend to get my Master Degree. I think I was pretty close!

Now I need to work on and finish some music so I can get accepted next year when I apply to get into their Graduate Program!

Really Fucking Annoyed Right Now

OK, I am starting to like having this blog since I have something to vent and this feels like a safe place to do so.

A year and a half ago I was looking for freelance work, so I answered an ad on Craigslist looking for a PHP Developer. I knew a little bit of PHP and was looking to learn more. I met with the company's lead PHP developer for an interview. He liked my work, and was particularly interested in my Flash experience. He got the OK from the company's CEO to hire me for 20 hours a week at a rate of $20 an hour. It was a really low rate, but I was desperate for work so I took it. I did some Flash work for said company and they were really pleased. They eventually said that I could work 40 hours a week. I was still only getting paid $20 an hour, but it was consistently steady work and I loved being an Independent Contractor. I also genuinely liked the company's mission. The CEO evangelized a philosophy about us using technology to change the world and make it a better place. What was even better, it seemed like the projects I was creating were also applications that I would want to use on my own websites when I was finished. This was the main reason why I did not raise my rates. I was also making plenty of money to pay for everything so I did not complain.

Over some time, the CEO 's relationship started to break down with the lead PHP Developer. He started trying to put me in the middle of what seemed to be ego disputes between both of them. It was very negative and I started getting tired of it. I started feeling like I wanted to get out of this situation, but I did not want to leave them in the middle of the project. For one, I thought it was more ethical to finish a project before I left so they would not be left high and dry, and secondly, I wanted to finish the projects I was working on because I wanted to use them for my own site.

Over the course of this time, the CEO blatantly expressed that he wanted to sell the work I was doing for him as part of a greater software package that was the result of the work the lead PHP Developer and I had been doing. He told me that he would offer me profit sharing in the sales of the software. I was totally okay with that, and I expressed in return that I wanted to use the software package on my own website. Everything seemed cool, until things really broke down between the CEO and the lead PHP Developer (furthermore known as LPD). LPD's father became gravely ill with cancer and LPD understandably took some time off to go spend some time with him in the hospital before he passed away. Well, CEO did not like this very much at all, because CEO had already gone all around town and told everyone that the software we were developing would launch by a specific date. Instead of CEO being understanding of LPD's circumstances, he talked shit about him to everyone he came into contact with, including me. He took LPD's unavailability as some sort of treason and blamed the entire post-ponement of the launch date on him. In all reality, he should have kept our project under wraps and not announced a definitive launch date OR he should have just made an announcement that the launch date would be later because of one of the developer's personal family circumstances. He really showed an extremely greedy and dark side of his personality.

Well, this really rubbed me the wrong way, and I got very serious about leaving said company. I stayed around until we got the site launched (a couple months late) and then I accepted my current job at U.Va. When I told the CEO that I was leaving, he got really weird and tried to get me to agree to sign a contract that would give me rights to use the software on my site, and in return, I would lose ALL rights and ownership of the code I had written for them. That means I would not be able to license or sell the code to anyone else. The contract did not say anything about the profit sharing carrot that the CEO dangled in front of me during development.  I talked to the LPD and apparently the CEO had asked him to sign a similar contract.

I did some more research and found out that all of the complementary code that was written by the LPD was ALSO written by him under Independent Contractor terms, and therefore owned by him. The realization dawned upon both of us, that LPD and I jointly owned all the rights to the software that CEO was either knowingly or unknowingly trying to trick us into signing over our rights so he could sell it without living up to his end of the bargain. When confronted, CEO claimed that he knew nothing about Independent Contractor rights, or about Intellectual Property ownership. I found this quite hard to believe since he has in his employment one of the country's highest profile digital media lawyers AND it would not make sense that he would try to get us to sign a contract handing over our rights unless he knew that they were our rights to sign over in the first place. SNEAKY AND UNDERHANDED!

I told him there was no deal and that I am going to make all my code open source. That way, he will have the right to sell and license the code (This means I am not going back on my word), but he will not have the exclusive rights to the code nor will he be able to take those rights away from me or anyone else.

Since I did not write the code for the PHP side of the software, I need the LPD to help me install it on my website so I can usre it. In exchange, LPD would like to use my media players with his code. This is CEO's worst nightmare, as he very much dislikes the idea of LPD being a competitor. TOO BAD!


CEO wrote me again this past weekend, trying to work out another deal with me. This time, he is proposing that he gives me a percentage of every license he makes for the software, and that I would have to get his written consent in order to license it with anyone else. He is really trying hardcore to keep me from letting LPD use the code and compete with him. He can forget it because there is no way I am signing over my leverage to help me get the software installed on my website. I am also so angry at him by this point that I do not want to do business with him ever again!!!

If he wanted his way, he should have hired us as employees from the beginning and not Independent Contractors! He did not pay a single dollar of employer taxes the entire year I worked for him, yet he wants the same rights as if he did.

He can forget it because I am not stupid and I refuse to let anyone take advantage of me, by principle!

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Detox Cleanse 2008 = Fail, Hemp Oil = Win

Well, okay... it was not a complete failure. It was a semi-failure. I did not go the full seven days, only five, but I was so hungry it was ridiculous. I do feel like a lot of toxins were eliminated from my body, but I do regret not finishing out the last two days of raw fruits and vegetables. When I broke the diet, I ate an extremely heavy and expensive meal which made me tired and stomach-achy for twenty-four hours after I ate it. Believe it or not, I ate a big meal of salmon and spinach! Why salmon? Well, I have been acutely feeling a lack of omega 3 fatty acids in my vegetarian diet and was craving some fish to provide it. I really do not like eating fish all that much, though. It is too heavy in my stomach and I am acutely aware that supporting the fishing industry inadvertently contributes to the clubbing of baby seals (seriously). One solution I happened upon this weekend is hemp oil, which has the same amount of omega 3 fatty acids as fish. It tastes a little funky, but it is better than the alternative.

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I Heart CSS

Over the past couple of months I read a book called Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke (a Welsh bloke). It was an amazingly awesome read and really inspired me to go forward with my knowledge of CSS. Right now I am rebuilding fbirecordings.net with my new knowledge. Making purely Flash websites is probably a thing of the past for me. I still think it is a beautiful tool for interactive media, I think that it is but one of the components a great website is made from. Now, back to creating a menu with rollovers in CSS!