Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – October 3, 2004

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – October 3, 2004

Finally, Frank!

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – October 3, 2004 – My phone rang this morning at ten o’clock and it was Frank, of Web Site fame. Frank of the busy schedule. Frank of the last madcap trip to Toronto from Ottawa before his departure next Sunday to live in Shanghai.

Yesterday, it didn’t look good for us to even get to this meeting before he left Toronto. Thankfully, he prevailed and turned up at my house this morning with coffee and muffins in hand, a smile on his face and a willing and cheerful attitude in evidence. We hadn’t met before this morning, even though we’d chatted many times on the phone over the last year. For some unknown reason Frank and I hit it off over the phone the first time we talked and sometimes I just go with my instincts. I always thought he’d be a person I could work, with and our four hours together today reinforced my initial feelings.

We talked about my existing Web Site – strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that its been a very successful site, that my clients like and use. I’m loathe in some ways to do a major re-working of it, but I know its time for a new look, some additional “punch” and maybe a drop or two of pizzazz. Technology has changed a lot since it was built and things that weren’t possible in 2000, are now easy to do and cost-effective to produce for an independent business person like me.

So the plan is to re-design my existing site and add an additional site that will house my newsletters, articles, pictures, listings and archived materials. I’ll have an interface in both sites that will allow me to edit the material, make everyday changes and add and remove data if and when I want to. I’ve had some great ideas about content and also some fun thoughts on the light side of things.

Frank liked the idea of “Out and About With The Alphabet Boys”. He went so far as to suggest that we set up the new site like the front page of a newspaper with Augie and Ziggy being the Editors-at-Large. What fun that would be. I believe that everybody should have a component of fun tossed into their daily round of activities, and adding my pets to my business Web Sites would certainly make me smile. I’m not sure that they would care, but it’s really impossible to predict how fame might affect them.

I’m definitely going to have new pictures taken to replace some of the serious ones on my site, but this time I’m going to go to a photographer who has a fashion-conscious, creative flair. My last photographer did a great job, but I need some shots with a sense of fun, as well as the usual black business suit and briefcase style. I have visions of myself jumping over tall buildings – no wait, that’s already been done, but Superman wasn’t a real estate agent was he?

So perhaps I’ll just be jumping over the dog house. But that will show the lengths to which I’m prepared to go to serve my clients. Of course, it’s possible that the photographer may have some superior ideas to mine.

I gave Frank all the ideas that I’d worked on yesterday and now it’s his job to translate this information into web-speak. I have no idea about graphics, flash, html programming, pictures, pixels, databases and interfaces. I can come up with lots of creative notions but I don’t know if they’re feasible. That’s the fun part of working with other people on a project. My vision may be workable or not, and if not, it can usually be transformed into a better one by someone with a different point of view.

I’m going to keep my camera at the ready to catch candid pictures of The Alphabet Boys at work and play. Augie guarding the house, or keeping tabs on his sidewalk and Ziggy in relentless pursuit of a marauding ant. If I’m lucky, I’ll actually see them drive off in their Mini Cooper for a night on the town. Some of these shots may well end up on my Web Site.

The time I spent with Frank zipped by, but we ended up with some great ideas. He left about two-thirty for the next stop in his whirlwind Toronto trip. I have a good feeling about our meeting and I think some terrific things may come out of our shared thoughts and different perspectives.

It was so nice to finally meet Frank and to put some of the wheels in motion for this new venture. I hope “launch time” for the new sites will either be Christmas or the first week of January. Either way – it will be a lovely end to a prosperous year or a great start to 2005.