Bill Pay

I'm on my way to Seattle for a usability test on the new Bill Pay prototype I've been working on. I'm writing this only because this is the most exciting project that I've worked on since I've worked for Washington Mutual in the past 3 years. I've worked on some of their bigger projects in the past, most recently was the WaMu Direct online application (to compete with ING.) But this one... this one is huge, at least to me. To think that I'm working on something that will effect millions of people, sometimes on a daily basis, just blows me away. I haven't been this excited since we started theSupplyChain.com 6 years ago.

The prototype simply kicks ass. It's going to take about a year and a half to implement all the features that I put in. But once they are, it'll be so killer that even I would switch over... and that's saying a lot because I've been a BofA customer for 15 years and an avid online bill payer since it started about 9 years ago. BofA's Bill Pay system is the best that I've seen and has inspired me through this whole process. But once our system is complete, that is, when it's similar to my prototype, it will blow BofA out of the water.

Busy Busy

I just have to say that the last two months have been the busiest of my life. First, I got a new job at Washington Mutual Bank as an Interaction Designer. So that's been keeping me very busy. But with any spare time, I've been packing like a maniac. Tricia's about to explode, so she couldn't help that much (although she's been great at doing the light stuff). Aside from all that we had Mitchell and Marlene's re-wedding to prepare for. Tricia made their cake which turned out awesome. We moved into our new house (taking care of the paperwork is a full-time job in itself), and took a short trip to Maui. Holy crap, I can't wait until I have nothing to do, but with a baby coming in about 8 weeks, I don't see that anytime soon.

So now that things are a litte more calm, I'll try to update this section more often. Keep in mind that my home computer is packed away in my garage somewhere. I had to steal Emily's cable modem connection and plug it into my work laptop to update this.

Evil Beagle and Dark City

I finished the Evil Beagle web site today. This is a quick little project my friends and I whipped together. Check it out, I'm pretty happy with the design (site no longer available).

We also watched Dark City, a DVD that Trevor let me borrow. He thought I would enjoy the visuals, which I did. Although the story was very interesting, the movie itself was just Ok. Hard to explain.

Jack Black

Ryann is with her dad this weekend, so I took Tricia to see Shallow Hal with Jack Black. I'm a huge Jack Black fan and I think he did great in this movie. The problem is that I'm a little too familiar with his character from Tenacious D, so I tend to expect that kind of craziness whenever I see him. I thought he was great in High Fidelity, but just Ok in Saving Silverman. I guess it's not his fault, these are just the roles he's playing.

Oh yeah, today I finished the new redesign of my company's site: theSupplyChain.com

You can find screenshots of some older versions on this page.

Invitations, Unpacking and Flip Books

Mailed out the invitations this morning, so keep an eye on your mailboxes and let me know what you think.

Finally finished unpacking our bedroom. Yes, I moved in a month ago, and yes I'm still unpacking. Between designing the wedding invitations and working on the Surrex web site, I've had absolutely no time to finish unpacking. So, now I'm done... except for the pictures I have to hang... Damn! I have to get this done before this weekend when my sisters come over for the wedding shower. We also have to clean. It it VERY important that the house is spotless when my sisters come over. They are very meticulous when it comes to cleanliness... but I love them any ways.

Tonight I also taught Ryann about animation with a flip-book I made with extra paper from the invitations. I drew the stick (for the body) and she drew the head, arms and legs. I started each page, moving the stick over a little on each page. After she drew in all the body parts, we had a very cool animation of a stick figure dancing across the page. It is so awesome! Tricia got a big kick out of it.

Surrex.com

Finished the design of Surrex.com. Next, I'm going to do their Search Engine Optimization.

Extra Cash

Decided to pick up a side project to help pay for the wedding expenses. I'm going to design a web site for a new company called Surrex Solutions Corporation. It should be done around the beginning of October.