DREW DOPE! I put together a fun little website called POPE FACT. If you don't get it, don't worry—the website is an online version of a real-life game involving writing fake tattoos on people's knuckles. The launch fell on, and was in honor of, the birthday of Molly Hallweaver, one of the ladies who first introduced me to POPE FACT at Lake Tahoe.

I designed and launched a new version of the Lei-Out Beach Ultimate website. Joaq said it is the prettiest version to date, so that's worth something. Chalk up one win for gorgeous photographs found via Creative Commons search on Flickr. And, of course, the new Lei-Out website is running on my most favorite CMS to date, Drupal.

I have begun maintaining my Drupal installations on Github, with repositories for Drupal 6 core and Drupal 6 optional modules and themes. Now, when I need to do an update on my dozens of Drupal websites, I install the updates on my master, commit and push from there, and then pull the changes down on all the rest of the sites. Commit, push, and pull! So easy!

Whit hit it big, where "it" is defined as The Internet, this month with his video, "Drunkest Guy Ever: Larry Goes to the Market." Have a look at the video then go read his blog post, What! No Beer?, describing his creative process and the video's success, currently sitting at 716,000+ views on Youtube. Did I mention that he got linked on Huffington Post and BoingBoing? Yeah, seriously, I know: I need to redesign Whit's blog so that its features and appearance are consummate with his success.

Whit and I are trying, in a nutshell, to figure out how to promote efficiently and effectively our friends. Clearly, this goal cannot be accomplished simply by telling someone to get on Twitter. Expect more on this subject from us over the next year. For now, ON A COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE, you should go watch our friend Brittney's video application to The Big Trip.

Oh, and I dressed up as Zombie Abraham Lincoln for Halloween. Naturally.

EDIT
Oh, and I forgot to mention another website I launched this autumn, Nicole d'Avis at Bellalogica. This beautiful site is for my beautiful sister—a place for her to write and just be amazing, not that she needs a specific place for that. Did I mention that she got married to a wonderful man, Mark, and that they bought a house? It's good to have a big sister who is super good at life.

I am proud of this theme for a number of reasons. The first reason is that I think the site looks great. My typographic skill and intuition has been increasing for some time and I am quite pleased with the site's readability. I am using nothing but Helvetica (or, ew, Arial) and color is minimal. The information organization does the majority of the work in directing the user, as it should.

I might still add a few typeface flourishes to certain elements. All-uppercase words look particularly nice in Georgia, though I suppose I lose that quality on Windows. Ew, again.

The next point of pride is of a more technical bent. My CSS file for the theme is particularly simple and bare. I feel WordPress themes have a tendency to be overly complex and I wanted to avoid this pitfall, especially in the context of producing with which I can easily work in the future. Furthermore, I do not feel I sacrificed design quality or site functionality at all by taking a simplified approach to the theme.

The final matter with which I am happy is that I completed the theme. Every bit of it is done; nothing is broken. (If something is broken, please leave a comment.) Despite the completed nature of the theme, I feel that I have built in the possibility for future customization and changes without the need for a complete overhaul.

Well, okay, I admit that there are few pieces I need to add but none of them are vital to the site's function, to your reading my writing and generally stalking me.

I hope you enjoy the new look of drewd—please leave any comments you have so that I might improve my craft.

Cheers!

This website has gone through many different designs and CMS but has always provided me with some creative outlet. Thank you, website.

I apologize for offering these congratulations one day late. And, I must apologize again because your present will not be ready until tomorrow. I think you will be quite pleased with what I am preparing, regardless.

We are both getting old, you and me, website but we are still growing. I think we will have many great years together in the future. Here's to us.

Wooo.

• bellalogica.com
• briancalle.com
• carlylestout.com
• claremontultimate.org
• decielo.com
• drewd.com
• esplainit.com
• frisbase.net
• frisbolero.com
• hotbombdotcom.com
• lei-out.com
• loveroni.com
• noodlepop.com
• trinastout.com
• whitscott.com
• zoomfocusclick.com

Some of these I obviously hold for other people (and some of those perhaps a bit awkwardly). A few of them represent personal projects or sites for friends that never came to fruition. I spend approximately $150 per year on these "properties," plus another few hundred in site hosting costs. And I receive approximately zero (0) return on investment.

Regardless, I cannot stop myself from registering a new domain name when I have a new idea. I think a strong component of this compulsion is my perception of the scarcity of good domain names. I contributed a whiz-bang 2.0ish domain name to my work the other week, and was a bit miffed that I hadn't conceived of it myself.

My newest acquisition is hotbombdotcom.com. See, some of the Claremont Ultimate kids took to congratulating successful hucks or exciting throws by saying, "Hot bomb dot com slash Gordy slash Jughead slash SWEET." Or something like that, I don't really remember. hotbomb.com has never been available but I think this domain is the next best option. .net is for suckers, and doesn't work with the rhyme.

So, now, what I want to build is a little hotbomb application that automatically parses the URL to show photographs and text. Think hotbombdotcom.com/krump/lull/PFL: the script finds a photograph tagged with 'krump' and another with 'lull' and then displays crazy, colored text of any other URL component strings for which no photographs are tagged. Awesome.

Do you have thoughts on what I should do with any of my other domains? And when am I planning to change 2008 from the year of conception to the year of execution? We shall see.

I am not sure how I would like to approach these "problems," or if I should even define them as such. I certainly have the knowledge and resources to win Google for specific, noncompetitive search terms. Also, there is a two word phrase, both common dictionary entries, that I think I can win over the course of a few months. I do not want to reveal it lest someone steal it from me. I will report back... or not.

I worked a great deal on the design (a custom WordPress theme) for the new Rao & Pierce Law Firm website. You can check out my design in progress here. I love feedback.

I will try to jam another WordPress theme this evening but I am not sure for which website. We shall see.

Oh, and last note, I would like to get some search results for "Carlos d'Avis" pointing to information about my grandfather, for whom I was named. Did I mention that he was a famous doctor in Bolivia and served as the mayor of Cochabamba? A street is named after him there, but searching for "Calle Carlos d'Avis" is problematic because Brian Calle is a good friend of mine. Hilarious.

Let me know what you think of the new site layout. I am particularly interested in your reception of the increased width. Do you mind scrolling right to watch video and see Twitter and Flickr links? Or, is your display nice and wide like mine and fits fine?

Also, I would love comments on  preference for my next website (re)launch. Possibilities include drewd, Loveroni, NoodlePop, Steak and Berries, EsplainIt, and deCielo.

I was rightly impressed by the creativity and innovation in design concepts for a business card-sized calendar.

I bought a simply lovely calendar in Portland, Oregon when I was down visiting Whit and Claire this last weekend. The artist, Nikki McClure, has beautiful work---seemingly all paper cut---and I hope to visit Olympia to see more of her pieces. The calendar is intended for public space somewhere in our house.

Brooke and I have spent the last handful of months almost wholly focused on the calendar functionality for CaseHawk, our law firm management web application venture. I am happy with our current treatment, beginning to believe in it as a strong alternative to Outlook and the like. The law firm will begin to use the calendar on Monday so Brooke and I will see how the functionality fares in real life. I am looking forward to moving on to another bit of the application.

I am well on my way to putting together a solid and crazy fun DarkHorse for the tournament. I had such a fantastic time last year with this team and am optimistic for this squad. I think I will print dark jerseys this year and probably get them done by FiveUltimate. My Shadrach teammate Zahlen hooked us up for the series and I like their new fabric quite a bit.

And I finally found the time to respond to Nonny Mouse's comments on my Lei-Out site design. Oh, silly rodent.

I finally left my theme-in-progress up and activated so that I would be more motivated to complete it. I will see if this technique actually works. Carrot or Stick? Definitely Stick.

Thank you for your patience. Post viewing and commenting should still work fine.

Yes, yes, I know the rest of Regionals must be discussed but right now my need to sleep is a bit greater. Goodnight.