Wow, look at all the categories this one drops in to.

Just a quick note to let the loyal readership, all three of you, that I’ve decided to expand my company again and branch out from a single customer jeweler / web guy and hang out my developer shingle again..

Large Orange Pop is the name of my new internet marketing company and will be a sub division of SG Design Studio.. I’ll be offering internet market help, SEO, and web development as appropriate and needed.. While I have no real intention to stop “doing the jewelry thing” I find I miss the fun of helping build up a new business online and look forward to working 90 hours a week again.. Well, maybe not that last part so much..

I expect the marketing / SEO parts of this website to be absorbed in to LOP shortly, and hopefully this site will go back to being a little more fun with some geek stuff and generic weirdness..

I’m off to get my intravenous caffeine port hooked up -

I don’t say that very often.. It’s sort of anti everything I try to do.. But it’s time..

I have been a partner at ForTheWeb.Com since it was founded more than 7 years ago.. We started out as a small web design and hosting firm with 4 partners in Northern California and we have done a lot of good work in that time.. The company has grown and evolved in those years.. But somewhere along the line it quit being “fun”.. A couple of years ago we lost our first partner.. Personality conflicts and other issues kept coming up and three of us decided to buy the fourth out..

With that came more change and some growth.. But lately the “job” has stopped being fun.. It became something I dreaded doing and the extra hours spent on it, above my passion for designing jewelry, just left me tired.. And being a bit of a take or leave it kind of guy, I chose to leave it..

It’s always tough to leave something, especially something that isn’t “finished”.. Over the last 20 years I’ve owned or managed 11 businesses.. Some of them successful, some not so much.. ForTheWeb falls in to that vague middle realm.. The company makes money, has great clients, but doesn’t offer much fullfillment other than that..

This is an amicable parting of the ways, and I expect Shannon and Joel to do quite well in the future with ForTheWeb.. But my days of banging out code for food are behind me now.. Well, except for a couple of pet projects that is - you didn’t expect me to quit cold turkey did you??

Cue the Rockwell video..

A little background before we start.. I am a partner at ForTheWeb.com, but I also own my own design studio (no website - gasp) and do jewelry / CAD design over at Images Jewelers..

I came back from lunch today to my office at Images to see some mail sitting on my desk.. It’s addressed to our PO Box in San Jose for ForTheWeb.. My office at Images is in Elkhart, Indiana.. Now I have to ask you, why would a mailman in Elkhart, IN., know to deliver a letter addressed to ForTheWeb in San Jose, CA.?? And when he made that delivery, didn’t he think it was a bit strange that it didn’t even have my name on it, just ForTheWeb??

I’ve had neighbor’s mail misdelivered, I’ve had mail totally unrelated to me misdelivered.. But what are the odds that a misdelivery in Indiana would find the one person here that would know where the mail “should” have gone??

I think I need a new tin foil hat.. This one doesn’t seem to be working any more..

~Feydakin

Well it’s official, my daughter is now a wife..

It was a very non traditional wedding at a local state park and we were fortunate enough to have a wonderful day after it looked like it was going to storm in the morning.. It was a small gathering of close family and a couple of friends.. But it was a great time..

I’m very proud of my daughter, for a young kid she really seems to have it together.. I see nothing but a wonderful future ahead of her..

I’ll be adding more pictures to the gallery as I get them edited and cleaned up.. Thanks to everyone who has helped support a very emotional father deal with his daughter growing up..

~Fey

I haven’t had much energy to write the last few months.. Yes, this is going to be a personal entry so those of you that don’t care, skip on..

So the year of 2006 is to go down as the most brutal year I have experienced to date.. Even worse than when I thought my wife and I were going to get divorced, but mostly because that worked out and it has become a distant memory.. Since January 4th, 2006, we have had 9 deaths in our close circle of life.. From our neighbor to Diane’s dad, to Aunts and Uncles.. We have actually put a close to one whole generation of my father’s family.. A wealth of knowledge that is gone forever..

Yes it’s maudlin, but it really does re-enforce just how little time we spend with family and just how much we let pass us by as we chase our own lives.. At this point I really have no idea how to react any more.. It’s day by day and hoping that it slows down at some point..

This weekend we buried my Father-In-Law.

Dick was a good man, and a right bastard at times.. When I first met him 20 years ago he struck me as a grumpy old man that thought no one would ever be good enough for his daughter, least of all me.. He might have been right, but I got her anyway.. Diane and I were married between her Junior and Senior years at Notre Dame and he was sure that I had ruined her life.. Fortunately for me that all changed when we presented him with a granddaughter a year later..

As mean as this guy was, he was pure jello around little girls.. This gruff, cantankerous, and sometimes humorous man simply loved children.. And little girls most of all.. It’s amazing to see how a little child can get a grown man rolling around on the floor making silly faces and noises..

I’m going to miss the old guy.. He was a huge part of my wife’s life, and I still don’t know how she will get over this or how long it’ll be before she can go for a whole day without crying.. But I do know that our lives have been better for having him a part of them.. And for me, he gave me the greatest gift any man can give, his daughter to love and care for.. And for that I thank you Dick.. Rest well now, you’ve earned the right..

Fey