Willo O'Brien

I slept soo good lastnight. The last 2 nights I’ve gotten to bed before 3am. Wednesday night specificially I was absolutely wiped out from the lack of sleep the night before & crashed by 12:15 – which is rather early for me! 8 hours later I woke up feeling so much better.

I had lots of dreams lastnight… one was about a girl I went to high school with. I volunteered to help her move, but when I arrived at her place she hadn’t gotten there yet. That morning I had realized my Mom was packing and moving the same day, too, so I was really only there to tell her I couldn’t help after all. For some reason I didn’t have my friend’s #, but some of her family members called while I was there so I told them to tell her I had to go. Then on my way out she showed up. She seemed really depressed and her one relative had just told me she was trying to sell her little condo and pack up everything and move to Australia with a guy. But she just seemed so incredibly depressed and sad I couldn’t possibly think it was a sound move on her part. It seemed like she was running away from something.

I walked back into her house with her and she was telling me how disgusted she was with her place and that it was like dirty or in a bad part of town or something (veyr much like a rich girl that needs to have the world, but nothing is ever good enough) and this place was a place I would love to own. I thought to myself, worried for her, that she might not ever be happy with even the best places out there. Obviously, it really wasn’t about the house.

When I went to go help my Mom move all of a sudden we were in a store & she was trying to buy me a duffle bag for $226. I told her it was way too much and it even seemed thin and cheap & would probably break despite the stores long list of how great it was. She was INSISTING I take it – but then I realized it was a sleeping bag and I’d already just bought myself one. Somehow I was relieved I talked her out of it.

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While tossing and turning through the first confusing buzzes of my alarm clock, my cutie kitty came up and snuggled up under my arm. Thing is, is that he hardly EVER does this. He’s always been a kitty who sleeps at my feet on the bed, and he’ll come up and say goodnight (stand on my chest and sometimes lay down on it, bonk my face with his head, purr and lick my nose) or wake me up that way. But rarely has he come and slept right beside me – which I LOVE!!!

Lately though when he’s lying on my chest I’ll do a one fall swoop move where I get him on his back, and I flip on my side and I can snuggle him close like that. He loves it. So, I think he’s starting to get how great it is sleeping right up beside me is and I couldn’t be happier. Waking up with my kitty by my side and snuggling the morning in is the best. I think I stayed in bed for an extra 40 minutes :)

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I’m pretty stoked it’s Friday. This week’s been a hard week. I’ve been working so around the clock that I haven’t even seen Ricky G – it’s been 5 days!!! GASP! Seriously. It might be the longest we’ve been apart since he had to go to Germany after SXSW, or Christmas the time before that. I miss him something fierce and am very excited to see him tonite. :)

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Another thing I’m way excited about tonite for is Rilo Kiley!! They’re at Bottom of the Hill tonite and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with their CD. I can’t wait!

Happy Friday everyone!

I haven’t updated my portfolio in *so* long! HOWEVER, I finally put together a list of links to sites I’ve redesigned in the last 11 months to show potential interested parties.

A lot of the sites are about to go live within a month or so, so the list is mostly to the final mockup and/or delivered templates, but it gives interested parties a better feel for the design I’m doing now.

A lot of what’s in my current corporate portfolio now is well over a year old!

Not included in the list, however, is all the design work I’ve done for a large client extranet and even a GUI touch screen interface. Those I’ll need to add more carefully to my portfolio and get the client’s permission on what I show, etc.

Anyway – should you be a long time visitor, friend and/or potential client, contact me and I’ll share the link with you. Just keep it under wraps as some of these site’s aren’t live yet & it’s extremely important the cat isn’t let out of the bag before they launch!

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This week’s been insanely busy – up till 3am on more than 1 night and cancelled my plans lastnight. It’s awesome though! I’m psyched to be so busy and am really enjoying the work I’m doing for my great handful of clients.

Saturday night we went down to my friend Nancy’s house for her housewarming party. Her and her husband finally own a house of their own and it’s great! Congrats to them! It was quite the celebration. :)

silly hat

We went down for about an hour or so, but didn’t stay long since it was in Sunnyvale. We headed back up to the city and met our friends at the Slow Club for a drink before we called it a night.

Bonus: Nancy bought too many of these yummy seasoned chickens, so I got to take one home. Now I know you’ve all been dying to hear more about my delicious sandwiches, and let me tell you – you’ve been missing out! Yesterday I even used the avocado slicer :) ha

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Saturday we made a trip to IKEA and then came back here & rearranged my place. It’s so great to have it all fresh & new! And the best part is that I’m getting organized! I have a lot to do yet, but it’s coming together. I’m getting rid of some stuff, too if you’re interested.

OK back to work!

A few things that cracked me up at the grocery store the other night:

In my neighborhood Safeway they have these huge stuffed animals for sale right now. It was kinda a surprise to look up from the cheese section and see these big ol stuffed animals. They’re actually pretty cute. Truthfully, if I had space in my home, I’d buy one for myself :)

oh for goodness sakes!

And my kitty cracks me up:



i’ve been letting kazoo out more, just leaving the front door open and he usually comes back & checks in with me every 30 minutes or so. i had opened the curtain next to my desk while he was out lastnight – and when he came back up the stairs and saw me, he wanted to come in the window. so even the front door was wide open, he got up on my bench out there and meowed like “let me in mama!”

funny look… he just couldn’t figure out why i was on the other side and he couldn’t get to me!

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Today I got word from a friend that he had to put his dear kitty to sleep. :( She had cancer and it’s very sad that he’s had to say goodbye to his buddy.

Kazoobie and I sent him a nice little note with our sympathies… and I made sure to give my buddy some extra loving, too.

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This weekend I’m going to try to rearrange my place… I’ve been here a year & it needs a serious revamp. So, a rearrange will be a good start anyway. Other than that I’m just working as much as possible… and we’ve got some parties tomorrow night to hit. Not sure how much I’ll post – but have a great weekend everyone.

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p.s. FYI I just (7pm) added some photos from the Gossip show in the previous post.

I absolutely LOVED the Gossip show lastnight!!!!

Ricky G came over here & I made myself a gourmet quicky meal (canned green beans with salt & pepper – and a piece of toast with butter. I should have my own show!). Then he made us up some yummy gimlets before heading out to Bottom of the Hill.

We met up with Jim there – who was supposed to have Lyne w/ him, but she bailed :( – and my good pal Jemmyloo was there with her Mikeman and another friend, too! yay! Jem even had a few drinks in her, which is unusual for water/coke only show-ho jem, but it’s good for me cuz that means I get a smooch. haha

The openers were the Roger Sisters – and they were pretty good! The guitarist/vox girl is real pretty – she looks kinda Belinda Carslisleslseslsish (too lazy to spell that right, so THERE!), and they had some pretty good beats. But we were ALL about the Gossip!

I had tried to go see them when they were here last fall, and it was completely sold out. Then, I wanted to see them in January but we had Rick’s company holiday party that night… so I was stoked to *finally* see them!

The lead singer of the Gossip has an AWESOME voice, IMO. I wish I could sing like her – and the whole time in the audience I was wanting to belt it out along with her, but knew that people weren’t there to hear my crappy voice – so I tried my best to contain myself :)

But the whole show rocked. My favorite song of theirs is Fire Sign – and they played that and I was stoked. They played 2 encore songs, which was preceded by her saying “You guys didn’t really think we weren’t gonna come back, did you?” But I say honestly she doesn’t know SF. I mean, The Gossip is awesome and no doubt they get called up for encores all the time – but SF in general isn’t a beg for an encore every time kind of city – so it’s a big compliment!!

So, ya – it rocked. The drummer was great (actually the Roger Sisters drummer was *really* great), and we even saw the Gossip drummer afterwards and after I told her she was great/I’m taking lessonsblahblah, she said “you don’t need lessons!”. Um, actually – *I* do. I’m a retard! haha not really… but these arms and legs need help figuring this stuff out. Help from a professional :) Plus, I’d never do it w/o it. It’d be a different story if I could put a drum kit in my garage or in my living room, but I can’t right now – so lessons and a drum pad are it.

I wish Gossip woulda been selling Tshirts – I woulda bought one.

UPDATE @ 7pm. This guy there was wearing this classic kitty sweatshirt. I had to have my photo with him:

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OK, more to blog and photos to post – but I gotta work. Happy Friday peeps!

I love Mark Morford so much. I get his newsletter (notifying me of his latest article), but sadly lately I’ve been so damn busy that I delete most all my newsletters knowing I don’t have time to read them, let alone my magazines I subscribe to, or the blogs I like to read.

But this one caught my eye… and I had to read it. Timely enough (as per my previous post) it’s about the iPod! Maybe Mark Morford reads my blog! haha

Anyway – check it out:

Worship My Radiant iPod

Where were you when the cultural revolution happened again for the very first time?

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

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I was just talking about this with my drum teacher yesterday. He works at Ameoba, and I was saying now that I have this iPod I want mp3’s, not CD’s since that just means it’s more to rip (and I still have a good 600 to go from my current collection!) – but that part of me is guilty about being a part of the possible/eventual demise of the record store. But he made a great point, and I think this is very much in line with Morford’s article – is that you just can’t fight technological advancement. It’s going to happen no matter what. If it’s not Napster, there will be another thing that springs up like it. If it’s not iPod, something else will come of it. It’s evolution and “you can’t fight progress”.

True that.

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Speaking of, yesterday I did my first beat on the drum. Meaning I successfully had my foot do one thing, my one arm do another and the other do another. It was awesome! I’ve truly started at the beginning with this, but it’s so cool to think I might actually be *good* some day!! I’m going to start practicing more. :)

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p.s. if you have an RSS reader that notifies you when I publish or something – note that I always go back & edit it like 3 times in the following 10 minutes or so :) so refresh!

Apple is a big fat bully. I try to be nice and what does he do… he steals my lunch money!

The new iPod came out. TWO weeks after I bought mine. For Christ sake – is there a god? Yes… an evil, mean God named AppleGod who wants to take all my money and then right when I think I’ve gotten something good for that money he pulls a Nelson “heheh” and says, “SUCKER! Now it’s $100 cheaper AND cooler!”

:*(

p.s. No wonder they had *free* engraving for the 30 days prior to this release… so no, I can’t return it. What a jerk.

I was super psyched to hang w/ my little sister Haley all weekend

I got a taste of the Warsaw nightlife on Saturday night. It was great to catch up with my cousins Tami & Erin!

Sunday we went mini-golfing, and on about the 16th hole, the rain came pouring down in good ol’ midwest fashion. The kids loved it!

Look at my new little home! It’s all I could afford ;)

Then we came back to my Aunt Margaret & Uncle Mikes & had a big cookout and played games. Here’s our group photo!

After it got dark we started drawing! My favorite!

See these photos & more in my Indiana Trip Album.

I’m back!!! I’m excited, Kazoobie’s excited, Ricky G’s excited, maybe you are, too? Nah, you don’t have to miss me – because I missed YOU! I’m back! I’m back behind my computer with my lovely wi-fi pumpin strong. My 5 CD player, my cool breeze and sweet lil sunny flat. I’m. back. yippeee!!

I had so much fun and LOVED getting to know my cousin’s kids better – and flat out getting to know my cousins, aunts & uncles better, too!! It’s a shame but for some reason I’ve only seen this group of relatives like 3 times in the last 14 years. Isn’t that insane? It is when I realize I am getting to know my cousin Tami’s boy and he’s now 13 and I last saw him as an infant baby boy!! (I went back 2 years ago, but she stopped by only with her youngest and then was off again for a weekend trip they’d planned with her husband’s family). Anyway – it was awesome to catch up.

In my single (compared to married), free-wheelin, show goin rock-n-roll lifestyle, I forget there’s still people who get married, settle down, have 3 kids and go to church every sunday. It’s comforting. Like baseball and apple pie, I suppose.

We had a big cookout, the little kids played cards and baseball and games. The grownups had a fierce game of badmitton and it was just all so nice to be surrounded by family. Every single one of em. Pretty neat.

Anyway, I’m back & have one helluva week ahead of me! Hopefully I won’t be too scarce trying to get it all done. Hope you had a great weekend!!!

Hi everybody!!

I’ve been on a whirlwind these last 24 hours! Trying to finish up things for clients before you take off on a trip is really hectic! And I’m not even done, I’m here at my Aunt’s house trying to finish up some mockups that are due tomorrow. Silly me for making a deadline when I’m going to be away! But, I’m also the one who tries my hardest to stick to my word with my clients, hard as it may be at times, so such is life and I’m sure I’ll get it done. Bummer is I only have 56K access right now. Agonizing! And HILARIOUSLY I’m using AOL. Thank god for those crappy ass free cd’s laying around everywhere huh? I had picked one up about a month ago thinking it might come in handy somewhere along the line… I was trying to avoid it though as I dislike AOL severely… but hey – right now they’re giving me some free hours, so that works!

While I’m at it though – does anyone have an access # for dial up should I get stuck in this position again? (eg that can dial/find numbers from anywhere in the country similar to aol) I know many of you are like “whats a modem?” but I need this and really would like to delete AOL off my computer forever. Then again, maybe you want to share an extra AOL screenname with me off your acct and I’ll just use it whenever I may need this type of emergency access? :) please email me willo at willotoons dot com if you have this or recommend somewhere i can find it. in the meantime, please continue your rain (wi-fi access everywhere) dance rituals! :)

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So, after finishing up work for clients, I packed and got my house ready for Mr. Kazoo’s lovely house sitter, Lucia. I’m soo delighted she can help watch him while I’m away!! I have been on a major traveling spree so far this year, huh? SD, SXSW (Austin TX), Coachella (Palm Desert, CA), Ohio, and now Indiana – woohoo! Next up Vegas and then a trip back to Colorado for a dear friend’s wedding in October.

We were even thinking about going to Bali soon! Can you believe that? But we cancelled today. This trip was potentially for Sept, which is soon. And it’s expensive, so we just decided to save up for a few more months – and then I hope we plan an overseas excursion!

Have I told you how much I love my honey? Oh man. If you only knew. It’s pretty sick really unless you’re madly in love with your honey too :) Me and my (newly engaged) girlfriend Renee are getting together to gush soon. haha Most of our single friends don’t like to hear it – but when you’re in this crazy bliss you just can’t help but shout it from rooftops. I mean, I don’t even totally like to do that because what we have is so special, but I think couples sometimes don’t often enough and honestly it’s neat to hear how lovely love can be. I’m just diving. in.

(yes, I’ll stop the mush now)

Anyway – after getting everything packed, Ricky G came over and we had dinner and by midnight I had to hurry to be in bed eyes closed for my (gasp) 4:30am alarm to go off. Mark my words people unless it’s a REALLY good trip, I am NEVER doing a 6:30am flight again. It’s just crap – I’m a night owl!!!

So I of course layed in bed yelling in my head “Go to sleep dammit!” to no avail as my busy little mind went over “do I have everything?”, “am I going to have any time to sleep AND work on this project tomorrow?” oy…

I think I probably drifted off to sleep maaaybe by 1-1:30 and tossed and turned in weird 1/2 sleep till the 4:30 alarm went off – and I opened my eyes like I’d just shut them 1 minute before. Still wide awake and unable to sleep. It’s not like it’s christmas morning or anything for criminey’s sake!

Anyway – I got my arse to the airport and in the ridiculously long security line (for 5:30am) I ran into Kevin Smokler! It was good to see him, have a bagel and chat about music (even ripping his newest Polyphonic Spree CD, yay!), and life in the web world. He’s a good guy.

Then as I hurried onto my plane (so glad it didn’t leave without me!) I snuggled into my seat and thankfully dozed off for the entire length of the flight to Chicago! PHEW!!! Atleast I scored another 3 on top of my rough 3, totaling 6. I just might make it through the day without snapping someone’s head off or passing out at the wheel.

My Mom & little sister flew in from Atlanta* at the very same time and we made our way through the Chicago airport to find eachother, rent our car & hit the road (aka the godfersaken toll roads with huuuge trucks on them – arrrg) But we made it!!!

*My Mom came from Atlanta because her & Haley went to Jacksonville, FL for a week – they’re thinking of moving there!! Wow!

So yes, we’re now here in my Mom’s hometown: Warsaw, Indiana. Try not to be too jealous OK? :)

We’ve already had some yummy ice cream at the local custard stand and I’ve seen a bazillion fireflies. yay! I’m SUPER excited to be here with my Momma and little sister this weekend. My little sis & I have needed to bond big time (she’s turning 13 soon… we’re 16 years apart!!). Geekily fantastic we share the same love for our new mac products – we both have laptops and iPod’s with us. hilarious, huh?

It’s so great to see my Aunts/Uncles/Cousins/their kids – and the weekend ahead is chock full of so much more fun with the fam!

Anyway I’ve slacked long enough – I have to grab some screenshots of some websites to reference for this project & then I’m hopping off. Bye!