Wow 5 months?! I have trouble keeping this up-to-date. A lot has happened in the last few months and I thought I would re-cap on each event that happened in order.

Ology (Math)

With only one more semester left I knew the only real thing standing in the way between graduation and I was the dreaded Math credits. For my major I am only required to take math 1030. Three years ago I tested into math 950 which is considered basic math (I hate math and am horrible at it.) What this meant was, I had 3-4 more math classes I had to take in order to get in to my required class.  So with thousands of dollars for tuition and class fees accompanied with another year and a half of school just to finish, I had to find another way.

Almost a year ago my mother in-law told me about this program she heard about called Ology. She explained that when you sign-up for their program you can have your math credit fulfilled in 8 to 16 weeks depending upon your availability. Well after looking into it a bit more I decided to take the program. What appealed to me most about Ology is that they had a pass or don’t pay policy. That means if I do what they ask and I fail the course they will either give me a full refund or allow me to retake the course free.

I decided to take the 8 week course which was 4 days a week 2 hours a day (I however was there a lot longer than that studying… an average of about 6-8 hours per day.) This route would also allow me to have a bit of vacation and before school starts again. I took 3+ years of math in 8 weeks.  I was a bit worried toward the end of the class because about four days before the final (crucial) test my wife went into labor! (I will talk more about that in a minute) Luckily I passed the class with a C+ in math 1050!! YEAH!! The last time I did any math was in 1999. I was amazed to final breakthrough that barrier!!

Baby Jade

I am pleased to announce the birth of my daughter Jade Lynn Hillier! She was born on the fourth of July 2010 at 9:58pm. She weight 8.43 lb and was 21.5 in in length. She is my world and is absolutely gorgeous! If you haven’t seen pictures on face book or haven’t met her in person, I will be posting a collage of photos on my photoblog page real soon.

She is so wonderful and so exhausting! I have to say that I am pretty impressed with her development over the past couple of weeks.  Within the first 2 weeks she gained a pound over her birth weight, she on occasion sleeps about 6-7 hours at night, when sucking on a binkie or bottle she uses her hands to hold it in place. She also is recognizing faces and smiles when I sing to her. She also smiles when I tell her to not spit out her binkie and she does it anyway. Aside from my wife she is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am so lucky to have them both!

Jade’s Journal

Another amazing thing that has happened was when she showed interest in blogging! She asked me to setup a blog for her so she can share her experiences with everyone. I believe she has a few posts by now and would love if you followed her.  She really only wants family members and friends to read her blog and doesn’t like strangers. to find her just copy and paste http://jadelynnhillier.blogspot.com/ into your browser window. She is excited to share her experiences with you!

Found a Job

I recently found a job working for UVU in a student position until Jan 2011. I work in the CSSE (Career Services and Student Employment) department. I was hired as a graphic designer / photographer and will be working on print and web materials for various marketing campaigns. I will be implementing a small amount of code and will be building the department their own stock photography collection for future campaigns. I am pretty excited about the position because I am able to do what I love rather then be told I will and have me do data entry (like past employment). I hope this helps me build a good network within the campus so that after I graduate I will be able to find a more permanent (full time, better pay, and benefit enriched) position.

Conclusion

I am going to try and be more internet active (blog, photoblog, Flikr, twitter and others) so I hope to have more posts soon. As for now I have plenty of other “ToDos” I need to get to, and for those of you still connected to my blog … Thanks!

I am please to announce that Mileshillier.com is now my official portfolio with my personal items such as this blog and my photoblog being placed within the pages rather then front and center. Since being Laid-off I knew that I needed an updated design/site for reference when applying for jobs. This will some examples of my work and the quality I put into each project. By using valid handwritten code I hoped to have created an easy to use and understand website that can be viewed by all.

What I would like to do now is get feedback from those of you reading this. What do you like? What do you dislike? Is anything broken? If so what and which browser and version are you using? Are there any improvements that need to be made? Or is it the most beautiful thing you have ever seen before?

I really want honesty because constructive feedback is a powerful tool in growing. I can take it. Plus I believe that everyone has their opinion on what looks good and what doesn’t, I mean this has to be version 30 something that I have created for my personal site and I still have issues with it. I can design for others and they are quite pleased but I am my own worst client.   So anyways, let ‘er rip!!

Before I finish I just wanted to inform you that I am currently working on a few other projects. Stonewall Fine Art, Lucid Edge Design, HillierStudios, and a few smaller projects involving social networks. So stay tuned!

I can’t believe the last time I wrote was in December! A lot has happened since then.

First: Thank you all who responded to my last post. I did consider all options and choose to stick with my job until the baby came while taking a lighter load this school semester. I was hoping to accomplish three main objectives with my work before exploring my options further. One was to save enough money in my HSA for the coming of our first child. The second was to pay off our debt to leave only our school loans, and third was to get my new camera equipment. Well most of you know that we were able to set aside enough each paycheck to reach our goal in our HSA account by July (when our baby is due). We also paid off over $3,000 of our debt! Finally I purchased my camera along with a few new toys to play with.

One week from the purchase of my expensive new equipment I went into work to find out that I was being laid-off along with 10 other programmers. What they didn’t tell us and was later discovered was my job (StoresOnline) decided to outsource their programming department to India! What that means for me is … I am now unemployed with no insurance for the family, a bit rusty in the skills department, and making to much in unemployment to qualify for medicaid and too little to pay for COBRA and rent at the same time.

ohhh bother!

On happy notes *

We found out last month that we are having a girl and she is healthy!

I am revamping my portfolio to show more of what I can do.

I have a shinny new camera 5D Mark II to learn and make lots of money with.

We are moving soon!

I am no longer on commission and have to work all days and nights to keep up with production standards

Did I mention we are having a girl?

Well that is all for now… My next goal is to upload some new photos to my photoblog!  coming soon.