RonMertens.com

I’ve been looking for someone to do some graphic design for me (what with my favorite graphic designer not being available).

I decided to try an on-line site to find it. I chose eLance, and I must say I’m happy with the experience. I had to write a short project description (my project was pretty simple - a graphic design for expresscard-info, just like the oled-info look and feel), and then after a few days I got 12 bids. Choosing the right bid was difficult - but then I got a bid from someone who’s given me a great price and also had the best portfolio of them all. So I chose him, and after one day got my first revision.

It took a few revisions to get it right like I wanted (they give you unlimited revisions in the price, which is another reason that I chose this provider), but after a few days I had my graphic design ready. Paying was a bit of a hassle (I had to wire-transfer the funds to eLance) but it worked.

So now the new look is online. Check it out… and tell me what you think.

All in all? It was a great experience, and a really nice way to do find freelance help. I have more info on the metalgrass blog…

One of my favorite singers is coming to Israel. Will Oldham (AKA Palace, Palace Music, Palace Brother, Bonnie Prince Billy) is doing some folk/alt-country music, and I personally think he has made some of the most beautiful music there is.

He will be doing 3 concerts, there is some more info here.

I’m excited!

It’s the annual “oh-no-Ron-has-made-another-travelogue-we-better-run-for-cover” event. The good news is that it’s rather short this time. This year was quite un-eventful photo wise (well, except our wedding, really, but those were not mine, and Michal won’t allow me to upload the photos).

http://www.RonMertens.com/2006/photoCollection/

I’ve got a new mobile phone - Nokia N73.

It’s quite an improvement over my previous one (Nokia 6680). It has a really nice screen (better resolution and brightness), it has a decent camera (3MP), and runs a newer (and just a tiny bit faster, it seems) version of Symbian (With S60 UI, V3).

So far so good. It’s a bit big, but what can you do.And it’s in this brown-black-silver-plum-eggplant color.

Anyway, I’m seriously considering trying to do some mobile programming. Either Java2ME, or native symbian app, we’ll see how it goes.