on monday ruthie, my brother-in-law jack antebi and ruthie's co-worker, regaynel poplion came down to college station, texas for a continuing education session that was being put on at a & m university. the texas transportation institute is hosting the sessions and jack works for them.

i got to come along because "have apple powerbook and wifi - will travel" applies in my business as a freelance web designer.

i just set up my little portable office in the motel and plug away at my work.

we got 2 bonuses on this trip.

1 - we got to have dinner twice with our son david, who attends a & m. his girlfriend amy even got away from her studies to meet us for one dinner.

2 - regaynel poplion happens to be amber poplion's mom. the fact that she was able to come with us means that amber is doing great and regaynel can get away for a few days for work. i think she is due to finally leave the rehab facility and go home very soon. she did get to go home for a few hours last week and today is supposed to go the texas state fair!

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on september 3rd, 2008 i started up a new blog to have an online discussion about my journey doing freelance web design, affiliate marketing, eBay and the tech i come across along the way.

so, if you wondered where all the tech articles on this blog went to now you know.

it was getting to the point where i was writing about too many diverse subjects on the life of buford. the focus shifted away from it being a family and life blog to one where i was talking about wordpress, mac, ebay and all sorts of tech stuff and it made no sense.

so please come check out the new blog, aloneontheweb.com and follow along as i begin my freelance career and chronicle all the fun experiences and tech i come along in the process.

expect to see new family photos here on the life of buford, so check back often for updates and i will continue to send out emails to the group that gets regular updates. if you want to be added to either the family or the friends email group, just drop me an email at gushin at gmail.com and i will add you.

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just a quick word to highlight a free wordpress theme i came across today called "grass roots". it is by the designer andrew lindstrom over at the blog called well medicated. andrew is a freelance designer like myself.

i like to point out good design when i see it and andrew has a winner design here. be sure and also take a look at the preview of his almost finished magazine style design theme he calls zinepress. it looks like it will be a very nice design.

recently i came across this new site for freelancers (all types of creatives) that is called anthillz reputation network.

i'm not sure where the funky name came from, but i like it.

it's a brilliant idea. for employers looking for freelancers, be they in web design or development, graphics, programming, database or other related fields, they can come to the anthillz site and search for a freelancer by keyword or name.

it can be used also by other freelancers to see what the competition has to offer, plus if they are looking to hire another freelancer to fill part of an assignment with a skill they might not have themselves. most of these people will have no problem doing work remotely, so location should not be an issue.

there is a search and the results will give them a list of individuals and when you go to an individuals page, you can see what they do, plus see reviews by past clients. only clients can submit reviews so the site does not get a lot of fluff that you have to weed through.

it's a nice site and a good resource for both employers and freelance professionals. the look is real clean and organized and the idea is great.

i created a profile for myself and have a few reviews already from past clients. it was a quick easy process to add yourself to the profiles on the site.

check it out and let me know what you think.