Israel Vasquez Jr.

A 50 year old man once gave me this quote, after explaining that he had worked most of his life as a pharmacist, never married, and had no kids. He told me that what the phrase means is to be in control of your life, and thus your destiny. Doing what you love to do and being in control.

The phrase kept nagging at me and was in the back of my mind for a while. After a while i forgot about it… and went on with my daily living, working, eating, and paying bills.  

Right after my birthday, I basically had a panic attack, a nervous breakdown you could say. I felt that everything i was doing didn’t make sense, i was constantly stressing myself out with school, work, financial situations. So i decided to quit everything and take a break, after all i hadn’t taken a break for over 3 years, no vacation, and the past summer i had spent working straight through.

 I took some time off, went home rested a while, read a lot of books, and basically just tried to de-stress myself. When i felt that i was de-stressed, i came back to the city, and basically things began taking shape, and am currently working on some life plans i had always wanted to work on.

While i still got to work, i feel I have more flexibility now, with my current work situation, and also flexibility with school. I’m basically doing what I want to do. Then the phrase came back to me, being in heaven is basically doing what you want to do, being able to steer. If its not being in heaven, then at the very least steering your own path in life is the closest to heaven you’ll get. 

Ok, before all the flaming starts… lets just say that at least in my country Belize, there isn’t. Seriously though… speaking about web design as it’s traditionally thought of… i can safely say that the web design business is dead.

So how do i come to this conclusion? well for starters here’s a short list.

1. Everyone and Anyone who is somebody in the business and the internet world already has a website.

2. Those that don’t have, are looking to get on the internet: fast, cheap and easy. CHEAP being the keyword here.

3. Everybody and their mom knows or pretends to know how to make a website.

The list could go on, but lets start here by dissecting point number 1… do you know of any company serious about their business that doesn’t have a website? I could almost bet half of my paycheck that the answer is no. Everyone and their marketing department have realized the power that the internet holds and have either created, are in the process of finishing or relaunching their website. The chances of getting a major website design project is almost slim to none, especially if you’re not an established company in your current market. Chances are as slim as Peter from Family Guy losing weight!

CHEAP or BUDGET Website Design

So what about the other people who don’t have websites? well this mostly consists of small, tiny or minute companies trying to leverage the internet to maximize their business’ as most as possible. They want to do this with as little or no money if possible and they want to this NOW!! so whats the problem with that you’ll say? Yes, somebody needs to service this market, after all even fat and ugly girls need some loving huh? Well the problem lies in that these small websites can take up as much time as a large project. How is that possible? Clients are far more aware of the internet now that before, they know what is a website, they know what is HTML, they know what is a template. And they certainly don’t want a template. They want complete, customized designs and websites with all the bells and whistles for $500 or less. No Kidding!! I’d rather go sell Panades on the corner than do this! O.K. well, i won’t really sell panades but my theory is that doing customized websites for small business can take as much time as working on a large project. Especially if the client doesn’t have content, and takes forever in getting it together, and especially if you don’t have a tried and proven web development process. You can be my guest and go ahead and offer them a full customized package, throw in the content, web forms, menu’s, site search, search engine optimization and hosting…You’ll go broke in no time and will really think about opening that Panades shop instead.

My third and last point… for now, Everyone and their brothers, their mom or grandma’s pretend to know that they can build a website. Heck, there’s even one guy here in Belize advertising “Web Design Classes in Frontpage” in the newspapers. Yes you heard right, FRONTPAGE, Microsoft Frontpage. I thought they didn’t make that software anymore?? jajaja Anyways my point is there is so much competition, everyone is willing to have a go at it and hack together a couple pages, slap some graphics and pictures, charge as little as the price of a good coffee and say they’re web designers. This isn’t bad you will say, as the best will survive. Yes, but they’re diluting and misinforming the clients and market. They make promises of grandeur for very little money because they don’t know or are ignorant of the process of truly creating a professional, intuitive, standards compliant website. This then affects the real professionals as they have to live down to the expectations of the clients and charge far less what they would normally charge.

So why am i being so critical of the web design business, when I myself am in it and have been in it for a while now? Well I’m just giving you food for thought, something that has been in my mind for a while; which i came about thinking while me and my boss were having a meeting about Search Engine Optimization, and he made a comment about this being a difficult business. Darn right, i thought… but do we get out of it? NO, don’t get me wrong, i didn’t say their is no money to be made on the WEB. Just traditionally as web design is seen, there is none, that industry is dead. This doesn’t mean however there are not other ways of making money by doing web work. There are, plenty of people are doing so.

And how do you ask? wouldn’t you like to know! I’ll leave that for my upcoming post. For now, keep this in mind, Be innovative, be different, and most of all Be A Trusted adviser.

If you would like to send me comments, your opinions or even hate mail, please feel free to email: rasiel at gmail dot com.

Been a long while since i haven’t posted on this blog. Too busy, Too Lazy or a combination.

Today i feel the need to write, to speak out my frustrations. Though while i feel i’ve been productive at work, and i feel i’m getting more organized as we go along. Today i felt tired, as i sometimes feel. I feel a lack of energy, the want to quit, even before the day is over.

Is it cause i’m trying to do so much? I juggle various things at a time, that has always been a thing with me. I lead a busy life in all aspects. Now with an extension to the family, and complicating financial situations… i feel too much is enough. At times i feel like quiting, not work specifically, but quit trying… but at other times i convince i can only go ahead.

At 23, i would have loved to have seen myself, firmly grounded, with the least a Bachelor’s degree, A good job that i love, and financially stable. Instead i find myself still attempting to finish the degree, constantly struggling and juggling my finances, and while i do have a good job that i love, i feel i’m somewhat underestimated and overlooked at times.

Well i guess there’s nothing much i can do but Vent, … its either quiting everything and going to the ranch to chill, fish and swim or continuing the struggle. I guess its just the burned out me at the end of the week speaking.

Well as disappointing as it may be, i cant say i didn’t see it coming. Verdes have once again been knocked out, this time in the playoff stage of the RFG Insurance Cup.

Verdes drew 1-1 with Dangriga’s Revolutionary Conquerer’s, but lost because of the away goal rule. They had previously drawn 0-0 in the first game of the home and away series. It must have been bittersweet, not being beaten by the strong Dangriga Team, but at the same time losing on aggregate.

Being the fan that i am, i’m still with them, win, lose or draw, league finals or not. However i cant help but criticize a bit, as i think there is much potential in the verdes team, but it isn’t being realized. Take this last game this past sunday for example, Verdes came in playing some really bad football, making mistakes, left and right, especially in the defense, which led to Dennis “Den-Den” Serano’s goal for the Conquerers. At times it seemed they didnt know or didnt care that they faced elimination, the players were without motivation.

Fortunately, there was a visible change of the starting 11 in the second half, they came in stronger and put pressure on the dangriga team, but failed to capitalize, until the almost the final 10 minutes, by a beautiful goal from Orlando “Leech” Jimenez. It was a pleasure watching them play that way, since i know the players definitely have the potential to reach to the finals and to win the cup eventually.

I think for this next season the managment needs to do some changes. Although they did make some good changes when they became Verdes United, teaming up with Benque’s Football academy added some strengths and players to the team. Pedro Guerra, and other young players made a difference in the defence, while Mora (#23), gave some muscle to mid and forward. However the lack of a strong middle was apparent with the lack of Deris “Colombia” Benavides, who was transferred to San Pedro’s Costa Del Sol Nairi’s. Also it was evident that their lead scorere of last season Marlon “El Matador” Mesa was missed. He was transfered to the New team Santels, this probably due to 2 reasons, 1. being that Santels is Marlon’s Home town team, as i understand its mostly based with players from Santa Elena Town and 2. The possible conflict and competition with the Jimenez Brothers, I think Marlon had to frequently fight to prove himself with the stiff competition especially from Danny Jimenez. This could have been one of the weakening points for verdes this season, because even though the Jimenez brothers are very good at forward, they sometimes lack the ability to capitalize and score goals when most needed, something that Marlon never lacked.

Well these are my commentaries on my favorite team, having followed them closely this season, i can only wait and see what changes the new season will bring, if any.

For now i will have to settle to enjoying semi-final action from the likes of F.C. Belize who will take on Tex mar boys, in which i predict to be an easy game for F.C. Belize, even thought their 22 unbeaten game streak was broken after losing 1-0 to San Pedro. In the Derby of Dangriga, Wagiya and Conquerers will battle it out to prove which one is the better team out of the south. Wagiya is an established team having won the championship, and been closely in contention each season since its inception, while Conquerers is a new team, but a very strong team with the likes of players like Lennox “Criminal” Castillo, the coveted goalkeeper Woodrow West, and Veteran Maestro Norman “tilliman” Nunez Pipersburgh. I’m predicting a 1-1 draw in this derby, which will lead to penalty kicks. For the Finals i’m predicting F.C. Belize *once again VS Wagiya. From there on its the better team that wins. Though i wouldn’t be surprised it being F.C. Belize again.

** I wouldn’t be that surprised however if Conquerer’s make it through, especially if they reach Penalty kicks, as they have in Woodrow West one of the Best Goalkeepers in the league right now.