So I woke up yesterday morning and jumped online like I normally do. At some point after checking my email, reading some blog posts, and messing around on facebook, I decided to login to myspace. Being in the web industry I’ve obviously had a deep distaste for myspace for quite some time. I could go on and on here about the reasons why, but we’ve all seen those profiles that instantly send you into cardiac arrest with 42 blinking GIFs atop a lime green and pink background with 2000 pictures of the Jonas Brothers. There’s a million functionality reasons as well but you get the point.

So yesterday for some reason, I’m not sure why. Maybe it was a lazy Sunday and I felt like messing around. I don’t know. But yesterday I decided I’d had enough. So I stripped my profile down to nothing, removed everything, and hand coded and very simple layout. I’d had enough and I couldn’t stand another day looking myself in the mirror, knowing what I know about html, css, and the whole nine with a horrific myspace profile. I ended up wasting most of the morning but when it was all said and done below is what I ended up with. Nothing crazy, but far from your standard profile.

So after I’m done I’m feeling pretty good about myself. I made a statement, I broke out of the box, and well maybe some guy I went to High School with that has no idea what I do for a living will see it and think ‘oh wow that’s cool, how did he do that?’ Whatever. No big whup. I go on about my day, watch a movie with some friends, work on a logo, call it a night. The next day I wake up, same story. Do some stuff, check my email, and then I figure I’ll login and see if maybe anybody saw it. Maybe somebody left a comment. I even got a lil anxious. Aaaand that’s when I saw it.

Upon logging in I was greeted with a friendly message from Tom. Today, yep TODAY, 5 years later. Ya not too much has really changed since the launch in 2003. Today is the day MySpace.com premieres the new and improved ‘Profile 2.0′. You-have-got-to-be-kidding-me. A whole new profile interface, drag and drop features, completely customizable. Oh ya, it might as well be facebook.

This my friends… is the story of my life.

You ever do this?

You ever wake up a few minutes before the alarm clock buzzes, think to yourself ‘eeeh I’m just gonna get up and get an early start.’ So you pop in the shower, do your thing, and upon turning off the water and starting to dry you hear your alarm clock going off to what seems like an, for lack of a better term, an alarming rate. Inside your head you have a lil naked heart attack. Oh no my significant other, roommate, neighbor, kids, cranky landlord, or whoever it might be; they are probably so pissed right now. Oh no, oh no! I’ve got to race and turn it off. But I’m sopping wet still. Crap! And so you do the quick dry while running and getting the whole place soaked dash.

You ever do that? Ya, me neither.

I come to you today out of frustration. They say beauty is in the details, but it seems as though so many very recognizable and highly design regarded companies can’t get one simple detail figured out. And. It’s driving me CRAZY!!

Lets digress. I’ve spent much of the past, oh I don’t know, 10 years online. My trade of choice necessitates this but I’d still be online numerous times a day if it didn’t. Part of that time, actually most of that time, is spent toiling around on sites to which I am a member of. To actually stop and think about how many sites I have a registered account with is kind of scary. Let’s see, to name a few:

• Gmail
• Flickr
• Virb
• Wordpress
• Jpg Mag
• Digg
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Facebook
• Myspace

…and I could go on for days and days. So, to get to the point as I’m sure you’re wondering what has me so annoyed by now. Well, nevermind the fact that I most likely have different passwords and/or usernames for all of these sites because of different restrictions - must contain one capital, must have a number in, must be at least 8 characters long. Beyond that, what drives me crazy, what pushes my buttons, is wanting me to enter my email and asking for my username.

I mean didn’t it cross your mind I might have a million different accounts on a million different sites and you’re not one I’m on everyday? No? You didn’t think maybe I have a few different usernames I tend to use based upon what the site will allow and well I don’t know, I’d try those first when you specifically asked for a username? Nope?

If you can’t tell this just happened to me a few minutes ago and I’m still a bit agitated.

I’m starting a new identity project for the Bayside Center for Plastic, Reconstructive, and General Surgery and I thought I’d head over to Coulor Lovers and try out some pallettes. So I pull up the site, which I hadn’t been to in 6 months or so and I try to login. Try the standard login, no go. Hmm how bout same password with this username. Negative. Ok how bout thiiiis login with the same password? Sorry Charlie. Ok, well maybe it’s the password right? So try all three logins with 3 other passwords and still nothing. (math in head) At this point I’m so teed off I say scew it and go to the Adobe Kuler site.

No big surprise about what happens next. Oh and to add insult to injury the error message reads ‘Invalid ID or Password’. So which is it? Right ID but wrong password? Or do you even have an account under that ID? Super, super awesome. Well as I’m sure you guessed the correct login turned out to be my email address as the user ID. Had they asked for that in the first place I would of been in on the first try. And this type of situation happens to me all the time. It happened two days ago at work with our email blast software delivra.

It aint hard folks (hey it ain’t brain surgery). If your site uses usernames ask for usernames, if your site uses emails AS usernames then ask for emails. Don’t assume. My 7th grade science teacher taught me all about assuming. It makes something out of U(and)ME.

(aaaaaaaaaand exhale).

Lately I feel like all I’ve been doing is working on the site but not actually posting to it. That’s mostly due to the fact that the things I would normally write about are up in the air right now. Frankly, everything is up in the air right now. Things should be sorted out soon though, and then, then… I promise to post more often.

For now though, maybe I should work on some of these IE bugs and get some portfolio pieces up eh?

Modeled by Graeme Tower.