Hey lovers,

for those of you NOT following my twitter (@v1R4L), I guess I should let you know that my competing partner Jordan and I have placed numero uno in the Jordan/Canyons District Regional SkillsUSA Web Design competition of 2010. We are now going on to State in a while and hopefully placing high enough to go to finals/nationals in june. As a few of you know I fell slightly short last year and didn’t qualify for nationals. That is ALL about to change 8D

On another note, I start a new internship tomorrow for the Canyons District IT department, Which I am sure will be a great learning experience to see how they roll out such a large amount of sites with such strict deadlines. I’ll keep you updated on my progress over the next few weeks as I adjust to the new work environment.

One last happy note before I end my weekend, I will be visiting Struck Creative Studios this week for a field trip and I’m EXTREMELY stoked to see the studio again. If you arent completely aware Struck is the studio that motivated me to start my own portfolio, and start working with interactive media (JQuery, Mootools, ActionScript, etc).

I’ll keep ya up to date with all the many projects over this next semester.
(mikepayne)

I’ve come to understand that a certain James Roppo, vice president of Def Jam records, was arrested in Canada recently for ‘failure to send a twitter message’ when the local authorities asked him to assist them to disperse a crowd/girl-crazed riot that had begun to assemble in order to greet Justin Bieber (who is apparently a big celebrity somewhere in the world).

From what I’ve read, thousands had gathered to scream and stare at this guy–which somehow lead to pushing, shoving and generally annoying immature behavior. (of course…)

The police had the idea that the crowd was in danger of becoming violent (really? what would they do, catty comment someone to death?), and then asked the singer-star’s record label to send out a Tweet with instructions for everyone to be calm. When nothing had happen they decided to arrest Mr. Roppo for a lengthy series of misdemeanours (including ‘endangering the welfare of children‘ and ‘obstructing governmental administration.’)

Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith had little to say on the topic . .

“We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message,
By not cooperating with us, we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk.”

I have yet to figure out what this mystical tweet would have said.

For some reason:

“@crazybeezies: calm down, relax, and stop semi-killing eachother. plz/thnx”

didn’t seem like a great crowd pleaser to me. then again, if I was in a large hormone filled crowd waiting to peek at an alleged pop star and getting pushy with the girl next to me, checking my phone for twitter updates wouldn’t really be on the top of my priorities.

-O.0-
(mikepayne)

As many of you know, I’ve spent the last year or so learning how to design sites like the one you are on right now. Along the way I have gone out of my way to spend countless hours studying and self preparing for industry certification exams. My total end goal has pretty much been to get the Certified Master Designer from the CIW, and as of Thursday January 14th, I am one step closer.

I took, with successful results, the Internet Networking Foundations exam. I am proud to announce that I have only 2 exams left before I complete the required testing for my certification. This is a HUGE milestone for me, and needless to say pretty unheard of to get before a High School Diploma.

Anyway, I am hoping to take the final foundations test (Internet Business) in about a week or so, and my last exhausting test (e-commerce) by the end of this quarter. Wish me luck

Thanks for the support lovers,
-(mikepayne)

I’ve had friend requests before, but never like this one. A certain Emma something or other from somewhere in Europe has . . . well, she’s publicly showed a devout love for mikepayne. All Mike Payne’s that is. In some odd race to add every Mike, Michael, or Mickey Payne on facebook this Emma girl ran across my profile.

As I thumbed through her page to see how in the world this girl and I were connected, it became pretty obvious that I wasn’t the only one in the world trying to figure out who she was and why she wanted to be my friend. She had befriended upwards of 20 “Mike Payne”s already, and was gathering more. She was even ENGAGED to a Mike Payne.

This woman deserves a pat on the back, or at least the Mike Payne thumbs up. Below is a couple of screen shots of some of the odd displays of love for me and all global mikepaynes. I wish her luck with her engagement, I mean, Who could go wrong with a guy like Mike Payne??

Facebook fan befriends all mikepaynes nation wide.