★ News from July 2008:
This Sunday I will be performing on Team America for the international TheatreSports(TM) Comedy Improv Competition at The Cockpit Theatre in Northwest London.
I'll be performing along with Lisa Robinson and Charlotte Gittins as we take on Team England and Team Germany.
Check it out!
Earlier in the day, I'll be running a long-form improv workshop for The Institute.
July 5, 2008
(Saturday)
Today I ran the Regent's Park Summer 10K Race in Regent's Park.
Yesterday I ran 10K with hills in about 50 minutes, and earlier I had projected I'd run this race in 45 minutes. Just before the race, I figured it would be impossible for me to shave off 5 minutes, even though the course was pretty flat.
Turns out, my official time for the race today was 43:47. That's more than 6 minutes faster than yesterday's run!
I'm quite proud of the achievement. There were plenty of impressive runners who finished in front of me, and I know that with more focus in my training I could bring that number down. But not bad, Ben!
(Looking back over my marathon blog, it seems the fastest I've run a 10K (or maybe 6.4 miles) is 42:46 in Central Park in 2005 close to the marathon. That being said, this makes today's accomplishment pretty rich! I must be in decent shape.)
July 6, 2008
(Sunday)
Today I ran a long-form improv workshop for The Institute, took a scenic improv workshop with Alistair Cook, and performed with Lisa Robinson and Charlotte Gittins on Team America for the TheatreSports(TM) Comedy Improv Competition at The Cockpit Theatre in Northwest London.
This day was perhaps the most improv I've done in a day!
July 10, 2008
(Thursday)
This evening I taught a sold-out trial long-form improv class in Kensington, Central London. The participants were incredible, and in 3 hours I saw such amazing transformations in these people. Such fun!
July 20, 2008
(Sunday)
I've just redesigned Ben Hauck online!
I'm really happy with it. After years enjoying a compact, minimalist "box design," I outgrew it in light of my many interests and needs. I needed something with more space.
I'm a frequent visitor of The Best Designs.com, and I came across a recent addition to the gallery: http://www.potashcorpenriching.com. A beautiful site, what specifically inspired me was the navigation bar. I decided to try to emulate it, and the bug bit me. I started playing with a site design off of that inspiration, and voila!.
Here are some features to the redesign of Ben Hauck online:
- My kisser is made a background image. (smooch!)
- I've added a second blog for general writing, which contrasts with this blog, which is for news in my life. The second blog, titled simply "Ben's Blog," will probably contain things the way of essays, though I haven't held myself really to anything or any timetable for writing.
- I like the slick "accordion" design, which allows both visual simplicity but seam-splitting content. This was a feature I knew I wanted to somehow incorporate in a redesign, though I wasn't sure how. My early drafts of the redesign were still compact, with my kisser in a left-central column, and everything else hidden in a right-central column. The trouble with that design was that it was like my prior box designs--they were self-constricting.
- As a result of the accordion design, the site is fun to play with! At least I think so. It doesn't seem annoying as the open/close controls help with that. The only thing I couldn't get to work as I wanted to was persistence of the panel positions when you move onto the next page; I would love for there to be a way when you click the Back button to be able to look at what you left. I tried to design something like this, but it wasn't working properly and it wasn't quite consistent in its behavior, making the site messy and confusing.
- I've added a ton of favorite quotations on random display, and I'll probably add more as this site lives on. I have long wanted to do this on my site, but I couldn't visually justify it as it would tend to pull focus away from the design. I think right now it works, at least for me. It's to be learned how it works for other people.
- I've fixed long-broken elements in the blog search capabilities. I've spent so many tedious hours tweaking the look of these pages, and it's easy to make many mistakes. I think it's worth it though it's probably rarely viewed. I would have liked to have had the Search pages more integrated with the site rather than having them with their own designs separate from the site, but I couldn't figure out how to do this with all of the php calls I do in the design.
- I was trying to move to WordPress for my blog, but being that I wanted two blogs and it was too involved for me to set up two blogs (my web host performs the installation of one WordPress blog, which was a boon!), I ditched WordPress and stayed with my trusty old (literally) MovableType blogging software. It's a little clunky but it works and it generally does what I need it to do. Plus, it allows many blogs!
- I've broken away from the blue-and-black theme common to my web designs. Hallelujah: I've moved to black-and-orange. Or at least I hope you see orange. It's a color pulled from the background photo. This makes the gender of the site more neutral and less masculine, which I think is a plus. I generally like it. It's been fun tryinig to find ways to display orange well. Hopefully you like my choices.
- I've added a Quicklinks page on the homepage in case some of the things are hard to find. For example, I've put my photos and videos under the Performing category. That's controversial, I suppose, in light of the popularity of online videos and photos, but I found having them listed together or separately on the navigation bar really cluttered it up. For the most part, the videos and photos I have on the site are related to my performing career, so it at least makes some sense to have them there.
- On the videos page, I've added a way for visitors to email the link of a video. Not a big deal, but it was something new.
- I've chosen to market myself in four distinct ways: as an actor, as an improviser, as a teacher, and as a writer. These are four strong themes in my life right now. Primarily I see myself as an actor, with improv as a subset of that, and teaching as a concurrent, sometimes exclusive alternate profession. Writing is something I've done more and more of, getting published with the aim of getting published more. So, I expect that aspect of myself to grow. Teaching encompasses three aspects: improv teaching, teaching general semantics, and monologue coaching. These pages are helpful for students to find the necessary information in taking my classes or working with me privately. I've long needed to update these pages, and I finally have. Two of the major bonuses are a) a list of rehearsal studios so clients have a go-to for options rather than having to search the ether for a space, and b) tons of testimonials on my teaching and coaching. They speak for themselves. I love teaching improv, and people love taking improv from me!
- I've put many of my poems online. Admittedly, I don't write poems much these days. I tend to write poems when I'm in love with someone. Most of my poems employ puns and wordplay, and you might never find or understand every pun I've included. That's part of the fun of them. Many of my poems are over a decade old and they still hold up for me in many ways. In high school, I used to spend a lot of time writing poems, really paying a lot of attention to their structure. Nowadays, I spend less time. However, some of the poems, when really wrestled with, come out amazing. Have a look.
- I've added back my photos from The Onion. They're in the Photo Gallery under the Performing tab.
- This site is still a bit of a work in progress. First, I need to add an interests page, which I'll get to. I also need to update my biography, as a lot has gone on in my life since its "conclusion" and I need to weave that into the narrative else it dates this site. I also need to get to revamping my improv site as I'll be back in the States soon and teaching improv classes again there. The last thing I can think of offhand is that I need to fill Ben's Blog with content!
- Last but not least, because I almost forgot: I have a new improvised sermon up. It's called "Pancake Jesus," and it's from a show I did in London this month. It's a little crazy because I was improvising with others in the scene, but hopefully you enjoy. :)
That's all for now! I'd love your feedback on the redesign. I've tested the website in IE7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari, and it seems to work in all of these browsers, with only one glitch (the videos disappear when you hover over the navigation bar, but the audio continues). Should you find some problem, please let me know! Also, I've intentionally created a rather wide website, meaning that the quotations may not be seen. I don't know yet how it looks in others' computers, so if you notice something weird, send me an email and when I reply, email me a screenshot of what you see. It will be invaluable to me!
To contact me, try me by using the Contact tab, or clicking here.
Cheers!
Ben Hauck :)
UPDATE! My redesign has been tagged by Tag Society.com! As described by the site:
July 24, 2008
(Thursday)
Hello!
Pretty much completing my massive re-design, I've just added my interests page. It's a list of my general interests outside what's listed more obviously in the navigation bar. It also includes some favorite links and blogs I read.
Tied to my interests page are my songs, which I've put on a page of their own and also tied with my writing menu. The songs are playable via a Flash button and load pretty immediately. Each comes complete with a description of the song and the artistry that went into making it, plus lyrics. It took me quite some time to make that page and write the descriptions, but if you're interested in that kind of information and history, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
Also, I'm a contributor to the new improv theory blog called Tractor Control, begun by London improviser Paul Foxcroft, a friend of mine out here and very astute fellow. I've just posted my first entry there (""What happens when you start calling something 'an artform'"), and I'm excited about the potential for the blog.
As for the reception of this newly re-designed website, the feedback seems mostly ecstatic, though my choice to make an intentionally wider-than-normal website has resulted in some viewers remarking they have to scroll to the side to see all content.
I may have a fix for that in the future, but for now, I can't seem to come up with an easy solution. I'd like to keep the random quotations box in the bottom right corner, though this is not easily accomplished if I start messing with the way things are arranged on the screen. I'm perfectly happy to let people who do not have that wide of browsers/screens not see the quotations, and instead just see the content. However, if their browsers/screens don't reveal ALL of the content, and instead force side-scrolling to view it all, I'm not all that happy with that predicament.
The issue is complex, as well as complicated, and maybe I'll come up with a solution. Furthermore, maybe the issue will become more urgent for me if I see more viewability issues. For now, I'm a little isolated in London, not around others' computers to compare how the site looks, so I think I'll just deal. I have plenty of other things to do right now than to waste a whole day trying to fix it!
July 28, 2008
(Monday)
Tonight I direct Infusion Improv for their private, informal performance at The Clerkenwell Theatre in Islington, London.
July 31, 2008
(Thursday)
Send me your screenshots!
I'm trying to figure out if I need to change the layout of my website to accommodate viewers or if it's a tiny fraction who have difficulty viewing my website. The only way I know how to really help others is that if you have some compromise in ability to experience my website, please send me a screenshot. The steps are simple and fast, and the help is, well, very helpful!
Here are the steps:
1. Contact me through my contact page to let me know you'd like to send me a screenshot.
2. I'll reply to let you know if I'm interested. (I probably will be.)
3. You can send an attachment of your screenshot to me via my reply email address.
To make a screenshot, do this:
1. With a PC, open the website in your browser and hit the "Prnt Scrn" (Print Screen) button.
2. You will have created a copy of your screen this way.
3. Open Paint, found under Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint.
4. When Paint is open, hold down the Ctrl button while also hitting V. This should paste your copied screen.
5. Save this file as something like "Ben's Website" and save it as a .bmp or .jpg file.
6. Upload this file as an attachment in your reply.
Thanks in advance!