Personal site of Evan Islam

Crazy Dancing by Sophie Merry | Cool Video from YouTube.com

Crazy Dance Moves

I found this video on youtube.com. lol just had to share it here. it's awsome. The girl that's dancing is Sophie Merry from Ireland.

Treehouse Web Department on the Local Fox News in Connecticut

Treehouse Video

On Tuesday, December 30th, Fox 61 News Crew came to Basement Systems to check out the Treehouse project. Here is a video that aired on Fox 61:

The Treehouse Project - One of the most creative workplace environment.

The Treehouse Project

Basement Systems web department is going through a change... a big change. In mid november, Larry Janesky, the owner decided to renovate the web department into a tree house. Ummm, what you say when the owner says that he will make you work in a treehouse? lol but all he said was it was going to be COOL and the best interior creative project in the nation.

We started on December 14th and the project is going to be complete on January 2nd. Now, that's fast building. We all knew it was going to be cool and the best because the boss said so, but we didn't know how cool it was going to be. Check out the video of the Treehouse on Fox 61 Connecticut

Here are some pictures from The Treehouse Project:

First take a look at some before pictures of the department.

We could sit 14 people in the department. The desks are big and takes up a lot of space... So the goal is to create 28 stations instead of 14 in the same space :)

From the back of the department

Staging area for the Treehouse. Raw materials...

The project was done by all in-house employees. Either on the clock or on volunteer based. People have been working on this from 6am to 10pm everyday including weekends.

Ron Canelli (Sales Manager) is a carpenter and helping out in the Treehouse.

Rob Card (Total Basement Finishing) is also a carpenter.

April Strom (Web Designer) is drawing a big tree on the wall which will be painted later...

Some of us just goof around too much instead of helping...

The Boss, Owner of Basement Systems, Larry Janesky. He is the mastermind behind this project.

Kevin Munn video recording the entire action. He is the video dude of Basement Systems.

Master Carpenter, Jeff Weaver, at work. He is in charge of all carpentry work and making sure everything looks good. Jeff kicks ass.

Work in progress: looks like some part it is starting to look good :)

CleanSpace Man, Mike Delmolino, working on the Treehouse.

Job History of Evan Islam

Evan's Job History

This is an archive of all the jobs I held over the years. I'm adding this content so that in 30 years I can look back and show all my 32 grandchildren my work history ;)

Community Volunteer Fire Department.	Alief, TX	Fenruary 2000 - June 2003
As I was going to College at the Art Institute of Houston and working at Adam's Mark Hotel during the weekdays, my friend Nevan and I joined the local volunteer fire department for the weekends. After 6 months of special training, we graduated and became volunteer fire fighters. Since it was a part time gig, it was the best job ever. I went into 3 burning houses in three years... houses don't catch on fire enough :( lol... but when it does, it's FUN!
Adam's Mark Hotel	Houston, TX	December 1999 - January 2001
Room service! That was the tag line as I knocked on door to door with breakfast for rich folks who spend 20 bucks on omlet, toasts and juice. You can get that for 4 bucks at McDonalds. I have also worked as a waiter time to time on the restaurant when the regular servers called in sick or had busy days. Worked as a bartender couple of times and made TONS of tips. Highest tips on a 8 hour day: $172.00.
Fiesta #14	Houston, TX	Winter 1996 - Winter 1999
Started as a bag boy, and very soon got downgraded to get basket from the parking lot. lol, it was tough but after couple of months, I became a cashier with 50 cents raise. After a year or so, I go a position as the Scanning Coordinator, putting up price tags, adding sale prices in the system, creating ALL weekly sales signs in the store. I mean this was a good position, with a FULL dollar raise :) After a year or so when I have learned a lot about how the store is structured, became the Dairy Department Manager. First job as a department manager, chi ching... but no raise. So, then the Grocery Manager made me a over night stocker/supervisor with 50cents raise. By the time I left Fiesta in 1999, I was the highest paid employee among my friends. I left at the end of 1999 because I started college and I couldn't do overnight job anymore. I got a few friends hired in Fiesta by then and left the job with all smiles and bosses telling me that I'd have a job anytime I want to come back :)
Nepolian Pizza	Houston, TX	Summer 1996
My first job at age 16. Working in the kitchen making pizza and taking orders over the phone. Got paid $4.25 an hour... My first week's earning was $68 bucks. Spent some of the money pizza for friends :)

Secret Santa 2008 on Christmas Eve at Basement Systems

Secret Santa at Basement Systems

Every year Basement Systems employees do the Secret Santa thingi and this year no different. Actually, this year, it was cool because I got the best present every. This is how it works: I put my name on a card that says "I'm buying gift for __________ and he/she would like ___________ as gift from Santa." So, I have to fill out the form with my name and my wanted present and put it in a box by a given date. All employees that submitted their cards get to choose one card of someone else... bla bla bla I think most people know how this works...

So anyways, I asked for Chocolate Chip Cookies and Scratch off tickets from Santa and boy did my wish come true. I got exactly that with a beautiful presentation. Here are some pics from the Secret Santa day:

Employees getting their presets...

Goofing around... Yea I'm excited to see if I really for my cookies...

Ahhhh... so I asked for Chocolate Chip Cookies and Scratch Offs... and this is what I get... A giant Chocolate Chip Cookie with Lottery Ticket on it, lol how cool is that???

Close up picture of the cool cookie. The bakery scanned the lottery ticket and crafted the image on the cookie with frostings that are safe to eat... Just like custom birthday cakes :)

And I'm showing off my wonderful artistic cookie.

Later I found out that my Secret Santa was Flip Plancon from Dealer Support department. Thanks Flip for a thoughtful gift :)

Royal Flush in a Texas Hold'em Poker Hand

I often play Texas Hold'em in Facebook.com Poker application and today for the first time ever, I got Royal Flush. Unfortunately, the pot wasn't too big, I won only 2K chips :( It was fun though... i was warning the table not to bet... but 3 people still went ALL IN, lol...

I have gotten some other rare poker winning hands before... but of course nothing beats this hand :)

Kung Fu Panda Stamps by Austrian Postal Service

Kung Fu Panda Stamps

I was working on stampsbook.org trying to get some new stamps to add and I came across some Kung Fu Panda stamps from Austria. I was surprised to see such stamps since the movie just came out very recently and I did not think the movie was any better then any of the pixar films.

The Austrians published 6 Kung Fu Panda stamps with a value of .55 euro each in June 2008. 6 stamps include stamps of all the main characters. Ty Long, the stamp on this page is an example of how nice these stamps look.

These are just some cool stamps, thought I'd share them with you. Hope you like them.

[View rest of the stamps]

Fortune Cookie Quotes Database Website Created by Web Designer in CT

Fortune Cookie Quotes

Title: Fortune Cookie Quotes

Fortunecookiemessage.com is one of a kind website dedicated to collect only fortune cookie messages. The site is set up so that users can submit fortune cookie quotes after they had a nice chinese meal for lunch or dinner.

Along with cookie quote, I have set up database tables to capture lotto numbers, daily pick3 numbers and even chinese translations from the back of the cookie message. So, when you click on OPEN A COOKIE, you get a fortune as well as one chinese translation, lotto number and pick3 number just like a normal fortune cookie :)

This site is very popular on the web and how do I know that? It's linked from Wikipedia. I've also researched to see who links to this site and I was surprised to find that one university instructor uses this site as credible source to find cookie quotes for student's thesis paper, lol. Now, that's cool!!!

Now, the site has some more cool features such as weekly fortune cookie quote in your email box. So the site will spit out a cookie, along with chinese translation, lotto number, and pick3 number every Monday at 2:00am. So, please sign up to my automated fortune cookie email service :)

Visit website: FortuneCookieMessage.com

Pictures From Hunting Trip in Upstate NY Near Rome, NY

The Big Hunt

Previous page: The Crooked Cabin

Okay, Day 2! After a good night of snoaring... there were 8 guys in that cabin... so yea, LOTs of snoaring, Jack decides to get his gun out to play.

We didn't go hunting... lol I just like to think we went hunting. There were no animals harmed during our trip. (mainly cause we couldn't get to any).

Ron starts his morning by getting on the quad with his B.B. Gun. On a mission to shoot down some small animals.. but then, Jack comes out with the big toy. Chad sets up a target about 90 yards away for us to shoot at.

Now, this rifle is LOUD! And I don't think I was ever present when a rifle was fired so, to me, this is all new. I'm like "COOOOOOOL!"

Jack fires a couple of rounds and then he lets Chad go at it for couple of shots.

After Chad, Todd wants a wack at it, so he fires a couple.

Then I get chance to fire the gun. I WAS EXCITED!!!!! lol, I'm shooting a GUN... a REAL ONE! I give the camera to Todd and say "Dude, take a picture first", lol

That target looks so far away...

Then of course, we verify our kills. We are all pointing at our target.

I shot off target but, I still hit the white paper, lol. Not bad for first time :) I kept my bullet shell as a souvenier.

Those bullets all went through the wood into the ground.

EvanDaEman | Nickname of Evan Islam

EvanDaEman

Since 1998, I have been known as EvanDaEman on the web. Started as an AOL chatroom screen name, which led to my website as evandaeman.com. Unfortunately, I DO NOT own that domain name and it's a pain to get it back.

Well, since high school, Emon bhai, a very good close friend of mine and myself came up with the concept of the E-men. Since we will never be Batman or Superman... since our names start with E, we figured we'd be E-men... so his screen name was EmanElLoco and mine was EvanDaEman. Very cheezy you say? Yes... lol anything to be cool in high school right? It was fun while it lasted, so no complaints.

I have noticed that, EvanDaEman is still around in many websites as I used that name a lot. By adding this page I'm hoping that if anyone searches for my screen name, my site will come up :)

If you have a link to my old domain from your website, please change that so the traffic comes directly to my new site.

Now, I'm trying to position myself as a web designer in Connecticut. So, if you ever decide to link back to my site, please use "Web Designer in Connecticut" as the anchor text.

1st Premier Mortgage Company | 1stpremiermtg.com Created by Connecticut Web Designer

1st Premier Mortgage Company

Title: Connecticut Home Mortgage

1st Premier Mortgage Company offers home loans in Connecticut. I had created the 1st version of this website back in 2006 and recently, Maya, the owner of the company hired me to work on this again. This time, I gave it a little different look and optimized the website for "Connecticut Home Mortgage".

Optimizing a web site for the search engine is natural at this point. Can't help it. It just makes sense to do it right once you really get into it. The company is out of Norwalk, CT. So, the goal is to get the site to the 1st page of google for "Home Loans Norwalk" and related local mortgage keywords.

The site has a mortgage calculator with payment breakdown of a given period. The site is very small and right to the point. Just what the client wanted :)

Visit the website: 1stpremiermtg.com

More Pictures from Weekend at The Crooked Cabin in Upstate NY

More Pictures from The Crooked Cabin Trip

Previous page: Weekend in Upstate New York

After our spiritual cleansing we continued towards The Crooked Cabin.

Hotel sign on trees... When was the last time you saw one of these?

Ahh the Bog, only trucks are allowed in this part of the country.

Finally we arrive at The Crooked Cabin. Crooked Cabin is the name of this place. I don't know why :( in the picture: Jeff, Ron, Eddy, Chad

This cabin was built by Ed Cannelli, from begining to end. Doesn't this look fantastic? It looks like a BRAND new cabin cause it is... Ed pretty much replaced everything that used to be here and put his own artistic touch on it... looks great!

Eddy, jeff Chad

Inside the cabin: Ed, Chad, Todd... BRAND new cabin :)

Continue to next page for more pictures from the trip: The Big Hunt

Weekend at The Crooked Cabin in Upstate NY

Weekend in Upstate New York

This past weekend, November 1st, I went to Florence, NY with several guys at work. We went to the Crooked Cabin which is owned and built by Ed Cannelli, who took me clamming for clam chowder contest a year ago in freezing cold weather. This year he invited me to his cabin... now that's a cool dude :) Thanks Eddy!

So here are some pictures from the trip:

The journey begins with Ron, Ed's brother, picking me up at 8:30am from my mansion and head north on Route 8.

Beautiful Connecticut... can't beat the orange and red mountain views... absolutely gorgeous.

I'm not sure which bridge is this... but it's pretty

After an hour or so driving, Ron and I stop for gas. When we got back on the freeway, there we spot Jeff's truck. Jeff is on of our basement finishing salesman. With him is Chad and Todd in the backseat of the truck who are also sales guys for Connecticut Basement Systems.

Ahhh, what a view... these pictures don't do these views any justice... they look so much better when you are there...

Once we made it to the dirt road, Chad gets ready to Sage us. Chad is part Cherokee Indian, so naturally he is very spiritual and into nature and stuff... So he performed this ritual called saging which suppose to get rid of all evils or bad spirits from us and clear our mind to invite good spirits. This is was very nice and different experience.

Ron getting Saged! It's pretty nice... he uses the turkey feathers instead of his hands because the feathers are more pure and won't pass any bad spirits through the smoke. The smoke is of WHITE SAGE which I believe is rare and smells very nice.

Then he Saged me...

Ahhhh... breath in and breath out... Clear out all bad spirits...

He also saged the truck for good luck.

And then Rod saged Chad... Ron's doing a pretty good job :)

Continue to next page for more pictures from the trip: The Crooked Cabin

Rare Poker Hand when playing Facebook Poker

Rare Poker Hand

I play Texas Hold'em poker in Facebook Poker application time to time and I have rarely seen dealers deal cards like this... When the Flop was A A A I was like wow, then comes the turn and another A. so we were laughing around and suddenly comes the K. Of course, everybody wins...

4 of a Kind As and K as kicker

I know I may not see something like this in a long time, so I just got a screen capture. Pretty Cool!!!

I'm starting to like this poker thing... here are some other nice hands I've received:

Testimonial for Search Engine Expert Bruce Clay

I have recently attended the Bruce Clay SEO training in NYC. If you don't know what SEO is, it's search engine optimization... If you do not understand or care about what search ranking does or how it ranks sites to the top for a given query, this will not make any sense to you.

For those of you who appriciate the value of search ranking, you may know who Bruce Clay is. After going through his training class, I am convinced that he is one of the best search engine optimizers out there. I have learned a lot of about search engine behaviors in the last two days.

I highly recommend his class for anyone who is interested in becoming an expert in search engine optimization. He explains why search engines do the things they do, what's black hat SEO and white hat SEO and how to get your site in the first page of search engine result pages. I was totally impressed with his extensive knowledge about the web spiders and results they provide.

Thanks, Bruce :)