returning from Vancouver

lots to cover in this post since its been a long time and many many things have happened. ill start with my new website, which I am quite happy with. though I did not use a cms backend-- its just CSS, HTML, and jquery-- I feel like it was the easiest way to throw something up there quickly while still exercising full creative control over the design. Ive talked before about my process-- to mock up my design in photoshop and then take that image apart and code the components. I wonder how much better Id be at web design if I had embraced that process earlier in my career. I still need to double check it to make it w3c compliant and while it looks good in all the browsers I tested it with plus the iPad, it looked funky on my dads samsung xoom. I will continue to add projects to it, and tweak it to present them in the best way. this is something Ive been wanting to do for a long time-- to design a place to put everything I finish so I can look back and flip through it. Im sure I could do the same with a cms backend, but for some reason this site seems more me, built exactly the way I best know how, and every line in it is something I created. wordpress, joomla, html5, are my next steps, and incorporating shopping carts since thats in high demand, but for now I have this method down pat.