Journal 42: And he's off

So with much adieu and all that other stuff...I am officially putting my design to code tonite...I will shortly be writing the first bits of code of perhaps the rest of my life...well, I guess that's a little too much. I am also working on another site as a little warm up...it's devoted to the color blue...well instead of just goin on about it, why not just look?

Will update as I go...peace fo now fool

Journal 41: 3 Columns

I promise I haven't forgotten about my flow chart for users of GHBC but I have something I need to bitch complain about that is extremely frustrating to me...multi-column CSS.

For the last week and a half, my progress in this field has been increasingly frustrating and stagnant. I just can't get the damn thing to work right. I really don't want to resort to absolute positioning because I know deep down in my geeky, web heart that it's just not good practice. It feels like a cop-out. I know there should be some way to do it...but it's just not.

Wait....

I FIGURED IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
zomgwtfbbq I am soooooo pumped right now. Byahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Journal 37-40: This seems really familiar

So now that I have my sobfest out of the way, I can write a good entry that actually has some meaning to it...hooray.

1) In the reading, "Design Decisions vs. Audience Considerations," Ragle - Davis states that, "If you know who your target audience is, you can tailor your site’s look and feel, content, and action areas to appeal to your audience and draw them in. If you know what your site visitors want, you can use that information to mutual benefit." She then proceeds to walk through an example of a site for a political candidate by illustrating her knowledge of who the audience is and what they want. How would you answer this for your final project site?

Well, my audience base is actually very wide. However, it is a unique little niche...seeing as I am designing for a Church, there is a certain look and feel that is expected by visitors...and a lot of the time, they have no precise definition of that idea. I do know that as a church site, it is important that the site makes one feel at home and comfortable...and a lot of the regular users are going to be people that don't have the best web skill-set,* so when I make my design, I want it to be very transparent (I am meaning easy to use and navigate here) and welcoming...so not a whole lot of navigation and as much pertinent information on the index.

2) How would you chart out your audience as Ragle - Davis did?

We're going to save this for another entry...let's just say current and prospective church members for the time being.

3) How would you categorize your content based on audience (as the Ragle - Davis example had action items and regular content)?

I have already made a Photoshop prototype of the site (see below somewhere)...I have service times, directions and contact information as a static box on the left which never changes no matter what page the user is on. This=good for potential members and anyone else that needs to contact the church. I will also be using a vertical nav bar with dropdown menus for church functions and more in-depth information about the church and the pastor.

4) In looking over the other readings for today, what suggestions did Verba, Rester, and Boulton provide you with that might assist you with your work on Module 4 and, potentially, your final site?

In the article about brainstorming by Boulton, I got some really good tips on getting feedback from the powers at be (currently PC) on how to proceed. I am hoping this summer after we get the first edition of the site up that we can sit down and take a look at what we want to do...and this article really provided some good insight on how to gather these ideas.

5) The readings for today all dealt with various aspects, including design implications, of usability and accessibility. How do you see yourself addressing these within your final project site?

I already answered this question in a previous post, but in short, I plan on keeping images to a minimum because many users will have dial-up and I am also planning on making 2 different page sizes to cater to users with smaller screen sizes.

6) Now that we are two-thirds of the way done with the semester (time is FLYING by) what are your thoughts on the definition and role of web authors? Are they the same as coders, or "code monkeys"? Why or why not? Is your definition of web authors the same as your initial thoughts when you signed up for or started this class? Why or why not? Use evidence not just from this week's readings, but from previous readings we have had in the course including Zeldman.

My definition has never changed...we are the people that make being on the web enjoyable and useful. I see my role as a facilitator. I am not, and will never be a 'code monkey' because that assumes that the person is just regurgitating what they are given...the monkey see monkey do principal. I will fight to my last breath to change that image about web designers.

*that's a gross understatement...one lady at my church that was interested in contributing pictures to the gallery absolutely refuses to keep digital copies of her photos...and does not and will not learn to use a flash drive...oh the horror

Journal 30-6: Epic Fail

Hello world!! I am the biggest procrastinator at Michigan State it seems. I have managed to avoid any semblance of work until 5:30 am on a Monday morning. And now I have to write for a half hour on what I have done that is digital in nature.

One major update on my site project...I have been gathering pictures for the gallery and now have 2 albums, 2 envelopes filled with pictures and approx 8 cd's of pictures about WTBJ with possibly more on the way...wonderful...this simply means that I have about 5 hours of tedious, mind-numbing photo-filtering looming in my future. fml

fun Chuck Norris fact: Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the chin. Its descendants are known today as Giraffes.

I was also relieved to see that our CSS project is not due until next Friday...this week was going to suck so much balls I didn't even want to think about it...I have a test in about 7 hours followed by another test and a hefty amount of homework due on Wednesday. Not that I'm in the clear at all for this class...I have to generate 2 layouts for an in-class exorcise (guitars...), find a house for the summer so I don't have to live out of my car and bathe in the Red Cedar when I am working for the State News this summer, possibly find another job to pay for said house and car and booze, schedule summer courses, find time to get my(fat ass)self to the gym, clean my room, get a haircut, do laundry and on top of it all, I've got to get some sleep...

But in all truthfulness, I may complain, but I love what I am doing and accomplishing in this class. What with learning how to make 3 column layouts and color schemes.

State News update: It's awesome! I have learned sooooo much there already it's ridiculous. I actually have this sense of good and bad layout now! I also know how to use Adobe Illustrator. And on Friday, I was introduced to the magic of alpha channels and non-destructive editing!

Another Chuck Norris factoid: There is endless debate about the existence of the human soul. Well it does exist, and Chuck Norris finds it delicious.

With that note, I am going to bed and wishing Sunday was indeed today and not wasted on yesterday...

Journal 28-9: Review

Yeah, so I didn't do anything whatsoever over spring break academic or otherwise. That includes writing in my favorite online journal...yeesh. Well, really I can't say that I had a spring break seeing as Monday, I was gifted with a nice foot of snow...and it just went downhill from there.

So, where we stand on the whole website...I talked with PC and we are rolling ahead with my original design...maybe a change in font seeing as I think Helvetica looks too clean in comparison to the rest of the site and PC thinks whatever I think is just dandy. I am still waiting on content for the site so I'm going to have to move ahead with filler text...ugh.

I got a bunch of pics from the congregation so I can start looking through those and making a photo gallery. That should be terrible and I will want to die fun...

In other news, I am currently down 17 journals...go me. This week is going to be terrible and I will want to die great fun.

I still can't figure out what exactly I'm going to do about the 2 columns...I think iFrames would make it easier for my dad to do maintain the site if I don't have the time...but just having fixed columns would be soooo nice.

You know, I don't think I like having a spring break*...I really don't see the point in taking a week-long break where profs feel no remorse in giving a weeks worth of homework and sending the students on their merry ways. I certainly didn't do anything, and I was sitting on my ass at home...what makes anyone think that the people that actually went somewhere did anything more? And now I have a shitton of things to do to get back into the swing of things including unpack, do homework and start piecing my schedule for the summer and next year together. Why can't we just get done a week early and call it good?

*I will most likely be eating my words once I actually go somewhere over break rather than twiddle my thumbs on my couch surrounded by snow

Journal 27: It's like coffee-energizing

I got my first test of JavaScript this weekend. I went online and found some code for JS alerts. I set several alerts to show up when the page loads up and seeing as my site had several videos, I made it so that when you mouse over one of them to pause it (they autostart too), it gives you an alert and you have to go thru a painful process of trying to pause the movies and acknowledge the alerts at the same time. I've also been looking thru stuff on W3C schools learning the minor stuff on JS like conditional writing and stuff like that...more when I can actually explain it

peaches!

Journal 25&6: Hatred of stupid technology

I think I might want to kill the computer lab here at the Union (Student)...I tried 3 different computers (all Macs...I can't stand the Windows the U provides) to open Dreamweaver...and none of them frackin work!!!!!! AGHHHHH!!!!!!

Let me repeat that for emphasis:

AAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHGHHGHHGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*deep breathing exercises*

Not only could I not get Dreamweaver running, on all 3 of the puters I tried, the vertical scrolling ball on the mighty mouse didn't work...which starts out as a nuisance, turns into an irritation and finally blows the lid and makes the user furious...it's not that bad on a small screen because you can always just move quick to the side of the window...but on anything bigger than a 6x8hundred res screen, scrolling is a necessity and I will not be denied!!

So enough about MSU's half-arsed attempt to provide it's students with necessary technology...I have a very diabolical plan for my killer website...I'm probably going to put in more animated GIF's, a lot of illegible text, and...wait for it...an embedded, hidden and looped wav file that consists entirely of the intro of Baba O'Reiley by The Who...of course there's going to be some broken links, more "Chipmunked" videos and such.

For my secondary page, I'm gonna pull the good old angel in the clouds ploy...have everything in white with a white background...with a note at the top that tells the user to highlight everything in order to read things...and I'm gonna have more annoying sounds in the background...maybe some simple JavaScript things that pop up or something not sure yet

Journal 22&4: Un Petit Update

Yeah, so last week seemed to come rolling right out of hell on some demented crazy train and took a huge, steaming dump all over my life, socially, academically and mentally...I had tests and a certain (vv) project (ahem) at the end of the week, I was having emotional issues with letting go of advertising and going to PW (pshh...yeah right), I was and am still trying to figure out what in the hail is wrong with my car (not running is one problem), I'm pretty sure that I saw my friends about twice, I'm still trying to catch up on sleep from last week and on top of it all, I still had homework in all of my classes...so pardon the laziness in posting a project for my week's journals...

So, for the update...I have done almost nothing productive this week to compensate for last week...I am managing to do some cool stuff with AI (Illustrator)...I learned how to make that cool text effect that you see on classic comic books (Effect>3D>Extrude & Bevel)...I was gonna show off with that by putting a pic in...but it's taking too long and I'm not feeling the enthusiasm 45 mins into it...I am also in the process of tracing a sketch I made for an ad with the pen tool...that's really fun (and by fun I mean tedious and time consuming)...I am wondering at this point just how much work I'm willing to do for a spec ad tho...

Oh! Fun stuff...for the State News staff photo this year, we are vectoring ourselves onto superheroes and then we will compile the pics together for the final proj...I'm pumped as I'm gonna be Syndrome from the Incredibles...w00t!!

I'm also going to be making a profile page for the State news...I might want to kill HTML by the end of this year...but I did notice that there is a copy of the JavaScript Bible at SN...YES!!!!!!

Module 2 Paper AKA 17-21

So I thought that making my module 2 paper my journals for this week would be appropriate. I spent a lot of time on this paper...and every single other thing I had to do this week...

Module 2: Analyzing Web Code

A comparison of Time.com and Zeldman.com

The page I analyzed for Module 1 was Time.com, so I thought it fitting to analyze its underlying stricture for Module 2. I am comparing the code with that of Jeffery Zeldman’s site, zeldman.com. Zeldman is considered a God of sorts for web design and his site acts as much as a creative outlet and blog for Zeldman as a standard to which authors should compare their work. I am going to deviate slightly from the original assignment. I will be analyzing the CSS sheets used in the sites. I am pretty familiar with HTML, but not so much in CSS. As this assignment is to serve also as a reference sheet of sorts, I figured CSS would be a good substitute for HTML in my case.
In general, Jeffery Zeldman is my hero (of web design)…he is renowned in the field of web design and has a site viewed by thousands of people every day. His site reflects his prowess in web design and passion for user experience and learning. The first thing I would like to mention about his CSS sheet compared to TIME’s is the little disclaimers/explanations he leaves like easter eggs throughout the document. He fully intended for other people to look at his CSS code and learn from the way he went about designing his site. TIME, on the other hand, looks like an intern got carried away with the copy and paste button and then went through and changed what they needed. The code is sloppy, disorganized and unnecessarily redundant. It appears to me that TIME jumped on the web bandwagon as an afterthought and spent only as much time and money constructing the site as necessary to create a skeleton template…and have not had a major overhaul to their site or a significant update in quite some time.
In TIME’s defense, they do have a lot of information that has to be presented…which means a lot of formatting. And being a novice in CSS coding, I am not in the best position to be tearing their code or process apart. But all the same, I’m almost positive that there is a simpler and better way to lay this site out using CSS. It would also help if they put in little explainer tags to help future authors (including themselves) to know which things are which as Zeldman did.
I really enjoyed this assignment…main reason being that I use this sort of process for learning about web design on my own. I usually will go through the source code of a site to see how it works…maybe even open th e document in Dreamweaver’s split view and see which elements correlate to which lines of code.
I must admit, I read through Zeldman’s code more than TIME’s…mostly because the TIME CSS to me, seemed like a jumbled mess. Zeldman did a very good job with making his code accessible and readable. I did learn a lot from Zeldman’s code about the process of laying out using CSS. Background images and divs are key elements in contemporary layout design and Zeldman demonstrated perfectly how to use them. I also picked up some seemingly good shortcuts on how to code in attributes…especially background attributes…rath er than have several separate attributes such as an image attribute, a color attribute and so on, just have one background attribute tag with all of the attributes specified inside of it.
Here’s an example of what I mean:

div#wrapper {
background: transparent url(/i04/wrapinner.gif) top left repeat-y;
}

As per the rubric, here’s a lis t of reoccurring elements I found in both TIME and Zeldman.com.

• min-width—sets the minimum width of an element
• border—define the borders around an element
• display—sets how/if an element is displayed
• text-align—aligns the text in an element
• margin—define the space around elements
• padding—define the space between the element border and the element content
• color—defines the color o f an element, be it text, border or other
• font—defines the font of the text…usually supply the specific font as well as the root font and serif family
• width—sets the width of an element…usually div’s
• height—defines the height of something…usually div’s
• font-size—defines the font size…usually using the ‘em’ unit
• list-style—sets the type of the list-item marker (the bullet points)
• position—defines the pos ition of an element…like a picture or a div or whatnot
• line-height—sets the distance between lines of text…’em’ units work best
• letter-spacing—sets the distance between characters…’em’ works best
• text-transform—defines any special characteristics of the text…so you can make everything uppercase or small caps or whatnot
• background-color—sets the background color of an element
• a:visited—a pseudo class for hyperlinks that defines the appearance of visited links
• a:hover—a pseudo class for hyperlinks that defines the appearance of links when hovered over by a mouse

I feel very confident with using basic attributes like –color, -image, and –position—mainly to do with the fact that I have used programs dealing with visual elements like Photoshop and Illustrator, however, a nything dealing with text is still relatively foreign to me…I think it has to do with my inexperience with manipulating text…I am getting better at using text manipulating attributes however.
I would just like to say that W3C Schools is the BEST PLACE EVER to learn anything about anything web…from definitions to tutorials on how to do different tasks to basic walkthroughs and even learn how to get a certification in any web authoring language recognized by the W3C. This is where I got all of the information pertaining to the attributes and where I have been learning code. I constantly have a tab in my browser devoted to W3C Schools in the event I have a web-related question
So in short, TIME needs a major overhaul on their site, Jeffery Zeldman is a web authoring GOD and I have a long way to go before I can do anything close to what I have seen in this project.

• Very cluttered…every attribute has an identifier…makes it a pain if one was ever to go back in and edit it • Lines and lines and lines of code • Most images are actually in the CSS…especially for the RSS feeds and background images • All the attribute id’s are individual…rather than consolidating them • Color tags • Text font families • Margin/padding • Links have their own id’s and colors and most have attributes for diff a:hover • Images: default • There’s a lot of information on how the page looks and how things are formatted

• clean and organized • There are small explainer tags that describe the function of different things • He seems to have designed the CSS with future editors and the common viewer in mind • The images are also in CSS, but the tags are different…rather than have the tag as background-image, he consolidates all of the bkgd attributes into one tag… • Color tags • Text font families • Margin/padding • Links have their own id’s and colors and most have attributes for diff a:hover • Images: url(local image path) • There’s a lot of information on how the page looks and how things are formatted • This version looks a lot cleaner and simpler to navigate • Plus there are little explainers throughout the doc letting you know where you are

So there's my paper...and I'll get around to posting more progress later...when I actually have things to talk about...

Journal 16: Tabs and other things of interest

So for a while, I've wanted to learn how to make hyperlinks automatically open in new tabs...and how to make text appear as a comment when you hover over it...it's kind of frustrating not knowing how to do either...especially since I know as a user that it's nice knowing where a link is taking you before you click, and after you click, to not have the link take you away from the page you were viewing. You can do this already by right clicking the tab and saying open in new tab, but I want to make it more convenient for the more Layman user.

I went to Grand Rapids this weekend to meet with JMulls...it was loads of fun and I learned quite a bit about using RapidWeaver...it basically builds the site for you...which I think will be really useful in learning code because I can generate pages and then look at the source code for it and learn how to make my own code.

I also made a couple of contacts with guys that do the kind of stuff I'm getting into for a living...those should be really good to have around for questions and things of that nature.

Journal 14 &15: Apple Apple Apple

So big news...I heard from Apple today...about a month ago, I applied to be a Campus Rep and they finally got back to me! They want to talk to me tomorrow (Wed, 2/4/09), well, today now...

Anyway...Meeting with PC went well. We got a lot done...he really liked my mock-up, and aside from any major changes, ^^ is how it's gonna look...as you can see, it has a very calm, earthy feel...lots of greens and browns...and the text is grey sans rather than black serif. The NavBar is going to have a lot more on it than this however...I just didn't have time to go in and change anything since Sat...it's also going to be in drop down format with a gradient the same color as the far right...The 2 columns of text are going to be iFrames that scroll independently of the background (the trees and the gradient), which is going to stay static.

There are going to be a couple logos surrounding the banner, which is most likely going to change a little bit as well...I'm not sure about the font...I like the sans Helvetica, but I kind of want something more organic...not Papyrus organic...but something not as clean...Helvetica thruout doesn't seem to go right with the earthy motif.

There's also going to be a JS photo gallery as well as several php forms for prayer requests, CD ordering forms and more. This is going to be a biiiiiiiiig project...but I feel like when it's done, I will be 20 times the web designer I am right now...

I have been neglecting my digital portfolio lately...I should probably look into that...HAH!...like that's going to happen between the State News, classes, the GHBC site and possibly Apple...I kind of want to go in and redo it to look like a newspaper...predominently black and white with an Old English Banner...and NO TABLES!!!** I will use CSS for all of it...but that's gonna be a pet project that may end up being done this summer (which I will be spending in East Lansing beeteedubs). Eventually, I want it to become a personal homepage with a downloadable resume, the folio, and an info site about me...but again, this is something down the road...right now, I'm stuck in the mire of classes and work and trying to fit friends into the whole picture...I can't forget friends...that's what happened at the beginning of High School and that was possibly the worst time of my life...

But I'm not going to end on a depressing note so here's a synopsis of good things that have happened to me in the very short past:

I got hired at the State News as a graphic artist

I finally got GHBC to the planning stage and out of the gray maybe areas

Apple is considering me to be a Campus Rep

I finally was able to escape the clutches of Caf Work

I've got 2 gigs of cool new music to explore (all of which is legal)

I finally realized what I want to do with myself after college and found a path for that

I'm going to Grand Rapids to meet with one of my really good friends to learn more web stuff on Saturday!

All good things...and I'm happy to list them!


**More into my feud with tables later

Journal 13: Seldom heard from Mr. Trump

So today, I was hired by the State News to be on their Graphic Design Team!!!

The hiring process is pretty complex, I must say: First, you submit a resume, then you get interviewed...at which time, if they like you enough, you are given a call-back at which point, they, in effect, test drive you by having you work on an ad (in my case it was a V-Day ad for a florist)...and if you find a way to not screw that up, they hire you...for a probationary semester...after which they decide if they really want to hire you.

I am at the probationary semester phase...for some reason, I feel like something like this should be on a TV show...

...wait...

Well, anyway, I am the newest Graphic Designer at the State News...I may work my way up to web design as I get better at coding and the like...but for right now, web stuff is basically going to be confined to my WRA class and any downtime when I can be reading up on things I need to learn.

So in the words heard only once annually from the venerable MR. Trump, I had the privelege of hearing:

"Josh, you're hired"

Journal 11 & 12: Forms

Well, I think I have a slight bug on my portfolio...I have no idea where the feedback saves to...do I have to write in the code where the feedback goes? If so, that's a whole different can of worms that I'm gonna have to open! I always wanted to know how forms work...and also, how comment functions work on blogs...I'm going to be learning how to write my own blog code at some point and one of the main features is the whole notion of comments...how does one write code to save comments on a blog or portfolio?

I finally think I found something that I can throw myself at...web design. Every time I turn a corner, I find little things that just blow my mind...every time I have an idea, it's a little adventure to figure out the solution. Plus, with this huge explosion in online use, there are so many sites out there that are completely obsolete and, quite frankly, suck. I think I might like to fix that...maybe (virtually of course) burn the code that runs JC Penny's site and rebuild it from scratch so people can buy mediocre clothes at terrible prices conveniently*. It still astounds me at how bad this site really is...maybe I'm being a little bit harsh...but the first experience I had with JCP left me in a tailspin trying to figure out if I were going to be getting 1 or 2 pairs of pants, what color the aleged trousers were going to be, how much I would be charged, or if I was going to get a pair of pants at all...and in order to cancel my purchase, I couldn't do it online, I had to call some lady from like the middle of West Virginia to tell her that I wasn't going to be needing those jeans at this time, but thanks...and that's how I feel about JCP's site...questions?

*I think I would start at the bottom of the code and literally hold the delete key and watch every single little character be erased

Journal 9 & 10: Grids and other observations

So lately, it seems that everyone (well, just a couple of sites/blogs I follow*) is redesigning their sites and they are mentioning the use of underlying grids...I'm curious as to what exactly "grids" mean...are the grids actually in the code or is it just something used in the mock-up? What determines what kind of grid is used?

The intrigue builds with this next bit of news...my dad (aka Pastor C or PC) and I have scheduled a meeting to discuss the church website...he even sent me a project brief of sorts...I did find several tutorials on how to make drop-down menus with CSS, but the general consensus seems that the best way for menus is to use JavaScript, especially if you have more than one layer of drops...with js, evidently, you can mouse slightly out of the area of the drop-down and the menu won't just snap shut like it would in CSS, which enables one to mouse down thru a menu diagonally...which connects to the church site b/c one of the main ideas PC has is regarding drop-down menus.

PC also has some ideas as to what tone he wants to set (contemporary and ultra simple), which leads me to think an appropriate color scheme would be mostly white with some green, brown, maybe blue...some kind of Zenn scheme with completely sans-serrif font overall...but definately a gray text...I feel that's a must in this situation.

I feel pretty excited about the whole business...I know I have an extraordinary amount to learn still, but then again, this is something I want to learn...not something I have to.

*I have made some small attempts to contact the authors of these blogs...I think they may be some really good contancts to have

Journal 7&8

I think my my favicon problem is that I am using a Dropbox public folder to publish my portfolio...so the browser may not recognize that I have a favicon...I'm not quite sure, but I think that's my main problem...

For an honors option, I think I would like to make my final project a web site with a couple of extra sub-pages and JavaScript or Flash embedded in it...maybe make my portfolio into a whole personal website...with links to my portfolio, my blog (perhaps learn to make a blog layout on my own) and maybe some other things...

Another idea I would be really interested in is making a website for my church...the idea has been floating around with the leadership team at the church and I was planning on getting the ball rolling this summer due to the fact that I was kind of waiting on some content from them, but I could put together a general template that could accept the content later on... i was planning on putting in at least 5-6 pages for this one including a web gallery, a blog/announcements page, a podcast page, a general overview of the church, and some others...because of the size of this project, I probably would not use JavaScript seeing as I would still have to learn and master that language as well as research how to make a working blog, a page for downloads and an effective web gallery...also, the demographic of the users would make it difficult to use Flash or JavaScript on the site as most of the users would have dial-up connections and relatively older machines and JavaScript and Flash would lessen the accessibility of the site to them.

I would also be willing to tutor people in the class for web coding...I am pretty familiar with HTML and CSS coding so I could be of some help to students who may not have that much experience in web coding...maybe a powerpoint presentation to the class on some common things they will see when using HTML and CSS coding like link tags, div id's and so on...

And of course, I would be open to other ideas as well...

Journal 6

So...one thing I'm working on at the moment is drop down menus and rollover effects...I can't remember how to do the code, but it is something I have been working on.

Also, I can't seem to get my favicon to work...I've been trying for like a half hour now and still no headway...urgh*

Peaches!

Journal 4 &5

Well, there really isn't much else to report at the moment...oh! I finished the favicon gif (left)...I still have to convert it to .ico, but I did finish it...and I know how to put it into code for my site...it's really just an href tag in the header that new browsers automatically use as your icon...pretty nifty huh?

I didn't really know what to do that represented me while still being memorable, so this is what I got*...maybe eventually I'll make the favicon my logo rather than this lil guy...but who knows...

One other thing that came to mind as I'm sitting here at like 2 am...I want to know how to make links to downloadable files like pdf's and podcasts...I'm heading up the web design for my church and one of the things I wanted to do was to make my dad's (aka pastor Compton) weekly sermon recordings into a podcast that could be downloaded from the site...I still have to do some research as to how all that stuff would work, but mainly I want to know how to link to downloadable files...any help from the blogosphere?

And how do you make links that open in new tabs? I always find it a pain when I'm reading something and I click on the link and it leads me away from the original site I was viewing...most likely, if I make a link inline, it's supplemental to what I'm talking about so I want the reader to be able to stay on the original site but view the other page at the same time...how exactly do I do this?

*it's a little bigger than real life ;P

Journal 2 & 3: Still Under Construction

CSS. I like.

So I just recently finished my digital portfolio...at least the major body of it...I still need to add descriptions to my pictures and Next and Previous buttons to the pages. And some other minor things like adding a Favicon (thanks to Jam's wonderful insight and guidance).Tedious comes to mind.

Now for the actual meat of this post. So for a few days now, I've been trying to add a little banner in the corner explaining that my site is still under construction. From my previous life as a CSE 101 student in the Web Track Program, I knew the best way to do this was to make a div and tell the index where to put it with the all-powerful CSS sheet that Photoshop so conveniently generated for me...sounds pretty simple right? I already did it once with the link (a picture ) for my Homepage (which is still in the virtual womb with only that maroon rectangle in the background to show for my extensive work*), so I knew generally what to do...absolute positioning and 0px top and left...but it wasn't working. I had put the div in the line above the < / body > tag...if it's absolutely positioned, it really doesn't matter where you put the div as long as it's in the body...but no luck...so what about right under the <> tag? I want it at the top of the page...so I'll put the GIF at the top of the code...no? What about just inside the top <> tag? Random place, but it might work...no. WTF? So for about a week, I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong...and one day it hit me...what if I take out the space in the div id?** Turns out that little space makes all the difference.

I now have a Still Under Construction banner in its rightful place...but it was a pain...moral of this story...with div id's, no spaces or else


*building a table half from scratch is a pain in the ass!
**my div id was .under construction

Journal 1

First thing...I really want to know how to make those little GIFs that appear by the URL navbar (see right)...my prof told me that the code for this is in the head...but a lot of sites have tons of stuff like CSS code and stuff like that in there...so looking for something I don't even know the name for is really kind of annoying when it's burried in CSS and other random crap.

Second thing...JC Penney has a terrible website. It is never clear about what is actually available to order and what is out of stock, the load times are uber slow, the pics of the clothes are extremely innaccurate; the consumer has to go through like 5 different links to actually order an item and there is no place to actually redeem gift cards once you are finished navigating the labrynth of pages you have to go through before being able to complete an order. I'm already predisposed against online shopping and this experience definately didn't help. A company website that involves potential revenue is definately not something you just hand off to your interns and temps to play around with.

Third...I am going to have a rough semester and this journal most likely will be an outlet for complaining and stress...I really am not this angry all the time. ;)

Online Journal

So to anyone out there who happens to know the background of my blog...the content here at The Way I See It is going to be changing drastically...unfortunately, over the past however many months it has been, downtime has become a commodity...including the time to write out coherent and interesting posts. Because of this, I will be using this site for my web authoring class as an online journal. Feel free to comment on the posts as many of them will be posing questions about web authoring and telling of frustrations I have with whatever I am working on...but no more real 'Blog-ish' type content from my end.

Regards,
Buff