Articulated

Moving

I have decided to move my blog from Google’s Blogspot. I am not unhappy with their site or service. Blogspot provides a very easy way to set up and publish a blog. They provide users the opportunity to customize the blog template, and there are a number of websites that provide attractive, free templates for blogs. However, as a web designer, I feel obligated to have a more personal blog. Blogspot is a great resource for people who do not have the resources or the skills to manage their own blog software. I possess these things – or rather, I should.

As such, I have decided to deploy WordPress on my personal website. WordPress is a very popular blogging and web publishing system. The company I work for produces blogs and complete websites for customers using WordPress as it is relatively easy to work with and provides adequate content management features for small websites. The software is well supported and has matured. I am writing this post right now in WordPress and am impressed by how nice the administrative interface looks and functions.

By managing my own WordPress installation, I hope to be able to publish a better blog. I also hope to learn more about the software so that I can more capably serve clients in the future. This should be an interesting project.

Adjusting

This week was devoid of posts as I recovered from jet lag. Things are much better now but I am still adjusting. Hopefully, this week I will feel better as things return to normal. It has been much more difficult than I expected it to be. At the beginning of our vacation, it took about 3 or 4 days for recovery, although I admit my normal sleeping pattern was consistently off. I does make me wonder if I am experiencing what will be a long term modification of my traditional rhythm.

The other activity keeping me occupied is the design and development of my interactive travel journal. Much of my current effort is directed toward converting my journal notes. My notes were handwritten, so I need to enter the text into HTML; add relevant hyperlinks; add Chinese and Pinyin translations of various places and food items; and edit my very rough initial draft. The other current task is to develop my ideas for the interface and put together an initial design. I have some ideas put down as pixels but I really need to refine my ideas. Overall, the project is going to require quite a bit of work. I’ll need to develop it in pieces.

Back

After a long vacation, I am back. It’s been a while since I had an extended vacation without a laptop handy and I am feeling good about it. My vacation was also an opportunity to begin another creative venture: an interactive journal of my travels. While I was away I took notes about things I saw and ate along with my thoughts and impressions about my experiences. That, along with a great many pictures, hopefully give me the material necessary to produce an interesting project. Hopefully, it won’t take forever to create and I will have time to share it with friends, family, and the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, here is something found online, with thanks to one of my colleagues: The Periodic Table of Typefaces.

Upgrades

I recently found time to update my personal typeface. It’s the typeface you see on this blog’s page title and post titles. It is also the primary typeface for my portfolio website and business cards. I first designed it in 2004 when… well, let’s just say I had a lot of time on my hands. While in grad school, I had the opportunity to revisit this typeface design as part of my thesis project. However, I didn’t have a chance to apply what I learned to the actual TrueType files. Now, finally, I have combined what I now know about typefaces with the spirit of my original design. I’m very pleased with the results. This website and my Haunts page both look significantly better. I am also in the process of converting my portfolio website design to the new typeface, and the results are (so far) very satisfying.

The other upgrade I made today was to use “sprites” in the implementation of both this blog template and my Haunts page. Sprites are covered very clearly in this article on A List Apart. I was first introduced to sprites by a fellow web developer and I am really beginning to understand their usefulness. The responsiveness of a web page can be improved by using this method.

Xin nian kuai le

By the time I blog again, it will likely be the new year – that is, it will be the new Chinese year. The year of the Ox is upon us. In Chinese tradition, Monica and I worked to clean house today. We’ll finish up tomorrow.

There are many traditions and superstitions surrounding the passing of one year into the next. Many of those superstitions have to do with the words for things and their lucky or unlucky homophones in the Chinese language. For example, the word for fish is sounds like the word for “surplus” (I think). Therefore, it is traditional to have some kind of fish (and it needs to be the whole fish) for dinner the night before the new year. And that’s just one of many rules to follow to maximize your good luck and minimize your bad luck in the coming year.

Found online: The Patron Tequila website. It was featured in the current Communication Arts magazine. I spent some time looking through it today, learning about how tequila is made and getting suggestions for cocktails. It’s a fun website.

Gassed

That’s not a word that get’s used much anymore, but it describes how I feel right now. I haven’t slept much lately; the reasons why are beyond my understanding. But I feel mentally and physically empty.

Went to an AIGA Breakfast Club meeting this morning. It was really excellent – just like the other AIGA events I’ve been to. I’ve been to very few, to be honest. However, I’m always please afterwards. Today’s topic was responding to RFPs. It’s always good, and it’s especially important now, to be reminded of how important it is to develop good relationships with current and potential clients.

Five

The January 06, 2009 edition of A List Apart features two articles about the development of HTML 5. Anyone who works in web development or who has an interest in learning about it should take a look. HTML 5 is a huge, ongoing, convoluted project which appears to be the result of too many cooks in the kitchen. Given the importance of HTML to both our work as web developers as well as to the world of accessible information, it’s not surprising that everyone wants their chance to stir the roux. What this means to me is that HTML 5 is likely to represent a compromise of interests rather than the best possible solution for web development and digital publishing.

In unrelated news, I have been searching for Mandarin Language education resources online and for the iPhone. So far the only thing I have been able to find is a free Chinese-English dictionary, but I think it requires an internet connection to work. I have also found a podcast that is pretty good. However, the associated learning resources (available online in PDF format) is $110/year to access. That seems a bit much, but I don’t have a real frame of reference.

Top Secret

I have a few new secret research projects i am working on. One of them is a total secret. I cannot tell anyone. The other one is not quite as much of a secret. I’ve told my girlfriend, but that’s only because she’s going to help me out.

One of my projects explores the idea of designer as author. I know there are several great designers who are totally behind the idea of designers who generate their own content. And, as with any author, the content must germinate from the seeds of one’s own daily life. Some time ago I gave up on the idea that I would be a good author. I don’t think my life has had those events or elements or qualities that would, as a result, make me a good author. I also realize that I don’t read enough. As a designer, you must study other designs. As a writer, you must read other work. Sadly, I don’t do enough of either. I should really work on that, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Okay, that’s a poor excuse.

Found online: The Cathay Pacific website. The one thing that they do that I haven’t seen other airline websites do is launch flight schedules and fares in a separate window. This little detail means that your original search parameters are saved in the original browser window. No having to go back and hope your form fields are still filled out. And, as with Orbitz, they employ a grid interface to allow you to select combinations of departure and return dates – Orbitz does this for combinations of airline and number of stops. It’s a good interface. Some companies never get this stuff right.

Good start

It was a good day to start the new year. I was finally able to make another step forward with my Google Map. I woke up late and had tater tots and chicken nuggets. TNT was running a Bones marathon and I got to watch about 4 episodes. I went to my friend’s place and had gumbo and lots of cookies. It’s been a relaxing, pleasant start to 2009. I’m very satisfied.

I also began work on my poster for the Year of the Ox. I need to practice drawing cows.

Chill

The new year arrived with some very cold weather. Monica and I froze our toes as we watched fireworks over Prospect Park. Then it was back to the apartment for some relaxation. And some JavaScript. I’ve made more progress on my custom Google map – although not without an equal or greater amount of frustration.

The new year also arrives with new projects. I have about two weeks to design a poster for the Chinese New Year. There is the continuing work on this blog template and my custom Google Map. Monica also brought up something new today: a website for tracking exercise. She’s not happy with the currently available options online, so she figures we should create our own. It will be a significant undertaking; I don’t know how to do many of the tasks that are required to build the kind of website she’s interested in having. But, it will be a very good opportunity to learn.