Wall
Of
Scribbles

New site launched: Tell Me a Story

February 20, 2010

I’m a huge fan of stories. I really am. I read my first book before I was in school. I read my first novel by grade 2. I was reading Tolkien by grade 4. I have a book shelf that I bought because my original one was two books deep on every shelf. I’ve become a huge fan of Podcasts like The Moth and The Wayward Irregular due to the magic that comes from them. I will listen to any and everyone that has a story to tell. All the more when they’ve got a flair for “the telling.”

I think it’s save to say that I love stories.

Hell I’ve even tried my own hand at writing a couple of my own. I admit that they’re not Pulitzer-level or anything, but I like to think that someone out there will enjoy them. Regardless, I’ve recently decided that I’d like to be told more stories. Lots more stories. What’s more, I’d like others to have the same opportunity. There are other sites out there that do what I’ve decided to do, but I’ve opted to do something a little different…

A Nip & a Tuck

May 14, 2009

You may, or may not have noticed some changes around here. That is, if anyone actually reads my blog any more. I’m still working out some of the kinks in my websites design, but all in all it’s coming along quite well. I’ve simplified some things; removing search; displaying one item on the front page; moved the resume and portfolio into the blog (the resume was its own WordPress install, and the portfolio just… didn’t exist); added a real, honest to God contact page. Things are looking up!

I’m still having a couple issues of course, that I’m trying to figure out (mystery htaccess file issues, CSS tweaks, ) but I’m sure I can get these figured out in the next little while. Anyways, on to things that are important to people other than me.

8 Things I’ve learned from going back to school

December 18, 2008

So a while back I mentioned going back to school. In fact, I even recall writing a collection of articles all about the subject. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in my twitter (or at the very least, bitched about it). Well unlike the real world, College gives you large, void-filled breaks between semesters. This allows people like me ample time to run out of excuses for things we should have either done, or been doing during the academic time frame.

In my case this revolves around:

• My portfolio
• Posts with real content
• Reading books
• Spending time with Theresa while she is down from that god-forsaken place North Bay.
• Aimlessly trying to catch up on my games

Now since only a couple of those are actually proactive (I’ll leave you to decide which) I have to pick and choose what and when I do these things. What is the result? Well to give you a glimpse, it’s almost 2 AM as of the start of this post. This is after I applied to many, many bursaries through my school. Who knew that working two jobs wouldn’t be enough to actually stay out of debt? Guess I’ll have to get some more!

My financial woes are not what I plan to talk about today though. I plan to talk about what I can take away from my first semester.

Okay, technically this would be my seventh semester if you are counting the six from the last time I was in school. That is also part of this so read on!

An exercise in customer satisfaction

September 18, 2008

I joined a gym, and for a while I went there. I worked out at their facilities and found them clean, and brimming with machines and weights in which to sculpt my body. I used their exceptionally clean and well kept bathrooms and facilities. The staff was always courteous, the lighting great, the music well selected, and the food offered was healthy and scrumptious. They even had a clothing store where one could buy stuff 30% with the membership card, and a day car for those who dragged their children around.

All in all, a fantastic experience from a customer point of view. Everything scored 7/10 or higher (more often higher). So why am I angry with this chain? They dropped the ball in a key area: my leaving.

I got into school for graphic design.

July 28, 2008

That’s right, I’m school-bound once again. Two more years of weird sleep schedules, assignments, cliques, teachers, and too many people walking around in pajama-bottoms.

Joking aside, I’ve decided to go back to school for Graphic Design. Over the past two plus years, I’ve felt that though I’m reasonably good at programming, it’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve had a good run at my current place of employment, but I feel that it’s just not the direction I want to go in the long-run. You see, as I worked along side everyone I constantly felt myself obsessing over certain points; namely UI design, usability, and common sense in design.

Redesign is finally up

July 14, 2008

Finally got the new design up, though I will admit that there are still some tweeks that I’ve got to address. I’ve got the design stable enough that I’m comfortable releasing it now. I’ve lost enough sleep on this damned thing already, so some small things I’m not overly worried about

This design has been in the works for at least a month now, though probably longer. I made sure I didn’t rush into the markup, and so there was a lot of time spent in Fireworks tweaking things. Once I was finally happy with the design – which took a while – I finally moved everything into HTML which was …fun.

Designapalooza – Part Seven

June 5, 2008

This is the seventh and final part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Though this is the last article of this particular series, trust me when I say there will still be many more.

9Rules Broke the Rules

May 26, 2008

So I’m making this post while blatantly aware that some of my readers will probably have no Idea what I’m talking about. If you’re one of those people, just nod your head and pretend to listen.

Setting up the scene

A while back I came across a little website called 9rules. As it turned out 9rules was very much similar to Digg.com, Design Float, Mixx, and so on. It was a social hub where ideas were exchanged, participation was rewarded, and all was well. Somewhat of an opportunist, I took advantage of 9rules and their content submission to help my site gain some popularity (I’m sure I gained nothing from it) by submitting my design-related posts to their ever-flowing river of content.

I admit that this is a bit dubious in nature, but it is a white hat way to get your name out there, and that’s something I’m still working on doing. Hate me if you want, but that’s what I used it for. I regret that a little in retrospect, because they had a good community, and I chose to throw my stories into the pile instead of participating and making it better.

The lamenting has a point, so stick with me.

My First Project: A Reflection

May 8, 2008

So I’m nearing the end of my first major project. Well alright I’ve had many projects in my life, but this was my first professional project. I was … many things in my project: Lead Developer, Lead Architect, Psudo-Business Analyst, Negotiator, Trainer, Mediator, Whip-cracker. The list goes on.

As the project is finally winding down, I feel it prudent that I write down some of the nuggets of information that I have gleaned from the experience.

Follow along and learn with me as I half-rant life tips.

Scope Creep: or What makes project leads cry?

March 13, 2008

I despise scope creep with every part of my being. To me, scope creep is comparable to nails on a chalk board, or having my hand slammed in a door again and again and again. It is the ruiner of projects, products, and I’m sure I could find some way to tie it into how Rock and/or Roll music is obviously ruining society. It takes what would in most cases be a solid project, a solid time line, and solid analysis, and tosses them all to the winds.

A quick, simple, and generalized definition: Scope Creep is when someone (yourself or otherwise) adds new functionality, features, or other additions while still expecting your project/product/whatever to still be due by the same time.

Some new wallpapers

March 10, 2008

I did these a couple weeks ago with the idea of doing a whole series of them. I still might, actually. In any case, I give you 2.0 Wallpapers. They’re all in 1280 x 1024 format, but You can shrink ‘em down if you’re really feeling it.

And with that I am going to lay down, because my head feels like it’s about to explode.

Yes I’m aware that this is a bit of a cop-out post, but I made a bonus one on Friday so that’s my excuse.

G’night.

Cannot insert the value NULL into column Name, Thanks SharePoint

March 7, 2008

I tried to create a Custom List. I had event receivers attached to custom lists and i got this:
Cannot insert the value NULL into column ‘Name’, table ‘[somesharepointcontentdatabase].dbo.EventReceivers’;
column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.
The statement has been terminated.

I found out what this means and how to get around it.

Inconsistency Melts Brains

March 6, 2008

Everyone’s done it. We get lazy, we’re pressed for time, or we otherwise don’t care enough to standardize our stuff. I can note this most prevalently in code, but it easily extends into design and every day life.

I cannot claim to be innocent of this crime, nor would I. It takes effort, experience, and an iron will not to cut corners in everything you do.

Cause and Effect

March 3, 2008

So recently Microsoft was doing something. I say something because I don’t know what it was they were doing, only that it affected many users of the popular chat client Live Messenger (MSN Messenger for those not bothering to keep up). Basically it cut off a good section of people – myself included – from the service. The best part is that different people were getting different error messages, and there were different workarounds that worked some of the time.

Respect the Process, Damnit

February 14, 2008

I went to college.

Shocking, I know. I did though, and on the lovely diploma that I earned and gently stuffed in a drawer somewhere it says that I am both a computer programmer and a systems analyst. What that means is not only am I (supposedly) competent at coding solutions, I am also (apparently) competent at looking at a system and figuring out how things should work.

I always chuckled in my Analysis classes. “Come on, this is all common sense!” I would proclaim. I took what the teacher said for a grain of salt and left it at that.

How far I’ve come

February 7, 2008

I was once a student in college. During one of my summers I had a summer placement where I was put in charge with creating an entire CMS-based website for a certain not-for-profit company. To that note, there was not CMS, so I was expected to create that too. This company had many facets, most of which had their own way of doing things. I had four months to do this, and I was on my own. Did I mention that it also had to have a total multi-tiered user-management system thrown into it as well? Like I said, I was supposed to create a CMS-powered website.

Suffice it to say, things didn’t go well.

SharePoint 2007: What the hell, man?

January 31, 2008

So I just spent four hours of my life fighting with SharePoint 2007. I can’t explain all the details because my employer pays me, which in turn pays the bills and they frown upon my telling of company secrets. I can, however, bitch about some things that have been irritating me over the past while. As it turns out everything I hate converged on me today.

Let the story begin!

Apparently IE8 is Causing Ruckus

January 25, 2008

You heard me people: ruckus.

For those not in the know, I’m talking about the apparent browser version targeting that the IE8 team is going to be providing. This has caused a bit of a split amongst the web community. I won’t go into excessive detail over the topic, because there are others that have expanded upon it as much as humanly possible.

Do you suffer from Crummy User Experience?

January 23, 2008

I’m sick of Crummy User Experience (CUE). I’m sure there are many ways to describe it, and everyone can relate. Crummy User Experience is a broad term that generally describes when you -the user- interact with something -web form, bank machine, car door, etc- and it sucked, or sucks depending on you’re lifes requirements.

Recently I had to sign up for a couple sites, I won’t say what ones because I don’t wish to bring them any undo ire. What they did wrong was no different than many other sites do on a repeated basis: they didn’t tell me what to do.

Obligatory Macworld Post

January 18, 2008

Yeah, I’m aware that everyone and their mother has probably talked about this by now (it has been at least 24 hours; a lifetime on the internet) but like every other tech nerd on the planet, I half-feinted work as the live feeds came rolling, or in many cases crashing, in.

I could talk about everything that happened, but that would be retarded. This is my overview and so I’m going to talk about the things that interested me the most.

Designapalooza – Part Six

January 16, 2008

This is the sixth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

More learning

This is a continuation from the fifth portion, because had i combined them the article would never be read through fully. They’re long people, I can’t help that. Well yes I can, but I refuse to censor myself. Here I will continue to explain to the best of my ability questions that I had asked way back in the first part of this series. Let’s continue.

Designapalooza – Part Five

December 19, 2007

This is the fifth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Don’t Freak out.

Now for the section that makes or breaks a would-be designer. Realizing that you know nothing about design. Everyone hits this when they start, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Have you ever shown someone some of your work and when asked why you did what you did, you responded with something like “because it looks cool”? Believe it or not, this is not a valid explanation for artwork. Well okay, sometimes it is but most of the time, this is the stamp of an amateur, or someone who knows how to use a program.

Let me stress now that knowing how to use a program in no way dictates your understanding of design.

Designapalooza – Part Four

December 3, 2007

This is the fourth part in an ongoing series of articles that depicts my process to becoming a graphic designer. I will reiterate that this is not a sure-fire guide on how to become one, but merely my process which I am sharing to the general public.

Mess around.

In this section I’m going to be fairly resource-heavy, and hope that it helps some people out. When I say ‘Mess around’ what I mean is literally get your hands on some of the tools you know you’ll be using, and go to town. If you don’t know what tools you are going to be using, do some research. Check out those schools I talked about previously, and find out what software they’re going to be using. Dig around a little to see what others in the field tend to use. Since I’m trying to get into graphic design, I know that my primary tools will most likely consist of the Adobe family, though I will also give an honourable mention to 3Ds Max, Maya, and ArtRage 2 (if you want to have some really impressive paint effects).

Designapalooza – Part One

November 21, 2007

Recently I’ve made it an active mission of mine to learn more about design. I’m not talking about what colours go well together, or what Web 2.0 looks like when dissected into XHTML valid bites. These are a part of design to be sure and things that should be given at least a passing thought, but not what I’m talking about. One of my life goals is to become an honest-to-God graphic designer. Anyone who has talked to me in the past year or so will tell you that this was something I’ve wanted to do. But going along with an earlier post I made, I’m trying to make it happen for myself. Hell, I will make it happen for myself. I’ve gone about this a couple ways, and I felt that I would share my scheming with the internet. Probably not my brightest idea, but whatever. I’m a fan of open information.

SharePoint 2007: Thoughts on Branding

November 9, 2007

I’ve started to read RSS feeds related to art and design. Considering it’s the field I wish to get into, I figured it to be a good move. Our designer at work has about 50 more then I do (I’ve only started so this is a given) and he linked me to a post on Cameron Molls website. I’ve read through it at least twice now, and to be honest: it’s pretty true. Now I’m going to make my own comments on the subject as best I can given my job, the work I do, and the firing I would receive if I gave away anything. Thankfully, I think I can do so here. If not… well if anyone knows a good programmer/designer job… well you get the idea.

Fingers Crossed!