creating at midnight

It's way past my bedtime, especially if I want to get up at the usual time, but as often happens with my homework, I lose track of time. I was ready to go to bed at 9PM and suddenly it's 1:29AM. I guess I got distracted . . .

I think I've created a logo for my final project. Once I understood how to use it, I discovered that Pixlr is awesome. Pixlr is the open source program that my professor has us use to edit our images for our assignments, but until tonight I hadn't used it to create an image. Oh. my. goodness. Fun stuff.

Speaking of open source, I'm pretty happy with this . . .

I think it's my favorite one so far. {no, it's not supposed to be centered . . . and it really bothers me that it's not.}

Logo to be revealed soon :)

good things {a reminder}

- aunties

- 41 days

- good grades in graduate school

- living with a person who is magic and helps me beat an ear infection without a doctor's visit

- finding an allergy medicine that {sort of} conquers horrible TX allergies

- a sweet angel that lays by me when I'm sad

- peace & quiet, even if that means turning up the stereo because I'm home alone :)

- a final project I'm excited about

- a final paper that will help me heal {long story there}

- memories

- answered prayers

- spaghetti squash {most amazing veggie ever}

info on final project

Thanks to all who responded to my Facebook post. I thought this might be an easier way to give more specifics on what's expected for my final project in my InfoTech class and see if anyone wants to help me out. My hand-drawn prototype and proposal are due November 14; the final project is due December 20. The professor wants us to have around 2 weeks to work on the proposals, so that means I need have a person lined up by the end of October.

I have to design or redesign a website for a non-profit organization, a small business or an individual. I have to apply the things I've learned during the course - XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, etc - into the design of the website. I'll be using WordPress as a CMS (content management system) for the website and customizing a WordPress theme, which means that it will be easy to update when it's done, like a blog is. For the assignment to be graded it will be hosted on the university's server. After it's graded it can be transferred to a server under your own URL or it can be hosted on WordPress. 

If you decide that you're willing to be my guinea pig, you aren't under any obligation to use the site after it's done. Hopefully you'll love it and want to use it, but if not that's perfectly OK. I'm obviously not a professional, I just need a person and an idea to build a site for. As to what I'd need from someone, this is what I know is needed so far:

- what the site's for / why you want or need one

- the different pages you want (at least three, examples: an about page, a contact form, a photo gallery, services offered, etc.)

- any images you want on the site, including a logo (or I can design one) - these can be emailed to me or you can give me a memory card w/ images or a link to Flickr, Photobucket, etc. The logo has to be in my proposal, the images and logo need to be in the final site.

- color scheme

After my proposal is approved, I'll need feedback from you on the content for specific pages, i.e. a bio for the about page, etc. I will be in Utah beginning December 6, so if you want to work on it in person, we can do that, but we don't have to. Whatever works best for you.

For my proposal I have to create a PowerPoint presentation explaining what the site is for and how I want to lay it out. I also have to show my hand drawn prototype which will all be critiqued by my professor and classmates, but ultimately what the "customer" wants goes - as far as my skill set will allow. :)

Thanks!

a tale of two webpages

For my first assignment in my InfoTech a.k.a. Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Agencies class (see why they shorten it???), I had to build a series of webpages using tables on any topic I wanted. I also had to pick a creative commons image related to my topic and build the pages around it.

The final result met all of the requirements perfectly, but I can see why they don't use tables very often anymore - it's ugly - but, you have to start somewhere I guess. For the second assignment I had to use the same topic and images, but format the whole thing using CSS . . .

. . . much prettier in my opinion, but still lacking. I can see why CSS is so popular. This one only required simple CSS, but what a difference.

I really like this class. My other class is fun too, but I like not knowing exactly how something works and then getting it to work. I'm excited for the next one which will be on a completely different topic (advantages of open-source software anyone?) and then the final project - a whole website! And no specific requirements to meet (other than applying what I've learned and making the "customer" happy . . . oh, and everything has to load correctly).

I hope they just keep getting prettier.

a moment of true happiness...

Moments of true happiness have been hard to come by the last several months. Not that I've been depressed every moment or anything, just that this has been the hardest period in my life so far. There was one thing I really wanted for Christmas and today I got it . . . thanks to this little miracle:

and some unexpected parental unit generosity. I've been watching flights every day and even though the little price predictor tool told me over the weekend that I should buy the ticket, I didn't do it. Today, the price went down on the one airline that Dad and Marcie had a refund credit on. I was such a happy camper, despite having to wait {rather} impatiently for Dad to get home to make the call to the airline. Less than $100 for a ticket? Yes, please!

It gets better though . . . how about a FREE ticket instead? Parental unit generosity at it's best. I'll get to  spend the one day I'm most afraid of this year with my wonderful aunties and family. And Christmas too. :)

Marcie told me the news to this song . . . so, in the spirit of Christmas, enjoy the following (which I've watched way too much lately thanks to a school project):



My Christmas gift for them is much less exciting (but it is clever . . .).