“A day late and a dollar short”, “Don’t put off until tomorrow, what can be done today.”

I have been hearing these all my life.  I wonder why?  Maybe it is due to my very bad habit of procrastination.  Yep,  I am sure that’s it.  My mom knew it and that’s why she said it.  The bottom line is that… Mom is Right! AGAIN!  This blog it to accompany my February Creative Challenge.  Yes, It’s late and No, I will not be getting any class credit for it but I wanted to turn it in any way.  I did it, learned from and enjoyed doing it.  I figured… what the heck.

Assignment: 2012 February Creative Challenge.  Take a photo a day, every day of the month, and post it on Twitter with the hash tag #FTphotoaday.   I love this assignment.  I did post 8 photos at the beginning of the month.  Then, as always, time got away from me and suddenly it was February 29th and I had too much to do to get it done in one day.  The alternate assignment was to do a collage and blog to display all 29 photos.

That is what I have done.  It may be late, but I did learn quite a bit about Photoshop while doing it.   I have learned all kinds of things, as I sit here trying to put names on the things I learned I realize I don’t know the names.  It is kind of like knowing how to get someplace, but not knowing the address.  So, in a few words this is what I learned.  First go down to the corner and turn left at the stop sign.  Go about half a mile when you see the doughnut shop hang a right.   Keep straight till the road forks, hang left toward the dead end sign.  Add a grid of black boxes, one for each day of the month each on a different layer. Open the photo and drag the photo in and put it on top of the black box making sure the layer of the photo is the one above the black box layer.  Alt/Click  on the line between the two layers.  Ctrl/T to add the free transform tool. resize the photo to fit the box. Repeat until all pictures are in place. The rest is styling.  Be as creative as you have time for.  hehehe.  See below, my Day Late, Dollar Short Creative Challenge.

 

Learning to use online Photoshop tutorials.

This class assignment is to use a Photoshop tutorial from dzineblog.com, and complete it.  I chose the Webstudio web layout.(see original below)  I decided to make it my own by adding my own colors, pictures and logo.   I picked this design because it was a bit like me, simple, clean, soft, edgy and a little off the wall.  I liked the fact that it isn’t symmetrical and those navigation buttons are to die for!

I really enjoyed this project.  The techniques used are pretty easy to follow.  The author assumes you already know your way around Photoshop.  There is quite a bit that I don’t know about Photoshop.  It helps me to learn when I have to dig for the solutions.  I used the teacher, classmates and Google to complete this project.

I started this project using the color picker to sample the background color of beige on the original site.   I wanted to keep the same tint, but change the hue to purple.  I wanted mine to have the same soft/edgy feel, but I wanted to use my favorite colors.   I sampled and changed all the original colors, trying to match the shades and tints.

This tutorial consists of a series of reshaping rectangles, some gradients and a layer mask or two.  All in all I would say it is pretty easy.  The hardest part for me was using the blur tool to make the shadow on the bottom.  I thought this was an interesting technique; however it took some skill to accomplish it.  I accomplished my goal by making mine look good, while not being identical to the original.

I f I have to say what one thing I will take from this to use in the workforce,  I would say… ,  it’s okay to keep it simple.  Every design doesn’t have to be complicated and immense to work.  I have a bad habit of overworking designs.  This project is a good lesson for me.

The tutorial ends with just a frame.  It didn’t have the photos or text.  I decided to make it up and add a picture from my previous exercise and one from the World Wide Web.  I used Lorem Ipsum for the text, and made up my own mock logo.

See my finished project above.  I am pretty proud of it.  It is fun to create things and I look forward to my next project.  Photoshop is the Bomb!

Embrace Diversity and Love it

I first heard the word diversity many years ago at a “Diversity Training” at my job. The diversity they were teaching was about different types of people and lifestyles. The lesson they were teaching, was.. “the .workplace has diversity, so get used to it and deal with it”. I had never thought much about it, but I have always been aware of the world’s diverse peoples.
The more I thought of diversity, the more I realized that there is diversity in everything. Looking around you can see that everything around us is some form of diversity. Colors, sounds, smells, textures, and flavors are all filled with diversity. In America there are a very diverse choice of religions. I love the world for all it’s diverseness. Without it things would be blah and drab. Embrace diversity and love it.
As a Web Designer, I can use diversity in my websites. The way they look and who they target can be ways I can and should diversely design my sites. I look forward to designing some awesome diverse websites.

Job Shadowing With Lex Meyer

Thank you to Ms. Sooter and to Lex Meyer.  I really appreciated the opportunity to shadow Lex Meyer while he did his work.  It was a great learning experience and I had fun.  WIN! WIN!

I was nervous while I stood in the front office waiting for Mr. Meyer to come meet me.  He walked up and shook my hand while introducing himself.  I followed him and was relieved as soon as I walked into his office.  Standing in the corner of his office is a life size cardboard stand-up of Darth Vader.  As I relaxed, I looked around the room and realized that Lex has quite a large collection of Star Wars memorabilia.  We talked about his collection, his beautiful child, and Halloween costumes.

I started bombarding him with questions.  I asked about his career and how he became a web designer/developer.  (GET THIS)  The man is SELF taught.  I know that lots of people in this field are self taught, but to me it seems like an impossible feat.  Kudos to all you that have done this.

I wanted to know what tools he prefers and uses.  I have seen and heard so much about the Content Management System (CMS) websites.  He told me that there is not ONE CMS that he uses.  He will pick the best CMS for the job.   He has a collection of CMS sites that he uses.

• Modx Revolution
• Joomla
• Tumblr
• Ithemes

He uses a grid system for a lot of his websites.  The 1140 CSS grid is his preferred and they boast of 12 column fluid to mobile capabilities.   It will adapt itself to work on just about any monitor, even mobile.

For building and testing mobile sites he uses the following tools.

• Mobile Buddy
• MobiReady

Last but not least.  I wondered which hosting service he used and did he have his clients “deal” with that or did he handle it.  He gives his clients a whole package.  He buys the hosting service spaces and offers it to clients as a part of the website package.   The hosting service he uses is hostgator.

All in all it was a very pleasant and informative afternoon.   I do appreciate Ms. Sooter for allowing me to participate in Job Shadowing and Mr. Meyer for his time a patience.  “The Force is strong with this one.”  – Darth Vader

Excellence

When I think of excellence, many thoughts go rushing through my mind.  I recall growing up hearing words such as, “do it right the first time”, “it takes less time to do it right then to redo it” and my mother will remember saying this to me… “VICKIE!  do it over!” 

Sigh… if the biggest thing I had to worry about today was getting the sheet on my bed folded correctly in the corners or making sure the dishes were squeeky clean, oh what a easy life this would be.  Its funny how our life experiences fold together to make us who we are today.  I have grown up (some would disagree) and I am very quality minded.

One of my very first jobs was a summer job working at a manufacturing plant. My job was to test the pressure it took to close a door on a disk drive. This involved bumping the door closed with a hand held pressure reader, watching the needle and adjusting a screw until the pressure was correct then putting a drop of bright marking paint on the screw to show it was tested and sending the drive down the line to the next person. As you might imagine, I was so bored.  I knew I had reached the bottom of my life(at 18). I expressed to my superviser that I wanted a job that was important, one that I could feel good about, he smiled and sat me down and explained to me the importance of my job. I realized that it doesn’t matter how unimportant your job may seem. Anything and everything I do is worth doing to the best of my ability.  Albeit, while some days my abilty seems to be greatly demonishied, I still make the effort to do my best.

My final thought on this would be… do your best and be proud of it.  There is no job too small and so unimportant that we should do it with less effort for excellence. 
 

Workplace Ethics -

It’s more than just abiding the law

Sure, be honest and don’t steel from the company you work for. That is very basic workplace ethics. I am talking about the whole package. If there were no ethics at work, companies would not get business. There would be no customer relations. Employees would not want to communicate with each other and there would be no open door policies. Employees would constantly be afraid that they were going to be stabbed in the back or fired. Customers would not want to do business at your company and would tell everyone they know to follow suit. That kind of paranoid existence is no way to live or work. They have medical treatments for such sicknesses.

Workplace ethics is what makes companies great. It makes employees happy and customers want to come back. The end being that your company is a success and all it took was good ethics.

Companies are responsible for their own workplace ethics. Leadership should develop a plan and put it into action. They need to have written ethical standards and make sure everyone knows the standards by teaching and training all the employees. Companies need to enforce the standards and follow them as well. The whole company must be on board to be successful. From the CEO to the mail room clerk.

Certainly, don’t break the law and follow the ethics policy at work. Too many companies are laying off and going under. I can think of at least one company that went under because the ethics were not followed.

Do Unto Others

I have always figured that respect is something that is pounded into you as a young child.  You hear things like “respect your elders”, “respect your friends”, “respect others” and so on.  While researching for this blog I discovered that respect is a learned behavior.  It can be taught and It seems to be something that you do or you don’t do.  You can practice it.  It is all about being nice and/or mindful of the object you wish to respect.  It can be anything from your clothes and things, to respecting your Grand parents. I found an interesting article about teaching respect to people. Teaching Respect I remember learning and doing many of the activities she recommends. I didn’t even realize I was learning to respect. So sneaky.

In the professional world, respect is a strong tool and will take you a long way. My mother taught me a saying, “It’s easier to catch flies with honey, then with vinegar” When you treat someone with respect they are more likely to reciprocate. It is easier to treat someone with respect, that acts respectful of others. As is the opposite. When you practice respect, others are more likely to treat you with respect.

Yes, I do believe that respect can be earned. I definitely know people that are hard to respect. Some of these people even treat me very well, but I see the way they treat others and… well, frankly it puts a bad taste in my mouth. The lesson from that would be, “be consistent”. Treat everyone well and be sincere in it. The bottom line is to always treat other people they way you want to be treated. Easy.

“Eeyore Syndrome”

Having a positive attitude is within our grasp.  Each of us is capable of being positive.  The trick is in what we feed our brains.  If you continually feed your brain with negative, sad thoughts you will be a negative, sad person.  The opposite is also true.  Try to continually feed your brain with happy and positive thoughts and see what happens to your attitude.

Have you ever been with someone that could take the best situation and make it negative?  I have known  people who are just like that.  I call it the “Eeyore Syndrome”.  I am talking about someone who can see the first blooms of spring and instead of seeing life and hope, see the loss of when the blooms will  die, because of  there will certainly be late frost.  I knew someone that went to London and saw the stage play “Cats”.  She came back,  to Oklahoma, complaining because she had the sniffles through the play and how that “ruined” it for her.  REALLY!?!  YOU were in LONDON seeing “CATS” and you let the sniffles ruin it?  wow.  This kind of thinking is beyond my grasp.  Stay away from people with the “Eeyore Syndrome”.  They will bring you down.

I am not a “Polly Anna”.  I am realistic and see things for what they are.  However, I don’t see any reason in filling your  head with negative thoughts.  It is proven that thinking negative all the time will make you depressed.  Each one of us is responsible for our own happiness.  We must learn to recognize when we are happy and allow ourselves to feel  and enjoy it.  The more happiness we feel the easier it will be.  A positive attitude is just around the corner.  Think it and you will believe it.

Communication

WANTED – Mind Readers?

Communication can be in many forms.  Verbal is the most obvious,  then there is body language, sign language and blunt, sometimes crude gesturing.  All are great ways to communicate.  Have you ever sat in a crowd and watched the people?  It’s amazing how many different ways there are to communicate.  One of the most often forgotten methods of communication is listening.  When one side isn’t listening, there might as well not been any communication in the first place.  I have seen a mommy tell her toddler to “keep your hands to yourself,” without opening her mouth. The child heard the message loud and clear.  I’ve seen a man in another car tell me that he was extremely displeased, with the way I was driving, without opening his window.  With all the different ways to communicate, I wonder why there is ever a communication problem?

Communication is so important in ever aspect of life.  A marriage and/or family cannot stay happily together without it.  Companies will crumble when it is lacking in communication skills.

As a web professional communication skills are invaluable.   I have learned that many clients don’t know what they want, let alone, what they need.  It is our responsibility to dive in and retrieve the information that will give us what we need to make a functioning website they will be happy with.  I am discovering, as web designer/developers, we need to be able to tell the client what they need while giving them what they want.   This is done with communication.  Starting with asking the appropriate questions, listening to the answers.  Communication with give and take will end up with a fabulous website.  Do we need to be mind readers?  It might help but in the mean time we can simply communicate.  That will do just fine.

Teams are not just about sports anymore!

Teamwork makes me think of teams.  The word team leads me to think of sports, which I don’t really care for.  My friends all know me as an anti-sports-nut.  I don’t hate sports, I just don’t “get into them” like some people do.  I did some Googling and discovered that teams are not just about sports anymore.  I did discover that teamwork is a group working together to accomplish a single goal.  The players all have a job on the team and with everyone doing their job and encouraging others to fulfill their job, the  sky is the limit on what can be accomplished.

While searching, I found nothing negative about teamwork.  Then I was trying to remember time in my own experience where teams were utilized and I remembered the following situation.

In a company, that I used to work, there were two different departments that did the same kind of work.  They were located in different buildings.  When one department was swamped the other was in a lull and vice-verse.  And,  so it went for many years.   One day someone had the idea to move the two departments together and combine the work-flow.   This was met by much opposition, because people resist change.  When the idea was finally implemented, they discovered that not only could the new “team” stay on top of the work-flow, but that they could do more work and the company made more money and grew and… you can see where this is going.  The last time I looked they were scrambling to put as many teams as possible together.   The teamwork really paid off.

Teams are an essential part of the modern workforce.   Companies are discovering that if they don’t get it together that they will fall apart.  Teams can be an essential part of any company and or department.   I guess teams really are more than just sports.