So, I am going to An Event Apart next month in New Orleans. It will be my first web design conference and with speaker of such caliber as Andy Clarke, Cameron Moll, Dave Shea, Jeff Veen, Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Aaron Gustafson, and Jason Santa Maria just to name a few, it promises to be a good one. I am really looking forward to this conference.

When did this happen?

Today actually. My Dad offered to pay for air fair for a conference and I had been debating whether or not this would be the one or not. Jeffrey Zeldman made a quick post on twitter today and it pushed me over board. I called my Dad to make sure the offer still stood, check with the boss to make sure it was cool, and then booked everything then and there.  It would be nice if work was paying for it, but oh well. I am really looking forward to this conference.

Never Before!

As previously mentioned, this will be my first conference, but surely not the last. I originally hope to attend SXSW, but that didn’t pan out. Honestly though, I think this will be a better event to attend being my first time doing this sort of thing. SWSW is so huge and busy that it can be a bit overwhelming and hard to meet people. This will be smaller and more manageable for a newb like my self. I am really looking forward to this conference.

Any last requests?

I hope to meet some of my heros at this conference. I have followed Andy Clarke and Dave Shea for some time now, and I am a big fan of Cameron Moll’s work. And of course there is the great Zeldman and Meyer duo. You can’t be in the same room as those two without being greatly impacted. Did I mention that I am really looking forward to this conference?

Every time I start reading about accessibility, I feel like an asshole. I feel like I have built a hospital without a wheelchair ramp. I know that is a bit of an exaggeration (OK a BIG of an exaggeration). I know I haven’t actually done anything of the sort. But I have waited far too long to become accessible. I am a visual designer who has come to the realization that I need to be designing for people in the non-visual world.

So, I have decided to make the first thing I learn this year be accessibility. It is going to take some time and it will ultimately slow down the redesign if this site, but let’s face it. It is worth it. So be patient people.

Above is a picture of my new Samson C01U Microphone. It just came in the mail and I am very excited about it. “But why?” you might be asking. Well, the answer is simple. I have decided to delve into the world of screencasting and podcasting. I know this is a scary thought, but I am hoping that I will prove worthy of this new found medium.

And Your Reasoning Is?

With the new site relaunch (still some time off I am afraid) I wanted to have something more then just a blog and a portfolio. I wanted to have something that people could use. Since I’m not qualified to give financial, medical, philosophical, theological, or other such , I figured I would give advice on things I am qualified for, namely web design and everything that is centered around it. Doing Tutorials seemed like a good way for me to accomplish this. I figured I knew enough about Photoshop, Illustrator, CSS, and Design in general that I could produce some decent quality stuff. These tutorials wont be exhaustive mind you, but I am hoping to start with the basics and move my way into the more advanced stuff.

What to talk about

Aside from the tutorials, Have also decided to possibly try a strictly audio podcast. I’m still debating this as there are a few very good and informative podcast about web design and development already out there. The major one being Paul Boag’s boagworld.com. If you haven’t checked it out, it highly worth a look and I suggest you take some time to listen. I am listening to it right now in fact, as I write this post. As there are already several good podcasts out there on the subject, I am not sure that I feel that it would be worth my while. Also, I really feel that a podcast is much more captivating when it is set up with a co-hosted radio format. This means I would have to find someone willing to do the show with me. So I am still debating whether I am going to try the podcast or not. If I do manage to come up with a unique idea for once, then I will go ahead with it.

When exactly?

I hope to have a couple of tutorials up for the new site launch. One will probably be about Photoshop and the other will be on Illustrator. I am going to be using Viddler to accomplish this as well as screen recording software that I have yet to determine.