Monday:

I spent the majority of my time Monday getting the computer set up and meeting with different people in the college. A big part of my job is meeting with the different department heads to discuss what their needs are for their school’s specific site. They are formaly introducing me this Thursday.

Tuesday

Tuesday was spent getting my self set up with a project management system. I am using Things, a very handy little app. I will be writing a more lengthy review later about it, but I really love this application. I may even be able to convince the rest of the department to start using it for project management.

A big part of getting my self set up with a task management system was finding actual task to do, so I spent a decent amount of time going through the College of Fine Art website, as well as each of the individual school sites. I found some quirks here and there as well as some things I am looking to try and rework a bit to try and bring a bit more clarity and consistency. These mainly center around navigation. All of this went into things and each task is organized under either the main site or each of the school sites. Things is incredibly useful.

Impressions So Far:

Though it has only been two days, I am really starting to get a hold of what the job will entail. A huge challenge will be the information architecture of all the information that is contained in the sites.

Everything is pretty much broken up into three tiers. The first tier is the main site for the College of Fine arts. This has all the general information and gives a general overview of everything going on with all the schools. Tier two is comprised of all the different school sites. There is quite a bit of overlap between tier one and tier two, and this is something I am hoping to sort out for the sake of usability. The third tier consists of sites for specific programs as well as sites for different professors in the different schools. I generally won’t have a whole lot involvement with these. I only oversee and give input here and there.

Trying to organize, categories, and structure all this information so that it is easily findable is a project that I am really looking forward to. It probably won’t happen for a while (until the next redesign happens), but it something that I am already thinking a lot about. Information architecture is incredibly interesting to me, and is something that I have never done on this scale before. I will be doing a great deal of research in the coming weeks and months on the subject. I am looking forward to it.

Outside of the the information, another challenge will be finding balance in handling the desires of others and what is most beneficial to the site. Feature creep is inevitable, especially when dealing with a committee. I do have experience in this, though again not at this level. Being the point man for such a large organization’s websites is something I have never taken on before, but I have a great deal of support and I feel I am quite up to the challenge. I am generally pretty good at talking my way in and out of things.

Why you should back up your data (advice from recent experience)

My G5’s hard drive died a few days ago. Luckily it is still under warranty, and there wasn’t anything on there work wise that I didn’t have backed up else where. Sadly there was a lot of personal data that could be potentially lost forever. A lot of photos, a lot of music, and the redesign that I was working on for this site may not be recoverable.

This last one is probably the biggest pain to bear. I had pumped a lot of hours into the redesign and it was getting close to completion (as far as the design aspects are concerned at least). Apple will hopefully be able to recover my data, but it is hard to say. It will be a tremendous set back in the redesign if those file cannot me recovered.

I do love a good excuse.

Since I most certainly can’t be without a computer for a whole seven days, I took this as an opportunity to finally purchase a MacBook Pro. A purchase I have wanted to make for quite sometime now, but never had a good enough “reason” to actually go through with. Well now I have said “reason”, so I bit the bullet and shelled out the money for the laptop. Granted this “reason” may not be good enough, but there are other reasons for this purchase as well, which I am coming to.

I also purchased the 500GB Time Capsule to back up the laptop as well as the G5 when I get it back. So, hopefully, I will never lose data again.

Finally got around to it.

I upgraded to WordPress 2.5 today. Actually it was 2.5.1 if we are being technical… which we are. It was painless and I am enjoying the new interface, though it did take a short amount of time to locate everything. Happy Cog did a bang-up job on the redesign of the back end, and I must say I do love the color scheme.

Lastly, but best of all!

I have acquired a new job, a job that could only be described as the best possible position that I could have at this point in my career. I have been appointed as the Webmaster for the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona. It will be challenging but in a good way. It will stretch my design and development muscles and push me in new directions on the web. Academia is always on the bleeding edge and this is exactly where I love to be.

I will also be going back to school at a severely reduced tuition rate to finish my bachelor’s degree and possibly get my master’s as well. This is the second reason for the new computer. While the U of A will provide me with a Laptop for the job, I wouldn’t feel comfortable using it for school, and since I generally need a decent amount of power to do what I do, I purchased the MacBook Pro.

This is also why I hope to be blogging more in the future. I think it will be applicable to my job and I will have more to write about day to day.

To Summarize

A lot has happened and mostly for good. I am looking forward to the coming weeks as I settle into the position and to the coming fall semester.

I love my brother. He is one of the most amazing people I know. He often chooses to love when others would judge and he seems almost untouched by this harsh world, even though he and I have seen our share of hardships.  He has a simple wisdom that I fear I have all but lost. He is most often selfless and gives what ever he does not need. He is compassionate and always kind. He has a sincerity about him that many of us couldn’t even attempt to fake. There are no facades to him, only honesty. He seeks God with passion, but without ambition. My brother is honestly filled with love and a heart greater then many have had the joy of seeing in any single person. He commands a great deal of my respect, and he deserves all I can give him.

I had the pleasure of having lunch with Molly E Holzschlag last Friday, and it was really an amazing meal. We talked about everything that we both are passionate about and I learned a great deal in the comparably short amount of time that we spent eating sushi. I rarely get to sit down and talk real web talk, and so it was a real treat to do so with someone such as Molly. At the risk of sounding like a fan boy, it was great to finally meet the woman who’s  books I have read and blog I have followed for so long.

Molly, thanks for lunch!

P.S. Such a fan boy

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?

I heart my job. Actually let me rephrase that. I heart my career. I love everything about being a web designer. I love the creativity it brings to my life. I love the ingenuity it produces in me. I love the challenges it adds to my everyday existence. As far as I am concerned, I was made to be a web designer.

I do not Heart My “Job”

I do not love my “job”.
Working in a corporate environment almost takes the fun out of what I do. It is stiefling, suffocating, and down right infuriating at times. No one cares about web standards. No one cares about accessibility. No one cares about half the stuff that I am passionate about. It all comes down to the bottom dollar, and it is a frustrating place to exist.

Solution?

I could quit, but there is this pesky thing called a mortgage that I have to pay every month. Also, I have animals that like to be fed, not to mention, I my self enjoy eating.

Then there is the whole health insurance thing. It is nice to have it, and I don’t like not having it. Been there and done that. Not having to pay for doctors appointments and other such nonsense is quite nice.

Also, if I quit I wouldn’t learn much now would I? The way I see it, I am paying my dues. I am learning what to avoid, and how to deal with the rest of the world that just doesn’t get it. In the end, I know my brief enlisting in the corporate world of web design will ultimately serve me well. In two or three years time, I will move onto bigger and better things, and leave all this shite behind me. Now, time to enjoy some good CSS literature.

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.

No I am not dead yet, despite popular beliefe. I am, in fact, very much alive. Anyway, here we go again. My last post was about how long it took me to put up a bloody post and how I was going to be up-dating more frequently. Well, that was back in November. I’ve gone most of the Winter without a single post, and let all of you (alright none of you) down. Well, I am sorry.

Moving On!

I have been busy, so I can at least pretend to have good reasons for being so silent and dead like. Work has had me running an e-mail campaign, maintaining a site, as well as designing another one. To say the least I have been quite active. On top of this I decided now was the perfect time to redo most of the flooring in my house. I never seem to have control over when I get the bug to do something. Go figure!

In other news!

I have begun working on the Kentriv redesign that I mentioned in that last post oh so long ago. I am not going to be giving any sort “Sneak Peaks” of the site during the process, but it is a bit of a homage to the original Kentriv. However, I can tell you that it will have some great new features including Twitter and Cork’d integration. I am also hoping to get a small podcast going (just ordered a simple condenser mic) as well as the occasional screencast tutorial. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully I can keep at it. The site will also be getting a bit of a scrubbing of sorts. I will be reworking my categories and probably dropping some of the older posts. The new site should launch (provided I stay on track and keep my self motivated) Some time during the begging of March. It should be some fun.

And Finally!

I am sad to mention that I will not be able to attend SXSW Interactive this year. Money is tight and the house renovations came first. I am however, going to try and make it to FOWA provided that Ryan Carson does host another one here in the states like he did last year.

That is all for me I am afraid.

In other news, my father has been taken off Hepatitis treatment do to complications with the medication. This may sound bad, but the complications are a full body rash that is most likely not threatening at all, just very uncomfortable. The hepatitis has been cleared for most part, and is now in a stage that his body should be able to keep it under control easily enough. He is actually pretty happy about this.

I made a damn good soup tonight

I am hoping to redesign this site in the next few months if time allows. I am planning on documenting the process from start to finish so you will hopefully see more frequent posting in the future. I am planning on taking it a more eclectic and less web 2.0 direction.

That is all for now, but I will back sooner then later.