Hurry Up and Wait

This up and down, back and forth type of nonsense really bugs me. If we weren't all running in different directions, each of us taking lead when it's our turn to round up the cattle, so much could get done. Why do we have so many leaders that don't know how to grab hold of the reins and hold on until something is finished?

Why am I ranting about this? Because it is painfully obvious to me that this sort of time management/accountability and finger pointing fiasco happens everywhere. At work, at home, during your favorite sports outings, you name it and it happens there as well.

My husband goes, "Okay, off the computer dear...we're all waiting on you!"  Good!  Because that's what I wanted you to do.  Get ready, then let me know and we're out the door, just like that, right?

Wrong.

I go to the door with my purse, ready to walk out.  Someone asks, "Where are the car keys?"  Then another, "Where's that list you created this morning? I know you gave it to me, but do you remember where I put it? Did you see my reading glasses on the bar and put them away somewhere?"

My daughter then asks, "Dad, can we stop by the mall on the way home and get me a new pair of flip flops?"

My husband says, "Didn't we just get you a pair?"

You get the picture?

I sigh and go to my office, plop my purse down on the floor and log into the computer to play a quick game of solitaire while they continue on with their discussion.  I am interrupted 2 minutes later via a head poked through the entryway, "I thought I said we were waiting on you?"

Website Development

I'm currently building the content for my writing website. It's not really just a writing website, but more or less a portfolio of my works, whether written prose, photographs or even the websites that I design. I know I'm probably going to want to shoot myself later because I'll probably discover later on that I SHOULD have separated out all of these things categorically to have a more narrowed focus.  However, that would leave me with very little content and a whole lot of design effort.

I wish there were an easier way to learn website design while promoting your own stuff. I just know that if I didn't have a site to work on, I probably wouldn't learn quite as fast. I think it's because I have that goal of wanting to see the finished product and it feels so much like artwork to me.  :)

Call me a newbie, because in essence, that is exactly what I am when it comes to web design. Heck, I just discovered today how confusing the previous and next buttons can be using CSS. Screw it for now, I'll use simple text and link to the pages.  There'll be room to fit that in later, same with the contact form. I think the ole mailto should work just fine for now.

Learning CSS

I never really cared much about website design or html until I was involved in making some changes (cosmetic in nature) to this one site.  It was sooo tedious for me (the newbie) going from page to page to page in an attempt to make this small change consistent and uniform across the entire site!  I'll ask you this because I asked myself this very thing at that time...who in their right mind would want this job? Right!

So anyway, I started out getting involved in some website maintenance in between major "coding" projects, and it wasn't really exciting to me. I was like, "Oh wow, okay so I typed in these words in between some tags and when I open the file in my browser it is decorated and formatted."  Okay, so now I'm just trying to be funny and failing completely. You have to understand the boredom here. I'm basically a coder and so not so amazed at how something looks as much as I am about my code functioning flawlessly and as expected.

Now I've been introduced to the uses of CSS and I have to say that while trying to figure out how this stuff works I was very troubled and frustrated that I just couldn't make sense out of it all.  There were so many properties and so many intricate details in getting specific behaviors for your look and feel. I even went so far as to download several free CSS layouts and comb through them, making small changes, loading the pages and then reviewing the changes (sometimes very grand changes).  Some changes were so subtle though that I wouldn't pick up on them right away.

So now I'm here. I've completed my first website, though very basic, and I really do have a greater appreciation for web design. So long as you have great content for your site, serious web design is a consideration you should pursue. Now my OCD has kicked in and I want to do another website, and another...and then maybe another.  :)

We're not there yet, but it's moving along quite nicely!