About 10 minutes ago I experienced something very strange. I was downloading a free utility from the popular site “sourceforge”, when on the download page there was a picture of…well…me. This is not the type of site that you sign in to. It’s not like I looked up my own MySpace page. This is the type of site that thousands of technophiles hit up every day. This is either very scary… or actually pretty funny.

It all started on my first day of classes at Franklin University. Before I entered my class we were asked to hold a blank sheet of paper and smile at the camera. I thought that this was for our student ID’s. They gave us a release form and told us that they were from the marketing team, and if we signed it, we might be used in an advertisement. I thought, why not, maybe I’ll be in a picture in the newsletter or something (but probably not).

To shorten the story, they chose to use me in their new marketing materials and plastered my mug on posters, fliers, and table tents all over the campus. My own students started bringing me half page newspaper clippings that were a giant picture of me holding that mysterious white piece of paper (each time with something different printed on it). And now, today, I found myself on an online ad. I can only assume that this was a local ad, based off of my IP address. It was just kind of funny.

Here is the screenshot:

My last post was about my foray into Photoshop effects. For my graphic design class I had to design a work that incorporated color, simple shapes, and no text or resemblance to any actual object. It was a tall order, and to be honest, pretty difficult to make something interesting. Enter the Photoshop effects. Using them, I was able to draw three vector circle layers, stroke them with lines of decreasing width, and apply an bevel and emboss (at least I think it was a bevel and emboss) effect to them. The fill was semi-transparent, and a gradient added to the bottom of the image to provide ground. If you are reading this, thank you for being patient. You will see my designs get more interesting (hopefully), and then you can say, “hey, I knew that guy when he barely knew squat about Photoshop.”

As a side note, I formatted a valid XHTML with CSS page to hand in my homework on, as this assignment was handed in on such a web page. It can be found here.

I have just finished my second web page on my quest to design XHTML and CSS validated websites. For the beginner, the task is a repetitive series of trying to remember a piece of code, implementing it, finding out that it didn’t work, and then troubleshooting with Google. However, once completed, the reward is great. I can see some improvements over my first web page (although I wouldn’t say the design is any better).

Here is a link to my first page.

Here is a link to my second page.

Both pages are homework assignments for Franklin University, where I am a student, so don’t expect to find anything amazing. I would have spent more time developing a more interesting and comprehensive theme on the second page, but I have a Java test on Monday and didn’t feel like taking any more time on it. Perhaps as things get easier, I can spend more time developing better design.

Addendum:

I forgot to mention that I coded these pages “by hand” using only notepad and a web browser.

Don’t believe the mark just above this line. This page is not CSS checked. I wish it were so, but it isn’t. For those who don’t know, the mark above is a sign of validation that your site conforms to the CSS standards set forth by an organization known as the World Wide Web Consortium. The idea here is that all web pages should conform to a standard, therefore reducing the errors that run rampant on websites.

For the past five years, I have been creating websites using only HTML design code. Within those past five years, this way of coding websites is becoming a no-no. The proper way is to use one language (XHTML) to define your content, while you use another language (CSS) to style those various types of content. The result is nothing short of magnificent compared to the old way of doing things. There is much more flexibility and beauty in the page, it loads faster, and renders fewer errors on various browsers. The problem is, I’m used to doing things another way.

I have recently decided to force myself to learn the contemporary way of coding websites by hand (as opposed to relying on Adobe Dreamweaver). I am sitting at Panera now, and I just finished my first page that uses CSS in partnership with XHTML exclusively.

Check it out.

Oh, and yeah, while I didn’t put the graphic on the page, it has been validated