Journal
How To Kill Time
March 15th, 2007
The very best, and most efficient, means by which you can waste valuable time:
1-Visit Wikipedia: While vandalism is a problem, and you can't always trust the information on the more contentious issues—those with nerd-ish interests can waste vast amounts of time surfing the online encyclopedia. Want to check out a few of the better photos of the moon Titan? Have you wondered about the lasting effects Dark-Beast has had in the Marvel universe or wondered about the finer points of the pre-Revolutionary Romanov dynasty? Wikipedia is the place to be. Cryptozoology? Hey, if you wanted to know the all the beasts that walk the Earth in Mongolian folklore Wikipedia is a great place to start.
2-Sports: I'm a huge Edmonton Oilers fan. And, for better or worse, the Oilers have one of the best groups of blogs you'll find anywhere. Covered In Oil is both playful and heartfelt, while mc79hockey knows his stuff and has the numbers to back them up. Hot Oil rates players by more than their on-ice performance in a non-threatening groupie sort of way while Black Dog Hates Skunks has a little bit of everything. My favorite by far is lowtide. He balances a deep love for his team which is tempered by his encyclapedic knowledge of the game of hockey, the Oilers, their prospects and sports in general. Given the chance to choose between lowtide and anyone in the traditional media I'm picking lowtide every day of the week and twice on Sunday. He doesn't have to self-edit to maintain access as the "pros" have to and doesn't dumb down his stuff. Good work lowtide.
3-Penguin Game: If you value your afternoons, just stay away. I just scored 311.6. Beat that.
4-Puppies: The non-virtual variety. You have to take them out every 20 minutes to ensure your carpets last longer than a month, they want constant attention and enjoy chewing on anything, the more expensive the better. Computer cables are a favorite.
Re-design
March 13, 2007
No. I didn't like the brown either.
In an attempt to both stick with the latest in colour trends as well as set myself apart from the typical portfolio site, the previous design used a palette consisting of a subtle blue gradient (which was really quite nice actually) and brown. Lots and lots of brown.
Brown? Yes brown. Why not brown? Walk down a street and you'll see blue and brown hiding around every street corner, on mannequins wearing the latest fashions, on billboards extolling the virtues of the next great condo complex, on the Vancouver Police Department's newest uniforms...Okay, not the uniforms, but you get the idea.
Only, once the dust settled on the old design, and I was accustomed to my wondrous-amazing banner that stretched with the browser window (thank you Cameron Moll) and the glory that is a variable-width design (thanks to Dan Cederholm et al.)I saw brown. Lots of it. Everywhere. Brown and grey text. What started off as a daring colour choice became, well, drab.
And once the colour began to fade (in my mind if not the screen) everything else began to fall apart. Typography went from clear and legible to pedestrian, images which once were clear became undefined and fuzzy, bad news all around.
Thus began the long, frustrating road of re-designing toddsilverdesign.net.
I kept the tag-line "Great Design Grows Business" and started building from there.
New Logo: I've had the same logo since I started Todd Silver Design in 2004, and it's simple but serviceable. (While a logo which includes an eye-catching icon (hicksdesign, simplebits) is in my future I'm unsure if I will continue to simply use Todd Silver Design in the future as this business continues to grow. If I begin to bring in partners or start hiring employees I'll probably re-name the company to something that doesn't include my name.) But, despite the lack of capitalization throughout the web, the lowercase logo was underwhelming. While capitalizing the logo was a simple solution, it does capture the eye to a greater degree—especially when placed on a website banner.
The Banner: Great design grows business. Well, using vegetation in the banner seemed the most efficient manner in which to incorporate "grow" into the design and the stunning Photoshop brushes created by Jason Gaylor guaranteed a great result, so the decision to keep the floral look was an easy one.
Colour: No more brown. for extended reading, text looks better set dark against a light background so the dark brown was ditched and a lighter, more subtle colour was chosen.
Under the Hood: Every page is validates as XHTML strict with valid CSS used to create the presentation. It's a fluid site, with margins set with ems and relative sizing used for the text (save for the logo in the header). I've dipped my toes in the PHP pool if only slightly allowing me to make updates by only updating a few text files as opposed to going in an editing the html files.
What's Next: Well, cleaning things up behind the scenes mostly. Designing a website is always a dynamic situation, meaning I've written CSS, changed it, dropped something, then changed it again, meaning there is quite a bit in the CSS file that doesn't need to be there. I'll be cleaning that up over the next few weeks. My writing isn't as strong as it once was, which is a major reason I've included a journal, so I'll be going through each page and editing my content as well. What's not in store is another major overhaul over in the foreseeable future. Updates, of course, will be a constant. I hope.
Pippin: Thain of The Shire, Squire to Lord Denethor
January 12th, 2007
Todd Silver Design has a new employee. He's short, furry and really doesn't get all that much done in a work day. My beautiful wife gave me a puppy for Christmas (he was born a week before Christmas Day) who has just recently joined our home. House-training is nothing if not an exercise in patience, and there isn't much low to the ground that hasn't been chewed on, but I couldn't be happier.
I've grown up with dogs, and couldn't imagine living without one. Which, while renting in Vancouver I was forced to do. But now, I have a furry little buddy following me around wherever I go... But the chewing... God the chewing...