No Heat for me…

So here I am just sitting at my computer at home. I am organizing my life, such as what to do today and this week up ahead. I am paying some bills and doing some homework (such as this blog). My computer is situated next to a window in my apartment and I have no heat…not much anyhow. So to the coffee pot I go, and I believe this will be a “coffee day” for me. I thought about what to write this morning and I think I will share this website with those interested in the A+ certification. In one of my other classes, we took a practise A+ test and it was most helpful. This will give you a head start and great knowledge of what to expect on your A+ test. Go to Course Technology and this should take you directly to the student download page and just download the CertBlaster Test Prep Questions. You should be able to navigate from there. Hope this helps! 

CSS styles on Google

In September I picked google as one of my favorite web sites. So I looked into the styles it used for the site. I found mostly tables and lots of div tags too. I was in my igoogle when I looked into the page source. (igoogle is fun). Anyhow there were also css used within the site too. As well as javascript. I looked at igoogle in print preview and didn’t see anything but the header. I also wanted to check out the San Diego Zoo site as well. I found that they use style sheets with css, and javascript. I like the use of tables and it had a bunch of list tags and div tags. Different headers were used throughout the site as well. I like this style of web site, it is laid out nicely and user friendly as well as easy on the eyes, which is a plus!   Also in print preview, it showed quite a bit of the site except for some flash animation and images.

Typography

I found these 4 sites that I think represent the 4 color schemes:

• www.seaworld.com This was a basic monochromatic theme, just shades of blue.
• www.playtexproductsinc.com/corppages/index.asp This site displayed a nice complimentary colors.
• www.coke.com.my/sprite/main.htm This had the analogous color scheme down nicely.  It has shades of light-green, yellow-green, and green.
• www.minutemaid.com This site looked like it represented the triad color scheme.  It displayed green, orange, and blue.

This was a very challenging assignment, but it was a great way to learn what is out there and how colors go well or not so well with each other on a web page.

Friendly zoo site…come and explore it!

For a web site that has easy to view pages with nicely chosen font and styles, this is a great one to visit. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/  I picked this site as having pleasant typography for numerous reasons:  I especially like the color of background which really brings out the colors of font.  This makes it friendly for the viewer!  The color is neutral, not too bright and not at all dull.  For a zoo web site this is superbly designed for all ages and tastes.  The kid’s page has bright colors and awesome graphics…but I will keep on the subject.  The size and style of font that is used is kept the same throughout all the pages you visit.  I believe this is especially important in creating a successful web site, which the ‘San Diego Zoo’ site has accomplished very well.  Click on the link and explore…have fun!

Ahoy, Sailor…why a website?

As I was searching for a web page with bad typography, I ran into a few interesting websites. Low and behold, this web site is the one that I chose to write about: http://www.1960sailors.net/ It seems that this should win a certain award for being extremely hard to decipher. I mean look at it! It is about a high school, sailors, yearbooks, Popeye… I think? The font comes in all different sizes and flavors of blue. The home page’s navigation bar was barely legible as I tried to click through many pages. Besides from having multiple font colors and styles from royal blue to rainbow, it should also be labeled a poorly designed site as well…but that is a completely different blog subject…. As you check this site out, beware you may have a slight headache due to straining of your eyes and all the teeny icons and pictures.

Life=Meaning

What you do every day should contribute to giving your life
meaning. If it doesn’t, why are you doing it?– Don Hutcheson

I read this and thought it to be a realistic quote and true to life in general. To me anyhow, very much the truth. Gives you another way of thinking about your life. You see the clothes or slogans that say “Life is Good”, right? Do you really feel that is true? Even when you are on the roller coaster of life. Sometimes we really don’t want to get on, well hey can we just step out of line and move to the back? Maybe, for a short while. We just can’t let it pass us by though, what fun is that? New challenges, new avenues, could be frightening or it could be the best thing to ever happen to you. You make the choice

Time…what?

These are just some thoughts that I had recently. I am sitting here and just kind of overwhelmed because of the whole ‘not having enough time’ mindset. I realize this will be a truth that will remain, but sometimes I think about it. I mean I just recently gotten married and to a beautiful person, he is a blessing. He has two children of his own and I have one of mine. Also I quit my full-time job at a clinic in town and now I am a full-time student @ UAF!!! So many things to be thankful for, yet where’s the time to really enjoy it all? I know it’s there….I just have to stop and look around. “Take time stop and smell the roses”, or in my case the star gazers….(sniff, ahhh)….

‘STINKY SITES’

I thought this was a pretty good assignment. ‘Stinky Sites’….Well this is one that I came across in a different class that I am taking http://www.fray.com/ When I visited this web site’s home page it was hard to know what I was looking at. Then as I started to click from one page to the next, I see that this web site was stories about people’s lives that they publish on-line. Though it was a good idea, the web pages weren’t such a good idea. It could be improved by keeping the pages a bit more organized and similar to each other. It was hard on my eyes because of the dark backgrounds and tiny font. Also the style of font made it hard to read as well as look at. After going through the stories a few times I just closed the web site, got frustrated. I think the designer(s) could improve on the layout of the pages as you click through them. It was unorganized.