bits and pieces

I am still always hoping and praying for more hours in the day, more time for everything I want and need to do and so....the constant motion of "beat the clock" continues. But for now, here's a few fun things I've been checking out lately. And of course a new little retro pin up beauty!



Have you seen this site yet? weloveyouso.com The book, soon to be released in movie form, Where The Wild Things Are, is what it's all about. I love this book so much and always thought the pictures were incredible. If you feel the same, this site is worth a look or three.

I am totally obsessed lately with this show called The Colony on Discovery Channel. So much cooler than Survivor or any of the horrible dating reality shows, this one take a group of MacGyver like geniuses, puts them in an abandoned warehouse in a post-apocalyptic L.A. and tells them to survive. Able to use anything they can find or salvage from the outside, they have to create not only a livable environment but are put in situations where they have to protect the compound and each other. A nurse, a computer engineer, a marine biologist martial arts instructor and Aerospace Engineer are just a few to make up the colony which is what makes the show so interesting.
Only one episode left, I'll be sad when it's over. Good TV is getting really hard to find.

And finally, the cutest little web coding woodland creature from the Pacific Northwest, css squirrel! Comics AND web design viewpoint and info, it's like one stop shopping with a fluffy little tail.

I really miss Washington State sometimes.....



Technically, not a pinup but I love this picture and the story it tells. Can't promise you won't see this one again!

PHP vs Scooby Doo

So I’m sure I’m behind in my observation of this but it was probably to protect my own wants and interests. I can’t deny any further though how requirements for web “designers” have changed and evolved. There seems to be less and less of the front-end designer and more of the designer/developer, supplying both UI and design as well as databases, content management systems, etc. I’ve probably been secretly bucking this fact in my mind for quite a while now as I really and truly enjoy the work I provide and just specializing in front end design. As someone from a past job in an office far away put it – you just make it pretty. Granted, web design is a more involved than that, but I was not offended by her view of my contribution.

Maybe it’s the continued struggling economy, market saturation or the fact that 15 year old kids are now getting in to the game, I feel like I have to accept the growing pains, fear of change and “how am I going to have time for all this?!?!” and just accept the obvious. I admit though, I was feeling very low and stubborn when I first came to the decision and imagined myself a kind of Old Man Smithers character, having my monster mask ripped off and screaming “I’d have gotten away with it too (sticking to front end design) if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” Not my proudest moment, I know.



So then began my point of research for what to learn and where to even start. The 2 things that kept coming up again and again were PHP and Joomla. From what I’ve read and people’s opinions on Joomla, it can be a bit bulky but is considered a great content management tool. You don’t have to necessarily know PHP to get started with it but I’m sure it won’t hurt either and knowing me, I will want to get deep and be able to tweak every detail to my hearts desire. A great argument was made for Coldfusion as well which swayed me a little. According to wikipedia and another developer I spoke with, “One of the distinguishing features of ColdFusion is its associated scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), which compares to the scripting components of ASP, JSP, and PHP in purpose and features, but more closely resembles HTML in syntax.” Which was appealing since I do hand coding and am very familiar with HTML, maybe that would be the best and easiest place to start. On the other side of the coin though, I don’t see Coldfusion being as widely used as PHP and without knowing more of what they each can do, still feel PHP might be a better tool to learn.

So I probably have a little more research and thinking to do but whatever I decide, I guess it’s time to come out from behind my comfort zone and stretch those wings. I really don’t want to be the monster in Scooby Doo anyway; I do dig that groovy Mystery Machine though!

To go along with my current theme of great site lists, here’s another good resource: www.designbombs.com/blog-bombs

New pinups coming soon!