On the up and up

Aside from all the others stresses of the last few weeks, all things are looking to be turned into the right direction. This is the first post to be made from the laptop I just picked up. Another 30 days of free dreamweaver are being downloaded and installed as I make this post. Although the purchase of Adobes web design premium package is in my near future. I am happy to make use of free as long as possible.

Having myself a set of tools available again I am starting this process of putting together the website for the final project. on another related and exciting note. Blacklabeltable is, and I cross my fingers saying this going live on the 30th at their next Underground Supper club. I am in the process of updating that to include a different mechanic for creating a better slideshow when the page loads as well this week.

Thats about all I have time for right now as far as updates to the blog. My eyes are swimming in a sea of javascript plugins and dreamweaver tutorials.

Recent Inspiration

So, lately when I think of things that I want to start getting better at in the future I think of Javascript. It seems that nowadays you cant event think of JS without Jquery and dollar preceded function brackets $(). Seems the two go hand in hand. This is a realtively light and simple Jquery plugin that allows a website to get a nice little hover over effect for some links. I will be implementing the reflection piece in the website I turn in later today.

 Adrian Pelletier
http://www.adrianpelletier.com/2009/05/31/create-a-realistic-hover-effect-with-jquery-ui/


This is all I have for today, I am hard at work thinking of what should come next for me as far as projects go.

On a more related note

I have come to a few final conclusions regarding how the Oak Leaf Cafe will be coming together. It will be put together in a fixed format. I have worked with the logo a little bit more and and have almost reached a final decision on how it will fit in the final design of the site.

I have been looking at the sites of some of my favorite restaurants from back home in San Luis Obispo county. 

Thomas Hill Organics

http://www.thomashillorganics.com/home.html

This is a little organic minded bistro style cafe and winebar with awesome food.

15 Celsius

http://15degreescwines.com/contact.php 

Wine bar and bistro, tons of great foreign cheeses as well.

Novo

http://www.novorestaurant.com/

Simply amazing

Artisan

http://artisanpasorobles.com/index.php

Amazing food and I actually like their website also.

Buona Tavola (Italian for Good Table)

http://www.btslo.com/
Last but not least this is my favorite on the list.

4th of July Antics

Being the fourth of July Fireworks would be more appropriate. Here is just to say that fire can be as much, if not more fun when fire is at play. These were taken back in October but they give an indication of what this last week held in store for me and what sort of things my evening will include as we celebrate the fourth of July.

Typography Happens
Being as new to the field of graphic and web design as I am, I find almost everything is a fresh idea to me. Another way to phrase this would be that I am grateful I can approach things with such a fresh perspective as not to have developed hurtful prejudices against practices that are new to me so I am constantly rewarded with new tools with which to relate to design related obstacles with.

Projections for the new year

http://www.marqui.com/blog/top-website-design-trends-for-2011.aspx

 Here is a list of design related projections for what the trends of 2011 will be that was posted early december of 2010. Looks like the projections made were solid, or at least looking around at sites today I seem to notice similarities with what was mentioned in the blog.

More 2011 Design Trends

http://www.jonnyyorke.com/?p=2065

At the very top of this list we find Typography as the first topic. Leading me to believe it to be a valuable resource that I should become better at using effectively.

 Using typography as a design element is something that I will be looking more into over the next couple weeks. My mind is constantly consumed by the many capabilities of javascript and my efforts to gain a better understanding of it.

Finding Resources

I spend a lot of time reading, both for pleasure and professional development. There are however certain sites I find myself coming back to repeatedly. There are other things I have found that I cannot now imagine living without.

FireBug
http://getfirebug.com/
This is a plugin for Firefox, it is a gui that helped me immensely in the last couple weeks of the last web design class that I took. It is a great way to look at visually site layout and pick apart the backend coding of a site.

Stock Exchange
http://www.sxc.hu/
Being that I am a student and do not want to pay for expensive stock photos, I have come to rely on this site that provides free to use stock images for when I need an element to add completion to some of my pages.

Deviant Art
http://www.deviantart.com/
This is a site that has provided for me constant inspiration daily weekly and monthly for me during the last couple years. There are stock photos, tutorials, a good community of artists, and tons upon tons of art to whet your appetite.

Although this is just a small selection of the things that I enjoy staying current with on the internet. There are tons and tons more with new things to inspire added daily.

Beginnings

I am Mark Andrew McAdam, I stand sixty nine inches above sea level, the thing I enjoy most of all is introducing new and different stimulus to my senses whenever possible. I have lived a charmed life, full of opportunities and myriad chances to learn new things. My travels have afforded me the opportunity to test the firmness of soil on multiple continents with my own feet. World seems sturdy all over, think we will make it. The last place I went scuba diving was a shipwreck of the coast of Florida near Pensacola. I have not for the longest time had a clear direction that I wanted to focus my effort and creativity. That led me to pursue many different things, I have held jobs as a ranch hand, welder, blacksmiths apprentice, I have worked construction on homes, pools, and large scale commercial winery installation. I made and sold wine in a winery I was a small partner in for three years, I was a cryptologic technician for the Navy for four years, I have been paid to perform with fire, both indoors and outside. I was allowed to take performing with fire indoors at my second real bartending job. I worked on the construction of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal training building at camp pendleton. I digress, but with that said I found myself considering the possibilities of designing and creating solutions for people. In short I decided that the best way to apply to every possible industry was to do it through the web, I have been incredibly interested in web design ever since as a result