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