Monday!

I’ve tried to re-work some of my plans to reflect the new DMS Communications site I’m creating……I haven’t tried hard enough though because I still haven’t finished.  The joy of working on sites without the necessity of an assignment is crushed by my procrastination and not even having a “due date” So, maybe that’s what I should do, create some due dates…..

Personal Due Dates:

DMS Plan complete & posted to blog by Tuesday….yes, tomorrow…..

DMS Structure & Template Chosen & Online by Wednesday…..

Content mostly complete by Friday……

In past projects, content would hold me back because I will put it off and jump into my design.  This doesn’t work all the time because knowing how long the text areas are can change my design concepts.  Anyways, I’m going to get these things really rolling this week.  I need a basic site up and available to the public asap.  As of right now, I have the site down which is doing me and our business no good.

Here’s to Monday & a busy PRODUCTIVE week!

(Like my mantra?)

Deja vu

"...lots of life happening lately..."

Okay, starting over ………again………….WAHHHH!!!

DEJA VU!?!

Ya, I know.

So, lots of life happening lately has put my entire web design life, including my schooling, on hold!

However, in all the life happenings, my husband’s business is taking off and he is in need of his website pronto.  In combination with that need and being laid off from my own 9 to 5 job, I have decided to reclaim my design life.

My blog will hopefully be very active now.  I’m no longer running it for a course, but still plan to post my design adventures.  I’m going to be working on a few projects and maybe even officially going back to school full-time.  I’m not ready to commit to that until I know I will be able to have enough time.

Thanks if you are still out there listening to my infrequent rants! Maybe I’ll actually turn this into a real blog now.  Hah!

Grrr….

I’ve found that WordPress is making me crazy and I spend so much time trying to get my blog to look just right.  I spend a really long time just trying to get My New Plan page to look correct and  show correctly on the menu. I was also trying to add another page for my discussion assignments, but still haven’t nailed that down.  I’m just annoyed for the moment and have realized I need to watch the WordPress videos at Lynda.com, so I’m not wasting precious time on the blog that I could be working on the site.
School has officially started and I’m excited about my classes. I was able to get into one that I was on the waitlist for, so I’m happy about that. This means that time is more valuable now than ever, so my posts may become more short and sweet!

I guess this is more Evil & Sweet instead of Short & Sweet =D

Rusty…

I feel like I have been spinning my wheels for the last two weeks, trying to get things moving in a forward direction.  I feel like a rusty old car, pathetically trying to race down the speedway.  Although it may not seem like it, I really have accomplished quite a bit:

• I read through all my blog posts to see what I had already covered. Man, have I had some serious typos! So, I’m definitely going to try and be more diligent in that regard. I’d appreciate any comments that point out typos or errors; it won’t offend me, so please speak up if you see something.
• The About Me page has been updated here on my blog. Go check it out, there’s a picture of my kiddos there too! =)
• I had already installed my own local server previously, so I have only really reviewed what I did before. I’d like to spend more time on this because my brief attempt and getting it running didn’t work. However, I just haven’t gone back to it for lack of time, so I’ll post more on that when I get around to it. I will say this, I did like the idea of having that as my workspace before going live with things. And if I recall correctly, I had used it quite a bit for adding my extensions on my last go of things.
• Created a new domain for my family site and got Joomla! installed. I was having trouble getting Joomla! to work the first time I installed it and couldn’t quite figure out what the problem was, however I decided to just have a “do-over” to see if I missed a step, and once I uninstalled and re-installed, it was working properly. No complaints here, I’m glad it is up and running now.
• I’ve done a lot of re-reading and researching again. I am quite rusty, so the review has been good for me.  The Lynda.com videos have been invaluable this time around as well. I’m not sure if I just didn’t pay as much attention previously, but they have really helped me get the content structure aspect to sink in a little better. (Not that this has completely sunk in, but I’m getting there.)
• My new site plan was a much easier experience this time around. I took my own advice from a previous post and used Microsoft’s SmartArt. It was a much easier process this time around; however, as you can see on The Plan, it isn’t quite as detailed as The Old Plan. Mostly because this site is going to be fairly less complex content-wise, but also for the sake of saving time since I have already done a very detailed site plan. (Throughout this process, twice now, I have found that setting up this outline and diagram is so very important. It has really helped me to envision the final product, yet also make some hard decisions about content and site organization. I really enjoyed the WebMonkey tutorial on Information Architecture. Yes, I said I enjoyed that…..I know, I feel the geek exuding from me and into this blog, I’ve accepted it!)
• I’ve started organizing some content on my site….well, fake content. I haven’t included much actual content, just titles and lots of “Lorem ipsum” for now. I want to get my structure more solidified first, then get the extensions up and running, and finally I’ll get the actual content on there. I’ll add some here and there as I go, as well. Hopefully by the end of next week, I’ll have most of this done.
• The research and decisions have been made for my extensions, but I’ll save that info for another post  =)

SO, as you can tell, I’ve been busy.  I do need to improve on posting here more often, so that you can hear my trials and tribulations as they come, rather than after the fact. I’ll work on that!

Much more to come, very soon!

Starting Fresh

This last year has presented more challenges than I could have ever imagined.  Due to all these life circumstances, I set my schooling down for another day. That day has arrived! I’m very excited to announce that I’m finally picking up where I left off and will be completing my PHP Site Management & Theme Design course. It would be difficult to just pick up where I left off, so I’m starting fresh!  I have chosen to just go with an entire new site concept.  I’m making a family website because we have family and friends all over the country now and it would be nice to have something to keep everyone updated.  I plan to incorporate a lot of the same ideas I was putting into my previous site plan, but for different reasons. Soon there will be detailed information on my page, The New Plan. I hope to have this information up by the end of the day.

For now, I’m getting this blog updated and trying to get my new site up and running with Joomla! so more and more posts to come soon!

Oh, one more thing, I’m going to be adding a new page as well for my assignments and will provide some links to that info as I get it up and going!

Stay Tuned!

The Big Switch

So, the switch to Joomla! wasn’t too difficult actually. I mean, the physical switch. I was able to change my host server without any hiccups. Well, technically speaking, there is a small hiccup because on my local host it isn’t working 100% correctly. However, for the sake of time and sanity, I chose to overlook the small error and hopefully I get around to trouble shooting it soon. (Basically, the menus aren’t working correctly on the back-end interface, which makes it difficult to see and understand that I’m changing things correctly. I’ve had to work on my site directly a bit more than I’d like, but it’s workable for the moment.)

The switch to Joomla! on my actual live website was super easy! I’m thankful for that. It’s always nice to have something go off without a hitch. If only the switch in my head was so easy! I went back through our weekly assignments and did the research again, just going the Joomla! route. I’ve found that my classmates blogs have been a great help to me. For instance, Nancy has been a big help and pointed me in the right direction initially. You can see her comment here.  Paul’s Sheepishly Blogging was very helpful in my switchover as well. So, thank you Joomla! bloggers. You rock!

I had just started involving myself in the WP community and had signed up on the WordPress Forums already. So, for the switch, I signed up with Joomla! Forums. In loading modules and plugins on my site, I have also signed up for JoomlaCode Forums,  Community Builder Forums, and JForce.  I prefer to keep my username the same, if possible, so I can be recognized across forums if need be. For anyone interested:

My Forum Login Username :  marissastonge

Trying to catch my breath…

Well, it has been a rough few weeks. I’m SO behind on posting here, so I have a LOT to update! I switched to Joomla! and got straight to work. I had some issues with my Lynda.com account, that took over 2 weeks to resolve. But, mostly, my family has been passing around the sick over the last 3 weeks as well. SO, I’m exhausted to say the least, beyond behind, and really just trying to catch my breath. Bare with me and sorry for the 10 posts I’m about to publish!

Hopefully you’ll enjoy hearing my adventures in Joomla!

Am I crazy?

Okay, so big change! (I hope I’m not crazy) I’m changing my CMS to Joomla.

Wow, sounds crazy now that’s I’ve “said”  it.

After doing my own research and discussing my options with Elaine, I have decided to officially switch gears and switch from WordPress to Joomla.  The type of interactivity I’d like to have on the site won’t be supported by WP. Luckily, being a slow poke is paying off. I didn’t have much done to my site previously and so I didn’t loose any physical work. However, I’ve done TONS of WordPress reserach and reading and now I’m starting over….

I’ve got Joomla loaded onto my site easy enough, but would like to put it on my local server. So, off to do that, then I need to go back in the lectures and re-read for Joomla! Hopefully, I’ll be able to post later about the new modules I will have chosen.

Here goes nothing….

Getting Lost

I’ve spent most of the day researching WordPress plugins, widgets, sidebars, themes….and just about everything else! Not knowing much about WP coming into this project, it can all be a little overwhelming and I find myself getting lost. However, it’s rewarding to really get in there and figure it out on your own with some patience and persistance. I have a laundry list of various plugins I glanced through. I think I need to really look at my site and see how I can implement what I’ve found or even adjust my site plan if I find something I like more.

Here are some of the plugins I am considering using:

• WP-Forum : To create the Technical Support Area of the site. This would allow for a client based forums atmosphere as well.
• WP- Testimonials or WP Client Testimonials/Quotes: I would include the testimonials on the home page and offer a comments section in the contact form. 
• Contact Form 7 & Contact Form 7 Widget: Easy access to direct contact with the company (on the sidebar).

I’d definitely like to figure out how to make the Customer Login (tier 1.2 on my outline) work with plugins or whatever it will take to get it functional and interactive. However, I’ll admit my ignorance and barely know where to start. We’ll see if I’m able to tackle that anytime soon!

At this point, I’m going to head back over to Lynda.com to finish up tutorials. I am definitely in need of more of the basics and know I will get them there. Off and running!

Promise of Fun

While I have pretty obviously used this blog to vent my frustrations, I don’t know that I’ve yet to hold up my promise to include all the fun I’m having. So, thought I’d add a little fun I found last night. This may be old news to most of you, so pardon my ability to be easily amused while being behind on the latest and greatest at the same time!

This semester I decided to add the same picture to all my profiles; moodle, skype, it is even the same as my FaceBook picture. Well, in all our research, I came across information about Gravatars. Honestly, I can’t remember if this was part of our resource material, just a link from WordPress, or how exactly I came across the information, but no matter which way, I just found it facinating.  Just like Elaine explained in our Connections Lecture, it is so important, especially in the web design industry, to have your name out there on the blogs. Having a gravatar follow you around the web is another great way to put your name and now face/image out there and give the online community some insight to your personality. As it is well said on Squidoo, “The main reason for wanting a gravatar is to increase brand awareness – a picture of you or your logo is going to be seen and, hopefully, remembered by everyone who reads your comments on Gravatar-enabled blogs.”

I also found ProBlogger’s post about gravatars very helpful. I appreciated the way he goes into detail about how your gravatar can effect the way your comment on a blog is perceived. This also looks like a helpful blog about blogging  and I plan to spend some time looking around when I get the chance.

Now back to my fun…I’ve always really wanted to create one of the cartoon-ish looking gravatar’s. So begins my little fun last night! After some aimless searching, I found FaceYourManga.com It is a free service to create a Mangatar, as their called. There may be another place to create these and possible a better way to do so, however I was already spending some valuable time on something not necessary. I’d love to hear what you think and also if you like this sort of aspect about the online communities. By the way, it’s not that I didn’t like my actual photo gravatar. In fact, I’m not completely decided what I’ll be using as my permanent one, however here’s my wee-bit of fun and my new gravatar for now:

A little fun amid the studying maddness...