Not So CS-Stressed

Hi again,

It has been a few weeks since my last entry. This is partly down to being busy and also because of the half term holidays. So let me fill you in on the events of the last few weeks.

After the Flash project and the subsequent nightmares, I decided that once I get some spare time (if there is such a thing) I am going to attempt some more flash based work.

I have done some tutorials now online and I feel better equipped to use the software, I also think it would be foolish to fall into the same trap as last time- that being not using it again until really necessary, I am going to try and work with the 'practise makes perfect' theory in mind.

We have started a new project 'On the Job 2' which is a kind of follow on from from the 'On the Job1' project. We are re-designing a website for a fabric company. This I think will give us some scope to use some nice imagery and should make for a nice site.

Looking at our ideas already I am quite happy with the professional feel to them. I can also see the progress that has been made from the earlier days of the course, I think I maybe becoming a little nostalgic with the end of the course in site!


I do think the HND students that are left are starting to work well together, and my only disappointment is that it did not happen sooner. I think each of us has strengths and we all could have benefited from each others knowledge a lot more than we have.

On the subject of CSS my evil nemesis, along with Flash, I have had a breakthrough!

It has been quite a painful process but I bit the bullet, and I wish I had done it earlier. I now feel quite at ease using CSS and even enjoy trying to figure out solutions to layout problems. This is something I certainly did not expect to hear myself saying, in fact it has been such a thorn in my side it has given me stress levels that I really weren't happy with.

That along with some other stresses - the old employment after college chestnut, deadlines, referral work and wondering if I can 'cut it' in the industry have given me a pretty crappy time in the last few weeks.

I am hoping that me getting to grips with CSS, even in a basic way will push me on. After all there isn't long to go, May 15th folks!

My 6 month learning plan has changed in content really, I think I have done tutorials as I have needed to rather than in the order I first laid them out. This has been through necessity though, Flash tutorials and a nice site I found that allows you to edit CSS text, and see the effects on certain elements , have become an important part of my learning.

I plan to list my 'done' tutorials on here as evidence, maybe stating usefulness and content, then if any of you readers would like to, you can just click the links and do them yourselves.

Aims

1. As mentioned above, list my tutorials for next week.

2. Have my 3 CSS layouts for the CiSSy project in place.

3. Have my referral work, 1-2 essays done for next week.

4. I would like to re-design my portfolio site, or find a solution to navigating projects in sections, e.g CiSSy, Mikron and On the Job projects in the web section.


Thanks for reading, any suggestions on portfolio layout would be welcomed greatly.

Mark