Posted by Jewls
Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:47:00 GMT
About a month ago I conducted a couple informational interviews for my Job Search Strategies class.
The first interview was with Robert Dempsey, Project Director of Atlantic Dominion Solutions – a Ruby on Rails website and application development firm, and Founder and Director of Rails For All – a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Ruby on Rails to developers and businesses.
My interview with Robert is available in the Interviews section at Rails for All.
The second interview was with Craig Ambrose, a freelance agile web developer specializing in Ruby on Rails. In November, Craig began producing his Freelancing On Rails podcasts which have been a great insight into the world of freelance web development (something I’d like to try full time down the road).
Read on to view my interview with Craig…
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Posted by Jewls
Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:58:00 GMT
Post-graduate plans are something that I’ve been thinking about rather frequently since the beginning of the new year. To really see where I’m coming from, I guess I should tell you how I got to where I am now…
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Posted in The Web, General, Music, Ruby on Rails, School | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Jewls
Fri, 02 Feb 2007 03:58:00 GMT
Check it out, kids: ExpressiveConnections.com has finally been announced.
Expressive Connections is a network for creative professionals – aimed at aspiring and accomplished writers and artists who are looking to begin or advance in a career utilizing their talent.
The site is in a sort of alpha-mode right now. We think it’s got a pretty solid start, though – which is why we’re inviting you to take a look around, create an account and let us know what you think – if you’d use it, or what features you’d like to see added, etc. It’s still got some kinks and we’re still working things out here and there. But we’ve got big plans.
The site started out as a class project for my Interactive Media class. If you’ve read my blog at all, then you have probably heard me speak of it vaguely – referring to it as my first real RoR, HTML, and CSS application. You may have also noticed that I keep referring to “us” and “we,” by that I mean myself and AJ Gorczyca – we are the “team.” Well, once again we find ourselves in the same course – this time it’s TC448 – Scripting Web 2.0. And if you read my very last post, then you would know that this class entails Ruby on Rails, MySQL, and Apache, and other things of the “Web 2.0” nature. Pretty f-ing awesome, basically. Well just like the last course we took together, this one has a group project – that is to develop a web site utilizing the ideas and languages learned in class. Since Expressive Connections already fit into these project requirements, we decided to ask the professor, Kurt Demaagd, if we could continue building onto the project rather than start again from scratch. He agreed and so you can expect to see a lot of new features and changes. Here’s what we’re aiming for:
- On-site private messaging
- Member endorsements and letters of recommendation
- Ability to watch favorite users, see who other users are watching, and see who is watching you
- User-submitted audio and video content for portfolios
It would just be wrong if a network for creative professionals left out musicians, producers, actors, directors, and everyone in between. So, we’re not going to leave you out.
This is where we stand and these are our plans for the next semester. I think you’ll see some exciting changes along the way. And, hopefully you’ll help us, too – by checking it out, creating a profile, or spreading the word around to others who may be interested.
It’s a work in progress and we want you all to help us in building the most exciting site we can, so any feedback you give would be greatly appreciated.
Jewls
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Posted by Jewls
Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:44:00 GMT
Well, it’s been an entire month since my last post. It’s not that I haven’t had anything to write about – I’ve just been really, really busy. We’re three weeks into the spring semester now and classes are going pretty well. I’m taking:
- TC448 – Scripting Web 2.0
- ADV456 – Interactive Advertising
- REL491 – Is God Dead? Pantheism, Nihilism, and the Pursuit of Divine Knowledge
- PSY330 – Personality from a Psychoanalytic Perspective
- CAS380 – Job Search Strategies
Two of my classes are relatively related to my field, Scripting Web 2.0 goes over Ruby on Rails, MySQL, and Apache, and is taught by Kurt Demaagd, co-founder of Slashdot and board member on the Perl Foundation. So, needless to say – I’m pretty excited about that one.
The other class potentially beneficial to my future is Interactive Advertising. The class is centered around a group project in which we have to develop a predominantly online advertising plan for a local business. My group is working with John Kodeski of Relish Culinary Boutique. Now, if you visited that link – you’ll see that the site could use some work and this is where our group comes in with a plan (and also where I come in with my web skills – if he likes our plan, maybe I’d be the one to redesign the site, eh?).
The “Is God Dead?” class, is one of my more enjoyable courses. We’re currently discussing the viewpoints of the Dutch philosopher, Spinoza (Pantheism), and the German philosopher, Jacobi, who argued against Spinoza’s views. It’s pretty interesting stuff, if you’re into deep philosophical thoughts of God and the freedom of man, that is.
Next, there’s Personality from a Psychoanalytic Perspective with Bertram Karon. Pretty smart guy, pretty interesting stuff – however, I had him before in Abnormal Psychology and already I’m hearing the same stories . Still, interesting stuff.
And finally, Job Search Strategies. I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do.
Additionally, I’m taking introductory yoga classes at Center for Yoga in East Lansing. Those are pretty nice. Good stress relief.
Between all of these classes, I have been working on the site – which will probably be in some sort of alpha mode within in the next few weeks. Once finalized, I’ll of course post it here. I’ve also been working on a portfolio site for myself, once that is up – I’ll post it here, too. And on the weekends, I spend time with Adam. And that’s pretty much life.
Some other random thoughts over the last month:
- iPhone is AWESOME.
- I should have said this back in November but Incubus’ new album – Light Grenades is AWESOME.
- Going back to Europe in July will be AWESOME.
- And if you’ve read this far into my post, YOU ARE AWESOME.
I’ll stop now.
Take care now, bye-bye then.
Jewls
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Posted by Jewls
Thu, 09 Nov 2006 14:15:37 GMT
Well, we’ve made it to Week 12/16 of the Fall semester here at MSU. And that means, that the fifth and final IDM is due in my Interactive Media I course.
This weeks featured site is Blogs For Learning, an instructional blog for students and teachers that provides, “information and resources about the technical and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom.”
Blogs For Learning is the brainchild of two of my MSU professors: first, Dr. Ethan Watrall, my Interactive Media I instructor, and second, Dr. Nicole Ellison, the instructor of my “Social, Cultural and Psychological Implications of Computer-Mediated Communication,” course.
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Posted by Jewls
Wed, 25 Oct 2006 02:18:00 GMT
Here’s a few things that I think are worth mentioning but don’t necessarily need their own posts.
First, you know ads are going to reach the News Feed of Facebook users any-day now, when you see flyers all over your campus asking students to join the Crest WhiteStrips Facebook group.
Here’s a link to a picture of the ad: Smile State
I read an interesting article on Web accessibility today. I’ve been running into the topic fairly often recently (as to be expected for web designers of any skill level), and I haven’t really been confident in what the concept really entails. This article helped point me in the right direction, though. One commenter said it best: “Make something accessible and you’re making it easier for everyone, not just ‘disabled’ people.”
The website for Interactive Media I is coming along nicely. Rails is still pretty frustrating for me, but I think I’m picking it up little by little. No designs have been implemented yet, though – it’s becoming critical that we work on that. Adam and I were playing around with the CSS layout yesterday and applied a three column fluid layout with both 100% height and width. It works and it looks good – however it won’t support faux columns and therefore, more than likely, will not work with the type of design that we’re aiming at. So we may have to look at some alternate options.
Well that’s all I’ve got for ya.
Jewls
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Posted by Jewls
Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:35:52 GMT
You should have seen this one coming – it’s the fourth of five IDM posts for my Interactive Media I course!
This week on the class chopping block: Rustboy, a Flash site for the Brian Taylor short film project.
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Posted by Jewls
Wed, 18 Oct 2006 02:53:26 GMT
So for the last week and a half, I’ve been building a Rails application for my HTML course – Interactive Media I. The Final Project for my class is to create a “significant” website by manually coding HTML and CSS, in a small group. Well, we are definitely shooting for “significant.” I’m not going to spoil the surprise – but I’ll tell you it’s Web 2.0ish, and our professor was really excited about the idea.
I’m coding (with much help from the b/f) a lot of Rails for this, and at first it was extremely frustrating. But, I’m starting to get the hang of things and we’re making a lot of progress. My teammate, AJ (a computer sciences major), is struggling to get MySQL functioning on his XP system – but once that’s up, he is going to try and help out with it as well.
At the moment, I’d say a good portion of the back-end is good to go. Now, we need to begin focusing on and implementing the actual design of the site. So, it’s time for all of us to do some Photoshop explorations.
We’re all pretty excited about the site and I think it will turn out pretty well for my first Rails/HTML/CSS project. Stay tuned for the launch, which should be around early December.
Jewls
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Posted by Jewls
Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:09:42 GMT
Here it is, the third of five IDM posts for my Interactive Media I class. This weeks website is Jason Santa Maria, a personal weblog/portfolio for a graphic designer in Philly.
UPDATE: Jason has commented on the collection of critiques by our class and I urge you all to read his response. He’s obviously a very intelligent and humble designer and I’m grateful to have had his feedback.
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Posted by Jewls
Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:06:12 GMT
Well, here is the second of five IDM posts for my Interactive Media I class. I liked this website a lot less than the first one: smallTransport, but I didn’t really like that one much either…
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