Poorly Again... or is it still?

Once again, I find myself victim to the very much-overstated illness that is Man Flu!

My attempts to hide my illness and come into college were quickly foiled by Steve. After a quick feedback session, it was decided that it was best if I went home and rested; perhaps this is the reason I find myself once again poorly.

However, this time the illness has cost me more than just a few days off college. Much to my regret I have been unable to attend the visit to the Design Mechanics.

I am sure that I will be able to read about the experience on the other peoples journals; perhaps there will be a small talk on Monday regarding the days events as there was when the Design Mechanics came to visit us.

Fortunately, whilst I am not yet 100% better, I am well on the way back to good health.

This week will have to see an increase in self-study hours to accommodate for the poor start.

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Quote of the week

“People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.” - John Wanamaker

No rest for the wicked!

[Before I get into this post, I have been playing and have come across a very useful bit of HTML. Where the font is Dark Purple if you hover your mouse over it and see what happens - Let me know what you think].

Good points

Monday

This week saw our formal introduction to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Even though I have what I would now call basic knowledge and understanding of CSS, I found myself to be very impressed with its capabilities; almost immediately the proverbial cogs of my mind were turning with ideas for future projects.
Along with the introduction to CSS, we also had a lecture regarding Adobe Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is an application that I consider myself to be reasonably competent with; however the lecture and ‘creative play’ benefited me greatly and will have a baring on how I do things in the future.

Feedback forms have always been somewhat of a mystery to me. I have heard a lot about them but I have never actually used one nor seen the results returned from one. Following the lectures we’ve had and from talking to other people I feel that my curiosity has now gotten the best of me and during this weeks self study I aim to create and successfully implement a working (test) feedback form.

Big thanks to Torro who instigated the creation of a pre-submission checklist. This is a fantastic idea which will hopefully avoid any still omissions for the A5 – Builder project.

Tuesday

I loved the timed design task! The more we do tasks like this, the more comfortable I am with them (kind of practice makes perfect). My design work still leaves much to be desired and is possibly the area in which I stand to make the biggest improvements.

I am really enjoying the A6 - Revert to Type. Once again it is showing me just how little I knew about design and the principles behind it before I started this course.

The seminar groups this time have been decided by putting people with similar grades together. Today’s seminar session, I feel worked very well. Everyone in the group contributed well. Lets keep it up; great work.

Bits that could have been better.

It was a real shame to have missed out on the submission of our first timed task by merely seconds. I suppose that the strictness of the submission time was to give us an indication of how serious we have to take these things.

Based upon the seminar groups today, I realise that there is still much work to do bring the A1 project up to scratch.

Conclusion

In closing, I would once again thank Steve for organising the visit next week to the Design Mechanics. Whilst I am a little bit apprehensive to show the work I have done so far, I am really looking forward to the opportunity to visit a working design studio (however small it may be).

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Quote of the week
“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand”. – Chinese Proverb

Check Point One

After much apprehension over the festive period, I am very please [and proud] to say that I have made it into the second semester.

Whilst not an overly promising start, due to illness; I am sure that this semester will prove to be even better than the previous.

Monday's lesson saw the classes introduction to Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver was one area that I was under the impression I was very knowledgeable about; however, our creative playtime and the lecture once again proved that there is still much to learn.

I am pleased to announce that I have passed the A3 assignment that I was worrying so much about; and with some alterations, A4 can be turned around also.

I do feel that the presenting of the grades worked much better this time around. The nervous tension was still there but there was also an air of excitement. I would be happy for the grades to be presented in this manor in the future.

In all honesty, I was expecting a much lighter morning for our first day back [perhaps a team building exercise / ice breaker as on our first day]; however, upon reflection, there were things that had to be done and the schedule is so tight that this simply couldn't have been the case.

From looking at the up coming assignment sheets, I am really looking forward to getting my head down and making as much progress as possible early on. The production schedule MUST be abided by as closely as possible to ensure that I have a CLEAR week at the end of the assignment to iron out problems that have recently been brought to my attention.

Regrettably, I missed the class today [Tuesday 15th] due to illness. However, I will ensure that all notes are caught up on and any gaps are filled in.

The atmosphere in the class on Monday was fantastic; which was surprising considering it was results day. Whilst everyone seamed relaxed and positive, we all now have a much clearer understanding of what has to be done in order to succeed on the course.

The class were asked a rhetorical question during our Monday morning talk [and paraphrase a little] "Is this what you want... are you willing to do what it takes?" the answer without a shadow of doubt is YES! This is what I want to do, I am willing to do what it takes.

www.shaunbellis.co.uk

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Quote of the week

“Plan backwards as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.” - Donald Rumsfeld