Nerd, I am.

An update! Fancy that!

I have been plotting a move to the new blogger - which requires a crash course on my part to learning the basics for XML. Why must these new updates be so nitpicky? From what I gathered, the biggest change is transforming the "<" to some letter combination gobbly gook and from my perspective utterly nonsensical. I might go blind getting to the new blogger...but it will be pretty and I will be able to create post categories...which is my goal in the first place! How exciting! (not!) Until then, we must deal with the categoriless blog - but it will remain in its aesthetically pleasing state until I have worked out the finer details. But what has been taking up my spare time in days of late is not the finer details of XML but the skills I am acquiring in Photoshop. I get lots of design requests at work, for which everyone knows will send me in fits of glee. So you can see some of my recent projects in photoshop here here and here... cool huh? For Christmas I gave my mother another new fancy skill in photoshop as well - I morphed photographs of the family into fine art. It became rather hilarious in the end, just how over the top I was willing to go. I think the piece du resistance was my adaptation of Jacques Louis-David's famous portait of Napoleon into a portrait of Eric...

ta da

He sure looks like a dandy, huh?

Edited to Add...

I had to update sooner rather than later I guess...some unintended mucking around resulted in the inability to post. So, okay, the new blog is boring...but I am working on it folks!!

CSS and the dyslexic visual processor

I promise to be all over the place today.

First. I am bound and determined to create my own blog, using CSS. This is how I learn...I'm one of those hands on sorts, who finds manuals to be more frustrating than putting on pants after the boots. CSS is definatley more challenging to this dyslexic brain than HTML. I don't want to learn without a specific project in mind. I'm just a walking contradiction aren't I? Not liking manuals fits nicely into my mapless motif...yet I ultimately need a goal? Oh the incongruity!

It all starts with a picture: (I'll post a link since it takes up less space)
Image here In my visions, there are three columns beneath. You know, nothing radically out of the ordinary. Simplicity is sublime.

I am a visual learner (I have to convert complex ideas into pictures, however abstract in order to fully understand them.) It's useful some ways: I have a great memory, I'm an artsy type...I can draw and such. Sometimes it's a real disadvantage, especially when I convert my visual thinking into something linear like writing. As you can see, I go all over the place. This is part of the reason I am hesitant about being in academia - since I really have no great love for writing (teaching is another business). Anyway, much of the HTML I learned is primarily self taught, since my first reaction to looking at any form of computer code is utter panic. Really. It's almost like vertigo. If I learn it my way - I grasp the visual cues and I'm on my way.

I get the same reaction to some blogs - when I see an inundation of links. First I think, is this just for show? (It does give the air of authority doesn't it?) Do people really have time to read all this? (Then we wonder about workplace productivity). I tend to withdraw from visual chaos - and don't get into said blogs. I'm not critiquing said blogs. I think they ought to exist - I am only articulating my experience with them.

Okay, reassess...where are you going with this?

Oh yes..That's why I want a simple, straightforward aka "boring" blog. The rationale is: a) Its easy to learn and b) Its nice to look at. I'm all about form sometimes.

Look for part two later. I'm going to title it "Orange Pants". (I am now going to find a nice catchy title for this morning's ramble)