| This is my online journal, a place where I share what's happening in my life with the world. Entries are organized from most recent to least recent, and are made on an irregular basis; that is to say, basically when something interesting happens in my life.
Also, it should be noted that this page is rated PG. Some language may not be suitable for younger audiences.
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New (and somewhat new) Portfolio Pieces
entry made February 10, 2005, at 12:37 am |
| As promised, I've added seven new pieces to my online portfolio. For some reason, I hadn't added my work from my last major group project to this site; that's now been rectified, and you can now find six pieces from my Outback Steakhouse campaign on the portfolio page.
I've also designed a layout for a fictional technology newsletter, called read.me, which is an entirely new piece for my portfolio. This was a bit of a change for me, compared to my other works, which have mostly consisted of single-page print ads with graphics as the dominating element. All in all, it was a fun project, and I'm quite pleased with the end result.
Oh, and before I get any e-mails about this... no, read.me does not exist, save for inside my mind; no, you can't contribute an article for it; and no, I can't sell you any of the gadgets featured in the "articles." You may find it odd that I think I have to state that, but I actually received an e-mail some months ago from a gentleman in Asia who wanted to buy a stereo I had used in an ad that's no longer available on this site; he was ready to provide his credit card and shipping information before I replied that I wasn't an electronics store.
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He Lives...
entry made February 2, 2005, at 7:20 pm |
| Yes, remarkably, I am still alive. So why no entries since last August? Well, like it says above, I make entries when something interesting happens in my life, or when I've updated the site. Nothing interesting happened since August; ergo, no entries.
I've made significant changes to my résumé since I last updated the page, however, thanks to some major help from a local career counselling facility. Basically, the old résumé was too vague, and didn't list my qualifications or detail my responsibilities at my previous jobs well enough. It has been fixed up now, and is available for your perusal.
Over the next week or so, I'll be adding more portfolio pieces to the site, and creating some new pieces as well. Look for more updates soon.
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New Additions to the Portfolio
entry made August 25, 2004, at 12:56 am |
| Five new pieces have been added to the Portfolio. Check out my work for Happy Times for Kids preschool in the Web Banners and Flash Animations section.
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It's Done!
entry made August 4, 2004, at 1:57 am |
| And here it is, at long last... a redesign of the page! All in all, I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. As you may have already noticed, if you've been here before, this is what used to be called the 'Blog section, and now features a 'jump to date' section at the top of the sidebar. Also note that older entries will be archived, to improve load times for those on slower internet connections.
Other than the redesign, the content is more or less the same, though with better organization. Portfolio pieces, for example, now feature a related links section in the sidebar where appropriate.
Well, hope you like it! Enjoy your stay!
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Hit a snag...
entry made August 1, 2004, at 4:58 pm |
| It would appear I've hit a wee bit of a snag in the redesign, and I've had to redo some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Turns out my spacing was thrown off because the type was being rendered in two different resolutions (in case this means anything to anyone, 96 DPI in my web page markup program, 72 DPI in my browser), and this was causing spacing to be waaaay off. It was never an issue in this layout [Note: this refers to the old layout of the site. PD] because of the very simplistic design, but making things more complicated has messed things up. It's fixed now, the only way I can figure out, but I've lost a lot of time having to redo everything, as I only discovered the problem after I'd copied a lot of my old stuff into the new layout. Whoops. All that said, I'm shooting to have everything complete by the end of this week.
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Coming Soon...
entry made July 28, 2004, at 7:33 pm |
| Something I've been wanting to do for a while now... a redesign is coming soon. It's just in the preliminary stages so far, but it's well on its way; since all the content will remain largely the same, it's just a matter of conceiving a single template and then copying the old content into the new design. If you want a hint of the future, you need look no further than this ad. And here's another hint: no more reversed type; sure, yellow and black look cool, but it can be difficult to read. Expect a much more business-like look to everything.
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New Pieces
entry made May 31, 2004, at 4:04 pm |
| Two new pieces have been added to my portfolio: a logo for a financial services company, and a little bit of shameless self-promotion.
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Long time, no update
entry made May 12, 2004, at 3:44 pm |
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As I've begun hunting for jobs and giving out my webpage address to various potential employers, I realized that my résumé as hosted on this site was woefully out of date; namely, it didn't detail my work with MCA or my work placement, and the Education section hadn't been updated with my most recent accolades (warning: inflated ego ahead). So, I've gone through it, and reorganized it so that the most relevant information for employers is front and centre.
Since my last update, a lot has happened. I started, and recently finished, a work placement in Toronto. Commuting every day and the resultant new sleeping hours were a bit of a pain, but I'm more than willing to do it if it means a career in something I love.
Back in April, I won the Gold Andy Award for Advertising from Mohawk College for highest overall achievement over the three years in the Advertising programme. It's quite an honour to have won this, and was quite a shock considering the other people up for the award, easily equally deserving of winning.
And finally, I've moved into a new apartment, and bid farewell to my roommate and best friend, who has moved back with her family in Kitchener. So now, I'm living alone, in a much smaller apartment about five blocks from where I used to live. It's a little noisier here, as there's more traffic on this street as well as a bus route and a nearby hospital (plus, being on the second floor instead of the tenth means I hear a lot more of the traffic), and I don't have as nice a view as I did at the old place (the view from my second-floor balcony consists of the back of a house converted into a business, a bit of the street, and other people's backyards), but it'll do me just fine.
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It's gone...
entry made March 4, 2004, at 7:47 pm |
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It's gone... it's finally gone. The horrid picture that once opened the page is gone, replaced by a much more flattering picture of yours truly. It's still not the best pic of me in the world, but it's a helluva lot better than the one it replaced.
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Another day...
entry made March 3, 2004, at 7:42 pm |
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...another update. Who knew?
I've added another new piece to my portfolio: a Flash banner advertising the new 2005 Dodge Dakota. I've also spiffied up the 'blog a bit to add links where I thought they'd be appropriate.
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Mercy!
entry made March 2, 2004, at 3:18 pm |
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I swear, I don't think I'll ever be able to keep up this level of updates!
I've added a few new pieces to the portfolio page. I wanted to show off more of my web banner work, so I've added two new banners I've designed for TD Canada Trust. I've also decided, after much thought, to add a poster I designed for one of my classes this past year. In the end, I decided to add it because it shows a different design than what I normally produce. Besides, it's kinda funky.
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Whoops
entry made February 28, 2004, at 2:08 pm |
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Wow... two updates in one week. Don't get used to it.
This one's just a bug fix. Guess it would have been a good idea to check everything before uploading it to the server. Three bugs went out that obviously should not have.
Bug 1: Quite possibly the most embarrassing bug of the three. I forgot to change the code on one of the Coca-Cola skyscraper banner pages that would have made it load the correct banner. As a result, Coca-Cola Skyscraper 2 bore an uncanny resemblance to Coca-Cola Skyscraper 1. Mostly because, for four days, it was Coca-Cola Skyscraper 1.
Bug 2: The Coca-Cola Website Introduction animation isn't supposed to loop. It's been fixed now. If you miss it the first time it runs, simply reload the page.
Bug 3: Links to the CFO 2 GO website were to have loaded in a new window. They didn't. But they do now.
That's all for now.
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Major Updates
entry made February 24, 2004, at 11:48 pm |
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I knew there was a reason I slipped in that part about not promising weekly updates. Hell, It's been a whole four months since I've even touched this page!
I thought I'd have a chance to redesign this page in my web design class last semester, but, as it turns out, we got a different project. Instead of making a personal web page (which, in my humble opinion, would have been a great idea), we were given an assignment where we were to redesign an existing web page, namely this one. Good experience, but a lot of work.
Things were also absolutely nuts with other school projects as well. The group project for the year was chaotic; we seemed to spend so much time on things that were... well, uncreative. Things like focus groups and brainstorming sessions and the like. I just wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty; just stick me in front of QuarkXPress and let me do my thing! We ended up doing well overall, but I don't think it was my best creative effort, and, as such, isn't in my online portolio as of yet.
Speaking of the portfolio section, it's been totally gutted and rebuilt with this year's projects; the only things remaining from last year are the Hamilton Spectator Classified ads, and the Red Cap campaign (though, due to space constraints, I've had to remove the Red Cap television commercial). One of the great things about Mohawk's advertising programme is MCA, a student-run ad agency available to third-year students. This gave me the opportunity to work on real projects for real clients, and, while at times it was infuriating, I'd say it was a positive experience on the whole. The CFO 2 GO project, the Mediafest Countdown poster, and the Post-Graduate Program poster are examples of pieces that actually went out to clients. I tell ya; it's a great feeling to know that your work is out there, people are seeing it, and that you've made a client happy.
I've also fixed two things that have annoyed the hell out of me for the longest time. While rebuilding the portfolio page, I fixed a bug that caused the links to use the web browser's default colours (blue for normal links, for example). I never did figure out what was causing it, but I've fixed it. In addition, black is actually black on some of the pictures now, namely the Red Cap bottle cap. Now, maybe this is my anal-retentive nature showing through, but the background being even just a little off so as to show a difference in colour pissed me off to no end.
Still have a few things to change, though. First, that picture of me on the front page has to go; however, my photographer roommate is at home right now, and I'm not competent enough to do it myself, so I'll wait 'till she gets back to change it. I'll give you a wee bit of a preview, though... expect something more formal. Also, I'm thinking of removing the counter and guestbook, as these seem to scream, 'amateur!' They'll probably be gone next update, which, if I'm lucky, should be sometime this year.
Well, that's all for now, seeing as the cold medication I took is starting to kick in. I'll hardly be coherent within the next few minutes, so I'll wrap this up before I fall asleep on my keyboard.
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Older Archives:
Archive 1
(Jan. 31 '03 - Oct. 20 '03)
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| Why the Archives? |
| As you may have noticed, I've decided to archive older entries. Once a journal page has fifteen entries, it will be placed in the Archives, and a new Journal page will be created upon the next entry. This is to decrease the load times for those on low-bandwidth connections. |
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