It seems like I have piles of half-finished web sites, which is too bad because they don’t make good portfolio pieces that way. Fortunately, a project I’ve been working on for some time at Quantum launched yesterday–the Helio mU website. It’s had about 5000 copy and layout changes since I started–Maybe you will be able to tell that some of the elements were added in after the layout had been built, although I still think most of it flows nicely.
The clients really liked “big images”, so I did one better and gave them a big flash for the front page. It takes a while to load, but that wasn’t an issue for them. The menu was mostly built with MooTools, and was surprisingly pain-free. Gotta say, MooTools kicks ass. The first version was completly strict-XHTML although the clients have changed things around so many times on such a tight deadline that I’ve had to put off keeping it that way–hopefully I’ll have a chance to go through and get everything to validate in the next couple of weeks.
Best thing is that the HelioGroup, of which Helio mU is one entity, is having me install this same template for their other two sites. I’ve already finished different flash elements for each, and the rest will just be plugging in new copy. I’ll append this post when the other pages launch.
I’m going to a white elephant exchange party in a couple of days, and I was having some trouble coming up with a gift idea. Googling my dilemma did not help as much as I had expected, but I did find a couple of good ideas.
At a party I went to last year, the best gifts were a Jesus Action Figure and a pair of edible panties. A few years back I remember someone making a coconut bikini (talk about cheap and easy) which was quite a hit. My ladyfriend, blown away when I pointed out a pair of Truck Balls to her, remarked that they would make a great white elephant gift (and I’m inclined to agree).
Some google searching uncovered a few discussions ( 1 , 2, 3 ) although I don’t feel that any of them really nail the White Elephant dilemma. I don’t think the most stolen gift is the best gift. For instance, at the last few parties I’ve been to the only gifts that were locked out (stolen the maximum of three times) were bottles of wine / boos. Thats all fine and good, but a white elephant gift shouldn’t be something someone would ever buy for themselves–on the same note it shouldn’t be something they could possibly throw away. Of course, some people would throw away a pair of edible panties (stolen only once at the party–against any professional’s better judgement), but I think most people would keep them somewhere or give them a shot in the bedroom.
The best gift I’ve uncovered from the intertubes so far is a giant summer sausage. I think anything remotely phallic has potential, and a giant meat log fits the bill.
Anyone else have any ideas along these lines?
Until I get my portfolio up to speed (which I’ll do after I finish this website… or when I’m looking for a new job… so it might be awhile) I still need a place to post some of the web sites I’ve designed. So here are a few with layouts I don’t dislike. For several of these I did a CSS template but didn’t lay any of the material down–I suppose that’s my way of saying that I might have made some different creative decisions.