Surprised I didn't see a blink code

But every once in a while… you come across a relic from the 90′s era of web design. Heading out to one of my favorite San Diego Restaurants, I encountered another. Pomegranate Russian-Georgian Restaurant‘s website is just horrible! First of all its a HomeStead page, which means someone’s continuing to pay for this thing. You would home the owner would of purchased the domain name by now. But back to the design. This site uses all the old school techniques, including an animated gif and visitor counter. Having dined at Pomegranate before I knew the food was quality and headed out for dinner a few moments later. However I feel bad for all the people that discover this website and don’t make a reservation and go somewhere else.

If you are the owner of Pomegranate Russian-Georgian Restaurant let work out a trade. I will redo this site for you and bring it up to date for a couple of dinners at your restaurant. Please email me and we can work something out.

So… why do I hate it. Well… I think the root of the hatred comes from ‘non-designers’ designing things. They break out their WordPad to create a flyer, business card or brochure for their new-age, oriental, or antique product or service, and select Papyrus, as its the only font that really is stylized and included your system fonts. Perhaps I should blame system software developers for not including a wider array of fonts, but this does not excuse the professionally developed items that still show up. I’m talking about TV Shows, Movies, and Magazine ads.

For these mediums, I really think it comes down to laziness on the part of the Creative Director, Art Director, Designer, etc. Someone should just raise their hand and boldly suggest another font.

Thankfully I’m not alone here. Check out Papyrus Watch, which has been documenting the use of this font for 2 years now.

Unfortunately any changes would not involve Powder Blue.

Here’s a look back at bolt and shield changes:

WordPress and other Blogging tools have been using these for years. Its a quick way to clasify your posts. I’m kind of off the wall so a bunch of areas I blog about. But I was able to nail it down to a few categories for tags:

• Apple: All things Apple and Macintosh Related
• Chargers: The San Diego Super Chargers, duh!
• Design: Web Publishing, Graphic Design, Branding, Etc
• Geek: Science, Tech and other geekiness
• Holidays: Seasons Greetings
• Padres: San Diego’s MLB Team

Check them out… they are kinda cool. I’ll add some navigation for the categories over to the right when I get the chance.

- shane

The original mermaid logo depicts Starbucks, the twin tailed mermaid, topless. A school principal noticed the change in logo and identified the topless ta-ta’s, and recommended all her teachers to cover the logo with a hot sleeve while at school.

Random Fact: Starbuck’s was actually not named after mermaid/siren in Greek mythology, but Captain Nemo’s first mate, in “Moby Dick”.

Designed by AT&T; in 1994, it appeared on Hotwired.com. To be nice, the banner is nasty. No message, no purpose, no indication who its for. The tie dye colors, black background and poor quality on the ‘You Will’.

But you know, it was probably very effective, as it was the first of its kind.

Source: Search Engine Marketing Ireland – Clientwell Search Marketing

V6.0 ended up as my myspace design. It works well there, but isn’t professional enough for me. V6.1 was trashed, not clean enough. V6.2 would make a great kids page. V6.3 is what you see today.

Finally after a few days of design, slicing, and optimizing images, a day of CSS coding, and 2 days of CSS template modification and creation the site is done. (yeah!)

Please let me know what you think of it. Likes, dislikes, and things that should be improved in v6.4, which is being developed.(j/k)

- Shane

Here is the brief run down of my project log:

Check List:

• XHTML Validated – Check 7/5
• CSS Validated – Check 7/5
• Blogger Template Functional – Check 7/9
• Atom RSS Feed Functional – Check 7/9
• Gallery2 Template Functional – Check 7/10
• Portfolio Updated – Check 7/11
• Hoffey Break – Check 7/11
• Includes Statements – Check 7/11
• Resumes Versions – Check 7/12
• Spell Check – Check 7/12
• Launched – Check 7/12

To Do:

1. Metadata for Portfolio Pages
2. Check Gallery2 Image Sizes – Check 7/15
3. Organize Gallery Albums – Check 7/15
4. Add 2 Sites to Portfolio
5. Resubmit to Search Engines
6. HTML Validation – Check 7/15
7. Browser Checks:
   • Firefox: Check 7/12
   • Safari: Check 7/12
   • Opera: Check 7/12
   • IE6: TBD

Do you like to build with LEGO bricks? Ever thought it would be great to get paid to play???

On Monday February 20th from 3:00 pm to 7:00pm, LEGOLAND California will be hosting auditions for 1 open Model Builder position. Job responsibilities include designing & building models for the park, maintaining the nearly 15,000 models already in the park as well as being a spokesperson through print, radio and television.

To register in advance or find out more about the job opportunity, check out www.LEGOLANDmodelbuilder.com.

While registration online is recommended walk-ins will be accepted as time permits. Interviews and a 1 hour building test will take place at LEGOLAND California (1 LEGOLAND Dr, Carlsbad Ca 92008), in the Human Resource department.

We are proud to be an EOE and drug-free employer.

“… explore just one of the things that can make a Apple Personal Computer meaningufl to you, personally. It’s called “electronic mail”

A great concept, way before its time. Don’t forget to ‘put your computer on the phone’ to contact ‘electronic postal centers’

“For the six-dollars it costs to produce and mail a typical business letter, you could easily splurge on a patty melt and Perrier at The Blue Turtle.”

Excuse me… but why was typing and printing a letter so damn expensive, and what is the ‘Blue Turtle’.

The author takes a excellent positive perspective on ADD, that most overlook. ADD does have its advantages, just as it has its disadvantages. But I believe in one example the article is misleading.

From personal experience its in relation to how much stimulation I am experiencing at that moment, and I would assume others would react the same. i.e. #3, Multitasking at will is something I do all the time. I jump almost instantly between applications without missing a beat. But I can just as easily jump off the deepend into the internet researching the latest and greatest in Macintosh Media Centers.
But if thats the only piece I can complain about… thats a 9.5/10. Great article.