不知道 i don’t know

I really hate talking about what I would like to do in the future, because talk is cheap. That said…

I’ve been thinking about going back to college. Why?

• to add direction to my life.
• to re-discover things that I’m interested in and excited about and that I’ve forgotten since I was last at college.
• to develop these things into something that I will want to and be able to continue doing after I leave college.

I’ve been looking at Art History/Theory Courses. Why?

• My BA is in Fine Art.
• By the end of that degree I had developed into some kind of conceptual artist (funny story, but not for this post).
• After I left I was unable to continue this – I’d not laid the necessary ground work for a long-term artistic career, I’d not chosen a particularly easy route to take, and I didn’t have the motivation to make it work for me (I’m not judging the activity in itself at this point as I think that would be irrelevant to the discussion in hand).
• As a result I don’t draw/paint sculpt particularly well, I have few technical skills to develop a more traditional artists’ career. Nor would I want to.
• Therefore I would like to strengthen my intellectual/artistic background to help lay some ground-work for whatever I might end up doing.

Before I can start one of these courses there are a number of things I need to do first:

1. Improve my writing.
2. Write more about what I like.
3. Do more research about what I like.
4. Improve my objectivity.
5. Read up on Art. Pick up the reading lists from the courses I’m looking at.
6. Get up to speed with contemporary art. Subscribe to some magazines.

I’ve just spent a frustrating few weeks trying to create a 3-column website for a client where the middle column does one very simple thing – to expand dynamically to fit the content.

Basically, it can’t.

Which just seems crazy to me. Where is the benefit of having tables, images, any fixed size element overlapping the adjacent area when its enclosing DIV becomes too small? Surely this is something that should have been considered when the spec was being drafted? If you look at my site and make the window really small then the “What’s new” image eventually overlaps (or is overlapped by) the right hand side.

I would regard myself as a fully paid-up member of the pro-CSS camp, but if it can’t do something that simple and common then it’s of limited value and other methods have to be entertained. In this case I’ve had to resort to a table to create the columns, which does exactly what I want but makes me weep to think that I have to add this to my beautiful code. This table makes the code more complicated and reduces the accessibility of the site.

Technorati Tags: 3col, code, columns, css, design, tables, webdesign, website

My company has been commissioned to “spring-clean” the first website I ever coded.

I’ve been wanting to do this for ages, the code is atrocious, very embarrassing to have up in public. This work is being done in tandem with the development of a new site for one of their partner organizations. The new site will be database driven and designed from scratch. It’s good to have this opportunity to revisit a site as it means that the finished product will be fit for showing around at last.

It’s not good when a job has been finished and over time you realise that there was a better way of doing it. Because it’s been handed over you are not in a position to change anything but the most basic parts of it. As with all jobs there has to be a point at which you say “it’s finished” and let it out the door. Or perhaps “at this point, it’s good enough to release”, the QA balance has tipped over into client-ready. You could spend forever tweaking it, or waiting until your knowledge extends so that you are able to do it differently/better, but scheduling would then be impossible.

There’s always a cut off point where a project has to finish, even if the definition of the term can be ambiguous. Anyway, if we’re fortunate we can always revisit a project and apply the knowledge learned in the interim.

Technorati Tags: code, website, work

Monday morning. I leave the house ready to get in the car and drive to work. Except the car won’t unlock. Pressing the little button on the key illicits no reaction from the smart.

Pressing the button multiple times changes nothing. The car is unresponsive to my requests. I study it for the first time in a new light. It’s like a picture of a car there in front of me. Static like a rock, somehow unreal in it’s uselessness. From being a vehicle, a thing I jump in to get to where I am going, it’s changed into a thing to be observed and evaluated. My point of view has reversed with respect to my little car.

It feels like panic is developing inside my head. First thought – the key must be problem. The key’s battery has run out. The solution is the replacement currently residing with the car’s manual in the glove compartment. OK, well check the battery in case it’s dirty or loose, but no joy there. The button perhaps is getting a bit overused out at this point, but I won’t give up trying.

I give up. Call a taxi and share my travels with a characteristically opinionated driver.

I contact my ex (from whom I bought the car) for ideas. Perhaps she has a spare key (shouldn’t there be an extra key? And why haven’t I got it? Funny why I’ve never thought about this before. Extreme situations force us to have extreme thoughts). She says there should be an alternative way to unlock the car using the key itself in the rear door. I’m adamant that I’ve never seen anything of the sort. I know that her smart has a keyhole, but not mine.

I’m in town for meetings in the afternoon and use the in-between period to scour as many camera and jewelry shops as I can reach in the time available. None of them stock that particular battery.

At the end of the day. To save money I walk into town from work and pick up a taxi from there. In the morning it cost £8. In the evening it cost £6. I realise I needn’t have bothered walking. As soon as we drive up to the house I can see a keyhole in the door of the car. The taxi driver parks his cab to come and see if he can help.

Opening the back door allows me to clamber inside and unlock the doors. I retrieve the spare battery. Replacing the battery. Makes no difference. And then I notice that the side-lights of the car are on. Were on until the car’s battery drained.

The last time I drove the car was on Friday night (to the supermarket).

This realization opens new avenues of choices. I could call my ex again to jump-start me. Or I could join the AA and get them to send a mechanic out. Which I do. I had been meaning to join them, but had not seen the need until I was in distress. They took my membership fee and charged me a ‘one-off’ £50 for this call out. At 9.00pm he operator promised that the mechanic would be with me at 9.47pm. The mechanic arrives at 9.47pm.

The mechanic jump started the car. To charge the battery up, I drive to Newmarket and back with a spectacular sunset playing in the distance.

Technorati Tags: battery, car, crisis, smart, travel