The Carreon Saga

The Carreon Saga, Concluding

Wow, what a ride this little blowup has been. The sheer lengths people will go to in order to save face are often incredible, and just serve to reinforce the tenant that we are, at our core, driven by emotions, not logic.

Everyone's talked about Charles Carreon, how he dropped his lawsuit and declared victory. His list of accomplishments here is pretty short, and a comparison to the War of 1812 I saw seems quite apt. 

1. Inman did not add more charities to his fundraiser. Yay! Fewer charities were helped! 
2. Inman photographed a slightly different pile of money than originally planned. Also a victory! (He probably could have gotten away with his original plan, but I don't blame him for making that relatively minor concession to help end this). 
3. Oh yeah, Charles Carreon is famous now for having no idea what charity laws in California actually say, and demonstrating this very publicly. Terrible fail for a supposed professional. That's after this former First Amendment defender had to be told, quite firmly, that yes, the First Amendment does in fact apply to people who criticize you, too.

The Other Half

"But what crosses the line is when someone else starts making statements using words like 'idiot' or 'dumbass." - Charles Carreon, in an interview with Ars Technica.

The real thing I want to focus briefly on is Tara Carreon. While Charles' has at least somewhat tempered his words (several nonsensical 'songs' notwithstanding), when she came out swinging is his defense it was clear she utterly lacked even such minimal brain-mouth filter as he possesses.

Really, everything she has posted has been pure comedy gold, akin to watching a Something Awful main feature come to life. While the saga was ongoing I thought about doing a page-by-page, point-by-point analysis of her "Charles Carreon vs. the Illuminati and Matt Inman" thread on Nader Library (to which site she is, in fact, the sole poster), but with the thing pretty much over I'm not going to bother. Read it though. Comedy gold.

I do however want to call attention to her last post on the subject, her own declaration of victory:

"We're making the video, "Psycho Santa," right now. It's going to be interesting. We're coming onto your playground, evil children. We're going to make an intelligent video. It's not like there are very many out there. Thank God for the ones that are there. It'll probably be another day or two. There is so much you can do when you make a video."

 She is making a video and putting it on YouTube. That'll show us - that is how you 'defeat' the Internet generation.  I bet the comments will be awesome.

What content do you think at this point you want to add to your Web page, and why? Also, what have you contributed or will you contribute to your professional development site design specifically? List at least three things.

As for my personal webpage, I really need to get some good welcome text on the main page. I've gone through several iterations, but ended up erasing each without saving them. I suppose I may just imitate Kassi's page, with a brief bio focusing on qualifications and goals.

As far as the professional development group goes, I've done most of the design work, with a fair amount of consulting with the other group members, who have provided the actual pictures for the sub-pages, text content and information about the flooring. Tap and I together did the original storyboard, which I've modified into what the site is now. I've also put together the subpages, thought the design for these was worked out among all of us.

Based on what we did in class today, whose homepage is the furthest along and why? Be specific.

At the point this was assigned (and still definitely in the top) Kassi Carter's page was the clear winner. Well-designed, it has a good interface, well-formated resume, and a neat little AIM icon/link at the bottom. I like the way she did her photo gallery, and the whole website just seems tastefully designed to me.

What kind of job or profession do you want to get into when you graduate? What role do Web sites play in that job not in terms of getting the job but using the Internet in your profession?

Honestly, I intend to find an entry-level position in any IT-related company I can, working my way up to whatever I can find. I'm qualified for any number of positions, including server administration, website design and maintenance, liason between technical people and their overlords, and I intend to add more network and server-related qualifications on my own time as I go. Website skills, on both the Internet and intranets, are very usefull in any number of ways for many different positions, including making myself more valuabe even possibly outside my 'official' job description wherever I land.

I am Better at creating Storyboards Now Because

Extensive practice, and then seeing what the design actually looks like when translated from paper to the screen this semester has given me a much better perspective on storyboarding. For instance, on my design for the Sutherlands Flooring webpage, my original storyboard had a group of pics in the center, and links around the edge to the various sub-pages. After I actually built this, looked at it, and had a couple of other people look at it, it was obvious that this approach wasn't the best, even though it look pretty good on paper. The graphics in the center took the viewer's whole attention, to the point that people said they didn't even notice the satellite links until I pointed them out. Because of this, and other suggestions, I redesigned it with the pictures in the middle larger, and they themselves being the links. When something in the center is intended to grab and hold attention, that thing needs to have an importance equal to it's attention grabbing value; in this case, the center-stage pics also being the links.

I'm looking at http://games.dawnet.net thinking, "I would love to fill out this site and make it a genuine resource, but I'm not sure it is valid as a class assignment, seeing as it already has a template set." I would love to build a good site for Dawnet's game hosting business; this is something I would very much like to do, for this class or not.

What am I good at in WebPage design

I think I'm pretty decent at arranging elements in a way that makes sense and makes the content accessible. Not that I've proved that a lot yet, but I think I have a pretty good understanding of what makes a webpage a visual and usable success.

My one homepage question:

I really only have one question at the moment, and it should be easily resolved. I'm not quite sure how to take my background and replicate it exactly on another page; I'm sure there's an easy way to do this, I just haven't found it yet. Beyond that, so far I seem to be figuring things out pretty well.

The Value of Storyboarding
Storyboarding is absolutely essential to designing a website. Unlike writing an essay, when you are writing code you must have a clear idea of what you are planning, or it will go nowhere except into a big mess. When building anything, from a website to a building, you have to have a plan from the start.

The Value of Lubbock Reads!
The ability to read is one of the most basic tools for building success in the modern world. If you are not able to read, you will go nowhere, period. A large scale effort like the Lubbock Reads! campaign is one of the ways, besides mandantory quality (note quality . . . ) education, to spread and encourage this vital skill.

Homepage Storyboard

I am planning something that may end up too complicated to do in this class: a dual site, one side being for potential employers, and another informal site for friends and family.

I have 2 versions of each storyboarded right now: a square, linear version and a more graphically interesting version using some curved sections to make things more interesting. The more basic versions are based on things I already know how to do; making the more graphical versions will require learning some new things (of course, that's the point, isn't it?)

Description, Goals, and Inventory

Professional Site

My original design is very basic, with some simple tables and colors (which I like). I suspect this design won't impress anyone; the revised version with a curve at the top down to the side will look much better. I'm not sure if that will detract from the focus of the page, which is supposed to be the 'welcome letter/bio/self-advertisement.' My revised design has a large curve on the top, having my picture and list of nav links in a block of different color on the side. (I may need to rethink my color scheme, although I do like the ones I have). The nave links head off to other parts of the site, including one linking to my personal, informal home page.


Goals and objectives: I want this site to leave prospective employers with an impression of myself as intelligent and competent, well-versed in web design and system administration. A big part of that will be the 'advertisement/welcome letter' that will be the focus of the main page. The resume and portfolio will also help this; other than those things, I can't think of anything else it needs (suggestions are welcome!).

Informal Site

I see this as having a scrollable 'What's Up' box, with current info about what's going on in my life, and possibly a crazy, informal pic that will be changed every so often. My more basic design has everything I wanted, but it just isn't as interesting as the site could be made. The main problem I have with my other design is how to integrate the picture. Apologies to my classmates who can't see any of this to know what I'm talking about; Dr Rice will understand, since he has a huge sheaf of paper from me to wade through (you rule Dr. Rice, sorry for the mess).

My revised design will also include a short welcome note at the top; I think it's a nice touch.

Goals and Objectives: I see this site as being a way for family and friends to keep track of what's going on with me, especially once I move out and have roomates with odd schedules (gogo college life . . .) Anyway, the focus of this page is (in the new version) split between the "What's up" box and the links (in an exciting curved block of color . . .); in the old version it was between a crazy pic and the "What's Up" box. I'm still not sure how to reconcile that. I really want to have a pic up there; perhaps an entirely new design scheme is in order.

Latest website update: with the continuing failure of my Tech webspace to work, I have used my access to my friend's web server to put up what I have so far of my personal home page. Check out www.dawnet.net/Travis/Index.html for a preliminary version of my site, complete with tables, a picture of me, and COLORS!! (w00t). For now, the contact page (and the home link thereon) are the only links that work, besides my email addy.