Designing my HTML Email

So we're moving right along in our web design class... and our second project deals with designing an email in HTML for a client. First thing was to sketch out a wireframe of our idea. I used Illustrator to quickly map out some boxes and spacing ideas. Here's the initial layout I had in mind.

That tan color you see closely resembles one of the colors used in the client's logo, so I want to repeat that color scheme in the email. I'm finding a "Donate Now" button online in a different and brighter color, so it'll stand out a bit when the reader scrolls down the page.

Hunting Down That Perfect Template

Perusing the web for a half hour, I'm already getting the feeling that I'm going to have to design my own header eventually, as I'm not finding exactly what I want when it comes to my subject: how to make better home movies.

So here's what I've found so far that's at least in the ballpark:

DIRECTOR

Nice little director's chair in the corner, and the background works, but I'd want to change that light blue stripe with the tabs and go with something a little less jarring.

SPOTLIGHT

I like the filmstrip and red curtain touches, but I'd like to expand that center column a bit more - there's a bit too much empty space on the sides that could be better utilized. I'd also want to change and resize the title, as this current one's a bit on the meek side. On the flip side, the header's a bit cluttered with things that aren't entirely on topic.

MOVIE THEATER

I'm only showing you this one for the cool filmstrip column on the right. I'd love to use that in my finished product. As for the rest of this template... well, I'd rather stick with dark colors. Plus, that header's not working for me - that scary cowboy face has to go.

MOVIE TIMES

This one's got potential for showing video clips, which I'll very likely be doing with the pro blog. After seeing some of the more interesting headers, this one's very plain, so I'll have to spiff it up a bit.

NEWSSCOPE

I'm really liking the layout of this one - the video boxes could work nicely with the topics I'd be covering.

The Pro Blog Name Possibilities

Now that I've gotten a big thumbs up on the direction I should take the pro blog (how to take better home movies), I've gotta come up with a snappy and effective blog title that'll bring in the masses.

Let's toss a few out there and see what people like:

1. HOME MOVIE MAKEOVERS

It's a play on the "Extreme Home Makeover" deal. I purposely avoided using the word "extreme" as that word's been used FAR too often in the last ten years. This title could work better with the post-production of your video... more on the editing of it after it's been shot.

2. CAMCORDER WHIZ

This could focus more on how to shoot better, lessening the problems with editing later on. Plus, I only saw a total of 7 results of the phrase "Camcorder Whiz" on Google, so this could work. Other possibilities close to this could be "Camcorder Magic" or "Camcorder Class". On the flip side, would having "camcorder" in the title exclude those people who use iPhones and the like to shoot their video?

3. TAKE BETTER VIDEOS

Right to the point. Quite a few places online already uses this phrase in various ways, so it wouldn't be a unique or catchy name... probably a pass on this one.

4. VIDEO SKILLS 101

A tutorial angle to this name... also, this phrase is practically nonexistent on the net. This could be a solid one.

So, any winners in the bunch? Comment please, and let me know what you like or don't like.

The Big Professional Blog Topic...

Hmmm... what to do, what to do...

Originally I was thinking about doing something trivia-related, something pub-quizzy, something that would make you ponder and pontificate on the various miscellaneous and arcane information that pops up in our everyday lives.

But then again... could I make a decent buck at it if I needed to? Could I get a following of readers outside of the group of my pub quiz regulars and assorted hangers-on?

Well, probably not. Got to think bigger. Think of a real need... something that I could contribute on a daily basis that would not only get people interested, but coming back for more.

Well, I do happen to know a little bit about shooting video, as I've done that for 15 years. And I do know, from transferring tons of other people's home videos to DVD, that a LOT of people could really use some pointers on how to shoot video.

So there's my angle, my niche, my topic. Simple, effective, and something that would attract a lot more people to my professional site than any list of trivia questions could attempt to do:

How to shoot home videos. Effectively. Productively. And most of all, make it actually watchable to people who aren't your relatives.

So, for those of you who happen to read this... would a how-to-shoot-video blog appeal to you? Let me know what you think.

Five Other Blogs I Could Care About

So, before I took the wife and kids to Disney World last week (I'll save THAT whole enchilada for another day), I mentioned five blogs that I actually read, along with mentioning that I didn't really read any other blogs of note.

Forces beyond my control (OK, so it's my teacher's request) want me to list ten blogs, so I did a little searching to see what I could dig up that could be of interest to me.

So here ya go... five more blogs that may just hold my interest longer than the time it took to find them:

1. I'm a Cubbie lifer, so what better way to pass the next hundred years of ineptitude than by reading how others deal with the pain over at Bleacher Nation. Seeing all the links in Cubbie blue is a nice touch.

2. While planning the aforementioned Disney trip, I came across some valuable tips at The Fun Family Site. You can check this particular blogger's tips for vacations, "staycations", and at-home activities to keep the kids happy.

3. Being on a long trip, I was blissfully unaware of anything news-related in the world, so when I came back and found out that the Oscar nominations were unveiled, I went to the New York Time's movie awards blog, The Carpetbagger, to catch up on all of the hoopla. It seems like an excellent source of movie award info and prognostication, so I'll be sure to check this out quite often in the next few days to help out my Oscar pool chances.

4. My son's developed into quite a nice little chess player - he's the best in his third grade class, so finding a decent chess site for him would be nice. Although My Chess Blog might be somewhat advanced reading for an 8-year old, I do happen to like the particular layout of this site.

5. While I was perusing Time.com's "Best Blogs of 2010" article just a few minutes ago, one of their entries was for Pitchfork.com, a music site that targets the new indie music cuts and CDs that you won't find on regular radio. And since I've actually checked out Pitchfork quite a bit over the years in an attempt to find cool songs and stay young while I can, this will do quite nicely as my last entry in this task.

The Scavenger Hunt Of Blogville

So, today's post is supposed to involve me telling you about my ten favorite bloggers. Ten people who I follow eagerly, anticipating every word coming across my screen. Ten places where I wake up each day and run over to the computer, hoping to find those nuggets of info that'll enrich and reward my life evermore for doing so.

One problem... I don't read that many blogs.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy spending (or wasting) vast amounts of time on the web like anyone else. My previous post is prime time evidence that I surf the net quite frequently and passionately. It's just that for me, when I'm online I'm searching out information, news and sports items at a FAR greater rate than I am wanting to read about how Aunt Ethel's pug terrier looks in a bonnet or if my nephew's calculus class is causing him ulcers.

I do know for a fact that I'm much more attracted to a particular blog by the content and information than I am the aesthetics and whether it's visually appealing. However, any time I come across a blog that's taking WAY too long to load due to overloading the home page with 87 posts of pictures, videos, and cheesy songs playing in the background, I jump somewhere else, no matter how informative that blog may have been.

So let's see if I'm able to find ten blogs that I've actually read...

I mentioned Whitney Matheson in my previous post, and I guess I'll do it again, as it's really the only blog I've read up to now on a consistent basis. Her Pop Candy blog covers a ton of current pop culture, so this is where I can try to stay young at heart and keep up with all the pop culture that's passing me by too quickly.

As a fervent follower of SIU basketball, I occasionally read a blog written by Tom Weber, the University's current director of media services for Saluki athletics. His Saluki Sports Blog gives nice summaries thought each week's action. It does tend to be a little bit too optimistic at times, as since Tom is employed by SIU he'll try and put a positive spin on things, but he does get some outstanding pictures during the games and shares them here.

Ken Pomeroy is a statistician's statistician when it comes to analyzing and crunching numbers in college basketball. His site's heavily tilted toward the stat geeks, but behind all the numbers, he's been extremely effective in spotting game trends, tendencies, and eventual outcomes of which team has the edge and why. Visually, it's not much to look at, but if you're a regular at Ken's site, you're not there for the visuals.

Bill Margeson is the man who writes and runs the weekly pub quizzes I attend, and he's a very knowledgeable guy, but he's also one of THE premier minds when it comes to current Irish music. We're not talking just about the obvious ones like U2, the Chieftains or Sinead O'Connor, but the heart and soul of today's Irish culture of music. Bill visits Ireland at least once every year and comes back with sounds that you'll never find on this side of the pond.

Speaking of those pub quizzes again, I came across a nice site called Chicago Hearts Trivia. The posters here are just as enthusiastic about pub quizzes as I am, and they attend various trivia contests throughout Chicagoland and report back on how the events go, how the prizes are, and whether it's worth a trip to go play there. It's a bit heavy on the Chicago part and less so on the surrounding suburbs, but I've invited them to check out the western burbs, and they plan on making a trip out west sometime soon... I'll let you know how that goes.

OK... so there's five right there. Of the 50+ bookmarks I've saved on my Mac, these are the only ones that can fit the description of a true blog. Now the harder part... finding brand new blogs out there that'll not only interest me but make me want to add them to my bookmarks. I'll add them to this post when I come across them.

10 Links I Visit To Delay Doing Actual Work

Everyone's got their favorite places to hang out on the web (when they should really be working hard on projects), and I've got a few such links for you to peruse at your leisure:

1. I'm a huge trivia geek - I play a weekly pub quiz in St. Charles every Tuesday night, I run through about 5 crossword puzzles every week, and my wife and kids have had it up to here with how much I quiz them on things that nobody really should know offhand. So when I need a quick trivia fix, I check out the Jeopardy Archive. It's simply THE resource for finding the clues seen on Jeopardy throughout the years. As of this writing, this site's accumulated over 200,000 clues from the TV show!

2. Being a fan of word games of all types, one of my quirky affections is for anagrams, where you take a word or phrase, flip around the letters, and get something that fits. Take the letters in "Clint Eastwood" and rearrange them to get "Old West Action", or switch "dormitory" to "dirty room"... OK, so it's pretty nerdy. But at least the Internet Anagram Server can speed up the process. I've got an 8-year old redheaded son named Cooper, and I can switch "Cooper Denault" into "Cool Red Peanut".

3. At one point in my life, I wanted to be the head statistician for the Chicago Cubs. I did actually work with the televised productions of various Cubs, White Sox and Bulls games for a brief while, manning the "Fox Box" - that's the scorebox you'd see on your TV screen during the game. My schedule's changed a bit since then, but I can still keep up with all of the various baseball arcana and numbers over at the best baseball reference site on the web. If you're a diehard fan of baseball, this site's a must for your bookmarks.

4. I graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1996, and at that time we had a pretty good basketball team. And from 2002-2007, the Salukis went to the NCAA tourney 6 times in a row. They've fallen back a bit since that great run, but I still visit SalukiTalk.net quite a bit, as it's the premier forum for Saluki fans of all sports.

5. Most guys my age grew up playing video games on the Atari, Commodore 64, Nintendo, etc... and it's nice that I've got two kids, so I can keep buying video games. For them, of course. Here's a great game rankings site that'll make sure you get only the best for your little ones.

6. So, what's your favorite movie? Really, if you had to make a list, what would you come up with? At flickchart, the more movies you rank, the better and more rounded your personal list will get. Flickchart simply gives you two movies, asks you to pick the one you like better, and you just keep repeating that same process. It keeps a personal list for you and will also update the ones you haven't seen yet into another nice list.

7. As a videographer, I have to track down certain songs or soundtracks from time to time, and I've come across a nice video to audio converter. Say you come across a YouTube video where you'd really like to take the audio from it and convert it into an MP3 file. At this site, you can do that. Many other formats are available for converting here.

8. Even though I'm older than the typical college student, I still like keeping up with all of the newer music, movies, etc. One blog that I read that helps me stay informed of current pop culture is USA Today's Pop Candy, written by Whitney Matheson. She describes her blog as, "...cult movies, comic books, indie rock, sci-fi, '80s greats, sweet links, general weirdness -- this is all the stuff of Pop Candy. I write about what I love in pop culture, and I try to get to it before everyone else dives in, chews it up and spits it out." I'm able to stay aware of a LOT of pop culture thanks to Whitney's site.

9. I mentioned earlier that I play pub quiz every week in St. Charles - McNally's Pub, to be precise. Over the years, I've gained the nickname of Death while playing there, because every week I name our team after a recently passed dead celebrity. Some winners have included "Michael Jackson Did Look A Little Pale", "Hangin' With Saddam", and a personal favorite of the golfing crowd, "Byron Nelson At Six Under". But now it's come to the point where I need to come up with something every single week, so when I'm stumped I head on over to Stiffs.com for some truly puntastic titles.

10. When the weather gets rough, and you're looking to find just the right radar map online, click over to the Weather Underground folks. No, not THAT Weather Underground political deal... this one's all weather, and it's got a great "WunderMap", where you can enter your exact location and it'll show you what's coming your way.

Disney On The Brain...

I don't know if it was exactly the best idea to schedule our first ever trip to Disney World right when I'm starting two info-heavy classes at C.O.D.

At this moment, my noggin's crammed with Mickey trivia, dining hall options, park opening and closing times, lists of what are the must-visit rides and which ones to skip, airport baggage regulations, hotel reservations, things we gotta remember to pack, tips for making our stay the best it can possibly be...

I already think I'll need a vacation after the one we planned for next week hasn't even started yet.

All I know is that I'd better really enjoy my time off next week... 'cause I'll be a good week behind every other classmate in two classes and it sounds like it'll be a strain to catch up.

Oh, and there's that wedding thing I've gotta do next Saturday as well. Thing is, I'm a wedding videographer, and with things a bit slow in the wedding biz, I have to take every date I can get.

So next week's schedule is like this:
Monday - hop on plane, see kids squeal with delight, land in Orlando, check in, take in Magic Kingdom
Tuesday - on to Epcot
Wednesday - Animal Kingdom comes a callin'
Thursday - Hollywood Studios
Friday - check out early, have a good 4 hours to check out one of the parks again, hop on plane home
Saturday - shoot wedding and reception
Sunday - take a 22 hour nap
Monday - try to figure out how far behind I'm already in class
Tuesday - face the music... but at least I could have a nice tan to show for it

Brave New World... Or Complete Time Killer?

So it only took a graphic design course at College Of Dupage to get my toes into the proverbial morass that is the blogosphere.

Whether this'll be a first step into an exciting, productive and/or profitable venture... well, we'll have to wait just a bit on that.