Don’t complain yet!

Yes yes, I have updated the theme. No I haven’t played around with it yet enough to really make it ‘customized’.Yes, I AM constantly updating this. I hope to have it finished by next weekend, but who knows. For now just know that this is a work in progress and it’ll look like crap until it gets to a point where I go, “Okay. I’m done messin’ around with this.”

All I know is that I’d rather just come up with modifications on a basic structure that I like than designing a whole different site and THEN finding a theme that matches it…

Whew.

Edit: Blah. I seriously have designers’ block on this design. I can’t get anything going. Maybe I’ll try again later.

I’m out.

Tags: Design, Vinoj.com

Google Chrome

Granted, the explanation is simplistic, and the product isn’t even released as of yet, but the sheer genius behind a whole new way of thinking about web browsers is definitely something that caught my eye. The idea of bringing comic-book illustrations to explain complex ideas is wonderful; you should definitely check out Google’s new attempt at creating a browser.

Tags: Computers, Design, Neat

First day of work

So there I was, infiltrating the global headquarters. I am now a corporate slave. I am now going to pull a Tyler Durden/Lester Burnham.

…or not.

It’s pretty hard to get mad or pissed off at a corporate workplace when your boss is really damn cool, ya know? I mean, I really like Bill. He seems very down to earth, has great goals for the interactive team, and I can’t wait to get started already. I know, I know, it sounds like I’m sucking up. But seriously– there’s no one from work reading this (at least yet). So I have no reason to brown nose. (Wait, I’m Indian so… I guess the brown nose is inherent, isn’t it?)

Last night I got precisely 25 minutes of sleep. I told you my sleep schedule was whack. I slept from 6:35 am to 7:00 am, then got up, got ready, and left for work. I toted a huge Monster Energy Drink along with me to keep me awake, and after I got there I went to the cafe downstairs and had a ‘Red-Eye’ which had two shots of espresso mixed with coffee. Caffeine-driven Vinoj! Even with it though, around 11 am my eyes were slowly starting to shut. We went through a number of housekeeping stuff today, like how timesheets are filled out, how the process of a site is configured, and the timeline for a site build. We also talked a little bit about usability/accessibility in the web design world, and I was asked to give a presentation next Monday on usability. I’m already prepping, because I want to make sure to keep people interested and (hopefully) entertained for 20 minutes so I’ll have to keep it moving. We’ll see what happens.

For now, I’m just drinking a lot of Diet Coke to keep myself awake until about 10 so that I can then just crash. As soon as I got home I took a 3 hour nap because I was beat. But I promised I wouldn’t sleep anymore, and now I’m waiting for 10.

And with that, I’m out! Peas.

Tags: Design, Happenings, Work

I got a job!

I’ve got a job and I’ll be starting tomorrow; pretty excited. Of course what sucks about it is that I’ll have to completely rewire my body’s sleep timing. Work starts at 8:30 and ends at 4:30. Oh, and that’s 8:30 AM. So instead of going to sleep at 5 am and waking up at 12 pm, it’ll be a nice shock tomorrow morning on the first day. I’m sure within a week I’ll be adjusted, but this first week will be me needing LOTS of coffee and/or Red Bull. Sheesh.

Oh I didn’t say- I’ll be a web developer. Not too shabby, eh? Sounds pretty cool.. “Web developer” What does that actually entail though? Right click your mouse right now, and go to View Source on this page. Now you’ll see all the (X)HTML for this page. Yeah. My job is to write all that stuff. Woot! There’s also a lot of CSS I have to write, which is going to be the heart of what I do. CSS is responsible for the styling of the page, from the font size to the colors to where each image is laid out. You might check out more information about it if you’re interested.

And with that I’m out! Peas!

Tags: Computers, Design, Work

Getting a job, and continuing work. At once.

I didn’t receive a phone call today regarding a new job, which was a bit disheartening. I was thinking I might be getting an interview today, but that doesn’t mean that I am about to lose all hope (just approximately 50% of it.. haha). So now, I focus on my current client that needs me to come up with another mock for him, which I hadn’t seen coming. It’s sort of a difficult thing, because summoning creativity isn’t something that you can just do at the flick of a switch, but I’m in an industry where that’s exactly what you have to do.

I suppose this is something that everyone who has to do commercial art has to deal with, but I spent hours today trying to come up with something that I would be happy with. Sure I could’ve half-assed it, but that’s not my style. If you’re going to do something, give it your best – pretty much my mantra. So I’d come up with a design, decide it was shit, and then scrap it and start over. Now, at 1 am, I think I have the header of the new design down (the header is the top part of a site by the way– on this site it would be the random pictures of me with Vinoj.com written). Now I need to worry about navigation and column layout. I don’t know if I work in a way that’s out of the norm of most designers, but it’s just the way that I’ve worked for years.

I also decided to send thank you notes to the people that interviewed me, because…. well… I think it’s good manners. And good manners are always something that we can all add a bit more of in our lives.

Take care.

Tags: Design, Vinoj.com, Work

I miss India.

Hahahaha. Totally kidding. I know that a bunch of you in India are just waiting for the moment when I’ll actually say it and mean it, but that point hasn’t occurred, yet. But I definitely am starting to miss the people there more and more, and the inability to just call someone up to talk.

In the meantime, I actually expected myself to be a bit more productive in these first few days. Sure I know, I’ve got jet-lag and such, and the fact that my allergies have hit REALLY hard doesn’t help, along with that sore throat/cough I mentioned a couple of days ago. But on a positive note, I’ve got a web design job that I’ve got to get done, and I’ll probably start that on Monday.

Another thing I wanna do is start following my mom’s example and working out more. My mom– a 50 year old woman– runs for 45 minutes every day on the treadmill! That’s some serious running! I’ve been pretty good about what I’m eating; I ate a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese the day after I got here and yesterday I had some nachos, but other than that I’ve been fine. So if I can continue with a good diet and also follow in my mom’s “footsteps” of running, I think I can lose some serious weight. But 45 minutes? Hells no. That’s not in the cards for me.

Peas.

Tags: America, Design, Happenings, India

Selling my Blaze!

I’m selling my Blaze, and I made a small subdomain for it at buymyblaze.vinoj.com. If you know anyone, lemme know!

Tags: Design, Happenings, Travel