I’m not really sure where this is going to go.  I guess I can start with where this left off.  The meeting many months ago that the previous post was about.  Unfortunately that meeting didn’t turn into a job for me.  Might have been worthwhile, but what I wanted to do, and what she wanted, and what she was willing to offer didn’t really match.  Maybe it would have been a good learning experience.  Learning to work with clients who expect a lot, but aren’t willing to offer much.

From there I continued with school projects.  I did the Gender Outlaws Website, which didn’t end up being quite what I was looking for, and certainly can be worked on some more.  And also a bit of a draft site for TR By Hand, which also didn’t end up being quite what  I wanted.  That needs to be developed further, to provide the kind of content management that I’d like to have for that site, as well as the styling that would really suit the material.

Since then, there hasn’t been a whole lot of work done.  I created the TR By Hand Blog which is starting to look like it might get updated on a more regular basis shortly.  Still trying to get Tricia to be comfortable about the blog, and posting and stuff.

Also I have been working on a website for Ward Street Place which is coming along slowly, but surely.  That site will not be updated and may be moved right off of the Armispian Systems site in the near future.  The styling is pretty rudimentary, as I more like to work with the code than the styling of the site.  I am really not a “designer” more of a “developer”.  Unfortunately most people don’t see the value of development, and are not designers themselves, so will probably be looking mostly at the designs of my websites, rather than the development end of my websites.

Stuff that drives me batty, most people never notice.  Some of these things are: Sites that claim to have valid HTML/CSS when they are clearly not (sorry no examples at this time); sites that use tables for formating when all of that could be done without the use of formatting that is problematic for screen readers and such (eg. Google, Web Page Layout Using Tables); and sites that do something that produces a website that is not accessible, when doing such would not dramatically change the function, or the design of the site (eg. using flash to present something that can be presented in HTML easier and more easily accessible).

Sometimes I wonder if I should lower my standards.  Produce what people are looking for and are willing to pay for.  Then I also realize that will probably never happen, that I’ll never lower my standards.  I’ll just have to accept that educating people is worth the time that it takes to explain why things are better the way I want to do them, rather than going with something like WordPress for a basic website.

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It looks like I’m ready for the meeting on Monday.  It will be with a new client.  One who I haven’t talked to in person yet.  It seems like I have already put a lot into this project as I have created three different documents which I will give to her.  I also need to pull together a bit of a package of information that I am going to work with in order to be sure I get all the information I need from her regarding the work that I  will have to do before I really have anything further to communicate with the client.

What have I put together?  Darn good question, the first document I put together was a 1 page outline of the kind of work that I have to do to pull a website together.  That really is just something that will help me schedule my time through the process of developing the websites that I will be designing, but also give the client some idea what degree of work is involved in building a website the way that I build them.

The second document I created was based on that which just went through in more detail just what all the various “major steps” of creating a website are, and why they are so very important.  This document I think is very useful for my clients to see as they see what they are paying me for.

The third document is about what I will be looking for on our first meeting.  Now in some cases this information will be presented at the first meeting as there is little opportunity to present it prior to that first meeting.

So with all of this together, I believe I am ready for my first meeting with this new client on Monday.  And how this job goes will help me determine just how useful this information is.

So here we are, ready a day ahead of when I need to be ready, and all is looking good.

Also, I have been working on the computer that used to be the Rasku Services computer, but as Rasku Services no longer exists, it’s the Reino Rasku computer.  Put a few hours into that, which is really great.  I do some of my development work on that computer, so some of the time I put in is helpful in getting the computer working as well as I can for when I’m here and don’t have my own computer here.

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I have been busy with a bunch of different things.  Mostly not doing a lot in terms of work here.  For a brief period I was doing “one creative project a day”.  Then a week or two ago I decided that I’d work on the Armispian Systems Site, and thought I’d get it up and working in fairly short order.

The summer has been really difficult getting things done.  To much time, not enough too do.  It’s meant that I’ve left things to be done “later” which hasn’t worked well at all.

I have created a Art Fire Studio which I think is totally amazing to be able to do. There is not much there now, but I’m really impressed with what the people at Art Fire are doing, and think this is a great place to start with finding out more about online sales.

I have also created a Deviant Art account which has a few more things on it, as I just want to be able to present some of my artwork there. You’ll see stuff that is “ready to print” up there, and while I’d appreciate it if you bought it from me, go ahead and print for yourself.

So that’s a bit of what I’ve been up to. I hope that this sees you well, and that you’ll check things out in time, and maybe even buy things from me.

Anything I’m selling on ArtFire, or DeviantArt I will be able to sell things to you in person. Soon I’d like to have enough to have a bit of a collection of things I’ll be selling.

Jigme Datse Rasku

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It’s Christmas, or so I’ve been lead to believe.  I’m just not quite sure what I’m doing celebrating it.  Want to curl up and go to bed.  Well, probably not going to happen any time really soon, but maybe.  Who knows.  So far it’s been pretty good, but I’m just really tired and ready to have a nap, but it’s too late for a nap, and too early for bed.  So, I’m staying up and blogging.  That’s the way things are.

Anyway, I met with Christopher and looked at what I have for the website.  I really need to work on creating a new logo for the Gender Outlaws website because the one that is there just sucks.  But it’s there, so things are good.  The site needs a serious overhaul and we haven’t got any work done on it yet.  Maybe I’ll take a look and see if I can come up with something that might be interesting in terms of a logo for Gender Outlaws.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I registered for my mum the http://trbyhand.com/ domain name, there is nothing there yet, but we should be getting stuff up there pretty quickly, but we’re not totally sure.  My sister also wants me to create a website for her, so should probably register a domain name for her too.

Jigme Datse

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We have completed the projects for the school year.  There are a couple of sites that we will be working on over the holidays whether we’ll get them up and running is another matter entirely.  Somehow not sure if we’ll put as much time in these as we have put in the last two projects.  There is a lot of work to do on both of these projects.  One we have to pretty much start “at the begining” with, despite having a site up and running already.

These sites are the Tricia Rasku By Hand site and the Gender Outlaws Site.  Hopefully these will come together or at least mostly there over the holidays.  It is almost a month that I’ll be away from School, so should be able to get something done over the holidays.

Yesterday and Today we have been working on what will be our Christmas gift to a number of people.  It started with a bit of graphic design in the form of a gradient mesh moon (not quite the look I had in mind, but it’s workable), and the certificate that that goes on.  If you’re not already on my Christmas list, then you can be added any time up to Christmas.  So far I think I have 14 people on the list, I’m hoping that I do catch everyone who is interested in getting something from me.  And if you want is not what you want, then let me know that you want to give/sell/donate it elsewhere and I’ll make note of that, and they can contact me when the time comes that they want to use it.

What else?  Not a lot.  Got 2 of my classes final marks together 100% in one class, the other class my lowest mark is 88%.  Not sure what my final mark will be for the term, but probably not much higher than 88%, maybe low-mid 90s.

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I know I have to get it together by Monday.  I’m reasonably happy with how things are coming together.  I have to get a few of the background things done.  There are a few things that I want to get together, but may not get together for the site before Monday.  Take a look at http://kootenaymeditation.com/ feel free to comment here, or however you feel like getting in touch with me.

What I did manage to do today was get some text into the media pages, clean up some of the writing, clairify a few things.  It’s pretty cool that it’s coming together the way it is.  I really like what I’ve got there.  And this here is my wordy use of things.  The blog will be mostly words.  Mostly me just typing away being darn silly thinking people actually read this stuff.  Anyway, hope you are all well, feel free to comment.

Jigme Datse Rasku

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I just thought I’d post a comment about the work done today.  I went to school to work on my projects, well mostly my web project.  I have sorted my images for both the media and the photography pages.  Looks like I’ll be adding aproximately 25 images between the two.  Possibly less.  And if you want to submit your own images either of meditation, or something related to meditation feel free to contact me about that.

I was in a lot of pain today, so I really didn’t get a lot done while I was at school.  Thinking it’s just about bed time.  Anyway, thanks for listening.  More coming later I’m sure.

Jigme Datse

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