Joel N.'s 652 Blog

finished my about

2008-04-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

I finished my about page, which will eventually go in my walking tours page. On it I listed some of the cemeteries I've enjoyed visiting and walking around in. One of them, the Woodlands, is going to be on one of my walking tours. I hadn't planned on including a route around the cemetery on the tour, but maybe I will.

Walking tour

2008-04-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

In the poll, walking tours won. So I'm going to do it. Now I'm thinking that I need to pick colors that reflect the content of a walking tour. And I'm not sure what that even means! But one of my walking tours starts at 34th and Sansom and goes to the Woodlands Cemetery and 40th and Woodland...I know that much already. The first stop is the Penn Book Center.

Swatches, part 2

2008-04-14T07:17:00.001-07:00

Only one of the other three passed the contrast test, and I might have to give up the ghost on pink text on green.

Here are some more combinations with better contrast that I like, too.

I like the bright blue on the darker gray background; I like the pink better, but the bright blue offers more contrast. Pink will still look good as another color on the page with these two, I suppose. What are you all thinking about your colors?

Swatches

2008-04-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

Picking colors is harder than I though. Lots of the combos I like don't pass the contrast test.

Here's what I've been playing with. Let me know what you think.

Webdesign and colors

2008-04-11T22:12:00.000-07:00

I was reading M.'s blog and realized I hadn't mentioned my webdesign skills, which aren't very many. At my old job, I used to edit really simply html templates that someone else had written. We had designers who are always talking about CSS and other stuff I'm really looking forward to learning.

I'm thinking of green and pink themes..but I'm not exactly sure about what color to make the text. I need to make sure that there's enough contrast between the two. I also like sky blue and orange or cherry red. I think I need to find out how to put some swatches up here as samples.

A Poll!

2008-04-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

In the interest of fairness, democracy and public opinion, I want to poll you about my final website.

note: If you don't like these four options, leave me a comment and let me know what I should do. And don't forget to check back for poll results!

blogtastic ideas

2008-04-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

it's like I'm always trying to plan for blog...at my last job, in internet marketing I had to, and now, at the Free Library, we are planning a new blog. At least this new one will be fun to write and will be about books and customer service rather than convincing people to spend money.

And now I'm planning for the final website for 652. Here's my ideas:

Walking tour of Philadelphia, especially tours that take you by lots of bookstores
Course materials from an old creative fiction or literature (or even College Comp.) class I taught
Site about Joanna Russ or Octavia Butler, my favorite authors
Site about one of Octavia Butler's series
Recipe/meal planner
Something about Berlin, since I used to live there and have tons of photos to use.

So, kind and gentle classmates, which kind of site are you planning? I'm trying to balance content (something easy to create) with art I'd have the rights to and also with making a site that might actually be useful. I'm favoring walking tours right now, because I recently wrote up a touristy email for my sister's friend who was visiting and it was fun and useful.

Good with knifes?

2008-04-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

Last night some of us were talking about the other end of the information resource design technology spectrum: book making, and I wanted to put up some of the links we mentioned.

A community arts center in South Philadelphia, the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial has a Book Arts I in the Spring. Holly says they fill up really fast.

And there's an organization in New York called the Center for Book Arts that has many kinds of classes in making books of all different kinds. For some reason, their site, which I've linked, is down today with a database error. I noticed that they offer one or two-day workshops for us out-of-towners in addition to multi-week courses like the Fleisher.

Does anyone know of any other organizations or schools that offer workshops or classes in book making and book arts that might be accessible to Philadelphians? (The University of the Arts, where I taught for one semester, has a graduate program in Book Arts/Printing. I'm not sure you can get into the courses if you're not an MFA student, though.)

introduction

2008-04-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

This is Joel's 652 blog. I'm in my third quarter at the iSchool, studying LIS. I work at the Free Library as a library trainee and I will keep working there as a librarian when I graduate. My dream job would be in the Rare Books Department, or in the Literature Department. I used to teach college English and would still like to do that part time when I finish the Drexel program. I also write and publish fiction.

Everyday I read:

I also read this blog for groans and laughs:

The Annoyed Librarian