...I'm a page designer..Who Knew?

Recently I started going to a new church in town. They are just getting started and were already looking for a web designer. I offered my services to "help out" with who ever they found. UMMM... turns out they found me. I work with hardware not so much with the software side of things, so when I realized what they had in mind I started playing around with some ideas. Turns out that they liked it and I am having a ball. There is not much verbage there yet but we are working on it.

If I am going to do it, I figured this will be the perfect time to find some really good Open Source web tools that are also portable (no install). So far I have used nothing but free programs to create this site. Below is what I have been using:

• KompoZer: A HTML editor that replaced NUV. So far the only thing I had trouble with was making the frames page (easy enough with a text editor though)
• GIMP: A wonderfully powerful image editor.
• FileZilla: A great FTP client.
• Audacity: For my audio editing needs.
  
• XAMPP: Local web server to test my pages.
• NotePad2: One of the best text editor replacements I have found.
• FireFox: The greatest browser on the planet! (ever notice it takes you 3Xs longer to a make page look as good in IE as it does in FF?)
  

Also, I would be a fool not to mention the wonderful folks at Dynamic Drive for all the cool scripts and stuff

I will try to keep you posted on the more interesting stuff.

Too Much Stuff...

I have been overloaded with stuff to do. It seems that every time I turn a round I have forgotten to do something that I promised someone that I would do. I just couldn't keep up with every thing. That is until I found this little template. This is a 'pocketmod' -ish style print out that can be edited with Word and folded into an eight page book that will fit in almost any pocket. This thing is great for those of us that require a little low tech every now and then.

I couldn't see spending money on a day planner that I would be locked into for ever or worse stop using after a while - and I enjoy the idea of doing it myself. I took the basic layout of this template and designed my own to fit my needs. It was easy, cheap, and I learned a few things as well. Now I am ready to join the masses that have decided to "Get Things Done".

Here is a copy of what I came up with... ToDoTemplatenopic.doc