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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Day 8 - Getting a Foundation

So I've been trying to play with Foundation. And honestly, it was quite intimidating at first because I haven't done websites in a while, and I was very temped to just use the templates. However, I think I will try to approach this by trying to do it from scratch. I've got a rough idea on how I want my personal site to look like: I'd like a persistent sidebar on the left, with a main page that scrolls on the right (taking up about 70% of the screen width).

Some things I learned about images and text from Canva tutorials this morning:

  • Use transparency to make text pop
  • Add transparent shapes to make text pop
  • Layer two photos of different transparencies
  • Low-transparency icons can subtly fill empty space
  • Crop high-resolution photos for textures (that can be used as backgrounds)
  • Remove saturation to get black and white photos, then overlay a coloured transparency
  • White icons work well with blurred background images
  • Neon text works well with darkened and desaturated backgrounds
Regarding goal-setting and whatnot, I'm finding it hard to have a consistent pace on the Javascript: The Definitive Guide book along with the Discover Meteor book. I find that I have completely stopped on Meteor and focused completely on Javascript. I suppose that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I need to make sure I'm not spending too much time on Javascript: The Definitive Guide. The Meteor book is going to be more important for getting stuff off the ground.

I considered assigning myself a reading of a-chapter-a-day for the Definitive Guide so that I could finish it in 14 days, but upon further reflection (of the chapter contents), I think it makes more sense to advance my focus onto the Meteor framework and refer to the Definitive Guide for reference instead. One of the primary reasons for this is Gary Fung's statement that he "printed money with php soup". At this point (so late in the game), it is more important that I get started at making SOMETHING than trying to be real good at making it. That can always come later, but the habit of creating is so important.

What I'll do from here on out:
  1. Do Canva tutorials daily
  2. Build something on Foundation for adrianmcli.com
  3. Go through the Discover Meteor book
Maybe it's a good idea not to do more than three things per day. So hopefully this will provide more progress in the near future.

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