Matthew LaVelle’s weblog

I’ve been trying to catch up on my reading lately (and writing). There are a couple of places I normally go to for my geek-outs. One of my first stops is normally Digital Web Magazine. I usually just jump right in with the newest article and go back from there three or four articles (or until my Flickr Uploadr is done). So a few minutes ago I checked out what seemed to be an interesting article dealing with how web designers can handle the evergrowing size of screen resolutions people are using. After a quick read I’d like to take this opportunity to tell any other fellow web designers that read my blog to skip this one. It’s not informative, uses bad code examples, and I now feel dumber having read it.

Photos

The Grand Truffle Dinner is part of the annual Grand Truffle Festival held this year in Eugene, Oregon at Lane Community College. I’m going to the Grand Truffle Dinner with a friend to experience a five star, five course meal presented by five different chefs from the Pacific-North west with the ongoing theme of the Truffle.

“Who ever says truffle, pronounces a great word, which awakens erotic and gourmand ideas both in the sex dressed in petticoats and in the bearded portion of humanity.”
Brillat-Savarin, 1825

This blog is just an announcement but hopefully I’ll follow up with a full review tomorrow when I get home.

Attending school at The Art Institute was one of those life altering decisions that has in many ways led me to exactly where I am now. After the two years of training at school and being ready to thrust head first into my career path of web design (not to mention being broke and entrenched in a decent amount of debt), I went into my field and had a lot to learn about building websites and work relationships at my first job. After a short six months in my field and in the aftermath of a globally effected post 9-11 United States, I was laid off and went on to find my second job here in Southern Oregon. After three years of working with clients, coworkers of the most creative types, and several different tools of the trade I’m finding myself growing in ways I would’ve never imagined. New challenges arrive daily and that keeps me comfy knowing that I’m learning something new every day. Recently at work I’ve had the opportunity to work on multiple projects with multiple people and doing multiple things on a daily basis. Having learned from past mistakes I’ve come to the evergrowing realization that time management is and will remain an important component to my success as a web designer, a creative worker, and as a person. I’m taking this opportunity to share some of my thoughts on the subject, some of the tools I use for time management, and some insight into my future plans of developing my time management skills. Read the rest of this entry »

Some of my most relaxing, stress releasing, and re-stabilizing times are spent doing these two things. I’m not much of a book reader, but I do enjoy reading articles of online. Reading for me can quickly become tiresome if the subject is not interesting to me at that particular moment. In the past when conversations arose of the current books/radio/television shows of the oment at work or in other social situations I would just sort of sit there and listen. Not that I felt left out so much, but it was more like I really had nothing to contribute. Maybe I just enjoy listening? Anyway, in reading this blog I’ve kept for the last few years most of you know that writing is one of my favorite things. I love the ability. I love the release. I love the ownership. I love writing. Read the rest of this entry »