The House on the Market!

 Here we go soon… Thursday! Sneak Peek for my Dad! I put a couple before pictures at the end. :) 

Dalmatians

Amaterasu

Validation. Book is written about deep seated validation. Don't wanna finish it. Ack. 

Yeah nope. Don't need this one. Ugh. Back to fiction for fiction's sake. 

Look Ma, I'm learning... Wireframes?

 

What Are Wireframes and How to Use Them Effectively? 

A wireframe is a diagram or a set of diagrams that consists of simple lines and shapes representing the skeleton of a website or an application's user interface (UI) and core functionality. Get a more in-depth explanation of what UX wireframes are, what they look like, and how they can benefit your team.

So this looks like flowcharts reborn. SO I'm game. I think I'll build a flowchart of... well? 

Still looks like reinventing the wheel on org charts. Remember the PowerPoint slides? Then Google slides? We can totally reinvent this though. What would I use it for? Skeleton of .. 

Oh! 

Cooking / Baking. How about the inventory of my pantry? 

How about the inventory of my basement storage? 

Not that, but this: 

"Application's user interface (UI) and... core functionality"

User Interface (UI) means what they see vs. what I see when I make it. Curiously, there are top ten lists of websites that do this and more: 

https://www.mockplus.com/blog/post/design-inspiration-sites

Ok, skimming through a few of these, I found Lounge Lizard. Of course, that was my favorite. Cocktail being the key, last word... I like making, sharing and drinking them. SO I'll take that one on an break it down. 

https://www.loungelizard.com/?utm_source=10bestdesign

Reading through, I like the disability management icon (being disabled myself, although, not fully, scrolling is better some ways than others.) SO - - check this out. It's like Asgard on crack! 

Random but head in the clouds. Lofty, but the ring reminds me of the old Vtech phones for answering with a headset in a call center. Turns out, it's for a call center / data center set up! Yeah perfect! 

Lots to learn on UI. Branding. I digress.... ON to Wireframes.

Today I learned there are Low-fi and Hi-fi wireframes. First one's basic - brainstorming level. Second one is for producing or explaining an action. Today I was "nerding" out on some spiffy wordage about Spanners or moreover, how engineer design teams work through solving a problem. Check this out and read on... I put a link in it! 

Some IT guys said once, "Make hard changes easy. Rather than change four places in the code, introduce a helper function (a little at a time, natch) so you can change one place." I like it! (dude is super chill) 

Then All of a sudden, pure understanding from a picture: 

In the end, a lot more than Wireframes ^ was learnt today. Could just call them diagrams, but no. Flowcharts is recreating the wheel. Right? No? Free world to comment or email me here: dewhickeryg@gmail.com

Hello World

Yup, I exist.

I currently have a lot of potential energy (that I'm not using, would you like to?) which has been used in the past as an administrative professional (check out that cv). My life's work has been to create a positive flow between business relationships, analyze resistivity across contact points, and produce better conductivity over longer periods of time (kick butt, take names). Since 1991, I have worked with people from all over the world while at Nordstrom, Navis, The Ritz-Carlton, and IBM, while also traveling extensively for The American Red Cross and United Nations throughout Europe, Asia and South America, developing my personal world perspective, utilizing multiple languages, but mostly empirical science (I like people). I like to encourage the flow of time and energy, build efficiency and support the commitment to keeping my work up and running (not lazy, just logical). While describing myself might be revolting, hopefully I designed an operation conducive to your response (because I really would like a job outside of the work I do at home.) Thank you for your time. If you're reading this, why yes, yes I did just describe Ohm's Law.  Carry on ;)

-Dew

Stuff I play with... like Catnip

Seriously, I didn't think I would be this bored. But I did it. I found a Groupon for this bundle of courses that turned out to be some leftovers (I'm guessing) that made a cheap attention getter and I fell for it. Even though some of the courses in the bundle were from 7... I enjoyed it. So what did I do? I ordered this: Simplilearn —  One Microsoft Office certification bundle

Some of the courses were just plain outdated. A couple of them, like the basic and intermediate courses for Excel were skipped because I've been working in Microsoft Office since Windows 3.1 or, 1995. That's kind of a long time. 22 years. I thought I knew everything. However, after being away from working outside of the home for the last 6 years, I thought it would be a nice refresher. And it has been for the most part. I learned about the new blog features in Word, a few more use cases for Excel relational tables and how Powerpoint still hasn't changed, but now you can narrate over music. Yeehaw. There is much more to it, I might be just a little tired from soaking this all in, but it's exciting. I simply enjoy making great documentation and need a reason to do it. 

That's the leap. This seems to be quite the baby step, but as it turns out, dusting off the administrative muscle is not a bad thing. I mean, it is part of what I offer to a potential employer. We'll see if this all comes in handy. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, I'll set up a review on Simplilearn on the next post. I am finishing my last course: "Microsoft Outlook 2010." It looks like this: 

In closing, turns out I'm outdated. This bundle was great for me. It confirmed what I already knew, gave me hope that I was going down the right path because I was pretty bored with the basic stuff and I knew most of the expert stuff already. The only concern I have is putting it to good use. That's what keeps my mind busy these days. It will work out somehow... this ride is far from over. 

2 Years and Counting...

Wow. Just laser focused over here... on raising children. Whew. It is no joke. Sure we have a lot of fun, but it's getting to the point where I am starting to question what we can provide for them on a daily basis for life enrichment. We live in a rural community that by all outsiders, I would never fit into, but I've actually started to enjoy more and more after the 5 years of adjustment. We currently have 2 of our 3 in school now, with the youngest not quite walking yet. So with that, I will give you my current focus: Get moving.

Yes, Baby D is not walking and I am ready to go again. It has taken 2 years to get back under my own two feet enough to feel I could contribute to the professional world again. Here is what I wrote two years ago (almost to the day 2 years ago - hmmm!):

A year later, almost to the day, here I am in this space, wanting to share again. I totally want to do the coding thing. What part I'm still figuring out, but this is my space where I will share that journey. As a former Tech Support Engineer, I enjoyed web analytics, knowledge management and rolling out new projects. Being under pressure is my kind of fun. So here we go."

 This world needs more happy people. There is a suck fat life out there that everyone is trying to get a piece of - either by demand, manipulation or just plain bad-assery called hard work. I would love to say I am the third of those but focusing on children is like baby oil on canvas. Ever tried to paint that?  Yeah. So, here is the game plan:

1. Take notes. Start a list of goals and use my good old Franklin Planner (yes, it works, for me anyway) and write it all down.

2. Start to study. Figure out where I want to go, how to get there and take the steps to prepare education. This time, I want to get certified first, work later - unlike the first half of my life.

3. Time to pick up the kids.

Going... going... gone.