From Away

Things have been pretty quiet on this site for the last ten days or so. I’ve been really busy at work, and by the time that I get home at night, I just don’t seem to have the focus to get much accomplished. I think I’m just going through one of those uninspired phases, and just need to take a step back for a little bit and do some relaxing. I”m sure before long, I’ll slide into my groove again and things will start happening. I’ve got a couple of ideas for articles for this site, one thanks to a comment that Shawn made on a project that I’m working on.

As for everything else…the site ripping continues. Chris Davis is the latest victim. The people that are responsible for these rips always seem to use the same excuse: “I just wanted to learn about CSS.” It’s great that there are so many people that want to learn CSS and how to make their websites accessible. But, wanting to learn is one thing, and trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own is another.

There are so many great resources available to help people out with CSS and XHTML. A great place to start is by picking up a couple of books on the subject. Dan Cederholm’s book Web Standards Solutions is an excellent place to start. I just received this book as a gift, and I can definitely say, it’s a worthwhile read for any web designer/developer, no matter what your skill level is. The majority of CSS books published by O’Reilly are also worth picking up. I keep the CSS Cookbook in my reference library for those times that I run into a really tough problem that I need a little help with.

If you don’t have the cash flow, or you’re not a big fan of reading books, there are a ton of free resources on the internet. Have a look at A List Apart which contains a huge amount of articles surrounding all things web related. There are also a ton of blogs that feature articles on the subject. Andy Clarke’s And All That Malarkey is one such blog that springs to mind. Andy lays out some excellent, real world examples of his, and his company’s design processes. Jared Christensen has recently added a great article on coding styles/standards that is also a great read for those that are just starting out. It gives a great view of how to properly lay out your code and the methods that different designers use. For those in the Wordpress world, Chris Davis has some excellent plugins on his site for Wordpress. Not only that, his blog is a great example of making use of some of the great features that Wordpress has to offer.

With all of these resources available, I don’t think the excuses for stealing other people’s work hold much water. I mean, it just requires putting forth a little bit of effort to do some research, and you’ll be well on your way to making use of CSS and XHTML.

This post may seem a little all over the place, but that’s just way my mind has been working the last little bit. I’ve got so many ideas, and things that I want to get accomplished, but I just don’t seem to have the time to focus on them and get them done. I’m blaming the scrambled mind on recently turning another year older, yeah, that’s definitely what it is. Regular, worthwhile posts will soon return, I just need to slide back into that proverbial groove and get things flowing again. It’s just going to require a little bit of patience on my part.