Before I could say anything, the checker swiftly puts the batch of banana’s in a plastic bag. Was that necessary? Great, now I’m walking out with this stupid plastic bag holding a single item that could have very well been carried out on it’s own. Motivation: empty. Let: down.

At least show some courtesy and ask if I would like paper, or better yet ask if I need a bag for this item. Isn’t this called moderation? I’m guessing other shoppers (some more than others) would have a similar reaction, “No thank you, I’m good as is.”

What about when going through the drive thru and getting thrown a handful of condiments & napkins on your way out. Most of that “stuff” ends up staying in the fast food bag and getting dumped as “trash” anyway. I guess this is a part of growing up, thinking of where stuff ends up.

via ZLOG Blog

from Visual28

There’s some others around the internet,
like these guys: http://patterntap.com/tap/collection/notice.

Have any other examples?

Tools

What do I need to finish this job?

Toaster, bread & butter, a plate & knife with something to wash it all down, yes? Fruit Punch will do.

Think Process & Flow

Everything has layers and goes in a certain order. Understanding how something works gives me control & confidence.

Plug in toaster > grab bread, butter & utensils > plop bread in toaster and pull slider down to begin toasting.

When the toast is done, it pops up to let you know. But never dismounting out of the toaster, I wish.

Spread butter > Eat.
…take awesome nap.

Talk to Myself

Seriously. This won’t require yelling–or even talking for that matter. Walking myself through the process will better clarify and expedite the current task at hand, by holding my hand.

“Okay, I need to grab the bread out outta the fridge (stays fresh longer YUP), take out 2 slices and pop these in the toaster.

Set the time. Grabbed the butter, plate and utensils on the way back through the kitchen. Now I’m set back at the micro, let’s do this toaster.

Trial & Error

Greatest idea ever.

My toast is burnt, WTF!
I came back just a second ago and now the shits burnt.

Try again, turn the timer down a bit so the bread isn’t heating for so long.

Communicate & google things

…better

Structure my question fully & clear with the proper details. How would I like to be talked to? What really helps when someone asks me a question?

Burnt toast using toaster.

My toast is burnt, I am using the Toaster 5000 model with the dial set to “4.”

Enough with the toast

It’s easy to get intimidated when I’m learning something new. New is foreign, and that’s scary because it takes time and I could probably fail. But what is my other option, bail out of an idea? We made the technology, therefore we better control it.

The navigation rollover icons were one:

Zach began drafting up some icons, which finalized to these:

Here’s the foundation to our navigation, luckilly for us Wordpress created the list item classes in the HTML.

<li class="page_item page-item-3"><a href="http://zlogblog.com/blog/" title="Blog">Blog</a></li>
<li class="page_item page-item-2 haschildren"><a href="http://zlogblog.com/about/" title="About">About</a></li>
<li class="page_item page-item-78"><a href="http://zlogblog.com/gumwall/" title="Gumwall">Gumwall</a></li>
<li class="page_item page-item-10"><a href="http://zlogblog.com/contact/" title="Contact">Contact</a></li>
<li class="page_item page-item-7"><a href="http://www.zlog.bigcartel.com" target="_blank">Boutique</a></li>

header.php rendered HTML of navigation.

This is where the magic happens.

Moving over to the stylesheet we can create the rollover code for each list item class.

.page-item-3:hover {
background:url(images/icon-home.gif) 0 0 no-repeat;
}

Cool, it works. But I notice a glitch upon first rollover. What this means is the image hasn't fully loaded yet, causing the flicker. You can use Javascript to preload the images but that seems prehistoric doesn't it? Isn't CSS what the cool kids are doing?

We hide images via CSS on the daily, all it takes is a lot of negative pixels to push something off the screen, causing it to temporarily be hidden — but still fully load. Cool, no extra javascript, no ugly preload. Let's do this.

.page-item-3 {
background:url(images/icon-home.gif) -99999px 0 no-repeat;
}
.page-item-3:hover {
background-position: top right;
}

Not bad, everything loads fine with no glitches. Can we go outside yet?

BUILDING THE REST

After going through each list item, we see some redundency in the code that can be cleaned up.

For example: Every .page-item has the same :hover property to move the background image into visibiality.

.page-item-3:hover {
background-position: top right;
}

.page-item-2:hover {
background-position: top right;
}

.page-item-7:hover {
background-position: top right;
}
.page-item-78:hover {
background-position: top right;
}

.page-item-10:hover {
background-position: top right;
}

EXTRA CREDIT

Let's simplify this:

.page-item-3:hover,
.page-item-2:hover,
.page-item-7:hover,
.page-item-78:hover,
.page-item-10:hover {
background-position: top right;
}

Everything still loads properly, the images are preloaded with no glitches or extra script resources, and now ZLOG has rollover icons for their navigation.

YEAH!

Click “Show in File Browser” to take the fast pass lane to your desired directory. #lame

Zach’s an awesome client to work with. We ended up pushing each other throughout the process and plan to continue focusing on improvements. I’ll be writing in the near future about ZLOG featuring sections of the site.

I think in order to handle the workload of a freelance career, you need to establish rigid organization to remember the fine details of:

• That client talk you had 2 hours ago. Remember? The links inside their footer shouldn’t have any underlines.
• The client email for a small update on their web site.
• Run-ins with potential clients while out.
• Logging your hours for each project
• Etc, etc…

So many things are happening at once though-out the entire day, organize anything you can or else your heads going to explode from data overload.

What I like:

• Morning French Press Coffee & RSS Catch-Up with a heavily padded time-frame.
• Keeping the lights off & allowing natural light, especially while showering.
• I usually don’t work on Fridays. If I need to, working from home is mandatory.

What are some rituals you practice?

If you use last.fm for streaming some jams on the space-age iPhone device, or maybe you’re looking for an app, check out the photo below:

under settings > last.fm:
make sure “High Quality Audio” is slid to the “on” state.

By default, my high quality state was “off”. No one wants shitty quality, sharing is caring internet friends. Be sure to say hallo!

- G

The other morning I was calmly scrubbing away at my teeth trying to feel and arrange the desired tone for my day. Full schedule, multiple projects, opening The Hive.

I say to myself:

Focus, grab one project at a time, clear the desktop.

I then completely focus and literally start whispering to myself:

• one thing at a time
• focus
• worrying solves nothing
• never stop learning

This becomes extremely valuable if you’re doomed from the get-go like me and can’t focus on a single thing for more than one minute.

The last 2 are my golden rules really, worrying is bound to happen but be prepared to slap it in the face. Maybe even give worrying a swift kick in the ribs as your finishing move—FINISH HIM!

And lastly: Don’t. Ever. Stop. Fucking. Learning…and when people start following you on twitter, or maybe they actually find value in your hand-crafted work, don’t turn into an internet douche bag.

Cheers!