Ford Design Blog

It’s Been a Long Time

MrG — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:15:37 +0000

And finally some changes are coming to my blog. I am wrapping up my redesign and some juicy backend stuff. I should be getting around to making the changes fairly soon.

So keep an eye out here!

The Final Stretch is Killing Me!

MrG — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:38:23 +0000

Well, I’ve been silent. But again, I’ve been working. I have been working on homework and getting ready for the big FordDesign change for the upcoming job hunt. I’ve also been working on some video tutorials as you can see above. Well, I have a newscast due tomorrow and I’m not ready. So back to work for me. As always if you have tech questions, don’t hesitate to contact me here.

Getting Ready for Fall Semester

MrG — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:51:43 +0000

I’ve been barely working recently. I took the last week and hung out with my son (and played some Farmville over at Facebook). I am doing some classes for my degree and two Digital Media classes. I am excited by both of the DM classes and my interest is peaked with my GE requirements. I hope this is a great semester.

Through this semester I will be working on offering Web Design Classes for a small fee hosted here my site. The classes will take you from basic HTML all the way up through designing your own personal Word Press site. Topics covered will include:

HTML and XHTML
CSS
php
mySQL
Designing for the web (Illustrator and Photoshop)
JavaScript and JQuery
Customizing Word Press, Joomla and Drupal

I’ll also be blogging my classes so keep an eye out for that. Hope you all had a great summer! It’s time to get back to work. As always, I am available here on my blog for tech questions and I’ll be at the CTC lab M,T,W and F mornings.

MrGonz Productions on the Move

MrG — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:35:07 +0000

Lazy? No. I have been working on a lot of things recently.

Finished up Hell I Feel website. Well, for the most part: The media player isn’t populating on every page–on the bug hunt!

Worked on my brother’s blog. What I mean is of course I worked on the back end but I have also started contributing a weekly submission there. Called Things for Thinkers which consists of a collection of links that I came across during the week. It started out as just the links, but now I’m adding some color commentary as well. It’s been fun to help my brother out and he’s really refocused his blogging. Make sure to check his blog out.

I have been spending a lot of time learning Adobe After Effects. I have been making a number of test reels and other sample projects. You can checkout a reel below.
I found a great flat file CMS that doesn’t use mySQL. GetSimple is a great barebones CMS that works on XML and php. It’s relatively easy to get your head around (as compared to WordPress and Drupal) and makes a great CMS for small websites that don’t need a blog. I suggest you check it out.

GetSimple is a nice segue for announcing that MrGonz Productions is finally up and running! Gone is the grey “Coming Soon” page, replaced by a fledgling site (powered by GS). You will find most of my motion graphics tests and the like there. Go by an check it out!

Finally getting the favicon thing down. I know it is a simple thing, but I had trouble creating the .ico file type. I had used some plug-in for Photoshop and it just didn’t work. I finally gave up and used this website to generated the correct file type.

Well, that’s it for now. I am getting ready for school and working hard on my resume. I have given my self until October to get my resume all together.

jQuerry and Russian

MrG — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:17:00 +0000

In the Beginning by Al Bean

I have spent the last few days following jQuerry tutorials and this week plan on adding them to some of my on going projects. I also got qTranslate going on the Hell I Feel website. Now all it needs is some Russian language posts.

I was pleased to find Al Bean’s gallery on-line (thank you PRI!). I feel inspired to do some space art now.

Weekend? We Don’t Need No Stinking Weekend

MrG — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:38:31 +0000

Worked on Blog De Ford last night. Today it’s Happy Valley. Oh, and I might even hang out with my wife today, for an hour or so…

Anyway, here’s a haha:

Focus Now Shifting and More Remi

MrG — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:24:21 +0000

I’ll be working around here for next few days. I will be working on the CSS and adding some features including a portfolio – so keep an eye out for that.

I saw this and it made me laugh:

Catching Up On Work

MrG — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:52:48 +0000

Chihuly installation at the Indianapolis Childrens's Museum

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I have been infected with Facebook and overwhelmed with work.

Finished first draft of Hell I Feel. It was a long, hard slog. But at least I have it up and running in Word Press.

Got my brother’s blog moved over to his own URL. It will be a while to get it perfect. I am sure we’ll have it together before Palin runs for President.

I’ve got a few machines in the office for service. I finally got a new customer and I was impressed with how up-to-date she had kept her machine. What a wonderful thing. Now if HP would start writing drivers for SP3!

Happy Valley is on the verge of offering it’s first application. Script really…but who’s counting? New website should also be forthcoming (by yours truely).

I am going to be putting pressure on my wife to migrate her Catster following over to personal web page. She has respectable views and I think a web page with common sense advice for cats and dogs could be a real help for many people. I’m thinking a sort-of WebDVM.

At some point I’ll work on my animation series, filling out my portfolio and updating this blog to include my CV. Just after I get some more stuff done…

Getting back into it

MrG — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:16:33 +0000

Those who live there say that it isn't flat

I just got home from a week-long trip in the midwest visiting family. I feel very fortunate to have such great family. Both my own family and my wife’s family all were warm and generous and we had a great time visiting everyone.

I threw up a Moodle site last night on short order. I am really starting to feel comfortable with server installs. I can’t wait to redesign this site and work my new skills into the mix. But first I need to put together a portfolio and a résumé page.

I Finally slept!

MrG — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:09:19 +0000

So I’ve been working hard the past few days. I completed a stage test for the upcoming animated short. You can see some of the rough assets in the video below. Trust me there are a lot more telephone poles where those came from!

I’m really excited about hanging out with my brother and sister next week. My brother and I have talked about what we’re cooking and drinking for a months now, so afterward, I think I’m gonna have to fast. I don’t get to see them often and it’s a real treat. I’m also really excited to get the cousins together! My son is going to have a great time!

Anyways check out my two new things over at my deviantArt account:

WIP Clearcut Test by ~MrGonz on deviant

WIP HIF Banner Animation Test by ~MrGonz on deviant

Oh, yeah. I just touched base with an old friend on Facebook. He was sorely missed in my life so I’m happy to know he’s alive. It’s tough since I barely look at my Facebook or MySpace or YouTube. I rely on my wife to let me know what’s happening in the world of social media. I guess I should know that stuff a little better–I’m sure there’s good easy money for Facebook apps. On second thought, I’ll get to that in my next life.

Let me know you came by and read this my friends. Comment below.