You know you have a good friend when they ring for a catch up and when the call ends you realise you’ve been on the phone for two hours.

I don’t know why it never occurred to me before, but mind map apps are excellent ways of visually presenting a site map. I’ve found them really helpful in the last couple of weeks while reviewing site structures and navigation design.

Spent some of this afternoon going through my old design projects and picking which I’m going to include in my new portfolio site. Found a number of old projects which are going to go in there and ordered a cheap – but well reviewed – light box thing to photograph them in.

9:50pm on a Friday and finally calling it a day. The curse of double jobbing, a 14.5 hour work day. I really wish I was doing design work full time.

Any web development people know why a htaccess rule to change to php 7 is causing the file to download and not execute?

A real pet hate of mine is when someone from a different profession tries to treat me like a tool to execute their design, rather than letting me use my years of experience and the expertise/knowledge I’ve developed in that time. In no other profession would you approach an expert and tell them how to do their job. Instead you would give them all the information they need and let them do the work of providing the best possible solution to your problem. Design is not just how something looks. It’s about how something functions. How a key message is communicated visually. It’s the way that something is used to guide someone from a position of not knowing much to knowing just a little bit more. And it’s many things beyond that, but one thing it is not, is just how something looks. When you’re working with a designer, don’t try and do their job for them by giving them a layout of how you want something to look. Give them the information they need, talk to them about your aims, and let them use their skills to provide a solution to your problem.

Chopped some chillis up to put them in my bolognese which is currently in the oven. Apparently I didn’t wash my hands thoroughly and itched my nose. IT STINGS!

I’ve been an Apple Music user since the beginning, but decided to give Spotify a go for the month. Using my Echo Dot more and more lately and feel like the music elements give it greater utility. Already found a couple of new tracks thanks to Discover Weekly. 🎵

It’s been a long week with a busy final shift today. Looking forward to enjoying the sun over the next couple of days and relaxing a bit. Probably still end up doing some work though…

Since I’m posting to this site with a bit more freedom and making use of post formats such as status and image to do so, I’ve decided to enable comments again. I’m still ironing out some issues with the new theme, but it’s getting there.

Noticed a weird thing with my posts that any likes etc, aren’t showing up. This one would be a good example. Not sure why or how to solve the problem, I have the relevant plugins installed and facepiles enabled but they don’t show.

The Giro d’Italia started today, the first of cycling’s grand tours to start outside of Europe, and it’s in Israel’s capital. Watching the highlights now trying to see if the course goes through any bits of Jerusalem that I’ve been to. Love it. 🇮🇱 🚴🏻‍♂️

Giving the new verson of Micro.blog for Mac a go and importing my Instagram archive to the blog since I’m not really using the app much anymore and posting here more and more.

Connected my Echo Dot to my amp and speakers while I give Amazon Music Unlimited a free trial. Probably wouldn’t switch to that service but I do like just being able to start listening to music by speaking and not having to pick up my iPhone or iPad and AirPlaying.

New glasses arrived. Prescription hasn’t changed since the last pair but factory clean lenses still makes it feel like I’ve upgraded to 4K.

I’ve been reading Austin Kleon’s blog since January, I find the way that he speaks about his notebooks and how he uses them very inspiring. Today’s post is about his bulletin board and how he pins images, clippings, index cards, and various other bits to it for inspiration while he is writing a book.

The analog nature of lots of things that Austin does has really caught my attention. I love technology, but as a designer I also love objects and paper. When I was a student I covered the wall of my room in halls with bits of graphics that I liked. The whole thing turned into one giant collage of inspiration. That’s something I would like to get back into my creative life, something tactile and away from a glowing rectangle.

Made a few tweaks to the new navigation this morning. Hopefully it’ll actually work on smaller screens now.

Just realised I forgot to optimise the new blog navigation for mobile devices. Too late now, my brain is shutting down, that’ll have to be a task for tomorrow night.

Really nice to see have my parents visit today, makes my flat feel even more like my home when they come to say hello for the day.

Continued to develop the new theme for my blog a bit this evening. Put a bit of navigation in place along with a short intro paragraph. Feels like it’s starting to come together a bit now, although a couple of bits still need some work. Aiming to switch focus to my new portfolio site this week.

Turned out that today was an unexpected free one, bar a couple of hours. Enjoyed the chance to work on an idea for a clients website that I didn’t think I’d get to work on for a while. Good to stretch the brain cells with some CSS3 that allows you to do things previously only reserved for JavaScript.

I’ve a photo I took a few years ago from my second trip to Israel that I really want printed and framed. I haven’t been able to find a place that prints large scale photos, anyone got any recommendations?

Always good to enjoy a catch up with old friends over a good burger and a glass of wine or two!

Fed up of opening Mail.app to my inbox where there might be emails despite there being none moments ago, I’ve decided to try an experiment. I just created a mailbox called Zero that when I’ve finished what I’m doing in the app I now click on. The idea is that when I open Mail I’m greeted by a blank screen so I can send an email without seeing my inbox until I’m ready to see it. We’ll see how it goes.