I just uploaded an image. Haven't done this on blogger before. I can't wait to see what it looks like!

Improving the Practicing Librarian Website

I was so glad I went to class on Tuesday.  It was good to know that everyone else experienced similar problems.  There were several really great looking websites and the rest of them looked pretty good, but several people did experience problems with the uploading and had a few things to do to improve their websites.  It was very comforting.  Anyway, despite my basic website, I felt proud that all my links functioned.  

I've now spent all morning trying to improve The Practicing Librarian website.  I looked for more graphics last night and spent about 4 hours practicing inserting graphics onto web pages.  I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing, but I  did do  some editing with Picasa  to reduce the sizes slightly, which was very easy.  How well the graphics do on the web page all seems to do with the size of the graphic, so if I  limit my graphics to a certain size, they seem to work ok.  Not perfect, but adequately.  So, I was looking for some other graphics -- most notably a good brick wall  that was small enough -- and I found a few and added them this morning to a few of the pages.  I also added some other links to the More About Me page. 

 I wrote my Commentary page last night and added the brick wall to that.   The first time I looked at the site, the wall was not there, and some of my new graphics were there but others were not.  I tinkered with it for quite a bit and in the end was able to get the brick wall to show up, but not the other graphic, so I just added the same picture on two pages.   I'll keep trying to figure out why the other one won't work, but other than that, I seem to have everything functioning.  I even added a few hyperlinks to the More About Me page.  I'm beginning to feel like a pro.  But while my web editing and uploading skills have improved, I feel like I'm only beginning.

Having done all that, and devoted the entire morning, as well as most of yesterday evening,  I feel like I'm ready to post the link and turn it in.  This has taken a HUGE chunk of time and I'm about ready to let it go!  It's been a great experience which words cannot possibly describe.  Let's just say I have a great respect for ANYONE who has these skills and I look forward to honing my website building skills on a regular basis, so I don't forget what I've learned.  

I've also enjoyed the blog and found it a good way to document the process.  As soon as I have more time, I might just continue!

Coming down the finish line

Class is tomorrow, and I spent all evening working on buttons. Unsuccessfully. I visited the website recommended in the book, as well as several others, and didn't like any of the free buttons I saw. Then I spent something like 3 hours trying to teach myself to make a button in Nvu, and finally figured it out, but then I couldn't get a link inserted. There's just nothing on the Help pages about this. The buttons looked kind of cute, but small, and I couldn't see any way to make them a different color, but I was excited that I figured something out, even if it didn't work. I also figured out how to stop the hyperlink lines from dragging if I moved them. These seem like small things, but when you're not able to figure them out, they become big deals. So, I really wanted buttons and I don't have them.

I am really curious how elaborate all these other sites will be tomorrow. I hope I don't feel like the techno-idiot in the room. I'm sure I'll get all kinds of suggestions for how to beef it up; the problem is my skills are just not matching my tastes and ideas. I had to make a decision weeks ago to keep this website as simple as possible and it really is. I mean, it's hard to see how anyone could make a more basic website. But I did it, and when I viewed the whole thing tonight, I was really proud. I have experienced so much frustration over so many things, that I was really beginning to doubt I would have a site that worked, so I'm relieved about that.

I'm sure I will have more to do on it later this week before I turn it in. I would really like to have buttons and a few more graphics, especially on the portfolio page, and maybe some more links on the More About Me page -- that could be a bit more substantive. It will be exciting to see how everyone else did on their websites. I just hope I'm not too humiliated.

Back to the website

Finally got the Research Methods paper out of the way and turned that in on Friday.  Worked all day on Saturday, took the night off, and went back to the website on Sunday, all day, although I did take frequent breaks.  No matter what I do, I just can't get my images to sit where I want them to sit.  I've re-read that chapter more times than I can count, plus looked for some tips on the web.  I really feel like the easiest way to figure this out would be to have someone show me.  So, for now, I'm keeping my images to a minimum.  My site looks pretty bare, but it's just too frustrating for me right now.  Maybe when I feel like I've done everything else, I can come back to this, but I've inserted and deleted one image a dozen times and it's still not right.

The site is still pretty basic, and that's just going to have to be adequate, I hope.  It's not what I envisioned, but these skills just do not come easily to me.  However, the elation I feel when I finally figure something out is a very heady feeling.  Before I called it quits tonight, I actually got all the links except on the Portfolio page, which I wasn't finished with, to work.  That was a good feeling!

Long weekend working on my research methods paper

I wanted to devote some time to playing around with my website this weekend, but Reseach Methods is a ton of work, so I focused on that this weekend and didn't do a darn thing on the website. I feel bad, but at least I can blog a little. Once I'm done drafting the paper, I can come back to the website with a clearer head, I hope. But I also think it's helpful to take a little break from the website right now. I so often feel frustrated by not being able to do what I want to do with it, that it's becoming something I find myself avoiding. I really don't want to feel that way about it -- I want to feel enthusiastic and playful when I sit down, instead of wondering how many hours it's going to take me to slog through something that should take minutes and instead takes hours.

Links!

Well, it took me way longer than I planned, and much longer than I thought it should, but I've finally got some test pages linked. I would really like to do buttons, but I can't seem to figure out how and it's getting me really frustrated again, so I've decided to content myself with links for now. Maybe I can figure out the buttons later. I'm really finding this book totally worthless. It just confuses me. I actually find the Nvu tutorials much easier to understand. When I hit a difficult spot or can't seem to make any progress, I go over the chapter in the book several times and find myself getting more and more anxious and frustrated. Then I tell myself to just go with it and experiment and let go of the fear of failure and as soon as I do that, I seem to make some progress.

For some reason, I had this real fear of linking my pages. I was just sure I wouldn't be able to do it. It seemed so complicated and the more I read, the more confused I became. I took a break and when I came back just thought: What 's the worst that can happen if I don't figure this out? I will go to class and I won't have my pages linked and everyone will think I'm stupid and then someone will show me how to do it -- I hope. Maybe I'll get a "C". Maybe I'll take an Incomplete. But then I just tell myself I'll figure it out, sooner or later. I remind myself I have figured out how to do PowerPoint and Publisher completely on my own, so, more than likely, EVENTUALLY I'll figure out how to create a small website with pages that link. Finally I did. I went over the Nvu tutorial at least 5 times and kept trying to follow the directions and finally I got a page uploaded with one link that worked. Then I came back and put another link in to see if maybe it was just a fluke. That worked too. I was quite elated. Then I tried a third one, and that one didn't work. But then I realized I had put in the wrong file name. As soon as I corrected that, it worked also. I have to admit I was stunned that I actually figured out how to do it, even after all the talking I did to try to reassure myself.

So, assuming I can remember how I did this the next time I sit down to work on this, I think I've gotten at least the basic linking skill down. I just wish I had way more time to spend on this, but when I do sit down, it seems to take me hours just to get the basic steps down. I feel like I'm tech-retarded or something. Eventually I figure things out, but it seems to take me way too long. I wish people would participate more on BlackBoard so I would feel like I was not the most technically-challenged person in the class.

A small bit of success, finally!

You wouldn't think uploading my files would be that hard. Especially since I've done it before. But for whatever reason, I had the hardest time doing just that today. I spent hours -- all afternoon, uploading some test pages and couldn't get them to open in a brower. I did this over and over without success. Finally I broke down and did a chat session with Academic Computing to see if I was doing something very simple incorrectly. The guy thought I didn't have my files in the public file, even though it looked to me like they were there and I could see them. I still find that whole interface kind of confusing. Finally, I uploaded them onto what looked like the Private file to me and voila! They showed up in my browser. I could not believe it! It still looks funny to me in the WinScp file, but at least I know where they need to be from now on. It just should not be this difficult. I wonder if anyone else is having problems. If they are, they're not talking about it on BlackBoard.