Small update

Hello everyone, just got a small update on a few things. I sent off the last of my paperwork to the JET desk this past week. I still have been studying and practicing, so I'm glad about that. Yesterday was pretty intense, I did a whole website, start to finish yesterday, I got it up live too.
http://pearlierealty.com is the site, it's not the greatest site ever, but I really feel my HTML and CSS are improving with the practice I have been doing. Once I get some serious layout and photoshop practice, I'll be making really sweet looking sites. But I am happy with the baby steps, it helps me stay focused than trying to practice three things at once and get burned out. I was actually all ready to start on the next subject in my study map, Javascript, but I decided to just wait till I got to Japan before I start on that. So, I'll just check out some CSS videos till I get setup there. I also got a letter from Niigata prefecture this past week, it was just a short letter about packing and that stuff, but I was glad to get something in the mail. Also, I should receive my JET handbook and JET life DVD in the mail this week. Other than that, I will be attened my family reunion in Florida the week before I depart for Japan. So, I'll be leaving that and going straight to LA; hopefully all that stuff goes through smoothly. Anyway, until next time.

A rural life for me.

I know I didn't give much info as to where I would be residing in Japan, besides that it is part of Niigata Prefecture. I decided to say a little more, I will be in a more rural setting; so no big cities or business districts. I also heard there are no trains in the area, only buses for public transportation, so I plan on leasing a car while I am there. One of my former Japanese professors recently told me that Niigata has a very strong dialect. I have done a little research on that, and found some reseources which I hope prove to be helpful. I will try to mix them in my normal Japanese study so that I will be able to decipher some of the dialect when spoken; and possibly impress some locals by using it myself. A few pluses that I thought about living in the rural area are, the possibility of running out in the open, that would be hard to do if there cars, trucks and people all over the place. Also, since it's not a big city, I'll have to speak Japanese more as a lot of the locals may not have the ability to speak or understand English. So hopefully that will improve my speaking and listening quickly.

When I first heard about the area I would be headed, I tried to find some info, like blogs, videos, pictures. It was a little difficult to find more than just general info. Due to that, one of my goals while living there is to take many pictures and put them online (photobucket), and to make videos of the area, events, nature, weather. I am not talking about videos where I would just stand there and talk about stuff, I mean some sweet videos with just the area and all that, and some cool visual effects and nice editing. However, I need to learn how to use some video editing software and learn some after effects to add flavor to the videos; so that wont be for a while, but I'll get on it as soon as I can, and as soon as I get a camera to shoot with. The pics should start flowing as soon as I get there, even though my camera is a little old, 4.0MP, the battery doesn't last like it used to; but it should get the job done until I can find a new one. Would be sweet to get it before departure, so it doesn't die on me in Tokyo.

Moved around and all that mess.

Well, I moved the blog and all that jazz, nothing big. The main point of this post is that I finally got my placement for JET. I will be in Niigata Prefecture. That is a picture of Niigata city to the left, not where I will be living, but that's the nearest big city to where I will be. I will be departing next month, and I got most of the paperwork stuff done. So pretty much it's just, study, get stuff I want to ship together, relax, and try to make some extra money if possible. That's pretty much it, nothing really changed exept the blog design, I changed it for a reason and hopefully, in a few short months you'll see why. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the post.

$642 like that.

Thank you Opera!

Opera, yeah, that internet browser that not very many people use; has done something magnificent for the web world. Opera Web Standards Curriculum is a free compilation of materials to teach web design/development with standards for beginners. I am taking part in this because I'm sure my knoweledge in this area is  lacking, and I am surely tired of operationg as a second tier web developer without a strong foundation to build on. When I was in University, I didn't directly study web materials aside from HTML. During the end of my college career i wanted to shift my focus to web and mobile deliverables, cell phone content, web content, flash games, etc. So, I started somewhat doing web design through trial and error, and generally just doing whatever to make it work, or at least look like it works. After working at my first web job after school, I realised I needed to get my act together and really learn about the web, developing for it, and its standards. After two months of that job i was already tired of the terrible unorganized websites I was updating. They were ugly and not standards compliant, the worse part was having to put articles nearly two years old on the site as if they were as important as the new articles. Content is important too, and if noone noticed the article wasn't up two years ago when it was new; it's probably not that important. Anyway, with my new free time I am glad to have access to this and hope to use it and learn from it to the fullest extent available. Once again, thank you Opera. p.s. I have your browser installed

Well Well Well

As of Monday, I have been laid off from my job. I'm not too sad about it, as I was expecting it, as well as the other web designer. So this week I have had a little more time to study Japanese as well as work on web stuff. Today I actually got info for our first site, so i get to start working on that, its a web site for a salon, I have never done one of those before, but it should be fun. Also today, it is confirmed my speedometer on my car is off by about 20 mph. I got another traffic violation from Arizona. About two weeks ago, I went to Arizona for the 20th Arizona Statewide Japanese contest, and on my way back to California, I was pulled over for going 95 in a 75, there is no way I would just go 20 over whilst knowing it. So that was a $280 ticket; then today, i got a thing in the mail that clocked me going 74 in a 55, I always keep an eye on the speedometer, so something isnt right, and both those violations were on the same day, there go another $184 for that. This couldn't happen at a better time, I have no steady job, trying to save money for JET, and bam im out $462 like that. That could have been a new digital camera and mp3 player, or a decent laptop to do work on the go with my partner. Those are things I also wanted to get before JET, but oh well, i still have some money left over, so I'm glad I was at least able to pay the fines, and hopefully I wont have any other expensive surprises.

Let's JETing!

Well, it has once again been a long time since my last post.

Anyway, I have been working as a web designer/developer for a few months now in Corona; the area is nice; the job, not so much. I make minimum wage, and working 40 hours a week is still not that much money when my expenses are considered(rent,bills, and trying to save for JET). Another thing is that I'm probrably going to be laid off tomorrow since the company is going under. So, the other web guy and I are going to try to do some freelance stuff; so hopefully that will help me net more money than what i was making at the company. I'll try to keep you guys posted on how that goes. The next thing I wanted to talk about was the JET program.It seems like an awesome program to go and help teach English in Japan, and the benefits are also good. I'm really excited to be accepted in the program, which is one of the reasons im back on my blog. I don't know where I will be placed yet, but it should be interesting in some way no matter where it is. I would talk about the process and interview but there are quite a few other blogs that were on that in a timely fashion.

For now, I see my blog as being one about Web Development, Digital art, and Japan once i get there. I still want to be active in web and stuff so I won't be all rusty and behind on standards as I already am now, so bloggin about it may help me stay active in that, hopefully. Anyway, thats about it for now, and welcome to the Re-Re opening of this blog.