June 27, 2016
10 Years In Charlotte
I've lived in Charlotte for a decade. It's pretty hard for me to believe that it's been that long. And that means this website and blog are now a decade old too. I made this site when I moved to Charlotte as a hobby, and as a way to record my time in Charlotte. Here is the first version of this site that I made. There have been a few revisions. I really didn't know much about web design back then, but I loved the challenge of trying new things. Here is my first ever blog post.
It truly is hard to believe that I've lived here for 10 years! It seems like just yesterday I was packing up a Uhaul with everything I owned and my Dad and I made the trip here.
In the ten years I've lived here I've met a lot of great friends, had some great adventures, and seen a lot of change in the city. Charlotte really is a great city, and it's grown a lot since I've lived here. The skyline of uptown has changed tremendously. There have been ups and downs … the recession in 2008 was a huge surprise and a setback; the banks did some restructuring but are still a big part of the economy; the opening of the Whitewater Center; the construction of several large skyscrapers down town as well as the BB&T Ballpark; Interstate 485 was finally completed; the first line on the light rail was completed (I've ridden on it, it's nice); The Democratic National convention 4 years ago; just to name a few.
For eight of the ten years I've lived here I worked for Habitat for Humanity Charlotte. The first couple years it was through the AmeriCorps program (a national service program similar to the Peace Corps; in fact, both were the idea of Sargent Shriver). I stayed with Habitat Charlotte working in a lot of different ways: as a Construction Crew leader on New Construction homes, and foreclosed homes after the recession hit, and doing some more unusual things such as selling Christmas Trees as a fundraiser, or driving the largest commercial truck you can drive without a CDL across the state to pick up a load of water heaters from Camp LeJune, or disassembling used cabinets from housing in Fort Bragg, all of which became a source of revenue for Habitat. Ultimately my hobby of website making opening a door to do that work professionally for Habitat. Several years ago I redesigned Habitat's main website and many of their supporting websites. You can see some examples on my portfolio site. It was Habitat that enabled me to explore web design as a career. I'll always be grateful for the experience I gained from Habitat, all of it, even the more unusual stuff.
These ten years have come and gone so quickly. It reminds me once again that life is a precious gift. You really have to make time to appreciate it, and appreciate the people in your life who make it precious.
Labels: Charlotte Knights, Habitat Charlotte, Habitat for Humanity
June 26, 2016
Spring 2016 Photos
I've added a new gallery to my Photos section (Photos from Spring 2016).
Labels: Photos
June 15, 2016
Open Source is Awesome
Why do I love open source software so much? Because it enables creativity. You don't have to have access to expensive software licenses to unleash your inner creative potential. I've been a big fan of Open Source Software ever since I first discovered the original Open Office software in the early 2000s. Open Office was capable of nearly everything I needed from an office/productivity suite of tools, and was compatible with Microsoft formats.
I also feel that the more tools you know how to use, the more overall capability you have, thus encouraging intellectual curiosity, a trait that is sought after in the technology world. Just like a master carpenter tends to have many tools that they may use for a specific purpose, the more design tools you have experience with, the more well-rounded of a designer you will be.
you can do nearly anything with Open Source software! Working in the creative world, its truly difficult to get by without access to a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud (which until not too long ago was the Creative Suite) since it's the industry standard, and there are a lot of great features that make Adobe a logical choice. But if you're just interested in exploring your creativity, you can find an open source program that matches nearly every component of the Adobe Creative Cloud.
Office Software – don't waste you money buying MS Office. You can do just fine with Open Office software. Right now there are two prominent choices: Apache Open Office, and Libre Office (I prefer the latter). This is because the original Open Office software (which I have been using for over 10 years) which was developed by Sun Microsystems, was forked into two separate products when Oracle acquired Sun. The Document Foundation has been more actively developing Libre Office.
Web Design/Development – Coding – Now there are an abundance of execellent text editors to code with, as I have mentioned in a previous blog post. I recommend Notepad++ and Brackets for raw text editing greatness. If you need a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get editor, try out Kompozer or N/Vu (which is what I learned with).
Blender – 3D modeling, video editing—I was recently working on updating my portfolio site JhuffmanDesign.com and thought it might be cool to add a video background on the homepage. I needed a way to splice some video I made. I did a LOT of research, and it turns out Blender is the best open-source video editor out there. I also used the open-source VLC Player to edit the video format and save for web. VLC Player plays pretty much every video format imaginable. Blender is the best open-source video editor available, and VLC Player is the best open-source video player available.
Illustration – Inkscape is one of my favorite tools. It's perfect for logo design, map making, wire-framing, or really any soft of vector-based graphic design. It's very similar to Adobe Illustrator although it does not come with any of Illustrators frills such as the many brushes. But if you're savvy, you can recreate those features using Inkscape. Try it out.
Photo Editing – GIMP (or GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a great raster image editor. It's perfect for doing the kinds of things you would normally use PhotoShop. The tools have different names, and the UI is not as pretty as PhotoShop, but it gets the job done. GIMP can even do some things that PhotoShop cannot do, such as save nativity as multi-layered ICO files.
Desktop Publishing – if you've worked in desktop publishing then chances are you have used InDesign. It's great for putting together larger documents with different page layouts, importing images files, etc. Scribus is the open-source equivalent of InDesign, it's what you use to pull it all together.
You don't have to spend a dime to have all the tools you need to explore your creativity! Read about more Open Source Software tools here.
Labels: Blender, Brackets, GIMP, Graphic/web design, Inkscape, Notepad++, Open Source, technology
June 2, 2016
My Favorite This American Life Stories
I've been listening to This American Life for well over a decade. I feel that many of the stories I've heard over the years have enriched my life.
Here is a collection of some of my favorite TAL stories from over the years.
For me it all started when I was listening to a story on my way home and the story was so captivating that I found myself sitting in my car waiting for it to end – I was having what you'll often hear NPR anchors playfully refer to as a “driveway moment” in their pledge weeks. The story that caught my attention was one an a producer of the show experienced, the dilemma of trying to resolve an inaccurate charge on her phone bill. If you've ever had a frustrating experience with customer support with any company you'll enjoy this story.
A man spends a lifetime pursuing time travel. This story tugs at my heart. It's the story of a boy inspired by the Orson Wells The Time Machine who loved his father so much, he spent his entire life perusing Time Travel; becoming an established physicist.
This is probably one of the stories I found the most entertaining, simply because of the absurdity of the story. It follows the unplanned adventures of a young American business man who accidently finds himself in a foreign prison, where he finds himself MCing a talent night put on by the other inmates, and winning a poetry contest.
Loosing Faith and Finding it Again
This is the story of an evangelical preacher, who at the height of his success had a crisis of faith and after huge setbacks, re-found his faith and started a new community.
Shipwrecked in the Middle of a Major Metropolis
A teenage Russian immigrant to Brooklyn finds himself alone stranded on an island in the middle of New York City, and makes the most of it.
What Happens When Teachers Go To Detention
In NYC, if you're a teacher you could spend a year in detention if you're not careful. This story is about the infamous “rubber room” of the NYC School System.
If you appreciate This American Life as much as I do, you should consider making a donation!
Labels: This American Life