5 Awsomely Awesome Resource Sites

Here's 5 sites I visit every day. These 5 sites hold all the resources and information you can cram into that 3 to 4 pound head of yours.



1. w3schools


I'll start off with the most useful. This is essentially the site I used to learn how to build websites. It has on it information and tutorials on pretty much every kind of code there is. If you ever felt the need to learn programming so you can hack in, reprogram a spaceship and use it to pick up girls and joyride to the moon, this is where you'd go to do it. The best part by far is the interactive online demos you can mess with that show you exactly what the code does you're trying to learn. It really gets me hot and bothered.


2. Fudgegraphics | For Lovers


Looking for free photoshop brushes or textures and a sexy good time? This is the place to go. It may be because this site perfectly reflects the style I like to work in, but I feel Fudgegraphics has some of the best quality brushes and textures you can find, hands down and ass up. Not to mention some of the other content, such as the featured artists, gives for some excellent inspiration.


3. Smashing Magazine


This site really covers a lot of bases, which is why I like it so much. It covers different web trends and practices used today, tutorials, freebies (textures and what not), and ideas to help your work go smoother and more efficiently. It's the all in one, swiss army knife of design blogs.


4. Web Designer Wall


I mainly go to this site for inspiration, because it features a wide variety of sites, all the time. From minimal to text heavy, all sorts. But it also has some interesting articles now and again as well. All and all it's a nice little fun fest, and the person that runs it (Nick La) has some other great sites as well.


5. DesignM.ag


I use this site mainly for textures and some sweet ass photoshop actions. And I mean sweet. Cross processing? Forgetaboutit. It also has designer interviews which is how I stumbled across Fudgegraphics. Thank the lord. This site really is a masterful thing, full of inspiration, free design tools and some straight up magic. Be amazed.


Bonus: FFFFound


Ever find yourself in a rut trying to come up with a url? Just keep repeating the first letter until it shows up as available. This site is effing awesome. And I'm not talking "seeing some dolphins by your boat when your sea fishing" awesome, I'm talking "the Battlestar Galactica picking you up at your home and taking you to Ruby Tuesdays where you'll do shots with Katee Sackhoff" awesome. This site is so full of inspiration, I can't even stand it. I truly believe too much of it will give you cancer. Basically, this is a site that you become a member of, then whenever you come across something on the web that looks cool you add it to this site and tag it according to the content. A site devoted to things that people think look cool is pretty much the best inspiration you're going to get.


And there you have it.

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Firefox Add-ons That are Sweet as Hell

The browser that I use on a daily basis is Firefox. In my opinion Firefox is one of the leading browsers out there today. Not only for the fact they handle web standards like a sexy dream, but they have some of the sweetest wed development add-ons I've ever laid my innocent eyes on.



1. Web Developer Toolbar

This add-on is by far the most useful. There are so many things you can do with it that I haven't even explored yet. What I use it for is a learning tool of sorts. When I come across a site that I'm curious as to how the designer accomplished a certain effect, I use this toolbar to check out the css file. Or I use the toolbar to outline frames to figure out layout problems. Just the multitude of useful things this toolbar does is like a 60 year old hooker, you know she's been around the block and you'll definitely get your moneys worth. Except in this case, it would be like a 60 year old hooker that costs nothing.

2. ColorZilla

This is a handy little tool that gives you the hex value of any color you see on a web page. Like that pretty orange color you see on that pornographic site you visit in the mornings before work, you can now easily copy the hex value of that color and implement it into your own pornographic sites. It also helps when your testing your own sites and you would like a text to be the same color as the banner at the top of your page, you can easily get it this way in a jiffy, instead of having to open up the photoshop file, wait for it to load, and wanting to end your life.

3. Screengrab!

This is one of my favorites. While building my own website, I wanted to have nice screen shots of the different sites that I had built. Instead of taking a screen shot and having the bottom of a site cut off, or having to scroll down to take another screen shot so I could piece them together, this sweet sweet add-on allowed me to either get a copy of or save a shot of the entire window. Yes, be amazed at the power of this add-on and the amazing abilities of my run-on sentences. You could also get a shot of just the viewable part of the window if you so desire, but I mainly use it for whole window shots.


So that's it. These are add-ons I have for Firefox that I use on a daily basis and they make a few parts of my job just that much easier. If anything, get the Web Developer Toolbar. I've learned so much with just that tool alone. It taught me how to be a man, and enlightened me to some of the finer points in life. But the others are definitely a great help as well. These three add-ons should be gotten as a package, because I assure you'll find good use of all of them at one point or another. The Ninja Turtles wouldn't be so good if Raphael was the only one. It would be The Ninja Turtle, and he would probably get his ass beat all the time, and live at home in his mother's basement until his late 60's.


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Spicy Web Designers

I was just interviewed for this spicy site.


Luc Arnold of Spicy Web Designers recently contacted me about an interview, and I obliged. (Check it out!) The site is great and it's chockablock full of interviews by professional and up and coming web designers. It's a really inspiring place, and you get to see a little background of some very interesting people. Can you dig it?

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Card Observer (yes)

Mmmm, you taste that? Tastes like a steamy pile of design. Card Observer is a site that showcases great business card designs, the kind that make your thighs sweat.



This site is great. Great to just browse through, and great for inspiration. Designed by one Henry Jones, it's a great site to see great design and have the opportunity to showcase your own. I visit the site almost daily, and I just recently submitted my own design.





So, I'll keep my stomach beard crossed and hope for the best. Keep an eye out and try and submit your own design. It's hot.

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Zooppa beta you frackin' b's - And it's not a fraternity

Zooppa, it's like crack for people who want to experience what crack would be like, but without all the "your life is ruined" side effects.



This site is just craztastically good, I can't stress that enough. Mind you, it's in beta so it does have it's little glitches (for example, when I made my profile it kept malfunctioning when I was trying to add my website url in the "personal info" section), but all in all, effing tight. It's a site that just holds competitions, all the time. You can become a member of the site and enter into these competitions, then other member's of the site view and vote on your work and you can potentially win money. But besides all that, it's an awesome way to network and show your creativity all at once. It's a bombastic way to show your problem solving skills and the quality of your work. It's like a facebook for designers, but you can win money, and you don't need to have a college education to join, for all you slackers. I found this site because they actually had a job posting on Designm.ag, and I'm always on the lookout for freelance work. So, go check this shit out, right now, get movin', proceed, progress, other various words.

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Free Dragonball:Evolution Wallpaper

In light of the Dragonball movie coming out next week (I'm seriously aroused just talking about it), I made this wallpaper, again with some ink and watercolor brushes from Fudgegraphics.



Well, first off, I'm pretty much obsessed with these new brushes I got. I'm also quite excited by the Dragonball movie coming out April 10th (the date was changed to 2 damn days later). So, here's another free wallpaper, and there will probably be many more so stay tuned.

The zip file includes:

1920×1200 - can also use for 1280x800
1600×1200
1280×1024
320×479 - iphone



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IE6 is gonna burn

So, I was doing my daily check on Best Web Gallery and I came across a funny topic, offensive splash pages for people who visit your site still using IE6.



This is hilarious. This one is from Hugs for Monsters, where you can find a few more hilarious ones on there. My whole interest came from one of the newest sites featured on Best Web Gallery, New to York, where on the bottom there is just a brutal disclaimer basically saying if you're trying to view the site on IE6, it's not going to work and that you are an asshole for even attempting to view it with that browser. This is one of those agree and disagree type moments for me. I do believe people that still are resorting to using IE6 are slightly slow and should probably just unplug their computer and pack it in their closet to keep it from further abuse, then go cry in a corner while a middle eastern man pelts them with rocks. But, blatantly pointing that out is sort of a bold step. I'm the kind of person that laughs at something funny. But there are always those few who are the type that take offense to things that quite possibly does not even apply to them, but they would argue about it anyways because they think it's their duty, they know what they're talking about and you should listen to what they say because they are smart. All of those people should be punched in the shins. I'm more of the non-confrontational type though that would just kindly try and steer the brain dead IE6 user to bigger and better things (firefox, chrome, pretty much any other option). Offending people to the point of not wanting to return to your site...I don't know about all that. Either way, I laughed, and so should you.

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Current Events

So I've been working my a-snake off lately. I finished a website for work and a friends' portfolio site in the last week. Also with my new found love of logos, I've been working on getting my girlfriend set up with a good logo and I started redesigning her site already...again. "Fickle" you say? No, I just have ADD (not to be confused with d&d...mmm, dragons). That last design was just something I had done up for someone else, and she liked it so I put it together for her. But I'm just not satisfied, so now I'm getting her more involved and really trying to have her input right from the squirrelly bird. So anyways, I have a few of her logo designs for your viewing pleasure (keep your pants on).



*Just to note, I had some designs early off that were more elaborate but she wanted it to be simple, so this is what I came up with. These are the top ones thus far. All of them are inspired by her initials, TH. Or occasionally THP (Tricia Harrison Photography).


1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

So now that you see them, let me know what you think. Opinions, suggestions, it's all welcome. I'm here to learn. Anyways, these are the logos best liked so far (some by me, she hasn't actually made a decision yet so there's always time to sneak those few in). I'll have her site templates up for deliberation soon as well. I also have another project in the works (there will be more to come with that when I really get into it). It'll be a pants-less party. Well, let me have it, I like to bathe in criticism...and Irish Springs.

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Sensei Zachariah Says...

Just 8 short months ago, I was hired at United Bank Card for web design. There was just one problem, I had no idea how to design things on the web outside of dropping a damn flash movie into dreamweaver and uploading it. And for a big corporation like this, that just wasn't going to cut it. So I had to learn the ins and outs of web design and I had to do it fast. There's no better way to learn about something than to dive in ass first. I looked all over the web, with some help from friends and co-workers, and found a few sites that were a huge-tastic help, and I'm going to share these sites with you now in a pastel rainbow type effect.


1. www.w3schools.com

- This site was the most helpful as far as learning the basics. Any type of coding that's used on the web (html, xhtml, css, javascript, etc.) can be found there. And each section has tutorials you can play with right there on the site. It couldn't get any better than if it took me out on a date and whispered sweet sweet nothings in my ear. I also keep this site handy whenever I run into something I don't know. It truly is one of the best sites for learning the trade there is, and it's free. Need I say more?


2. www.lynda.com

- When I first started at UBC there was another web designer here, Emily (who's since moved on to bigger and better things) and she showed me this site. You have to pay a subscription fee for this site but she had a company subscription through UBC. This site is full of video tutorials which really helps a lot if you're one of those people who needs to be actually shown how to do something before it sticks. But, it's sort of lacking in the fact you have to up your subscription to be able to download the files for the tutorials so you can actually follow along with the videos. I was stuck just spectating. So this site, though helpful, didn't help me as much as others. Though, it may be a different story for you.


3. www.webdesignerwall.com

- This tasty morsel is one of my favorites. This would be more for after you've gotten the hang of actually making sites. It's full of little tutorials, trends, inspiration and gives you a look at what other designers are doing. It's a very interesting site and is really focused on content for people who just love design. Two thumbs up and a wink. (Also, there is www.bestwebgallery.com, which is maintained by the same guy, Nick La)

That's pretty much it on the sites that I visit regularly. These sites usually provide me with whatever I need. And if you can't find what you need at one of these sites, then there's always Google. Either way, I hope these help you because they sure as hell helped me. These sites fill all the fuzzy warm places in my heart. Enjoy!

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I'm peeing blood..

Alright well, this has nothing to do really with design, but I'm a long time fan of Dragonball and well, from the very first episode I watched I've had hopes of a live action movie coming out. Especially after the last Matrix movie came out, I saw that the special effects were there. Well, the day has finally come. April 8th. I might have to get liquored up just to keep from passing out with excitement. I've been following it since they started writing the script and now the release is so close I can feel it, with both hands. So with all that I say, go see it when it opens so it makes a butt load of money and they make a Dragonball Z sequel. If not I might find that tree that's close enough to your house that when I ram my car into it, it will fall into your living room(dramatization). Read this post >>