"Every little deal is a big deal."
OUTSIDE THE BOX - Fishes Interview #10 turns tables on their Creator and Champion Raspberry blowing, Sharron of design by atfb, succumbs to Fishes Interview .
about the father's business - Fishes Interviews
Candid interviews with web site builders & designers "A series of interviews with online shop owners, artists, musicians and business owners, all are celebrities in my book. Level of web design, W3C Validation or CSS and HTML expertise is not as important as their hopes, dreams, struggles and accomplishments. "
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Welcome to the Fishes Candid Interviews | design by atfb, web design and custom graphics, photograph restoration, photograph enhancement and logo creation.
Before settling into the interview let me explain that, on this occasion, the interviewer has become interviewee and "we" are the collective voice of past and future subjects. Though we have pooled our questions, your own are so good that many of them are bounced back at you here. We hope that's ok. -John
QUESTION: OK, let's start with the Fishes. Some of us know the background to your image but for your new readers please explain what it is about and which Fish best represents you.
Answer: That image to me represents my journey into web site design and development. At the beginning of my "enlightenment", I was definitely overwhelmed by CSS, W3C validation as a matter of fact I was over whelmed by ALL OF IT! I had built sites before, but I had used a WYSIWYG program (Front Page). I was mainly into the visual aspects of it all, also found I could use Adobe Photoshop to slice and dice my pretty pictures and make them into pretty web pages! Finding the statcounter forum certainly and immediately set me straight. This Fish image was created to reflect and to try to convey my own true feelings about it all. I felt like I was adrift in a sea of complete inability and non comprehension. The sharks were those who were so patiently trying to tutor me, but hey they already had what it took to survive, they had big teeth, mass of size and an inborn natural predator ability. I on the other hand felt like such a small fry, that to succeed or even attempt any level of learning I had to adapt. This I did by strapping some artificial "chompers" on my alter ego fish self. One fishey is using their new teeth to attack CSS, one is completely blind to CSS, validation, web standards, doc types and one wee fish has succumbed to the stress. Some simply aren't aware of the sea they swim in. I see myself in each representation. Had I been given a choice I would have liked to have been born a shark with all the personality traits and perceived traits that sharks have. I mean they maybe the stupid creatures and act on instinct, but not many mess with them.
QUESTION: Sharron, what do you do in "real life"?
Answer: I do housework, but not studiously. I read. BW or before web, I used to do needle work and sew. I also was quite diligent with the yard work. My husband has decided that I need to take motor cycle riding lessons. Me thinks really that is something he wants to do, just adding me in the mix. Occasionally I watch a Soap Opera, Dr. Phil and Oprah. I've had to limit my exposure to Oprah, as I will invariable cry over something. Speaking of Soap Opera's, what the heck in going on at All My Children? Watched it the other day for the first time in months, and there is something bad wrong with their cameras, their camera operators or something. Shadows, jostling, odd. It looks like they are shooting the scenes using a hand held video camera. Please if any reader has any pull at the AMC studio, tell them to fix it! lol Sorry
Follow the hyperlink, then click on the home link to see the above page!
QUESTION: What prompted you to build a web presence?
Answer: I don't suppose you would let me get away with simply saying, "I don't know".
I built a website devoted to the registered German Shepherds that we used to breed. That site in no longer online.
I built a website for my son when he deployed to Iraq the first time. I wanted to post pictures from home of his family so he could have a look when he could. I also kept it updated with his doings and the photo's he sent home, so that family and friends could get a sense of his life at the time. I notice that several pages are broken, I must either take it offline or fix it. Both of those sites were sliced and diced, non compliant, framed and all that jazz. I thought they looked nice though! My current site, well I don't know, really I don't. I suppose I intended it to be a sort of portfolio, but it does not convey a lick of professionalism. I am who I am, and I find it hard to put on airs. So it is what it is. It's a hodge podge of incomplete stuff, awaiting some grand thought to descend on it and make it mind numbingly interesting to the masses. You can view other sites I've done, by following the links on the left! I've been privileged and honored to have been paid for a few of them.
QUESTION: How did you settle on your domain name and how long has it been online?
Answer: My current domain name design by atfb stems from a long past dream of a business. Having the background that I do and knowing how so many folks are not amenable to such philosophies, I hesitate to even mention it. Let's just say that I had registered many years ago a domain, didn't use it, then when I got the bug to build a site again the preferred domain was gone. So I adapted it, thus the design by atfb moniker. Each letter of a t f b, being the first letters in a phrase that hold special meaning to me. I've no earthly idea how long this version with a proper domain name has been online. If I had to hazard a guess I would say a bit over a year. I know I had already become a statcounter forum member before I registered my current in use domain. I've also registered a few others! I'd like to do something with those.
QUESTION: Kelly wants to know What part of web construction do you enjoy the most, the graphical design or creating valid code? which takes the most effort?
Answer: Honest Abe, I enjoy the visual bam bam! The harder the coding is the less I like doing it. Making the fun stuff fit in the technical part is awful. I think that my creative abilities have suffered as a result of technical constraints and frustrations. I'm not by natural design either technical or creative, but by default capable of being both. I am a visual person and sometimes an idea will hit me quickly but most often the opposite is true. I cannot tell by looking at code if it has a problem or not. I don't have a keen appreciation of the relationships between the elements on a page and the code it takes to make them. I have to hen peck my way each and every time I do something. Trial by error and success by correction, one pixel or one semi colon at a time. I think I've already established I am not very proficient with content. We all know that content is King but design and good looks is a pretty big part of the package. One of these days, gone will be the bland, black and blue scheme of my site!
QUESTION: For those of us that know you this is a dumb question, but do you feel your site is finished or do you still have grander goals?
Answer: Good gracious I wish it were! It is definitely not near what it should or could be. Better question might be do I have what it takes to do more with it. Answer would be, I don't know. I would love to be able to show the world a wonderful, creative, compliant, valid, perfectly accessible site. Will I? Time will tell I suppose. At this point in time I am afraid to change anything, as I said each time I touch it................ker blamo. (That's a made up word, btw.)
QUESTION: What was the "dumbest" question you've ever asked concerning website design or implementation?
Answer: duh, You could have a go at reading my initial statcounter forums posts. If that link does not work try here. I honestly can't think of one, but I am sure absolutely that there are gazillions of them. If only one stupid or dumb question were left in the world to ask, it would be me who asked it. And then I would expect a clear and concise explanation and example of the answer. This is why so often when someone asks a coding question, I just borrow their entire page and attempt a fix. I cannot fathom a solution until I've waded up to my neck in it. Some would call this learning the hard way. It would be heavenly if once I learned a concept if I would retain it as well. But I don't, so I have to re experience the same frustrations each and every time.
QUESTION: Sharron, what would you say was the most difficult part of building your site and What would you say was the easiest?
Answer: The hardest part is being consistent in theme and design. Picking and choosing what to do or not to do. Content is awful, I've not a clue and I think I beat that horse in a previous question. I want someone else to do that for me! Write the content, not beat the horse.
QUESTION: What advice would you give to anyone about to make their very first web site?
Answer: Get Topstyle Pro! It literally saved my unaccustomed to CSS/HTML, sliced and diced FrontPage dependant butt. In my opinion it is the best compilation of WYSIWYG and Notepad. It has tidy built in, CSS Validation built in. Html Validation built right in.
QUESTION: Now a question from John Allen. "I know you did graphic design before you got into web design. What is the biggest difference between traditional graphic design and web design? And, what was the hardest thing to understand about that difference?"
I found this, one of my early attempts at animation. I wanted desperately to share it with you! What do you think?
Answer: lol, John good question. You've confused me though. I will have to read this question a couple of times before I answer. I will be back!............
LATER: John firstly let me say, I would not know traditional graphic design from any other kind.
Yes it is true, I've done graphic design in the past. But it was not by design or plan or qualification, I just sort of fell into it. I had and eye for color and spatial relationships and someone had a need for those abilities. I started amazingly enough doing newspaper ad layouts.
I'm sure there are many technical differences between print work and web work, but other then the basics I couldn't tell ya. One that works in one instance won't by default work in the other. My simple idea is start big for printing. You can always convert down for the web.
It is all hard to understand and I don't. I relied quite a bit on the experts to tell me what they needed from me to get the product and end result I wanted. If they said 300 dpi, tiff file format, that is what I did. If I wanted something, and they told me no, well then you can imagine. A detailed explanation of why not, still resulted in my getting what I wanted. Just because someone says, hey that is wrong, does not make it so.
QUESTION: We would like to know, what was your most glorious moment as it relates to your web site(s)? And if you can, what was the most disastrous moment?
Answer: The most glorious? hmmmmm, going live and getting good feed back. That was pretty exciting. Getting on the Silktide, the top 20 list was pretty nice. Seeing the pages on search results was also way too cool. The absolute, no doubt about it MOST excellent result of having built a web site, would be the friends and relationships around the globe that resulted from it's creation and my participation in the world wide web. If I had not moved forward with building a site, I'd not be where I am, which is in the midst of a great school of fishes. Although different, we all have the web in common.
Disasters: I have mini disasters each and every time I touch it! The biggest near miss was the time I thought I had deleted my public folder from the server! Just today I discovered that all my right side hovers were not working in IE, I was absolutely ready to scrap the whole she bang. I'm positive that the glorious moments out number the disasters, but I tend to remember harsh lessons more.
QUESTION: How do you balance your web building time and your real life time?
Answer: I don't. Simple enough. I am up all hours of the night and day, good thing I am on dialup. I can sweep and mop a floor while I wait. I have had to relax my acceptable clean house standards. My poor husband, he is so patient.
Real life? That is an interesting question. As it pertains to me, this is my real life, today anyway. I suppose over time that will change. I have to consistently suspend my typing and concentration to dispense hugs and kisses to Madelyn. Case is point, I just had to brush a mop of hair and adjust a wayward headband. Sigh............ of course I'm always happy to tell her that I love her.
QUESTION: You spend a great deal of time with your granddaughter Madelyn. If you could only impart one of life's lessons on her, what would you want it to be?
Answer: I would instill in her an unshakable sense of self worth and confidence, tempered of course with humility and compassion.
QUESTION: This next question is from John (JWJ). "Whether you're taking a 'snap' of the wild flowers in your front yard or of your granddaughter putting on her make-up, there is always a very professional quality to your photo's. Is photography another of your many passions or is it just a means to an end?
Answer: John or more affectingly known as JWJ, it is always pure out and out luck of the shutter snap. Digital camera's certainly allow a certain amount of ignorance. You've no need of knowledge of f-stops, nor do you need to consider depth of fields, shutter speed etc. I don't consider myself a photographer. Although I am always the one relegated to taking photographs at events. John, I can't recall anytime lately being passionate about anything other then Popsicles, coffee, the front porch swing and sleep.
QUESTION: What are your dreams and aspirations? They don't have to relate to your website.
Answer: My dreams and aspirations, that is a question I ask others, not one I would ask myself. I've no other aspirations then to have had positive affect on at least one person's life. To be remembered for having done something kind and thoughtful for someone else. Much like your recent remembrances of Mr. "Bill Feine". I suppose it wouldn't hurt to admit to having latent aspirations of becoming a world renowned writer, artist and stand up comedian. Quite the combination don't you think.
QUESTION: China Tea asks "You have so much to give to forumers who need help in the creative area of site building. Are your creative juices spurred by an urge to create OR simply by a desire to help?"
Answer: China, you are so perceptive. Those two things for me go hand in hand. I need to be needed and I like to help. Certainly there are those better equipped to offer up "stuff", but I like to offer what I can. Does that make sense? If not then I don't know how to effectively answer this question. A simple explanation would be, "I can, therefore I do." However, if an inner vision does not hit me, then forget it. If I don't see it, don't feel it, then I can't do it.
QUESTION: Please tell us how you feel about following the W3C validation recommendations?
Answer: Oh my, as if I have a "real" opinion to offer up. I suppose my feelings today are that if I can follow W3C validation recommendations then I will. Why not, anyone can. It is not that hard. There is a need for consistency and order.
If you can validate your pages then by all means make every effort to do so, if you don't care, then don't. I will say that I take a certain (great) amount of pride that my site does validate, or the last time I checked it did! I am tenacious by nature, and will battle the beast until one or the other is down for the count. I will not rest until it validates! Don't tell anyone, but at one time I had to surrender to a error just to get the page for a client to do what I wanted it to, but never for my own stuff. Even warnings have to go, off with their heads. (ah, I turn a blind eye to the CSS warnings! those don't bother me.)
QUESTION: How much attention do you feel should be paid to web standards and accessibility issues?
Answer: Oh sore subject for me. On my quest to adhere to accessibility standards I've discovered that there are several levels of acceptable adherence. To pass the tests you should do this, then when you do that, it is no that is not necessary and silly, don't do that. As a result I removed said odorous fixes and now the site does not pass the tests. I guess I could take comfort in knowing I could pass the tests if I wanted to be redundant and stupid.
As a result I am as confused as ever and I surrender. I've not yet determined just who is the actual true authority on the subject and if their recommendations will be the same today as they were yesterday.
QUESTION: Ken asks, "Given the huge success of these interviews, which person in the world, past, present or future, would you most like to interview, and why?"
Answer: Huge success? Thanks for that, makes me smile. Ken, I've no idea who that person might be. I suppose if I had to pick someone associated with webiness, then I would be thrilled with Eric Myers or hey how about Matt Cutts or any of the web designing Sharks. But my fingers would be stuttering with the effort to appear learned. They would have to accept the fact that I am a fair to middlin fish in a small pond and hard pressed to ask a single authoritative question. Better would be a joint effort, much like this one. Many asking a few pertinent questions.
If my choice were not limited by association to the web, as the current interviews are, I would choose to interview my grandmothers! They were gone before I could truly appreciate them and their histories.
QUESTION: Of all the web sites you've ever seen, which one do you most wish you had built, and why?
Answer: It would have been nice to have been the originator of "that site that handles auctions" or the other one whose name rhymes with "yohoo". After all they are now pretty well set for life, the creator's genius is utilized by millions on a daily basis. Their contributions to the web have been stupendous. That sort of legacy would be nice. I think I've mentioned before that I don't get to surf very often, and as a result I don't have a vast ready made reference to recall. But that one (yes, I can't recall it's name) that showcased designer's beautiful CSS works of art. Minutes later: I had to google it. Take note of my search term! #5 Results 1 - 10 of about 851,000,000 for css
Why those? It should be obvious! lol
QUESTION: Here's a question from Arlens. "If you had your life to live over again what would you do differently"?
Answer: I would choose (if I had a choice) to be an over comer and a live a life filled with boundless JOY and WONDERMENT.
QUESTION: Is there a question you would have liked us to ask but didn't? If so please elaborate.
Answer: I suppose someone could have ask me what would I consider my most redeeming and most damning characteristics. I would have said that I consider my best trait would be my dogged sense of determination. My most damning, would be my inability to over come self inflicted limitations. Thank God ya'll limited yourselves to 23 questions! Certain questions although good questions were difficult to answer.
QUESTION: How do you feel about this interview and what has it been like seeing things from the other side of the fence?
Another early animation.
Answer: I hate to admit it, but I'd rather be on the other side of the fence! I also don't think the questions presented to the first 9 interviewee's were quite this hard. lol My mind is a complete and utter blank. I have come to the conclusion that I do not function well in this capacity. Nope not at all. My poor ole head is spinning, my spectacles are sliding down bridge of my nose and my sleep center is demanding attention. Pray, release me from this torment that I may live another day! lol Actually it could be considered to have been quite pleasant. If you believe that, then as they say I have a bridge you might be interested in! ah only joking.
Thanks everyone for participating. It's been swell. Sharron
Note from JWJ- Interviewer and collator of questions: Thank you Sharron for letting us turn tables on you. You said "I would love to be able to show the world a wonderful, creative, compliant, valid, perfectly accessible site". In our opinion, you already do. You are an inspiration to all of us who wish to do the best we possibly can with our web sites, and we very much appreciate having this small glimpse into what makes you tick.
