meJoe.com

My sister is putting on a performance for Mother’s Day in May.  See the Alamo Arts Spring 2007 Performance flier.

She appeared on the front page of the metro section!

I had the best time yesterday handing my daughter the front page of the San Antonio Express News for Monday, October 10, 2005. I can imagine that the moment was very surreal for her. She knows that many people read newspapers and was excited to know that she was in it.

The article was about the Dia De Espana, an event hosted by the Casa de Espana and held downtown at the San Fernando Cathedral. Cecilia was dancing with her flamenco group, Academia de Arte Flamenco.

Hurricane Rita information at UTSA.

Just posted some modifications to our Hurricane Information site. I don’t think the weather has ever had us so busy here in UTSA Communications. I’m glad to help though.

… just been very busy.

I started Graduate school this summer at UTSA in the Management of Technology Program. Been great for in every way except for time. The reading load is like 300 times more than a typical undergrad workload.

I’ve also been working with an association called La Casa de España, a local non-profit cultural organization that works on bringing Spanish culture to San Antonio. Most of our work has been on a pretty nice Web site (see previous link), thanks mostly to our editor, Juan Carlos Moreno. He is a retired Spanish journalist whom worked with Swiss Info, a multilingual (try 9 languages) news organization as journalist, then talk radio host turned Web director (where he had great responsibility in pushing their Web site to it’s current state).

His ideas are great, and time consuming. I’m willing to follow his lead though as I learn some interesting takes from an older guy about how to deliver Web sites. This time has convinced me more and more that writers and editors make the best usability analysts/ information architects (don’t tell my designer friends!)

Just completed this Web site, which is all in Spanish.

Using a simple design and the dramatic contrast of black, red, yellow and white, I created this Web site for a San Antonio based cultural organization called La Casa de España in San Antonio(of which I’m a member).

Most encouraging is that my time from design to implementation on this project was about 7 hours. I had total authority however on the chosen design, didn’t have to consult with any comitees or other individuals. Amazing how quickly you can get something done when you don’t have to work through any hierarchies (and your not to particular about pleasing yourself).

I’m happy with the design, though wouldn’t mind reviewing some other methods for the management of the site. I typically use include files, but this time opted for all Dreamweaver templates. I’m starting to prefer this because of the flexibility associated with controlling the page. With include files, you really have to manage more files in a disparate system. With DM templates, you just pop in a new template and voila… same content, new design/site.

Dreamweaver has it’s drawbacks though. Sometimes the template updater can miss a page here and there. Worse though is the need to depend on Dreamweaver. It’s a large, clunky application that is not to conducive to updating when you are travelling around alot using different computers/devices for updating your site. I need some sort of news system or better yet, a shot at Moveable Type.