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Enjoy our first WordPress creation, our Bucket List plugin for WordPress!

As the happy owner of a long and healthy bucket list I often thought that having a beautiful and (mostly!) practical tool to manage it would be even more fun. So here it is, created by my friend Nico and my little self, the Bucket List plugin for WordPress, woohoo!

We both hope that you enjoy it as much as we do!

The Bucket List plugin for WordPress

Set your goals, change your life, realize your dreams and share the inspiration of your achievements! Bucket List lets you create, organize and beautifully show off all the goals you have in life.

• See a live example on my french blog Vie Nomade →
• Download the Bucket List plugin on WordPress.org website →

Features

Through an elegant and straight-forward administration interface, you can:

• Create as many goal categories and goals as you wish
• Smoothly organize, reorder and edit categories/goals without reload (AJAX)
• Mark a goal as achieved, and automatically register the date (you can as well modify the date)
• Link an achieved goal to an existing Post/Page in your blog
• Paste your Bucket List in any Post/Page using the [bucketlist] shortcode

Widget

We also included an optional widget that displays your latest achieved tasks. You can:

• Customize widget title (i.e. My Latest Achievements)
• Customize number of tasks displayed (5 by default)
• Set up a link to your complete Bucket List page (or any other page)
• Display or not the task category
• Display or not the date of achievement

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That’s it, I finally took the time to update my portfolio with my most recent (and also most decently ancient) photography works. I tried to make it shorter, straight to the point and to focus only on travel photography.

Browse the Galleries →

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Le chanteur Daniel Darc est décédé.
J’ai eu l’opportunité de le découvrir durant le Paléo Festival en 2008. Il m’avait laissé l’impression d’un personnage torturé, mais fascinant. Un petit hommage en photos…

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Travel is my source of inspiration. It’s not the travel per se, it’s rather the open-eyedness it forces you in. When you’re traveling in some place that is very different in many ways to what you’ve been used to, you’re subconsciously put in awareness.

I don’t know if it works the same for others, but for me one thing is sure, everything particular, new, strange, funny, etc, my eyes will catch and store.

As I started working on my new design (yes, this blue/yellow thing you’re looking at!) I was so convinced from the first draft: these were the colors I want in there, for sure. There were no questions, just this instinct even though I barely used this combination of colors before.

The Georgian Hotel, that probably and subconsciously inspired me.

The mistery of that instinct unveiled yesterday night, when during a walk in my new city, Los Angeles, I passed in front of a building that seemed familiar to me. The Georgian Hotel, in Santa Monica, facing the sea.

When I first saw it, about two weeks ago, I remembered standing in awe in front of it. So beautiful and special to my eyes!

From the bright colors that are not quite usual, to the retro art-nouveau adornments, the thin vegetal silhouettes of the palm trees and that glimpse of bright white light… My brain seems to have processed all the information and reinterpreted it somehow.

I think this is a good example of how inspiration can work. And how exposing yourself to new things, new combinations – can spark creativity.

I’ve not seen much yet of LA, but bits and pieces of novelty, collected here and there, already gave me several ideas. Here are some American snapshots.

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I created exiledesigns back in 2003, when I was still an art student. It was not my first domain: I had been online since 1998 using free services first, then my own hosted domain. That long ago, purchasing web space while I was just only a teenage student represented such an investment! Well worth it though, it was the birth of a passion.

Being connected is what I do with since 1998. I’m not really sure where it brought me to, but one thing is sure: I’ve been learning, a lot. Things have changed, shaped, evolved. Today, this virtual place is a glimpse of where I’m heading to, one pixel at a time. It’s an attempt to catch and stop a moment, and put it on display. Until the next fresh start.

There’s nothing more left of what I used to be in 1998: everything you see is a sequel way ahead in time. There’s not even anything left of what I was yesterday. Isn’t it crazy?

I like fresh starts and new adventures. I don’t mind putting the past behind. I’d rather keep it as a personal memory, a reminder of where I come from. What matter is now, isn’t it? Or rather, the next instant: yes, this one. And it’s gone already. Let’s make space for novelty.

Body cells replace themselves every month. Even at this very moment. Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.
- Haruki Murakami

I have been really glad to take part in this great initiative!
Check out the article I wrote about being yourself in your business approach:

Make a difference by being yourself →

The photographs showcased in this article are from the Library of Congress → gallery.

One of the thing I prefer doing during those days, is to look for the inspiraton of other artists. But there are so many amazing portfolios, galleries and journals that it can sometimes be frustrating if you loose yourself in that jungle!

I have decided to share with you some of my favorite photographic websites today (and I will mostly also share other type of artworks in the future) in order to offer you a guided road. The galleries you will see below are in no distinct order and subject (on purpose, difference stimulates). So relax, and enjoy the tour!

• Pawel Fabjanski
  Urban photography. Amazing contrasts and unusual concepts.
• The Library of Congress
  Vintage photography (and a ressource).
• Jack Radcliffe
  Black & White portraits, that tell real person history.
• 3191, a year of evenings
  “we are stephanie and mav. we live 3191 miles apart. we don’t stay up too late.”
  Every night, each one of them shoots a photo of something he’s living or watching.
• World Press Photos of the Year (2008)
  An interesting mix of events, portraits and research.
• Eric Ryan Anderson
  An interesting mix of portraits, travels and architecture. An eye for textures.

• Darren Holmes
  Dark moods and portraits. Strange muses and fine poetry.
• Photoshop Disasters
  This one is mostly fun: it highlights touch-up mistakes in magazines and avertisement.
• Catherine Chalmers
  How can an hoard of cockroaches and flies represent the human comedy? Catherine shows it. Bizarre and moving.
• Armed America
  Photographing American people in their homes and asking them “Why do you own a gun?”
• Marc Lagrange
  Vintage, pin-ups and portraits.
• Bart Pogoda
  I particularly enjoy the Reportage & Landscape photographs.

• Marc Riboud
  Historical photography (check out for the May ’68 gallery)
• Peter de Mulder
  Fashion photography (underwater fashion, too)
• Li Wei
  Bodies everywhere.
• Jan von Holleben
  Dreams of flying.
• The Big Picture
  News stories in photographs.
• Branislav Kropilak
  Particular perspectives and points of view.

• Mi-Zo
  Very particular fashion photography. Not your average details!
• Catherine’s Animals
  Animals on kitschy studio patterns. Lovely!
• Koen Demuynck
  Fun adevrtising photography with amazing atmospheres.
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging
  A collection of ressources by PSDtuts
• LSD Photographers
  You’ve got to love their still lifes!
• Shorpy
  The 100 year old photo blog (historical photos).
• The National Geographic’s Daily Dozen
  Here’s a nice collection of photos from all around the world (and you can contribute, too)
• Frozen Food
  The name says it all. Interesting textures and colors.
• Classics in Lego
  Some good old classics revisited. Original!
• Urban Exploration
  Discover forgotten and forbidden places, in HDR.

In this article, I’ll be speaking about my own experience, and then share some advices that I consider like useful for a first teaching experience.

Your first audience

As I said, it was my first experience. I never had a chance to previously confront / speak up in front of people as a professional (I took theater lessons, but that’s not the same audience, isn’t it?).

It is always challengy to fight up the stress of this “first time” especially when you are in a (quite) unknown environment.

Choosing the right technique

I remembered the good old days of tables. It was so easy to learn. You know, when we designers were completely unconscious of accessibility, standards. When we didn’t need to pay attention to several browsers, to use hacks, conditional comments, special techniques!

Good old days did I said? No, I didn’t mean it – I’m so glad of the “standards revolution”! Despite the fact it was an easier approach for webdesign-newbies, I just didn’t want to teach anyone an obsolete approach. So I took the challenge to teach them the right way. Which is way more abstract.

I mean, floats? Positioning? Inline/Block elements? Transforming inline to block, block to inline, ugh! Not so easy-to-grasp concepts!

The time factor

24 hours to teach anyone how to create a standards compliant website, from design to coding, is nearly impossible. Nearly! In fact they did it, they learnt in a record time how to create a little website with divs.

Of course you can’t expect their code to validate or be browser-bug-free, or their design to be in a kick-ass Web 2.0 style (that’s where experience comes in).

But being realistic, I had to provide them a tool from which they could then learn on their own.

The new environment

The environment was quite unknown for me. I knew a few teachers from that school (something like 2) and the rest was a big discovery. I had the chance to be well and warmly welcome by most of them, and this allowed me to meet new interesting people.

But this added to the difficulties! Not only was I learning how to teach in an immediate environment, I was also learning to know new persons, new jobs, news points of view.

That, maybe, would look like a simple and natural process, which it was, but the brain was so much sollicitated by all this new situations that I went home, at night, completely tired. I felt very good with myself (positive, I mean!) but just like I had a brainwash

Getting attention and estimating the knowledge

I had a lot of chance, the students were all eager to learn how to manage this new tool that would allow them to showcase their illustration work. I think the level of attention you get when teaching is really important and could demotivate you if you encouter no interest. This was fortunately not my case!

The knowledge is also something tricky. Again and fortunately, they had some Photoshop knowledge, but they hardly saw one line of code during their life so the approach wasn’t actually the same than teaching to a bunch of geeky informaticians

And here comes the close relationship between attention and knowledge ~ I’m pretty sure someone that really wants to learn is able to grasp quite anything. And this first experience confirmed it.

Technical difficulties

I have the habit of working on PC, with my PC software (i.e. Notepad ++) and I was confronted to a Mac when I arrived. I already worked (several years) on Mac but having to switch softwares, systems (and even networks) was pretty difficult and lead me to situation where I had to ask students “how to”!

Then, the network which wasn’t working correctly, didn’t allow me to share easily the dummy files I had prepared for analysis and experimentations… And also, the Web wasn’t working properly, and as incredible as it can sound, we basically learned how to create a website without having access to the Web!

Recommendations

What I would recommend for one’s first teaching experience:

1. Be prepared. I had a “dummy” student that heard my lessons, stopped me when I was telling something too abstract and making suggestions during the whole process. This really helped me a lot! It also confronted me to the need of structure. Creating a website implies so much little bits of knowledge! To teach them all properly you have to give them an order. And the first order you have in mind isn’t always the appropriate one.
2. Bring them some “cheat sheets”. Expecting your students to know each important HTML and CSS attribute in only 24 hours isn’t realistic. Bring tools that will help them during the process.
3. Be rested! This one is pretty important. If you’re tired, your stated of mind will probably not be encouraging for students to learn from you. If you’re rested and shiny, your will most probably send “good vibrations” for a warmer studying environment! Do not allow everyone to bother you the night before your first day ~ switch your phones and mails off.
4. Be consistent. Teach them by using real examples. Or you will quickly face the typical “but you said that…” followed by your answer “yes but that was meant to be as an example, in fact, it’s…” In such a little amount of time, you have to make sure every detail you say has an importance and can be used in a real context. Students will mostly take everything as necessary.
5. Be structured. If you switch to a subject from another, to then switch back again to the first one… you will most probably get everyone lost.
6. Take time to relax. As soon as you have a break, go outside or have a drink. If you focus on your learning non-stop, you will feel too much pression and this could lead to a burn-out. It is important to oxygen and distract your braincells properly
7. Ensure your tools will function correctly in your new environment. The best thing would be to prepare the classroom previous to the arrival of the students (which isn’t always possible). If you can, test the projections, the Internet connexion, your new softwares, the network… Those are really things that can make you loose a lot of time (and credibility, which is important to get attention).

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This nifty tool called Vischeck → simulates colorblind vision for your websites or images.

It currently doesn’t function 100% with complex CSS, but, at least, you can check if the contrast values you used for fonts and backgrounds are enough to be visible and readable by colorblind people.

One trick is to upload a screenshot of your website instead of using a direct link to it.

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Everything was just fine with the project I was working on: valid, correct and conform code, perfect display on Firefox and on Explorer. Yet one day, a client (using IE6, gasp!) asked me why the content had disappeared from the web pages.

I switched to IE6 in order to check it out, but nothing seemed wrong. After cleaning my cache several times… Booh ! The text and photos suddenly disappeared. Black magic? No, IE6.

Basically, IE6 has some kind of interpretations problems with floating divs included in liquid boxes. The bug can be easily fixed by applying a relative position to the parent div.

Learn more about the IE6 peek-a-boo bug →