Archive for November, 2009

Spelling Words in Spanish

Monday, November 9th, 2009

This entry is part of a list of articles I wrote for a newsletter encouraging bilingual employees to embrace their knowledge of speaking Spanish. I found the articles while going through my old files, so I wanted to share them in this format.

In the U.S., a 14 year-old boy from Indiana won the National Spelling Bee. He correctly spelled the word AUTOCHTHONOUS. It means ‘native to a land’ or ‘indigenous,’ and in Spanish the word is ‘autóctono.’

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Hablando del Internet

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

This entry is part of a list of articles I wrote for a newsletter encouraging bilingual employees to embrace their knowledge of speaking Spanish. I found the articles while going through my old files, so I wanted to share them in this format.

Does it seem to you that there are hardly any terms in Spanish for the Internet? To attempt an answer, we have to review a brief history of the Internet.

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A Diverse Spanish Language

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

The next few entries are articles I wrote for a newsletter encouraging bilingual employees to embrace their knowledge of speaking Spanish. I found the articles while going through my old files, so I wanted to share them in this format.

Have you heard? Spanish is the second most widely spoken language on the planet (according to population)! Ethnologue, a research company that dedicates itself to the study of the wold’s languages, states that there are 332 million Spanish speakers.

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Working on my resume

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

So I have been looking for a steady 40-hour-a-week job, but given the economy I have not had much luck. And I had spent a lot of time on my résumé’s layout, font selection, colors, length, etc. I was very careful, and being the analytical fool that I am, I also wanted to see my information in a visual way. That’s when I found Wordle!

A visual representation of words. Or, as it says on the website, it is “a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide.”

Wordle: LuisGarciaJr Resume (more…)

The 5D Methodology

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

The previous articles were about the process I take to work on creating web sites (or almost any creative endeavor, I think). It’s important to have a process while always keeping in mind that it should not be a rigid structure. For clarity, I named the five steps to explain the flow of my work. However, I find myself floating in and out of each of the five steps. It is an intertwined cycle that keeps turning to help fine tune your work.

The 5D Methodology Cycle

The 5D Methodology Cycle

In fact, I discovered that I have actually re-created those five steps from a methodology I learned while working as a business analyst. The process or the idea of it clicked so well with me that I hadn’t realized how much I incorporated into my own work. From academic research to corporate presentations, I started adapting that corporate methodology into my own steps.

These are the tenets of the 5D Methodology (paired with my own “label” for the process):

  1. Define = gather information: learn as much as you can about the project and deliverables
  2. Discover = get inspired: look to other sites, books, images, or listen to music, or draw!
  3. Design = begin designing: sketch as much as you can then mock up as much as you can
  4. Develop = code the monster: lots o’ coffee and typing away at the laptop “ivories”
  5. Deploy = upload to the server: work the magic!

Now software development, I understand, has several methodologies that fit a general pattern. Some are FOUR Ds, some are FIVE Ds, some are agile, some are not… but they all are a basic structure to create a work. Each person adapts a plan of action for his or her work; thus, each working environment employs an action plan that works for the team.

For me, this method works well whether I’m doing a web site, creating a dance choreography, or working on an art project.

1. Information
2. Inspiration
3. Design
4. Coding
5. Upload