Corne van Dooren - (Multimedia) Designer

March 28, 2007

Tomorrow is my last day at Andriessen and Partners BV. A much awaited day, yet also a dreaded day.

It is awaited because I am looking forward to my next challende (DHvV). It is dreaded because I will surely miss the great colleagues.

Looking back at my 1,5-year-spell at the company I have no regrets. Sure, the work sometimes wasn't what I had hoped it to be. But I did learn something at Andriessen and Partners. You always learn something from everything you do, I am a strong believer of that principle.

Looking back I also think I made some impact at the company. I will be the very first to admit that sometimes my work wasn't top quality, but I do think I have added a bit to the company and helped make it a little better.

A big thank you to the great colleagues who will be my former colleagues tomorrow 17:00. Thanks for 1,5 years of good fun.

All the best & take care.

March 24, 2007

Yeeha! This morning I have been on a slipcontrol-trip with work. Because a lot of people of the company have to travel, the boss decided to give everyone a slipcontrol course.

Really good fun and more importantly it offers better insight in what to do when you start slipping.

Really cool stuff. Now its time for the bad stuff... I've gotta take Nadine's iPod back to BCC and get the money back. At least, I hope they give us the money back. She has already bought a new MP3 Player (by Philips) that will hopefully work on my PC. Bloody-no-good iPod Shuffles...

Take care and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

March 22, 2007

I am so totally done with iPod Shuffle... Unless anyone out there has the solution?

Here's the thing. Nadine had bought an iPod Shuffle back in December. After one month it crashed. No problem right? Well, as it appears that just where our major problems began!

We've been back to the Mac-store 7 times over the past two months. We have been given 4 new iPod Shuffles because it did indeed crash. Today we've received another new iPod Shuffle. Guess what? It still doesn't work!

Either it crashes or does seem to work - but then doesn't work once its turned on. I'm totally done with the iPod Shuffle. Unless someone reading this message recognises the problem and can help out. If you have had the same problems, please contact me and help me out.

Ah, lets look at the bright side. Its almost weekend...

March 20, 2007

Hello again! I'm back from my short holiday in England. Me and the girlfriend have spend a few days in London before travelling to Fareham to stay with friends.

To be honest, London didn't make the impact it did when I was over there in 1996. I don't know why, but it looked better 10 years ago...

I practised my English because I didn't want to sound like a foreigner. Well... Most of the people in the hotel, restaurants and attractions were foreigners! So my English wasn't bad at all. I think we hardly met any real Brits in London.

Luckily Greg and Glaudia were gracious enough to let us stay at their place in Fareham. With them, we've been on a day to the Isle of Wight. For me Fareham and the Isle were more impressive than London. It was more country-side, more relaxed and real British.

I've added some photos on the website. Oh yeah, if you're planning on going to London - make sure to bring a full wallet, its bloody expensive. Five days England have cost me more as my two week holiday to Turkey later this year!

Ah well, its been good fun and I'd do it again anyday.

Take care!

March 12, 2007

Alright, its definate now so its time to spread the news (at least to all the faithful blog-readers). Just so we're done with my posts about the future. The future is here:

I have decided to continue my career at DHvV Interactive Lab.

In the end there were two great companies, two great offers. So after spending some time to think about what I wanted to do - the decision was finally made.

It was totally awesome though. After deciding to find a new job back in November it was difficult to get a foot in the door anywhere. These last weeks have been great, multiple offers were made.

I think I have made a wise decision and am truly motivated to make great stuff for my new employer. Its gonna rock.

You won't hear from me for about a week now. I'm off to London. London? Yes, London. You know: fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins... LONDON.

Take care.

March 11, 2007

I am now two weeks off from work. This is my last month at Andriessen & Partners and I am taking the annual leave that was still left on my contract.

I will use these two weeks wisely though! This Wednesday me and Nadine will travel to London.

After spending a few days in London we will travel to my friends Greg and Glaudia. We will return on Sunday from our short trip to the wonderful country that is England.

The second week I will try to get my act together when it comes to HTML, CSS and more. I will need to update my knowledge for my new career path, which will take permanent form before my trip to London! More soon...

After that second week I will go back to Andriessen & Partners for one final week. I'm glad my time there has come to an end. Don't get me wrong, its a great bunch of people and a solid company. Its just that both me and the company started working together with certain goals and we haven't met them. And we are unlikely to meet them sometime soon.

Having said that, it doesn't take away the fact that I will surely miss the great people over there. And I have absolutely no regrets about working at a great company with these tremendous colleagues!

Anyway, long story in short: my life will take a new direction April 1st and I am totally ready for it. The adrenaline is already pumping!

Talk soon. Take care.

March 10, 2007

Today I read somewhere that if you want to visit certain attractions in London you should book in advance. For instance, the London Eye.

If you are a little late, it may be sold out for the day. So today I have booked a ride on the London Eye for myself and Nadine.

I have since then been looking at photos of the attraction and the information that is available at Wikipedia. Bloody hell, the thing takes you to 135 metres in the sky! For half an hour! Goddamn... I'm afraid of height... Ah well, the positive is: I can only die once right?!

Bloody hell, what have I gotten myself into...

March 4, 2007

Another weekend gone. Is it just me or do weekends just become shorter every week?

Its been a busy weekend. I've been trying to get my taxes done, but it just wont work. I've moved in 2006 and the tax form software gives a major malfunction because of that!

So after trying to enter my taxes for a couple of weeks its time to give it up and call the tax people what to do next.

Fortunately there were also nice things about this weekend. I got to see the lunar eclipse. The coppery moon looked really impressive. I've continually looked at it from 22:30 - 01:45. It was totally worth not going to bed to see the lunar eclipse.

Me and Nadine have also visited relatives over the weekend. Always great fun to meet up with the family.

Tomorrow I start my last week at work before the break to London and Fareham. I hope the week goes as fast as the weekend has gone...
Take care.

March 1, 2007

Yesterday I received a very funny link from a colleague on Flash websites. Its a very funny piece by Jamie Huskisson called "21 ways to make your Flash based site suck".

Personally what I missed most about his list is the target audience - why does everyone always forget about the audience?!

Many of the points Jamie makes are very true. Mostly the part that there are in fact many bad Flash based websites. But then think of this: aren't there also loads of bad HTML based websites (like this one - you better not right-click/view source)?

But my main issue with the article is that is lacks to mention the target audience anywhere. The author writes the article using himself as target audience. But does the real audience of the website have his knowledge about Flash or websites?

Many corporate websites are still made in HTML for the simple reason that there is no need for Flash. The user (audience) is looking for information, which they can easily find. With Flash its easy to get lost in difficult menu's or the fact that the back button in the browser doesn't automatically work anymore.

You should never forget you are making the website for someone else. You are making it for your client's audience. The audience visits the website for a reason, use the method that best suits the need!

Don't get me wrong, I agree with Jamie that there are a lot of very bad Flash based websites around. But frankly, it doesn't matter what you think or what you use. As long as your audience finds what its looking for - use whatever you want. It'll work.

Take care.

Corne van Dooren, Multimedia Designer