But first, my entry was the smallest size! I’d say I’m proud of that.

Most of the things I knew would be on there. Like, late, not working in safari, bad border on ratings, bad text-resizing, css not validating because of font instead of font-family(stupid mistake), basic browser inconsistencies, and hard to read code. ugh…thanks for pointing those out guys.

Some pluses that were given to my attempt, were much appreciated. Like, my use of tables(I used them for showing data, not layout), my integration of a print stylesheet, attempt at drop shadow on border of table, good use of header tags(h1, h3), and use of ems for font-size. I’m glad the judges paid so close attention to the details.

It was mentioned by one of the judges that the site didn’t work on the iPhone. That made me laugh. Now if only I had the money to buy an iPhone. But he did say that they were not judging the way it looked on the iPhone. Which I am glad they didn’t.

Well, after reading what they had to say, I had to take a step back and figure out why those things happened. And the first thing that came to mind was time. These competitions are becoming harder for me because of that. I love the challenge, but it’s so hard to take an entire day(usually a weekday) and make a website. I guess I want to be with my wife more than I want to spend my day doing this. (she doesn’t usually want me to spend my entire Saturday coding when I do that all day during the week)

I get so passionate when I am coding css. I love it. The diversity, the challenge, the unique ideas, the pain, and the attempt at perfection. I can’t help but enjoy every minute of it. This is what I love, and I think that’s weird.

Well if you want to see my entry, you can check it out here. Check it out, and look for to my next entry.

Convert a .psd into HTML making use of web standards, in 24 hours or less.
excerpt from CSS Off

So I entered their first contest and thought I did extremely well. Here was my entry. I didn’t win, but I thought that their feedback was very helpful and valid. All in all it was a great experience.

So I wanted to enter the next one, but I wasn’t until this month. I woke up yesterday and realized that the contest had started. So I began. I didn’t feel at all like I came near to completion, and I think that my entry was late (so it won’t count…argh!).

This is what is what they gave us to work with, and what it was supposed to be based on. We had some liberty to be creative with it.

But here are some things I’ve learned from this experience, and thought I would share.

1. Allow more time for looking over everything before you submit your files. I didn’t give myself room to breath. So in the end I forgot…
   That I needed to zip the files, to code correct ratings(actual stars, not a fake image), and verify my XHTML and CSS. Luckily my XHTML was fine, but I made a stupid mistake with my CSS. I used ‘font’ instead of ‘font-family’…ugh, a stupid mistake.
2. Don’t stress so much over the details
   I tend to be a perfectionist when it comes to .psd comps and css. I want everything to look exactly the same. But I am starting to realize that I am killing myself every time I try and do that. Hopefully I can learn to find some balance.
3. Lastly, know your limits.
   One of the challenges of this contest was that the footer design was left out of the comp. (argh!) So to say the least I was frustrated. I don’t always have a design touch, especially for someone else’s design. So to take it and make a footer for it was very difficult for me. I worked way to long on different variations, and wasted valuable time, that could have been spent verifying code, etc. So, in retrospect I will try and do my best, but I must know my limits and where to stop trying different ways over and over and over. (I think I shot myself in the foot trying to many ways)

So, here is the site I submitted. If you think it rocks, tell me! If you think it sucks, tell me! I wore myself out doing it, and probably won’t do the next unless I have more time in the day. Thanks CSS Off for the opportunity, and I hope my entry is at least looked at…