1. I’m not practicing my Chinese lessons enough. (Not even consistently.)
   
   
2. I managed to make time to swim a few days a week with Charlie, as some kind of exercise. Twice last week (could have been more if Charlie and I didn’t get sick), but I’m targeting at least three days of swimming this week.
   
   
3. That said, I gained a bit of weight and it’s probably fat because it’s not as if I’ve been exercising enough to gain some muscle. LOL.
   
   
4. I learned that sometimes it can even take 295 days before a hobby becomes a person’s normal routine, and I’m hoping it doesn’t take that long for swimming to be part of my normal routine. 
   
   
5. I’m getting used to cold water. It’s pleasantly surprising. 
   
   
6. All I’m left to balance is reviewing my Chinese lessons every day, plus a side-job. Work + study + cleaning dishes every day should be manageable, because god knows how parents out there manage to raise kids and pay for the bills and shit. 
   
   
7. Sleeping and reading on weekends seem to give my brain a break. 
   
   
8. Life is good.

Since I’m using Foundation 4 for Save22, and they’ve pulled the plug on IE8 (and lower) support, here are some incredibly useful codes on Git that you’ll probably need if you want it to work properly in IE. 

Just note that without these fixes, IE8 will render the website’s mobile layout instead of the desktop layout. 

Grid fix - https://gist.github.com/zurbchris/5068210 

Use the desktop header instead of the mobile version - https://gist.github.com/tmayr/5190565

Trying to make Sections / Tabs work in a specific way on IE8, desktop - https://github.com/zurb/foundation/issues/2031 

This is a quickly-gathered list of topics and links to give a simple overview and some foundation of design. I originally shared this with my teammates, but I’m putting it here for anyone who might want to check the list out.

(This may not be the best list out there, but it is a quick overview or summary, if you wish, with the goal of pointing people towards the right direction.)

Design Basics

Intro to learning design - http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/learning-when-overwhelmed/

Design - Visual and interactive communication 

http://nwrain.net/~tersiisky/design/design.html

Visual design elements

 1. line

 2. shape

 3. color

a. hue - pure state (red/blue/green, etc.)

b. value - lightness or darkness

c. saturation - (intensity or chroma) brightness or dullness

- saturation levels for screen and print are different. i.e. what looks bright on Photoshop may not print at the same level of brightness

 4. value (relative lightness or darkness) - adds volume, feeling, creates mood

 5. texture - surface quality, roughness or smoothness

Design principles

 1. unity

 2. variety

 3. emphasis

 4. balance

 5. scale

http://www.auburn.k12.ca.us/ev-cain/Teachers/Sarradet/Presentations/Art%20Principles.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/mindartpower/principles-of-design-nf

http://markwmcginnis.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/design-the-parts-and-the-whole-chapter-11-unity-and-variety/

Gestalt theory

 1. closure

 2. continuance

 3. similarity

 4. proximity

 5. alignment

(Read all here: http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/gestalt.html)

White Space

http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/whitespace/

http://boagworld.com/design/why-whitespace-matters/

Typography

http://ilovetypography.com/2008/04/04/on-choosing-type/

http://markboulton.co.uk/journal/five-simple-steps-to-better-typography-part-5

Grid systems

http://www.markboulton.co.uk/journal/five-simple-steps-to-designing-grid-systems-part-1

Aesthetics

http://www.vanseodesign.com/web-design/meaningful-design-aesthetics/

http://www.interaction-design.org/printerfriendly/encyclopedia/visual_aesthetics.html

http://www1.coe.neu.edu/~yilin/IE7315_2010/Paper%20Review%20Schedule/Design%20aesthetics%20principles%20of%20pleasure%20in%20design.pdf

Book: Why we love to hate everyday things

phew, that was a long title. But it took me a while to figure out too. basically, I was working on creating a grid with list elements having the same height. I had done this before on Save22’s older version, and had made a function for it: 

  function same_height(container) {
            var items_height = [];

            $(container).each(function() { 
                items_height.push($(this).outerHeight());
            });

            var tallest_content = Math.max.apply( null, items_height );
            
            $(container).each(function(){
                var item_height = $(this).parent().height();
                $(this).css('height', tallest_content);
            });

        }
        
same_height('ul#cat-list li');
        

I’m using Foundation 4 for this project, and I initially put the grid behind a hidden Section tab. 

The jQuery code wasn’t working. For hours I couldn’t figure out why, until Mark asked the right question: “is it initially hidden?” and pointed me to a fix someone had made: 

https://coderwall.com/p/r855xw

Although I think it means I have to integrate the jQuery with the Section JS of Foundation if I want to keep it hidden, or code my own tabbed fix for this. It just meant: it wasn’t fast enough for me to implement via just the framework + my own code, as I had originally thought. But because I learned of the actual problem later in the day, I already created a different design compromise wherein I made the grid visible already, instead of being hidden. 

I’ll see if I have time to make a real fix for this, since there are other pages/components I think I need to finish first.