About This Site
More Summerhill Stuff Than You Ever Wanted to Know
How does a singer know so much about web site design?
People frequently ask me who developed my web site, and I have to muster up as much modesty as I can and quietly say "I did". I've found over the years that many musicians are also computer geeks so this "multitasking" isn't all that unusual. As it turned out, my desire to create a web site for my singing career launched my other vocation as a computer instructor. Here's how it happened.
In the beginning
In 1998 I had been singing out pretty regularly. My friend Micki Kephart began collecting email addresses from people who came to my shows, and each month, she would email my schedule to everyone on the list. Once in a while I'd be late, getting the next month's schedule to Micki, and people would say something about missing it. That let me know that people really were reading the email. So I thought it would be easier for everyone (especially Micki) if I came up with a web site and could just update the schedule in one place and everyone would have access to it. Besides, I've always been an avid writer, and when I get a bug up my butt, I can crank out some serious literary volumage. A web site would give me a place to post my ramblings for anyone who cared to read them.
I began developing my site as I do with everything, that is, I had no clue what I was doing. I bought a copy of Microsoft FrontPage and a tutorial book on how to use it and set off. I was horrified to learn right at the beginning, that you don't just throw together a web site like you do a word processing document. You have to have some way to edit photos and line art, you have to understand image compression, and you have to know how to use the program that brings all these elements together. For me, that program was FrontPage. After several weeks of studying, experimenting, and basically pulling my hair out, I'd have given anything to talk to someone who could help me understand some sticky points with the program.
It was about this time that Todd Freiz from Computer Learning Network in Altoona invited me to perform for his staff. He had charted the Proud Mary on Raystown Lake and hired me to entertain for a couple hours. I showed up at the picnic site they had commandeered for the day, and between mouthfuls of potato salad and bites of hot dog, I found a couple people who knew a lot about web site design. I must have asked the right questions, because they seemed to be impressed with my knowledge of the process (limited as it was at the time).
One thing led to another, and a couple weeks later, I was invited to go to work for CLN as a corporate trainer. I left my 10 year career in restaurant management behind, packed up my mental suitcase and sack-o-experience, and checked in at CLN where they were kind enough to give me time and support while I learned to teach all of the Microsoft Office programs. And teach I did.
Our corporate training department was quite busy. We had several full time instructors teaching classes every day. I learned much of what I know under fire, many times studying something new all night so I could teach it to a class the next day. It was at this point that my singing career and my computer knowledge dovetailed into two different businesses. In the years since, I have had to become an expert in many computer programs, and of all of those, my favorite is Adobe Photoshop.
Photoshop
For those who don't know, Adobe Photoshop is the de facto image editing software in the world. All of the graphics on this site were designed using this amazing program and the navigation mouseovers and animated gifs were designed using its sister program, Image Ready (which comes bundled with Photoshop).
Soon after I began teaching at CLN, the head of the training department asked me if I could teach a Photoshop class for some staff members at Penn State University. I had never used PS before, but felt confident that I could read a book on it over the weekend and teach the class the next week, like I had done with so many of the Microsoft Office programs. Boy, was I in for a shock.
I picked up a Photoshop instructional book and took it home over the weekend. On Monday morning, I arrived at the office with my tail between my legs and told my boss "Maybe you ought to give me six months or so on this one". I never did teach that particular class and I did spend the next six months learning the program. Eventually I felt confident enough to teach it, but most of the experience that led to that confidence came from experimenting with PS to develop my own Summerhill marketing materials.
Dreamweaver
After two years, I departed CLN for another teaching opportunity at South Hills School of Business and Technology where I discovered Macromedia (now Adobe) Dreamweaver. The school was just beginning to offer web design classes and Dreamweaver was a course they wanted to put on the bill. This was another program I couldn't pick up over the weekend, and by the time I learned to use it, the school had hired a real expert on the subject to teach it, but I at least was left with some new design tools. I liked DW so much I never went back to using FrontPage. This web site was put together entirely in Dreamweaver.
CSS
In February 2007 I began learning a new set of web development tools using cascading style sheets. I've spent countless hours pouring over manuals and how-to videos and have slowly begun to incorporate my new knowledge into the site. The page you're reading is an example of CSS as well as the newly designed schedule page. I'm hoping to have time this summer (2007) to completely redesign the site using CSS.
I'm so incredibly fortunate to have such a symbiosis between all of my passions, in that one thing so beautifully compliments all the others. Stay tuned. Good things are coming!