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I know, you're probably saying enough already with the
background on the site. I already read the Who
Am I section and your intro on the homepage. Well, you're
right, and someday some of that stuff may go away and make you, the reader, a happier person. For now
I want to bother you more...just kidding - I kid because
I love. Below is my "site philosophy" of
sorts. If there is a such a thing, this is what I'm trying
to do with my site. If I were a company this would be my
"mission statement".
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Current and accurate information
I'll always try to keep up to date on
changes as often as I can in terms of events and daily life
such as new pictures, content and sections . I'm only one
person so from time to time I may miss something. I welcome
any email updates on something I should check out. I'll always
try to provide the most accurate information I can, from my
own experiences to basic facts. I welcome any emails offering corrections or more detailed information.
Personal point of view
Whenever possible I will give my point
of view on the information I provide. There are many sites
(not all of them!) which simply state the facts and I'm not
sure that's what everyone needs. I can always pick up a book
or go to the official tourist page to get the facts. Other
sites push their own agenda, always trying to sell you something
or someone's services, and thus lose significant credibility.
It ain't free to run a website in most cases and some balance
this quite well - check out Multimadrid.com!
Anything you can purchase or arrange through my site will
be something I am comfortable with, know and trust, and feel
is useful. I have some insight into how things work, and offering advice on the best
way to approach a different culture or a specific situation
is sometimes more helpful than anything you can buy. I think it's
important to read how someone reacts to visiting, living or
studying in Granada, Seville and Spain. That's what will happen to
you when you come here: you will react and interpret everything
during your visit because it's a direct experience for
you.
Type of content
I will try to provide as much visual content
as possible, but will also spare no space if I can explain
things with a little more of the written word. The web is
a visual experience but some topics will interest you more
and you'll want to read as much as you can about them. As
often as possible I'll also try to provide photos of the little
things so you can expect what to see when you get here. However,
you will see large chunks of text without a photo from time
to time. You will also see some larger photo sizes - both
in dimension and file size - in my albums because I hate to
trim down images when I can avoid doing so. Anything less
and I'd feel like I'm taking away too much from the experience.
I'll also try and keep on topic as often as possible. If you
want my advice on fashion or are looking for funny links and
pages you may want to look elsewhere.
Keep it simple
I try to adhere to a good deal of usability
standards when I'm able to. I use Dreamweaver for editing
and creating pages and whenever possible flat, static HTML
pages. I like to keep things as simple as possible, not only
because it is in keeping with my skill level, but also because
it let's me concentrate on investigating, writing and taking
pictures. Plain text is also better for those with disabilities
and I do want everyone to be able to enjoy the content of
my pages. Text also doesn't hurt
with the search engines out there. I love Flash but not for
my site and hey, it's another skill I'm lacking! But seriously,
I won't cram flash down your throat - if I plan to add it
some day you will always have a choice of viewing it and the
default will always be non-Flash. I know, maybe I'm just crazy
considering all the pages out there using it, but I'm not crazy about waiting for an advertisement about your page
to load either - I'm already there dammit! Finally, this page
is better viewed in Internet Explorer but I always try to
proof in Firefox as well. That doesn't mean it's
always going to be pretty in both - the folks at Microsoft
don't make it easy on people building web pages. While I plan
for 800x600 resolution I do not use this setting on my display,
so some things may look better if you adjust your settings
to 1024x768 (just a suggestion and not a necessity).
Answering your questions
Send
them to me! I love helping people out when I can. Sometimes
it may take a few days, other times a few minutes and other
times a few weeks. I don't charge anything and I am not the local tourist office. I am a human being and at times my life sucks and I don't feel like answering emails, or perhaps it is so good I am on vacation and don't feel like answering emails. But I will do my best to answer every question
you send my way. When I was searching for information before
my move it was difficult. So why get overly frustrated when
you can fire off an email. If I don't know the answer you
can then get frustrated or pick a forum from my travel
forums page.
Using my content
It's what I hope you'll do! You can always
copy bits of information from my page and paste it into a
word document or other form to take it on the road with you.
If I kept you from copying the information I'd be doing you
a disservice! So if you take some info I just ask you don't
use it on your site or for commercial purposes unless you
ask permission and offer a link back to my page. Please do
ask permission first, and don't just link. And absolutely
no use of inline image links - my server get's enough traffic,
thanks, and I don't feel like paying to serve up images for
your page (you know who you are out there, and do know I can
move the images in my directories every day if I have to!)
Nothing more, nothing less. All of the content is copyrighted
and I do have a lawyer out there somewhere but I'm a reasonable
fellow, most of the time...Anyway, copy and paste away for your personal use if
it helps you in your travels.
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