Category Archives: Projects

Parker Anderson

The Power of Parker

About Me, Projects, Thoughts

How one little boy changed my life, forever.

It was the classic superhero story. Someone with a dual identity – one part regular ol’ human, one part phenomenal powers to defeat evils before anyone even knew they existed. This superhero was Parker — regular ol’ human who had the super-power of helping people to appreciate their life and to learn to love and be compassionate, even when it seemed impossible.

Parker came to my attention when a video was released on YouTube by Ward Bingham, a great man who created a great idea called “Mondonation.” The video was a beautiful fund raising idea that launched a great big huge deal within the fan community of Smallville. Ward and Kendra Voth, of Girls by Design, asked Allison Mack and Kristin Kreuk, actresses on Smallville, to donate their autographs to a special fundraiser to help a kid celebrate what was supposed to be his last Christmas. As you can see in this video, the contest called for the contestants to upload videos describing why he or she believes in Superheroes. The entry fee was $10.00, but there was no formal internet-ey way to collect the entry fee. This is where I got involved. I had a paypal account that was primarily used to support fundraising efforts for a fansite I created as a senior project for university. This fansite was built for a wonderful community of people who all had one thing in common, an appreciation for the actress Allison Mack. Each year, for  her birthday, we would collect a donated amount of money and send it in to a charity on her behalf. For the most part, these charities involved something to do with working with children. This time, I volunteered my paypal account to collect entry fees on videos to give to one child. It was definitely different.

This fundraising event changed so many things about both my experience as a human and my experience within our community of “fans.”

After I donated the use of my PayPal account to collect funds, another generous person offered to pay each videos entry fee, allowing for anyone to create a video and upload it. In addition to that, another generous person offered to match the entry fee and add 5.00 for each video. Because of these generous and amazing people, more than 30 videos were uploaded to support this cause. Some people didn’t even upload a video but instead, donated money to the cause. The donations came from fans and professionals within the entertainment industry, alike, and it was truly an amazing display of humanity when, on the deadline day when the video challenge was completed, we had nearly 5,000 dollars in donations to send to Parker’s mother for his last Christmas.

This experience was the beginning of a transformation within me. Not only had I been able to be involved in such a beautiful idea, but I was also able to reach out to people far beyond my previous gateway and make connections with some of the most amazing people in the whole world, today. It was through this experience that I was privileged enough to become friends with Allison Mack, herself, and work closely with her on her website and on both her goals and my own ambitions. I was able to meet and work with Kristin and Kendra, as we developed the original ideas for “Girls by Design” website.  I was able to meet and befriend Ward, and several other people who would later play major roles in my self-awareness and path to build a more compassionate and consistent me.

It was this one experience with this one boy that shed light on my own sense of purpose and presence of mind, for me to be able to lift myself up by the boot straps and walk into life, head held high, ready to love the hell out of anything that came my way.

I also was privileged to spend some time with Parker, before his human side with his human weaknesses failed. Parker knew himself and he knew what he wanted. He wasn’t afraid to ask for it, and he wasn’t about to take “No” for an answer, either. This attitude on life was inspiring for me and helped set me in the direction I wanted to go in… a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to ask for help in getting there.

Parker enjoyed that Christmas. He enjoyed it so much that he decided he needed just one more Christmas before he had to go. Even though Parker is no longer with us, this experience will stay with me forever, and his life and his death will always be a lesson in humanity for me. The lesson was that there is no humanity if it doesn’t start from within. I must create the humanity in the world, and start it like a spark starts a forest fire. Eventually it catches on and I notice more and more and more of it. The Spark of Humanity is really a beautiful thing to watch spread throughout the globe. This experience with Parker was just that… a fast-moving forest fire of compassion and love for fellow humans.

It’s what I seek in this world. Love. Humanity. Expression.

I say, Bring it Sister.

NASA via Ron Garan/@Astro_Ron

Okay I’m just gonna give someone a free website idea…

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NASA via Ron Garan/@Astro_Ron

NASA via Ron Garan/@Astro_Ron

I wish that news sites were more like bug-tracking tickets. Let me explain. It is impossible, it seems, to be able to look up the effects of Hurricane-now-tropical-storm Irene on a more global picture. What is up with that? I want to see a news site that carries each and every news story all the way out until the story itself has been resolved. It should categorize the news in order of object levels of catastrophe or good news, and it should allow for people to mark as resolved once whatever the storyline has been resolved. Maybe that’s never, but at least we’d know. I want to see it happen with all news, from the little boy who got lost to disaster striking. I’d like to then see each news story show a #tag any time.

We’re in the age of curation, yet finding out news after the American people have forgotten about it and it’s not selling papers any more has been an excruciating process. If I want to know about Bennington, Vermont, even though our local paper reported on Bennington in the initial details of the hurricane, I have to track that news story down. Surely, with all of the tagging being done and our keyword engines, someone can build a smart auto-generating news feed that automatically creates stories when I new story hits and then any additional information about that story gets added on as a new section near the top.

I foresee this being a global tool that newspaper websites can utilize and use the #tagnumber to help out the engine to grab the content. Curating news sites into a massively large news-site would be an amazing experience. If you then made that into a self-adjusting social network, someone could make big dollars.

Perhaps that’s already out there. If so, let me know so I can freaking USE it. I do not want to search across the web to find out what’s happening post-Irene. But I will, because it’s just that important to me. Also, where are the Katrina victims now? What is happening with the relief efforts there? Are they 100% restored? What’s happening with the 9/11 firefighters who aren’t invited to the memorial? Is there any social movement happening with that? Why can’t I easily find out this information in our day and age of technology.

Now, if someone takes my idea and runs with it, great, throw me a bone if you get rich. ;)

Going Grey!

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I read a newsletter today that warned website customers of “going grey.” Then she linked to a website of an example of both grey text and black text next to each other. Here’s the link to the examples: http://andesandassociates.com/Gray_Font_vs.html.

A person’s eye does a Funny Funny thing at times. When it sees a darker color next to a lighter color, depending on the shade, it’ll offset the lighter color to appear even lighter and the darker color to appear dominant. Which, black is dominant over grey, sure, but a better plan would have been to provide to different pages–one page with all black text and one page with all grey text.

I’ve maintained sites with thousands of users and trust me, I get complaints when the font contrast is too high. And then I get complaints when the font goes grey. Basically the point is, users will complain.

In looking at the example, it is rare that a skilled designer is going to go that light with their fonts–not on a white background. A more appropriate example of a color to choose would have likely been: #333333. It is more common to see the black font slightly offset. It breaks the contrast up a bit more so its not as sharp to the eye.

And on a black background, its not uncommon to use a slightly grey (more not-white than grey) color. No one’s going to choose the a grey color that’s too close to the actual website, unless its being placed in a non-important area primarily designed to attract robots.

If you really want to have a hard-to-read-site, however, go for it. Just provide a “print” css file so that the visitors who don’t leave your site and print it instead can actually read the text once printed.

NaNoWriMo Bandwagon

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Photo of a typewriter, cards, and a notebook

Photo by mpclemens

So, i’ve decided to get back into writing. Now, I’ve made this decision like, 17 times before, this year alone, so who knows if it’s really the really real decision or not. Regardless, I was reading on the Council of Elrond’s forum today and saw a thread about NaNoWriMo and since I already failed on NaBloPoMo, I figured I could redeem myself and write some extra words each day in a novel.

Now I just gotta come up with a storyline. And… time. *meak smile*

I’m so gonna fail this but I’m so gonna have fun failing!

several computers on a desk

So, you wanna start a website?

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several computers on a deskAlright, so you’ve been hearing about this thing called the “Internet” now for like, 10 years and you’ve even ventured onto Facebook, and although you still don’t quite get it, you have finally come to terms with the fact that… YOU NEED A WEBSITE. Now the question is, “What the heck? How do I do this?”

Perhaps you invest in a mac because you’re told you can do it yourself with their tool called iWeb. Or you’ve gone out and purchased Dreamweaver, because someone said that’s what you use. Okay, now what? You could sludge through tons and tons of online tutorials on how to use these tools, but most people who do eventually come to terms with the fact that… they need help.

So, where do you start?

Well, first of all, you probably know someone or know someone who knows someone who can do a website for a reasonable price. So, start trying to get into contact with whoever that person is. But when you finally DO have your meeting with that person, come prepared!

This post will give you a few questions and info to gather for your new website venture and your first meeting with your web person. I’ll be posting a series of blogs that will help you with the entire process over the next few weeks but for today we’ll just deal with the first meeting.

  1. What kind of business do you have? This is important because there are a set of specific pages that most web designers know should exist depending on what your website is trying to sell. For instance, if your business is a storefront where you sell designer boots, then your designer will need to know that you’ll need a shopping cart and all of the bells and whistles that go with this. If your business is selling your voice-over skills to the local studios, your designer will need to ensure that you have a voice-over portfolio page and possibly some special access to possible recruiters or employers. If you’re a novelist, there will need to be pages about your works and publications. I think you get the drift.
  2. Given no budget, what would you want your website to do in 10 years? No, I know that there probably IS a budget, but giving your web designer an overall perspective on what you’re eventually going to do with the website is helpful in planning. Now, you may not know and that’s okay. But do try to take at least 10 minutes to sit down and jot some ideas on what it COULD do. :) Trust me, you’ll really probably like the process.
  3. What do you expect this website to do for you? Make sure your developer/designer knows what you are expecting from the website. “I want 100,00 hits in two months” is an example of that. This helps the designer/developer know what they can provide for you on a more reality-based set of circumstances. For instance, if you are Julia Roberts, that may work. But if you are not someone of great fame already, the designer/developer can help you redirect goals to a more reasonable level and give you a good process in order to eventually get to that final goal.
  4. Why should anyone care? And of course, I mean this in the nicest way possible. Really, why are you unique. Why should anyone give a damn about your website? If you want to create just some store out on the internet, fine… a designer/developer would probably gladly except your money in exchange for another store out there. But its ALWAYS good to be UNIQUE in what you are bringing and to be clear about that uniqueness.
  5. What is your budget? Come on, now, this is a serious question. I’ve experienced a lot of people who like to keep that question vague to see what they can get out of me and its just a bit annoying. :) State the budget. Trust me, your developer can give you an accurate quote based on that. If you asked for a 10 page site and then you say your budget is 300.00, then your designer/developer can at least adjust and give you one kick-ass home page.
  6. When do you want this completed? DON’T leave this open-ended. Give a deadline. Give a deadline for the proposal and don’t be afraid to set reasonable consequences.
  7. What do you like on other websites and what do you hate? Give examples. VERY HELPFUL!
  8. How much time and resources will you want to commit to this new venture after its done? Your team will want to know this in order to quote out the possibility of an admin-able website to enable you to change your own content, or they may not if you don’t intend on spending your time doing this. In my experience, paying more money upfront to get the admin-able stuff is always the best bet because otherwise you’ll be paying here and there for things that eventually add up.
  9. Who is your target market? Type (Businesses or consumers?), ages, gender, etc. If you’re a website for elderly people, for instance, you will want to make sure your site accomodates larger texts. If you’re a website for teen girls, you’ll probably be looking for a more vibrant and hip look and feel to it.

This just about covers the info you should bring on your first meeting. Next, we’ll go over more specifics about budgeting and maintenance.

Magento Geek Post!

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So, I am a sucker for Magento Commerce software. In the past it has been a real bitch to install though, and has eaten up plenty of my time. I’m also one of the dorks who get yelled at a lot because…. wellllll… I LIKE dreamhost! I think, so far, it has worked well with my needs. I’ve been a customer with them for several years, and have no complaints yet really.

Anyway, In the past, it’s been hour after hour of trying to get Magento to install on dreamhost for my own nefarious reasons. There was tears, there were swear words, there were furious posts on magento message boards and pleas to Dreamhost support. There was always success in the end, but at my expense… let me tell you!

Well! Cry no longer, my friends! I read the coolest tutorial and used the coolest instructions and was able to get my mom’s new online store to install within MINUTES. That’s ALMOST as fast as it takes to install wordpress.

Impressed!

Here’s the toot:
http://www.gimmesoda.com/installing-magento-commerce-on-dreamhost/

Learning ASP

About Me, Music, Projects, Thoughts, , , ,

I’ve been quiet for the last few weeks, haven’t I? I mean, I know I don’t post here very often, but I’ve been exceptionally quiet… even my twitter isn’t a-twittering…

It’s because I’ve joined the work-force. Yes, indeed. It’s a tough world out there!  We do what we need to do to survive. You know, I recently watched the movie, “Book of Eli,” and decided that I did NOT want to have to resort to eating… well… not chicken… in order to live. So, I went forth and begged… and found a job.

It wasn’t that hard, actually. I knew someone who knew someone… went and asked if they were looking to hire, and indeed they were. So I found myself suddenly in the midst of *achoo* a Windows developing environment, learning ASP and VB. It’s pretty dang cool. The most challenging aspect of it isn’t learning the new language… it’s re-learning windows. I have been a mac-user for so long now that even the silliest things in windows I’ve completely forgotten. So I feel like a bit of an idiot when it comes to IIS and registering DLLs and components and regedit… etc. But hey, it’s fun! And challenging! And Challenging is something I have been looking for!

What does this mean about Essence Interactive? Not much. See, if you haven’t noticed, I like to think that I can do it all. And usually I can! The most I can say is that there is now a queue of clients. If you want your site done by Essence Interactive, Inc, you will have to wait up to two weeks before it can begin, so please plan accordingly.

Essence interactive, Inc’s website is still in design phase. We’re trying to find that perfect “in yo’ face!” image that isn’t so much in yo’ face but is “AHA THIS IS THE BEST COMPANY FOR ME.”

I mean really, I’m only taking the full time job to support my habits over at essenceexpressions.com and comingoutsupport.com and also be able to continue servicing my lovely lovely clients the lovely lovely way I have been.

Two sites will get done by next weekend or else I will leave the industry forever… dorisegan.com and thefeijoosisters.com. These two had to take a pause in rendering due to my fulltime job schedule but i think I’ve got things to a regular schedule and will get them done this weekend! For Feijoosisters it’s almost all content that I’m waiting to do… so its just waiting on the data and it can be released. It’ll be the most beautiful dancer’s site ever! Doris Egan’s site is more tiny tweaks she wants and I shall give her!

Also in the queue is more work on issimo-usa.com, revolution mobility, kristin kreuk’s site will be getting an improvement, allison mack’s site will be pulling the wardrobe change trick as well. On top of that we’re doing some awesome additions to distinctivefabric.com making it easier for the clients to save their data and improving some functionality to the checkout procedures.

So, not much going on… just that. ;) Oh and also, personally my partner and I are moving to Albany (from Clifton Park) to be closer to the new job. Plus, we’re going to be working on a family soon and we’re gonna need more space! Helena and I decided to blog our adventures regarding the family, because there’s oh-so-much to share!

A’ight. My schedule for the new job is 7:00am to 3:30pm soooooo it’s about bedtime folks. Enjoy your week and I’ll check in with you all next week with the fresh launch of two sites!

PS It’s possible I’m singing on Valentines Day… not sure yet….

Thar she blows!

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At last, we’ve finally launched phase 1 of Kristin Kreuk’s first OFFICIAL site! Are we stoked? Yes. Are we glad its finally launched? Yes! Are we excited for the next phase? YES!

Right now its just a lil’ bit of info about Kristin but soon it will be ‘ze cool place to hang. Thanks to the amazing design from Cory and the steadfast and skillfully crafted programming from Chad, we’ve got a rockin’… or rather scrollin’ place to check out now. Our next phase implementation will begin VERY soon, so expect it out in early spring!

Click the image below to go see her site! Leave a comment with questions or anything regarding her website. I’ll see what I can answer!

Car Care

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So, living here in Upstate New York has its ups and downs, depending on the day. It’s not my favorite place that I’ve ever parked my car, but it’s where I’m at for now. My favorite part about being up here is that I have a plethora of friends here and that’s pretty amazing. My least favorite part, however, is the winter weather and all of the excess maintenance, car washes, pumping gas in the cold (brrrrr), refilling windshield wiper fluids, warming up the car ten minutes before you leave… hoping that your car doesn’t get stolen… etc.

Well, the good news for me, at least, is that I have a friend who runs a car-care service out here called “THE KAR-MA“. She does most of the above list… although most of the time it’s still me standing in the cold pumping gas (she’s done it for me a few times, though) or warming up my car.

There’s been quite a few things that I’ve chosen to use her services for. Like, if I hear a strange noise in my car, she will come out and drive it around and help diagnose it or get it into the shop. She’ll even drive it there herself. She takes my car every month and washes the salt and grime off of it and gives the inside a nice near-detailed cleaning. The best part about her services is that she responds fast and is incredibly reliable. She knows, for instance, that I have a crazy-ass fear of my tires popping and so if there’s anything going on with the rubber, she’ll get it taken care of right away… ooh that sounds kind of… clinically sexy!

Oh and she’s officially genderized my car… which I rarely ever take the time to do. “The Honda” is a “her.” Lovely!

Anyway, for anyone else in the upstate New York, her services are amazing. Her prices are fairly reasonable for a average household income and very reasonable if you are looking for a peaceful state of mind with regards to your car and spending time taking care of it when you could be raking in the dough.

Plus, I did her website for her and I’m really quite proud of the design and code! :)