Is it the office of Governor that causes this stuff or is it just that you’d have to be nuts to run for Governor?

Then little by little things started to go wrong. Stupid things at first. A meeting not going as smoothly as I’d hoped. A coding error that refused to be tracked down.

Then I heard some bad news about a friend, and some bad news about another friend.

Then one of my kids got sick. He’s ok now, but it was a long, rough night.

Today I’m tired. Today that coding bug is still annoying me. But today is better.

Read about it over at Pixel Currents.

The rain has been the big story, but it was sunny and warm as we made our way through the muddy trails to finally find a spot to stand at the 14th hole, where we watched, and waited, and watched, and waited. Finally Tiger came through, and we, along with at least 2/3 of the people around us, moved along. The rains were starting to return, so we just came home. Based on what I saw on tv later (rain rain rain, and lots of beer-soaked “fans”) I’m glad we did, but it was a been there, done that thing for me. Fortunately for Pat, who actually enjoys watching golf, he also had a couple tickets for today, so he and our oldest headed back out there for hopefully more golf (rain rain rain.)

There are rules when you attend a major golf event. No cameras, no cellphones. And they check. I think they hired off-duty TSA employees to handle security. So I had to leave my iPhone behind, and while I understand the reasons, I really missed having it with me. I’m so used to tossing off tweets and grabbing photos on the go that as we walked around I kept thinking what a great photo this or that would make. Not of the players so much, but the people were a great side-show. Especially the shoes. I saw the cutest rain boots on some of the women. Knee high flowery boots, and little clear booties with funky designs. Of course there were mostly sneakers and the occasional flipflop (I’m pretty sure that was a regrettable choice.)

As we were leaving and the rain was starting to come down rest of the rain gear began to come out. Gone are the days of clear or yellow ponchos and black or red & white striped umbrellas. The sidelines grew more colorful as the sky grew more gray. Would have loved to take some shots!

Like I said, I get the reasons for no cells or cameras. I imagine a sideline full of idiots not turning off their flashes, or even worse grabbing calls loudly as a player tees off would ruin golf for both the players and the fans. It’s just too bad such a great photo opp exists only in my head.

So I’ve been trying to get to my desk as early as possible each day. I’ve tried a couple times to actually get out of bed earlier (typically I’m up by 7:30am on days I don’t need to wrassle a kid onto a bus) but the old night-owl in me can’t get the hang of an earlier bedtime and I need my beauty rest. The days I get going by 8am seem to be the most productive, so that’s what I’m shooting for.

For awhile I tried to schedule my days, work time, play time, learning time, family time. This does NOT work for me. On the days where I just let myself wander from task to task I seem to end up with more done. Take today, for example. I was at my computer by 7:30 or so. I read through and responded where necessary to the few emails that arrived overnight (because I was working late last night there weren’t many) and did a couple little coding bits for clients. I hopped on Facebook where I saw I was tagged in a photo from this past weekend, so I decided to go through my own photos and upload the ones I want to share. Meanwhile I have Twitter running so I’ve been chatting on and off with people there. Oh, and I just quickly scanned a training video which I’ll watch more in depth later.

Also I folded some laundry I washed yesterday.

Three hours later I’m writing a post to my blog, something I haven’t done often enough recently. When I’m done I’ll jump in the shower and head off to run some errands, knowing that I’m on top of what I need to be on top of. I’ll hop back on later this afternoon and take care of anything that’s cropped up. Now, today is little different because I’m in a holding pattern waiting for feedback from a lot of people, so I didn’t have any big blocks of work to do (that could change by this afternoon) but even when I do have a lot to do, doing it in spurts, following the shiny every once in awhile, then going back to work, seems to suit me best.

So I’m figuring out what works for me. Of course, I have the lovely freedom to schedule myself. I’ve always chafed at having to work within someone else’s time frame, but I hadn’t realized that it was the time frame itself, vs the someone else, that was getting in the way. Now that I understand, it’s actually easier for me to work with other people. Bonus!

I hate driving out of state and getting my hands dirty!

Posted via web from banannie’s posterous

I don’t know anyone like this…

Posted via web from banannie’s posterous

The ones who look at me like this O_o (see what I did there?) when I say I’ve been using Twitter regularly for over two years.

The ones who say “Who cares what I’m doing and why should I care what they’re doing?”

The ones who joined Twitter in the big boom of the last couple of months, only to stop using it after a couple weeks.

The ones who make up the 90%.

These are some of the same people who happily use Facebook so I’m not talking technophobes or privacy freaks.

This week the 140 Characters Conference is happening in NYC. It’s all about Twitter, and there have been some interesting panels from what I’ve seen (the expected live-streamed video didn’t work out.) But as far as I can tell nothing about how to help more people understand, care about, or even continue to care about Twitter.

Of course, I realize that with a $1000+ price tag and a very business-centric schedule this conference wasn’t made for the everyday users, it was made for marketers and PR people.

But if people don’t get Twitter, and therefore don’t use Twitter, who are all those marketers and PR folks going to talk to?

I would have liked to see this addressed at the conference. Maybe next time?

(late edit- just saw this really interesting look at who uses Twitter and how they use it – warning, lots of stats and graphs and stuff!)

Rule #10: Don’t use Tables

Any web designer who uses tables in their designs will instantly be called a rookie by experienced designers. Tables don’t display the same in all browsers, and they can make the source code look messy, but at the very least you’ll know what you’re getting with them. Here are some examples of designs that incorporate tables.

This table is slightly hard to see but is tucked in there between the two chairs. It’s a nice little side table but sadly doesn’t contribute much to this site’s design.

Tables are way in the background of this design on Work at Play, but they keep the workers’ laptops and other items within easy reach. Without these tables, the room would feel much emptier, and the background photo wouldn’t have the same effect.

Although this design mostly features chairs, a nice little table appears in the top-right of the thumbnail. Looks like a pot is sitting on it.

As far as designs with tables go, this is one of the best. With two tables featured in this Flash animation, the design gives them a lot of attention. This site should be on every designer’s list of great designs that use tables.

Posted via web from banannie’s posterous