KimCrawley.com- Bright Ideas

Blogcritics Rerun: Christmas Dos and Don'ts

2010-12-02T12:15:00.000-05:00

My first Blogcritics rerun post, How to Become a Web Designer, got a lot of hits. It's now December, so it's the right time to rerun Christmas Dos and Don'ts, another article I wrote for Blogcritics. Click on the link to read the original article. Enjoy!

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It's getting close to that time of year again! The malls have been full of tinsel and bells for almost an entire month. HR departments are handing out days-off preference forms. Children are begging their parents for certain material things, and so are some adults. Christmastime is getting ever closer!

My Halloween Dos and Don'ts feature was rather popular. I can be counted on to have strong opinions about everything, so here are my tips for having a successful Christmas.

Christmas gifts are for wants, not needs.

If you're considering getting anyone on your list white cotton socks, even if that's to accompany something else for the recipient, this tip is for you.

Christmas gifts should be fun, they should be things that the recipient will find pleasurable. For children and adults alike, make a point of fulfilling their wants, NOT their needs. Video games often make great Christmas gifts, toothpaste seldom does.

'But Kim, this person on my list is in poverty! They need toilet paper, because they can't afford it themselves!' If that's the case, still make their gift something they want. Giving them something they need is a very nice idea, but don't make that their Christmas gift. Give them the things they need at some other time, discreetly. Don't gift-wrap it and don't give it to them too close to December 25th.

Christmas gifts should be things the person wants to have, not things you think they ought to have.

That's another mistake that's made way too often. If I like Hello Kitty merchandise, don't give me a plain wallet because you think it's more "adult" or in better taste. Get me a Hello Kitty wallet instead.

If my fondness for black clothing is too much for you, Christmas isn't your opportunity to get me colorful clothing.

You're not going to change someone's taste with a Christmas gift. Don't even try, they'll resent you for that.

Get to know the recipient's taste as well as you can.

Making assumptions about someone because 40-year-old Canadian guys ought to love NHL merchandise is an erroneous way to choose a Christmas gift. People often defy stereotypes and generalizations.

I remember being an elementary school kid, and every June there would be some sort of craft to make for Father's Day. I remember one year, in kindergarten or Grade One (First Grade, to you Americans) we were given cardboard 'ties' to decorate.

My father hates wearing ties. Even as a six-year-old, I knew that. Other elementary school years, we were given pencil cases to decorate with Father's Day-themed wallpaper or wrapping paper. The football, fishing, and power tool themed designs were all very inappropriate for my father. But he's a man! He's my dad! He's got to be just like Tim Allen!

On that same note, if you think a subscription to Cosmopolitan magazine is a great idea for me because I'm a young heterosexual woman, I've got news for you.

Avoid Christmas-themed Christmas gifts.

That's a real pet peeve of mine. I do love Christmas, but only if the Christmas stuff is restricted to December 1st until December 26th. Getting me Santa Claus mugs for Christmas means I'm receiving them close to a time when I want to banish Christmas from my psyche, for the sake of enjoying Christmas next year.

Christmas gifts should be enjoyable for the days and weeks after receiving them. So, resist the temptation to buy Christmas-themed gifts.

On a similar note, don't put up Christmas decorations too early or take them down too late!

It's bad enough that retailers think they have to put Christmas displays up as soon as the Halloween stuff is taken down. Don't follow the lead of your local shopping mall.

My secularized and commercialized experience of Christmas is a sacred thing. It's magical and fun only if it's special for a time-limited occasion.

If you put your Christmas lights up on November 1st and take them down by the end of March, you have that stuff decorating your house for an entire THIRD of the year. It's not so special anymore, is it?

My birthday is January 13th. I always tell people, the Christmas gift that the world can give me is to have all Christmas stuff put away no later than my birthday. Ideally, put your decorations and tree up during the first week or two of December, and take them down by December 27th.

With that in mind, be considerate of people who have birthdays close to Christmastime.

Combined Christmas/birthday gifts are a huge no-no. Even though my birthday is a couple of weeks after Christmas, people are still tempted to do that to me. For people born even closer to Christmas, it's even worse.

Birthdays, my own and those of others, are a big deal to me because it's the one day you can have made all about you, or all about them. Make sure that people in your life with birthdays close to or on Christmas day receive separate birthday cards and presents, at a separate time. That applies to children AND adults. If the person's birthday is during the week of Christmas, celebrate their birthday during a different week. A lot of Capricorns and late Sagittarians will thank you for that.

Acknowledge the different holidays of others in your life.

Political correctness shouldn't get in the way of celebrating Christmas, but make sure that other holidays receive similar respect.

For example, my stepfather is Jewish. Thankfully, Hanukkah is the first week of December this year, instead of being too close to Christmas day.

I will get him a separate Hanukkah card and gift, and give them to him during one of the eight days. I will NOT get him a generic 'Happy Holidays' card on December 26th, when I visit my mother's side of the family.

Acknowledge Ramadan for your Muslim friends. Acknowledge Diwali for your Hindu friends. I'd go out of my way to avoid giving anyone any generic anything. It's better to ask questions than make assumptions.

Don't be a perfectionist for Christmas.

Too many people, women especially, think their Christmas entertaining should live up to Martha Stewart's standards.

Setting the bar impossibly high will only stress you out. As long as you're able to get friends and family together, give them thoughtful gifts, and have some edible food, you're being a good host.

You don't have Martha's staff or Martha's budget. As cliched as this might sound, the important thing about Christmas is to spend time with family and try to have fun. You can't have fun if you don't relax!

If even one person takes my advice this season, I've done what I could to make the world a better place. Thanks for reading!

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R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen

2010-11-29T11:12:00.000-05:00

Leslie Nielsen will be greatly missed. He passed away yesterday at age 84. See more here: Blogcritics.

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You could win autographed prizes!

2010-11-28T17:17:00.001-05:00

How would you like to win some cool prizes?

As I mentioned in my earlier blog post (A 'Shout-Out' for my Dad (and Stepmom), I design and maintain a website for my father, stepmother, Felix Baron, and Madeline Moore. The website just launched last week: Telltale.ca. They're crime thriller and erotica novelists.

The contest runs from Monday, November 29th, 2010 until Friday, December 10th, 2010. See contest rules for details.

One lucky winner will receive three autographed books- The Women's Club by Michael Crawley and Laurie Clayton, Sarah's Education by Madeline Moore, and The Persian Girl by Felix Baron.

Go to Telltale.ca for rules and entry.

You may also want to check out my interview with Michael Crawley and Laurie Clayton, authors of The Women's Club on Blogcritics.

Have fun and good luck!

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A 'Shout-Out' for Meanderings and Muses

2010-11-26T19:18:00.001-05:00

Wow! Two shout-outs in one day... It's so much fun to promote great stuff on the web!

Kaye Wilkinson Barley is a Facebook friend of mine. I have a lot of Facebook friends in the literary community, thanks to my father and stepmother. When I was promoting the last post (A Shout-Out for My Dad (and Stepmom) on Facebook, she was kind enough to 'like' my post and comment on it.

As she's a fellow blogger, I decided to check out her blog, Meanderings And Muses.

It's great stuff! She gets all kinds of fascinating writers to post on her blog. I love getting into the minds of novelists and other writers, so I made sure to bookmark Kaye's blog for future visiting.

If you're intrigued by novelists and storytellers in general, you'll be glad you visited Kaye's blog.

Visit Meanderings and Muses at meanderingsandmuses.blogspot.com. Maybe I can get my dad to guest blog on the site!

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A Shout-Out For My Dad (and My Stepmom)

2010-11-26T16:02:00.000-05:00

Today, I just want to promote my father and my stepmother. You can't blame me for wanting to do that, eh?

My dad is Michael Crawley, and my stepmom is Laurie Clayton. They're both popular novelists. My dad and stepmom have an exciting new crime thriller published by Max Crime, The Women's Club. Read my interview with them on Blogcritics here, and there's also a link in my interview to buy the novel from Amazon. I've read it, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I designed a brand new website for them (and the mysterious erotica authors Felix Baron and Madeline Moore), Telltale.ca

On the new website, there is a lot of great content. Read their fascinating life stories. Read my dad's writing tips, he's helped many people become published. Read questions and answers from all four authors, and submit your own questions! Plus, you can read synopsizes of all of their titles on Amazon, and buy the titles via the handy Amazon shop widget. Check it out, you won't regret it!

The new website encouraged my dad to start a blog. He writes about being a novelist, and ideas that interest him. There's one post in which he defends atheism. It's intriguing stuff. Visit his blog at michaelcrawley.blogspot.com.

Of course, I'm going to take this opportunity to promote Madeline Moore's blog again, as she's a featured novelist at Telltale.ca What is it like to write sexy stories for a living? Find out at moremadelinemoore.blogspot.com.

Don't miss any of my previous shout-outs! To my dear readers, check out the new posts I have coming next week! Happy Friday...

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A Brief History of the Web- Part nine...

2010-11-25T16:39:00.002-05:00

Finally, my 'Brief History of the Web' series continues with part nine. I'm sorry for the long delay. I've been busy writing for Blogcritics and Dragon Blogger. I also was busy creating a website for my father and stepmother, Telltale.ca. More about that in my next post...

If you've missed previous posts in my 'Brief History of the Web' series, here's your opportunity to catch up.

In part eight, I told the tale of Mozilla Firefox, which debuted in 2004, and the other web browsers in the new browser war, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari. The days of IE versus Netscape are no more, but much of Netscape Navigator's code lives on in Firefox.

Earlier in the series, I introduced Friendster, which was the launch of social networking as we know it today.

Friendster launched in 2002, and became a web phenomenon by 2003. Well, employees of eUniverse, which later became Intermix Media, took notice. Intermix founder Brad Greenspan, Chris DeWolfe, Josh Berman and Tom Anderson launched Myspace in August 2003, months before Firefox made its public debut.

Actually, Chris DeWolfe already owned the Myspace.com domain as a website for customer data storage and web hosting.

Myspace.com in 1997

Myspace.com in 2000

In February 2004, Richard Rosenblatt became Myspace's CEO, and Myspace went from a little unknown website, to a Friendster killer.

Myspace.com in October 2003

Myspace.com in October 2004, after Richard Rosenblatt took the helm

Throughout 2004 and 2005, fewer and fewer people were using Friendster, and more and more people started using Myspace. It was a boon for musicians, because they can feature their music in their profiles. Myspace started to generate a huge amount of ad revenue for Intermix, until Intermix and Myspace were bought by News Corp. for $580 million in July 2005.

Myspace.com in October 2009

By 2008, though, Facebook started to make gains ahead of Myspace in the number of users. Now, Facebook is the Goliath to Myspace's David. In 2010, Myspace debuted a remarketing campaign. Myspace is now officially stylized as my______, and the site has a new look, with new features.

Myspace.com today, with a new look

   Time will soon tell how successful Myspace's rebranding campaign will be. Richard Rosenblatt left the company in 2006, and founded Demand Media, the company behind eHow.com. In my very brief career there as a writer, I learned how horrible Demand Media is to their writers. See the views of other former Demand Media writers- Demand Studios, 4 Reasons Why It Sucks on Hubpages.com.

   It's a little known fact that YouTube launched as a Myspace widget.

   The YouTube website launched on Valentine's Day 2005, after YouTube's success on Myspace.

YouTube in April 2005

  Former Paypal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim founded YouTube. They saw a need for an easy video sharing venue on the web. The very first YouTube video was uploaded by Jawed Karim on April 23rd, 2005, titled Me at the zoo. Here it is!

   The YouTube beta test started in May 2005, and the official launch was in November.

   By November 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Yes, that's a BILLION, not a million.

   As of November 2010, videos have been viewed via YouTube over 14 billion times.

   When 'A Brief History of the Web' continues very soon with part ten, learn how Facebook started! Well, we all saw The Social Network, so it'll be a brief refresher course.

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A 'Shout-Out' for Dragon Blogger

2010-11-19T11:00:00.002-05:00

Before I get into the meat of this post, I have some news to share. It's all good stuff!

First of all, I was offered a position in a tech support call centre yesterday. I had to pass a number of tests of my IT and networking knowledge, plus a mock call scenario, in order to get the job. I gladly accepted the job offer. I'd be working on behalf of a major American ISP. Well, Americans, at least some of your tech support jobs are being outsourced to Canada instead of India. My 'Canadian' accent is more similar to an accent from Connecticut than an accent from Arkansas, but I have plenty of practice understanding Southern accents from talking to my dear half-sister Tori, who has spent enough of her life living in Florida and North Carolina to sound like she's from there. But yes, my accent is still generally Canadian (still some Londonish inflection exists from being raised by my father and grandmother), I don't really say 'oot and aboot', do I, eh?

Anyway, my IT know-how and call centre experience got me the job, and it sounds like a pretty good one. I start training on December 6th. I will still be working on my freelance web design and blogging, I'm not giving anything up. And KimCrawley.com will undergo a major overhaul in the next few weeks. I'm going to change some of the colours to be easier on the eye, and make the site a portal for my blogging, too, not just my web design. Plus, I'll change the colours of this blog to make it easier to read, as well.

There's going to be no more Diary of a Lab Rat, I was withdrawn from the study, due to my low blood pressure. But they paid me very decently for my participation! I did most of my Christmas shopping in the past couple of days, all with 'lab rat' money. Thank you, Kendle and Merck! Oh, talking about Christmas, why don't you check out my Christmas Dos and Don'ts on Blogcritics?

I'm also working on a website for my dad and stepmom, authors of The Women's Club. See my Blogcritics interview of them here. The website should be live in a couple of weeks.

And, my Blogcritics articles are now being syndicated on the websites of major American newspapers! Here's a link to my Ladies Who Love Coach Bags rant in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. I'm also a featured writer in Google News. Google News keeps an updated list of some of my articles here.

I'm sorry for my delay of my ever popular 'Brief History of the Web' series, I hope to continue with another part this weekend.

In the meanwhile, this is the continuation of my 'Shout-Out' series, this time for Dragon Blogger. The site is run by Justin Germino. He also runs a few other great blogs and websites, you can check them out here.

Dragon Blogger is an excellent source for technology and entertainment news. Justin contributes most of the articles, but I also contribute original articles, and so do several other great bloggers.

I recommend that my dear readers bookmark Dragon Blogger, not just for my articles, but also for Justin's and for all the other great content on there. The site is updated multiple times a day.

If you'd like to follow my 'Shout-Out' series so far, here are my previous ones:

Look forward to more of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series, soon. Plus, I have more articles planned for Dragon Blogger and Blogcritics.

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Get your shots!

2010-11-16T14:03:00.001-05:00

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. Among the matters I took care of was making sure I got my flu shot for this season.

I'm not afraid of getting influenza myself. Chances are that I'd be in bed for several days, and then I'd be relatively fine. I got my flu shot as a public duty.

I'm generally healthy, but the others you may pass the virus to may not be. You may be a carrier even before you have symptoms. Consider the elderly. Consider people with AIDS. Consider cancer patients.

Maybe you'll pass the virus to someone else who IS healthy, but they'll pass the virus to someone who isn't.

My father, like me, understands the importance of immunization and herd immunity. He got his general flu shot AND his swine flu shots last year. But over New Years, he was hospitalized with ANOTHER strain of the flu virus, and he came down with pneumonia, as well. We were afraid that he wasn't going to make it. He's 73 years old and he has type two diabetes, in a rather severe form.

But thanks to the good folks at the hospital, he survived and lived to tell the tale! Sure, you can't be immunized for every single viral disease out there, or every single strain. But the more immunizations you get, the better.

Listen to mainstream medicine. DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, LISTEN TO JENNY MCCARTHY.

A lot of people do get unpleasant side effects from vaccines, but that's no reason to shun them. Nothing in any vaccine 'causes' autism, and autism isn't something to be banished, either. Autism does a lot of good for humanity.

I can tell you what DOESN'T do good for humanity. Measles! Mumps! Rubella! Polio!

My father remembers when polio was a big deal. His cousin and best friend died from the disease in the 1940s, I believe. Polio is now very rare in the developed world, but polio still exists. All it takes is for some people from the developed world to visit the developing world and NOT get their shots, and then BINGO! We'd have a polio epidemic again!

Measles, mumps, and rubella, all diseases that can be deadly, even in otherwise healthy people, are all on the rise in the United States and Canada.

You wanna know why? Because far too many parents watch that Oprah and listen to that Jenny McCarthy.

I try to refrain from too much profanity on this blog, but now I'm so pissed off I can barely contain myself.

wesome website.

These are real lives and real people who are being affected. People are DYING because of Oprah and Jenny's stupidity. If you lost a loved one to rubella, you'd be mad, too.

We can totally eradicate certain deadly diseases, but only if as many people, adults and children, get their shots as possible!

Do the whole entire world a favour, and get as many immunizations as possible. Immunize your children. Tell adults to do the same. Spread the word!

Get informed, and read these links. Especially the Jenny McCarthy Body Count. That's an awesome website.

I've got a busy week ahead of me! I'll try to continue my 'A Brief History of the Web' series by Friday, at the latest. In the meanwhile, check out Blogcritics and Dragon Blogger. TTFN!

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Lest We Forget

2010-11-11T13:23:00.000-05:00

  I am among many who have family affected by war. The First and Second World Wars have had a tremendous impact on both sides of my family. My family has former soldiers, both survivors and war dead. My father was a little boy who survived WWII in London, and my grandfather fought, mainly in France. Those are two family examples, among many.

  And as I write, my half-brother, Captain Winston Crawley is serving in Kabul, Afghanistan. We hope he and his fellow troops arrive home in one piece. Many Canadian men and women have died there already, or have become severally injured.

  War is hell! We must honour our soldiers, no matter how we feel about the wars they're in.

   I hope you've given generously to war vets who have been distributing poppies.

   Far too many younger people, baby boomers included, take peace time for granted. We must not, not ever. We must be vigilant to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself.

   I also have Jews in my family. The Holocaust was absolutely horrific. Millions of Jews were murdered. Gays, and disabled people were also murdered. I have many gay friends, and I'm a person with a disability.

   We must be vigilant and never forget!

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A Brief History of the Web- Part eight...

2010-11-10T11:40:00.001-05:00

Here it is, the much awaited part eight of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series. I've been super busy, between the lab, Blogcritics and Dragon Blogger, but I apologize for the delay.

Here's your opportunity to catch up with the series, my most popular to date:

In this part, we return to the browser wars.

In the 1990s, the fight was between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Netscape's browser debuted in 1994, and IE debuted in 1995. People used to design web pages better for the standards of one browser or another. Many web designers thought, if you're using Netscape, for instance, and their site says 'Best Viewed In Internet Explorer', you would of course click on the download link, and install IE just to view their website! Of course, their website was so awesome that you'd be compelled to do just that. Well... no, not really.

Ha, I think this is the only time I'll ever use an animated GIF in this blog...

As the year 2000 passed, Netscape quickly lost market share. But, that wasn't the end for Netscape's Mozilla user agent string!

Mozilla was originally a codename for Netscape Navigator. As of 1994, the main web browser was Mosaic (see parts one and two) and Mozilla meant 'Mosaic Killer'.

The Mozilla Organization was founded in 1998, by Netscape programmers, to create a successor to Netscape Navigator. By 2003, it became a funded non-profit organization renamed the Mozilla Foundation.

In 1998, the source code behind the Netscape Communicator suite was released open source under the new Netscape Public License. The first web browser to come out of the new Mozilla project was Phoenix 0.1, released in September 2002, but only as a binary for testing.

This image, and the other browser shots here are courtesy of Wikipedia

The first publicly available version was Firefox 1.0, in late 2004. They couldn't use the Phoenix name, a company named Phoenix Technologies weren't very happy. So then, Mozilla tried the name Firebird, but the Firebird Database Server wasn't happy with that either. Firefox was the next option, and the one that stuck.

Here's what that very first public version, Mozilla Firefox 1.0 looked like:

   As Firefox 2 and 3 were released, the browser quickly gained market share, taking a major bite out of IE. The browser wars were changed, forever.

  Firefox was the browser to introduce tabbed browsing, something I would've loved to have as a teenager in the 1990s. I used to run multiple browsers, so that I could enjoy a web page while waiting for another to DOWNLOAD. It was kind of taxing for a system using 128 MB RAM. Ah, those were the days.

   Opera, which didn't gain major market share, but has a significant sliver of the pie (about 4%), was actually introduced in December 1996 by Norway's Opera Software. They are now up to an initial alpha release of 11.

Aside from Opera's relatively lean code, what also sets Opera apart is their focus on accessibility. Options include having key commands for all actions, mouse gesturing, and voice control.

Apple entered the browser wars a lot later than Microsoft did. Their Safari browser publicly debuted in January 2003, and became the default web browser for Mac OS X 10.3 'Panther'. Before Safari, the web browser most frequently used on Macs was the Mac version of IE. Microsoft no longer supports a Mac version of their browser, so IE now only runs in Windows OSes.

Safari is now up to 5.0.2. It's a pretty good browser, it works really well with HTML5 and CSS3. They started a Windows version in 2007. The main reason why I wouldn't recommend Safari is because it's Crapple! (See Why I'll never spend a dime on Apple products...) There's no version of Safari for GNU/Linux OSes like the one I'm using, as Apple likes to pretend that Linux distros don't exist. I could run Safari for Windows in Wine, but why would I want to?

My 'A Brief History of the Web' will continue soon. Until then, I have lots more in store for you!

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Jamiroquai Versus Lady Gaga

2010-11-08T15:09:00.001-05:00

I've been a devoted Jamiroquai fan since the mid-1990s. And since Lady Gaga properly hit the scene in 2008, I've been impressed by her show biz savvy, voice and piano skill. Most of her music is enjoyable enough, but not in one of my favourite styles. Listen to her acoustically, though, she sure does have the chops, and she could record jazz or classical if she wanted.

Jamiroquai rarely, if ever, disappoints me sonically. I do find Jay Kay very sexually attractive, but I'm certainly a fan for the music. If I knew Jay in person, though, I'm sure he would be an okay enough buddy, but I wouldn't get too close to him personally.

Let me reiterate this- Jamiroquai and Jay Kay are not one and the same. ALL THE EFFIN' TIME the media and non-fans refer to Jay as 'Jamiroquai'. Yes, Jay has obviously predominant creative control. I doubt the current, post-Zender line-up would argue with Jay about songs or direction. But, Jamiroquai is still technically a BAND, not really a solo act. This is obvious around Emergency On Planet Earth, but the distinction has blurred since. Sony, Mercury, and the cover art for A Funk Odyssey, Dynamite and the brand new album Rock Dust Light Star don't help with that perception.

Anyway, RDLS was just released today. I'm listening to the entire deluxe edition, over and over again. I think She's A Fast Persuader and Two Completely Different Things are the strongest tracks. Blue Skies is slowly growing on me, but it certainly shouldn't have been the first single. I wrote more about this here: I'm obsessed, Jamiroquai edition.

In the midst of all the recent promotion, Jay had something to say about Lady Gaga. This comes courtesy of Gigwise.com:

In an interview with The Sun, Jay Kay claimed Lady Gaga was just being used as a marketing tool for her record label.

"Lady Gaga is a money-making freak for her label,” he told The Sun. "We are not like that. We do music, not marketing. Lady Gaga is obviously a phenomenon.

"The world loves a freak. If the record companies see that they can make money with them, they will do anything.”

Oh, Jay. Jason Kay... what were you thinking? I adore your music, but you obviously haven't listened to enough of Lady Gaga. She shines acoustically. She kept up with Elton John on the Grammys like it was no one's business. And, Ms. Germanotta goes out of her way to never put anyone down publicly.

I'm such a huge Jamiroquai fan, but I'm definitely a Little Monster, too. Jay- you don't have to criticize Lady Gaga to promote RDLS, just let the music shine on its own merit.

I'll be seeing Jay and company as soon as they play Toronto next (hopefully no later than next spring), and I hope to see Lady Gaga's next Toronto show, too.

Can't we all just get along?

Stay tuned on Wednesday for part eight of 'A Brief History of the Web', and a little rant about how nasty Demand Media is.

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Blogcritics Rerun: How to Become a Web Designer

2010-11-05T15:50:00.000-04:00

Wow, now that I'm back home from the lab, today I've had a lot of work to catch up on. I've mainly been writing my second article for eHow.com. Demand Media's guidelines are very strict. Beyond that, I have to write those articles in third person, and like an instruction manual. This blog, and everywhere else I write, I'm in very opinionated first person! But, I understand why eHow.com's format is the way it is. But, it takes a lot more work for me to write for them than anywhere else. As I get better accustomed to Demand's formats, I'll get faster, though.

So, yes, I'm back in Stoney Creek now, and I'm perfectly fine. I will find out if I'm to return to Kendle in Toronto in the next week or so. I'll keep you posted.

In the meanwhile, I have a lot of plans for this blog, also, including continuing my 'A Brief History of the Web' series very soon.

But, today I want to post here, but do it relatively quickly. I may not republish all of my Blogcritics articles, but I may republish some after a couple of weeks have gone by.

This article was very popular and well received- How to Become a Web Designer, my Blogcritics debut from October 12th.

___________________________________________________________________

   Web design can be an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. It’s a trade that combines technical skills with creative ability. If you feel comfortable with computer technology and you enjoy creating documents, web design can be a great way to combine the two interests.

   That being said, it’s always overwhelming to consider learning a new skill. Before learning how to become a web designer, you should ask yourself, “Should I become a web designer?”

   I’ve been learning web design since I was ten years old, in 1994. I now do a lot of web design for myself and for some small business clients. There have been plenty of pleasures, but also plenty of frustrations. If you’re considering becoming a web designer, there are some things you should keep in mind.

   If you have a lot of time to devote to learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Photoshop, it’s possible to learn the basics in a couple of months. Be ready to spend some money on manuals, books, and applications.

No matter how you decide to learn web design and how you decide to enter the field, some people have better potential to become web designers than others.
When you’re programming, even if you’re using a simple language like HTML and using a helpful application like Dreamweaver, you’re going to encounter some frustrations. Sometimes, when I create an HTML document, I spend a lot more time making corrections and problem solving than doing fun stuff. Are you prepared to spend a lot of time testing and making little changes? No matter how you approach web design, tedium can’t be completely avoided. If you’re easily frustrated and discouraged, web design might not be for you.

   Unless web design is going to be just a hobby for you, you will have clients you have to work with. Sometimes clients have a lot of specific expectations. Some clients have experience with web design themselves, but others may demand things without knowing the technical limitations involved. Before you start any project for clients, it’s best to have a thorough conversation with them about what they want and what they need. That can save you a lot of time. How would you like to spend weeks developing a website, only to discover that your client wants completely different fonts, colors, graphics, site organization and content? If you’re going to get into designing web pages for other people, you’re going to have to be ready to make a lot of compromises and take a lot of criticism. Are you ready for that?

   Finally, ask yourself if you have the time and energy to promote yourself. If you want to be hired by a web design firm, in addition to learning skills and possibly obtaining certifications, you’ve also got to be ready to pound the pavement with your resume and portfolio. It might take you over a year to find a job. Be ready to attend a lot of job interviews, and possibly get a lot of rejections.

   If you’re going to become a freelancer, like I am, you’ve really got to devote a lot of energy to self-promotion. Set up a website, preferably with your own domain. Be ready to spend some money on advertising. Spend a lot of time promoting your services with social media – Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, and so on. Scan classified ads, particularly online classifieds. Print business cards and distribute them wherever you can. Use your connections and word-of-mouth to your advantage. Tell everyone you know that you’re a web designer, and maybe someone knows someone who could be your first client. Sometimes I spend more time promoting myself than I do actually doing the work itself.

   If you’re ready to spend a little bit of money, do a lot of tedious work, take some criticism, and do a lot of self-promotion, then web design may be the field for you.
First, you’ve got to start the learning process. If you enjoy classroom instruction and having teachers, sign up for some web design and graphic design courses through your local community college. If you’d rather start learning on your own, buy some good books, look at the source codes of the web pages you visit, and go through some online tutorials. Even if you’re going to start learning web design in a school setting, be prepared to do a lot of learning in your free time, as well.

   It’s important to learn HTML, especially HTML5. Learn Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), up to CSS3. JavaScript, possibly some server side scripting languages, and Flash are very useful, too. Don’t forget to learn how to use Photoshop. If you don’t have the money to buy Photoshop right away, start by downloading some free graphic design programs like Paint.Net and GIMP. You can learn some of the basics of graphic design that way, and possibly be better prepared when you finally buy the most recent version of Photoshop.

   These days, people access the web in more ways than were ever possible before. When you’re web designing, you not only want to make your web pages work in multiple browsers, but also on multiple devices. Even basic cell phones can access the web today, not just smart phones such as BlackBerrys and iPhones. Even some video game playing devices like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DSi have web browsers. Web surfers could be using tiny screens or enormous screens. They could be using a variety of different browsers and versions of browsers. Users may have completely different plug-ins and fonts; Adobe Flash is a browser plug-in, for instance. When you’re learning web design, try surfing the web in as many ways as you can.

   There are many helpful resources for learning web design online, and there are many helpful online tools for web designers, many of which I use.

   The W3C is an excellent place to start. They're the non-profit organization founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who started the World Wide Web. The W3C sets standards for HTML, XML and CSS. In addition to information about coding languages and standards, they have handy tools to validate your code.

HTML Goodies has a lot of excellent tutorials and articles.

HTML Station has a lot of great instruction, code boxes, color help and demonstrations. Be sure to check it out.

   I’ve learned a lot so far, but I’m always learning more, and I’ll always be a student of web design and media technology. As technology advances, things change. There’ll always be new programming languages and applications. Learning is a constant process.

   Web design has been an engaging experience for me, and if you decide to get into it yourself, I hope you take it seriously and have a lot of fun.

   ____________________________________________________________

Be sure to frequent my page on Blogcritics, all of my BC articles are original, and I may only republish some of them here. Also, check out the many other excellent writers on the Blogcritics website!

There's a lot more to look forward to in the near future. See you there, and here!

kimcrawley.com

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Diary of a Lab Rat: Not enough cheese in this maze!

2010-11-03T16:14:00.000-04:00

I wasn't able to communicate as clearly yesterday as I wanted to. I felt like utter CRAP yesterday. So, now I can think more clearly.

So, a new insomnia drug is being tested on us. Kendle wants to find out for Merck what the addictive potential of the new drug is. It has yet to be approved by Health Canada.

Yesterday morning, a man entered the ladies' communal bedroom at 5:30am to wake up anyone who wants their morning smoke.

Those of us who are addicted to cigarettes, like I am, only have two opportunities to smoke, once before 6:30am (two hours before earliest dosing time!) and once at twelve hours after dosing (for me, that's 9:30pm). So, I've had to go two FIFTEEN HOUR AWAKE periods smoke free.

"Oh, it must be so good for Kim to go without smoking for so long!" you're thinking. You're wrong!

Toward the end of yesterday, I was insane and driving others crazy. Kim+tobacco= peace, okay?!

Each morning, we spend 5-6 hours in the dosing room. (No, Mom, not doZing room, there's no opportunity for sleep there!) Yesterday and today, I entered at about 7:30am. Each of us is dosed and tested at a time unique to each of us.

I was dosed at 9:30am yesterday and today. We weren't told whether we would be getting a drug or placebo. We are dosed double blind, and they mix up who gets what on which day.

I'm pretty sure that yesterday I got a placebo and today I got the drug!

I actually got very nauseous. I was drifting in and out of awareness while in the chair. (We have to stay in our chairs for the entire 5-6 hours.)

Before we're given our 'dose', our vital signs are taken, and we have to take tests on a little laptop, one is given to each of us. The tests include questions about our mental states ("How high do you feel?"), memory tests, and reflex tests. The memory tests present us with sequences of numbers we should remember. We're given a joystick to test our reflexes. We must 'fly a plane' over a squiggly road, and push the button when we see an X on the screen.

These tests are taken several times a day, at set times, a couple of times pre-dose, and several times post-dose.

When I haven't been stuck in the dosing room, I've been working hard in the communal ladies' bedroom on my netbook.

To the people I love, I miss you!

For this session, I'll be checking out tomorrow morning...

kimcrawley.com

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Diary of a Lab Rat: Stay still, get pellet

2010-11-02T15:42:00.002-04:00

Well, my first 'Diary of a Lab Rat' post is finally here.

I checked in at 5pm yesterday evening, or at least I was supposed to. I lugged my HEAVY suitcase into the building, near King and Bathurst. I would have been five minutes early, if it weren't for the elevators.

The elevator came, but it wouldn't stop on the floor of the lab! I had never had that problem before. I was pissed! I can't be late...

I waited at the 10th floor for quite a while. The delay was really bothering me.

I tried going up with the other elevator- the exact same thing happened.

Finally, back in the lobby, a guy in a white lab coat was waiting. He didn't identify himself as being an employee of Kendle. I had to ask him questions to find out what the heck was going on. People who don't engage in clear, direct communication drive me nuts! See my rant on Blogcritics about it, I Say What I Mean, and I Mean What I Say!

Anyway, he was waiting there, with a keycard to let test subjects have access to the correct floor, as this particular floor is locked at 5pm. It would've been nice if he helped me in the first place, before I wasted all of my time! Arrrggggh!

As I may not take photos in the lab, here's a real photo of something, courtesy of kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com

It took until about 6:30pm until I was properly registered. Good grief! But they didn't consider me late.

After having my bags searched, this netbook was registered in their laptop directory, with the webcam taped over. Then my cigarettes were registered and put away, only to be given to me during designated smoke breaks. I have access to this netbook whenever I'm not in the dosing room, however. After changing into their scrubs, they took my vital signs, and another urine sample.

Two of the women had too high of a THC level in their urine test. They were also testing us for pregnancy, among other things.. All of the men passed (no, they were only tested for drugs!), but those two women I mentioned were asked to leave the study. It was a bummer for me, too, I was just getting to know them!

We had Chinese food for supper, washed down with 7up. It wasn't bad!

I had to wait until about 10:45pm for my supervised smoke break, it was brutal!

Lights out time was 11pm. Stay tuned for the next part, hopefully by tomorrow, when I start again from this morning.

kimcrawley.com

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Good afternoon from the linuxcafe!

2010-11-01T14:30:00.000-04:00

Good afternoon, dear readers! I'm at Toronto's linuxcaffe for the very first time. It's a little cramped here, but this place is great!

The staff are very friendly. I'm surrounded by other Linux fans, and my buttered bagel was delicious. I don't have to check into the lab until 5:00pm, so I'd rather kill time here.

If you're ever visiting Toronto, I encourage you to check this place out. Even if your laptop is running Windows or Mac OS, you're still welcome here.

I regret missing the Maverick Meerkat (Ubuntu 10.10) party that was here a couple of weeks ago, but I'll be sure to be here for the Natty Narwhal celebration that'll expectedly be here in April.

If you're curious about this place, please visit their website: linuxcaffe.ca.

Until my first 'Diary of a Lab Rat' post shows up this evening or tomorrow, I want to share my Halloween photos from last night.

Here they are!

The view from our front door, Halloween night

Here I am, waiting for 'trick or treaters'.

The coffee table is fully equipped, complete with my lil' Ubuntu netbook. See, I'm on this blog!

A view of our front door.

This house across the street from us is nicely decorated. But all the houses in this neighbourhood look identical! This city girl finds the suburbs SCAAAARRRRRY!

I know Halloween is over for now, but I might as well link to one of the articles I wrote for Blogcritics- Halloween Dos and Don'ts.

I modified the article a little bit for EzineArticles- Halloween Dos and Don'ts.

Hopefully, you'll get some tips you can use for Halloween 2011! Years are starting to go by pretty quickly for me now, and I'm still only 26 years old.

Stay tuned, folks! There's lots coming up, right here. And, be sure to read me everywhere else.

kimcrawley.com

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blogcritics.org/writers/kim-crawley/