My Life on the Net

I hope everyone who celebrate Christmas had a good one, I did.  It was fun filled ride of gift giving and recieving, of stuffing myself with turkey and sleeping a lot. But what did I get for you?

It’s my first true social web project, and although it’s specialisation is small - it should be pretty cool for photographer’s out there.  I’m keeping the details wrapped up till it’s complete, and hopefully i’ll get it done by the end of the week for a jan 1st launch - but I doubt it, perhaps february.

Keep your eyes peeled, as I’ll need your help to get it up and running!

It’s the eve of Christmas Eve, ah.. Sunday. You could finally say that the holiday season is apon us - and I wasn’t paying attention.

Some of my gifts aren’t here yet, thanks Royal Mail, and some only just got here. Looks like on Christmas Day I’ll be chilling out, only with cards which the pictures of the gifts are drawn on the paper. Sorry mate, it’s not my fault.

I’m hoping for an extra special Christmas surprise, but I’m being careful not to get my hopes up. So for now, Merry Christmas and (for some of my gamers out there who get this…) Happy Winter Veil!

Expect a post on xmas!

Well, I’m back in Edinburgh - and can I feel it!

Perhaps it’s just me (I don’t think so) but when you come home for the christmas holidays you expect a little… warmth.  Not only from your family but from your home. Well, don’t expect my home to be warm this christmas!

Normally used to inside temperatures of 22 degrees, maybe i’m spolied.  Maybe the heat from my radiator in Dundee is a little too much for me, or in this day and age am I supposed to be curling up in my duvet as if I’m on a camping trip?  That’s what it feels like right now.. There’s a reason - the roof’s got a hole in it.  Sure, it’s been there for over 5 years as my father looks up estimate after estimate, looking for a ‘cheap’ but ‘reliable’ service (note - one or the other, not both).

My only salvation is to sneak into the central heating and edit it’s timing - giving me more heat in the middle of the night. Especially when the season’s getting colder, and heck - it’s getting colder, the heating should be on a lot longer.

Now, excuse me while I get another blanket. It’s going to be a cold night…

We know of hype, of the marketing and the sales of the season.  We know that we should be careful not to become obsessed with these things.  If we did, just imagine what could happen… Terrors on the street, people pushing each other on the pavement - trying to get the last present that they ‘must have’ due to it’s price of only £29.99.   Oops, did I just recite holiday buying?

Now, there is another mind.  This mind only purchases from one store, hail to one ruler - and I used to be one of them.  They only expect the best, nothing can be faulty.  The Apple generation.

Today, my fellow faithful!  I have brought another into our world, and his name be Michael Fitzgerald! He shall wear his cloak of perfection and purchase his first ever iPod. This may be a small step, but soon we shall use the Reality Distortion Field against him, and within months bend his mind to purchase a mac!

Let it be!

An excerpt from my web design sketchbook…

1. Get drunk

If you thought this would hinder the design process – you’re wrong. Nothing helps you forget about your designer’s block better than forgetting everything.

2. Get inspiration

Getting into your screenshots and look at some of your favorite designs to figure out what they did right, and how you can make it your own. (Just don’t steal)

3. Make a plan

What do you want your site to show off, when for? Which content do you think will be more important to others?

4. Sketch

Designs look their best on paper, so you might as well start there. No need for pesky colours – this is a sketch. Make revisions (about three will do).

5. Colour it!

Pick your own theme or get some ideas from kuler (I build all of my colours there).

6. Prototype time

Make a draft in photoshop and turn off anti-aliasing to see how the text will truly appear on the page. This will let you see your site before you build it and give you the images to build it properly.

7. Code it

Load up dreamweaver, type in the code, make the css and make it accessible. Well, whatever.

8. Test it

You load it up and the text is upside down, backgrounds aren’t displaying properly and the headers are gone. It happens, back to the drawing board.

9. Fix it

Time to get into the driver’s seat, find the newsgroups and the articles on google about why nothing is working. You should be able to finish this step sometime before your retirement.

10. Launch

Well, you’ve realized nothing can be perfect. Time to get some sleep – the sun’s coming up.

Ok, so it’s coming up towards the date we all seem so happy about each year as we rush about the shops looking for presents. Christmas.

I’m sure we’re all thankful for many things, for different reasons. Some who celebrate the season are devout religious folk while others are just aethiest or agnostics which this holiday means something slightly different. But in each sense, it’s the season for giving and for saying thanks to your fellow friends and family.

But, as I wandered into the cold to purchase the gifts for the season it didn’t take me too long to think about things I am definitely not thankful for this season..

The cold.

Nobody likes it, and unless you have 30 layers on and are prepared to face it all then you’ll be fine - but if you’re like me and like to wear a t-shirt 365 days a year, then you’ve got a problem.

The rush.

Unless you order all of your stuff online, then you’ve faced the thousands of people each day bumping into you on the streets. When you’re in Britain, and all of the high-quality stores are all on one street (such as Princes Street in Edinburgh) - then you have to be prepared to dodge and sneak past people as quickly as possible to get out of you’re shopping spree unscathed.

The cost.

First there’s the presents, then the cards, the wrapping paper, the travel costs and the food. It all adds up. When you’re buying a load of people christmas presents on a student budget it builds up.

Assignments are due.

Students have assignments. These assignments are always due the first few days before the end of term - I just finished a large assignment and have another very important design project due in a couple of days. That’s never fun.

It’s dark, ALL of the time.

I woke up the day before yesterday and looked out of the window confused. Why is it dark? After looking at my watch, 4:00, I guessed it was 4AM until I heard someone shouting outside stabbing a plastic bag with a knife (don’t ask - he was bored). Yep, PM. It gets so annoying to find the lack of sunlight during winter - and as soon as you get used to it starts to get lighter again.

Getting fat.

You know at the end of this season, you’re going to be a few pounds heavier - with most of that weight coming from Christmas day, the most delicious day…It’s too cold to go outside to exercise, so you get put off and find yourself just eating and relaxing - all day, every day until the season is over (might be overstating that just a little bit).

The Connotations

Being an agnostic, it’s always annoying whenever I am reminded about the true reason for the holiday. While i’m open to religion, I don’t want someone forcing me to go to church for hymns or lectures about God and what to be thankful for (these such things happened to me earlier in my life and it did put me off the idea of religion).

Of course, there’s a whole load more - but keeping negative about these things is never healthy. I love to send gifts to family and close friends and to meet up with them during the season. I can’t wait for the day to come where I see all of my family and many of my friends. I can’t wait to see the reactions on their faces as they open their gifts, and for them to see my reactions. But I’m just surprised nobody ever seems to talk about the negative.

Seasons Greetings!

Just in case you didn’t realise - it’s winter. I didn’t since it’s a 10 minute walk to university and I finally have a warm room at night.

So when I went out to Broughty Ferry for the day I didn’t guess how easily I could have got hypothermia or frost bite.

But I held out, for you.

I hope you realise how much I put on the line for you.

Irony not included.

p.s. This looks so much better large.

While busy times do break your blogging schedules, nothing hurts more than to find a writer’s block impeding your ability to blog proficiently and consistently.  As you might have guessed it, yep, it’s happened to me too.

This has been the first time since this iteration of My Life on the Net that i’ve slammed head first into the wall, but that doesn’t matter - because that’s not what were talking about today. Just like anyone else, I’m pretty sure you don’t want to know about the boring work I’m doing at the moment. Yep, I guessed so.

This is exactly the point made by Margaret Mason in “No One Cares What You Had for Lunch” - a self-help book aimed for bloggers like me just when they can’t think of what to write about and offers 100 ideas to fill up their blog.

But why buy a book when you can just search for blog ideas online?  While the methods on the web help in the short run and force you get out a mediocre post, Mason divulges how to change your blogging habits to keep your blog interesting to read week after week.  She shares tips to generate interest, and once this interest is capped like the oil wells in Saudi Arabia - suck as much readership as possible.

I find myself using it almost every week, and is useful due each of her categories are time specific - so even if you have only a couple of minutes, you’ll still be able to cram something interesting out - but if you have hours to spend thinking and researching a blog topic, there’s still something there to write about.

However, there are some drawbacks to the book.  For what you’re paying (I paid £15 [$30]) for the privilege of this book - you’re not getting as much as you might had hoped - 100 ideas only last so long and seem definitely shorter when some post ideas either don’t suit your style or when some seem to be too similar to each other to use.  If you can, try looking at other amazon sellers or shopping about - after I bought my copy I managed to find one for only £5 which seemed very reasonable.  Also, this book is catering for a very specific niche - bloggers that wish to show off their lives but not make it repetitive - so if you’re more of a non-personal blogger I’d skip this book.

Despite the drawbacks, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been blogging for a while and needs a few more ideas or even a blogger just starting out.  Mason’s ideas coupled with her humor and descriptions of each of her ideas really helps to get the creative blogging juices flowing again and will forever help me blog in the future.

See more from Maggie Mason at http://www.mightygirl.com/