I'm a woman in my early thirties living in North Carolina, USA, and I have a lot of varied interests; I love creative writing, music composition, web design, surfing the Internet, thinking out loud, and gaming. And yes, my glasses are crooked. :)
Often, I use music when I am webdesigning, either to encourage myself while writing code or inspire myself to create beautiful layouts. So, this week, I thought I’d kick off “Song Week” by creating a playlist of songs for all of us designers and developers to enjoy. Check ’em out, and get your webdesign groove on!
Songs about the Webdesigner’s Life (well, kinda)
White and Nerdy – Weird Al Yankovic
No webdesigning playlist would be complete without it, ’cause we’ve probably all made homepages for our dogs at this point. (Or at least Facebook Like pages. LOL)
World – Five for Fighting
Because when you’re coding and designing, you are literally making a “world” to display on your screen. 🙂
Under Pressure – Queen & David Bowie
For when you need to fix that bug in your design ASAP and you’re on a time crunch. XD
Fix You – Coldplay
The song you sing to your webpage when it’s not working and you’re trying to fix it…
One Step at a Time – Jordin Sparks
Because webpages are built one tag at a time; this is a nice reassuring song to play when you’re frustrated with a design. 😀
Nothin’ Better to Do – LeAnn Rimes
Because we actually have nothing better to do than to design and develop web pages–what could be better than affecting the internet with our talents?
Songs for the Design Process
For when you need a good groove to code to. 🙂
Invasion of the Gabber Robots – The Laziest Men on Mars
In the style of my previous Picture Week setup, I’m introducing “Song Week”–every blog post this week will feature a “playlist” of songs that fit the day’s topic. (You can play the songs directly from the blog posts, thanks to Youtube video embedding. :D)
I’m looking forward to this oh-so-musical blog week–stay tuned! (Literally!)
Last Friday, my music teacher, Mrs. Myrtle Mashburn, passed away at the age of 97, having taught more than seven decades’ worth of piano and voice pupils over her long career of teaching and enjoying music.
As one of those many students, I came to the visitation and the funeral flooded with memories of my eight years spent studying piano and voice with her during my elementary, middle, and high school years. And I thought: “What better way to honor her publicly than to write about her impact on my life in my weekly “creativity” article?”
How I Met Mrs. Mashburn
This amazing lady not only taught me piano and voice, but she had also taught my dad to play the piano 40 years earlier. When I was a kid and beginning to show interest in learning to play the piano, Mrs. Mashburn was the first person my dad thought of, and we were all pleasantly surprised to find that she was still teaching piano and voice at the age of 79.
So my first memories of Mrs. Mashburn came down to me through Dad’s retellings, even before I met her officially. Dad remembered her as an energetic, encouraging younger teacher; the lady I met was simply a white-haired version of that unbeatable spirit, showing her joy in music not only by playing it herself, but by teaching others how to play and enjoy it as well.
As a girl of 10, I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that she was so “old” by the world’s standards, and yet seemed no older than my parents. But that was Mrs. Mashburn’s personality–the years just didn’t seem to affect her mind or her hands, even as they affected the rest of her health a rare few times. She maintained a lively (and fairly large) group of private piano and voice students every year, even into the summers, and held recitals at the end of every school year.
Favorite Memories
Mrs. Mashburn recognized from the beginning that I had a good ear for music, but when she discovered I was relying on that ear a little too much and not learning how to read music properly, she sought to fix that, working with me on really learning how each note was written on the page. Even though I disliked trying to read the notes off the page at first (it was so much slower than just hearing the music and playing it back), she reminded me that if I didn’t learn these notes, I would always be dependent on someone else to play the music for me first. “You learned to read books quickly–your parents told me–so I know you can learn to read music just as easily,” she said, without a shred of doubt in her voice.
That certainty never wavered, even as I grew up and sometimes got out of the habit of practicing as much as I should have. Another of my favorite memories comes from a practice session in which I royally screwed up a difficult piece of music, and a curse word slipped out before I was aware I had spoken. I realized what I’d said a half-second later, and in the middle of apologizing all over myself, she burst into laughter, saying, “It’s nothing I haven’t heard before! Just start back at measure 38 and go from there–it’s all right.” She was great at handling mistakes, even off the keys. 🙂
The yearly recitals Mrs. Mashburn held generated another memory; one of the youngest piano students froze up during a recital and couldn’t get past a certain part of the piece she was trying to play. She tried a couple of times, and she looked like she was about to cry, and then Mrs. Mashburn came up and whispered something to her. I don’t know what it was, but the little girl’s face brightened, and she started the piece again–this time finishing it! The situation could have been so awkward, but somehow, Mrs. Mashburn knew what to say so that she would encourage and not embarrass the little girl. It was a sweet moment, and one that brings tears to my eyes remembering it. :’)
I remember that we always had a good mix of ages at recitals–there were always students who were just beginning, some who were fairly far along but still learning, and then the about-to-graduate crowd who were already so awesome. 🙂 Though we often didn’t see each other much except for at recitals, Mrs. Mashburn always encouraged us to be supportive of each other and helpful. Even when her health began to fail (arthritis, especially), she never seemed to hesitate in taking on a new student and working with him or her to teach them the same joy of music that she felt. And believe me, each of us students understood how wonderful music could be when she taught it!
What I’ll Miss Most
In a very real sense, Mrs. Mashburn brought together a little mini-community of music students and performers, across the decades. At her funeral on Monday, two-thirds of the 100+ people present were her former students, ranging in age from early twenties to mid-seventies (at least!)–we were all bound together by the music and the life of this one woman, who had guided us in how to play music, as well as encouraging us in our own personal studies of music. I don’t know if anybody else could do what she did…she was remarkable.
I’ll miss her dedication and joy the most, though I know she’s gone back to accompany the angels in their hymns. I hope I’ve done her life credit; to be caught up in that energy and love of music, even for a short while, made such a wonderful difference in my life. Thank you, Mrs. Mashburn, for giving us all that gift. 🙂
Can an App Improve Social Skills?
An app that makes you meet up with other people and talk to them? HMM…not sure if this will improve social skills or cause widespread panic attacks. LOL
As a child of the 90s with a preference for Nintendo games, I was raised on the SNES, N64, and Gamecube, with occasional bouts on the Playstation 1 and even a Sega GameGear (handheld game system) for a brief time. So it’s little surprising to learn that many of my memorable childhood gaming moments come from that period of gaming, when it seemed every game side-scrolled, and controllers were physically attached to the console.
However, not all those memories are the most pleasant; some are annoying, some are frustrating, and some are downright laughable. Without further ado, here’s a short, audiovisual trip down “Argh! Not AGAIN!” Memory Lane. 😛
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Tune the following video to about 1:25 and you’ll see why Baby Mario infuriated me (as well as many other gamers). With that insistent crying, Baby Mario could potentially qualify as a teen pregnancy deterrent. xD
I was primarily a “button-masher” on fighting games like Soul Calibur 2 for the Gamecube…which meant that the science of doing combos went over my head, completely. Oh, sure, I could press all the buttons in sequence, but it would be in slow motion. Occasionally I would get a lucky combo to trigger (unlike on Mortal Kombat, next video down), but more often than not I stuck to “A does this, B does that, and A and B together do this.”
I had the same problem on Mortal Kombat–I’m not sure I ever got a combo to trigger on that game, because I was always too slow. Either that, or the quarter-circle and half-circle Control Stick commands messed me up. (This is a beginner tutorial, but it illustrates most of the combos, and their difficulty.)
Just recently, I found out I never truly finished StarFox 64. Why? Because I quit trying to fly through all those silly arches on the Corneria level! (Tune the following video to 2:30 to see them in action.)
As an 11-year-old, I found it difficult to maneuver the ship on the first couple of passes, and when I advanced to the next level without flying through them, I figured “well, it was probably only a level decoration anyway.” Some level decoration, huh? LOL!
Bonus: Other Annoying Moments Not Captured on YouTube
Getting almost to the end of a MarioKart 64 race in 1st place, only to be hit by a Spiny Shell in the last curve
Getting all the way to the end of a stage and dying before you can save (any game)
Making a series of epic jumps onto tiny platforms, only to get to the last jump and miss it, falling all the way back to the bottom (Super Mario World)
Being left behind by the uncontrollable side-scrolling screen and dying (any side-scrolling game)
Trying to get through an area quickly (without getting into any Pokemon battles)–and of course, that’s the moment you run into EVERY SINGLE TRAINER in the area. (any Pokemon game)
Making Diddy Kong do a super-awesome chain of cartwheels…straight off a cliff edge. (Donkey Kong Country)
What are your most irritating gaming moments from childhood? Tell me in the comments, and share the LOL!
1 Peter 2:9 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
In this verse, Peter is not just talking to priests, preachers, bishops, Sunday school teachers, deacons, or anybody else who’s got a leadership role in the modern church. Peter is addressing anyone and everyone who has ever accepted Christ as their Savior.
You might argue, “But I’m only a new convert,” or “But I don’t lead in the church, so I’m not really an important person.” No one is left out of this call; every person is important to God, whether they’ve been in the church all their lives or whether they just got saved.
It doesn’t matter what gifts you have or don’t have, or what kind of personality you have, either–God still wants you for his “royal priesthood,” for this “holy nation.” Just as the ancient nation of Israel represented God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, now the modern Christian church represents God’s people in today’s time. If you’ve ever accepted Christ and meant it in your heart, you’re part of that group of people.
But what does this grand call mean? It means that every saved person is a leader of the faith already. Whether we realize it or not, our every action, word, and thought is a witness to other people. Being a Christian is not a one-time commitment, but a lifelong commitment; we cannot let ourselves accidentally drive others away from God rather than bring them to Him.
Every Christian has a testimony, a personal experience of God. We are called to share this testimony, to talk about how much Jesus has made a positive difference in our lives. I experienced that “being called out of darkness into light” for myself, and I know how powerfully changing that was. Peter calls all Christians to share these stories and praise God for bringing us each out of our own darkness.
As late as 4:00 yesterday, I resisted working on the next part of the closet, which I’d ambitiously assigned myself last week. Procrastination plus a stomach bug and a series of headaches kept me away from the task, and by Monday afternoon I was seriously doubting whether I’d even have a blog post for you this morning.
I even parodied this song with a few appropriate lyrics:
“Looking at the closet,
Feeling down, down, down
Looking at the closet,
Whew! Don’t wanna work now
Looking at the closet
Feeling down, down, down
Looking at the closet,
Whew! Don’t wanna work now
5:00 in the evening
I gotta get this blog post done
Lord, I’m so tired
I don’t wanna start this now
Because I’m looking at the closet
Feeling down, down, down
Looking at the closet,
Whew! Don’t wanna work now…”
LOL! But after staring at the huge mess that awaited me within the closet for a few minutes, trying to psych myself up to tackle it, my thoughts took a different tack. “What’s keeping me from working on this, really?” I wondered. “What’s so daunting about this?”
Then, my eye lit on this area, directly in front of one of the closet doors:
This pile of junk has been sitting in front of the closet door for a good while now (at least 3 years), and it blocks the door from swinging completely open. Plus, it makes standing in front of the closet very awkward. In a way, I dreaded working on the bottom section of the closet because I knew I would not have room to work or to even stand comfortably, let alone get anything constructive done.
So I decided to fix that, with the little amount of energy I had left to my name after the week I’ve had. If I couldn’t do the bottom of the closet this week, I reasoned, then at least I could remove the last obstacle to getting it clean so I could do better next time.
Picking Up, Cleaning Up, Et Cetera, Et Cetera
I began by picking up all the items from the floor, throwing away all the obvious trash and paper clutter as I did so, until my bed was covered again with keepable items:
Yeah, that all came from that area behind and kind of on top of the TV. Amazing how much JUNK I can cram into such few square feet of space! XD
LOOK AT THAT! I FOUND MY CARPET!!! [/inordinate amount of excitement]
But seriously, folks, this is the first time I’ve seen that corner’s carpet in several years. Once all the keepable stuff was up out of the way, and all the big garbage was dealt with, I could actually see the floor. Small victory, but a victory nonetheless!
Side Quest: Sweeping Up Packing Peanuts and Other Floor Clutter
Unfortunately, not only had I found my carpet, but I had also found a huge mess of packing peanuts back behind the TV. The only thing I can figure: at some point in the (distant) past, I had a shipping box full of packing peanuts set on top of the TV, and the box had overturned at least partially. The box was likely carted off, but the packing peanuts hid in the corner, just waiting for me to find them.
Yep, packing peanuts plus a few other random trash items…this was what lay behind the TV.
So I set about sweeping all these little nuggets up and out of the way, recruiting a broom, dustpan, and a tall kitchen trash can for the job. (Pro tip: get small floor clutter out of the way ASAP, otherwise you’re going to end up tripping over it the whole time you’re trying to get the “big stuff” done. Learn from my fail.)
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate packing peanuts? Especially when they randomly jump away from the broom because of static electricity, and end up underneath other furniture, underneath your feet, and pretty much everywhere BUT the dustpan? *sigh* LOL
Getting Back to Business
But finally, after lots of sweeping (and grumbling), I had a clean corner behind the TV. Now, all I needed to do was to move the TV so that the closet door could finally swing open fully.
…Yeah, you can see what began to happen as I moved the TV. Small closet avalanche, ahoy! xD But at least the door could finally swing open, which is a small miracle in my room these days.
With both doors now free to swing open, I took the liberty of arranging hanging hooks so that I could use the hanging space temporarily.
Newly-freed Closet Door #2 is now an impromptu coat closet, at least till I can make room for these coats elsewhere in the house.
As you can see, the doors do not close fully because of the junk still left on the floor of the closet (which I was too exhausted to start tackling yesterday). But they DO open fully, allowing me lots of room to work when I do start working on it!
Random Stuff I Found While Cleaning
The corner of the room seemed to be a trove of hidden gems. For instance:
I found this little beauty (an old half-dollar coin) trapped partly underneath the TV. 😀
This candle holder screen, with electronic candles, was a gift several Christmases ago–a gift which I thought I’d misplaced permanently. YAY for finding stuff! (Double wow: it’s not broken! :O)
Also found: a hoard of super-old makeup. This dates back to at least early high school (1999-2000). Need to toss, much? LOL
The Fruits of My Labors
After a little repositioning and closet configuration…
The corner was finally finished, or at least finished enough for now. At last, there’s space for the closet doors to swing open, and I can finally begin work on the bottom of the closet, where childhood lies in wait for me. 😛
Stay Tuned!
Next time, the bottom of that closet WILL be tackled. Hopefully. “Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise,” as my Nannie used to say. LOL!
I’ve been prone to a few boneheaded design/development decisions since I began teaching myself HTML in the fall of 2003. We all have those moments, as webdesigners and as human beings–we all have huge foul-ups that we look back on later and laugh.
But this one, as you’ll see, takes the cake for “dumbest design ever;” it was July 2005, a scant year and a half after I had begun webdesign, and I attempted something I’d never done before (and haven’t done since).
The Infamous “Pink Layout”
This was my fourth layout for my domain, WithinMyWorld.org. Yes, yes, I know, you’re probably recoiling from your screen in horror right now. xD
Why might I consider this the “dumbest” design choice I’ve ever made? There are actually a few reasons:
This layout used a color I absolutely abhor. I have hated pink, especially this Barbie shade, since I was a little girl, and I think my hatred for the color bled into the layout.
I put in several images on this layout, but they were used in strange places (even underneath the content), which ultimately distracted user attention from the important bits of the site and made content difficult to read.
I flung the navigation far to the left in this layout, as if it was in “Time-Out” or something. Users ended up having to hunt for the navigation instead of easily being able to click around my site.
The largest text on the screen (specifically, “Within My World” and “Navigation”) used Scriptina, which is a gorgeous font. Unfortunately, I made it very difficult to read, especially the way I have it formatted with drop shadows and the like. Combined with the images and eye-searing color choices, the layout became just too “much.”
Basically, I went overboard with this layout in every way–I tried to stretch my designing wings and ended up about knocking the nest out of the tree, it seems. xD
How Can We Learn from This?
Acknowledging a foul-up is the first step to learning from it. Now that I’ve used this as a negative example, how can we learn better design from this?
Choose colors carefully.
When trying to choose a thematic color for your site, make sure the color fits your site and doesn’t detract from your content. In my case, the pink of this layout was not only an unfavorite color, but was also an overpowering color, taking away the attention that my content deserved.
It also didn’t fit the purpose of my site–this color belongs more on a fashion and beauty site/blog, or a breast-cancer awareness site. Color does more than just sit on a page; it symbolizes your content in ways you may not even be aware of. Making the most of those color associations can help your users categorize and enjoy your site more.
Use layout images to highlight content.
In this layout, I put images everywhere but where they needed to be. Nothing draws the user’s eye to the content–instead, your eye roams all over the place, not finding anywhere to really settle.
Instead, place detailed, eye-catching images within your content to further explain it, or place a few symbolic images in your header to make your site’s purpose clear without being distracting.
Put navigation in a highly-visible spot.
Don’t do what I did and push your site navigation out to the middle of nowhere. Navigation, like content, needs to be readily available so that users can actually USE your site. I kinda forgot about that when I was designing this page, and my site suffered as a result.
Ensure that your fonts are readable (even the decorative ones).
Beautiful fonts are awesome, but only when wisely used and formatted. Like I described earlier, Scriptina looks lovely, but I didn’t format it and use it to the best of its potential. What could have been graceful and light ended up chunky and almost illegible in parts.
When you’re choosing fonts for your site, whether it’s part of a decorative header or part of your page’s font selection, make sure your users can read them and that they won’t detract from the words those fonts are printing on screen. Those fonts are meant to communicate, not just look pretty!
When you clean out cluttered spaces, as I’ve been doing for the last four weeks, inevitably you end up finding items that you haven’t used in a while, or don’t need for their original purpose anymore.
But, instead of spending a ton of money re-buying things you think you need, you might be able to keep more of your money in your pocket by repurposing all the surprising treasures you’ve uncovered. This is where creativity comes into play–it’s an unusual outlet for creativity, I grant you that, but if it saves you money in the long run, why not try a few of these tips?
Step 1: Quick-Evaluate Every Item
While you’re cleaning out, give every item you find a once-over, and mentally answer the following questions:
Is it warped/broken beyond repair?
Is it too dirty to ever think of using it again?
Is it unable to be cleaned/sanitized?
These are “deal-breaker” conditions for repurposing. If it’s too broken or dirty, it may be better to just throw it out instead of wasting time trying to save it. (Trust me, sometimes it’s just not worth the effort…LOL)
However, if you run across an item that doesn’t meet any of this criteria, set it aside (preferably in a different room so you don’t accidentally throw it away) and keep working. Once you’re finished sorting clutter, come back to your gathered items for Step 2.
Step 2: What Could This Item Be?
Now for a little bit more evaluation–this time, you’re studying each item a little more closely. If you no longer want to use it for its original purpose, what could it be instead?
To jump-start your own “thinking-outside-the-box” repurposing process, here’s a couple of repurposing examples from my own cleanout sessions:
Example #1: The Towel Rack Turned Scrunchie Holder
I found this brushed-metal standing fingertip towel rack on clearance at Walmart and bought it, but it sat unused for a while…that is, until I realized I needed a way to display my hair scrunchies without having them strung all over the place.
I needed something to thread them on, something that was sturdy enough to hold them all but didn’t require me to dig through a box to find them. (This pic shows only a small sample of how many scrunchies I have…yes, I’m a child of the ’90s, why do you ask? LOL)
I’m aware that the terrible quality of this pic makes this look like a clown wig gone mad (LOL)…but this is actually how the towel rack looks with all my scrunchies threaded onto it. It works great for organization, looks nifty in the bathroom, and keeps all my scrunchies from getting lost/dirty.
Example #2: The Spice Rack Turned Perfume/Lotion Display
When I redid my bathroom organization, I ended up with a lot of perfume and lotion bottles, and nowhere to store them–or, should I say, no attractive way to store and display them. On a hunch, I went and bought this painted-metal spice rack from Walmart, noting that it had three stacking levels which left a little room for items underneath.
…And here’s the way it functions in my bathroom, holding all the perfume and lotion bottles I own. The graduated levels mean that I’m no longer trying to reach around several bottles to get to one; the bit of storage space underneath serves to tuck away countertop necessities when I need to.
Step 3: Prepare the Item for Its New Life
After you’ve figured out what you want the item to become, clean it up (dust, sanitize, etc.) and make sure it won’t break or come apart when it’s being used for its new purpose. The cleaning/sanitizing part is very important–you don’t want your “new” item making you sick! Also, if it’s got any small pieces that could pop off unexpectedly, check those and make sure those are reinforced. No need for any unpleasant surprises when you’re using your newfound item!
Once you’ve cleaned it up and made sure it’s tough enough to withstand a second life, you’re ready to put your old-new item to work! 😀
Summary
Cleaning and decluttering doesn’t have to mean that you’re throwing away everything. In fact, if you repurpose a few things as you clean and declutter, you can save yourself the trouble of having to re-buy materials in the first place. Always a good thing when you can save money and trouble!
Hand Drawings, All Made with a Pencil
Highly detailed pictures of people…except they’re sketches, not photography. Easy to mistake it, though…this person has serious talents!
DIY Beaded Bracelet
Making a beaded bracelet for yourself is just this easy! Complete (and pictorial) instructions here!
