So the economy is tough right now, and for those of us that work in non-profits and churches, it becomes an especially hard time as people’s “discretionary” giving goes down. Elevation Church did an awesome video called “Yule-Tithe Greetings” and from a communications perspective, it’s a light-hearted way to say, “we still need you to give!” Great job Elevation Church!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been to a couple conferences that deal with my main field of web development. I’ve come out of these sessions with great ideas and given the fuel I need to keep going.
But I walked into my office the other day and realized that I need to design a creative space to work in! I spent last night checking out bookshelves at IKEA, looking for prints at AllPosters.com, and checking out paint sites to get an idea of cool colors for my office. I was getting kind of bummed because I couldn’t find anything that fit my style.
So with some motivation, I hopped on my bike and rode down to the Carmel International Arts Festival (www.carmelartsfestival.org). I was looking from tent to tent looking for stuff and then I came across Trudy’s booth. I was so excited to see some of her work because to me, it inspires creativity, fun, and the casual look I was going for. Here are the three prints I bought.
I’m thinking I may have to go see her for more prints, but for now, those were the three that I really loved. To see more of her work and to order, you can visit her on the web at www.TruDysigns.com. She has drawings of your favorite college campuses (IU, PU, Notre Dame), places around Indianapolis, and so much more.
Now if I can only figure out what colors to paint my office… sigh… Oh well, my jambalaya is ready to be consumed and it’s a beautiful day, so I’ll worry about my office later.
Back in 1995, long before Facebook and MySpace, a site called Classmates.com popped up… it was one of the first “social networking” sites. Sure, places existed on the internet to connect (chat rooms, message boards, reunion sites), but Classmates.com made it easy.I signed up for Classmates.com around the year 2000 before I graduated college. Since I didn’t have Facebook or MySpace, it was a great way to see what my friends were up to, unfortunately, to see any real information or make contact, you have to pay. Unfortunately, Classmates.com hasn’t evolved with the times. I am now more connected to my friends in Facebook than I am in Classmates.com.If you look through Facebook, you may notice that the Class of 2001 going forward to today are heavy users of Facebook, while the pre-2001 classes don’t typically have Facebook because it wasn’t around when they were in college (or they were one of the select schools to be on the Facebook platform prior to 2001).
As we look toward the future of the internet, the classmates.com model of having a subscription-based service just isn’t feasible. As soon as new competitors come out with free ad-supported services, they will see a drop in subscribers as those of us who are part of the MySpace/Facebook boom don’t typically have Classmates.com on our radars.
So why am I writing a blog about this out-dated service that I no longer use? Because even though I signed up in 2000, I am starting to get e-mails again from this ancient company. They even claim that I have people writing me or viewing my profile, although from reports I’ve read on the internet, a lot of those are SPAM. There’s not even a way to check to see if it’s SPAM or not unless you sign up for a subscription… WHICH, Classmates.com is notoriously known for automatically renewing your membership and making it hard to cancel.
Kiel’s advice, stay away from Classmates.com. If you’re in the class of 2001, your best bet is to get hooked up with Facebook, which is now open to everyone. If you’re pre-2001, you may have luck with Facebook and possibly better luck with MySpace.
So I’m feeling brave now, I’m going to login to Classmates.com and say hasta la vista baby!
If you’re like me, you leave iTunes (or another player) in the background as you work. Being a music lover, I can usually tell what song is playing after listening to the first two seconds. Unfortunately, many cannot. I’ve been looking for a plug-in that will flash the song title, artist, album, and coverart at the beginning of each new song. There used to be a good plug-in for Yahoo! Widgets, but it is no longer supported. So, let me introduce you to “CD Art Display” (download). It’s pretty customizable if you go in and mess with it. I personally didn’t want all the bells and whistles, so I have it display the basic information:
I personally keep the program on the screen at all the times, but you can customize it so it pops up for a certain amount of time (first five seconds, etc.). It’s just a really cool little program that I think all of you should check out! And don’t worry, it supports various players (including Windows Media Player, iTunes, WinAmp and others).
