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. 
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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).
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So I was sitting around thinking of something to do on Saturday when I thought to myself, “hey, I’ll have Jake drive up from Bloomington.” Well, apparently he had somewhat of the same idea, except that he thought that I should drive down to Bloomington. So what did we do? We met in the middle at Gray Bros. Cafeteria.
I have heard about Gray Bros. in passing, but it’s in Mooresville and I rarely make it down that way. But I have to say, I was not disappointed. The reason I labeled this post “not just for old people” is because I remember when we had a Laughner’s Cafeteria on E. 86th Street, across from the fire station. One of my grandparents’ rituals was to drive to Indianapolis from Lebanon every Friday evening, have dinner at Laughner’s, and then come over to our house for TGIF on ABC. So whenever I ate at Laughner’s it was typically with my grandparents.
So I knew that Gray’s had to be good, because I couldn’t find a spot in the parking lot. Jake had mistakenly gone to Poe Bros. by mistake, but he noted that they didn’t seem nearly as busy. Well, we walked in and it was very warm and inviting. There are fireplaces throughout the restaurant and it’s bigger than I thought. I was shocked when I turned the corner for the line and saw how long it is. I think people in Mooresville really love their cafeterias! It took about 5-10 minutes just for us to get to the serving line, but it was also a good time to scope out what was being served that night.
I have to tell you, just looking at the dessert section was extremely tempting… all kinds of pies, made from scratch! They had a pretty good selection of other food this night: fried chicken, roast round of beef, noodles, white meat chicken tenders, baked cod, fried chicken livers (yuck!), country fried chicken, fried shrimp tenderloin, fried pork tenderloin, and lasagna. It was glorious!
Jake and I both decided to go with the country fried chicken with a side of mashed potatoes, gravy, and macaroni and cheese…. and we both went for the banana creme pie. It was delicious and filled us up… both our bills came to around $10 for a good portion of food.
The atmosphere was very warm, felt like home (if your home has lots of tables and at least three fireplaces), and the wait staff did good keeping our drinks filled. We both chose Gray Bros. honestly because it was an hour drive from Bloomington and an hour’s drive for me from the northside of Indianapolis. But it was a good choice and I would definitely recommend that if you’re on your way down to IU or have a little time, drive down to Mooresville and check out Gray Bros… it’s pretty sweet. Their website is http://www.graybrotherscatering.com/. From there you can check out their catering business and check out what’s on the menu for the week. Are you hungry yet?
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