Archive for July, 2006
Things I don’t know a thing about: #457
July 28, 2006 | Filed under: La Madre
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” ~Albert Einstein
Brought to you by:
Miriam Verburg
Tiffany Brown
Or: Design/Style/Customization/I seriously think I just deleted my template. HELP!
Preface: BabyJewels designed my blog. It’s purty and so very me. Contrary to popular belief it was her idea for the picture of Pam, the tagline, the colors. All I said was “Please don’t make this shit Pepto Bismol pink. Thanks” She did the rest and she did quite the fantastic job. Again, with the emails that end in ‘Sucka!’ I love it and now it’s just my thing. The picture of Pam is my thing and if you steal my tagline or Pam I will come after you sucka! And there is some customization for ya.
Other than that I know nothing about designing anything. I just figured out what CSS stands for. I fear that one day Pam will get a little old and I’ll probably cry then beg for help. So, guess what! I’m going to learn to help myself! Amazing!
Session:
Before I start this I should admit something, I know I just said that I knew what CSS stands for, but I don’t. I am a liar.
Moving on…
I’m laughing because Mir just asked who in the room knows about HTML coding is…I’m the only one in the room who answered that I don’t know anything about HTML. What does HTML mean? I’m already confused.
To be covered: Whether or not to do it yourself? Ummmmmm…yeah. I guess it should be OK if I’m severely inept. Mir just suggested a Pow Wow during cocktail hour. Yes! CSS coding over a vodka tonic! Of course!
If one decides to not DIY who should you go with? Someone advanced? Which will be more money but they have the benefits of experience they are also professional. With a less experienced designer there is the risk of that person learning as they are going along and suddenly your ’salmon pink’ background looks like someone puked up pepto bismol on your blog. But I guess some may enjoy that.
When I needed a new template, I gave no specifications, and I got ridiculously lucky and I love it. But don’t do that. Like, ever. Be specific, define what you are looking for which will help both you and the developer also include a budget. I got mine for free, but that probably won’t happen on the next go round.
It is the designer/developers responsibility to install and produce design and technology elements as well as keep work up to standards and communicate (!!) with their client…and of course finish on time. The client is responsible to provide required content and to give feedback when requested.
Ok, now to the technical stuff that I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. And Tiffany is talking at a normal person speed whereas I cannot keep up because I am trying to absorb and type and seriously, what does CSS mean?
Cascading style sheets. I feel better already.
But there will be a hands on section, which I do far better with, which I am going to safely assume that others work considerably better with as well.
Apparently most web designers begin with the same basic two column layout, by defining the margins and setting the body. It also means setting and defining the width of the page, so that no matter what browser is being used, the page will always have the same height/width.
Making the header involves H1 tags, the higher the tag number, the smaller the font becomes.
After a header is to set a navigating tool bar at the top of the page, for example in typepad, you can have an about page, links, etc.
Then the sidebar, which is the part that I always screw up and it’s very sad. And after the sidebar is the footer which isn’t all that exciting…oh, but copyright is very important and that is usually at the end of a page. Heed the copyright.
Apparently this is all very basic and Mir said that if there were a session on CSS Ninja, then she wouldn’t be doing it. Sadly for me, this feels like CSS Ninja, so I will become a slave to Mir and desperate for help.
Wait, did you know that you can use pictures instead of bullets for sidebar links?? Well, you can. (Learning and teaching the severely moronic is what BlogHer is all about kids)
If you go to photoshop and get a picture 16x 16 pixels you can replace the bullets to become stars or puppies or rainbows or a bottle of grey goose if you so please.
This entire session was done on slides which are to be available at the links below. I strongly suggest going there because I was too busy absorbing and wondering how I got a blog when I know nothing, to write half of the things that were said. I will be visiting their sites. You should too:
www.flinknet.com/blogher06
www.tiffanybbrown.com/blogher06
And now, we drink. A lot.
Posted by nopasanada @ 8:59 pm | 2 Comments
SheBlog: Uno
July 28, 2006 | Filed under: La Madre
Overwhelmed would be the best word for right now.
Monumentally overwhelmed. Yesterday in the airport I lamented to Peg as to why I thought this would be a good idea and despite the reservations I’m having fun and I’m good and hungover right now, but alas fucking overwhelmed and ridiculously hungry.
Funny story, I texted Peg about my present state last night and she texted back whether or not there were any “interesting black males”. I had to resist the urge to laugh outloud because oh my hell, I think there are more males than black females, which is both disheartening and interesting. So, there that is.
(notice how I’m trying to make up good coherent stories and yet nothing is coming because…just…jesus)
Also! I’m the reason that I’m able to even be here is because I’m live blogging sessions for the fine folks of BlogHer. Live blogging is hard. Very, very hard and I am very very tired and well, yeah. The end.
So! Who wants to pick out a quote for me?? Something that says “Why is she still writing, make her go away”. Capture the essence of my lameness right now. Whee.
P.S. Alice said that I’m adorable. And then I died.
Posted by nopasanada @ 2:34 pm | 4 Comments
So you have this crazy idea
July 28, 2006 | Filed under: La Madre
(I’m liveblogging for BlogHer…durrr…we’ll see how this goes)
“Every idea I get I have to deny, that’s my way of testing it.” ~Alain, Histoire de mes pensées
Brought to you by:
Melanie Morgan
Nancy White
Susannah Gardner
Lauren Gelman
Preface: Starting a Blog was a crazy idea and I’m still not sure whether or not it has worked out in the end. Regardless this is a crazy idea pertaining to Community blogging.
I love the so called “Mommy Bloggers”. Wonderful and amazing women that they are and you know why it works for them? Because they have each other. These women have not only had children – which is a monumental step in itself – but with their new found roles they are also in the midst of becoming acclimated to their new position as a Mama. Which is a truly fantastic thing and thus leading to community, after community, after community of moms trying to connect with other moms. I use them as an example because they are all vocal about the sense of companionship they have been able to find via their blogs.
When I began my blog as a recent college graduate I did it to find some sort of community and help with the ohmyholyhell feelings that I had..fuck, that I still have. And yet there was nothing. Thankfully through over the past 11 ½ months (!!!) I have met other women and men in the same age bracket going through the same difficult shit. Maybe not as difficult as becoming a parent but difficult nonetheless. I receive emails constantly from readers and other bloggers who searched for a 20’s blog and got to me (and I’ve apologized). Every time I write about something like my new found position in life I get a chorus of “OMG the same thing happened to me” which in turn makes me feel like I’ve done something to help.
Now that I think about it all it feels like a crazy and radical act to start a community based blog. Will it work? Will people care? How the hell would I even go about doing it? Which has led me to here at an ungodly hour learning about the ‘crazy idea’ of Community based blogging.
Session:
I am not a community blogger and to be honest I don’t feel as if I’m apart of anyone blogging community. Right now we are going around the room expressing what communities different women are apart of. And once again I am at a loss.
There are the ever popular mommy bloggers but obviously there is more out there. Right now women are going around the room giving ideas as to what they want to get from this session:
How do you move people to action and get them to work together on a project?
How to define the community? What is the purpose/scope/domain? What are the boundries?
How do you set up a community based blog with people who are offline?
What tools and technology to set up?
What are the legal questions?
Now that we’ve established what people want to learn about while in attendence our lovely and talented speakers are sharing their stories:
Lauren Gelman is a lawyer. Lawyers are scary, but she is not. Anyway her very demure nature is probably what helped her begin a community blog with women in law school who were feeling the unfortunate sting of being a woman in a male dominated environment. She is currently developing a community based blog which will be called ‘Ms. JD’ with a focus of what women will inevitably go through not only during law school but also in the interview process before and after.
Melanie Morgan started the New Media Collective at the end of Black History Month last February. She started it to ‘Close the digital divide’. She also started it because while perusing the blogosphere she saw very few people who looked like her (she’s black, FYI). Which is so ridiculously and sadly true - but that’s a whole different topic for another day. Anyway, that’s what her community blog is about, finding others who look like her and to get them involved.
Susannah kept it short and sweet (just how I like it). She is a tech blogger answering questions about…umm…technology (I’m awful at this, I know) answering questions about using computers in the pool and was once even asked a tech question by her doctor. During that very special exam that all women love. The end.
Nancy started her community forum called ‘Share your story’ for parents who have premature children in the NICU sort of as a support group type thing. Within her first days there were 150 subscribers.
So, now we are moving into breakout sessions which I cannot bring my laptop to because my wireless sucks ass and so this will be continued….(I’m sure you are all are waiting with baited breath)
I think the underlying aspect of community based blogging is the architecture of the site one wishes to create. Blogging in general is a form of information sharing and some would say therapeutic (present company included). Whether or not you do it anonymously, it forces you to own up to your feelings and your words.
That said, the ‘Best Ideas’ of this session of crazy ideas…:
- Ask people/potential members what they want out of a community
- What is the defining purpose for both the individual and the community as a whole
- What is the commitment to the community
- Using memes as a call to action
- Use of multiple media i.e Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo
- Once a community is established, how do you humanize interaction?
- Engage all senses
- Identify or creat heartbeat moments in time for focus, scheduled things
- competitive analysis what is already out there and not replicate
- different ways to keep people motivated
- Setting expectations low for people
- creat community by making it fun, email groups, offline meetups
- sending rewards for going through process, teach someone to be involved when they are afraid of the word blog.
- how to recruit community members
- decentralizing control
- choosing platforms, migrating to new platforms
- integrating third party tools
So! Friends, romans…there you have it. An almost coherent (me being the incoherent one) little summary of starting community based blogging.
Now, we dine.
Posted by nopasanada @ 2:31 pm | 4 Comments
San ho*
July 26, 2006 | Filed under: La Madre
“I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change…. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.” ~Erica Jong
*A term stolen from
Posted by nopasanada @ 12:52 pm | 10 Comments
Mason Dixon
July 25, 2006 | Filed under: La Madre
“No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within the confines of your head.” ~Terry Josephson
El Padre is from Birmingham. A child of 1950’s and 60’s Birmingham. It shocks me that he came out of it both alive and relatively unscathed. Though he does have a completely rational fear of Emmett Till, hell I won’t even Google that name unless I have my eyes closed. Hands covering the screen. In 8th grade I attended a NAACP dinner with Peg that Emmett’s mother spoke at. Outside of the grand concourse at the Egg was a full display of pictures from his untimely and horrific death. I didn’t sleep for a week. But yes, Birmingham: The home of Bull Connor and not so friendly firemen who used hoses on small children as opposed to bombed black Churches.
El Padre is from Birmingham. A child of 1950’s and 60’s Birmingham. It shocks me that he came out of it both alive and relatively unscathed. Though he does have a completely rational fear of Emmett Till, hell I won’t even Google that name unless I have my eyes closed. Hands covering the screen. In 8th grade I attended a NAACP dinner with Peg that Emmett’s mother spoke at. Outside of the grand concourse at the Egg was a full display of pictures from his untimely and horrific death. I didn’t sleep for a week. But yes, Birmingham: The home of Bull Connor and not so friendly firemen who used hoses on small children as opposed to bombed black Churches.
Peg is from West Virginia. The daughter of a former coal miner. She didn’t live there for as long as El Padre lived in terror of Birmingham, but still from the south just the same. When she was five, her house was run over by a mixing truck. I made her tell me that story every night before bed.
They both still say such gems like “Mama and them” and El Padre uses “Y’all” on an almost daily basis. Sadly, the raised children who are not the least bit Southern. Children who are proficient skiers and actually can appreciate a good old fashioned snow day. When it snows here, I lament on how lame the Federal Government can be. I mean, it’s only seven inches. Plow that shit, put some salt down and be on your merry way.
Because of them, when I am inebriated – as I will most assuredly be this coming weekend – I too can revert to this Southern accent I didn’t know I had. Everything becomes slow and deliberate and there’s a twang. My God, a twang.
*****
A few months ago, I was driving through South Eastern Pennsylvania. Rural, real rural. Children of the Corn type shit that would scare that forced me to hold my breath through the woods and past the abandoned sheds and farm machinery. Every tall and sturdy tree I passed, I envisioned my eventual lynching.
As I kept driving, I finally saw a familiar sign. I let out a sigh of relief and my heart slowly started to beat at a normal pace again. It was a pillar of hope: “Mason-Dixon Line” is what the sign read. And when I crossed it headed south back into Maryland, I had never been so elated to not end up chopped up in the middle of a Wheat field in east bumble fuck PA.
I told someone about it the next day and quipped that while it has been customary for blacks to be happy about getting North of the famed line, I had apparently chosen that moment to mark one of the few times that a black person has been monumentally relieved to be headed South of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Posted by nopasanada @ 9:07 pm | 3 Comments
