So yes, as the title clearly states it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged. Honestly, I don’t have a reason as to why I stopped other than life got busy and writing was the last thing I wanted to do.
To update everyone, I’m now working at Netflix in customer service. I’ve passed the 2 week training period and am now currently in the midst of the 45 day trial run. I think I’m doing good, but who knows. One thing I can say for sure is that I friggen love talking to Netflix customers. 99% of the people that are calling in aren’t pissed off. Yes, there is always that remaining percentage but compared to the rest of the day, it’s a breeze. I do miss working from home though especially since the hours at work right now are tough to deal with. But that’s changing here soon as well.
Other than the new work thing, the family and I have been trying to find places to live in the Beaverton area. Close to my work and to most of our friends/family. So far we haven’t had much luck. Hardly any place has A/C out here. We’ve seen a few places we’ve liked, but haven’t been able to land one that’s a downstairs with a washer/dryer and a 3 bedroom. Everyone seems to have 2 bedrooms though. And we need the 3rd bedroom so Dustin has his own work space since he’s now working from home. But blarg enough about house searching.
For those of you that may have missed it, Amelia turned 1 on July 20th! Here’s the link to the photo gallery of that day: Amelia’s first birthday. She shared her party with her friend Jeffy who was born 4 days before her. They had an awesome time! Jeffy’s Grandma Kathy set the whole thing up and even made the train cakes herself. I can’t express how grateful I am for Kathy taking care of everything. There was much cake and hyperactive babies for all!
Amelia also has had some pretty awesome developments. She has about 10-12 teeth now, the backs ones have all started to come through. She’s beginning to repeat words. Dustin was telling me the other day how she repeated the word bumble bee back to him while he was reading to her, so super excited about that. She’s still running around like crazy and of course is still super cute. At her 1 year old check up we found out she’s still underweight at a measly 17.5lbs. Our new doctor is having us put her on more formula to try and beef her up, but I don’t know. She’s eating, she’s developing, she’s almost talking for goodness sakes, so I don’t know why we have to keep her on the formula still. Our previous doctor was telling us that this is about the time you start to ween your kid off of milk. So ugh, I don’t know who to believe. We’ve increased her milk intake, but I honestly doubt it’ll have any effect with as much as she runs around and burns off calories. We go back in a few weeks though, so we’ll see if she’s packed on any pounds.
Man, it’s 2:24am already. Guess it’s time to shut down the ole compy and head to bed. Hopefully, this time I can get some uninterrupted sleep lol.
Your Site Sucks
How to tell a graphic designer their site needs work.
Let me preface this with a disclaimer: This is a humorous post. Don’t get mad as the references I am making are most likely about you. =p
“Check out my awesome site!” Says one graphic designer to another. All a flutter with expectation the second designer takes a look and with a few simple words creates the feud of a century. “What the fuck is that?” Lines are suddenly drawn in the cubical isles. The air crackles with heated glares until finally the graphic designer war begins. “Simple and clean!” Yells the first. “Shiny and futuristic!” Screams the second. And then off in the corner a well meaning but completely clueless designer jumps up and declares, “STAR BURSTS!!!” A hush falls over the combatants and all eyes turn to that lone soul who now quivers with fear. Ah yes, it’s 8am on a Monday morning. Do you know where your designers are?
While not all graphic designer conflicts can be as cool as ours, it does pose that interesting question of how do you tell someone you don’t like their site? Especially if you are both designers? Clearly everyone has their own personal styles and it can be pretty hard to take advice. But it’s also equally hard to give advice and not feel as though you are stepping on everyone’s toes. So here’s a couple of tips I like to use myself.
The Butter Up
Not everything has to be a conflict or an automatic dislike. The site could have a lot of merit but just lack a few key items that might make it pop. The key here is to mention the artists previous designs and why you may have liked them more than this current endeavor. Using the word “spoiled” is also highly recommended. IE: “To be honest, I liked your last site better. It had an amazing wow factor! I guess you’ve just spoiled me with that one.” Instant butter makes everything smooth.
Lets Just Tweak It
The goal of “Lets just tweak it” is to slowly nick-pick away at things until it’s what you wanted it to be in the first place. Sometimes this creates an entirely different end product than the original. This is known as the Behind The Back Tweaksies. Very dangerous if left in the wrong hands. IE: “You know, what if we moved this phrase here and then moved that image over to the left a bit. Good good. Now lets just flip this over here and that right there and bam! Look at that beautiful BMW site.” Original Designer, ” Wait, what? My site was about Narwhals!!”
Friggen Leave It Alone
This is one of the greatest tools yet often the least used. It’s not your design so friggen leave it alone! Sometimes you just have to back off and realize that not everyone can be as awesome as you and therefore must be left to fend for themselves. There are hundreds even thousands of websites out there and chances are there will always be ones that will make you cringe and attempt to suppress the inevitable gag reflex. Chances are also that you probably aren’t looking at one of those, you nick picking, smart mouthed graphic designer nerf herder! Yeah I said it.
So that’s my insider view on how to handle these types of situations. Sometimes you might need some good ole butter, other days you may need the tweaksies, but more than likely you should always use the leave it alone card.