Heading in a cool direction

Lately, I’ve been feeling really confident about my skills. I’ve been learning a lot of new ones and discovering what I think I am best at. Not only that, but I am figuring out what I really like and what I think I could really do with my life.

While working on a project for one of my journalism classes, I got offered a mini-job doing some PR work. Nothing too serious- mostly just setting up some social media for the client, but it’s pretty exciting to have been considered for the job. It just goes to show that connections are really the way to work the world these days.

Also, my mother connected me with a woman she works with to work on some newsletters and postcards for the company (it’s a real estate company). Having my mother as a reference is a little weird, but I was basically a shoe-in for the internship because of her, so I can’t complain. That internship is working out really well so far and has been a lot of fun. It will also be great for my portfolio because I will have multiple pieces to present and will get some experience doing multiple facets of the job – research, organization, generating ideas, generating content and hopefully a little bit of design work. I even suggested a name for the newsletter and my supervisor loved it and used it.

The supervisor at this internship also asked me if I would be willing to teach her how to use LinkedIn a little better. How could I refuse? Any opportunity to help someone else’s social media skills while also fine-tuning my approach to teaching methods and my personal social media skills is high on my list of priorities.

Realizing that you are GOOD at something you LOVE is rewarding, plain and simple.

Picas vs. Pixels – Sorting it all Out

In all the classes I have taken so far that deal with design programs, they always say “use pixels,” it’s easier than picas because picas are some sort of designer-y special thing. Yes, that’s the technical term. But for a while I’ve been thinking, well… if I want to at least dabble in some graphic design, shouldn’t I know what picas are? Yes, indeed I should.

So I decided to Google it. What better way?

Basically what I found out is that pixels are way more complicated to explain than picas.

I also found out this:

Pixel = 1/100th of an inch

Pica = 1/6 of an inch

Why are pixels so much easier then? Well, they aren’t. If you know these measurements, either should be acceptable to use. The only thing that might get confusing is that photos are sized in pixels, so if you are using photos, you have to know the conversions or just skip picas altogether.

I think the next time I work on something in Illustrator or InDesign, I am going to size my document in picas and see how it feels. Nothing wrong with a little experimentation.

MIA

I have been missing in action from this blog, but I’m not sorry.

The reason I haven’t posted anything here in a while is because I have been busy messing up playing with the HTML on my personal blog. I am trying to make it a bit more stylish.

Check it out and tell me what you think! : )

Why Last.fm is Better than Pandora

I’ve been using Pandora Radio religiously for quite a while now. I’m not really INTO music like some people. I just listen to the radio in the car. I can’t tell you what song is playing when I’m listening to it. I can’t even recognize the artists of songs that I clearly know. That’s why Pandora was so perfect for me. I could feed it super basic info and it would usually please me with something new.

The other day, my brother introduced me to Last.fm. I had heard of it before, but didn’t really understand. I thought you had to pay for it or something and that just doesn’t work for me. Or millions of other people. But he told me it was free and that is has an iPhone app and so I checked it out.

Last.fm is infinitely better than Pandora. It does what Pandora does and then explodes that. It uses the same concept as Pandora in that it will take what you like and create “stations” for you to listen to. It will recommend new music and play music it knows you already like. There is a heart button and a dislike button so you can control what you like.

Here’s where it gets better, though. Once you have listened to songs, you can GO BACK and LISTEN AGAIN. You don’t have to hope that it comes on again. Everything you listen to gets saved in your library. If you like an artist, you can listen to their album. Last.fm gives you news, tour dates and all sorts of fun stuff that Pandora doesn’t have.

The site is not only a place to listen to music, but it’s being called “The Social Music Revolution.” Why? You can “friend” people on Last.fm just as you would on Facebook. The site will then tell you your music compatibility. Kinda cool. You can listen to your friends’ libraries or just get ideas from them for good music.

In my opinion, all these features make Last.fm so much better than Pandora. The added features make it super sophisticated, but it isn’t difficult to navigate and if all you want is the easy features from Pandora, you can do that with Last.fm too. Pandora is still cool, but Last.fm may be taking the point on this one.

The Beauty of Twitter Lists

Twitter lists are one of the things that make Twitter such a great social networking tool, but they seem to be highly under-used. The beauty of the Twitter list is that you can “list” anyone, into any category. That category can be something nice like “Inspiration” or something totally awful like “Bloggers I Hate But Follow Anyway, Therefore I Love Them Secretly.” Oh yeah, it happens.

To put someone on a list, all you have to do is view their timeline and then click on lists. You can add them to an existing list or create a new list.

Here, I added Lisa Leonard to my “Inspiration” list. I could have also added her to my “Moms” list, but I think of her for inspiration before I think of her as a mom. It’s as simple as that.

Once you’ve added someone to a list, it doesn’t just stop at that. Now you can view your list’s timeline. Instead of viewing your entire Twitter feed which can be a bit overwhelming if you follow a lot of people, you can now narrow down your reading.

As you can see, your lists are placed on the left side of your screen. Now you can decide who you feel like reading/tweeting with. Here, I chose to look at my “Celebs” list. (Hey now, a girl’s allowed the guilty pleasure of following celebrities, right? Sometimes I talk to them. They don’t talk back.)

Celebrities aren’t the ideal way to show you how lists work, but it works.

Other List ideas:

• Colleagues
• News- many newspapers, TV stations and magazines have a Twitter feed
• Athletes
• Family
• Bloggers I Enjoy
• People I Dislike, But Want to Laugh At
• Charities
• Companies/Stores- many companies have Twitter feeds. Sometimes they offer promotional prices or contests to their followers.

I am sure there are plenty more list ideas, but you get the jist, right? Right.

Okay good, now go create your Twitter lists!

*Speech bubble and arrows added to my screen captures via Picnik.

Graffiti Peek

A couple months ago, I saw a girl spray paint a bunch of stuff at the Humanities Building.

She left behind some beautiful art. I wonder what she was spray painting.

Frost Yourself

This is a re-post from when I wrote for The Sconz. You can check out some of the comments there. The Sconz is now located at The Daily Page/The Sconz.

Every once in a while, I indulge. I have to. Monday afternoon in the quiet, peaceful snow, I took a stroll up half of State Street. I was headed towards what seemed like a somewhat forgotten spot: Cabana Room, which was nicely nestled underneath Samba

When I arrived, I was one of three customers. Fine by me. Unfortunate for them. Waiter, Clint, seemed thoroughly happy to see me though.

Throughout my indulgence, his service was pretty close to excellent, though he seemed intimidated or nervous. The bartender was nice too- he even came to greet me and tell me about a special dessert sampler. Seriously, it was so cute and totally appreciated.

Since it is sort of underground, the small space seems a little dark, making it the perfect place to meet your mistress for lunch. Just kidding. Sort of. You can take your regular girlfriend here too though.

The menu was short and sweet, just like I like it; nothing was too fancy or confusing. The back of the menu however, revealed an impressive beer list: ca-ching! Local microbrews make my heart beat a little faster. They also have Miller Lite, if you’re into that (I am, it’s all good).

I ordered the Cabana Burger: Brick pressed with angus beef, avocado, carmelized shallot, bacon and cabrales. Cabrales? What’s cabrales? Bleu cheese, straight from Spain. It was served with a side of ketchup and a side of chimichurri. I ignored the ketchup; they should really leave that off unless you get French fries. Let me tell you, this burger was fantastic. It was easily the best burger I have ever eaten. The complexity of flavors was incredible. With each bite, I noticed something new to love. Not only that, but the burger was massive and messy and that’s exactly what a burger should be.

I ordered the green salad with mango vinaigrette on the side, but other choices include fries or beans and rice. The dressing on the salad was slightly sweet, but not overwhelming.

To drink: I ordered a Hoegaarden, a Belgian white ale. It was noon a Monday; so sue me. Ladies, if you aren’t a “beer girl,” this microbrew might just make you one.

From the second the bartender said dessert, I knew I had to order it. Get this: the dessert sampler was $3! It included a small piece of flan, a creamy square of cheesecake and brigadeiro, a traditional Brazilian candy. Everything about this dessert was indulgent and more than I should have eaten and delicious. If you don’t go to Cabana Room for anything else, that’s fine, as long as you get dessert.

My total bill was $16.88 plus tip. Worth every penny, but I can empathize with this being too pricy, especially for lunch. However, remember that I ordered beer and dessert. You don’t have to do this. Head in for just a burger or just a beer or just dessert- they were all great, though the combination left me full far past dinner time. This may just be the perfect place to take a date, as long as you don’t mind burger juices running down her hands.

JM & Nichole also thought Cabana Room was pretty dang good.

Big shoutout goes to whoever can name the movie from where I abducted this title.

In an Instant

Vancouver (source)

San Francisco (source)

New York City (source)

Sydney, Australia (source)

In an instant, I could pick up and leave here. I’ve lived in Wisconsin for about 17 years now and I can tell you, I’ve taken pretty much all that I can from this city.

Two years ago, I wanted to pick up and move to LA so incredibly bad. I needed a fresh start. Well, I got one here which has been the greatest thing to ever happen to me. I still want that fresh start somewhere else though.

When I graduate in December 2011 (seems so long from now), I’ve pretty much got my choice of the world. We could pick up and move anywhere. We really could. I’ve got dreams of a big city somewhere sort of exotic.

The problem is though, I have no idea how to go about getting a job in another state or even another country. Other than searching the Internet, which when searching for jobs doesn’t always bring optimal results, I have no idea what I am doing. If you know, tell me the secret.

i’m just not the type

Most people don’t know that I am only a part-time student. That means that I am only taking 2 classes this semester. Don’t get me wrong, my days are still long, my nights are still late and I still work my booty off- just in different ways.

I have my one and only midterm exam in one of my classes this week. My friends that are also in the class are making study guides and freaking out a little bit about the exam. Even though I know the exam is worth close to 1/3 of my grade, I am not doing those things. I trust myself to have learned the material, I really do. I’m not NOT studying; I’m just taking it a little more easy than some.

I guess I’m just not the type.

Maybe that’s why I don’t have the highest GPA in the world. But guess what? I don’t really care about my GPA. Sure, I do care if it’s above a 3.0, I do, but beyond that, I am just not the type to obsess over grades. I know that I have learned a lot from my college classes. I know that I am taking away what is truly important.

In my eyes, school is  not for remembering every basic detail about calculus or even every basic detail about the history of mass communication. There are larger ideas to take away from school.

Critical thinking skills. Research skills. Communication skills. Teamwork skills. Learning to make connections. Becoming an intellectual in the most basic way; learning that you care about learning.

What are you taking away from school?

dafont

I recently found this cool site called dafont.com.

On this site, you can download TONS of really fun fonts really easily.  No, they don’t all have hearts, but I just love them.

You have to be careful with them though, because some of them are free and some are free for personal use only.

I also figured out how to download and install a font on my computer all on my own.

If you have Windows Vista, here’s how:

1.) Download the font from the website.

2.) Go to control panel.

3.) Go to appearance and personalization. Go to fonts.

4.) Right click and click on “install a new font.”

5.) Choose the folder where your font is hanging out. You might have to move it to “My Documents” to make it easier.

6.) Click Install.

7.) DONE. Your font should be usable in your programs now. If you are already using a program and can’t find the font, restart the program and it should show up.

Yay! You did it! Different fonts can be great for designing graphics or for creating blog headers.

Do you have any websites that you find free fonts you really like? Let me know in the comments.