Tenth Musee

Kathy: i had this vision of when [my kids] teenagers
Kathy: and they come in all dirty and sweaty with a pack of friends
Kathy: and raid my fridge

Me: and drink Sunny D from the carton and demand to know where their Pizza Rolls are?
Me: and you waltz in with a strategically positioned bag of Doritos and they all exclaim how you’re the best mom in the world?

Kathy: something like that
Kathy: only I’ll tell them to make their own damn pizza rolls and I wont be wearing a matching sweater set

Me: well, you DO drive a mini van… it’s a gateway stereotype. Next you’ll be getting drunk at 3 in the afternoon while your kids nap. Oh… wait…

Kathy: i dont drive a minivan THANK YOU

Me: I love that that is the part you took offense to.

I don’t know if I’m a very good boss.  I’m a bit of a control freak, admittedly, and while I don’t really think others are incapable of handling something, I do often feel it’s easier to do it myself than to spend time explaining something that may not be done “right” the first time.  And when I do take the time to explain something that needs to be done, if it’s not done right the first time, I get a little bent — because I could have done it myself and not had to repeat myself.  This is not to say I’m not open to questions and dialog and suggestions, I totally am.  Input is totally great, but in general, I’m on a schedule and I need stuff done at the same quality level as if I were doing it myself.   Period.

Doesn’t that sound like every boss you’ve ever hated?  When I remove myself from it and look at it as an observer, I feel like now, if I were in a traditional office, I’d be that boss that no one invites to anything.  Except… I’m usually the girl that people do invite to things, that coworkers and colleagues want to have around. It occured to me the other night that, now that I’m my own boss and I hire people to do things for me,  I’m totally Chandler when he gets his promotion in Friends.

“Perfectionist” ranks up there with “she’s got a great personality” in terms of desirability, and it makes people think you’re an overbearing pain in the ass, but without perfectionists in this world, the Earth would be (and sometimes is) one giant orb of mediocrity. It drives me crazy when the opportunity for greatness presents itself and it’s met with “good enough”.  Why be good enough when it can be great?

Of course, we’re only human and sometimes things won’t be perfect. And I know I am imperfect, despite my many creative efforts to blind you all with my glorious gloriousness.  (*clap clap*  Look over here!  Awesomeness!  Shiny!)  I don’t think that means I should stop trying to excel, to go beyond and to achieve something greater than was there before.

But it can be… well, a little exhausting.

Along with accepting responsibility for own my quirks and shortcomings, I blame my detail-oriented, perfection-seeking, boss-man-type tendencies on the former Boss Men in my own life.

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As you may know, we’re fairly regularly encounter people who rip off our work, be it writing or design. I think any designer worth their salt has had at least one thing stolen from them somewhere. Or they will, eventually. I used to get really super upset about it, but now I just calmly issue them an email and if I don’t get a response, I send their host a DMCA violation notice. That usually does the trick. No sense in getting all riled up about it — unless they’re actually touting themselves as professionals and attempting to get jobs based on our work. Then I absolutely won’t stand for it.

But never — never! — has anyone ever sent me an email like this. Never ever and I’m rather glad because I’d probably have some kind of rage aneurysm and collapse muttering really classy things like “I’ll cut a bitch!” or similar.

Lawrie (@indextwo on twitter) gave me permission to repost this letter he posted on Facebook. Umar can suck it.
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I have a client who wants to use Windows Live Writer, so I wanted to give it a go to see if it would deliver. As much as I loathe Internet Explorer, this particular Windows goodie is pretty awesome. As I type this, it looks like I’m writing it on my live blog, not within WordPress, but on my actual blog as if I could actually do that.

With this… I can!  Let’s try uploading a photo:

Huh. This is interesting.  I’m not sure if these effects I’m seeing in Windows Live Writer will show up and my images don’t seem to be floating properly, but we’ll see what happens when I publish.

Carry on!

Ok, I’ve since published this and I must say… I’m pretty impressed. I checked out the html code within WordPress and it’s not a big hot mess. And I’m editing it right now within WordPress and it’s keeping all the effects and styling. I don’t know if i’d use this all the time ,but for clients who really need this kind of WYSIWYG type interface, this would be a lifesaver. Kudos, Windows Live Writer!

Bloggers, I need your opinion! I pose a question that is beginning to really vex me from a user experience standpoint. I’m talking about “previous/next” navigation. Riveting, I realize, but I’m looking for answers and who better to ask than bloggers themselves?

As an old school blogger who started off using MT 1.something, I’m accustomed to the front page of the blog being the most current entries, obviously, and the link for a previous or older entries/entry being displayed on the bottom right of the entries with an arrow or similar indicating “to the right”.  Like I’ve got on this blog.

Over the years, especially with the success of WordPress, I’m seeing it done in the opposite and it’s beginning to confuse me quite a bit while organizing client sites.  In my opinion, you view the most current entry, then “flip back” like a reverse book to read older entries.  And, to that end, the link by default would read something like “older entries” or “previous entries”, not next entries, which I’m seeing linked on the left with a left arrow.  This seems to be WordPress’ default setting.

Uh… this doesn’t make sense to me.  I’m not trying to be difficult… maybe that’s what the kids are doing these days. I don’t know. But if I’m looking at an individual entry, to me, the most recent entry would be “to the left” and should read “newer entry” or “next entry”.  And vice versa.  Why would I go to the right?

So, what do you think?  What makes sense to you?   What do you use on your blog?  I want to make sure the navigation makes sense to users, regardless of what I think.

Thanks for your input!

So… I changed my mind about doing a session at BlogHer.  I would rather do something with Kathy and since she can’t be there this time, we’ll wait until next year.  A 30-minute session is pretty darn short to cover much that requires actual instruction, at least from a design standpoint, which is why I wanted to make it more of a “conversation with the Moxie Girls” — a place to just hang out, dish and answer questions about blogging and design.  But, despite the positive response it got, there was also a little confusion, so I think it’s better to just go this year to get a vibe of what the attendees want out of a session.

I was also kind of unclear about how BlogHer handles the submissions and presenters. It would be perhaps several weeks, if not a couple months before I even heard if my panel was chosen, and since it doesn’t appear that speakers get free admission (like SXSW), I wanted to make sure I got my ticket before “early bird pricing” passed me by.  Then I decided if I was going to pay for my ticket, I didn’t really want to be anxious about presenting, too.  Despite my gregarious nature, I get a little nervous speaking in front of groups… alone.   I want to enjoy myself, network, sign some books (I’m working on setting up a signing with our publisher) and mingle with all them fine ladies. read more >

Hey, We Wrote That!

Kathy and I decided to forego SXSW this year so we could attend a conference that allows us to meet n’ mingle with our clients and other lovely people likely to be potential clients and friends… BlogHer.

We were supposed to go together, but she’ll be delivering another kidlet right during that time, so I’ll be flying solo.  I was just going to go to hang out and observe, but I’ve reconsidered and decided to throw my hat in the ring to host a panel, but not really a panel because it’s just me. A session, they call it.

I wanted to call it “When Your Blog Has That Not-So-Fresh Feeling”, but I decided at the last minute to call it “Blogging with Moxie”… you know, what with the book n’ all.  I figured I could go over topics from the book and do a lot of Q&A and maybe some on-the-spot blog critique and tip-offering, if anyone was interested.

Or I could just sit there and drink coffee if no one shows up.

I’m not stuffy, in case you hadn’t noticed, so my session won’t be either. It’s not going to be boring, it won’t be explicit insert tab A into slot B, it won’t be overhead projectors with code all over it.  It would be more intimate, more relaxed, fun, if you will.

I’m open to questions and basically… dishing.  About blogging. And all the merriment that comes with it, like the obvious design tips and some technical stuff like, what exactly does an RSS feed do? which blog platform is right for me?  where should my ads go?  But also things we’ve gleaned over our six years in this business, like how to handle blog drama, blog etiquette, choosing a topic, how to keep people enchanted with your bad self… that sort of thing.  I’m considering some kind of game or quiz and of course… prizes.  Everything is better with prizes.

If you are going to BlogHer (or even if you’re not), I’d welcome your input on my session idea. You can let BlogHer know you’d attend by visiting this link.

Well, my new design is up.  I’m still tinkering with things around here: tweaking this, adding that, finessing this, stroking that. It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with it.

I’m sure there will be some of you that won’t care for the new look, prefer a lighter background, want bigger text, like more contrast, wonder why my ‘banner’ is way down at the bottom, wish Brad Pitt were your husband… whatever the case may be. And that’s ok, though Angelina might take umbrage.

So why this look?  Because I wanted to do something different. Because I wanted to experiment with textures and depth. Because I needed to break out of the box a little and at the same time, rekindle some of my joie de vivre! And because well… I like it like that.

*cue Tito Nieves*

Some of you may have noticed I’m taking a break from my long-term relationship with Expression Engine and having a fling with WordPress. It’s not because I don’t love Expression Engine anymore (I still use it for clients).  I just needed to feel the tingles again. You know what I mean?  If WordPress doesn’t sweep me off my feet, I’m sure EE and my blog will meet again… when 2.0 comes out.

If you are so inclined, please check back again to see if any changes have been made. Or, if the look is just not your thing, update your feed.  Muchas gracias.

Joelle: as my father would say,  “Horse on you!”
Joelle: I think that’s the old fashioned version of “Sucka!”

Kathy: does it have to be a horse?
Kathy: or could it be like a buffalo
Kathy: or a wooly mammoth
Kathy: or
Kathy: a dead chicken

Joelle: “dead chicken on you!” does have a nice ring.

Kathy:  decomposition brings a new aspect to it.

I realize the only people that will get this are those that use Yahoo Messenger and know what that Audible sounds like. I tried to find a recording of it to no avail. Still, I must save it for posterity.