i’m a geek

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Countdown to Mad Men

January 27, 2012

I’ve been obsessed with Mad Men since my mom and her sisters got in a big fight about why her sisters wouldn’t watch it in October of 2010. See, my mom was a working lady in that era much like Peggy, and she took offense at the fact that her sisters didn’t like the show. They got it sorted out eventually and then all of us sat down to watch an episode.

I came home and spent the next two weeks doing nothing but watching every Mad Men episode there was. Since then, Mad Men has caused us to get cable (grrr…Comcast) and many a discussion about Don, Peggy, Pete, Roger…

In fact, when our downstairs neighbors moved and we got a Pete in their place we made jokes about keeping him away from our non-existent nanny. Oh yeah, we’re hilarious.

Like so many of my fellow Mad Men fans, I’ve been riding the stages of grief over the fact that AMC has taken the better part of two years getting the new season going. What’s up with that??

Well, AMC FINALLY announced the date of the premiere of Season 5.  To commemorate this occasion (and anxiously wait for it), I — with the help of my most favorite graphic designer Lindsay and the web development skillz of my web shop, Artsy Geek — created Countdown to Mad Men, the second-to-second update about how long we have to wait for our next fix.

So, join me at CountdowntoMadMen.com and let’s wait with baited breath for the return of our favorite drunks, chauvinists and philanderers.  And if you like it, help me spread the word.  We all need something to look forward to. it’s hot, right? And useful too, right?

Stuff We Love: Guest Posts & SignNow.com

January 18, 2012

Today is a red letter day here at JenniferHeller.com.  We have our first GUEST POST!!!

Our guest post today is courtesy of Heather G. who supplied the following avatar:

Is that a cat playing guitar?  A gopher?  A chipmunk?  Whatever it is, it’s shiny and cute and lovable, just like I know Heather G. is in person (since we’re, you know, friends in real life).

And without further ado, here’s our guest post:

Stuff Heather G. Loves: SignNow.com

Since I have a job that gives me mediocre health insurance, I have made every sort of appointment possible. I’ve had moles removed, my sensitive areas swabbed, eyes checked, teeth cleaned and prescriptions filled. One of the most annoying parts of being a “new patient” is that the paperwork is freaking endless. In the spirit of time management, many of these offices provide New Patient Forms on their websites so I can leisurely tell them when my last menstrual period was or if I allergic to any medications and bring the forms with me on my first visit. It’s a lot of paperwork and once I hand it over to Beth at the front desk, I forget about it and move on with my life. Then I discovered SignNow.com—the website that makes signing documents ridiculously simple and even stores them for me, FOR FREE!. Here’s how it works:

  1. Upload any document
  2. Go to www.signnow.com
  3. Enter your signature (you can draw it or type it—it’s all binding and 100% legal thanks to the e-sign act of 2000. You can even upload your pen and ink signature and keep it there.)

They ask for no registration, no account, nada. Just upload and sign. And get this—when you are done (It takes about 15 seconds), they email you a copy of your document in pdf and you can choose to download it. Organizational and environmental me is in love.  Just think about the possibilities for freelancers, renters, petitions, oh I could go on and on. I love a good product and this one is sweet.

P.S. I can’t wait to tell you about my $58 hair conditioner. Worth every penny.

Thanks Heather G! That sounds like one hell of a time / headache / paper saver.

What do you love?  Tell me about it!  Send guest posts / rants / raves/ questions to fanmail@jenniferheller.com.  Or bitch@jenniferheller.com… whatever mood you’re in is okay by me. What do you think? Will Signnow.com save you time?

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I Love Boomerang for Gmail

November 18, 2011

I’m a Gmail addict.  Google Apps too.

We rely on Google Apps over at Artsy Geek — it’s fantastic for collaborating, chatting and — best of all — searching. I cannot imagine having to search for something in Outlook with the sheer number of emails that go through our inboxes every day.

A few weeks ago my great friend Becca introduced us to Boomerang for Gmail. You know how good a scoop of vanilla ice cream is when topped with hot fudge?? It’s pretty good without it, but AWESOME with it.

Boomerang is hot fudge for Gmail.

Instead of the piles and piles of starred images making my priority inbox utterly inbox, I can schedule them to pop back up in my inbox at a later date. Whether it’s four hours later, three days later or Monday morning at 9am, that image will be back in my inbox when I want to deal with it. Or want to force myself to deal with it.

It’s really handy when you work with people who don’t always deliver when they say they’re going to.* “I’ll have it for you on Tuesday,” they’ll say. “Yeah right!” I think. And then I schedule the message to pop back up on Tuesday evening so I can send a reminder email. And I can specify that there’s no need to pop up if someone responds (in case they actually do come through!). BRILLIANT.

I’ve been pretty stoked on it. Today I had an unpleasant surprise though. It turns out that it’s a premium service!! They lured me in, got me hooked, and now want to charge me a monthly fee for it!!

Suddenly the hot fudge seems more like crack cocaine.

I wandered around my house hmm-ing and huh-ing over this when I plunked down my credit card and subscribed. It’s a deduction, for one. And it’s one hell of a brain space saver. People should get paid for what they do well, and those folks over at Boomerang are rocking my world. Thanks guys!

Try Boomerang for Your Gmail. You’re going to love it!**

Post image courtesy of cookingfoodie.blogspot.com
*I know, I know. Don’t deal with people who don’t deliver when they say they’re going to. I’m working on it.
**Full disclosure: If you click that link and sign up I get entered into some sort of wheely spin contest.  Wheeeeee!! What Gmail Addon rocks your world?

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11/15/93

November 16, 2011

Jeff M. asked me to the CCD dance. Well, not technically but sort of. He was complaining about how there was only 3 7th grade girls in his entire CCD class, and who was he going to dance with. Then he’s all to me, not Cassie, just me, “You can come, too if you bring enough food for 12 people.” Bryan, who is also in his CCD class, also chimed in, “Yeah, Snickers bars!” I don’t think Jeff was serious, but still…

On the way to school, while we were picking up Christy, Evan was talking about how Christy looks like she has the chicken pox. Christy heard the “pox” and Gloria made excuses for Evan. It was so funny.

Every time I see Mike H. he looks at me strangely. I swear after school I turned around and there he was. We walked a couple of steps looking at each other strangely. Then I realized Alexis, Ana, Jeff or anyone wasn’t there with me, and hurried back. I might like him. Emily says he’s kinda cute.

I don’t know if I want to go to the Holiday Dance. It’s next month, but I don’t want it to turn out like the others. The others were to painful. While Alexis was reading my diary, she saw the entries for the dance and something like, “It doesn’t matter if you dance w/ anyone or not.” Maybe not to her, but to me it’s a matter of how popular you are with the guys. She shouldn’t worry. She was always dancing w/ Jeff! How could she know how I feel? there are so many different groups: Keep going….it’s riveting!!!

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I’ve been coveting an ipad.

September 28, 2011

Really, really coveting.

You see, even my cat loves electronics. The proof is in the photo.

iPads are good for cats*. They can play that one game with the fish in the pond and never actually catch a fish. Eleven is too old to have that hurt his self esteem, right? It would only give him hours and hours of amusement.

And me too. Also, it’s a justifiable expense. How can I possibly be operating a web business without an iPad to test websites on? For instance, this one looks awesome on an iPad. Or so I think…

Ah the many justifications of life.  Who will win?  The battle of indulgence verses sensibility wages on…

*What do you think of the capitalization here? Does Apple have a protocol for when you start sentences with “iPod”, “iPad” or “iPhone”?? Twenty-first century problems, man. I tell you.

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the birthday party (and it’s invite) that will never be

May 4, 2011

While we wandering through the Mission last month, my friend Sarah spotted a Super Mario pinata in a shop’s window.

It was just the seed I needed to declare that  we would have a Super Mario themed party for Will’s upcoming birthday. Will, after all, loves nothing if not Super Mario, and how much fun we would have with our two televisions and two Super Nintendos–we could play in two rooms!!

I started hunting for Mario t-shirts to dress our two mannequins in.

I planned the menu: stuffed mushrooms and sugar cookies in the shape of feathers and flowers–the magical items that Mario eats to survive, spit fire balls and fly.  We would have a lot of pasta because Mario and Luigi are Italian.  And salad too, because that would make it a balanced meal. Read on…

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The World Trade Center dot com

February 17, 2011

The phone over at Artsy Geek Designs rang today.  It was a surprise to me because our office line (which I get through Comcast) is often unavailable when I need it.  I’m always surprised when it’s working. (Btw, I hate Comcast–did you know?)

The nice fellow on the other end had some questions about our web development, and I was, of course, happy to fill him in.  They’re looking for someone who can recreate the look and feel of www.wtc.com, the site devoted to the new World Trade Center.

While we spoke I checked out the site. I noted the clean lines, simple navigation, and it’s true–the front page movie was inspiring.  Look what they’re going to do to Ground Zero! It will be gorgeous again!

The movie uses Flash.  These people want Flash.

I have a love-hate relationship with Flash.  I first fell in love with web design when I got my hands on the first version of Flash in 1995.  I created some god awful stuff with it, and had a damn good time doing it. Read on…

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So you want to be a blogger?

January 20, 2011

I received an email from a friend of mine with an extremely unique point of view on the world.  I’ve been encouraging him to get a blog for awhile.  All through our college days, he collected followers to the point where people joked he should start his own religion.  A born blogger!  He asked me some tough questions about blogging.

(1)I noticed you have advertisements on your site but they are for non-tacky items.  Can you select what kind of ads go on your site?

The ads that I have on jenniferheller.com are for services or products that I actually use.  I’m signed up as an affiliate and should someone make a purchase, I make a commission.  I have made $0. So, yes, I chose them, and made the effort to add them to my site.
Read on…

Lushes in Love Looks Great in IE

January 14, 2011

I’ve written before about the struggles web designers face when designing for multiple browsers, and most specifically IE.

When designing the website for Lushes in Love, I set out to use all the amazing features available to those browsers that implement CSS3, but aimed to provide a viewing experience that degraded gracefully when viewed in Internet Explorer and older versions of other browsers.

I wanted the blog to remind the viewer of neon lights and classy bars. Read on…

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New Year's Resolution: Change my Passwords.

January 3, 2011

I made just one New Year Resolution, though I accompanied it with a long list of my 2011 priorities and the vow to get through them all:

Change all my passwords.  Twice.  And make them secure.

They say that you should change your passwords every six months.  Changing my passwords always feels like such a drag.  You took the time to learn the first one, and now you have to go and learn a new one all over again?  And with the ridiculous number of accounts that you can have all over the internet–such a drag!! Read on…

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