emmajane.net

Cheat Sheet for Lotion Making

Submitted by emmajane on January 29, 2012 - 7:10pm

I like figuring out how things fit together. I hoard information and push it into different storage formats to understand how all the bits go together and what the relationships are between the bits of information.

My skincare recipes are currently stored in a printed ring binder and on Evernote. I'm not a huge fan of trusting companies with my data. Truth be told, I don't even trust software with a local copy of my data. Committing information into a data structure always seems limiting. I worry that as soon as I've committed my information to one storage format another, better format will present itself and I will be forced to move my data from one format to the other. I recognize this is neurotic--or maybe just a bit commitment-phobic--on my part. In any case, I use Evernote for its "private share" functionality which allows me to share my clippings and skincare recipes with specific people. Evernote's private share is a lot easier than creating a public site and having to worry about my personal notebook being considered internet plagiarism.

Double-front quilt

Submitted by emmajane on January 4, 2012 - 2:05pm

I've been starting quilts for a little over a decade. My favourite part is planning and creating the top of the quilt. Apparently at this point you can send your quilt off to someone else who likes the quilting part best and get a finished quilt (in exchange for a bit of money). But this doesn't seem right to me somehow. I think it's because most of my quilts are "rustic" at best in terms of their construction. Adding someone else's quilting to finish the blanket would somehow depersonalize the object. As a result I have a lot of quilt tops sitting around waiting for the next stage.

As part of my reduce-the-stash-by-using-things-already-in-house plan, I pulled out my quilt tops a few days ago and started digging through my fabric stash to see what I could use to back them. Most of the fabric I have is small pieces (a fat quarter would be a big piece of fabric for me). While I was staring at fabric trying to decide how I was going to make my quilt backs a shocking revelation came to me: I don't need to make a front AND a back for my quilts. I can make TWO fronts.

This, my friends, changes everything.

The problem with thinking

Submitted by emmajane on January 2, 2012 - 3:33pm

To say the least, 2011 was an interesting year. My first solo-authored book was published, I was a Green candidate in the federal election. I launched a new training program, I released seven new information products, I travelled less, but took up beekeeping. I got a ukulele. The list goes on and on. And even though I wrote thousands of words in 2011, what I didn’t do was capture my thoughts. I guess that’s the problem with thinking too much—there isn’t necessarily a place to put the thoughts while they’re still forming.

Thanks, LUSH. I've got this one covered.

Submitted by emmajane on October 21, 2011 - 6:56pm

I have allergies. I've had them for a little over a decade. When I was initially diagnosed the reactions were very scary and often landed me in hospital. Over the years (and as I've gotten better and eliminating the "bad" foods from my diet) the reactions have gotten less severe. I still suffer from impressive eczema on my hands which flares when I come in contact with things I'm allergic to (ingested and contact reactions).

For the most part the eczema is under control and the reactions are infrequent. When it does flare up I use topical steroid cream and ingest antihistamines to reduce the severity of the reaction.

It probably comes as no surprise that skin care is a bit of a pain. The hypoallergenic skin care lines are good, but very limited. (I buy Cliniderm from Shoppers Drug Mart although I'm sure it's available elsewhere too.) When I get adventurous I have to read all of the ingredients on the label and then try to decipher what the ingredients actually mean (for the love of a flying duck why can't they call water, WATER?!).

Gloria's Hive Likes it Hot

Submitted by emmajane on October 21, 2011 - 9:29am

It was a cold spring this year. The furnace was still running at night when I picked up the ladies and set them up at my dad's place out near Lake Charles. I'd read a couple of books over the winter attended a half day workshop on beekeeping, and now I'm a beekeeper. It turns out though, you don't really look after a hive so much as look at it. With 10,000 years of genetics on their side, it's easier to adapt to what the bees want than try to impose what you want.

It started with the supersedure cells and the swarm cells—special formations from which a new queen is hatched. These little peanut shell-shaped formations signalled that mutiny was imminent. On each of my weekly visits there were new peanut shells. It was heart breaking that the ladies weren't happy. I phoned people in a panic and the answer seem to be, “Your hive isn't happy. Get a new queen.”

Tobermory Hike

Submitted by emmajane on October 9, 2011 - 12:05pm

My home town of Owen Sound is along the route of the Bruce Trail. I've hiked bits of it but only the "best" bits near Owen Sound and Wiarton. Looking for more reasons to get outdoors we've decided to hike the trail. Not end-to-end in order...but as the mood strikes. Our first stop was at Suntrail Outfitters where we picked up a compass and a pedometer. (The compass came in handy when we lost the trail in the parking lot of the Bruce Peninsula National Park visitor centre.) Our second stop was at Harvest Moon Bakery to pick up some trail snacks.

Human

A quick makeover

Submitted by emmajane on September 18, 2011 - 8:00pm

Last week I teamed up with Lullabot for a super awesome give-away: five copies of my latest book (which *I* don't even have a copy of yet) were given away via Twitter. The contest is closed, but follow @diwd as I'm pretty sure they've got something else up their sleeve (*hint*hint*).

What does this have to do with a make-over? Well. Some time ago I whipped together a quick (and really dirty) theme for my personal site. I was trying to separate my "tech" writing from my "human" (craft/cooking/gardening) writing for various reasons that made a lot of sense at the time. And then I got really busy doing a lot of other things and pretty much stopped blogging. (Sound familiar?) I'd been trying to think of a way to solve the front page, but it was just never really a priority.

Drupal

On May 2nd, Elect Emma

Life takes us in all kinds of interesting directions. From now to May 2nd, 2011 I am running for political office in Canada. You can read more about it on my election Web site at www.emmahogbin.ca.

How to pocket $5500 in 2011

Submitted by emmajane on December 23, 2010 - 11:33am

I make a pretty decent living from open source ideas and software. In the last two years I've travelled across Canada, the US, Europe and down to New Zealand. It's a pretty decent life. I get asked (a lot) about how I can afford my life style. I always tell people: I keep things simple at home. I prioritize. And I reduce my costs by using open source products almost exclusively. These days most of my income comes from technical writing. Previously I made most of my income from building Web sites for small businesses and non-profit organizations. Lots of people have asked me to consult with them on how they, too, can quit their day job and run around the world and do open source stuff at their leisure. (Jetlag isn't nearly as glamorous as it sounds, but let's run with it for now.)

Chris Gillebeau has literally written the book on how to quit your job and become a freelancer. (Start with Break out of 9-5 if you're new to the concept of freelancing.) It's nice of Chris to have done that because it means I don't need to write down all the crazy things I do to make money (it ranges from writer-for-hire, to book author, to web site builder, to tech support and on). It's also a really sane approach to starting a business with smarts instead of flailing and hoping to make money somewhere along the line.

Great. So you went ahead and bought the book on freelancing and now you don't have a job and it turns out you didn't really plan the whole thing and you don't actually know what to do? Well this is where I can definitely help out. I decided to get really focused with my business. "laser focused" p'joo-p'joo. Next year I'm going to do one thing that's going to put over half a million dollars into the economy and hopefully $5500 into your pocket.

In 2011 I'm running Design to Theme's Drupal 7 Site Building Extravaganza program. Every month I'm going to create a brand new Drupal 7 Web site. Complete with a theme, design files, documentation on how the site was built and videos. I'm going to give you this package and you're going to turn around and sell the package to one small business or not-for-profit who desperately needs a Web site. The theme (design files) will be GPLed and the documentation will be Creative Commons. The whole program is designed for you to make a profit.

"Open source? Profit? You're crazy." Yeah, maybe. But I think you'd be more crazy not to sign up.

Tech
Ubuntu

Interested in Open Data? You Should Be.

Submitted by emmajane on October 25, 2010 - 7:17pm

Last week the Liberal Party of Canada launched their Open Government Initiative. There's been a bit of buzz in the blogosphere about the Liberal initiative. I'm delighted that we're moving towards open government. I'm looking forward to the Conservative government agreeing that this is really important and declaring that all (appropriate) data will be available.

But what if we launch into this "open" thing and it all goes horribly wrong? Let's assume that only appropriate data is made publicly available. Let's assume that all privacy and security concerns are met. There's still two very important points that need to be met before data is "open":