Themer Survey
I've done a lot of writing and a lot of talking about how to theme Drupal. Even though it's already December, I'll be doing even more this year with presentations at Do It With Drupal and DrupalCamp Chicago. In 2010 I want to do EVEN more. I know that there still aren't really awesome opportunities for designers to learn the PHP they need to create awesome themes. I am going to help fix that by offering theming classes. I want them to be useful and I want them to be priced right. I've set up a quick survey and am looking to hear from designers and themers. People who fill out the survey will be entered in a draw to win a free, autographed copy of Front End Drupal AND an hour of tech support from me.
Cupcakes
Altough I really like to eat cupcakes, it turns out I'm not very great at decorating them. A late night adventure last night led to watching season 4 of House on DVD and making cupcakes. By the time I found some instructions and made the cupcakes and decorated them, it was well past midnight. I wish I'd been able to create little gems of perfection, but no. My cupcakes are homely. They're not even good enough to be home made. They're just homely.
I'm not entirely sure how the whole thing started, but I found myself at Bulk Barn at a few minutes to close looking for cupcake ingredients. I stood in front of the cake decorating section for a long time. Then I found the Wilton Lesson 1 Discover Cake Decorating kit. It was $30 and I was pretty sure I'd hit on the gold mine of cake decorating genius and instruction. It came with everything I'd need to make little flowers and little bears and it seemed just perfect. When I got home I found out that the kit doesn't actually home with instructions.
Moderating backchannel content streams at conferences
Today I saw a tweet about danah boyd's speaking experience at Web Expo 2.0 earlier this month. Intrigued I followed the link and read her account of having a (twitter) back channel posted behind her during her keynote presentation. I intially clicked through because the tweet included a pretty sensational quote from the blog post which said danah felt objectified by the experience. Lots of other people have blogged this story (and I'm sure there were others too). What happened was pretty nasty. Please do read about it and think about how you would have responded in that situation. Write up your own response if you want. Then when you've finished, come back here.
Printed greeting card summary
Every now and then it's much easier to pay a little more for convenience. This week it was greeting cards on the list of things that I needed urgently. I initially thought that I'd take a PDF to one of the local print shops and have them create the cards for me. I spent a lot of time messing around with various MS Word and Photoshop templates ultimately didn't trust that what I'd produced was what a printer would need. I looked for an Avery template for cards, but none seemed to be quite what I wanted. I didn't have time to get a proof to ensure my templates were right. (I briefly wished that I had MS Publisher--which I know does exactly this kind of thing very well.) So I opted for an online service that would allow me to upload individual images for each part of the card (instead of making print-ready PDF artwork with crop marks). The process of finding a printer took as much time as I'd spent on the templates. And then it took me as much time again to test each of the three services I found to see if they'd do what I wanted. Hours and hours and hours of time. Not "wasted" but not necessarily efficiently used either.
Making our passion accessible
I may have mentioned this in passing once or twice before: I don't actually like technology. I'm not a gadget person. I don't see why I need to upgrade my Blackberry to something more "open" or "current." I'm not the first to rush into the latest social media Web site and I still can't figure out how Google Wave is going to revolutionise the way I communicate. What I do care about is making technology accessible to people who are currently cut out of the arena. Whether it's fear or finances or some other barrier, I am passionate about leveling the playing field for people who feel left out. Last night I got to spend a little bit of time with two others who are also passionate about making their industry accessible.
Blue Jeans Quilt Top
Another quilt top is finished. I love piecing the quilts more than sandwiching them up and "quilting." As you can see I tend to prefer free style quilts using bits of various fabrics rather than the perfection you'd see in The Great American Quilt. (My sister's quilts fell more to the perfectionist side of the spectrum.) I love combining colours and working from what I've got in my fabric stash and pile of discarded clothing. I often leave a quilt in progress laid out on the kitchen floor for several days as I look at and think about where I want the colours to go.
Beginners' Art Class for Grown-ups
Come and Draw ... No foolin'!
This is a real Beginners' Art Class for Grown-ups. It's time to find your inner stick person.
- Are you haunted by that moment when you were told that you coudn't draw?
- Are you a closet artist?
- Do you wish you didn't have to joke "oh, I only draw flies!"?
Register now for Bonita Johnson deMatteis's Beginners' Art Class for Grown-ups by phoning the Ginger Press at 519-376-4233.
You will actually learn how to draw things like a tree, a doggie, a kitty and an apple!
Sunday October 18th 10AM - 4PM.
Cost: $75 (includes materials and a yummy lunch)
PS I've been waiting for this class probably my whole life. I know I'll be there and I hope you'll come too.
What I really want
I've been fiddling around with multiple computers this year. I hate it. But I realized today that what I really want is this:
I want a single workstation for peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse) that allows me to hook into multiple machines. I want to be able to change computers as easily as changing desktops. It sounds so simple when I say it out loud like this. The solution seems obvious: on each desktop place a different VNC (or some kind of remote desktop) connection which is maximized. Will VNC (or equivalent) allow me to hook into the remote hardware the way I want? Is this really the solution that I'm looking for? Is it possible it will be this easy?
Probably not. But stay tuned just in case I've finally found the answer to life, the universe and multiple computers.
HOWTO: Create an award for girls in tech
With yet another fail at an open source conference, I wanted to spend a few minutes to tell you about something that took me 20 minutes and will, I think, have a real impact on the life of one girl.
This week I started an award at my former high school for a senior female student that has demonstrated creative use of technology. She doesn't need to have the best marks, she doesn't need to have sustained performance. She just needs to have shown a sliver of inspiration and interest in technology to be rewarded and encouraged. In the game of Alice's Restaurant and World Domination, you have to start by doing one thing different. Here's the FAQ on why I did it and how you can start your own award too.
Taking the fear out of building a Web site
I've been building Web sites for almost as long as there's been a Web to build them on (I built my first web page 1996). I've been teaching Web technologies for a little over eight years. My favourite kind of Web site is one that takes care of itself because the site owner is excited and motivated and trained to update their own content! This fall I'm offering two unique courses for people who want to get started on creating and maintaining their very own Web site:
