Blogcritics Rerun: Christmas Dos and Don'ts

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  My first Blogcritics rerun post, How to Become a Web Designer, got a lot of hits.  It's now December, so it's the right time to rerun Christmas Dos and Don'ts, another article I wrote for Blogcritics.  Click on the link to read the original article.  Enjoy!

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   It's getting close to that time of year again! The malls have been full of tinsel and bells for almost an entire month. HR departments are handing out days-off preference forms. Children are begging their parents for certain material things, and so are some adults. Christmastime is getting ever closer!

   My Halloween Dos and Don'ts feature was rather popular. I can be counted on to have strong opinions about everything, so here are my tips for having a successful Christmas.

Christmas gifts are for wants, not needs.

   If you're considering getting anyone on your list white cotton socks, even if that's to accompany something else for the recipient, this tip is for you.

   Christmas gifts should be fun, they should be things that the recipient will find pleasurable. For children and adults alike, make a point of fulfilling their wants, NOT their needs. Video games often make great Christmas gifts, toothpaste seldom does.

   'But Kim, this person on my list is in poverty! They need toilet paper, because they can't afford it themselves!' If that's the case, still make their gift something they want. Giving them something they need is a very nice idea, but don't make that their Christmas gift. Give them the things they need at some other time, discreetly. Don't gift-wrap it and don't give it to them too close to December 25th.

Christmas gifts should be things the person wants to have, not things you think they ought to have.

   That's another mistake that's made way too often. If I like Hello Kitty merchandise, don't give me a plain wallet because you think it's more "adult" or in better taste. Get me a Hello Kitty wallet instead.

   If my fondness for black clothing is too much for you, Christmas isn't your opportunity to get me colorful clothing.

You're not going to change someone's taste with a Christmas gift. Don't even try, they'll resent you for that.

Get to know the recipient's taste as well as you can.

   Making assumptions about someone because 40-year-old Canadian guys ought to love NHL merchandise is an erroneous way to choose a Christmas gift. People often defy stereotypes and generalizations.

   I remember being an elementary school kid, and every June there would be some sort of craft to make for Father's Day. I remember one year, in kindergarten or Grade One (First Grade, to you Americans) we were given cardboard 'ties' to decorate.

   My father hates wearing ties. Even as a six-year-old, I knew that. Other elementary school years, we were given pencil cases to decorate with Father's Day-themed wallpaper or wrapping paper. The football, fishing, and power tool themed designs were all very inappropriate for my father. But he's a man! He's my dad! He's got to be just like Tim Allen!

   On that same note, if you think a subscription to Cosmopolitan magazine is a great idea for me because I'm a young heterosexual woman, I've got news for you.

Avoid Christmas-themed Christmas gifts.

   That's a real pet peeve of mine. I do love Christmas, but only if the Christmas stuff is restricted to December 1st until December 26th. Getting me Santa Claus mugs for Christmas means I'm receiving them close to a time when I want to banish Christmas from my psyche, for the sake of enjoying Christmas next year.

   Christmas gifts should be enjoyable for the days and weeks after receiving them. So, resist the temptation to buy Christmas-themed gifts.

On a similar note, don't put up Christmas decorations too early or take them down too late!

   It's bad enough that retailers think they have to put Christmas displays up as soon as the Halloween stuff is taken down. Don't follow the lead of your local shopping mall.

   My secularized and commercialized experience of Christmas is a sacred thing. It's magical and fun only if it's special for a time-limited occasion.

   If you put your Christmas lights up on November 1st and take them down by the end of March, you have that stuff decorating your house for an entire THIRD of the year. It's not so special anymore, is it?

   My birthday is January 13th. I always tell people, the Christmas gift that the world can give me is to have all Christmas stuff put away no later than my birthday. Ideally, put your decorations and tree up during the first week or two of December, and take them down by December 27th.

With that in mind, be considerate of people who have birthdays close to Christmastime.

   Combined Christmas/birthday gifts are a huge no-no. Even though my birthday is a couple of weeks after Christmas, people are still tempted to do that to me. For people born even closer to Christmas, it's even worse.

   Birthdays, my own and those of others, are a big deal to me because it's the one day you can have made all about you, or all about them. Make sure that people in your life with birthdays close to or on Christmas day receive separate birthday cards and presents, at a separate time. That applies to children AND adults. If the person's birthday is during the week of Christmas, celebrate their birthday during a different week. A lot of Capricorns and late Sagittarians will thank you for that.

Acknowledge the different holidays of others in your life.

   Political correctness shouldn't get in the way of celebrating Christmas, but make sure that other holidays receive similar respect.

   For example, my stepfather is Jewish. Thankfully, Hanukkah is the first week of December this year, instead of being too close to Christmas day.

   I will get him a separate Hanukkah card and gift, and give them to him during one of the eight days. I will NOT get him a generic 'Happy Holidays' card on December 26th, when I visit my mother's side of the family.

   Acknowledge Ramadan for your Muslim friends. Acknowledge Diwali for your Hindu friends. I'd go out of my way to avoid giving anyone any generic anything. It's better to ask questions than make assumptions.

Don't be a perfectionist for Christmas.

   Too many people, women especially, think their Christmas entertaining should live up to Martha Stewart's standards.

   Setting the bar impossibly high will only stress you out. As long as you're able to get friends and family together, give them thoughtful gifts, and have some edible food, you're being a good host.

   You don't have Martha's staff or Martha's budget. As cliched as this might sound, the important thing about Christmas is to spend time with family and try to have fun. You can't have fun if you don't relax!

   If even one person takes my advice this season, I've done what I could to make the world a better place. Thanks for reading!

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R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen

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   Leslie Nielsen will be greatly missed.  He passed away yesterday at age 84.  See more here: Blogcritics.









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A 'Shout-Out' for Dragon Blogger

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    Before I get into the meat of this post, I have some news to share.  It's all good stuff!

    First of all, I was offered a position in a tech support call centre yesterday.   I had to pass a number of tests of my IT and networking knowledge, plus a mock call scenario, in order to get the job.  I gladly accepted the job offer.  I'd be working on behalf of a major American ISP.   Well, Americans, at least some of your tech support jobs are being outsourced to Canada instead of India.   My 'Canadian' accent is more similar to an accent from Connecticut than an accent from Arkansas, but I have plenty of practice understanding Southern accents from talking to my dear half-sister Tori, who has spent enough of her life living in Florida and North Carolina  to sound like she's from there.   But yes, my accent is still generally Canadian (still some Londonish inflection exists from being raised by my father and grandmother), I don't really say 'oot and aboot', do I, eh?

     Anyway, my IT know-how and call centre experience got me the job, and it sounds like a pretty good one.  I start training on December 6th.   I will still be working on my freelance web design and blogging, I'm not giving anything up.   And KimCrawley.com will undergo a major overhaul in the next few weeks.  I'm going to change some of the colours to be easier on the eye, and make the site a portal for my blogging, too, not just my web design.  Plus, I'll change the colours of this blog to make it easier to read, as well.

    There's going to be no more Diary of a Lab Rat, I was withdrawn from the study, due to my low blood pressure.  But they paid me very decently for my participation!  I did most of my Christmas shopping in the past couple of days, all with 'lab rat' money.  Thank you, Kendle and Merck!   Oh, talking about Christmas, why don't you check out my Christmas Dos and Don'ts on Blogcritics?

   I'm also working on a website for my dad and stepmom, authors of The Women's Club.  See my Blogcritics interview of them here.  The website should be live in a couple of weeks.

   And, my Blogcritics articles are now being syndicated on the websites of major American newspapers!  Here's a link to my Ladies Who Love Coach Bags rant in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.   I'm also a featured writer in Google News.  Google News keeps an updated list of some of my articles here.

   I'm sorry for my delay of my ever popular 'Brief History of the Web' series, I hope to continue with another part this weekend.

   In the meanwhile, this is the continuation of my 'Shout-Out' series, this time for Dragon Blogger.  The site is run by Justin Germino.  He also runs a few other great blogs and websites, you can check them out here.

   Dragon Blogger is an excellent source for technology and entertainment news.  Justin contributes most of the articles, but I also contribute original articles, and so do several other great bloggers.  

   I recommend that my dear readers bookmark Dragon Blogger, not just for my articles, but also for Justin's and for all the other great content on there.  The site is updated multiple times a day.

   If you'd like to follow my 'Shout-Out' series so far, here are my previous ones:

• A 'Shout-Out' for Feminists For Choice
• A 'Shout-Out' for Transgriot
• A 'Shout-Out' for Tony Moreira
• A 'Shout-Out- for Madeline Moore

   Look forward to more of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series, soon.  Plus, I have more articles planned for Dragon Blogger and Blogcritics.

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Blogcritics Rerun: How to Become a Web Designer

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   Wow, now that I'm back home from the lab, today I've had a lot of work to catch up on.  I've mainly been writing my second article for eHow.com.  Demand Media's guidelines are very strict.  Beyond that, I have to write those articles in third person, and like an instruction manual.  This blog, and everywhere else I write, I'm in very opinionated first person!  But, I understand why eHow.com's format is the way it is.   But, it takes a lot more work for me to write for them than anywhere else.  As I get better accustomed to Demand's formats, I'll get faster, though.

   So, yes, I'm back in Stoney Creek now, and I'm perfectly fine.  I will find out if I'm to return to Kendle in Toronto in the next week or so.  I'll keep you posted.  

  In the meanwhile, I have a lot of plans for this blog, also, including continuing my 'A Brief History of the Web' series very soon.

  But, today I want to post here, but do it relatively quickly.  I may not republish all of my Blogcritics articles, but I may republish some after a couple of weeks have gone by.

   This article was very popular and well received- How to Become a Web Designer, my Blogcritics debut from October 12th.

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   Web design can be an enjoyable and fulfilling experience. It’s a trade that combines technical skills with creative ability. If you feel comfortable with computer technology and you enjoy creating documents, web design can be a great way to combine the two interests.


   That being said, it’s always overwhelming to consider learning a new skill. Before learning how to become a web designer, you should ask yourself, “Should I become a web designer?”


   I’ve been learning web design since I was ten years old, in 1994. I now do a lot of web design for myself and for some small business clients. There have been plenty of pleasures, but also plenty of frustrations. If you’re considering becoming a web designer, there are some things you should keep in mind.


   If you have a lot of time to devote to learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Photoshop, it’s possible to learn the basics in a couple of months. Be ready to spend some money on manuals, books, and applications.


  No matter how you decide to learn web design and how you decide to enter the field, some people have better potential to become web designers than others.
When you’re programming, even if you’re using a simple language like HTML and using a helpful application like Dreamweaver, you’re going to encounter some frustrations. Sometimes, when I create an HTML document, I spend a lot more time making corrections and problem solving than doing fun stuff. Are you prepared to spend a lot of time testing and making little changes? No matter how you approach web design, tedium can’t be completely avoided. If you’re easily frustrated and discouraged, web design might not be for you.


   Unless web design is going to be just a hobby for you, you will have clients you have to work with. Sometimes clients have a lot of specific expectations. Some clients have experience with web design themselves, but others may demand things without knowing the technical limitations involved. Before you start any project for clients, it’s best to have a thorough conversation with them about what they want and what they need. That can save you a lot of time. How would you like to spend weeks developing a website, only to discover that your client wants completely different fonts, colors, graphics, site organization and content? If you’re going to get into designing web pages for other people, you’re going to have to be ready to make a lot of compromises and take a lot of criticism. Are you ready for that?

   Finally, ask yourself if you have the time and energy to promote yourself. If you want to be hired by a web design firm, in addition to learning skills and possibly obtaining certifications, you’ve also got to be ready to pound the pavement with your resume and portfolio. It might take you over a year to find a job. Be ready to attend a lot of job interviews, and possibly get a lot of rejections.


   If you’re going to become a freelancer, like I am, you’ve really got to devote a lot of energy to self-promotion. Set up a website, preferably with your own domain. Be ready to spend some money on advertising. Spend a lot of time promoting your services with social media – Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, and so on. Scan classified ads, particularly online classifieds. Print business cards and distribute them wherever you can. Use your connections and word-of-mouth to your advantage. Tell everyone you know that you’re a web designer, and maybe someone knows someone who could be your first client. Sometimes I spend more time promoting myself than I do actually doing the work itself.


   If you’re ready to spend a little bit of money, do a lot of tedious work, take some criticism, and do a lot of self-promotion, then web design may be the field for you.
First, you’ve got to start the learning process. If you enjoy classroom instruction and having teachers, sign up for some web design and graphic design courses through your local community college. If you’d rather start learning on your own, buy some good books, look at the source codes of the web pages you visit, and go through some online tutorials. Even if you’re going to start learning web design in a school setting, be prepared to do a lot of learning in your free time, as well.


   It’s important to learn HTML, especially HTML5. Learn Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), up to CSS3. JavaScript, possibly some server side scripting languages, and Flash are very useful, too. Don’t forget to learn how to use Photoshop. If you don’t have the money to buy Photoshop right away, start by downloading some free graphic design programs like Paint.Net and GIMP. You can learn some of the basics of graphic design that way, and possibly be better prepared when you finally buy the most recent version of Photoshop.

   These days, people access the web in more ways than were ever possible before. When you’re web designing, you not only want to make your web pages work in multiple browsers, but also on multiple devices. Even basic cell phones can access the web today, not just smart phones such as BlackBerrys and iPhones. Even some video game playing devices like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DSi have web browsers. Web surfers could be using tiny screens or enormous screens. They could be using a variety of different browsers and versions of browsers. Users may have completely different plug-ins and fonts; Adobe Flash is a browser plug-in, for instance. When you’re learning web design, try surfing the web in as many ways as you can.


   There are many helpful resources for learning web design online, and there are many helpful online tools for web designers, many of which I use.


   The W3C is an excellent place to start. They're the non-profit organization founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who started the World Wide Web. The W3C sets standards for HTML, XML and CSS. In addition to information about coding languages and standards, they have handy tools to validate your code.


HTML Goodies has a lot of excellent tutorials and articles.


HTML Station has a lot of great instruction, code boxes, color help and demonstrations. Be sure to check it out.


   I’ve learned a lot so far, but I’m always learning more, and I’ll always be a student of web design and media technology. As technology advances, things change. There’ll always be new programming languages and applications. Learning is a constant process.


   Web design has been an engaging experience for me, and if you decide to get into it yourself, I hope you take it seriously and have a lot of fun.

   ____________________________________________________________

   Be sure to frequent my page on Blogcritics, all of my BC articles are original, and I may only republish some of them here.  Also, check out the many other excellent writers on the Blogcritics website!

   There's a lot more to look forward to in the near future.  See you there, and here!

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I'm obsessed, Janelle Monae edition

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   Dear readers, I've been super busy lately.  My writing is in high demand, now!  I've got a review to write on Invizimals (a PSP game) for Blogcritics, I've got aricles I'm writing for ehow.com, and I've been writing articles for Dragon Blogger, as well.

  My personal blog, this one, is still very important to me, and part seven of 'A Brief History of the Web' will be online tomorrow, but not today, as I originally said.

  My 'Obsessions' series posts take a lot less time to create than my longer, more text and research heavy articles.  I didn't want to miss a second day posting here, so I'm writing another 'Obsessions' article, as a snack to tide you over until tomorrow.

  There is a very talented young lady who released her first complete major label album in May.  Her name is Janelle Monae, and she's getting a lot of recent buzz, deservedly.  (Unlike some people I know, cough, cough, Ke$ha, cough, cough!)

  I love innovative soul and hip hop, and her recordings are revolutionary.

  The album she released in May, The ArchAndroid, is a very creative concept album, loosely based on the classic 1920s film, Metropolis.

   My fellow Blogcritics writer, Jelani Sims, wrote a very thoughtful review of The ArchAndroid.  You should check it out!

   Enjoy a little bit of the album here:

  See you tomorrow!

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Diary of a Lab Rat, coming soon to a blog near you!

  To my dear readers, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days.

  On Tuesday, I had to visit downtown Toronto for more lab work.  I'm very busy working on web design projects for a couple of clients.  Plus, there's a lot of Blogcritics articles coming up for you guys to look forward to.  One of the articles I'm working on is a book review of a popular new Lady Gaga biography.  I will also be interviewing the bographer!  Stay tuned...

  As for this blog, the much awaited part five of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series will be posted tomorrow.  I plan to continue my 'Project HTML5' series, as well.

  And, I'll be debuting a brand new, exciting article series soon!  Starting on November 1st is 'Diary of a Lab Rat'.  

  Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a human test subject in a pharmaceutical testing laboratory?  Read 'Diary of a Lab Rat' to find out.  

  I will be participating in a study for Merck, starting on November 1st and continuing until March 2011.  A new, yet to be approved by Health Canada (the Canadian equivalent of the FDA) drug to treat insomnia will be tested on me and about thirty other people in this study.   I don't suffer from insomnia, they will simply be testing the drug's side effects on me.

  A lot of tests have been performed on me already, and I received a phone call from the lab yesterday saying that I qualify for the study, I'm officially 'in'.  

  I've had to sign a large number of legal documents in order to participate.  None of my legal agreements with  Merck or Kendle's lab on King Street West in Toronto bar me from talking about or writing about my experiences in the lab.  But, to be respectful of the privacy of others, I will not mention other people's names in my 'Diary of a Lab Rat' series.  And, Kendle prohibits me from taking photos or video footage while in the facility.  I may post illustrations of my own, or relevant web graphics, but there will be no photos that are actually of my stay.

  I will make sure to bring a laptop computer for my use while in the facility.  So, I'll be writing those articles directly from the lab!  Kendle offers free WiFi for study participants, and I'll be taking advantage of it.  

  The 'Diary of a Lab Rat' series will be posted on this blog from November 1st until March 2011, but I may also write a related article for Blogcritics.  I may not repost articles from this blog to Blogcritics, though, so whatever I write for BC will be original material.  So, keep in touch with both this blog and Blogcritics!  That way, you won't miss a thing.

  I'm thinking of changing the colours on this blog for better readability.  I may change the black backgrounds of these posts to a different colour, and change this font colour accordingly.  Do you find the current colour scheme difficult to read?  Let me know, dear readers!  Comment on this post, e-mail me at kimcrawley@kimcrawley.com, or message me on Twitter.

  Stay tuned for part five of my 'A Brief History of the Web' series, tomorrow!

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