There are lots of things people are afraid of in life and in business. Today, I’m specifically talking about business. It’s never been my strong suit to be perfectly honest, but that’s changing, because I’m choosing to be happy. I’ve worked with a lot of clients and on a lot of projects over the last several year; the majority have been tremendous expereiences. However once in awhile for a variety of reasons I’ve been involved with projects that are less than fun(to put it nicely). Sometimes this was because I was working for someone else, or I personally didn’t go with my gut and my initial instincts, but learning the hard way isn’t so bad sometimes. So what is one to do when things begin to go South? Well that’s a little different for everyone depending on personality and tendencies. I can only speak from personal experience, so what I do is take a break from the task/problem/project in question. Once I’ve cooled off from my initial reaction, I carefully think about what needs to…
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Just sharing a recent remodeling of a new, softer, responsive design of Mops & Buckets website. It’s been 4 months, since the launch, but I just wanted to share some thoughts about the redesign and some of the tools we implemented and explored. Although Chris and I had no real issues with the first design, he quickly learned how fast things change, so it wasn’t long before we had issues to be addressed and worked out. As Chris began the journey of running his own company, he realized that his personal choices really had no impact on the business or perhaps even a negative one at that. This is a great lesson for any startup, leave personal feelings, tastes and emotions at the door because they don’t really matter. As you can see the Mops & Buckets redesign is a much softer, friendlier and overall cleaner website(not that it wasn’t in the first go around) and already helping increase conversions and keeping Chris and his team plenty busy to start the new year.
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Over the holidays I found myself wanting more and more to chill out with my Macbook Pro on my lap in the living room. I love my Chromebook, but I wanted to do some work on some stuff that I just can’t do at the moment. This was the only option if I was gonna work and watch more than basic television and hang out with my daughter and wife. In my office I hook my mbp to an external monitor so I can have more real-estate to work on. It had been almost two months since I worked on something without the dual monitor setup and I was itching for more screen space(since multiple windows is not an option I care for). A quick couple of google searches and I stumbled upon SwitchResX. Not sure if I was off my google game or what, but it wasn’t as easy as it should have been to find this, or at least a week ago I remember having issues when searching for a product. Regardless I…
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Ok so today was my first attempt at screen casting and adding captions. The hardest part by far is adding the actual captions. Most people probably don’t normally think to add captions or have an understanding of the importance, but I do. My beautiful wife is profoundly deaf since birth and in the last three years I’ve become pretty involved in deaf culture and the difficulties or obstacles that face each and every day. In fact a lot of times just experience down right discrimination most days. They’re not given a whole lot of opportunity, because most people find it an inconvenience. Anyways regardless this is my first attempt at a screen cast using Screen Flow and I’m looking forward to many more coming soon!! Oh and this is responsive video thanks to FitVids.js Plugin from WordPress.org
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Quick Review of the Google ChromeBook My first impressions of the Google ChromeBook are mostly positive It’s super light weight and I’m pretty sure it’s lighter than my iPad 3, but I didn’t put them on the scales, so this is not scientific. It’s been less than a week since I got it, and I quickly realized it’s really not meant to replace my Mac Book Pro or iPad 3. It’s an inexpensive machine mostly to blog and do causal web surfing or emails on my couch(others my use it more regularly). It’s thin and light weight, but the keyboard being attached to the screen is something I forgot how much I love. Nothing against the iPad, but pretty sure anyone who’s used one or owns one, you know typing can be a nightmare at time, frustrating to say the least! I love my iPad 3, but responding to emails or typing more than a few characters or a URL is a pain without a real keyboard. The one I bought to go with my iPad…
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WordCamp Raleigh Was Awesome and Here’s Why! Click Here to See My Favorite Part of WordCamp Raleigh This year was my first opportunity to attend WordCamp Raleigh, and I’m pleased to say I had a blast. For me, it was the first time of many WordCamps where I actually stayed at the Hotel where the even was being held. I’m not sure if that’s why the experience was more enjoyable than others in the past, or if it’s because I actually put some more effort into reaching out and meeting new people and putting faces to Twitter Handles. Either way it was a blast and I’m glad I ended this year’s rounds of WordCamps on a high note! Many thanks to Michael Torbert and Semper Fi Web Designs for running a great two day event. Some of the Sessions I went to and Highlights Using AJAX in Your Plugins (The Right Way)-Thomas Griffin Thomas Gave some really great advice for using AJAX in your plugins, which even as he mentioned can be an intimidating path…
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