Breakfast at Tiffany's

I am alone in blustering an 11 page document into 17. From 3200 words to nearly 5700. What, for Pete's sake, am I doing? Adapting our O-Fish-Al FAQs from a simple document to html web page complete with little text compression tools that allow only the questions to be present until clicked on, whereupon the answer ever-so-awesomely expands within the web page.

It seemed like a simple request at the time, and it was something I wanted to do already.

What is really annoying is when you miss a div tag here and there and all of a sudden your page gets jacked back to 1995- large text, blue hyperlinks, and centered.

On another note, after watching some World Series of Pop Culture, I'm thinking about wrangling a few folks to make a team. I'm really weak in the music department. The only success I had in that arena was the category "White Rappers." There's how many? 5? 6?

"They didn't stop to think if they should." (Jurassic Park)

I began earnestly today on learning Dreamweaver CS3. It's been pretty much an assault on my patience and senses from the get-go. I can plunk away at a basic web site, and try to figure out how to do stuff. I have no clue on some of the tags, I just swing away at it. Usually it's hit & miss, and I have to wait for the order to go all the way around (start from scratch). In short, I've been standing on shoulders of geniuses (original programmers) and trying not to fall off.

That said, I think my first effort isn't too shabby. I have some fine tuning, but the template is nearly done. At 9:20 I finally stepped away from the fire. I'll hit it hard tomorrow around 2 or 3pm.

And no, I'm not going to share it with the world (yet).

"Can someone please tell me what this is? A plastic ice cream scoop?" (Armageddon)

Been away for a week on a staff retreat in Easter Washington. We were literally unplugged from internet and cell phone coverage. It was awesome. It was almost like technology didn't exist. Even the DVD player overheated and would pause during the movies.

Nearly all of us were unable to blog, read blogs, check email, or do some txting. I didn't suffer any withdrawals, or even think about researching something on the Internet (that's when my MFUI comes into play).

This type of retreat was awesome because everyone had to interact with each other. We couldn't retreat to our offices for "checking email" and avoiding people. Not that this happens, but sometimes it is easier to hide behind a keyboard instead of personally interacting with the same people we email or text.

"Because in First Class, they let us do pretty much anything we want." (The Wedding Singer)

How's your customer service? Are you willing to make a WOW! experience for your customers? In the grand scheme, your customers are those who use your product (you) or service (your knowledge).

Are you Nordstrom or Continental Airlines? I sure don't want to be Continental.

The Sounds of Coconuts

I <3 imdb.com. I've been using that site since 1997 or so. I found it funny coming across a bunch of cheaply-produced, stamp-and-ship movies that have the same plot:

"This plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis"

That will surely get my attention. Where can I rent this movie?

Grammar Police! Pull your keyboard over!

Your vs. You're

Your is ownership of an item. You're is preceeding an action in most cases. It is a contraction of you are.

Your bike. Your shoes. Your long list of items. Your personal assistant.

You're going away. You're reading. You're running in first. You're lost.

Their vs. There vs. They're

They're going to set up their tent over there by the bushes.

They're is contraction of they are. They are is always doing something.

There is a place. Over here, over there. Go there. Eat there.

Their is ownership of item for more than one person. Their tent. Their SUV. Their running shoes.

note: When using their, remember the word refers to people, not a group or organization. Use it when the subject is an organization/company. Example: Microsoft is a huge employer. It has over 35,000 regular employees.

"But of course you are." (Connery James Bond)

Presenting the same, or similar, material can be monotonous to the reciever. Equally so for the presenter, or the content provider. What determines the level of "staleness" of content? In television, a half-hour show format is 21-24 minutes of content broken into 3 segments (usually). Content comes in 7 or 8 minute chunks, and continously changes. The delivery medium is the same, although that is changing some with the growth of Internet delivery and Tivo.

So what's my point? When content gets stale, it has to be refreshed. But when and how? Usually things are stale long before it is noticed, and repackaging content only goes so far.

How can we present content that creates a "Wow!", yet is sustainable through the lifecycle of delivery systems. What type of "preservatives" can we add as content providers to maintain freshness?