Anyone else ever have this problem?

Recently, I was talking to someone trying to schedule a meeting with me.  She complained that “I’m (me, Ellen) in meetings all the time, I have no free time.”  While that is a lovely sentiment, it’s really not completely true.  Some days are meeting heavy, some are not.  I wasn’t sure why she said this, so she elaborated.  “I’m looking in Lotus Notes for free meeting times, and you have every day from 8-6 blocked off.”

Seriously?

I investigated further.  Oh, here’s where it gets good.  Seems that Lotus Notes has a setting where you can list what times you are generically “available.”  My times for availability are 11:00 PM - 02:00 AM, 03:00 AM - 07:00 AM.   Because, apparently, I work on Pitcairn Island and keep 9-5 kind of hours. 

Since I never set that, I tried to reset it and the system would not accept any changes to the time.  I am destined to head to the South Pacific, apparently.  I figured it wasn’t worth torturing the rest of the company to struggle for meeting times with me in the middle of the night, so I called the help desk to fix the problem.  I got an email confirmation that a support ticket was generated, and the problem was described as so:

Incident Description: Can’t change anything in Prefs. Her calendar shows her as being busy always

Sigh.  The help desk understands me.

 

Happy Easter From the IT Family

Browsing through Target, I just couldn’t resist picking up a Star Wars egg coloring kit.

Happy Easter from Darth Omelet, C3-P-Ovum, and R2-D-scrambled.

I’m hoping that next Easter,when we’re all geeked up on J.J. Abrams’s reboot of the franchise, I’ll be able to pick up a Star Trek set.  I know he’s not in the new movie, but I could make an awesome egg-Picard.

 

“Upgrade Your Life”

Ssssh!  Don’t tell my manager, who is out of town at a senior management off site meeting, but I just snagged his copy of “Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker guide to working smarter, faster, better.”  On the one hand, he has to appreciate the fact that I have the desire to work faster, smarter and better.  On the other hand, this is one tech book that I know he wanted to get his mitts on, so it’s a good thing he’s not here.  Gina Trapani’s last book was published when I was on IT Boy leave, so I’m not going to have as much time to peruse this new one.  But, of course, since said manager is on said off site with a boatload of other senior managers, I’m in fewer meetings and amazingly getting more done.  Just in case, I think I’ll be able to carve out some time on the plane ride to SXSW to check this out.  And then I can have Gina sign it at her session.  Perfect planning.  I feel upgraded already. 

 

Need it, want it, gotta have it

Two blog posts have me in purchase mode this morning.

The first is from the good folks at OfficeSpacey.  I have never been diagnosed with SAD, but I get very cranky when subjected to long periods without natural light.  Here in Florida this week, I’m planning on soaking up as much sun as my SPF 50 will permit.  I remember seeing on “Northern Exposure” years ago a character walking around with a light visor to combat SAD.  This Happy Light OfficeSpacy speaks of looks like it would be a more socially acceptable solution.  No need to wear anything else that will call attention to my nerdiness.

Second, Kwana, the neighbor whose blog I read all the time but have never met, writes an ode to finding the perfect bag.  Those who know me know that I am all about the bag.  I find a bag, love a bag, and then run it into the ground, or find another one and fall in love all over again, discarding the old one like yesterday’s news.  I’ve been using my brown corduroy Kate Spade for a while now.  It’s good, but I need one with longer handles that is more hospitable to my gadgets (Kate puts one pocket in for a cell phone, forgetting my PowerShot camera, Blackberry, and GPS.  Silly Kate.)  I’m not ready to buy yet, but spring is coming, and I think I’m going to like what I see this season. 

 

A Very IT Christmas

Christmas has come and gone in the IT household.  Overall, I’d view it as a successful mission accomplished.   IT Boy got a bunch of therapy approved toys and a stuffed Snoopy.  It was quite a challenge to find one.  Snoopy on the outs?  I had no idea.  It wasn’t until I hit Hallmark that I found one.  He’s spent a bit of time hugging him.  Warms my IT heart to see that.

Little IT got her Wii.  Santa IT decided to buy on in September and beat what became the insane holiday rush.  She was over the moon when she opened the package.  Not to take his name in vain or anything, but Mr IT had decreed that there be no Wii for the IT Family.  Something about worrying about Little IT  spending all her time in front of the thing.  I already told her there would be no Wii on school nights, just like there is no computer or TV, rules she already follows. 

Me, on the other hand, is left feeling like a Friend of Bill W at a bar.  I know my limits, and this is it.  Hello, my name is IT Girl, and I am a game-a-holic (”Hello IT!”).  Once I start, I cannot stop. 

Case study - at one of my first jobs, I worked for a publishing housein the Electronic Products group (I was e before e was cool).  Unlike others at my level, I had an office with a door that locked, because I had 3 computers (a Mac, a PC and a portable PC which was anything but).  I began making friends in the company by showing them the great computer games these machines could play.  Over time, a co-worker and I got hooked, staying in my office till the wee hours of the morning playing games like Attack Sub U238, Flight S(t)imulator, and, my personal addiction, The Sims.  Oh, how I loved those Sims! 

After a while, it was like the tummy ache that comes from too much chocolate, and I decided it was better to not play at all than experience that feeling.  Through the years, I resisted through all the PC gaming that came through the house, and never touched Little IT’s DS.  But I fear the Wii will be my undoing.  I’ve already invited friends over to play it, and made plans to play with other moms while the kids are out of the house.  I’ve browsed through the list of “big kid” games that we can try to see which ones we should get next.  Must.  Resist.  Assimilation.  It isn’t futile.  I have the power. 

Look, I even set up a gaming category tag.  That’s just not a very good sign, now is it?

 

I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish

I volunteered some time ago to start a blog for Little IT’s brownie troop.  It’s a new thing for the parents, to use a blog for info on upcoming meetings and events, and to see pictures of the aforementioned post event.  So, as you can imagine, our page views are minuscule, especially since it’s locked to all but the parents, but I feel it’s an important activity and will eventually help drag people kicking and screaming into the world of the web.

Recently, the troop participated in a Halloween party.  We had a bunch of pictures, and I said, sure, ok, wonderful, let’s post them to the blog.  Well, on any service, easier said than done.  Usually, I put them up in SmugMugand then put up a hotlink to the SmugMug album. I didn’t want to do that this time. I wanted to have them all listed in the post for people to review right then and there. No time for linking.

Easier said than done, and I was quickly overwhelmed with single and bulk loading of 100 pictures. There has to be a better way.  Looking for an alternative, I tried Flickr, but it too failed me. I didn’t want to pay for an account (even though I gladly do that with SmugMug) so I was limited to the amount of file size that could be uploaded.

Then, I found Slide. I already use it in Facebook, but I didn’t realize until I saw it on another site that you can upload a slideshow to display in a blog post through them. It took no time at all to upload. You can change the captions to not be the file name (I didn’t). There are a myriad of choices for display options (I picked Album) and gimmicky add-ons (I selected none). With one click, they give you the code to upload to Blogger (where the Brownie blog is) and I was on my way! Mission accomplished! The display is pretty decent for little effort, as you can see below. I put my Police show pictures into an album below to demonstrate it’s functionality. I recommend Slide for a quick show that looks decent with very little effort. I’m not really cheating on SmugMug, as I will still use them for most everything else, as the final product is pretty cool, but Slide is good for a quickie.

 

Back it up!

Unless you are IT Boy or Little IT, I am not your mother.  But I do have good advice every once in a while and I am not afraid to share it.  Don’t wear a denim jacket with jeans.  Carry that Epi-Pen. And back up that data.

You know you have to.  You may have grand plans to do it, but until you actually have to deal with the loss of 5 years of family photos, it doesn’t become a priority.

Here’s a good article from Newsweek.com on the subject.  35% of us cop to not backing up our data. I think that number is FAR lower than it is in actuality.

I have to admit, I’ve preached this for years.  Talked about books on backup, storage and recovery.  But it was only last month that I sprung for an external hard drive.  It wasn’t a Seagate, but it does the job quite nicely, thank you.  And I didn’t have to have a data disaster to implement it.  I’ve got photos that date back to 2000, plus tax info, and what fits on an 80 gig iPod. If I were to lose that, I’d be kicking myself from here to Best Buy. Thankfully, it did not come to that. I bought a WD external hard drive from Costco.com.They have their own software to facilitate backing up, but I found it didn’t do a great job with my videos in iTunes, so I did that manually. I turned it off, and disconnected it from the computer and my wall outlet. I feel like Linus - very secure with my blanket hard drive. The first backing up took almost half a day, but it ran uninterrupted. I cannot stress how easy it all was in the end.

I feel so proud that I am ahead of the curve on something. Setting the trends…heh!

 

Fancy meeting you here

My thanks to Katie for informing me about the “blog stats” feature on WordPress. I had been using Sitemeter, but that service gives you different feedback than WordPress itself can provide.

The most fascinating thing for me to see is what search terms are bringing people to this site. Some make total sense - searchers wondering how to get a book published, if they need an agent, or searching on a specific book. Some are the result of words in the blog that mean nothing to the overall blog - for instance, a large number of people last week looking for “pot-belly girl”. After my initial alarm, I realized that term was in an entry about hyphens. However, I assure you that I am not her, so if you seek her, look elsewhere.

There is another trend that I want to address. There are a disturbing amount of people, most probably men, but to be fair, not limited to that gender, searching for “things to say to a girl.” This search term, as well as similar ones, are leading people to this site at an alarming rate - at least 5x per day. I fear….well, to be fair, I fear a number of things here. I fear for the people who need this information. I fear that they are not finding answers here. And I fear for why exactly they want this info in the first place.

So, dear blog reader who needs to know how to talk to girls, I’d like to provide you with some suggestions that might prove useful to you. First off, I’m not the typical girl. I’m an IT Girl (see header of blog). I’m the type of girl who will talk you out of the 48″ HDTV and talk you into spending a measly $300 more for the 52″ screen. I’m the type of girl who will take a conversation about a potted plant on a book cover into a 5 minute long”Bring me a shrubbery!” routine. I’m the type of girl who has a complete set of dice at home in case a quick game of D&D breaks out in the ‘hood. I’m the type of girl who is so excited to find a cool “red” shirt to wear to a Red Bulls game that she forgets it’s actually corporate swag:

Too dorky for words, I know.   As soon as I saw myself in a mirror, I bought a Red Bulls shirt, which corrected the dork infraction. 

Despite this, I believe that there are some things that all women have in common, and as such, I do feel that I can offer advice to those of you looking for advice on how to talk to girls. And my advice is this - don’t focus as much on what to say to her, focus on what *she* is saying. There’s rarely much more important for a woman than to feel like someone is listening to her. Ask her questions about her day, her job, her interests, whatever. Really listen to her responses. You’ll hopefully find yourself in a meaningful conversation in no time. What she will remember is that you cared enough to ask, which is probably the best thing that someone can say to a girl.  For even if all she did was talk about herself non-stop while you nod your head, she’ll probably remember that as a good thing.  Especially if you find yourself *not* talking about action figures, 20-sided dice, and Halo 3.

If others, male or female, geek or not, have suggestions as well, I’m open to posting them.  Let’s help our fellow Internet searchers today!

 

Advice from bloggers, for a blogger-to-be

A good friend of mine recently started a web site promoting her design services.  In case you check out her site, yes, these works of art are even more wonderful in person.  She’s a fellow soccer mom, which gives you the wrong impressions, because she shows up at the practices and games looking amazing, plus she’s super nice. Anyhow, she’s been blogged about, and has been convinced about the value of blogging, and now wants to start her own.  She’s going in the right direction, as she already has an idea of what she wants her blog mission to be:

“(I want it to) be a source of inspiration for other artists and designers.  I have several interviews already to do profiles on other artists and I also have some other design items to speak to, ie, my favorite pen…”

I need a favor from her, so I thought setting up her blog would be an excellent in-kind act. She wants to know how to blog, and I can show her that. Anyone who knows me knows that I have no sense of color or design, so her skills would be of immense benefit to me.  I have no problem with how to go about setting up a blog for her, but I’m not sure what the right platform is.  I’m a huge fan of WordPress, but I don’t know that it is that intuitive for the beginning user.  Blogger is supposed to be, and I already set up a friend on that site, but I don’t see it as very scalable -that is, it’s easy to get up and running on it, but once you want to do more advanced stuff, it’s not easy to figure out how to do it.  I tried starting a blog on TypePad, but I wasn’t that impressed. I also see that Joe Wikert has a tag on his blog labeled “TypePad sucks”, validating my initial impressions. Need I look any further than WordPress or Blogger? Are there other platforms I should consider?  Comment away, and defend your platform of choice. 

 

At last! IT Girls are here!!!

I have the joy and honor to say that I am holding in my hot little hands one of the first copies of “The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie.”

Let me give you a little background and explain why I am so excited.  About 2 years ago, our editorial teams gathered in Indianapolis for a 3 day meeting to talk about the industry and brainstorm new ideas.  One of the themes that came up repeatedly during this pow-wow was the lack of a truly female-focused series on technology.  Something that spoke to women, not down to them.  Books that made being a geek, well, chic. 

We left that meeting determined to define what made this customer, someone we affectionately dubbed an “IT Girl”.  It’s both a play on the concept of an “it girl”, someone new on the scene and making waves, and IT, for Information Technology (duh!).  While a typical “it girl” is a dime a dozen and lives for those 15 minutes of fame, our IT Girl was different.  IT Girls are intelligent, interested (and interesting), active, and educated.  They want to learn new skills or enhance existing ones, and are eager to use tech in their hectic and fast-paced lives, but want it on their own terms.

A working team of anywhere from 5-10 women and 1 man began meeting weekly to further refine the IT Girls concept.  We came up with profiles of who our customers would be.  Looking rarely further than the person in the next cubicle or the mom in line behind me at carpool, we talked about what the needs of these women were and how our series would work to empower them.  In the end, our concept was fleshed out and we were off to find authors to make these books a reality.

In the meantime, I left Wiley temporarily to create my little IT boy (aka my son).  When I returned, I was anxious to see where we were on the series concept.  In the time that I was gone, the team of aquisiton editors had rounded up some amazing authors to fulfill the dream as it were.  For our first book on blogging, I couldn’t imagine we could find anyone better than Joelle and Kathy to write this book.  Their fun and flirty style gives the perfect delivery to what in anyone else’s hands would be dry and technical information.  “Blogging with Moxie” is a fun, hip-how-to that I can’t wait to dig into.  In fact, in the next few days, I will be posting the top 5 things I learned from this book. 

There are so many people to thank for this, from editoral team members Katie Feltman, Katie Mohr, Melody Layne, Mary Bednarek and Willem Knibbe who worked tirelessly on coming up with the series concept.  Marketer Kelly Trent was a driving force from the beginning and led the team in my absense.  Andy Cummings, the publisher from the group that put out the blogging book is a true IT boy in my book.  There are so many others who I won’t name here, for fear of sounding like Julia Roberts at the Oscars, but trust me, I know who you are and I will never forget your support.   

“IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie” is available in bookstores both physical and virtual.  Later this month, starting on about the 16th, it will be on promotion at Borders.  Just wanted to give them a little shout-out and thank them for their support.