Category Archives: Websites

My Top 10 Top 10 Lists of 2011

December 29, 2011 – 9:30 am

nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Inspired by the Top 10 Worst End-of-the-Year Top 10 lists list that we posted at FaithVillage, here is my own Top 10 End-of-the-Year Top 10 lists list.

10. The Best Selling Video Games of 2011
Sadly, my absolute favorite of the year, Portal 2, was ranked #10. It’s one of the smartest games in existence. I’m playing through #8, L.A. Noire, during my Christmas break, and it’s a little unnerving to have more than a few actors from Mad Men (including the game’s lead actor) appear in the game.

9. Top 10 Words of the Year
As a writer, I felt like I had to include this, but the words this year are lame. I’ll save you the trouble: The word that was most looked up online in 2011 was “pragmatic.” Additionally, “‘austerity’ also made the top 10 list in 2011 along with ambivalence, insidious, didactic, diversity, capitalism, socialism, vitriol and ‘apres moi le deluge.’

8. Top 10 Most Bizzare Tech Stories of 2011
This list exists because someone failed to tell someone else that just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do something. A self-hugging vest? An internet-enabled kissing machine? An MC Hammer search engine? At least they all have this in common: They make me say, “What the what?”

7. Top 10 Gorgeous Gadgets of 2011
Function does not have to follow form. These gadgets remind us that useful tech doesn’t have to be just a metal box.

6. 10 Most Viewed YouTube Videos of 2011
#1 makes me weep for humanity. My favorite is #2, embedded below.

Tags 2011, FaithVillage, tech, Top 10 | Permalink | Comment (0)

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My Top 10 Visited Sites of 2011

December 26, 2011 – 11:30 am

Since we’re running a few Top 10 lists at FaithVillage this week, I’m following suit and posting a week of my own randomly chosen end-of-the-year Top 10 lists. Today, it’s the Top 10 sites I likely visited in 2011. There are no statistics to back up this list, just inclinations.

10. Grantland / ESPN

Ever since the Mavs won the championship (which I predicted), I’ve become an ardent NBA fan. Sadly, the lockout and the loss of many of the key Mavs from last year have left me with a bitter taste, thinking that the Mavs getting through the playoffs this year would be even more miraculous than last year’s epic run. If you’ve never visited Grantland and you appreciate good writing, Bill Simmons, pop culture, or Chuck Klosterman, you’re missing out on some of the best stuff on the Internet.

9. PostSecret

If you’re easily offended, this isn’t the site for you. If you’re awed by the incredible diversity of the human race—our hidden thoughts, unspoken hopes, and worst sins—this site is fascinating. People send their secrets via postcard to Frank Warren. The often simple words combine with just-as-simple art to produce compact yet compelling studies in humanity. It’s updated every Sunday, but not archived. In other words, the secrets are only up for a week at a time. However, these postcards have been collected into many different books.

8. GoodReads

I used Shelfari for ages. After using that site to catalog my library, then not finding an easy way to export that list, I jumped ship to GoodReads, a similar social network for book lovers. I’ve been happy ever since, especially with GoodReads’ iPhone app that allows me to scan book bar codes in order to add them to my digital shelf. It also helps me keep track of what I’ve read and how much work I still have left to do.

7. 101books.net

I don’t recall how I stumbled onto this humble blog with grand ambitions, but I’m glad I did. It’s fascinating reading for book lovers and English majors. Robert Bruce, unhappy with his lack of reading fiction as an adult, decided to read Time Magazine‘s Top 100 books since 1923 (the year Time was founded). He added Ulysses to the list, since it is widely considered a literary masterpiece, but was published in 1922. Bruce blogs about interesting trivia behind the books, then provides an easy-to-read and honest assessment of the time he spent in the book. I once spent a weekend poring over every post until I caught up to “real-time.”

6. Christian Nightmares / JesusNeedsNewPR / Huffington Post Religion

Both Christian Nightmares and Jesus Needs New PR are blogs that detail the rather weird side of Christianity. Sometimes funny, sometimes scary, but, to me, always interesting. Be warned: These sites are not for the faint of faith. HuffPo Religion is where I find news of note in the Christian world that is making waves beyond the church’s walls. read more »

Tags 2011, 2012, New Year, Top 10 | Permalink | Comment (0)

Funny Job Search Life Photos Websites Writing

Need a Website? Brochure? Newsletter? Article?

July 14, 2010 – 4:00 pm

I tweeted this yesterday:

Because the day before I felt like this:

While there are thousands of people much worse off than myself, part of my self-pitying ice cream coma arrived as a result of finally learning the answer to a specific job application process that’s lasted for the last three months. (The answer was no in case the picture didn’t clue you in). I drowned my sorrows in a PB&C shake from Cold Stone Creamery. It helped. A little.

But today, like every day, is a new day. Motivation has returned. Self-confidence, ever wavering though it may be, came back to roost. I have ideas for better utilizing my time. (I’ve watched the entire first season of 24 in about a week – thank you Netflix streaming - and tore apart my defunct PS3, among other things). I’d like to help you, or your friends.

This is where you come in.

Do you need a simple website?
Maybe a brochure or newsletter or heck, even a magazine?
An article written and pitched?

I can write. I can design. I can do layout. Yes, I will ask for a fee in return for these services, but it will be a mutually beneficial venture: inexpensive for you, experience for me. Pricing will be discussed up front, before any work is done, and will be on a case-by-case basis based on your needs.

So if you or someone you know is in need of a small website (I can host it as well), graphic design work, or copywriting, use the contact tab on the left side of this website to contact me.

I promise not to spill chocolate shake on your website.

[P.S. I am still looking for a full-time job in the DFW area, but plan to continue freelance work when a new gig is obtained... as long as the new gig is OK with it.]

Tags editing, freelance, graphic design, Job Search, website, writing | Permalink | Comment (0)

Searching for a Job on Twitter

April 16, 2010 – 10:59 am

While I’ve had the fortune to not have had to look for many jobs in my years of being an adult, I’ve always heard it was about who you know; in other words, it’s networking. This notion always scared me because I thought I’d have to know a lot of people, and I thought I’d have to know them pretty well for them to be interested in helping me find a job. Thankfully I live in a time where networking floats in the air I breathe, in the digital bits of the tweets and status updates of social networks. Now that I’m embarking on a new adventure, I sat down at my computer last night and wound up spending two hours “networking.”

It began with this article: HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter, from Mashable.com. At the end of the post, the article lists multiple twitter accounts to follow if you need to find a job. I clicked the ones of interest to me, and as I was about to start clicking “follow,” I thought…Wait a minute… If this new account decides to follow me back, or if any other traffic should arrive as a result of starting to follow these accounts, do I really want my lame Twitter page to be their first impression?

So I googled “Twitter background templates” and found this free downloadable Twitter background PSD file from @chadengle of fuelyourcreativity.com. I edited it and wound up with the background currently seen on my twitter page. It’s still fairly simple, but it’s direct and looks better than before.

Finally, I felt confident to start following new accounts (listed here for your amusement). Then things got really fun. I’d begun using Hootsuite online recently at my current job and knew it would be a useful tool for this new endeavor. I didn’t realize how powerful the tool they’ve created is until I saw how it could help me in a job search. I created a list on which I could place only twitter accounts related to my job search in Dallas and Fort Worth. I created a column that only tracks the hashtag #tweetmyjobs. I created other columns that deliver real-time results for “Dallas jobs” and “Forth Worth jobs.” In perusing the results, I found @writerjobsdal, an account aimed directly at the type of job I’m looking for. I started to find interesting jobs almost immediately, but my eyelids could bear their burden no longer. I left the search until today, but knowing that I’d set in place useful tools for my search allowed me to sleep soundly.

Feel free to make recommendations of Twitter accounts, or share your own story if and how using online tools helped you get a job. Or, you know, offer me a job in DFW.

Tags dallas, fort worth, job, Job Search, social networking, twitter | Permalink | Comment (0)

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Starting the Job Hunt: Princeton Review Career Quiz

April 13, 2010 – 7:36 pm

I picked up the perennial bestseller (10,00,000 copies!) of What Color Is Your Parachute? 2010: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers on Sunday. The top line of the cover lists this version as the “Hard Times” Edition. Seeing that made me wonder, again, why in the world am I doing this, when so many people have been out of work for so long? It’s a question I dismiss quickly. Despite the inherent fears in jumping into the great abyss of an unknown future (well, it’s all unknown), I know this to be the right thing to do at this point in my life. So, in hopes of a good conclusion to this journey, I’ll document some of this process.

In What Color is Your Parachute, author Richard Bolles lists a few sites for career quizzes. While I’m fairly knowledgeable about who I am, what I can do, and the type of job I’m looking for, I thought I’d give a few of them a try. The very first test, all of twenty-four, very easy to answer questions, pegged me. If you’re looking to be told what a good career path might be for you, try the Princeton Review’s Career Quiz. Here are my results, if you’re interested:

Your Interest Color is BLUE
People with blue Interests like job responsibilities and occupations that involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of activities. Blue Interests include abstracting, theorizing, designing, writing, reflecting, and originating, which often lead to work in editing, teaching, composing, inventing, mediating, clergy, and writing.

Your usual style is YELLOW
People with yellow styles perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is orderly and planned to meet a known schedule. They prefer to work where things get done with a minimum of interpretation and unexpected change. People with a yellow style tend to be orderly, cautious, structured, loyal, systematic, solitary, methodical, and organized, and usually thrive in a research-oriented, predictable, established, controlled, measurable, orderly environment. You will want to choose a work environment or career path in which your style is welcomed and produces results.