Women Learn Thai

I’m a workaholic by nature, so when I got into the design industry, I was well suited for the multi-tasking ahead.

Coming in from the arts, I had to learn industry standard software, bookkeeping, client juggling, and the dealing of difficult and sometimes errant printers. All while learning design.

Hours were often long, 12-14 and up. Weekends off were few. Holidays were spent passed out, with the scenery a blur.

(I still need to see Bali again… for the first time).

It wasn’t unheard of for my system to crash after a large project.

Feast. Crash. Famine. Recover.

And a given, it was during the Feast, Feast, Feast times where I suffered the most.

Blurry eyed and soggy brained, I’d make decisions impacting the success of a project. And unknown to me at the time, they also impacted my future reputation.

And that’s how I learned an important lesson the hard way (quoted in Jeff Fisher’s must have book for budding designers, The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success).

Get a life, preferably your own!

I was lucky in that it only cost me Singapore $800 to fix that snafu. But, my reputation with that one client was forever changed.

Which brings me to the reason for this post… forever changing.

When I moved to Thailand (needing a change), I went into a sort of semi-retirement from design. But not from all things design. I just moved my interests sideways.

But not sideways enough as I managed to forget my hard-earned get a life lesson.

Sliding into total burnout, my design brain was in fear of a total blackout.

And I guess the combination of the tsunami, then the coup, then the bombs (and now the Yellow Shirts taking over the airport) haven’t helped.

Catching myself, I searched for a non-design outlet.

And face it. Designers don’t just design. Or talk about design. Or eat, sleep, weep design (even though at times it feels we do).

Designers write. They travel. They have wonderful babies and make incredible parents.

And yes, designers learn Thai too…

Women Learn Thai is where I try out my writing skills and photography skills, with a wee bit of Thai thrown in. Oh, and a smattering of design… there’s always that.

And just to show you that I haven’t lost my competitive streak through all this, Women Learn Thai has been put forward for voting at Thai-stars.com

(yes, you can vote too!)

Ps: and now back to DWB’s regular schedule of fabulous design blogs…

And THAT’S a promise :-)

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WordPress Template Tags Reference Guide

Every so often I receive resources through DWBs contact page.

And for today, the WordPress Template Tags Reference Guide is it. A big it.

We created this quick reference guide to expedite our WordPress theme development, and we found it so useful that we would like to share it with you.

The content was reformatted for quick reference from the Template Tag section of the WordPress.org Codex, a relative encyclopedia to WordPress theming, and great reference for your WordPress questions.

Please enjoy. I know Jay will.

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Today, after being tardy with most addictions internet related (checking stats, chirping on twitter, checking stats), I logged in to a sweet surprise. Yes, I’ve been gifted the Arte y pico award by dear Jack. Thanks Jack!

If you don’t know about the Arte y pico award, here are the rules:

1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.
3. Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.
4. Link to the Arte y pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. Show these rules.

Hmmm, there are so many great blogs out there … decisions … decisions … and I can only choose five … hmmm … difficult …

• Joanna Young at Confident Writing (and Powerful Web Content)
• Kyle Meyer at Typesites (and Astheria)
• David Airey at Logo Design Love (and David Airey)
• Emily Chang at Emily Chang Strategic Designer (and eHub)
• Roy Peter Clark at Poynter Online – Writing Tools

All are worthy of the Arte y pico. All are worthy of a visit and more.

Please enjoy (I know I do).

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The Big Word Project

• An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence.

• Those who add new material to a blog.

• To change in form or nature: transform
• To render into another language, style, or manner of expression: translate
• To transfer from one place or period to another: shift
• To change the relative place or normal order of: alter the sequence of
  

Expatriated bloggers transpose. So true.

So, can something this brief be considered Powerful writing in under 30 words or less? Yes? No? Perhaps?

Ask Paddy Donnelly and Lee Munroe (?) …

… two Masters students from Northern Ireland, who are exploring what different words mean to different people … The project is aimed at changing definitions and creating a new tapestry of words, meaning altogether different things.

No surprise, they and their powerful words can be found at The Big Word Project.

(Twitter, eat your heart out :-D

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searchme

As a blogging designer, a visual person who spends majority time researching attractive blogs to feature, searchme is a Saturday morning wow.

Will I use it? Sure I will. Especially after finding a site I forgot I’d lost. Design Interviews. A keeper.

Searchme lets you see what you’re searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you’ll see pictures of web pages that answer your search. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you’re looking for, before you click through.

Right now the features are limited (still in beta). And so is my time. I can google information faster than what searchme can. But, google does not grab the right hand side of my brain, searchme does.

Yes. A lot of the time (but not always), when searching for blogs to feature, what grabs me first is looks. And searchme gives me the looks and a bit more (they need to work on the more).

There’s a list view option (click the middle arrow at the bottom of the screen). But the small space limits a quick skim down a full page. And I do depend on being able to skim chunks of information. Quickly. My off time depends on it too.

What’s on my wish list? The ability to do an inside search on galley sites such as cssbeauty.com and the likes. It’d speed up my search. For sure. Oh, and for blogs, I’d like the ability to view the last 5 posts. In detail. Sort of like Fancy Zoom does.

Anyone who’s used iTunes will immediately see the similarity between Searchme’s results page and iTunes’ “Cover Flow” view. The two are practically identical. However, the search engine isn’t merely aping an existing method of categorization, but is showing off what can be done in Adobe’s new Flex 3 open source framework.

Play around with it. Or, if you are a truly visual person (and can bear the corn) watch their Introduction to Searchme on YouTube.

Hah! Yes, I googled to find more information on searchme.

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Web Business with North x East

I’m a sucker for a well written blog. Throw in a well written blog by a designer blogging about blogging and the business of design, and I’m hooked.

About:
My background is in design – both web and graphic – though I once studied a degree in mathematics and computer science through the misguided thought that I could get by on talent and not passion. These days my fascination with the visual has been replaced with an obsession into business, the web and blogging – coincidentally the topic of this blog.

Posts of interest:
How important is design? and Creative Email Addresses (itsbroken@company.com, iwantajob@company.com, mymumcoulddobetter@company.com)

Found:
MatNewton.com Doing Business With Style

Web Business with North x East is by: Collis Ta’eed

Discovered via: Google Alerts

NOTE: In April Collis will be launching FreelanceSwitch. If it’s anything like the quality you’ll find at North x East, then it’s worth bookmarking now.

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MyBlogLog Top 50

Nice. I’m getting bigger.

This past week, Designers who Blog reached the Top 50 on MyBlogLog. I didn’t mention it because DWB had the smallest available font size. Also, I figured the one DWB nudged off would come back in push DWB off.

But as my community continues to grow, DWB has been gifted with a larger font size.

I’m not sure how this works. I had the same community numbers as some of the smaller top 50, weeks before finally making it to the top 50 page. Maybe it’s calculated on how fast the community is growing?

I believe the growth of my community is directly related to the research I need on blogs talking about design, marketing, SEO, photography, writing, advertising, illustration, etc. As well as a couple of hobbies I’ve thrown in (cooking, health, travel and more).

The more blogs I add to read later, the more they find out about DWB, and the larger my community grows. Nice. I need MyBlogLog for my research (I’ve found it’s the best way to discover more of what I need), and I’m being rewarded in return.

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cat’s MyBlogLog

Andy Beard started a MyBlogLog meme. I discovered it at PurpleWren, Sandra Renshaw’s blog. Sandra compiled Andy’s along with Mike Sansone’s and added her own choices from her MyBlogLog community.

As a member and regular user of MyBlogLog, I’m coming in with my own list (added to the bottom).

I use MyBlogLog daily in my constant search for interesting blogs with up-to-date information. For instance, I recently found INNINGS and featured his blog INNINGS – the Norman Roberts Blogspot.Com on DWB yesterday. As a nice return, Norman featured DWB (thanks Norman!).

Further in the week I’ll feature two more I came across on MyBlogLog – Mark McGuinness and his Wishful Thinking blog and Richard Quick’s Web Design Book. Well written, both are perfect for a project I’m working.

I found both Web Design Book and Wishful Thinking by sticking to a system when using MyBlogLog. First thing, I visit my community and scroll down to the bottom to see who’s made me a contact. Then I follow each to see if they’re a fit.

I have a wide range of interests so in my community you’ll find blogs on SEO, cooking, website design, blog design, photography, art, writing, copywriting, marketing, technical issues, business tips, health, mind matters, computers and more. So if they are a fit, I add them to my community. If they are not a fit (and don’t have a blog with smut and well, you know) then I go ahead and add them as a contact because I do want to keep in contact. I then visit DWB’s Community and do the same.

I discover even more by visiting communities others have made. Well, when I have free time anyway, like during lunch or late at night. Or when I’m brain-dead and can’t face work any longer.

I’d be interested in seeing how others use MyBlogLog. Is it for community? Or research? Or raising your profile on the internet? Or just great fun?

Just to let you know, Andy has set out two logical rules for the MyBlogLog meme:

1. You have to be in the community you recommend
2. You have to be a subscriber of the blog

enjoy!

Andy Beard’s choices
Andy Beard | Andy Beard’s Community
Andy Beal | Marketing Pilgrim Community
Graywolf’s SEO Blog | Graywolfs SEO Community
A VC | Fred’s A VC Community
Converstations | Mike Sansone’s Community
The RSS Blog | The RSS Blog and KBCafe

Mike Sansone’s choices
Black in Business | Jim Walton’s Community
Social Caster | Bruce Prokopet’s Community
Shared NeedLes | Jamie Parks’ Community
Brain Based Biz | Robyn McMaster’s Community
Branding Strategy Insider | Derrick Daye’s Community

Sandra Renshaw’s choices
Bella Baita View | Pasticciera’s Community
Purple Women | Teri Tith’s Community
Goodness Graciousness | Jennifer’s Community
Stories by RELÂ | Mark True’s Community
Branding & Marketing | Chris Brown’s Community
Growth Capitalism | (Hannah) Steen’s Community
Megan Prusynski Design | Megan Prusynski’s Community

cat’s choices
Brown Sugar | Brown Sugar’s Community
CREATEaPRO.com | John Rubio’s Community
Creative Blend | Holly DeWolf’s Community
Debbie Millman | Debbie Millman’s Community
FreelanceTipster | Gordon-Walker’s Community
INNINGS | Norman’s Community
Moxie Design Studios | Kathy and Joelle’s Community
PRATIBIMB | Abhijit Dharmadhikari’s Community
Rickmann Design | Andrew Rickmann’s Community
Successful Blog | Liz’s Community
Web Design Book | Richard Quick’s Community
Wishful Thinking Mark McGuinness’s Community
These are either past features or future features. Please join their communities if they’re a fit. And now I’m off to check out the shared communities above!

To join in on the meme, copy the list and add your links. If you are unfamiliar with getting a list of links off a site, there’s an easy way to do it. Look up in your browser to the top bar. You should see the browsers name (Firefox, Safari, etc), followed by ‘file’, ‘edit’, ‘view’, etc. Click on ‘view’ and go all the way down to ‘page source’. You’ll be presented with a page filled with code. Scroll down on the page until you see the list of links, all done up in their html. Click at the beginning of the list, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, hold down your shift key and click again. Your selection should turn yellow, selecting the whole list. Copy and paste the code into your blog post.

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WHEW! I’m finally back from the UK. ‘Being’ isn’t a bother, but the travel time is. Getting up at 4.30am for the 4 hour ride between Devon and London, then the 12+ hours in the air, each both ways, is tiring. I’m shagged. Totally.

It’s great to be back in sunny WARM Bangkok. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable visiting friends and relatives and eating way too much then way too much again. But, after almost two weeks of the fog and drizzle and cold of Devon, I’m ready for warm on an empty stomach.

After sleeping most of yesterday away, this morning I was wondering how to relax into a DWB post before posting my end-of-the-year-that-was. I checked 9rules to see if their final list was ready to share. They’ve been working hard to get to the bottom of the pile, but nope, it’s not. This round was just too huge. I did discover Revenge of the ‘Z-Lister’ from my bloglines, a nice exchange.

Liz from Successful Blog authors a D-Z List at The Blogging Times so I imagine she’s also quite chuffed to get a nice package of lists pre-prepared.

The list is part of a meme, so here’s the deal:
(I’ve edited the explanation from Mack Collier’s blog)
Simply cut and paste the ENTIRE list below to a post on your blog and add blogs of your own (not those on your entire 300+ bloglines, just your gravy-of-the-month). That’s it. You’ll get a ton of happy bloggers suddenly coming to YOUR blog to thank you, you’ll get a ton of great new blogs to read, you’ll likely get a ton of links yourself, but most of all, you’ll feel good about making a whole lot of other bloggers feel good about themselves.

DWB is all about giving link love so the idea fits in that sense. Also, a number are discussing marketing, advertising, design, business, etc, so they are right down DWB’s target alley. Some are are already on DWB, but by briefly clicking around I’ve discovered Penina’s blog Work, in Plain English, which is a fit for a project I’m working on.

Btw – there are a number of blogs participating so I’ve snatched the alphabetised list from Word Sell to add to.

My (few) additions are:
A Girl’s Guide to Managing Projects
hypocritical
Inside the Marketing Mind
More than a living
PigWisdom.com
Roger C. Parker Design to Sell Blog
russell davies
trizoko
We’re not wired right
Writing, Clear and Simple

The full list:
AENDirect
Africa Unchained
A Girl’s Guide to Managing Projects
aialone
akira media design
amblingsfromaglasshalffull
Being Peter Kim
Bellingham Real Estate blog
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Beyond Madison Avenue
bizandbuzz
bizsolutionsplus
Blog Till You Drop!
Bob Sutton
brainbasedbiz
brainbasedbusiness
brandcurve
Branding & Marketing
Branding Strategy Insider
brandsizzle
Bullshitobserver
Buzz Canuck
Buzzoodle
christine kane
Chuan Zhi
CKs Blog
Cobalt Paladin
Community Guy
Constant Change
Conversation Agent
Converstations
CrapHammer
Creative Think
Critical Fluff
Customers Rock!
Daphne Loo
darrenbarefoot.com
Design Sojourn
Diva Marketing
Dmitry Linkov
Drew’s Marketing Minute
eSoup
esoup
expresswhatwasonceinexpressible
Flooring the Consumer
Frozen Puck
Funny Business
gDiapers
Get Shouty!
Golden Practices
Gratisvibes
Hee-Haw Marketing
hypocritical
Inside the Marketing Mind
instigator blog
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
John Wagner
Kinetic Ideas
Lih Shin
Linda Chua
Logic + Emotion
MapleLeaf 2.0
Mac’s Money blog
Marketing Hipster
Marketing Nirvana
marketingminute
Masey.com
metaverse
Mindblob
More than a living
moviemarketingmadness
Multi-Cult Classics
New Millenium PR
NewsPaperGrl
Nick Rice
Nofi.org
Note to CMO:
On Influence & Automation
One Reader at a Time
Open The Dialogue
OTOInsights
Own Your Brand!
owrightbetweentheeyes
Pardon My French
Perspective
PigWisdom.com
Popcorn n Roses
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman’s Blog About Surprise
Presentation Zen
rebang
Roger C. Parker Design to Sell Blog
russell davies
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Sek Ling
Servant of Chaos
Shimmer
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Small Surfaces
SMogger Social Media Blog
Social Media on the fly
Soloride
somewhereovertherainbow
steves2cents
strategicdesignmarketing&brandingthoughts
Successful Blog
Success Creeations
Sweska
Tell Ten Friends
That’s Great Marketing!
The Branding Blog
The Copywriting Maven
the curious shopper
The Emerging Brand
The Engaging Brand
The Frager Factor
The Instigator Blog
The Marketing Minute
The New PR
The Qualitative Research Blog
The Sartorialist
think positive
thoughtsphilosophies.com
trizoko
Troy Worman’s Blog
Two Hat Marketing
U-Fong
Unconventional Thinking
UZYN.com
Viaspire
We’re not wired right
Whippleworld
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Woolgathering
Word Sell
Work, in Plain English
Working at Home on the Internet
Writing, Clear and Simple
Xiao Luo
youalreadyknowthisstuff

Please enjoy (I know I’m going to)
… and a ho ho ho from cat

PS: DWB won’t be up to full speed until after the New Year ..

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The questions:

1. In what ways has blogging benefited you as a creative professional?
2. What advantages does blogging provide creative professionals over traditional forms of communication?
3. Do you find yourself more connected to your industry due to your blog?

Please email your responses to: gnumoon [at ] gmail [ dot ] com, with a link to your blog and the type of work you are involved in (photography, design, writing, etc.). All names and blog/email addresses will be kept confidential.

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