Digi-Journal

I will have to say that there is nothing quite like my job.  It not only lets me be creative, but it also lets me follow my passion for drawing.  Can you guess what I do?

Well, I do illustrations for a film company.

I have been drawing for them for the last ten years and it has been a blast.  I have worked on a large number of short animation films, as well as some full length ones as well.  I guess for me the best part is that I get paid to do something I love and that is one of the best feelings in the world.

But this morning I have had to get up early to touch up the illustrations that I was working on last night.  It was rather humid here and some of the pictures just didn’t turn out the way I was hoping, so I am going over everything to make sure they will be ok for the client meeting that is scheduled this afternoon.

It shouldn’t take too long to get everything fixed and make it down to Actuality Films – I should be there by noon.  I can’t wait to see what we will be working on tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Actuality Films, illustrations

One of the best ways to market your business is to use direct mailing lists. These lists help you to target the customers who are most likely to be interested in buying your products or services. You can buy mailing lists that focus on many different types of information.

Some of the most popular consumer mailing lists that businesses get include:

• Local customers. Businesses that provide local services will try to get the lists of people who live right in the area where the business is located.
• Age-group mailing lists. Some businesses target specific age groups which are most likely to buy their products. Baby boomer mailing lists are particularly popular with businesses that buy mailing lists.
• Types of homes. It’s useful for a business to know who lives in a home. Are you trying to sell a service that’s perfect for families or do you want to get mailing lists that are filled with single home owners?
• Language-based mailing lists. If you offer bilingual service at your place of business then you already knew that this is an asset. Exploit it by targeting people who speak that language. For example, many businesses order Spanish-speaker mailing lists.

Work with a service that provides many different types of mailing lists to figure out which ones are best for your business marketing.

Technorati Tags: buy mailing lists, consumer mailing lists

I think that there is one single thing that teachers should teach you in elementary school. They should teach you that you are capable of learning anything. If they taught us this when we were kids, we would be able to spend the rest of our lives learning everything that we needed to know. Instead, they teach us specific things and many of us grow up feeling like there are some things that we just can’t learn.

The areas that we feel inadequate in as learners are all different. Ask me to learn about data capture systems or the work of networked scanning system providers and I’m as comfortable as a pea in a pod. But ask me to learn how to draw or paint and I immediately will tell you that it’s something I “just can’t learn”. And although I think that I can get better at improving my relationships, it’s taken me a long time to learn that this is something that I can learn.

I wish that it wasn’t this way for me. I wish that I could look at any area of life and think to myself that I could learn how to do it if only I tried. I’m not quite there. And I think that’s because that’s not what we learn when we’re little. We learn our ABCs. We learn specific things. But we don’t learn explicitly that we are able to learn. That needs to change.

Technorati Tags: data capture systems, networked scanning system providers

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not tech savvy at all.  In fact, except for turning on the computer and checking my email, my computer skills are pretty much non-existent.  But, as a business owner, I see the value of having an online presence, so I have been looking at ways to make that happen.

After getting a website setup by a local website design firm, I was left with the daunting task of figuring out how to market the website.  At that point, I knew that I was way out of my league and that I would need some help to get things started.

I had my secretary do a search on any companies that offered seo in Tampa so that we could contact them to see what we needed to do to get our website ranking well in the search engines.  Though price was a concern, I knew that when it came to marketing, in most cases you get what you pay for, and being cheap about it wasn’t going to work very well.

After a number of presentations from firms that were interested in our business, we went with a company that could not only provide us with local Tampa pay per click advice but put a solid organic search results plan in place.  We have signed a three month contract, and after that point, we will evaluate how well the marketing is going and make adjustments as required.  I am really interested to see how things turn out.

Technorati Tags: seo in Tampa, Tampa pay per click

After a childhood friend of mine died a few years ago, I remember her mom saying that despite her grief, she thinks that most of the time people would prefer their problems over someone else’s.  And it’s true — when we hear about something happening to someone else, we tend to perceive it as much worse than anything that is happening to us.

I think of this frequently, particularly when I go to the doctor’s office (I have type 1 diabetes).  Today I had to go in for a PFT (pulmonary function test) for a study I’m participating in, and while I was there I saw the sleep lab where they do sleep studies on people who have a hard time sleeping at night for whatever reason — insomnia, sleep apnea, etc.  And despite the fact that I take injections several times a day, my first thought was, “I am SO glad I don’t have that problem.”

I always have the same thought when I talk to someone with cancer, or a handicap that prevents them from physically doing things that I can do — at least as easily.  We can’t choose our problems, that’s true, but we learn how to deal with them.  The devil you know over the devil you don’t, right?

I  honestly think that, when it comes down to it, most people would prefer their own problems to anyone else’s — no matter how much some people cry and moan about how awful their lives are.  You know they would do it no matter what, so even they would probably prefer their own problems, no matter how much they complain about them now!

Technorati Tags: pulmonary function test, wheelchair lift

There are a lot of options available these days if you want your own website.  But a blog can also be just as fun, not to mention free in some cases.  So which should you choose?

A blog is pretty easy to design and use, and if you just want a  sort of online journal or a way to keep friends updated on the happenings in your life, a blog is probably the easiest way to go about this.  Some blog platforms — Blogger and WordPress are the most commonly known ones — offer free blogs hosted on their site, which means that you get a subdomain of theirs (i.e., myblog.blogspot.com).

You can also have a blog but with your own FTP service.  This means that  although you use the blog platform for designing and updating your blog, it is uploaded via FTP to a hosting account that you have with a different company.

Finally, there is the traditional website option, which doesn’t look anything like a blog.  These sites are often much more difficult to design and update, which is why many FTP and SFTP hosting providers also offer software and other tools to help you build a professional-looking website.  The other alternative is, after all, hiring an expensive graphic designer to put together your website for you!

These are the basic differences between blogs and websites.  In general, blogs have a more casual feel to them, and are best left to amateurs and casual users.  Websites, on the other hand, have a more professional feel and make a much better representation for a business — with the exception of the business blog, which is usually part of or linked to the business’s website, and maintained to help promote a business.

Technorati Tags: blog platforms, FTP service, SFTP hosting

I don’t know why I get suckered into going shopping for my husband’s heath supplements, but somehow he convinces me each time to do it for him.  I guess I will blame it on love, or stupidity, but whatever the case, I am the shopping guinea pig for his health products.

You see, my husband is a professional rower and therefore he is training constantly year round.  He is no spring chicken by any means, and he has found that health supplements (such as the human growth hormone) have allowed him to perform as he did years ago, even though he is older now.  It seems to work for him and I don’t mind buying for him now since we had a talk a few months ago.

I confronted him just a couple months ago when I watched a program on television that highlighted the side effects of HGH and I was really worried for him.  He was patient enough to explain to me why he took it and showed me some sites online that explained what the risks were and how it was a very safe supplement to take.

Anyway, after putting my mind at ease, I trust that my husband knows what he is doing.  That is why I don’t mind doing these shopping trips for him – it is my way to help him out with his training.

Technorati Tags: human growth hormone, side effects of hgh

When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 22 years old, I was in college and lived alone.  This posed all kinds of concerns: What if I crashed during the night, during my sleep, and no one was around to help me?  I could literally die if I was unable to help myself.

In fact, for the first few nights after I was released from the hospital, my parents (who still lived nearby) had me stay with them, so that they could keep an eye on me in those early days when there was still some question as to whether my insulin doses were correct.

I lived alone for a long time after that without any problems, as many diabetics do, but there was always a small concern there of what could happen while I was alone.  Medical conditions such as diabetes can always make living alone something of a hazard.

For instance, if you live alone — or even if you only sleep alone — you might suffer from sleep apnea and never know it.  Sleep apnea is where you stop breathing temporarily at night.  Usually it’s  only for a very short period of time, but it still disrupts your sleep and can cause extreme tiredness.  Many people with this condition use a sleep apnea machine, also known as a CPAP machine, to help keep their airways open and prevent obstructions while they sleep — but of course you have to know about it in order to take this step, and who knows what they do when they’re asleep?

I’m not advocating that people give up their independence and move in with someone just so that they are not living alone anymore, but in my opinion living alone does require a little bit more awareness on your part.  Just like a woman living alone might need to be a little more careful about opening the door to strangers or making sure no one follows her home, someone who lives alone needs to be more proactive about monitoring their health.

Technorati Tags: CPAP machine, sleep apnea machine, type 1 diabetes

I believe that I would make an excellent leader in the workplace. However, I work from home. As a result, I don’t work with a group of people which means that there is no one to lead. This seems unfortunate since I tend to have the skills that you need to be a good leader.

I am very good at identifying the different qualities that people have which would benefit a group. I think that this would make me an excellent team captain. I would be able to delegate tasks appropriately to other team members so that the work we were doing would get done in the most efficient way possible.

I also have really good people skills. I am good at creating peace among people who are feeling a lot of tension. I am able to diffuse situations as needed. I think that my people skills would make me really good at managing teams.

Perhaps I should think about going to work at a place where I could put my leadership skills to use. Or maybe I should think about starting my own business since I would probably have at least some of what it takes to do well as the head of a company. This is definitely something I want to think more about!

Technorati Tags: managing teams, team captain

Here’s a good video about how to land your website at the top of search results. The video makes it sound easy, but really, there’s a lot of work that goes into this.

Technorati Tags: search results