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I celebrated my 50th birthday by revisiting brunette;-) and having some adventures!
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Another year is winding down and outside my office window snow is falling on trees still full of yellow leaves. That visual sums up why this is my first newsletter since February... Time just gets away from us! This June I turned 50, and this week celebrates one year in my home office. It's been a busy year both professionally and personally.
There's always something that needs to be done in a 94 year old house, and business emails to respond to after hours. I have gotten much better recently at shutting down the computer at a [fairly] reasonable hour so I can get the home chores done. I even managed to get my garage door scrapped and painted last week during an unseasonably warm 2 day stretch! But after the work was done, I was able to enjoy life with a tropical vacation, a white water rafting trip, soaring over Cape Cod, and some quality time on the back of a motorcycle...
My Thanksgiving message is simple: Take the time to enjoy the ride! Get done what you need to, but also take the time for yourself, and be thankful for all life throws at you. If the snow buries the leaves, I can always rake them next spring...
Personally I'm thankful for the roof over my head [that keeps my body reasonably warm], a loving family, great friends, and a wonderful man [all of whom keep my heart warm], and the clients who have kept me busy enough this year that I've almost forgotten about the floor that I finally finished sanding, but still need to stain!
Happy Thanksgiving, Debi
Gardiner Design will be closed November 22nd & 23rd, 2007
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Recent Gardiner Design Jobs
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Tech-tips
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and Design Terminology Defined
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The "411" on Free
Directory Assistance
Tired of paying for directory assistance, especially from your cellphone? I've been paying 75 cents every time I pick up my cell phone and dial 411... but what choice do you have when you are on the road and need a number fast? I suppose you could annoy your friends and loved ones by calling them and asking them to look up a number for you... but I don't recommend it [at least if you want to keep them as friends].
Instead you can now use Google's free directory assistance.
Program 1-800-466-4411 (goog-411)
into your phone, and use it to find business phone numbers.
It's easy, just:
1. Dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone
2. When prompted, State the location and business type
3. Choose from the list of businesses that match your request and then connect to the business for free!!
For more information on this free service go to:
www.google.com/goog411
Note:
I just used my cellphone to call my office. Goog-411 asked for the City and State, and I replied "Worcester, Mass".
Goog-411 asked for a business type and I replied "Graphic Designers". Gardiner Design came up as number 2 on the list, so I selected 2 and my office phone rang! It was easy and FREE!!!
It will also look up a company by name versus category, so I could have skipped "Graphic Designers" and replied "Gardiner Design" but I wanted to test it... and I was impressed!
The only downside I see is that my caller ID recorded it as a "Toll Free Call" which some folks may read as telemarker ;-)
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A Glossary in the Thanksgiving theme
Burn
Photographic term which means darken an area of an image. "Burn" is now a tool used in the program Photoshop which simulates the affect first used in a darkroom. Dodge is the opposite of burn, and causes an area to be lightened rathered than darkened.
Cookie
A cookie is a message given to a web browser (such as Netscape, Firefox, Safari, or Explorer) by a web server. Cookies identify web site visitors and possibly prepare customized web pages for them.
Feather
When you feather an image the edge gradually disappears into the background, making the edge look blurry or soft versus having a hard edge. The resulting image is also called a vignette.
Fill
A graphic software (Photoshop, Adobe illustrator, Macromedia Freehand) tool used to fill selected parts of images or their backgrounds with a color.
Java
Java is a programming language, created by Sun Microsystems. Java allows small applications to be downloaded into your computer for playback. Java can be used for such simple applications as animation and more complex applications such as a calculators and navigation.
Netiquette
Accepted, proper behavior on the Internet. The term especially applies to email, forums, and newsgroup posts.
Onion Skinning
Onion skinning is a computer graphics term for a technique used in creating animated cartoons and editing movies used to see several frames superimposed at once. The name comes from traditional cartoon animation, the individual frames of a movie were initially drawn on thin onionskin paper over a light source. The animators could put the previous and next drawings beneath the current drawing, so that they could draw the smooth transitional motion. In computer software (such as Flash), this effect is achieved by making frames (semi) transparent and overlapped.
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