Sunday morning. It’s a bright, sunny day although pretty cold for Florida. Last night Jim broke down on the way home from work. Since we only have the one car now, that’s a big deal (we had two but sold one when he got a demo, then when he left the job a month ago we were down to one.) He had it towed to the local “Pep Boys” and I really hope they’re able to fix it by tonight. I’m not a big fan of Pep Boys, but they’re open on Sundays and that happens to be a necessity at this point. So Jim took a cab to work this morning, no mean feat in Ocala- we have three cab companies, each has one, that’s right, one car! Coming from NY, that was a bit of a shock. In order to get a cab you have to call at least an hour before you need it. Bizarre…

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Photoshop 7 is coming, Photoshop 7 is coming! The best news is it’s got a file browser… bye-bye Paint Shop Pro… That was the only reason I kept it on my hardrive. I’m hoping the upgrade price is reasonable. So armed with that and my new laptop, (which I haven’t ordered yet), I shall be unstoppable! Ok, maybe not, but it sure will be fun!

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A rant of sorts:
I’m beginning to think that designers who create freeware and link ware have been so concerned about our work being used to make money for others, that we’ve “TOS’d” our way out of some helpful exposure. Ironically, what prompted this thinking actually was my creation of this blog; In my desire to really understand and utilize the technology of the templates and my desire to host the blog on my own domain, I looked through a lot of premade templates that were offered by other designers. There are so many really wonderful designs and I found one that suited me perfectly. In reading the Terms of Usage, I concluded that I could not use this design as my website is primarily for my business. I understand and completely respect the desire and necessity of protecting your work, but it really got me to thinking and of course I haven’t been able to let go of it.

The fervor with which we’ve all created the statements that we believe are necessary to ensure that we cover and protect ourselves from someone making money off our own blood, sweat and tears may have caused us to overlook and deny an avenue that might be a great way to get exposure and traffic to our website, the very thing we rely on to keep ourselves procuring new clients, fans and devotees. I mean, what could be a better advertisement than another designer admiring our work so much that they would choose to use it? I’m a firm believer in the universe being full of abundance with more for each one of us than we could possibly use. I know that there are plenty of designers who feel that way as well, as a matter of fact, I’ve found that the majority of designers are more than willing to help each other. We start clubs, webrings, message boards dedicated to the advancement of each other’s knowledge, we’re always looking for a “partner”, someone who has similar interests, who is headed on the same path we are, for however temporarily and we join forces to learn whatever the latest technology, scripting, coding, designing, software or technique might be.

I guess what I’m saying is, that I’m going to amend my Terms of Use to state that if a designer wants to use my graphics, for their personal pages, I’d be honored. Honored that someone who knows how much work goes into each design would want to use something made by humble little ole me. Honored that someone in the field had recognized my work.
Honored; but then again, who knows when I’ll actually get to it?

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Three day weekends.. who invented them? It’s been raining since Thursday, the kids are bored to tears, well not tears, they’re bored to screaming and fighting.
Thank God for Disney.
Links:
The Olympic Security Guy is such a great read, I feel like I’m there.
Write a better blog As of now I appreciate this, but I reserve the right to be offended later as it sinks in that I’m just the sort of blogger they’re referring to…

Looks like 2002 is the year for me to Travel! It’s not like I’m going to Egypt or anything but in April alone we’ll be going here, it’s a golf resort and I don’t play, but the rooms are great and they have one of the nicest pools I’ve ever seen. It’s not far from our house and we’ve been meeting my mother and her husband there for a couple of years.

Immediately after that we’re going to Disney World! I really love it there. Again, this year we’re meeting my Dad. Going all out and staying at the Animal Kingdom Resort. Truth be told, I’m more excited than anyone.

And finally… I’m going home this summer. I haven’t been to NY in over three years and I’m so homesick –

So that’s what’s been going on with me… What’s new with you?

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I have in effect wasted two days reading blogs… There are some hysterically funny people out there, but I really can’t spend days at a time reading these things!
My house is a mess, my kids are running wild and this has not been the most productive weekend I’ve ever had.
Oh well, who really cares whether or not my house is immaculate anyway?

It is OK to use my photos or content provided a link back and proper crediting is given