“bulk” mail

today has been a little interesting. one of my clients has a medium sized client base, but it can be grouped into categories of clientele. he wants to send “bulk” messages to his clients, offering special services based on those categories.

well, that’s not really hard, is it? sending a copy of one e-mail to multiple recipients is possible from nearly every e-mail client available. the trick is to do it in an efficient manner and to follow a good e-mail etiquette. what complicated this little tutorial is that he uses eudora, on a mac.

i haven’t used eudora for several years. which means i’ve never used it on a mac. fortunately, eudora can be downloaded and used for free, with only a few limitations.

i imported my settings and contact info from apple mail, and set to work looking around the eudora interface. upon opening the address book, i discovered i had to enable showing of the OS X address book. once done, i created a few alternate address books. i seem to remember there’s a way to create “groups” in eudora, but this way was a little easier.

doing bulk mail this way forces the user to select the addresses in the address book. you can select multiple addresses by holding the command key as you select addresses. at the bottom of the address book panel, just click on the [Bcc:] button. Bcc:, of course, because you don’t want everyone to see all the other recipients’ addresses (that’s the e-mail etiquette i was talking about).

NOTE: duplicate addresses will only get one copy. eudora is pretty smart about that, but it confused my client, as he was trying it out by sending copies to himself. i think we’ve got it working for him, now.

new client activity

one thing can lead to another.

the minutos have been clients for nearly ten years. mostly, i keep there ‘puter running. they started with a packard bell (a cursed machine) that would completely quit working every couple of months. after rebuilding that machine several times, we finally built a new machine. from there we kept moving up, finally switching to a 24″ iMac (alum) early this year.

Frank is a professional artist — very prolific. he also teaches for the Palos verdes Art Center. Debs is a photographer, and she specializes in artist’s portfolios – photographing the originals and printing quality giclees. every once in awhile she calls for help with a project in photoshop. her call this week was to create a CD of one of Frank’ss series to present to galleries. it was an excellent time to introduce her to lightroom.

we used lightroom to adjust the images of a few of the photos and to create a screensaver of the series. we also experimented with how it would create a webpage presentation of the series. they liked the result so much, we’re finally going to put Frank’s work online! as i’ve been pushing for this for a couple years, i’m absolutely delighted.

we’re now figuring out just exactly how we’re going to upload the files. one new aspect we’re going to try is embedded videos of Frank’s “gallery statements”. we’re going to give him approximately 10 minutes to record a short description of the series, as though he were presenting it in a class lesson. we’ll probably use viddler, but (just in case) i’m going to try a few things with garageband. after showing the screensaver to another client, there’s even a possibility of having some original music for the site as well.

i guess i’m branching out into “production”.

haha! on me…

being single-minded doesn’t always work out.

i was so “focused” on getting the office cleaned up, i just kept piling the mail up on the end table. oops. friday, i finally sorted through all of it. one “late” notice, several catalogs (straight into the trash bin, this time), a bunch more magazines (more about them, later), and a few bank statements.

well, really, that’s not so bad. the “late” notice bothered me, i didn’t remember getting the first bill, but it wasn’t a major problem – it’s the first time in about four years. paid the bill on the phone (bugs me, they charge for that particular service) and now i don’t owe them anything. the bank statements are usually not a problem.

i check my bank balance nearly every day. it keeps me balanced, and i learn early if something is “out of order”. last year, i discovered a fraudulent charge (ultimately, three of them) the day it occurred. managed to contact the company where it happened and get their cooperation, and the bank covered it. eventually, the hubby got a new ATM card, and it hasn’t happened again. NOTE: i wouldn’t recommend netzero to anyone, ever. THEIR response was “we’re not responsible for the misuse of your card…” very peculiar circumstances, really. whoever was trying to use the card, did so ONLY to try setting up an online FAX account. the first time, it was used to set up a one year service. the next try was a month-to-month service. after the third try, they gave up.

back to the main tale–i hadn’t checked my accounts online for ten days. it took me four hours, saturday, to balance the checkbook! at first, i thought i was off by about $750. pulled out all of the receipts for last month and double checked that i hadn’t entered anything more than once. then i printed a month’s worth of transactions from the bank site (i don’t just download the transactions – it confuses me). checked off item by item, and discovered i had not entered a couple deposits and several online transactions. eventually, it all worked out. whew!

i love using quicken. i joke that “i never learned to count; that’s how i got my kids.” it’s really true. until i started using quicken, i could never balance my bankbooks. i’m a little obsessive about it, now (“i check my bank balance nearly every day”), but everything stays balanced and up to date. i probably could take more advantage of the program. there are neat little graphs to show you where you’re spending your hard earned moneys. and there are other graphs to show whether your funds are growing or shrinking. the best part is having the numbers show up red if you’re overdrawn; i haven’t seen those “red” for a long time, but i know they’re available.

once i balanced everything, i figured i should finish paying the bills. there really weren’t that many, but it took me all night! amazing! of course, i started around 9:00 pm. but i didn’t finish until after 6:00 am. sheesh paying the bills includes printing stamps, and filing, and checking when i last paid for that particular subscription or donated to that particular cause… have you noticed that paying for a subscription immediately gets you a “renew now and save” offer? or that donating to an organization gets a “thank you, would you like to give us some more?” you could run to the poorhouse faster if you just gave them everything, right?

so that brings us to sunday. hubby gets up and wants to know if i’m planning on sleeping any time this weekend. he was right; i definitely needed a nap. 1 hour and 20 minutes later, mom calls wanting to know if quicken can print her checks for her. i like talking to mom. her eyesight really is giving her fits, she’s not sure she’s doing her checks right, and yes, quicken will print out her checks. she just bought a new house! we talked for quite a while. in the meantime, hubby has started working on last year’s taxes.

please, would i dig out the taxes from 2006 so he could compare them? did i pay estimated taxes for the state? no more napping. back to cleaning out more office stuff (there are files we could put in the garage, i’m sure). just how long are we required to keep old tax records, anyway? questions answered, old files refiled, and taxes for 2007 are now complete. california wants copies of new mexico taxes, and viceyvers. so now i’m making copies of tons of paper. i also need to run to the mail boxes, etc. store for envelopes. don’t i have some stuff i want notarized?

later, gators.

good people day 08

one of the things i want to do with this blog is give it more “content”. otherwise, it’s just random ramblings and whoever manages to find it will quickly get bored.

today is as good a day as any to start adding links to posts. this particular link is better than any i could imagine. gary vaynerchuk has an incredible blog re: personal branding and business building. today, his second post is a real real eye-opener.

gary vaynerchuk: good people day ‘08

there’s a good little video on the page (explanatory). after watching this little video, i immediately thought of the various members of my family, most of the blogger and podcasting tribe, and quite a few other persons who have influenced me and helped me become the kind of person i am, today. i would be writing all week to include them all here, so i’ll just name a few, and leave room for you to add to the list.

my hubby is “good people”. we’ve been married almost 36 years. he’s always made me feel beautiful, pretty, sexy and smart! as a father, he simply couldn’t be better and as a grandfather he’s just about perfect. even whe i’m grousing about something he does, or did, i know in my heart that i wouldn’t have him change for anything in the world. he’s the best man there is, and my true life mate.

my mom is “good people”. it took me more than forty years to realize just how much i truly love and admire her. she taught me how to be patient (even when i consider it a dirty word), and tolerant (some people can try one’s patience). i learned not to gossip from her, and how to never let someone feel my personal displeasure at their presence (no matter how much i feel they’re intruding on my presence). mom has a really strong opinion on what is right and doing it; i hope i will always do what i believe is right.

mur lafferty is “good people”. when i first learned about podcasts, hers was one of the first i found. i’m not a writer, but her podcast makes me want to write. and through her podcast, i have discovered many, many others. her essays have brightened many days, and her support for the Tribe is awesome. “go, eagle, go” is catching on around my family and friends (although they’re not certain what started me saying it).

and gary vaynerchuk is “good people” for reminding myself and others that “every day is good people day”

creating a logo

well, actually not. what i’m doing is cutting a logo from a photo using CS3. this could be really tricky, depending on the photo. but photoshop has some cool tools that really help.

the photo in use is one i took at the Star Trek Tour. over the entry was a huge and beautiful panel and the picture i took shows it very clearly. the Queen Mary Dome is white on top, but the entrance is dark. selecting just the logo should be fairly easy.

the quick select tool is really a bonus. with a little patience, i was able to select the entire border and not the doorframe. but there are a few blurs along the edge where the contrast fades away. not too bad, really, but the edges look a little choppy at first.

copied it onto a new layer, hid the background and now i’ve got a very sharp contrast. i also have a great cintiq 20WSX monitor. can easily zoom in, and move around the edges. can expand and contract the eraser easily, too. so now i’m just smoothing out the edges a little…

i’ll be using it in a newsletteer reviewing the Tour for the O*W*C.

a normal day

it’s saturday. i’ve spent most of the day in the office. SOP. grampy is visiting #1 son and his family – won’t be back ’til after 9:00pm.

this is routine. i start with e-mail, and catch up on a few podcasts. log in to the #techguy chatroom a little after 10:00am, and listen to the KFI broadcast when it starts a little after 11:00am. yes, i do multi-task throughout the show, mostly in ‘puter work, sometimes a little fiber arts, but always within earshot. today i synced the iPod and the iTouch and made sure they were thoroughly charged. i trimmed some of the rubber stamps i had on the desk, and put away one of the afghans i’m working on (until the rest of the yarn arrives). i added my name to a couple knitting blogs and caught up on past submissions.

NOTE: why does google insist on using the same password for e-mail that is used for google checkout? it doesn’t encourage me to use google checkout–that’s for sure! and it means i have an really complex password just for checking my e-mail…

when the chatroom closes, i sometimes take a nap, but usually i do a few household chores–often with podcasts playing in the background. i love my airport express (broadcasts to the stereo equipment downstairs).

today, i ordered a game for the DS from amazon, placed an order for rubber stamps and paper, balanced the checkbook, edited a catalogue of images in lightroom,  and followed tweets from SXSW. lazy day. but very normal. it’s really been pretty quiet–#2 son has been away all day.

tomorrow is my mom’s 77th b’day. we’re going down to visit around noon, staying ’til a little after dinner. standard visit includes balancing her bank accounts in quicken. my brother helped her organize all her tax papers this year. that’s a real blessing; my eyesight isn’t that much better than hers when it comes to reading the print on the papers she needs every year.

i really enjoyed my day. and i’m looking forward to the day, tomorrow.

not bad at all

so i trimmed most of the photos to 160 pixels wide, and cut down the number of pictures. then i combined 7 photos of costumed attendees to a nice composite about 480 pixels wide. i love layers

i have to remember to name the layers as i create them. sometimes the thumbnails are small enough that it’s a little hard to identify which layer i want to move or transform… still, the results were nice and the entire review with 14 pictures capped out at 168kb…

changeing layouts

sometimes the best laid plans aren’t… i thought i was almost done with the newsletter supplement, but when i got the pictures inserted, i hated the look of it. that happens sometimes.

needless to say – i’m back at the drawing board, and adjusting the layout and the size of the images to suit it better. it might take a few more days, and i may end up cutting the number of images down by a large percentage. it’s just a newsletter, after all… it shouldn’t look cluttered and hard to read.

sidestepping frustration

i’ve gotten so fed up with the “transition” period at my web host, that i’ve transferred my blog here for the time being.

6 months is way too long! they’re taking their sweet time getting it done., and i’m not at all sure whether any of my changes are even possible at this time. once they’ve transferred the files, can i make new changes at the old log-in? i can’t use the new one, as i still don’t have access. they’ve transferred my DB and now it says none of my pages are writeable (i had a hell of a time getting the files i needed to transfer this much here.) i can’t even get a backup of my site anymore (good thing i keep a copy on my HD, right?)

so – this now looks like plain jane, and horribly lamer than it was before. but at least nothing’s lost.

still exploring

there’s so much available in wordpress; it’s hard to decide where to work first. should i create new pages? should i edit my old website? i want to add to the posts i already have, and create a bit of perspective. with so many options, i find myself a little stymied.

what about the blogroll? i’d like to include links to so many different types of sites, it’s hard to just start listing them. it would be nicer to categorize the links, i think. there’s plenty of time… why do i feel i’m wasting it?