web analytics

Tag-Archive for » finished «

18
Sep

This Week’s Goings-On

Ginger

This week, I decided to do a bunch of tasks through Fiverr at the cost of $5 per task, just like the website advertises. I tackled a bunch of new WordPress installs, including themes, for people who were interested in such (their domain and webspace were already there, or purchased separately), and did a few whimsical banners for those who were searching for such. There was one person who wanted a theme customized beyond what I considered to be mild tweaking, and so we negotiated an additional $5 for that. lol I have a list of plugins for WordPress that I group into different packages, depending on the client’s website needs; for example, a band would need to show booked events and showcase their music, while a realtor would require a consultation request form and a gallery for photos and layout diagrams. I love WordPress.

I’m about halfway through my current volunteering assignment, a social media campaign for an international nonprofit; Twitter is gaining a lot of momentum in the form of @replies, personal messages, and new subscribers, and the Facebook app has proven very popular. I’m not associated with the Adsense advertising also going on, but that’s also garnering a lot of web traffic for the organization. I get an email whenever a new ad goes up, and I watch the statistics spike as more and more people either click a link, or use Google to search for more information on the organization. Very fun. This would be the same firm for which I initially created the social media accounts, mentioned a few weeks back. The vice-chairperson I have the most contact with has expressed his approval of my work so far, and has asked me to train an English-speaking volunteer in France to continue the work I started. The vice said specifically that he’ll keep my contact information in mind for future projects regarding the various social networks out there. I am always pleased to gain another repeat customer.

My calendar of events is now virtually unlimited–for a couple of years I have had set hours due to the various real-life demands on my time each weekday. For example, I transport a friend to and from work. I gave her notice that with the recent changes to my household, it would be difficult to coordinate her schedule on top of everything else that is going on. My last day of transport was this Friday last. I don’t feel as frazzled about juggling online and offline responsibilities now.

Probably related:

 Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
12
Sep

Something Something Complete

Ginger

Good gravy, I’ve been busy.

I wanted to make sure I had a volunteer gig set up for today, September 11. I remember what happened in 2001, and I also remember how people came out of the woodwork to help each other. I try to schedule something wherein I can give to my community. Today, that something was the suicide hotline; I (wo)manned a chatroom and talked to people who needed an empathetic ear, for a total of five hours. It’s something I do roughly once a month, and it’s not something I talk about often. Today, I heard from a few individuals who were very triggered by the date, and one in particular who had a sibling on one of the planes. Everyone was really cool.

After that, I left the house for a few hours with a task in mind; I was to meet up with a friend to acquire a car. The car has been acquired, it’s sitting in our parking spot, insured and all that good stuff. I haven’t driven a station wagon before but apparently I will now, hee.

Hubby spent the last couple of days dogsitting for a serviceman friend who had to go do army stuff for the weekend. Having sat in the friend’s house for a couple of days without A/C in sub-100°F heat, hubby was quite ready to get out of there for a bit. We went on a minor joyride to get him some edibles and me some noms. We then housesat together until our friend got home. We awayed with ourselves to home, soon after leaving once more to go to the store, because we could, and were way too gleeful about it. “Hey honey, I’ll go wait for you, out by THE CAR!” “THE CAR” was our exclamation for much of the day, giggling fiendishly at all the stuff we can now do with it.

I’m chomping at the bit to get more fabric and go nuts with sewy things, but I’m thinking it’ll be mildly prudent to sit on that and have gas money set aside for the week. Upon writing that, I realized that my roommate will likely have need for me and said car, so that will push the gas need up a bit.

Gosh, I cannot tell you how happy I am to be mobile again–Portland is a nice city but never being able to get out of its limits really gets to one. One longs very much to see the stars without city light pollution, for example.

The moonrises and sunrises have been dramatic lately–there aren’t any forest fires in the immediate area, but there are a few in the Cascade Range, creating a vague haze along treetops and hills. The satellite and the star are much redder. In fact, the other day, I was startled to see that the sunlight streaming through the blinds was shining on the walls a very vivid red.

So, I was using zingiber.us as my “business” website, but after considering it, (and I kept wanting to share my sewing tinkerings which are not at all business-like,) I decided to copy the few entries I had over to this domain, and make a blog out of it. Why? Because it was bugging me and now it’s not. Also, most of my usernames are identical to this URL, and why double-up on stuff like Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and the like, if I could use the same thing for everything?–

I am sorry, I have had a very long day and my writing-themed brain cells went to sleep hours ago. I think I’m going to follow them to bed.

Probably related:

 Tags: , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
01
Sep

Charitable Goings-On

Ginger

I’ve been busy again!

Recently, I finished up a Facebook app for an organization for underprivileged kids in India. I was given two weeks to incorporate custom social media links to Twitter, Blogger, and a few other major websites, create badges for subscribers, and create a portal script through which the public, the fundraising organizations and major corporation representatives, and the Indian organization could communicate, share ideas, develop and participate in contests and fundraising campaigns. It was a really ambitious project and I wasn’t sure two weeks would be enough. Constant contact through Skype and Yahoo, and a little subcontracting on my part for the easiest, most time-consuming portions, and the project was completed just this morning.

I love my informal team, my cohorts are always willing to step up and help whenever I ask, especially on these unpaid ventures. We’re all professionals, some of whom work from home and some of whom are just connected to the internet seemingly 24/7 for professional purposes. Thanks, guys and gal!

Also on the volunteer front, I had a small influx of fresh photos and descriptions for animals to be listed on Petfinder. I’m usually told when an animal whose profile I developed has been adopted, if only to update the adoption status and depreciate the profile. Seven of the eleven animals, four cats, a puppy, and two birds, have new homes. Another two cats have promising leads; their fosters will let me know what comes of them.

I was looking at some of my other domain names, and wondered if I might make a personal blog out of one of them. I keep wanting to write about my offline crafting ventures and ideas, but I don’t really think zingiber.us is the right place to put those thoughts. There are a few entries that could be cross-posted to both blogs, but I’m thinking it will be a largely separate entity. I’m still brainfarting about that one.

Oh! I have a standing engagement to write weekly posts regarding another charitable company’s goings-on, copying the info on a few different social networks, for eleven weeks. They forward me their emailed conversations, so that I can glean some sort of overview of what’s going on, and try to encapsulate the weekly news tersely and accurately. It’s what I call “spinning“, wherein I flex my writerly muscles and summarize what the client wishes for me to convey to the public. As a subset of that, I’m in charge of @replying those who take the time to comment on the company. I’m wearing my social media manager hat for that.

I’ve been spending a few hours of each day off the computer, sewing of all things. My SO’s been listening to an audio book in the only room with good lighting; I’ve been considering listening to podcasts while I do my thing, so that I’m amused. It’s not that the audio book is boring, but I don’t want to listen to that every day. But enough about that non sequitor. I think about more projects I could be doing online, and I write them down if they seem especially important or attention-getting.

Probably related:

 Tags: , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
27
Aug

Video Campaign!

Ginger

An idea had presented itself a few days ago, and I think I’m going to act on it. I wanted to create a series of video résumés in a variety of styles. The mental image of each separate video is making me giggle–they promise to be as amusing and silly as they are informative and representative.

I thought it’d be a nifty thing to upload to YouTube.

Also, I’ve submitted my first for-pay app to the Apple Store. I will be sure to update you on the whys and whatfors as soon as it’s approved. I have a number of free ones on there, but this one I’m especially proud of. Yay!

Probably related:

 Tags: , , , , ,  Leave a Comment
14
Aug

Educational Video Editing

Ginger

I just finished up a twelve-episode series for a nonprofit organization through onlinevolunteering.org, featuring animated characters who explain and teach science to children. After receiving the assignment and the topics to cover, I networked with a fellow volunteer with a background in science, to help me come up with a hypothesis to prove or disprove a statement pertaining to the topic, and developing a 15 minute episode depicting the scientific method in exploring the topic.

I advertised for nonprofit voice actors through Craigslist, requesting voicework to be sent through email, or through Skype. I networked with four people for the voice work, two who recorded their own material and uploaded it to our workspace, and two who allowed me to record them on my computer. I edited the vocals myself, found free creative commons sound effects, music, and other foley. I then created hand-drawn animations in a derivative of Photoshop, matched mouth movements to the audio, and compiled everything together into cohesive episodes.

There were three people involved with the quality assurance portion of the project, one directly linked through the assignment, one of the voice actors who expressed an interest in seeing how her voice was being used, and a friend of mine who enjoys seeing my work and critiques it unabashedly and impartially. I reworked three particularly clunky sections in which it was decided that a little more explanatory dialog was needed. It was also through the collaboration of the QA team that we decided that there needed to be a narrator to make the series, and the stories therein, more cohesive.

It turned out to be a really fun gig, and the recipient company, a client in South America, gave me many positive accolades for the work spanning two months.

Probably related:

 Tags: , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment