Weather forecast of downpours embedded in rain got you down? This is a sure fire way to change your mood. Best wedding entrance ever!!!!! http://bit.ly/mw4ha

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This weekend I watched a movie named Recount. (HBO movie…which I got through Netflix). Ok, my take on it may have been skewed by my political views and my work in this new media field…..but guess what – the history of the United States for the last 8 years may have all come down to a choice of fonts!

You may remember at the time that there was a question of many people in Florida having punched the wrong selection – voting for Pat Buchanan when they meant to vote for Al Gore. But did you know that the ballot was confusing because of a concern that putting all the candidates in a row on one side of the ballot would mean a smaller font that might be harder to read? So instead, the candidate names were on both sides of the ballot. Now at the time I thought this was silly, until I saw the machines they were using in the movie – both slots for punching the ballot were beside Al Gore’s name AND Buchannan – you had to know whether to choose one or two in between the two names.

Just think, a choice for a smaller font may have driven the history of the world in a very different direction!

Fascinating movie by the way – Recount with Kevin Spacey

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I’ve settled back into work after a week camp hopping around the state of Maine. I visited 3 camps of different friends and we had a great time, but there is one lake that is closer to my heart since I spent a couple weeks there every summer growing up. It was with much pleasure then that I learned some friends of mine had a camp on the same lake (albeit the other end of the lake)

This camp is so cool I just had to share some of the photos.

Now, let it be said, if you are reading this post from anywhere other than in Maine, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Why did she go to a kids summer camp”….

So let’s define “Camp”.

If you grew up in Maine, camp is what most of you would call a cottage – probably but not always on a lake. There are some that are quite sophisticated, but to me a camp often means a much older building, with or without lake frontage but preferably with (no lake frontage probably means it’s a “hunting” camp.)

In this case the camp has it all (except a decent inside bathroom…oh, and “all” includes a resident chipmunk, the occasional mouse, and on one visit/occasion a bat – though thankfully nothing spotted on this visit). It was originally a hunting camp as evidenced by the deer and moose heads both inside and out. (Andy, my apologies to the vegetarian in the crew).

It also has great lake frontage with the sand beach going up under the porch and about 15 feet of beach between the camp and the lake. I also include a photo of the sink….an odd thing to take a picture of you say? Take a closer look….that sink and counter top is all carved out of one great big tree/log. Hope you enjoy these pictures of a good old fashioned Maine camp!

Many Thanks for the camp hospitality go out to Eirwen and Lane (Lake Cobbosseecontee near Augusta); to Doug and Linda – with a shoutout to Martha and Kevin (Beach Hill Pond near Ellsworth – the pictures are from here); and to Mary and Andrew (Cold Stream Pond near Lincoln).

Note the Bird’s nest in the antlers……circle of life?

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The first website I ever designed and built, I built 7 years ago for a friend with a custom stained glass business. It had more nested tables than a furniture store, and enough spacer gifs to shore up the structure…and since it was a freebie I hadn’t updated it in years. I finally told her that if she would commit to a real domain name and get set up on something other than her “free” ISP server space that I would rebuild it.

Well, she got the domain name and I did as promised and rebuilt the site using mostly CSS. I took into consideration the things I’ve learned over the years from our SEO folks here at flyte.biz, and I was SO EXCITED when I googled it this weekend using – maine custom stained glass – and even without using her name one of the pages came up ON THE VERY FIRST GOOGLE RESULTS page!!!

So if you are not sure it’s worthwhile to have us redo that older site structure, consider the possibilities of having your site move WAY up the Google results. Oh, and if you want to see the revised site, and some absolutely GORGEOUS custom stained glass, go to http://www.tamarascustomstainedglass.com

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Sometimes the best vacation days are the unplanned ones that you take on a whim (something I do a little too often!) This week on Tuesday I decided to take Wednesday off and managed to wrangle a couple friends into going up to Windjammer days in Boothbay Harbor. It was one of those ideal days where we laughed ourselves silly all day long, had ice cream for lunch (It was about 80 degrees, sunny with a nice breeze off the water).

We overheard some people talking that there were far fewer people for the festival this year….perhaps a reaction to the high gas prices? Somewhat ironic to have high gas prices keep people away from something that celebrated the old days of moving people and cargo by the the power of wind…..

We had great fun touring the ship Friendship of Salem which was docked at the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard. Originally built in 1797, it was a merchant ship, and I think my favorite pic of the day is the one looking up from the cargo hold through the deck to the mast – the glass in the door just caught the reflection of the flag flying high above in the wind.

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This is my first blog rant, although I’m sure it won’t be my last. It’s about what I believe is a deceptive policy on the part of Irving Gas.

Last night I filled the car up at the Irving station near the South Portland Maine mall. I used my debit card and happened to compare the receipt to the amount on the pump (something we all should do, but probably the majority do not.) The amount on the receipt was almost $2 more than the amount on the pump, so I went inside and asked the clerk why the larger charge.

Apparently, without any posting, warning or agreement, THEY CHARGE YOU EXTRA WHEN YOU USE A DEBIT CARD at the pump!!! Is this Legal? (We know it’s not ethical, but this is a gas company after all). I’m still mad about it today. Do other big oil stations do this? (Until now, I’ve been somewhat loyal – but that will change).

Will they charge more if I use a credit card instead? I’ll try that next time, but if anyone knows where I can send my complaint letter, let me know.

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Ground Hog day had never particular impressed me as a celebration day, but then I learned that it is actually based on a much more interesting festival in the Irish Calendar – namely, Imbolc.

According to the Wikipedia entry, “the holiday is a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring” and was originally dedicated to the goddess Brigid.

This speaks either to my 3rd generation Irish roots, or to the fact that we’re yet again facing an ugly icy commute home tonight here in Maine; but I am ready for any sign of spring, so happy Imbolc!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imbolc

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Gloria

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I’ve recently been playing around with writing a novel. To keep the fun on and the pressure off, I’ve given myself a 10-year time frame. It’s something I’ve thought about doing for years, but recently it’s been calling to me more. I’ve joined a writing class/group and I’m reading some books on “How To”, other’s process (check out Bird by Bird if you’ve never read it), and just re-reading a much loved book to see how authors make their transitions and use other writing devices.

With this in mind, I recently re-read (after many many years) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Reading it with more of an eye towards her craft of writing as well as the voice used in the story, I am just so amazed at this fantastic book. It’s not on the current best seller list (it was first published in 1960), but I strongly recommend you pick up a copy of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel!

Gloria

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