Zsoka's Blog

It has finally come. We are on a two-week vacation in Mexico. I was madly trying to finish many loose end stuff before taking off...did not manage to get to it all. The race was on, and I only had a few more hours to go, and I was already making compromises: "aah, I can do that in Mexico...am I out of my mind? I'm going on vacation, or am I?"

Right about when I had these thoughts, I got an email from an about.com newsletter with this title: "How to Take a REAL Vacation"...hm, that should be good, I thought...here is the first paragraph:

Not like I want to encourage anybody to close up and keep things to themselves, but maybe a little caution is handy, before we put our entire life on Facebook or similar sites. Read the story of this family whose portrait was taken off the internet, and used for an advertising piece at the other end of the world: US family turned into advertising.

Choosing a proper domain name for your business is not necessarily an easy task (and I'm not even talking about choosing a good name for your business, which took me several months to achieve, as I am assuming that you've passed that step already). Especially in this day and age, when there are a gazillion domain names out there, and chances are that somebody already thought of the name you are after, and also quite likely, that a business with the same or similar name to yours already exists somewhere else in the world.

I had the great fortune of meeting Erica Priggen of Free Range Studios at the BALLE conference in Denver last month. She showed us a sneak preview of the latest project they are working on, which is on educating teens on climate change. There is a piece now on YouTube that you can watch. They do such great work, I truly admire their talent.

The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, or BALLE, is the world’s fastest growing network of sustainable businesses committed to building local economies and transforming the community economic development field. BALLE is comprised of more than 60 local networks of independent businesses in a variety of locales across the US and Canada, and represents more than 20,000 entrepreneurs.

Wow. I personally have never seen an American or Canadian Idol episode in my life, but I saw glimpses of a couple of shows at friends' houses. So I assume that 'Britain's Got Talent' is a similar show. This will blow you away...Watch this YouTube clip!

Saturday we were having a dinner party at a friend's house, and we were thrilled when she reminded us that it was the day when we had to turn the lights off for an hour in support of the Earth Hour initiative, in order to show concern and raise awareness on climate change.

This is just great. Watch this film. A tiny bit long, but well worth the time in my opinion...

This video is beyond funny. And amazingly well done...enjoy
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1886349

A dear friend/client just turned 50 and he is celebrating his birthday in Hawaii. That made me remember a song that I love. I think it's great for a practical point of view (reminding us to wear sunscreen), as well as a way to look back at our lives, and look ahead and make it even better. I think everybody should listen to this song every once and a while. Happy birthday, Rob!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99

Wear Sunscreen

I am delighted that I have been nominated for a Business Excellence Award at the North Vancouver Chamber of Commerce in the Young Entrepreneur category. I am in business because I love to work with my clients and enjoy doing both design and programming, however, it is very nice to be recognized. I would like to thank everyone for their support!

What a wonderful day our family had on the Whistler Mountaineer. It's a 3 hour train ride from North Vancouver to Whistler, and the same on the way back. Enjoy all the scenery the Sea to Sky region has to offer: old-growth forests, gorgeous waterfalls, breathtaking canyons, deep valleys, seascapes and mountain views. Absolutely phenomenal.

There is a Hungarian saying (Egy fecske nem csinál nyarat.), which translated word by word would go like this: One swallow doesn't mean the summer is here. What it means is that one person alone is too little to change things. However, I always thought that it was an untrue statement. No matter how small the change we can accomplish by doing something differently, it is still a change, and it might encourage others to follow our example. One of my very favourite quotes is by Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

I just completed a survey on child care in BC. It was quick and easy, and I think that many of us should do that. It might make a difference.

Here’s the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=245063862309

"Media concentration is no laughing matter. In fact, some consider it a dire threat to diverse, democratic discourse.

But that's not going to stop The Tyee from poking fun at the issue.

If you feel like you're battling through a sea of media muck, you're not alone. Watch The Tyee's new video below, and cheer on your friends as they take on the Big Media barons.

While you're there, explore The Tyee: Canada's leading independent online source of news and views."

For many years, we follow the movement of the 'Turn off the TV week'. In order not to make a mistake, my husband always turns the TV around, facing the wall. A few years ago, a girlfriend of mine came by with her teenage son, David, during that week. Unfortunately for David, it was hockey season. The moment he got in our house, he went towards the TV, hoping to watch the game. When he saw our TV showing his 'back side', he was completely puzzled and said: "What did you do to your TV to that it took offense at?"

A question that I often got from my students: how wide should our interface design be? The correct answer is: it depends. I know, not much help, but let me explain.

When I was growing up (back in Hungary), nobody was taken to school by car. Well, most families did not have cars (not that I want to date myself). It was absolutely normal to walk or bike to school. We can't say the same these days.

There are several ways you can save an image even though right click is disabled.

1. Most of the time disabling right click is done with JavaScript, so if you disable JavaScript on your browser, you can immediately have the right click option.
2. If you don't want bothering with disabling JavaScript, but you use a Mozilla based browser (like Firefox), you can go Tools/Page info->Media tab. That gives you a list of all the images on the page. Click once on the address of the image that you are planning to save, then click the 'Save As' button.

I found something beautiful on one of my favourite blogs, Enlightening Ideas. It's a wonderful spot out of Peru. Enjoy.

Last night was the gala dinner for Inspiration 2005 - The Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. It was a fabulous event held at the Hyatt (Vancouver, BC). There was a showcase of over 70 small businesses - it was very impressive!

I just came accross with a great site that has totally free stock photos. There are over 100,000 photos, and they are quite good. What makes me very proud is that the site is Hungarian - just like I am ;-)
http://sxc.hu/
Enjoy

There is a new book out there that presents an idea, according to which we are moving away from the Information Age and towards, what the author calls, the Conceptual Age. The article is from a coaching website, so the lady who interviews the author of the book puts her questions from a personal coach's perspective, but what he says is still very interesting. I don't particularly like the style of the author (rather arrogant), but what he says makes you think. Or at least it made me think...

"The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure."

Nothing that we did not already know, but I believe that we have to remind ourselves from time to time, so we keep doing things on a daily basis that makes a difference for our planet.

Read article

Me To We

I like the fact that they created a site to promote this philosophy. I always try to remind myself that there is more important things than my own needs. Of course, I truly believe that we have to take care of ourselves before we could take care of others, but there is balance we have to aim for.

Thanks for stopping by my shiny new blog :-)