Susan Finch - Web Solutions Provider

10 GREAT findings to build your better website.

Smashing Magazine has amazing articles on web development and doing business online. I learn from this site every time I visit.  Here's a bit about them: Founded in September 2006, Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. Their aim is to inform their readers about the latest trends and techniques in Web development. They try to convince you not with the quantity but with the quality of the information they present.

They posted a 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines article a few days ago.  It has some very helpful and revealing tips.  Time to update some of my sites again and implement these tips.

Weekly Challenge: Apple Harvest Time in New England

Corn has peaked in New England (it was all good!). Tomatoes were socked hard by blight. So now we're turning to apples, finally ripening after a solid growing season of plentiful moisture and well-timed sun. We say BRING IT ON. See if you'd be the apple of your English teacher's eye by identifying all the words correctly in this week's list.

1. costard:

(a) a basket used for collecting apples;

(b) any of several large English cooking apples;

(c) a thick creamy concoction made with apples and eggs;

(d) the last variety of apples that ripen in New England before the massacre of the first hard freeze.

2. apple butter:

(a) a thick brown spread made by cooking apples with sugar and spices usually in cider;

(b) a thick brown spread made by cooking apples with milk and whey until thick and creamy;

(c) a relish or dessert made of apples stewed to a pulp and sweetened;

(d) butter from cows raised on dried apple feed.

3. Granny Smith:

(a) an Australian apple cultivator named Maria Ann Smith;

(b) the Swedish inventor of apple pie;

(c) Johnny Appleseed's maternal grandmother;

(d) a nymph in classical mythology who guards with the aid of a dragon a garden in which golden apples grow.

4. hard cider:

(a) fermented apple juice;

(b) frozen apple juice;

(c) powdered apple juice;

(d) sweetened apple juice.

5. pomaceous:

(a) of or relating to pomegranates;

(b) a deep-dish spiced apple dessert sweetened with sugar, molasses, or maple syrup and covered with a rich crust;

(c) of or relating to apples;

(d) of or relating to pom-poms.

6. verjuice:

(a) a juicy apple having red skin and crisp mildly tart white flesh;

(b) apple wine;

(c) the thickened liquid found seeping from the cracks and crevices of a traditional wooden apple press, noted for its intense sweet flavor;

(d) the sour juice of crab apples or of unripe fruit (as grapes or apples).

7. codling:

(a) a small, immature apple;

(b) a small, immature apple tree;

(c) windfallen apples;

(d) the practice of picking deformed apples early in order to enable remaining apples on the tree to prosper.

8. pippin:

(a) a deep-dish spiced apple dessert sweetened with sugar, molasses, or maple syrup and covered with a rich crust;

(b) a crisp tart apple having usually yellow or greenish-yellow skin strongly flushed with red and used especially for cooking;

(c) a caramelized apple tart that is baked with pastry on top and then inverted for serving;

(d) the son of William Tell. Tell was the heroic archer in Swiss legend, who complied with an order to shoot an apple off his son's head.

9. Atalanta:

(a) Roman goddess of apples;

(b) a medium-sized red-skinned apple;

(c) a fleet-footed huntress in Greek mythology who challenges her suitors to a race and is defeated by Hippomenes when she stops to pick up three golden apples he has dropped;

(d) answer to the question, "Where's America's busiest airport?"

10. ab ovo usque ad mala:

(a) from egg to apples;

(b) from soup to nuts;

(c) from beginning to end;

(d) all the above.

Weekly Grammar Tip: Convince vs. Persuade

These two verbs are too often confused, even by experienced writers. Perhaps the confusion stems from the acceptable use of either in certain contexts. We either convince or persuade someone of the value of a proposition or of the goodness of a certain action. But the two verbs part ways when we try to make them lead into complementary infinitives with to...it works with persuade but does not with convince.

We can convince a person that a statement is correct; we can convince him of its correctness; but we cannot convince (though we can persuade) him to believe it or to act on the belief. In all the examples here, the use of convince is incorrect:

• It was thought to have convinced a considerable number of independents to vote for the less experienced candidate.
• He said that the chairman had been convinced by the reporter to open the doors on the meeting.
• She tried to convince Williams in the interview to apologize to the fans and especially to the line judge.
• We made very attempt to convince the electorate to approve the measure, but without success. All these examples should use persuade (or prevail upon) where they use convince.

Courtesy of ProofreadNOW.com

It's not that I'm ignoring you, I'm just too busy to blog.

Blogging, tweeting, LinkedIn and all things social marketing and networking take time.  I have mixed emotions of wanting to have the time to keep up on my six blogs, 8 Twitter accounts and the all-important - LinkedIn AND not wanting to have the time.

When I don't have the time to do all of these things, it's because I'm taking care of clients and their postings, sites, design work, brochures.  Right now I feel very blessed to not have the time to blog or tweet.  I'm spinning in so many positive directions on my clients' behalf that there are not enough hours in the day.

Weekly Grammar Tip: These Words Can Make You Look Smart...or Dumb.

The right word can make you appear more authoritative and therefore more trustworthy. The wrong word will let people know that you are incompetent. Do your part to stop the dumbing down of English and make sure you are using the following words correctly in your writing.

This includes:

The proper use of the three "two's: 

Two (2), too (also), to - learn it, know it, use them properly, please!

Three "there's" -
There - as in location, their - the pronoun giving possession, they're - the contraction of "they" and "are."

disc. Spell it with a c except for computer-related references: laserdisc, videodisc, disc jockey,
but hard disk.

discreet, discrete - I'm SO glad they posted this one:
Discreet means capable of preserving prudent silence:
"I'm afraid Jen was not very discreet on Sunday," she wrote.

Discrete means constituting a separate entity, or individually distinct.
There are four discrete calls made by a loon.

ice age. AP says this: Lowercase, because it denotes not a single period but any of a series of cold periods marked by glaciation alternating with periods of relative warmth.
Capitalize the proper nouns in the names of individual ice ages, such as the Wisconsin ice age.

The most recent series of ice ages happened during the Pleistocene epoch, which began about 1.6 million years ago. During that time, glaciers sometimes covered much of North America and northwestern Europe. The present epoch, the Holocene or Recent, began about 10,000 years ago, when the continental glaciers had retreated to Antarctica and Greenland.

pore, pour - (reminder - there are also three "two's:  Two (2), too (also), to - learn it, know it, use them properly, please!
These are often confused. One pores over [reads or studies attentively] an intricate set of numbers, while one pours a bucket of water on a fire.

raised, reared. Humans are reared; all living things, including humans, may be raised.

take over, takeover. take over is a compound verb, We will take over the administration building next; takeover is a noun or an adjective,

He was taken out and executed during the takeover;

Their takeover plans were foiled.

Word of the Week and Weekly Word Challenge

I can't recall having a day with this adjective associated with it, at least in recent months. It might be a nice change once in a while:

prosaic

prosaic Pronunciation: pro-ZAY-ik
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin prosaicus, from Latin prosa prose
Date: 1656
Definition:

1a: characteristic of prose as distinguished from poetry; factual b: dull, unimaginative
2: everyday; ordinary

Example: "I gathered from my own representative that Lindsay's press conferences tended to be prosaic affairs, repetitious, formalistic, called for purely personal exposure."
- William F. Buckley, The Unmaking of a Mayor, p. 266, The Viking Press, 1966.

Here's the challenge from  ProofreadNOW.com:

In America, it's a big sports weekend: The NFL is starting up again, the U.S. Open tennis tournament finals are Saturday and Sunday (go, Serena!), college football is in full swing, the Redsox are leading the wildcard race, and GT readers are competing for know-it-all.

1. boobird:
(a) a left-handed curveball;
(b) a weak bunt that results in a hit;
(c) a home fan at a sporting event who boos one or more members of the home team;
(d) someone in the stands behind homeplate castigating the umpire.

2. impresario:
(a) a person who puts on or sponsors an entertainment (as a television show or sports event);
(b) a venerated practitioner or former practitioner of an art, profession, or sport;
(c) an extraordinary, marvelous, or unusual accomplishment, deed, or event;
(d) one who engages in a pursuit, study, science, or sport as a pastime rather than as a profession.

3. plus fours:
(a) slang for Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers;
(b) loose sports knickers made four inches longer than ordinary knickers;
(c) tournament-weight tennis balls;
(d) leglifts done with ankle weights.

4. calisthenics:
(a) systematic rhythmic bodily exercises performed usually without apparatus;
(b) the surgical or dental specialty concerned with the design, construction, and fitting of sports prostheses;
(c) a science that deals with improving athletic performance;
(d) a branch of physics that deals with the production and effects of higher batting averages.

5. double fault:
(a) an infraction of the service rules (as in tennis, racquetball, or volleyball) that results from illegal placement of the server's two feet on the line or on the court inside the line;
(b) two consecutive lost points;
(c) two consecutive serving faults in tennis that result in the loss of a point;
(d) when a tennis player is ugly and stupid.

6. nickel:
(a) the first point scored by a side in a game of tennis  called also five;
(b) a batter's count in baseball in which the strikes and balls add up to five  called also a full count;
(c) the five players in the baseball infield, excluding the pitcher;
(d) a pass defense in football that employs five defensive backs.

7. passed ball:
(a) a baseball pitch not hit by the batter that passes the catcher when it should have been caught and allows a base runner to advance;
(b) a ball rejected by the pitcher due to its having a blemish or scuff mark;
(c) the fourth pitch in a row that is not a strike, resulting in the batter walking;
(d) a right-handed sinker.

8. slugging percentage:
(a) the ratio (as a rate per thousand) of the total number of bases reached on base hits to official times at bat for a baseball player;
(b) the ratio (as a rate per thousand) of the number of aces served to total serves;
(c) a ratio (as a rate per thousand) of base hits to official times at bat for a baseball player;
(d) a measure of the number of punches landed on a pitcher's face by an enraged hit batsman.

9. break point:
(a) the point at which the opponent breaks down and cries;
(b) a situation (as in tennis) in which one player will win the set by winning the next point;
(c) the first point scored in a match;
(d) a situation in tennis in which the receiving player can win the game by scoring the next point.

10. greatest men's tennis player of all time:
(a) Rod Laver;
(b) Roger Federer;
(c) Rafael Nadal;
(d) Bill Tilden.

Read on for Answers and scoring:

Just Relaunched - City of Brea, California http://www.cityofbrea.net

I am so excited. The City of Brea, California has been a client of mine since 2000. This is the third redesign of their site.  We've incorporated a lot of social media elements, reorganized the navigation and site logic and freshened up the entire look by completely tossing out the old!

We all enjoyed the old look, but it was really time for a change.

Included in the redesign as a new template for their calendar to carry through the new colors.  They also use the Granicus system for their meeting agendas and minutes.  This also needed to be updated.

Bink-A-Thon Season is HERE. Choose to make a difference

Did you know October 24 is National Make A Difference Day?  September 9 is National Hoop Day for hoola hoopers, but that's another topic.

During National Make a Difference Day, Binky Patrol Comforting Covers for Kids celebrates by having their local chapters gather for the day to make as many blankets as possible. These blankets are then delivered to children in need of comfort. Those who are ill, abused, experiencing trauma, binky angels who never get to come home - they all get binkies.

In the Portland/Beaverton, Oregon area, we are gathering on my daughter's birthday - Saturday,October 10 from 9 - 3 to sew as many binkies as possible for local area shelters and make the hand-tied fleece binkies.  If you can barely sew, have a machine, want to donate fleece or want to help, please let us know via email:  binky@binkypatrol.org. Learn more on the Binky Patrol webiste >>

The orange gets to concentrate on being juicy.

I couldn't help the pun.  I have returned from am AMAZING evening with Jan Black.  What?  You've never heard of Jan Black?  No, no, no, that's LEWIS Black. Jan Black is a nationally acclaimed author who inspires people to discover:

THAT ZING YOU DO: A Shortcut to Clarity About Your Purpose and Context
Tonight, our WEO members had a mini-workshop over a fabulous dinner at Kell's downtown.  She opened with an example of two oranges - one out in the open and one in a bag - pretending to be a bag.  Pretty tough.  The orange that was out in the open knew it was an orange.... it was able to -- CONCENTRATE (get it, orange - concentrate) on being JUICY - that's its talent, what it is all the way through.

Our reactions and over-reactions can have a big effect, be responsible.

We all acknowledge that we receive way too much unsolicited emails from unknown resources.  I get too many emails from people I sign up to receive their mail.  But if I join an organization as a MEMBER, free or paid, is it really spam if correspondence comes from them?  Really?

Please think with the Golden Rule in mind.  If you have signed up on a site and receive too much mail from them, ask the site source to tone it down or remove you from those lists. Don't fly off the handle and report them as spam.  Do you realize how much that can impact a legitimate and honorable organization?