I was privileged to volunteer for ArtPrize 2009. I was a “way finder” and helped register people to vote. It was a blast and a smart way to view the inner working of the event. For ArtPrize 2010 I’ll be competing as an artist. What I have in store for my entry is a doosie.

I’ll be breaking theworld record for largest Rubik’s Cube mosaic mad eby a single person. I’ll be solving 1,750 cubes (most will be solved live at the event) and then configuring them into a mosaic of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I hope to certified upon completing the project. What’s more important is what I plan to do with the cubes once the event has wrapped up. I’ll be distributing them to classrooms across Michigan so that kids can learn about geometry and algebra in a fun and tangible way. The big hurdle is money. I need to raise $15,000 dollars to purchase the cubes, pay for shipping the cubes to classrooms, get GWR out here from London, and cover some miscellaneous costs. If you’re interested in donating check out my project at Kickstarter or check out the PixelPete2010 website.

Social Media is free:

No it’s not. While it’s free to start a Facebook, Twitter, Myspace account, if you plan on starting a corporate social media campaign/program then you should know you can’t expect your CEO to just start tweeting. You need a web designer to work on applying your brand to each of these profiles. You’ll need to have your marketing professionals outline an “Online Brand Strategy” that includes voice and tone. You may even want to consider hiring a copywriter or marketing professional to do your updates for you. Updating all of your accounts is a full-time job and don’t expect to squeeze that responsibility into your CEO or Marketing Director’s position and get good results. It takes a certain prowess to blog, even microblog and it’s worth paying for that service.

Social Media is for Everyone:

Everyone, yes… every business, no.  Certain businesses don’t belong on social media, while it’s rare, cases do exist.  Ask yourself “what am I marketing?” and then “Will my clients want to associate with my product online?”. If you’re selling hemorrhoid cream or you run a nursing home, the answer will probably be no. Another thing to take into account is that not all social networks may be right for you. Some networks cater to certain demographics and others require specific actions. While Facebook canvases most target audiences, Myspace does not. Know your audience, know where they live and stay away from places they don’t. The mere presence of your brand where it doesn’t belong can be detrimental.

Social Media is a Great Marketing Tool:

Yes it is, but tread lightly. People friend/follow/join you company or product’s profiles because they like (or hate) your brand. Don’t push too hard on them to buy your product. They are already inclined to do so and users are more savy about marketing then you think they are. If you spend 100% of your time posting marketing material, users will stop seeing the value in the connection they’ve made with you. Remember to start conversations about your product, engage your audience and most importantly… listen and respond. It’s not all sell, sell, sell with social media, there’s a social element to it.

Transparency:

It’s ok to give your company/product a voice. Make sure that voice fit’s your brand as well as your audience. The majority of brand’s voices sound like Ben Stein and are not attractive to users. A good example of voice is Apple’s use of “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” and it’s reflective in their sales. While many brands will need to adopt a more-or-less generic voice, that voice can still reflect positive qualities like Justin Long’s Mac character portrays. Letting your audience see that you’re human is the main objective of transparency. Transparency take one step further when applied to social media. You now have the ability to engage your current and potential consumers in meaningful conversation. You will see that some people use this opportunity to complain about your product. Many companies remove this content from their profiles while others take a better approach and address each complaint and attempt to remedy them. Social media is a great place to get feedback about new or preexisting products. It’s a great place to do i/0 testing, user groups, etc. and can save your many dollars in your testing budget if done right.

ROI and Analytics:

So you want to know what kind of return you can expect from a social media campaign? Don’t expect too much. If’ you’ve hired a social media consultant this will probably be the first question you ask them. Make sure to listen closely for the bullshit. Some consultants aren’t worth the spit they throw at you. Social media is new and hard to track for. Make sure you have the appropriate analytics set up before you launch a social media campaign. Hire an SEO/SEM professional to help target this new traffic. This will be very important in finding out what kind of return you’re getting. Your ROI might not be what you expect. Don’t expect a giant spike in sales. Your return might be from customer feedback or networking. Social media can be a bit of a gamble. It’s a gamble you want to take now, before it’s passe.

An Additional Piece of Advice:

Many companies are hiring “Social Media Consultants”. It’s important to hire the right one. Make sure that you research their background. Not everyone with 3,000 Twitter followers is qualified to consult you. Look for someone with history in the web/interactive industry specifically. Ask for references that aren’t from the last six months, those companies have not seen enough results yet. While some individuals are great consultants, look for interactive marketing companies that have good track records. Too many “mavericks” are out there preying on corporate ignorance. Don’t be ignorant, do your homework.

Got some other tips? Questions? Let me know via comment.

Like most artists, I do a lot of research. I look at the imagery in campy old sci-fi movies, and enjoy looking through ancient textbooks from the 1940-70’s. I feel like I am building a world, developing characters and planning events. I am often captivated by something I see on the street, signs, graffiti, animals, and human interaction. I like to work through these ideas in my sketchbook before I start a drawing or painting. Once an idea feels right I will start laying it out, working on the composition is the most exciting part of the process. The organization of the pictorial elements is a challenge. Trying to fill the space without actually filling it. I find the compositions of Cezanne, Jaques Luis David, Caravaggio, and Piero Della Francesca very inspiring. I like to orchestrate the angles and visual elements so that the viewer’s eye moves continuously through the work.

Once I have laid in the pictorial framework, I begin filling in areas of solid color with water color or gouache, then I begin adding all of the detail work. Though I was taught to paint from life, my work is not. It is a challenge to figure out the arrangement and color of the shadows, to make sure that all of the colors exist in the same light. Painting from life in the past helps me with these elements. One saying I remember from a figure painting class ” A light in the dark is lighter than a dark in the light”. I have many objects on my drawing table that I use as a reference, geometric forms, plastic containers, and scraps of material. Some folks have asked if I use the computer as a tool to lay out my designs. I think it would be a good tool for developing my work but I don’t have any experience with the drawing programs. At some point I may experiment with the computer, but I think I would miss the drawing process. – Josh Keyes via Fecal Face

Keyes has really developed too. His older works are more geometric and seems less about nature and more about environment, yet are still captivating. It seems he’s gotten comfortable with his current direction but as an artist myself, I know that can be dangerous. I’m going to keep my eye on this guy.

So what is it about Think Vitamin that’s so damn special?

Top Quality Writing – The writer’s actually know what there talking about and back it up with excellent examples. Probably because they are all working professionals and know what it takes to write about design, development and business. Unlike this guy. It takes a lot to write a good article. These days every one blogs in one way or another, very few are any good at it.

The Freshest Perspectives – I pride myself in surfing the web to find the newest “trends” in web design/development.  It’s not easy to find something bookmarkable.  Carsonified has made a name for themselves in staying in front of trends and understanding what direction the industry is going in. They keep tabs on who’s making waves and a lot of the times, they’re the ones making them. I get a lot of inspiration from not only their site but the sites they send me too.

Panoramic View – There’s a lot of topics a web professional should read into. Frankly, that list is too big for one blog. Think Vitamin takes a look a three very important aspects of being a web professional: Design, Development and Business, all of which are connected back to each other. It’s very important for a blog to stay on topic and it’s something many do not adhere to, myself included.  Every one of Think Vitamin’s articles relates to their theme. If you’re like me and have a rather busy feed reader, you don’t want to see an article that’s off topic. I know when I go there, I’ll be taking something with me. Sometimes they help me write this blog.

God’s Honest Truth – One thing I stive to do here at Buttonpresser is tell it like it is. I’m not afraid to share my opinion. I’m not afraid to be myself. Yes, it get’s me in trouble. Think Vitamin does the same and I am wholeheartedly greatful. I have been trying to tell anyone who will listen about honesty and accountability on the web and how it attracts a lot of attention and feedback. Some businesses are so afraid of feedback, either bad or good. I don’t have a problem hearing about how wrong I am and neither does Think Vitamin.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound dried black beans
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 3 cloves fresh minced garlic
• 1 large yellow onion diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 3 cans diced green chilies (4ox cans)
• 1 tbsp ground white pepper
• 1 large poblano pepper
• 2 large red jalapeno peppers
• 4 cups boneless chicken breast
• 3 cups shredded smoked gouda
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• juice from 1 lime
• 1 cup hard dry cider
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 cups french roux (equal parts butter and flour)

Chicken Marinade:

• 1 1/2 cups hard dry cider
• 2 cloves fresh minced garlic
• 1 tsp ground chipotle pepper
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Trim the chicken breasts and place in a large resealable plastic bag. Add all the chicken marinade ingredients to the bag, mix, then squeeze the air out of the bag and refrigerate. Soak the black beans in cold water as instructed on the black bean packaging. Some packages suggest a warm or cold soak, do not use the warm soak instructions.

In the morning, fire up the grill or smoker to 220 degrees. Prep the jalapenos and the poblano pepper by cutting in half and removing the “guts”. If using a grill, place your pre soaked wood chips directly on top of the coals or heating element. Place the peppers and the marinated chicken in the grill. Baste the chicken every ten minutes for 30 minutes, flip, repeat. Remove from heat, cool both chicken and peppers, cube chicken.

In a large pot heat olive oil to medium high heat. Add onion and saute for 8 minutes, add garlic and continue to saute for 3 minutes. Stir in cumin, coriander, white pepper, black pepper and paprika and cook for 3 minutes. Deglaze with hard cider and lime juice. Add jalapenos (now chipotle peppers) and poblano (now an ancho pepper). Add cubed chicken and broth. bring to boil, reduce and keep on low heat for 90 minutes. Thicken with roux, stir in sour cream and cilantro. Serve with cilantro garnish and gouda on the side.

How it works:

Font Burner uses sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) technology. In short, it hides your titles and replaces it with flash. By hiding the title instead of removing it, you retain all the information that comes with the HTML title. This is great for SEO because Flash has very little SEO and using it on a site means that it and everything inside it is invisible to search engines. One small downside is that you cannot select the text for cutting and pasting. Another downside, slightly more sinister, is that it replaces every heading tag, not just the titles. It would be nice if they could develop that into their next revision but I wont hold my breath.

How to use Font Burner:

There are two very simple ways to use Font Burner. The first, find the font you wish to use on the site and cut the embed code out of the font’s page. For instance:

<script src=”http://www.fontburner.com/fontburner.js” type=”text/javascript”></script> <script src=”http://www.fontburner.com/js/black/aardvark_bold.php” type=”text/javascript”></script> <!– sIFR fonts delivered by www.fontburner.com –>

Then paste this code before the body tag in your page’s HTML. That’s it. You can further customize the colors using CSS.

Secondly… Font Burner, after my own heart, has developed a WordPress plugin to make it even easier for WordPress users. Install the plugin, choose your font and colors and hit save. Now every page and every heading/title has been changed to your custom font. Installation of either will take 15-20 minutes and is pretty idiot proof. It could potentially clash with another plugin or script you might be running (I’ve seen nothing of this sort) but be sure to backup your site before tinkering. I’m using it on this site. Looks nice huh?

Now if only they can tap into a way to use commercial fonts and not just free ones…?

Pros:
- Consumers only pay for what they use.
- Computers only need enough to run internet connection and memory.
- Updates to software or hardware are preformed solely by the vendor.
- Issues will be fixed faster as bugs will be more trackable.
- Scalable to usage almost immediately.
- Business’ who are contributing to the cloud have lower overhead.
- Support will most likely be live or forum oriented.

Cons:
- Heavy use could cost more that actual product.
- Updates to software or hardware are preformed solely by the vendor.
- Security will need to be sure-compliant for large companies to be on board.
- Some entities may want to have software when it’s no longer available.
- Less face-to-face business interaction.
- Plugin and modifications will need to be regulated.

How this will effect blogging:
Unless you use text editing software such as Microsoft Office to write all your blog posts, there wont be a big change with blogging in a cloud environment. Blog designers, such as myself will see some tangible changes though, some from the open source sector of the internet. Sites such Aviary.com provide web applications based off of Adobe products (Photoshop and Illustrator mainly) that are free to use, however still in beta release. Sites like Kompozer offer an open source WYSIWYG editor that’s more user friendly than Dreamweaver. It’s not a far cry to predict that a Code/WYSIWYG Editor will show up as a web app. It could actually work more seamlessly that current software and tie directly into server space, eliminating upload and download time. There’s a lot to be said about open source by itself and I see it playing into cloud computing more and more. WordPress has educated a lot of people in the online community about how open source can be very profitable. Rolling that type of thinking into a cloud environment is a half step in a similar direction.

How will this effect Web 2.0
Web 2.0 will soon be Web 3.0 and cloud computing will be a big part of that transition. We’ll be bringing a lot of what we learned with us of course. We’ve refined the peer-to-peer connection with things like facebook, twitter, and linkedin. What we will see is privatizing and better content quality. Social networks that work more as country clubs could be very benefitial to professionals. Like minded groups that essentially work as industry related thinktanks could change a lot of the stodgy thinking that come to light in the recent recession. Realize with me that cloud computing wont be restricted to “computing” it could easily translate into a pletheora of different industries (ie. staffing… check out Scriptlance). Essentaill,y cloud computing can and should be cloud thinking, where a person reaches into the cloud and pull out what they need without effort. This is what I see Web 3.0 being.

Gynompedie #1 has been one of my favorite classical songs for a long time now. I even went as far as to teach myself to play it on the piano from ear a few years ago. I often associate it with the Maine winters as it’s haunting beauty seeps into me like the cold via a drafty window not autumn like the video shows. Satie is also one of my favorite composers of minimalist contemporary classical. I’m a big fan of his work in general.

Of course I couldn’t forget to include the father of contemporary classical music, Claude Debussy.This is a timeless classic and the video is an odd approach one might find in a Radiohead music video but it’s fun and the ominous landscape the song draws overpowers just about anything. I’m imagining Monet in the french countryside with this song pumping in his iPod.

Phillip Glass’ Metamorphosis is a little more upbeat than the others here but still very cerebral and detached. Blow is the video for the second movement. Absolutely wonderful use of time. This one really helps me find my center. Branka Parlic plays it masterfully. Listen to all five movements here.

Finally, one that hits close to home. Grand Valley State University’s New Music Ensemble recorded this piece entitle “Music for 18 Musicians” by Steve Reich at the St. Cecelia Music Society just over a mile away from where I write this blog. Reich’s use of tonality has an ability to transform into larger and deeper meanings. Often segments seem to be electronically created yet it remains completely acoustic. Visit the New Music Ensemble’s  site for more information on this piece.

Bonus: Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei. You might recognize it from the movie “Platoon”. It’s an incredibly emotional piece.

Special thanks to Andrea Gomez for the suggestions.

How most beers are made

The simplest beers are made from four ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, and Yeast. The first step in beer brewing is to make a mash of hot water and barley. This converts the starches in the barley into sugars. The liquids are separated from the mash to make what’s called the wort. They then reduce the wort down a bit and while it is boiling, the hops are added, giving the wort a bitter flavor. After the wort is finished reducing it is cooled for fermenting. Fermentation is where the yeasts are literally eating the sugars and producing alcohol. The fermentation can take a week or months depending on the yeast and and the strength of the beer.

Simple deviations to these ingredients are the start of where you come in. You need to decide which ingredients and flavors you like in a beer before you start on the road to microbrew bliss. Secondly, committ to being open minded about beers, don’t judge a beer by it’s label. Invest in beer. Don’t expect Miller Lite pricing on microbrews. Every other month my friends and I get together and buy $20.00 worth of individual bottles (no two are the same) and we taste each one. This is a great way to taste a bunch of beers without having to spent too much or get two drunk. We pour a couple ounces into everyone’s glass and one bottle can give 10 people a taste. Don’t go any larger than 10 because A: you’ll need to buy bottles in pairs if you want everyone to try that beer and B: You want to discuss each beer and more than ten people is too much conversation. When you do this it’s not a bad idea to take notes because at the end of the evening… you might not remeber so well. Have someone who knows beer be the MC that way they can educate you a bit before you taste.  You’re also not comitted to drink an entire beer you don’t like, this is a huge plus.

In my experience, this is the most effective way to taste beers. but don’t forget that most bars offer microbrews on tap, ask for a sample before you order. Most places offer them for free. Stop drinking mass produced domestic beers, start drinking craft beer.