Personalized Facebook Landing Page Courtesy of The Curious Pug

I browse through the Etsy forums from time to time looking for a thread that might interest me.  This title certainly caught my eye: “I made a tutorial on how to make a welcome Tab for your Facebook Fan Page”.  I loved that concept so I checked out the links provided in the thread.

It seems to be a real simple thing to do.  All I really needed to do was design the graphics for my page, then follow a set of directions.  I can do that.  Well  if you read some of my blog entries you know that I like to outsmart myself.  I designed the graphics for my page and followed the directions.  (this is the part where I outsmart myself).

I could get the graphics loaded but the part about embedding a link in the page to take fans to my Etsy shop took them to the picture in my Picassa web album. I beat my head against the wall for about 4 hours. No matter what I did I couldn’t fix it.  I even went back and read the post (instead of just skimming the highlights).   I finally sent The Curious Pug an email.    In the reply she went so far as to type up the exact code so that all I had to do was replace the picture information.  This is where you learn that if you are following a computer code verbatum, it may be a good idea to do just that.

After an hour I had just about decided that my fans would appreciate visiting my web album instead of my store.  The only difference between what I used and What she used was that the Pug used Photobucket,, so I uploaded my Graphics to Photobucket and that fixed it.  I guess it has to do with the way Picassa links back to the picture.  But it works now.  Check it out.  http://www.facebook.com/Cheryls.Purple.Cow?ref=ts

Here is a link to the post in The Curious Pug’s Blog:

http://curiouspug.blogspot.com/2009/12/tutorial-1-how-to-add-welcome-tab-to.html

My next blog post will be an interview with The Curious Pug.   I will have information on upcoming tutorials on her blog.  Look for it within the next couple of days. 

To Fix or Not To Fix (My Blog)

I am getting tired of the same old blog template.  I found the template that I want to use.  I only have one problem.  Lately I have become leary of firsts.  This will be my first attempt, such as it is, at programming in over 10 years.

I have postponed it as long as I can.  The last test was one I learned in High School.  I had a teacher who taught us to give things the explosion test.  When asked if two things could be used in conjuntion with each other he would ask “What is the worst that could happen?  Is it going to explode?”  I have always liked that test although I don’t think he meant it to be used the way I do.  

When I debate whether or not to do something (add an ingredient to a recipe or  mix two colors of beads) I ask what is the worst that can happen?  Will it explode?  If I change the template and it does not work, my computer will not explode.  I hope.  Right?

If you never hear from me again, I guess it failed the explosion test.

I Don’t Have a Title

I have been busy lately. I am starting school tomorrow morning. My class is at 7:30 in the morning. I don’t remember there being a 7:30 in the morning. And I “fell into” an Etsy Team. Actually the Team just kind of happened. I have been writing a blog post to introduce you to FFEST (Facebook Fans on Etsy Street Team) and I just can’t seem to finish it. I just keep adding to it. It may be time to stop adding information and just proofread and post it. Look for that soon.

Just before the Team happened I lost my old computer. I had that baby set-up the way I like it. And I have been spending alot of time tweaking my new computer. I don’t like my computer to talk to other computers unless I ask it to. So I have been learning Windows Vista and tweaking my new computer. I’m not done yet , but I wasn’t done tweaking the old one.

I have also been making some new designs using Swarovski Crystals and I really am enjoying making them. But the first 2 or 3 usually go to my step-mom. She is my very own, personal walking advertisement. She wears my pieces and has even made sales for me. Gotta love her. I made these Swarovski Crystal bracelets in Mint Alabaster for her.

I did manage to get these Swarovski Rose Crystal Bracelets listed in my store. I enjoy giving her pieces that I have made. We go shopping and she usually finds some jewelry that she wants in a different color. Then before I am done making it for her, it looks nothing like what we saw in the store. I call her my guinea pig because she always tries the designs before I put them in my store. I don’t understand why they need to be tried, but we both like the concept.

I am working on a special bracelet for my store. I am making a red and black Swarovski bracelet.

Red and Black are the colors of Texas Tech University. Go Red Raiders.

Time to be a good student and go to sleep early.

The Wonders of Technology Revisited

Technology and its good and bad side are favorite topics of mine.  As a society we seem to be growing further and further away from our region of origin.  People used to live in the same community for most of their lives.  Now we move across the country on a whim. 

All too often you loose track of the people who lived next door to you when you were a child.    Every once in a while you think of them and wonder what ever happened to them.  And then you let that thought go because you have no idea how or where to begin to look. 

When I opened my store, I made the effort to look for a friend from days gone by.  And I found her and we keep in touch with each other now.  After all, Cheryls Purple Cow would not be Cheryls Purple Cow without the gift she gave me in junior high.  I would still make and sell my jewelry, but my store would be called by another name.

Nowadays we have myspace and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family.  the wonders of technology.  If my husband wants pictures of his grandson all he has to do is log on to the computer and download pictures that his daughter posted on her Facebook page.    That is just way to convenient.  No waiting.  No lines.  Just log on and print away!!

Now I want to explain what happened to me today that put my mind on this subject.  I logged in to my Facebook page and checked my mail.  There was one particular email that caught my eye immediately.  It was from my first friend from Kingsville.  When my family moved into the house on Pasadena Drive in Kingsville, the little girl who lived in the house next door became my first friend there.  Now I am going to date myself, but her family moved away around 1970.  She came back to visit one time around 1975 I think. 

I haven’t heard from her since…until today.  She somehow found me on Facebook.  I love technology! 

New Era: comment = Hug

My husband, Larry, and I both have Facebook pages to keep in touch with family and close friends.  I don’t send “gifts”, or “hugs”, or ”plants”, or anything else.  I don’t see the purpose.  In fact, I don’t make many comments on other peoples posts.  I will if the subject interests me or I can make a joke. 

 A few weeks ago, my husband, Larry, and I had a stressful 24 hours.  It started with a phone call from his daughter.  Both of Larry’s sons are in the military and both are in Afghanistan.  One of his sons was in an “incident”.  Details were sketchy at first and we were worried.  Larry was posting the information on Facebook as it came in. 
I found out that day that during stressful times, Each Comment = 1 Big Hug.  That day each comment left by friends and family reminded us how much they cared. It took 24 hours for Larry to finally speak with his son on the phone.  He is OK.  Just a concussion and 2nd degree burns that he got rescueing the other 3 men in the vehicle.  

So now I get to the title of this blog.  Each comment really did feel like a hug.  They were all warm and soothing.  I know that sounds funny, but we are all tied to our computers now.  It is how we communicate with each other. 

Since then I have tried to be more attentive when I check the posts on Facebook.  Now I am trying to leave a comment when I think the person making the post needs a hug. 

I would like to say “Thank-You” to everyone who left comments for caring enough to give us a  “hug”, I mean a comment.

Computers

I have had a fun couple of weeks.  The computer that I was using was about 6 years old.  I have been babying it for about 6 months.  All of a sudden about 3 weeks ago it really started acting up.  I started trying to organize my files so that I could take them off the hard drive.  I was also using the computer constantly for my store.  I was editing pictures and writing item descriptions for several items that I needed to list in my store.  And  finally one morning I told my husband that all I was going to do that day was copy files to a flash drive so that I could load them on his computer.  This idea worked for about 20 minutes.  Then right in the middle of copying a file, my computer had a nervous breakdown 

I had no idea how my life was going to be affected.   My husband, Larry, shared his computer with me and even though he let me use it whenever I wanted, I couldn’t get the things done that I needed to.  His computer has Windows Vista and I had to learn how to use Windows Vista.  I am still working on that.   I take control of my computer not the other way around.  I tell the computer when to look for updates.  And I don’t allow it to do its own thing in the background.  If you knew how many processes your computer was running (that it does not need to run) you would be amazed.  Your computer is always checking with software publishers for updates and such.  I don’t need it to do that 10 times a day when I don’t use that program more than 3 times a year.  Google Earth checks for updates every 20 minutes.  That is why it is no longer on my computer.
All my Internet links are lost.  I took about an hour trying to recreate as many as I could.  I recreated about 5% of them.  I guess I will get them back as I need them.

All the pictures for my store are gone too.  I am going to try to find out if I can download them from the site.  I like to have a historical log of my creations.  And quite a few are items that I make regularly.

On the plus side, my new computer is real fast.  And the tower is more compact.  Before I set it up, I put together my new computer desk.  So my desk is really clean now.  And the new desk does NOT have cubbyholes for me to fill.  This corner looks alot less cluttered.

I will quit crying over the spilt milk for awhile.  Until I need something that was lost.

Please excuse the shouting but I do have one thing to say about all of this:

BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!!!     NOW!

Have a good day