Sink or Swim

To those who work from home, when have you last updated your resume? According to this article, using the following boilerplate phrases below shows that you are uncreative and vocabulary challenged.

• Results-oriented professional
• Cross-functional teams
• More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
• Superior (or excellent) communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Met or exceeded expectations
• Proven track record of success
• Works well with all levels of staff
• Team player
• Bottom-line orientation

The author suggests briefly describing your past work experiences so the interviewer will have a feel of who you are. We all have to make first impressions via our resumes right? So talking like a robot won’t make a lasting impression as there are millions of other applicants who do the same.

1. Waves crashing down the shore – I could listen to this all day

2. Acoustic guitar playing in the background while said waves are crashing

3. Raindrops tapping on the window

4. Laughter outside the room. It makes me feel comforted (that I’m not alone in the house) and excited (that a visitor is about to make her/his presence known)

5. My favorite alternative songs on the radio, iPod, CD player

6. People laughing softly in nice restaurants. It makes me want to listen what they’re talking about.

7. A giggling baby

8. Piped in music in elevators inside five-star hotels

9. Rooster signaling the start of morning. Reminds me of childhood days

10. My husband and daughter’s peaceful breathing.

Because I’ve been working so hard, I’ve decided to treat myself to a nice but not-so-expensive online shopping. I searched the net first hoping to find good coupons for women shoes but didn’t find any that I like. I remember that I just bought a new pair of flats too so now it’s a tie between accessories or purse. All the items below are from etsy.com.

Vintage rings below $20

Alexis Clutch $35

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

No decent photo of utensils but I was lucky to find this one. And with a bonus too!

Before you start your day, double check your to-do list. Prioritize the most important tasks and stick to it.

Start with your backlogs first. Don’t work on new tasks until you’re done with yesterday’s project.

Remove / stay away from all distractions. Don’t turn on the TV, close your email inbox (it’s tempting to check your emails every now and then) and close all chat windows.

If you’re running out of ideas or just can’t seem to focus, step back for 15 minutes. Take a break by walking around the neighborhood or listen to music. Make sure you don’t do this every hour as you’ll never finish anything.

Similar to last tip. Try to work outside your house from time to time. Go to the nearest cafe with your laptop or your notebook and write your thoughts, sketch design the traditional way.

Schedule bulk activities like blogging (every morning or every other day), checking emails (every two hours), small web maintenance (after finishing a big task).

Although nothing kills creativity more than a strict schedule, you’ll have to specify an end time for your work. You also have to find the best time of the day wherein you feel like you work better. Whether it’s when everyone is sleeping at night or very early in the morning, choose the time where you’re most likely to finish several tasks in one sitting.

A comfortable work environment never fails to make a worker happy. Invest on nice computer chairs and table, good lighting and have plenty of space that you can move around.

And this coming from my mother. A well balanced diet is essential to keep not only your body strong, but your mind as well. Taking hgh supplement or energy drinks might keep you up and alert but nothing really beats good nutrition.

Last but not the least, don’t forget to have a life outside your job.

Which do you prefer? (Quick answers–we’ll do more detail at some later date)

• Reading something frivolous? Or something serious? — Frivolous!
• Paperbacks? Or hardcovers? — Paperbacks, so I can bring it anywhere.
• Fiction? Or Nonfiction?  — Fiction
• Poetry? Or Prose?  — Poetry
• Biographies? Or Autobiographies? — Biographies
• History? Or Historical Fiction? — Historical Fiction
• Series? Or Stand-alones?  — Series
• Classics? Or best-sellers?  — Both!
• Lurid, fruity prose? Or straight-forward, basic prose? — Lurid, fruity prose. It actually depends on the mood
• Plots? Or Stream-of-Consciousness?  — Again it depends but most of the time I prefer plots
• Long books? Or Short? — Long definitely.
• Illustrated? Or Non-illustrated? — Illustrated
• Borrowed? Or Owned?  — Owned. I love collecting books
• New? Or Used?  — Used so it’s cheaper

I can’t live in a world without Mp3 players. How else can I enjoy my favorite songs when I’m running, traveling, waiting somewhere (at the mall maybe) or just hanging out in the park. Even when I’m in front of the computer, I’d still rather use my iPod than turn on my laptop’s music player. Same thing applies when I clean our room. I know I could always just use the stereo or CD player but I’d like to be able to bring my music with my anywhere I go.

I’m always at a loss when it comes to website icons. Most of the time, especially when I’m running on a very tight deadline, there’s just no way I can design an icon from scratch. Either I go ahead without icons or just fish through my old set of icons just to get it done. Either way, the design feels half-baked.

But thanks to these free icon resources, I don’t have to settle for anymore. Check your them out. They are all free to use to improve your website designs.

The Icon Lab

 
Icon Seeker – type any keywords for the icon that you’re looking for to see a list of very nice looking icon sets.

We Love Icons

Iconspedia

Iconpaper

Jumsoft icons

Before I start the day, let me post a quick to-do list so I’d be more organize and hopefully, finish half of them before 5PM.

Send quotes for dash kits to my husband.
Submit papers to the bank for our loan.
Fix our schedule for the next two weeks. Too many children parties to attend.

Setup a Wordpress blog for a client. Estimate the number of hours that will be spent on the design/theme.
Start converting a mockup to Wordpress theme. This is a pretty complicated layout and to be honest, I’m not sure if I can implement all the features requested by the client.

It looks short but the last one will take most of my time for two weeks so I better get started now.

Taken by Thefogramp.

The power of Internet will never cease to amaze me. Who would’ve thought that you can now pursue higher education from the comforts of your own home? There are plenty of online universities now that you can choose from. However, it’s the online Masters of Science in Information Security that has recently caught my attention. A friend of mine is looking into a similar program wherein he can learn more about keeping network security and systems secure. According to Lewis University website, the MS Information Security program will help you explore theories and practices IT security in the global scale. read more »

We all know that in order to get more clients, we need to look professional and that we mean business. But how do we do that exactly? See below:

1. So you’re an artist. That doesn’t mean you can wear anything you like when you go meet with a client. You can keep your style but try not to dress up as if you’re going to the grocery store. Flip flops are a no-no even if your toes are painted with moons and stars and shows how creative you are.

2. Invest on a hard copy of your portfolio. You can have your web sites printed and bind them or order those photobooks that are available everywhere. Some clients are traditional and would prefer browsing through a catalogue that they can touch.

3. Learn the current design rates on the market. Price your services fairly without coming off as too cheap, which usually suggests that you’re a newbie needing work to fill his/her portfolio.

4. You’ve probably heard about this tip. Don’t write like a robot listing all accomplishments and skills in bulleted list. However, if you decide to write about yourself, refrain from saying too much information. Be personal but brief. Focus on what you do as a designer and why your potential client can benefit from you.

5. Respond quickly to emails / phone calls. If you don’t like them to disturb you when you’re spending time with your family or friends, have a different number and email for work. Make sure you tell them when they can reach you and if you’re not available, have a voicemail and an email auto-responder telling them that you’ll get back to them as soon as you can.

I envy these rocks sometimes. They are so near where I want to be most.

Loving my laptop’s wallpaper right now.

LIFE – it goes on. ~Robert Frost

You can download nice wallpapers to inspire and fuel your creativity here. If you browse some of the sections, you’ll find wallpapers for dual monitors as well.

And incidentally enough, while browsing for ideas for Halloween party invitations that I’m working on, I came across a kick-ass tutorial on how to re-create the wallpaper above. I’ve yet to try it out but I think it’s a great idea for a clean, minimalist theme for Wordpress.