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I design a lot of websites over the course of each month. I don’t have a business doing so, per say, but word of mouth has worked well for me when it comes to local small businesses and friends who want their own site design. I’m always on the lookout for color combos that work on sites I see around the net. I try and open up the source code, locate the css page, or open up my Photoshop and grab the color scheme. All of those methods are relatively clunky, when it comes down to it.

I was looking for a better color picker method in a search engine and eventually came to Abdylas Tynyshov’s site where he has a little software package he developed called AdesClrPicker. I downloaded that puppy and after the fact, I was pleased to see that he was looking for reviews of his product. Seems to me like a natural progression, since I was so sold on the software anyway.

AdesClrPicker is a tiny program, but it packs a punch. Why? An unobtrusive icon on your toolbar can be right-clicked at any time to bring up a small tool that marries itself to you pointer. You drag it absolutely anywhere on your screen and as you’re rolling alone you see the code for the color the pointer is on. Then, it stores the last 10 colors you picked, so you can seamlessly bring them into play. You can set AdesClrPicker to report in HTML, RGB, Delphi, C++, or VB. So, as you can see it’s handy for more than just web design. I can take the info with me and plug it into Illustrator for a print job, or a plethora of other applications. Right click again and the tool closes

You can see it in action in the imagine I posted above. See how small it is? That’s all you need to accomplish the task, so why use a clunky tool? It’s so simple it almost breaks my heart

A relatively new designation in the blogging community is the Rockin’ Girl Blogger movement. I was recognized by Roberta Ferguson and passed kudos onto several other girl bloggers I read and admire. Initially, this was a reaction over some comments in the blogging community that assigned power blogging to men alone.

Guy bloggers are encouraged to grab the Rockin’ Girl Blogger badge and pass it to female bloggers they admire. And so far, Everton over at Connected Internet is one of the first men I have seen take up the task.

And in response to his efforts, I thought I would grab the Awesome Guy Blogger badge and pass along some linkage of my own. I’m not asking these guys to pay it forward or anything (though they are welcome to do so). I just want to take this opportunity to point out some of the blogs I love and read daily that just happen to be written by guys.

Everton at Connected Internet, of course
Nate at Nate Whitehill dot Com
David at Pure Blogging
Ben at BenjaminCass.com
Court at CourtneyTuttle.com

These guys run the gambit when it comes to age, but they all blog like pros. Check ‘em.

Edit: You can also grab the slick, sexed up version of the badge Ben made:

There was an official study released Monday by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology that focuses on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (known also as MRSA). It says that the “Superbug”, so called for its remarkable resistance to common antibiotics, may be infecting as many as 5 percent of hospital and nursing home patients.

The Scary Truth
One thought that comes to mind for me is the recently cancelled series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. One of the characters went into the hospital to have a baby and is now critically ill with an infection. And while the series has not specifically revealed what sort of infection this character has, this is the type of situation that is becoming a harsh reality for more and more people in healthcare facilities today. You go into the hospital and within their walls you get sicker than you ever imagined due to MRSA.

It is a frightening truth. This bug is rampant in hospitals and always has been. What this study points out, though, is that the 5 percent estimate is ten times higher than past numbers.

How You Contract the Superbug
MRSA is spread simply by touch. Individuals with open wounds are especially susceptible. But, a simple cut or scrape can be enough to allow the germ to infect. MRSA can be spread by people who are not even ill or suffering from obvious symptoms. In the United States alone there are 95 million people who carry staph in their noses. 2.5 million of those people carry MRSA.

That should make you think twice the next time you see someone sneeze into their hand and then go right back to handling items in a store or the handle of a shopping cart.

An Even Scarier Truth
I find the report by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology to be irresponsible in its lack of scope. They are limiting their study findings and information to the issues in healthcare facilities, for the most part. When news outlets report the findings in the article, people are led to believe that this particular staph is only going to be of issue in healthcare facilities. It may induce some of the fear and awareness it needs to, but it is leaving out a very important detail that is important to absolutely everyone.

The drug-resistant staph germ (which is associated with skin infections, blood infections, pneumonia, soft tissue infections and other illnesses) is common in places like playgrounds, shopping cart handles and doorknobs, as well as the locker rooms that are sometimes mentioned in similar studies and articles.

My daughter has tested positive for MRSA three different times. She has not been hospitalized. She had, though, begun attending pre-school where she was exposed to many other children daily. She is not a sick child with open wounds, but she does have the occasional cut or scrape that comes from being four and playing hard.

What to Look For
As is typical, my daughter’s infection started as small red bumps that looked like pimples. They may also look like boils or spider bites. These little bumps were along her waistline and within days they were large abscesses that needed to be surgically drained. Although the bacteria usually remains confined to the skin, it can burrow into the body, causing life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds, the bloodstream, heart valves and lungs.

The Solution is Simple
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s says washing your hands is all it takes to save the lives of 30,000 patients per year in the US (not just from MRSA, but from all nosocomial infections.)

Wash your hands often, carry hand sanitizer, use shopping cart seat covers and clean all cuts and scrapes quickly. There are also ointments on the market that inhibit the bacteria. We use one product regularly now on any and all cuts and scrapes. And, for the love of all that is good and holy, wash your hands after you sneeze. Or, just use a tissue.

The risk or MRSA is out there for all of us on a daily basis and not jus tin hospitals. Shopping carts, doorknobs, playgrounds, locker rooms, schools, and other public places are all suspect.

Read my second article on MRSA. 

I am that person who used a copy of PhotoShop 5 for years and years after it was squarely out of date, simply because it was still doing what I needed it to do. Of course, once I did upgrade I was thrilled. (I currently have CS2 on this machine).

I have simple needs in most areas. I am content in this point in my life to own what works for me, rather than what might be the newest and most exciting innovation. Nonetheless, I did go ahead and upgrade my Wordpress this morning. I figure that Wordpress is an application that needs to perform optimally, since hundreds and hundreds of people are accessing my pages, and in turn depending on its functionality. Plus, who am I fooling? — it was a one-touch process.

I’m seeing one major issue. Some apostrophes are switching to oddball code (’) in all my blog entries. I think I will need to go back and manually edit these. What a pain. Maybe the almighty gods of journalism are punishing me for not writing out all of my words. They want to smite all of the evil apostrophes.

I just had my daughter’s hair cut short-ish for the summer. She loves it long, but it gets so hot down here and she inherited a sweat gene for her father. So, it looks cute as a button and girly and sweet. But guess what little Miss Princess did today? She found some craft scissors and cut off a massive chunk of her bangs and one side of her hair. Why? Because she said it was getting in her eyes.

The kid is four. She DOES know better. She just got in a lot of trouble two weeks ago for giving all of her dolls trims. You may ask me, where were YOU when all of this cutting was happening? Do you know any four-year-olds!? It only takes a flash of a second for things like this to occur. I kid you not. I can be in the bathroom or washing some dishes and the entire house can become a war zone.

I’ve been putting the final touches on a lesson plan I am presenting tonight, so today the house is particularly gruesome.

I took piano lessons when I was younger. I remember playing The Entertainer for a recital. I also have memories of playing Swans on Lake and some song with the BONG BONG BONG of Big Ben at one recital or another for my grandparents. Long story short, I have forgotten so much of what I learned and when I go to my sister’s and see the family piano sitting in the living room, I get a little wistful.

This site has me all excited. The Play Piano website has a 101-lesson series of free e-mail piano lessons, including lessons on Chords & Progressions Piano Tips. It is geared to adults and goes to a more technical and artful level than I ever reached while taking lessons as a child. This is absolutely a bookmark-worthy site.

Duane also offers full-blown piano courses on DVD. He mentions them in his free weekly newsletters, but there is never any obligation to purchase them. Seriously, this is somethign you’ll kick yourself for if you don’t check it out.

I have a bunch of cool sites I want to link to in my blog, so I thought I would dole them out here and there using brief posts to tell you a little more about them.

Girly Things is a site that offers free hair bow instructions. You can find anything from korker bows to loopy bows and everything in between. There are also free directions for making a tutu and a couple of different styles of bow holders.

There are sellers who would have you pay anywhere between $15 and $70 for sets of hair bow instructions. It makes sense to just use the Girly Things website, since they have most of the same bows and don’t charge a penny for the service

By the way, the angel in the picture is my daughter wearing one of the bows I made several years ago.

Calling all fans of Reno 911! Come on now, even those of you who don’t want to admit you stay up late to watch episodes on cable. You know who you are. The show is fun-ee. It’s the kind of funny that makes you choke on your milk every so often.

Unless you’ve been under a rock (and I know some of my readers do indeed spend a considerable amount of time under rocks), then you know that the movie Reno 911 Miami is now out of DVD. To celebrate the unrated DVD, Fox put a few wacky games on the Reno 911! Miami website. I just got done looking through the Most Wanted posters. That was good for a good belly laugh. Here are a couple of my favorites. I love the Max Tictoc Boyle poster, because you just can’t get enough good punnery on the net these days. As for the second poster, I just flat out don’t like Hillary so this one tickled my funny bone. A picture says a thousand words, right? That’s one heck of a picture.

And if you haven’t seen Reno 911! Miami The Movie yet, get out there and pickup a copy of the DVD. The Reno gang is in Miami Beach for a convention during spring break. Lieutenant Jim Dangle in his short-shorts in Miami. That alone is reason enough to sere the movie. Something about that man and his Daisy Dukes just gives me the giggles every single time.

There has been a lot of controversy in the blogging community as to whether girl bloggers can be power bloggers. Of course, I am solidly on the side of YES, girl bloggers rock. Women bring a depth of perspective to blogging that can never be duplicated. As time goes on, I see more girls powering along with fantastic content and unique points of view.

Today, Roberta started a brand new designation: Rockin’ Girl Bloggers

I’m going to tag 5 awesome girl bloggers who I love reading. If you’ve been tagged, just grab the Rockin’ Girl Bloggers badge and tag five more powerful woman bloggers you know. Pay it forward and the phenomenon will keep on going and going.

• The Buzz Queen
• Manilla Mom
• Vegan Momma
• Jenny Up the Hill
• Karen, at the The Pond
• The Sassy Southerner

If you’re either a guy or your name isn’t on this list, it doesn’t mean you can’t participate. Just grab the badge and tell a girl blogger out there that she rocks!!

Up until recently I had two dogs. I ended up giving my greyhound, Angel, to a local Elderly Greyhound rescue group. With the divorce, being back in school full time and my daughter, it was very difficult to care for two older dogs. Angel is now living on a farm with another Greyhound and happy as a clam. I still have my Maltese, Echo, living with me.

Having an older dog is expensive, though. Echo has been sick a lot lately. She has a tumor on her spleen and is anemic. She had extensive dental work a few months back and needs special supplements. Since she is not in pain and actually still active enough to interact with us, I will not put her down. Actually, I have a problem putting her down in any situation. I just cannot bring myself to be the one deciding to end a pet’s life.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how humans have health insurance, or at least many of us do. But when it comes to pets, we end up paying for treatments that can be just as expensive as treating a human, out of our own pockets. I have paid for X-rays and blood work lately that would shock you for its dollar value. Taking care of Echo in her old age is one of my major expenses. You don’t think of how much it can cost to keep a pet healthy in their old age when they are cute balls of puppy fluff. You thin about the actual cost of the dog and the food you feed them. Your first sticker shock is usually annual shots. But, that is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

There is a growing trend toward pet health insurance. When I think back to the three times we had Angel in for emergency care in the middle of the night, or the cancer that Echo has right now, I see the need in my own life for pet insurance. Health expenses tend to come out of the blue and I am not always prepared to pay right away. The weeks I’ve had Echo to the veterinarian have been the tightest for me financially. PetCare Pet Insurance has pet insurance programs in both the United States and Canada. I’m looking at the list of services covered and I’m impressed. Getting insurance for your pet “just in case” is worth it in the long run. My advice is, look into it while your pets are still young and healthy.

Hosting can be a headache. I am not talking about my blog. I have this puppy on a very reliable host and in as much as I have been able to determine, there has not been any significant downtime. My static sites, on the other hand, are hosted for free on my ex-husband’s cousin’s business servers. I don’t want to go rocking any boats, because free is free and technically I am not even family anymore. But, the sites have all been down since late Friday night. I thought for sure it was a business issue that resolve this morning, but so far they are all still down. I sent in a support ticket. Now comes the wait.

I’ve lost a good bit of advertising revenue for these static sites. And, I can only imagine the e-mail that is waiting for me. I am going to give this a day or so, but I have all the gears ready to roll to switch everything over to my paid hosting account. It is probably the wise thing overall, but I have been nervous about making the switch. Otherwise I suppose I would have done all of this a long time ago.

…that is the question.

If you are making a certain amount of money in your own small business (and yes, this includes income from blogging), you may be better off when it comes to tax time if you incorporate a business. There are various financial benefits to working for said business over instead of just filing as self-employed. There are write-off and deductions that are easier to organize and justify if they come under the umbrella of an incorporated business.

The Benefits
You can shelter yourself from 100% liability in the case of debt or other major problems in the business. And, you can allow your children to enjoy the benefits of an incorporated business, because unlike you, a business has an unlimited lifespan. Ownership can change hands without a flurry of paperwork and death taxes involved. Best of all, you may be able to take advantage of the small business deduction.

The Downside
On the other hand, there are the paperwork and business expenses to take into consideration. These might be minimal in comparison to your business earnings, though. And, as a sole proprietor, you may be able to claim tax credits a corporation could not. You just have to weight the options.

How to Begin
Now, there is no way for me to give you a blanket statement about HOW to go about incorporating your business. Why? The rules vary from state to state and sometimes on an even more local level. One option would be to talk to a local accountant or small business expert in your area. Or, you can go to IncParadise.com. They have an expansive FAQ section that covers the gambit. And whether you want to start a Florida, Texas, or California corporation, they charge only $89 plus state fees to do all of the paperwork to start a corporation in any state.

Summer is in full swing. Now that school is out, it is a great time to plan some day-trips. It’s always great, though, to find someplace that is just as fascinating for the kids as it is for the adults. Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is an adventure for my daughter and me. It’s just big enough to provide a lot to see, but not so large that we come home absolutely exhausted. And the best part is that it just never seems to get old.

Homosassa Springs is an easy drive, simple to find, has lots of parking and a lot to see. The Children’s Education Center and Museum is a good way to begin or end your time at the park. There are exhibits detailing the history of the park, a snapshot of some of the animals you will meet inside and even a live two-headed turtle. You enter the main park area via either a relaxing and educational ride on a boat down Pepper creek or by tram. Keep your hands inside the boat and be on the lookout for native wildlife. You never know what might be sitting on a rock getting a little sun!

Homosassa is home to mostly native species. Follow the meandering paths and you will see manatees, wild cats, the reptile house, Florida black bears, American alligators, crocodiles, Gopher tortoises, otter, deer, and various native birds including: the endangered Whooping Crane and Bald Eagles. The park also houses a Western cougar that serves as an ambassador for the Florida panther. There are only about 50 Florida panthers left in Florida.

The park is a rehabilitation and refuge center for injured West Indian manatees. The floating underwater observatory allows visitors an up-close view of thousands of fresh and saltwater fish, as well as the manatees as they swim past the large plate glass windows making the observers into the observed.

All six of Florida’s venomous snakes are represented in the reptile house. So, in addition to a fascinating close-up look at the snakes, it is also a good opportunity to learn how to recognize those reptiles we should not handle when we find them in the wild.

The Visitor Center and main entrance to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is located at 4150 S. Suncoast Blvd. (US 19 & 98 ) in Homosassa Springs. The park is open 7 days a week 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., with the ticket counter closing at 4:00 p.m. Wildlife Encounters are at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Manatee Programs are at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Alligator/Hippopotamus Program is at 12:30 p.m.

Admission is $9.00 per adult (13 and up) and $5.00 per child (3 to 12). Children under 2 are free. Concessions are available.

Call (352) 628-5343 for more information.

Unless you are blogging simply to keep your mom up-to-date while you’re off in South America with the Peace Corps or if you are Creed from The Office, you need to make sure your readers are happy readers. People won’t come back to your blog again if you don’t offer them a good reason to do so.

1. Keep it Interesting
If you like blogging about your pet or what you had for dinner last night, go the extra step and tell your readers a truly humorous or off-the-wall story about that pet or post that to-die-for recipe you used to make the dinner you blogged about last night. Personalize it, but also make sure it has elements that would be of interest to people who don’t know you. If you tell me about the time your dog got stolen from your back yard and then walked 15 miles to find its way home again, I’ll be reading with interest. Give me the secret family recipe for meatloaf that everyone you know loves, and I’ll more than likely even jot it down or bookmark it.

2. Give Your Readers Some Credit
Remove the No Follow tags from your comments. If your readers are taking the time to read your posts and write thoughtful comments, thank them with an outgoing link via their comment. You can download various plug-ins and widgets to automatically remove No Follow from your comments section, or you can simply go in and modify your theme. And as an aside, it’’s tacky to ask your readers to pay you money in order for the No Follow to be removed from their comments. Yes, at least one over-confident blogger is currently implementing this.

3. Reward the Regulars
I added a plug-in to my blog that shows my Top 10 Commentators in my sidebar. They each get an outgoing link. The list resets itself monthly, so it’s possible for anyone to make their way into my list at any given time. Look out, though, for other sites that use this feature but add a nofollow tag to the links. It’s no more useful to you than having your name up in lights.

4. Get in on the Conversation
Comment on your own blog! Reply to comments your readers have left. More than one of my readers has suggested that I add a threaded comment feature to my blog and I am working on that this weekend. I enjoy so many of the comments I read here and have picked up some great tips, too.

5. Return the Favor
Take the time to link back to your loyal readers’ sites and to comment on their blogs as well. It goes both ways when it comes to retaining readership and fostering commitment. Pure Blogging and Roberta Ferguson compile a weekly list of links to posts on their top commentator’s sites.

Any blogger likes to login and see a lot of well-crafted comments waiting to be approved. I like to know people are reading my articles and that they feel compelled to add a thought or two to the topic.

But, I have also gone out of my way to reward readers who comment by giving them solid outgoing links. I have removed the No Follow from my comments, making any link you leave in a comment an outbound link. And, I have a list in my sidebar that gives an outbound link to my top 10 5 commentators.

Therefore, I expect a little something in return. I expect the comments you leave on my blog to be thoughtful and of substance. And, I expect the sites you link to have original content, not be ad farms, and not be an obvious attempt to fill the internet with yet more spam. If I see links like that, I will let the comments through, but I will strip out the links.

Fair is fair.