Betty James, Who Named the Slinky Toy dies at 90

Betty James, who came up with the name Slinky for the stair-walking spring that has delighted children for more than 60 years and who ran the toy company after her husband, the inventor, left it and his family in 1960, died Thursday in Philadelphia. 

[Read NY Times article]

IN MEMORIAM:

On December 20, 2008 at 12:00PM,

Slinkys of the world,

Of all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds,

Will join – in pairs – for stairway processionals.

A moment of stationary will be observed,

Followed by No. 14 in Our Hymnal of Advertising Jingles:

—*—

"What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs,

And makes a slinkity sound?

A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing, Everyone knows it’s Slinky…

It's Slinky, it's Slinky, for fun it's a wonderful toy

It's Slinky, it's Slinky, it's fun for a girl and a boy”

—*—

Wire-cutters will be on-hand in case of emergency.

Volunteer untangling is appreciated.

Introducing pastel illustrations by Laura Olsen

The discovery of a new medium. Just the mention of it sends artists into seething excitement!

I discovered a new medium this summer. It's not new to the world, but rather, I had rediscovered it for myself in a really big way. Pastels. I'm talking about the chalk, not the color palette.

I experimented a little with pastels back in college, but didn't develop a preference for them as a medium. I leaned toward oil painting. When out "in the field" I would usually bring along my sketch pad and graphite pencil, rather than charcoal. I found that charcoal and pastels shared a similar "scritchiness" that bugged me - a little like fingernails on a chalkboard. I preferred the smoother feel of mediums such as graphite and oil paint.

I found that painting en plein air (French for "outside") in the natural light gave my oil paintings a lot more life and freshness than work done in the studio, but what a hassle it was to drag all of that equipment around – not to mention that a wet canvas is not the easiest thing to haul back home.

On vacation this summer, I decided to give pastels another try. I discovered advantages to using them in the field. They're portable, more colorful than graphite, drier than paint, and no extensive clean-up is involved. I was able to easily achieve the natural light look without the mess. Plus, time is a premium for me now, so I'm all for any activity that I can squeeze in quickly and easily. The scritchiness of the pastels didn't bother me, either (perhaps age has desensitized my nerve endings).

The result of settling on a medium that allows me to crank out art in short order, is that I am able to accumulate new material at a sustainable pace. What does that mean? It means that I can make enough art to be marketable. What more can an artist ask for?

Where can you find them?

CafePress.com - "Sailboat at Sunset" and "Pacific Northwest Mountains". Also "Pastels of the Pacific Northwest" 2009 wall calendar featuring 12 drawings from 2008.

NorthwestCellars.com - If you're into good Northwest wine, eight varieties are available featuring art by Laura Olsen on the label. For a REAL treat, ask us about personalizing a label for you. Minimum order is one case. Makes a great gift or to have on hand as your own "house" wine.

Joshua Green Building Website

Along with start of the coming school year, I am excited to announce the launch of yet another website by Olsen Creative!

We have just completed design on a website for the Joshua Green Building Restoration which is just getting underway in downtown Seattle at 4th and Pike. The website focuses on the vision, direction and leasing opportunities (office and retail in a prime location) for this historic building, set to reopen its doors in 2009. Built in 1909, it has been owned and maintained by the family of Joshua Green - the Joshua Green Corporation - ever since. Isn't that some kind of record?

http://www.joshuagreenbuilding.com/

The website project was commissioned by Urban Renaissance Group, a full-service commercial real estate company based in the Pacific Northwest. The driving force behind Urban Renaissance Group is a core belief that America is poised for a re-urbanization of its major cities, and for the creation of urban villages in its suburbs. This change is a distinct departure from land use trends marked by sprawl and de-centralization over the last 50 years.

The mission of Urban Renaissance Group is to be a catalyst that understands and ignites this change.

I wish to thank Renee Evans at UrbanRenGroup for igniting this project. The opposite of longevity is the speed by which this got pushed through. Start to launch in two weeks. Renee, thank you for providing complete, concise information - you're on fire! No really, I see smoke... (kidding)

http://www.urbanrengroup.com/

For more information on the Joshua Green Corporation, please visit their website. Be sure to click the About Us tab for their very interesting family history:

http://www.joshuagreencorp.com/


Revitalization of our urban centers - fresh, new websites - a NEW SCHOOL YEAR! We are giddy with excitement!

Stopping the Spam-O-Rama

Wow - there sure is a lot of spam on the Net. Check out the Spam-O-Meter for the current live stats (hover over numbers for description):

spam-o-meter ©dotcombinat.net

What gives??? Since the first comment on my blog was spam, I figured that there's no better time to talk about some Short-term Strategies to Combat Spam.

Here are some quick fixes that you can do:

If it isn't already, turn your spam filter on. Most ISPs have some sort of filtering where mail can be intercepted before it hits your inbox. Check with your ISP to find out how to do this.

If you have a website, cloak your email addresses. Spam robots (called spambots) search your site's source code for the standard "mailto:" code along with the accompanying "name@domain.com". There are a few ways you can disguise your address. 

1. You can create an image. Real people can read it, but the source code says it's an image, so the 'bots go right on by. Isn't this a pretty picture:? With any simple drawing program, you can type in your email address, save it as a jpg or gif and place it wherever you want on your page. Hiding out in plain sight!

2. You can use an Anti-spam JavaScript code snippet like this, which splits up the address and then tells the browser to reassemble it. But hold up a second, you're saying - wouldn't spambots just start looking for this chunk of code? Maybe, but I tend to think they're too lazy. There are plenty of email addresses out there ripe for harvest. Programmers of spam don't need to rewrite their creepy crawling code just yet.

If you have a form on your website, protect it against attracting spam with a CAPTCHA system. That's the funky little distorted text thingy you sometimes have to key in before you can submit a form. People can read it, computers can't. Use it everywhere from your blog to your input forms - anything that has a Submit button.

Moderate your blog comments. Yes, I moderate comments on this blog (OK, "comment"). I decided to post it as an example of how spammers get their names onto blogs (and guestbooks, etc). If you're busy and have a high-traffic blog - too much to research and approve every little comment, then use the CAPTCHA system above.

Use a separate email address for postings to internet mailing lists, blogs, newsgroups, etc - never use this for your personal email. Only give your main email address out to trusted sources. Then, you can quickly go through the secondary mailbox (and delete most of it) and your primary box won't be so full of spam.

Never buy anything from a company that spams. Sounds simple, but someone must be buying something, or spam solicitation wouldn't be such a lucrative business. If you click, you'll be proving to them that you're a live body and you'll just turn yourself into a bigger target. Just delete those emails.

~ SPECIAL BONUS TIP ~

Be selective about who you send email to. It's hard to think of your friends as spammers (because you've never sent spam), but if they receive an email that says "send this to everyone in your contact list", and actually do follow directions, then they're contributing to the Spam-O-Rama (as indicated by the current load in the Spam-O-Meter), sucking up valuable bandwidth across the internet.

Resist the urge to forward it even if it says "if you get this back from 5 friends, you're a wonderful person." On the contrary. 

For long-term solutions in fighting spam, here are some helpful resources:

Federal Trade Commission

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com - Some good ideas for making the transition toward a more spam-free existance.

How to work with creative-types

Everyone has a talent for something. Everyone has the ability to create. Talent and creativity are things that everyone is born with, to varying degrees. In terms of visual creativity, some people are attuned to seeing the possibilities. Some can’t draw their way out of a paper bag. Most people fall somewhere in the middle.

I cannot count the number of times that clients have approached me with a project and said, appologetically, “I’m sorry, I’m not a designer. Can you help me with this?” 

OK, that would be like me going to my doctor and saying, “I'm sorry, I tried to fix this ruptured spleen at home, but I’m not a surgeon.” Hey, I don’t know my spleen from my appendix, so who knows what I would have been taking a stab at. (Sorry for the gratutious pun!)

The thing about designers (and all creatives), is that they have a feel for what solution best supports a message, and hopefully have had some advanced education and experience so that they can make good decisions. 

Just like when you go to the doctor, you may have a feel for what the problem is, but you can be better treated if you outline the symptoms. The creative process works the same way. If you tell your designer where to “operate” you may not be treating the real problem. If you tell your designer where it hurts, then they can come up with a solution that tackles the problem directly.

What is "valid" web code?

  
Seen these icons? This is what they mean:

In the context of websites, valid code means that the (x)html is error free in syntax. (x)html is a computer language. All languages have their own grammar, vocabulary and syntax. Validation does not refer to the content, but rather that the mark-up of the page meets the basic requirements for industry standards.

What does Validation do?
Some claim that validation helps to increase traffic and improve rankings with search engines. Not necessarily so. That's like saying that a car with a smooth running motor will attract riders and turn heads. Mechanics would certainly take notice, and if you needed a dependable ride, such a car would likely get you where you're going. But it doesn't stand to reason that you'll get there in style. Thus, validation is the declaration that it is indeed, a well-oiled machine. What is DONE with it is another matter.

Why is Validation important?
Valid web code helps browsers know how to render the page. If the web code contains errors in syntax, then browsers are left to guess what the programmer probably meant by the inclusion or ommission of an element. Therefore, an error in syntax can result in an error in rendering the page. While browsers are smart about some things, I personally wouldn't leave the rendering of a layout open for interpretation by a piece of software.

How do you check Validation?
The World Wide Web Consortium has a free validation service. Simply enter a URI and it checks the syntax for errors, returning a "red light" or "green light" indication of whether the page passed the test.

So, when you see these icons, it means that the web developer took the extra time to ensure that what's under the hood is running optimally. In web design, just like with fancy cars, no one likes a poser.

Who are my clients?

I love my job. Always have. People have told me that I'm "lucky" because I can make a living doing something I love. What an odd statement, I think. I don't believe that luck has a lot to do with it. I make a living doing something I love because I made it happen. Everyone else has the same opportunity to be "lucky" with their own talents. The only difference between me and them is that I followed my own path.

Something else "lucky" happened to me a few years ago. I left my job in Corporate America ("left" as in, with a little push). I had been wanting to move on anyway, so it was just the kick in the pants I needed. I started freelancing and built Olsen Creative. It hasn't always been easy, but I've never looked back.

Even more "luck" was bestowed upon me when I found my niche with clients. (Geez, I'm finally getting to the point). Other small businesses just like me needed help that I was able to provide. In other words, my clients are people who are making a living at things they love doing.

How cool is that?

My current clients are a wine guy who blends his own wine and markets his goodies with personalized wine labels (yep, your face or biz logo on a wine label!), a music teacher who started her own vocal studio, a husband/wife team who built a contemporary education project that uses music in a unique and relevant way to excite young people about learning and help them experience success, a community bank that specializes in small business accounts, and a couple other musicians who perform and teach.

If you had asked me 20 years ago where I saw myself today, I would have had a completely different answer, but I would have been nowhere near as happy.

My clients are awesome!