I’ve been hard at work on my personal Portfolio and moving all of my “techie” updates to the Portfolio blog. If you’re interested in my Facebook, site design, or WordPress updates, be sure to subscribe to the Portfolio site since that’s where any new techie news related updates will be.

I’ve also got a new pet project working on a genealogy site for my family. Here’s a little sneak preview of it: TrekToTexas.com. It’s been quite successful so far. The first week it was up, I was already contacted by the local historical societies interested in learning more about it, and another recent contact was from someone who has photos he thinks might belong to my family. I’ll be meeting with him tomorrow to look through them and I can’t wait to see if they’re pictures of my own ancestors. (No need to hit the panic button – we’re meeting in a public antique mall.)

There are some other updates I’ll be working on in the coming weeks/months here too, so stay tuned – we’re not off the air yet. I guess you could say I’m “niching out.”

But don’t worry. The blog remains the same. I’ll still be posting my Wishcraft updates here, as well as the business plans, and any random thoughts I might come up with. So, where to next?

Back to the studio in a few weeks. Here’s my latest project:

It’s my second piece of stained glass I’ve made and I’m totally hooked. I can’t wait to make more!

Deciding on the direction of YellowRoseDesigns.net and YellowRoseGallery.com. The Gallery site is blank since the switch to a new host. Do I merge the two sites or make it a real “Gallery”? I’m going to give Etsy a try for some of my jewelry. I’ve been looking into doing some craft shows, but I must admit getting a little discouraged that I wasn’t accepted into the first two that I applied for. Jewelry is the toughest category, after all, but these were smaller, lesser-known shows.

And as it turns out, since I made the decision to move away from web design and more towards arts, crafts and digital designs, more people are interested in my web programming and WordPress skills. It seems to have renewed my own enthusiasm for web design. That’s been my “day job” for the past 9 years. I thought I was burned out (and a little discouraged there too. corporate contracts have been getting fewer and farther between), but coding for WordPress and Facebook have opened up a whole new niche for me, so the excitement is building again.

So, there I am, in a nutshell. Oh, and somewhere in there, “getting a life.” I hear they’re all the rage.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
~John Lennon

I discovered F8 in my search to find out what had happened to our pages. If you want to see the keynote speech for yourself, as of now, it’s still available here: http://apps.facebook.com/feightlive/. The keynote itself is geared for developers, so be warned. Some interesting facts for Facebook users that have been misreported and misunderstood all over the web (and sparked some heated comments over at Mashable) – the changes to their policies.

1. One step permission – From now on when someone wants to allow an application (that would be all those games that you play, quizzes, gift apps, etc) or a website that might use this in the future, you click “Allow” only once for the application developer to access your Facebook information. If you think about it, when you enjoy or trust a game or app, don’t you generally “Allow” it to access your Facebook information already? (If you’re not sure, you can check your account’s application settings. You might be surprised how many apps you’ve allowed access to your profile.)
2. Removing the policy for developers, “You must not store or cache any data you receive from us for more than 24 hours. . .” What does this mean to users? Absolutely nothing. As a user, once you gave an app access to your information, they were allowed by Facebook to go and retrieve that information anytime they wanted. They just couldn’t keep it. The change is on the developer’s side only. Now they don’t have to ask Facebook’s permission to access your profile every time you play their game (Admit it! You know that’s almost every day!) And it is up to the developer to remove your information if you ever stop allowing them access. As a side-note, what I learned while chatting to developers during the keynote is that nearly every developer out there got around that policy anyway. If you ever allowed any unscrupulous developer access to your information even once, you may as well have given him access for life. Most of the developers out there are using your permissions only for what it was intended – for you to have access to their fun games and widgets.
3. The third important item relates less to policy change and more to Facebook implementing a new feature for other sites outside of Facebook. We can now add the Facebook “Like” button to our sites, along with comments and other nifty little Social Plugin features. Does this mean I automatically have access to your Facebook information? No. I have no more access to your personal information on my site than I do if you become a Fan of my page. The only way sites have access to personal information is just like Facebook already uses: The user must allow the site access, through a secure Facebook-hosted application.

Quote directly from Facebook: “None of your data is shared with the site when you view social plugins. Social plugins pull information directly from Facebook and the site has no access to the data being displayed to you.”

Zuckerberg is clearly pushing the new “Like” button that Facebook has made available to other websites. If you want to see this in action, I’ve added a “Like” button to this blog and a “Like/Comment” button to my Supernatural page for Dean’s Amulet. So, yes, I can start to see where they were going with the new “Like” feature. Zuckerberg wants you to “Like” a particular restaurant or band. I want you to Like my blog and the products I sell on my site.

I saw some page owners calling the change a “database grab”. Uh, hello? It’s their database. We’re just along for the ride. What Facebook did not consider were the implications the change would have to other people. Facebook now has 400 million users. Three-thousand of them jumping up and down about the “Fan” button probably aren’t going to make a very big wave. And that’s the biggest faux pas they could make. Facebook seems to care only about Facebook. Rolling out a significant change to the functionality of their site literally overnight, and with no mention of it other than in a conference for developers – in other words, obscure to most of their actual 400 million users – comes across as a cloak and dagger scheme. And this from a company who claims to be open about their policies. Open source for developers, maybe, but as secretive as Google when it comes to their users. Why is Facebook not out there announcing to its users what they’re doing and why? Why aren’t they telling them “No, we’re not going to start charging to use our site.”? (They aren’t.) Why aren’t they letting Page owners know in advance that something important is about to change on Facebook Pages? If I had seen the announcement about the “Like” button before suddenly discovering it on my page without warning, the transition would have gone much more smoothly. Facebook can’t seem to see the forest for all the 400 million trees. Their developers are busily rolling out changes (That weren’t ready to be rolled out. There were some serious errors on the Open Graph/Social Plugins documentation that weren’t corrected until almost 2 days after the conference, again, in cloak and dagger style.) without giving thought to all the possible scenarios or impact on the one thing that makes Facebook what it is – each of the 400 million users. Here’s hoping that by the time their next developer’s conference comes around, they’ve learned a very important lesson – People are what make “social interactions” happen. Not programs.

Oh, and as for the question of how do I recruit new users to my Facebook Page? I simply ask you to Connect with Me.

“Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.”

I am sitting here in shock after seeing your In Memoriam piece. To not include Director/Producer Kim Manners, who lost his battle to cancer in January of this year breaks my heart. I understand not everyone can be included but this man has worked with some of the top television shows, including The X-Files, Supernatural and even Charlie’s Angels. To leave him out in this way is an absolute disgrace. I am saddened to see that a big name like Michael Jackson, who was a Musician and not even in the television industry was included when someone who has given so much to Prime Time Television was excluded.

Clearly you were going for cheers with your Memorial not remembrances. Since you seem to not remember Kim Manners, allow me to refresh your memory. Here is a small run-down of the accomplishments of this extremely talented man, who is missed not only by casts and crews of shows on which he worked, but by fans as well. Having never met him myself, I can tell you that fans across the world mourned his passing as though we had lost a dear and close friend ourselves.  This is how deeply he touched our lives.

From IMDB.com

Producer:

1. Supernatural (executive producer) (60 episodes, 2006-2009) (co-executive
   producer) (18 episodes, 2005-2006)The X Files: Revelations (2008) (V) (producer)
2. The X Files (producer) (97 episodes, 1995-1999) (co-executive producer)
   (40 episodes, 2000-2002) (supervising producer) (22 episodes, 1999-2000)
3. The X-Files: The Unopened File (1996) (V) (producer)

Director:

1. Supernatural (16 episodes, 2005-2008)
2. The X Files: Revelations (2008)
3. Over There (1 episode, 2005)
4. Empire (2005) TV mini-series
5. Alaska (2003) (TV)
6. The X Files (52 episodes, 1995-2002)
7. Harsh Realm (1 episode, 2000)
8. Fortune Hunter (1 episode)
9. M.A.N.T.I.S. (1994) TV series (unknown episodes)
10. Greyhounds (1994) (TV)
11. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (7 episodes, 1993-1994)
12. The Hat Squad (1 episode, 1993)
13. The Commish (1991) TV series (unknown episodes)
14. K-9000 (1991) (TV)
15. Disney Presents The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage (1991) TV series (unknown
    episodes)
16. Broken Badges (1 episode, 1990)
17. Booker (1 episode, 1990)
18. Baywatch (2 episodes, 1989)
19. 21 Jump Street (10 episodes, 1987-1989)
20. Paradise (1 episode, 1988)
21. Mission: Impossible (2 episodes, 1988)
22. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1 episode, 1988)
23. J.J. Starbuck (1987) TV series (unknown episodes)
24. Wiseguy (1987) TV series (unknown episodes)
25. Stingray (2 episodes, 1986-1987)
26. Hunter (2 episodes, 1986-1987)
27. Sledge Hammer! (1 episode, 1986)
28. Simon & Simon (5 episodes, 1984-1986)
29. Street Hawk (1985) TV series (unknown episodes)
30. Finder of Lost Loves (1984) TV series (unknown episodes)
31. Automan (4 episodes, 1983-1984)
32. Riptide (1984) TV series (unknown episodes)
33. Hardcastle and McCormick (1983) TV series (unknown episodes)
34. Matt Houston (1982) TV series (unknown episodes)
35. Charlie’s Angels (8 episodes, 1979-1981)

Production Manager:

1. Scared Silly (1982) (TV) (production manager)
2. Charlie’s Angels (production manager) (42 episodes, 1978-1981)
3. The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1981) (TV) (production manager)
4. Second Unit Director or Assistant Director:
5. Hart to Hart (assistant director) (1 episode, 1981)
6. The Pride of Jesse Hallam (1981) (TV) (second unit director)
7. Charlie’s Angels (assistant director) (3 episodes, 1977-1978)
8. Locusts (1974) (TV) (second assistant director)
9. Valdez Is Coming (1971) (second assistant director)

Actor:

1. The Headmaster
2. Halls of Anger

Articles:

• E! Online
• TV Guide
• Buddy TV
• The Vancouver Sun
• Monsters And Critics
• CW Source Remembering Kim Manners on Youtube

It isn’t like you couldn’t have known about this sad event. Is it possible that your show snubbed him because of the last show he worked on? Was your desire to keep one of the better dramas out of your little circle that strong? Fans of Supernatural have watched you time and time again overlook the actors, directors and writers of this show, and for what? Fear that it might win one of your little awards? With a steady three-million viewers in what is clearly the toughest time slot on a network that doesn’t bother with providing much in the way of production or advertising budget, Supernatural has proven itself to be a grade above most of the shows out there. It’s one thing to overlook the show time and again. But this oversight for someone who has given so much to your own industry is a disgrace.

Shame, emmys. For shame.

Twitterers and Supernatural Fans! Please RT this: RT @YellowRoseKat Remembering Kim Manners http://ow.ly/2bpTMK @Primetimeemmys #RememberKimManners  #emmys #epicfail

And don’t forget to e-mail them!

Feedback on Primetime Emmy Awards
To give feedback on the Primetime Emmy Awards, please send an
Email to: EmmyAwardsFeedback@emmys.org

Online it’s worse, I know. When you can’t hear tone or inflection. See body language. Even an eyeroll smiley isn’t always as effective (though fun). And does a yawning smiley mean “I’m bored.” or “I’m tired.” ?????

I’ve learned lots of new phrases over the past year. Troll. Wank. Snark. I admit I still don’t “get” text-speak and probably never will. I took both shorthand and speedwriting. The point is to make words shorter and flow faster. If it uses the same number of characters (or more???), what’s the damn point? (it’s a rhetorical question. try and answer it and I may get ‘snarky’ on you)

written: 9/23/08
transcribed and edited: sometime later

To the person who keeps commenting on this post: Your comments make no sense and your link goes to sex related sites. Comments on this blog are moderated and your email has been sent to spam filters. Please stop trying to comment here. The comments will be removed.

I guess most people know by now that I have a redhead’s temper (some of you know better than others).
Contrary to what it may seem, it’s rarely aimed at a particular person, but generally at an attitude, action or just plain stupidity. Guess it’s no secret that I don’t tolerate ignorance well.

Feel free to read, ignore, respond or rant away yourselves. Disagree if you like, but don’t expect to turn anything here into a debate. This is just my place to blow off steam.