Shadwrick Vick - Lessons and Hobbies

My first memories of my Aunt Connie are at church when I was 3 or 4. She let me lay on her lap as she combed her long nails through my hair off to sleep. I remember so many Sunday dinners eating ham with cloves with Diane, Deanna and John at their apartment after church. She let me and my siblings play with the Lincoln logs while the adults conversed. We moved back east to MA but were so happy when we found out our family would be closer in Charlotte, NC. Every major holiday was a significant one in Aunt Connie’s home. There was no room for mediocre decorations and the house was always “immaculate”.  She made visits when family came special and dinners were neatly placed with cloth napkins and the works. Like her mother - she was never afraid to ask you to do something whether it be help your cousins clean the house or play the piano to provide background music. I remember when she fell down our stairs while holding her new born baby. She was in a lot of pain. She fell backwards in order to hold her baby up in her harms taking the full brunt of the fall so her baby would be safe. That was Mikey I believe. She retained her sense of humor even when she lost many of her motor skills. Her unique laugh could still be heard even though her facial expressions wouldn’t warrant much movement. I could tell she felt safe with my so patient and caring Uncle Steve at ther side. I know she is with God in a better place now not having to suffer the pains of the body. We will miss you Aunt Connie.

Pictures from the funeral http://www.lunawebs.com/connie/

I’m cleaning out old desktop files and reorganizing folders. Sometimes I hold onto old junk. Not because I like to store junk, but because I like to remember stupid mistakes. There is the one folder called “cubicles” from September of 2006. Everytime I see it - I keep it around because it was one of the dumbest purchases I’ve ever made.

What happened was my little web design firm started to grow after it’s first real year in 2005. So mid 2006 my wife said get out of the house and get your own office. (She didn’t care for clients coming to our house to meet me in my little basement office.) I started looking for space and found some ideal locations that had more then sufficient space for me. One such location had about 1300 sq feet. My entrepreneurial mind went to work. How cool would it be to have an atmosphere of web programmers, designers, etc. who could all collaborate with me - while offsetting my rent.  I posted ads on Craigslist and noticed that the response was fairly positive that I could rent out desks in that large space.

I started searching for furniture - specifically cubicles. I don’t know why. Probably my background in call centers pushed toward that move. I found a set of “used” Steelcase Cubicles in Texas. The ad read in mint condition with electrical outlets, overhead bins, the works. I was familiar with Steelcase and this particular model. After a few emails and phone calls, I pulled the trigger to have 15 cubicles shipped to Utah.

What was ridiculous was I didn’t have an office yet. I new client offered to give me some warehouse space in the back of the a outlet mall in Draper. The plan was a partnership that would allow us both to use the cubicles. I took him up on the offer and next thing I knew I was unloading a huge 18 wheeler truck with some kids from my church. We realized quickly that we couldn’t figure out easily how to setup these cubicles.

They weren’t in the best condition either - yet suitable. I ended up hiring a team of experts to set them up. It was kind of exciting to have 15 cubicles setup….well about 12. We used 3 cubicles for parts because we didn’t have enough components to make a full 15. The office was far from home and I found a deal for a better office downtown in SLC. The store owner saw I wasn’t using the cubicles and long story short, he ended up selling them and they dissappeared. So after significant cash in shipping, cubicles and labor - I learned a very valuable lesson - don’t buy what you don’t need.

Total tuition: $5,000.

Now I can comfortably delete that folder.

This is a good read. Posting so I can refer to it later.

Usability testing - on the cheap.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/11/25/5-ways-to-get-usability-testing-on-the-cheap/

http://www.caixabaixa.com/Viewer.html?jobs=ow8vTBLfCE0%3D%2CcKnive7fnmo%3D%2CUjMJqrflKiQ%3D&u=NptuUC1dn1E%253d

http://www.usertesting.com/PartnerProgram.aspx

You’ve obviuosly run into the tedious task of copying some text from a source like a website and the formatting of hyperlinks automatically pastes to a document you’re working on. You can remove the hyperlinks - but it can be a very time consuming task especially if there are a ton of hyperlinks you want to remove.

There are a few ways to go about this.

1. Select a point in the hyperlink, right click and choose "remove hyperlink". Is effective but very time consuming with multiple hyperlinks to remove in a Word, Powerpoint or Excel document.

Microsoft Word

Removing hyperlinks from Word Documents

• A more effecient way is to remove formatting from your text using a keyboard shortcut. Again this only works in later versions of Word from my experience. Select all your text that has hyperlinks you want to remove by clicking ctrl + A, then click ctrl + shift + f9. This should remove your hyperlinks instantly.
• You can also use a more advanced method using visual basic macros.
  • Click Alt + F11 to bring up the VB editor - don’t be afraid - this is easier then you think. You can also go to the
  • On the menu at the top click - Insert/module. A new window opens where you paste this text:

Sub RemoveHyperLinksGLobally()

Dim i As Integer
For i = ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks.Count To 1 Step -1
ActiveDocument.Hyperlinks(i).Delete
Next i
End Sub

• Finally click the green play button icon underneath the debug menu and the script will run or execute causing your hyperlinks to go away.

Microsoft Excel

Removing hyperlinks from Excel Documents

Follow the same procedure as above but use this script instead.

Sub RemoveHyperLinksGLobally()
Dim i As Integer
For i = ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks.Count To 1 Step -1
ActiveSheet.Hyperlinks(i).Delete
Next i
End Sub

PowerPoint

Removing hyperlinks from PowerPoint Documents

Follow the same procedure as above but use this script instead. Depending on your version of Powerpoint you may or may not have access to developer tools. In Powerpoint you go to - Developer/ Macros/insert macro and copy this script.

Sub NoHyperlinks()
Dim i As Long
Dim hl As Hyperlink
For i = 1 To ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
For Each hl In ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Hyperlinks
hl.Delete
Next hl
Next i

End Sub

Hope that helps!!

Ok - I’m an advocate of perfectionism. Who shouldn’t try to improve their skills, character and life in general? But I think some folks who tend to be on the introverted analytical side - really go overboard.

Wikipedia defines Anal Retentive as: …, commonly abbreviated to “anal”, is used conversationally to describe a person with such attention to detail that the obsession becomes an annoyance to others, and can be carried out to the detriment of the anal-retentive person.

Maybe overly excessive analysis is really just being ANALytical ….but in the Anal way.

I got a request for info on upgrading ram on an emachine.

I’ve not tried myself as I’ve upgraded to a Gateway.

Here are my tips:

Ram should be easier then the cleaning the fan.

Good luck!

Just added this new theme …thanks to the folks at Wordpress.