You Say It's Your Birthday

It's my birthday, too!

Today I turn 39.

Birthdays always seem to be a somber, reflective time for me. I tend to wake up feeling a little depressed and slo-o-owly work my way out of it over the course of the day. Why is this, I wonder? I remember being a kid and being so excited about my birthday that I couldn't contain myself. I think the only sadness I felt was when it was over and the last piece of birthday cake was gone (and, of course, when the last present was opened -- especially if it turned out to be clothes).

These days I actually enjoy getting clothes for my birthday. My enjoyment for the day itself, on the other hand, seems to have paled. Of course, on those rare occasions when I think that no one has remembered, I get really depressed, so I'm not about to swear off birthdays entirely. That little kid is still in there somewhere looking for the birthday cake.

What is your favorite birthday memory? What do you do to make your birthday into your special day?

TLA Tutorial: A Recap

OK, I got a little feedback that my TLA tutorials are too complex. That's cool. I'm going to do a quick summary of the topics I wrote about before and this time include only the high points.

HTML

HTML is basically just the way to describe the structure of a web page. It provides the web page designer with a way to indicate which parts of the page are paragraphs, which are titles or section headers, and where graphics should go. When the browser receives a web page, it knows what to do when it reads these indicators (called tags). It knows that paragraphs have white space between them. It knows that rows and columns in a table are supposed to be lined up, etc. If you want, think of HTML as the blueprints. Your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, etc) acts as the construction company and the skyscraper it builds is that beautiful web page.

CSS

Have you ever watched those fun design shows on HGTV? In my favorite, "Divine Design", Candice Olson, the designer, comes up with these beautiful color palettes and fabric swatches. Then she and the design crew use those colors and fabrics to decorate the room. A Cascading Style Sheet does the exact same thing. Instead of what color the wall is in the dining room, though, it tells what color and what font will be used for the main body of the text on the website. This time, the browser takes the place of Andrew the painter and Edmond the sewing specialist and follows those instructions to make the webpage look exactly as the designer had pictured it.

In reality, it's becoming less and less necessary to know the details of how to create web pages by actually manipulating the HTML and CSS by hand. Modern editors, such as Dreamweaver, are getting better and better at doing this all behind the scenes so all the budding web designer has to do is be able to draw.

So tell me this: What other acronyms and terms or phrases have you heard which made you really curious as to what they were?

The Adventures of Webmaster and Lady Vertigo

Just to show that I've got a fun-loving side (I know, I know, hard to believe isn't it?), Lisa and I went out to West Park in Ann Arbor on Sunday for the tenth anniversary party for our local comic book store, Vault of Midnight. The owners, Curtis and Liz, had only one requirement. You had to come dressed as a superhero (or supervillain).

Despite the heat of the day, we had a pretty remarkable turnout. One woman, covered in a veritable armor of American Express cards called herself "The Charger". She was a tremendous force for good or evil. She could either stimulate an economy or wipe it out completely. One couple, knowing the dehydrating power of the sun that day, came as the hero team of the Hydro Commando and Private Popsicle, complete with matching blue and pink cammo gear and ice chest in tow.

Now, don't go thinking that we were only there to eat. The supervillains and superheroes squared off for a fierce game of kickball. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've seen Daredevil sliding into home plate or Green Lantern kicking one out into left field.

I guess all this just says something about what a fun bunch of people Curtis and Liz have surrounded themselves with. If you are ever in downtown Ann Arbor, stop down at their new location on Main Street. Who knows? Maybe you'll meet one of your Saturday morning cartoon friends there. If not, you're sure to find something on the shelves which will take you back to that time.

So tell me, what super power do you wish you had?

Are You Board Yet?

Continuing on my theme of meeting with people who are passionate about what they do, yesterday I had the opportunity to have coffee with Neel Hajra of the Nonprofit Enterprise at Work. Let me tell you, Neel is excited about what he's doing. So excited, in fact, that I almost couldn't keep up with my notetaking! Note to self: Look into MP3 player with recording capabilities. In the interest of full disclosure, I did do some work for NEW a number of years ago. The "Nonprofit Directory" that I helped build is still available on the main page of the NEW website.

Neel is the Chief Operating Officer for NEW, which means he's basically in charge of the day to day operations of the organization. Within the last year or so, this has meant doing a thorough re-examination of NEW's role in the nonprofit community and how they could be more effective in that role. To that end, they are dropping a number of their offerings which, while popular, were already covered or would be covered by other institutions. They did this so they could focus on what they see as their core services: The NEW Center facilities, Resource Connect (an online database of nonprofit resources), shared services (infrastructure and backroom sharing for NP's), and their crown jewel, BoardConnect^®.

This last offering sounds like an amazing opportunity to me. With it, for a nominal fee, NEW provides training to individuals who are interested in serving on the board of a nonprofit organization. Then, it acts as a matching service, trying to hook up these individuals with organizations which can use their skills.

I can hear the excuses already: I don't have the time. Don't you have to have lots of experience? What do I have to offer?

As to the first, well, it's up to you to make the time. Most of us dedicate a certain amount of time to causes which are close to our hearts. This is just another way of doing that. As to the other two, Neel told me that this is exactly what the matching process is designed to help with. Almost everyone has something to give. Maybe you have an extended network of professionals you can call upon. Maybe you have skills as a negotiator, financial analyst, or an accountant. Maybe you are just passionate about a cause and are willing to put in the time and effort to help in whatever capacity you can. Whatever you can contribute, BoardConnect will try to match you with an organization who truly needs your help.

Tell me, what have been your experiences with being on a Board? Would you do it again?

100% and More

Many of you know that I recently joined the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce. One of the primary reasons for me was to get more exposure for my business and to have more opportunities to network with professionals and non-profit organizations in the area. I also wanted to find a way to give back to the Ann Arbor community. I certainly got all of that. Even better, though, I found a group of people who just floor me with their customer focus.

One of these awesome individuals is Cheryl O'Brien. She's the Membership Director for the Chamber and runs the Ambassador Corps (which I recently joined). Cheryl was the person with whom I first spoke about joining the Chamber. She set aside a full hour of her time to answer any questions I might have. Despite the fact that Cyber Data Solutions is a very small company, she made me feel that we were just as important to the Chamber as Pfizer.

It wasn't just that first day, either. She continually amazes me by paying attention to the smallest details. Just one example: Today I happened to be at the Chamber office picking up some materials for a colleague. I was chatting with Cheryl for a few minutes and, in the course of the conversation, briefly wondered about the details of a retreat that I would be attending as a part of the Leadership Ann Arbor course that I'll be taking this Fall. Unfortunately, the person in charge of Leadership wasn't immediately available and I had to get going. I didn't give the question another thought, figuring that I would find out at a later date.

This afternoon, what should appear in my email queue, but a message from Cheryl with all of the details I needed to know. I tell you, with the kind of treatment that Cheryl and the other folks at the Chamber dish out, I think I will have a long and enjoyable association with them.

So tell me, has someone really wowed you with "100% and more" recently?