Help! I need your advice!

Hey everyone, I just found out 8-9 people are coming for Christmas dinner! I wrote a post about it at zeneece.com so if you would like to go over there and see what is going on, that would be great if you could give me some much needed advice. :)

12 Fun Ways To Beat The Holiday Blues

Today we wrote an article about 12 creative ways to liven up your time with family and friends over the holidays, to fight off the holiday blues. So go to zeneece.com to read it! :)

I'm MOVING!

Hey Everybody! :)

How are you today? I just wanted to let you know, I'm moving! Well, I'm not actually going anywhere, but ZeNeece's World is moving to zeneece.com. Woo HOO!

A little while ago we moved to blog.zeneece.com which goes to the same place. So change your bookmarks when you get to the new place!

Also for all of you who have subscribed to the feed, there were some problems with that. I had to get a new feed on the new site. So when you're there you can subscribe again. Sorry about the hassle. But this is ZeNeece's World growing up.

Anyhow, that's been taking a lot of time, getting all the details worked out. It's still not perfect but doing much better. In the meantime, the holidays have totally snuck up on me! I AM NOT READY! Can we postpone them until later?

Lolcat Stopd By!

More Lolcat! It took a whole quart of sweet cream and 2 cans of tuna, but Lolcat was nice enough to tell us what was happening in some more pictures. (The last one is too funny, that old curmudgeonly feline has had some serious schooling!)

'Nam Kat haz flashbaks


Bluez Kat approvz. Play on.


Run, Dorathee! No, dont taek Toto!


I question the general assumption that felines are inherently deficient in the area of grammar and sentence structure. (HA!)

Skin Patch Could Replace Injections

HP and a company called Crospon have developed a skin patch that uses tiny microneedles to just barely penetrate the outer layer of skin to deliver drugs safer and more efficiently than regular injections.

Traditional transdermal patches have to overcome the problem of being properly and effectively absorbed through the skin, which is why they aren't used more often.

It sounds painful, this new patch, but it isn't. The needles only go through the epidermis, the outer layer, penetrating the skin about .5mm. Your nerves aren't in this outer layer. They are lower down in the dermis, about .75mm, where the needles don't need to go.

One patch has about 150 microneedles which are controlled by a microchip to deliver the proper dose at the right time. 400 little reservoirs hold the necessary drugs, which can be a combination or just one, depending on what is needed.

This would be great for people with complicated medication schedules, and would mean no more pain, while still efficiently delivering medication to the bloodstream at the right time.

They think this patch might be available to the public by around 2010.

There are still some issues, like preventing infection since it does pierce the protective epidermis. Although I'm sure they're working on this.

I have two issues as well, namely it sounds prohibitively expensive for the average consumer. At least with the way things are today. Perhaps it will be easy to manufacture and customize the patches for people in a few years. My other issue is, well, HP. I've never had much luck with anything branded HP. I've always had problems with them from the beginning, so would I really want to trust them with something that would control my health and possibly my life?

Anyway, it's a very interesting and positive step in medication delivery. Keep up the good work!

Found Here.

Top 10 Gadget Gift Ideas For the 2007 Holiday Season

A gadget gift is something novel yet useful. Usually when you buy someone a gadget gift, you think it would be cool if someone had gotten you the exact same thing. We’ve put together a list, in no particular order, to show you what’s out there for this season:

1. The iPod Touch: This perfect gadget gift has a 3.5” widescreen display on the multi-touch surface. It’s just beautiful. You can download straight from iTunes, as well as surf the web with Wi-Fi, so it will fit seamlessly into your life. It comes in 8GB and 16GB.

2. The iPhone: Another great gadget gift from Apple, made even more attractive with its recent price drop. You’ve got a phone, an iPod and an internet browser in one groovy little package. It also comes with the awesome multi-touch surface.

3. Isis Puzzle: If you think you’re smart now, try this little gadget gift on for size. It’s considered the most difficult puzzle ever. Each one is unique with just one solution. If you crack the code you win one of several prizes.

4. Sleeptracker Watch: We love this watch! If you need to wake up refreshed and alert, then you need a sleeptracker. They wake you up when you’re ready within a window of time that you specify. This gadget gift is considered one of the most amazing inventions for 2005.

5. Solio: If you have a wanderer on your list who frequently finds himself slightly off the beaten path, with no place to charge his electronics, then this is the perfect gadget gift. It charges a wide array of devices using the power of the sun. So unless they’re going spelunking, they can use it anywhere.

6. The Samsung Flash SSD: This is the gadget gift for someone who absolutely positively has to have the latest cutting edge computer memory technology. Data acquisition is super fast because it’s solid state. There are no moving parts, which in turn means there’s no chance of mechanical failure. This looks like “the next Big Thing” in computers.

7. The Micro Stainless Steel Digital Camcorder: Small, compact and shiny, this gadget gift is packed with awesome features. How about DVD quality video and 5.4 megapixel photos? It has a built in flash as well as a slick interface on a 2.5 inch LCD screen and a rechargeable battery.

8. The Ion USB Turntable: The perfect gadget gift for every audiophile on your list who still has lots of LPs, especially if they were never released on CD. Now they can rip their rare LPs directly to MP3 or WAV format and enjoy them any time they want. The turntable is professional quality, and it comes complete with the necessary software.

9. Sun and Moon Jar Lamps: Take a frosted glass jar, low energy LEDs, a high efficiency solar cell and a rechargeable battery, and what do you get? You get the beautiful sun and moon jar lamps! Completely portable and waterproof, they can be used to decorate anywhere inside or outside the home. All they need is direct sunlight to charge.

10. USB Rechargeable AA Batteries: A gadget gift to help you enjoy other gadget gifts you already have! Everything seems to run on AA batteries so this will help you save the environment as well, because you’re not throwing away batteries all the time. Simply flip the top and plug right into your USB to charge them up.

Here’s our list of our favorite things for the Holiday season this year. We hope it helps, because if we can save just one shopper from holiday overload, then it will have been worth it. And who among us doesn’t have someone who would appreciate a gadget gift?

Catching Up

Hello, everyone, how are you today? I hope you are having a great day, wherever you are. I myself have been amazingly busy, with no time to blog and share interesting eclectica with you. Don't worry, I will eventually catch up and get back to sharing some good stuff. I'm in the middle of creating a nice top 10 list to help you with holiday shopping. Hopefully that will be up later today. In fact, I should get on with it! :P

Amazing Next Gen Paint Brush

I just found this cool paint brush while stumbling. I'm trying to find out more about it. If you know of anything, please comment and let me know.

It looks goofy until you watch the video:


"Magic" Digital Video Brush - video powered by Metacafe

Found Here

10 Things You Must Refuse As A Freelancer

1. Can you show me a mock-up to help me decide on a designer/artist? NO.

I've fallen for this one and had a lot of original designs basically stolen from me. Working into the night, countless hours doing something for a potential client and then never getting anything out of it. Best case scenario, you'll get the client, who now knows you'll work for free. Worst case, you don't get paid and you've used up your time and resources at your own expense, and they could end up using your stuff without your permission, because they know you won't have the legal means to fight it.

2. Can you give us a discount rate? NO.

If a company wants a discount they don't value your work. You don't want them as clients. I used to value getting work over getting paid decently, so I'd undercut myself. All it did was lower the perception of my value. And I had to work 5 times as hard to make any kind of money. If you do great work, then get paid for it. Give your rate up front. It will weed out the people that want a lot for basically nothing.

3. Will you register and host my site/can you do this other thing for me/etc? NO.

Ok, this is geared towards web designers. You might think you can make a bit of residual income, but getting that money out of the client consistently, dealing with endless phone calls with every little problem, all makes it totally not worth it.

Let's say you fix computers as a different example. If the client believes you are responsible for their email and computer functionality exclusively, you've created a monster.

So for this one, give them a referral to a hosting company and registrar and let them do it themselves. You do not want to be seen as their sole solution to all their problems. You will regret it. I've gotten calls to my home at midnight from clients thinking I could fix something that had nothing to do with our business relationship.

Make your boundaries clear and don't offer to do more than your agreed-upon job.

4. Can you copy this site/work/art/etc? Can you do this job that goes against your ethics? NO.

If a company asks you to do something shady, say no, because chances are pretty high that they will not pay you fully and on time. If you think it's okay to do the work because it will pay the bills, that's about the only thing you'll get out of it (assuming you actually get paid, of course). You can't use the work in a portfolio or show it as an example to other clients.

In this regard, I've learned to refuse work that goes against my ethics in any way. Getting paid to do something that goes against your beliefs and values will lead to regret. And you probably won't ever use it to show other clients in a portfolio either. So it's not worth it.

5. Can I pay you from my e-commerce site/website sales? NO.

Never do speculative work. You might as well just do it for free if that's the case, because you'll never get paid. Most people don't think through their ideas into real business and marketing plans. They get a novel idea and decide they want you to do something to make their idea blossom into a huge business success. It's just not going to happen.

6. I have this great idea! Do you want to...? NO.

This is similar to #5. If all the potential client has is an idea, then you really need to say no. You'll end up doing a lot of work for nothing. If the idea really is all that brilliant, the person can make you a partner AND pay you for doing all the work.

7. Do you have an IM account? NO.

Under most circumstances this is a definite no. Let them know it's your policy to not give it out, because otherwise they will IM you incessantly, about every little detail of the project. You have a life outside of this project and other clients as well. Clients have a tendency of seeing you as an on-call employee. You need to avoid this at all costs. Isn't this one of the reasons why you quit your day job in the first place?

8. Can I just pay everything when it's done? NO.

For photographers, it's best to require 33% in three installments for weddings and the like. Otherwise require 50% up front. This shows a certain commitment to the project, and gives you money to do the work, pay bills, and eat, etc. People who want to pay after completion are more likely to back out after you've done all the work and pay nothing.

9. Can you get this to me today/tonight/this weekend? NO.

Do this once, and it gets taken for granted that you will drop everything and be on-call for a client. It becomes expected. If you really want to do the rush job, then charge night/weekend/rush hours. Your time is valuable, and you deserve to have a life too.

10. Can you guarantee you won't use this work in anything else? NO.

Most clients to do not understand intellectual property. Make your clients sign a Terms and Conditions form that tells them if you will use what you do in future projects, etc. For web designers, you'll reuse code over and over to be fast and productive. So the client will own the website but not your code. For photographers, you want the client to sign a waiver so that you can use your work for promotion/advertising/ stock etc. For everyone else, I'm sure you have things you want to recycle in a similar manner, and you need to make sure that the client understands that.

Basically it comes down to this: create boundaries and be up front about how your business relationship will go with a client. It will benefit both of you.

Found and adapted from Here.