It’s already March first and that means that most of us made some resolutions two months ago. I know that I did my best to create some fresh ones and this year I wanted to truly follow them, whether it meant only some or all. In the past I’ve been guilty of creating these high expectations for myself before falling flat. This time though, I’ve already made moves to ensure my success. Let’s start with the list I originally had made:

1. Learn More Jquery: It’s honestly an amazing language and although I know some, I don’t know enough at all. This year I will become a professional at it.
2. Learn CodeIgniter: I started looking into the PHP framework CodeIgniter a little while back after my friend Jordan suggested I try it. I want to learn more to help simplify my development online.
3. Advertise Sackett Solutions: I do this some but not enough at all. This year I hope to spread the word about who I am and what I do here.
4. Blog More Frequently: I have been getting better but I plan on doing even more soon. I’m aiming at anywhere between two and three posts a week on technology and coding. Mostly these will have to do with my learning of the above languages.
5. Eat Healthier: I have a tendency to eat a lot of things I know I don’t need, especially when I’m at school. This year I plan on getting on a healthy diet to help my next resolution.
6. Get in Shape for Ultimate Frisbee: I want to make the Main Campus Ultimate Frisbee team and to do so I will need to be in the best shape I’ve been in for some time. This means running and lifting which are two things I’ve wanted to do for some time. I’ll surely keep this up.
7. Read More Books: I want to really pick up my reading this year and get through some more authors that I’ve been recommended but never read.

The first one on the list unfortunately hasn’t been accomplished. I love jQuery and all it is capable of but I still haven’t had the time to truly sit down and dig into the source code. I have my basics down but this one will come later in the year, most likely over summer, when I’m done classes and able to breathe some. As well, Codeigniter sits in the same boat as jQuery. I love the idea of it and want to really start using it to streamline projects but my time is so limited that learning a new way of coding is out of the question. This summer will be a great time to polish my design skills so I can improve how I work on my projects.

Thankfully, I have followed through on the promotion of Sackett Solutions. The first thing that I’ve done is resubmitted the website to the major search engines so it can recognize it once again. It’s working out well considering the spike in traffic I’ve had. Another huge step I made was linking my Twitter to this page and Last.fm. I’ve had a lot of new followers and they’ve noticed what I do and where I’m located through those two websites. The last thing I’ve done, the most prosperous solution, has been creating a Facebook fan page. They’re getting big with all the celebrities using them and now I have one of my own. You can view it here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sackett-Solutions/463353830646?ref=ts The one thing that it’s done best is alert my friends and family that I’m available on their website of choice. Almost everyone I know uses a Facebook and creating this outlet gives me that much more accessibility. As a side note, I have found three new projects from simply creating the page itself. Great investment of time. For the rest of this year I plan on expanding on the above methods. I want to advertise on Facebook and use this blog as a real platform for new clients.

Blogging more frequently has somewhat come true. When I originally made this plan I wanted to write at least two posts a week and get things rolling. I’m not quite there yet however. I’m not happy with what I’ve done in terms of quantity, but I am happy that I’m still going. Although it is slow, it’s more than I have in the past and I’m truly keeping up with myself. Again, this may pick up with the summer as I find more time to write.

My next two both have to do with my health in general. It’s a typical vow to eat better and get fit but this year was a big one for me. I truly wanted to stick to this plan and get myself prepared for a summer of Ultimate Frisbee as well as the State College team next semester. So far, my eating hasn’t changed much. I do eat somewhat better than I did but living in this apartment hasn’t had the best impact on it. We rarely get food due to the cost. That said, I do try and keep my portions controlled rather than eating the amount I used to. Exercising is a different story. I’ve been running, even though I slowed due to the large mounds of snow, and I’ve been doing my crunches and lifting. Granted, I’m not a large dude or one who truly needs to lose weight, but I’ve wanted to bulk up for some time. Between running around campus, abdominal workouts, and lifting, I’ve been able to create a steady system of development that I’m happy with. I’m not ready for the Ultimate season just yet, but I’m getting there. I know that the real moment of glory will be when I finish a game feeling like I could play another one on top of it.

My final idea was to read more books. Yes, I did receive some good ones for Christmas, but I haven’t had a chance to read them yet. This goes back to the little time I actually have in my day. This summer I plan on finishing what’s on my shelf so I can be ready for a new shipment on the next holiday.

With all of that said, I’m quite happy with how I’ve done. Yes, a lot of a stuff seems to be pushed aside but I am doing my goals in short bursts. In the past, I’ve found that cramming all my resolutions into a small segment of time only makes things complicated. Breaking them into sections and focusing on the tougher ones to start has helped me realize that I can finish all of this before 2011 comes around. How are you doing with your resolutions? What were they and have you started them? What’s some good advice for those having trouble keeping up with them?

If there’s one thing that has helped me most it’s keeping it fun. A lot of people look at writing as such a chore and therefore can’t let their creativity do the work it’s meant to. In the end, your creative self stems from having the feeling of fun. Let’s say, for instance, that you’re writing a paper for your English class. Everyone knows what an awful experience this can be because, typically, the subject material is dry and overused. That said, why not try and make it more likable? Maybe the topic is a book report. Pretend like you’re writing a book. In fact, pretend like you’re writing this book as one of the characters in the story. It’s a fresh perspective and something that can get you honestly thinking. This may not be how the essay turns out in the end bu the idea is to make the writing easier and more fun. Another example: maybe the paper has to be on “Why Grammar is Important.” This is a terrible thing to think of but if you put it in the right mindset then you’re bound to produce something interesting. Think that you’re someone important, a leading professor maybe, and you’re teaching the world about why this is is pivotal to existence.

Yes, these examples may be terrible, but they express a point — writing doesn’t have to be such a chore.

There are millions of exercises on the internet about getting your creativity sparked but in the end, you won’t get started without trying to have some fun with it. How do you make writing fun? Do you find it horrible? Let me hear some stories!

In accordance with my last post I realized something mentioned by a friend of mine. Why is a new Facebook such a big deal? Of course it’s new and it can be exciting but why are we ready to reject it. Is it because it’s new? Do we reject new? I think it’s a lot like my Friend Kim said – “People will end up liking it within a month anyways”. This idea is a little perplexing if you ask me. If you’ll like it in a month then why not now? I’ve thought some and I think I have an idea.

People Like Comfortable

People tend to go to what they know. Think of a new haircut business that opens up across the street from an old one. If you’ve been a customer at the old shop then there is a very high possibility that you will not try out the new shop. You know the barbers, they know how to cut your hair, and you like the way they give you a lollipop after it’s all said and done. Is there anything wrong with the new place though? No, most likely not. People inherently trust what they know much like Facebook. We all know that it’s still young and still trying to find its face but as it does so we immediately reject the new idea. But wait a second, weren’t we doing the same thing a month or three ago when the other “new” style came out? Exactly. It may be new but that doesn’t mean that it won’t become the new comfortable. In terms of the barber shop, perhaps you choose to see how well they can cut your hair. You may have to explain to them how to do it and you may not go home with a lollipop but it could be just as good.

Things take time to get used to and Facebook is one of those things.

Although this new style may not be completely comfortable it’s something that I bet most people will begin to understand and like.

So What? I’ll Deal.

I believe most people will but for the few that still won’t like the idea of something new I offer some advice. Try it out and see if it begins to click for you. Chances are some of the new features may be nice while others are annoying to you. Forget those annoyances and wait for a new Facebook, you know they’ll be improving again. Also, think about why they changed the site. They have reasons for doing some of these things such as new year, accessibility, competition, and many others. All of these factors play into their decision to make the transition and they should be looked at.

Am I telling you to stomach it? No.

All I wanted to make note of is that change is a good thing. There may not be lollipops but now there could be jawbreakers or something else just as good.

I have been logging into my Facebook for the last two weeks and for some reason people severely dislike the idea of a new design. I understand complacency but I think all the users should understand why some of these changes have been made. First and foremost, the main page has changed yet again. In all new incarnations of Facebook, this main page has transformed into an entire new animal. This time, though, I feel like they finally got it right. For a diagram that Facebook created to help illustrate these new features, click here.

I’ll start with a direct quote from Facebook about the homepage:

A simplified home page to provide easier access to what you’re looking for on Facebook. You can now quickly navigate to commonly-used areas of the site from the top and left hand menus. From the Top Menu, you can now easily find new messages, requests, and notifications using the icons in the top, left hand corner. The left hand menu is now where you can find all of your applications, previously located in the bottom dock. The links on the left will take you to your application dashboards. You can also find your Messages and Facebook Chat from the left hand menu.

What Zuckerburg and his team have done is truly enhance the ease of use. Instead of sifting through lists and pages the team has given access to all the most used areas to make your time on Facebook, not only enjoyable, but also less painful. For instance, a  set of images now resemble your inbox, notifications, and requests all beside the homepage icon. Doing this places four of the most used pieces of Facebook together. I love the idea of icons as well, it focuses on the text in the new layout below.

As for the left sidebar, this is another gem. The news feed carries over with the messages as well. Having messages in two places allows you to have optionality and in turn gives you a personalization of how you’d like to keep up with your inbox. Events come together with this core pack and give you an easy way to view them all. Another good thing is the friends and photos tabs. For the friends you now have a fast link to find friends directly in the sidebar. It’s easy to access and easy to work with. As for the photos, this is much like the old photo news feed and you can see all the albums that any one of your friends have posted. All of these features are very easy to get to and therefore make them more reliable. Moving down the sidebar we find ourselves looking at the applications and games section.

This section groups together the similar ideas and puts them in a new easy to find area. Now you can view new applications, your applications, games available, your friends games, and anything mobile. This functionality adds to the users growing love for games and the application frenzy. In the last version, finding some of these features was a chore but now they’re all available to the public to use and abuse. Facebook issued this about the games and apps section:

The Applications Dashboard lets you view the latest applications you and your friends interacted with, as well as discover new applications based on what your friends are using. The Games Dashboard serves as a dedicated space for games on Facebook where you can interact with games you’ve recently played and discover new games based on what your friends are playing. On both the Applications and Games Dashboards, you can receive personalized updates to remind you of impending actions, sent directly from the applications.

Below that section is a new way to see who, of your friends, is online. I know many people enjoy chatting with others and being able to see some names without clicking anything is truly an amazing idea. They took away the chore of clicking and now chat becomes that much better as a whole. As for the chatbox itself, you can find that in the same place you’re accustomed to finding it.

Moving onto the center area, I have to start by praising this search bar. For a website that uses search to fulfill almost all of its needs, I have been disappointed about how terribly placed and small the search bar was. They always seemed to push it to the side making it almost worthless. In this new design though we see the search move into the top center of the page and it’s much longer. It’s what people see and that makes it so much more useful. Below that has the newsfeed and top news section that the team has been working on for some time (livefeed/newsfeed). This idea is one that I’m still not keen on considering that most users don’t care about what happened hours ago (the newsfeed). Still, it’s something people have gotten used to which makes me wonder if the team released that early on purpose. No one will know I guess. Nonetheless, the center is not cluttered and has a nice Zen feel to it.

Moving onto the right side of the screen it seems that the design carried over completely besides the top bar. Now, instead of viewing these links beside to home link, you have them in their own area (as they should be). The text home link gives you that optionality I spoke about and the profile button next to the account button makes perfect sense. In the account button itself I think that they’ve added some links that people always wanted before.

Below the top bar we are welcomed with the same layout as before. Requests are followed by suggestions and suggestions are followed by sponsors and sponsors are followed by events. Keeping this the same is key to not adding too many new features into the design.

In the end, I have to say that I love this new concept. They didn’t change everything and maybe some things still need to be worked out, but overall I feel like they’ve taken the user into mind and designed for us as a whole. The accessibility has increased tremendously and that makes the day to day look at our personal space that much nicer. What are your thoughts on the new back-end? Do you like it? Hate it? Do you have ideas of your own?

An onside kick to start it?! What courage is right. Payton’s a gutsy guy for sure and it paid off with that one. Brees to Thomas to open it up and right away, New Orleans makes their way back into the game up by three. The Colts can’t stay quiet long though and Manning gets his arm going while Addai gets his legs moving. Before long the Colts get back on top with a four point lead. One guy who’s really prepared well for this game is obviously Garret Hartley as he ends up hitting in a third field goal to bring the score that much closer.

Off track though, how was that Google commercial? I’ve been waiting for something Google for a while now and if that doesn’t prove that they’re superior to Bing then I don’t know what will. Brilliant commerical by a brilliant company.

Back to the action, The Saints have a beautiful drive and end up scoring. Payton continues to play his luck and nearly is able to get a two point conversion. Still, I love his style. The fact that he’s willing to go big or go home really defines New Orleans as a city. It also helps make the game that much more interesting. But wait a second, one challenge and his attempt isn’t for nothing at all! In fact, the review shows that The Saints did in fact get the two extra points. Talk about ball control.

As the game gets really interesting its The Saints, Tracy porter actually, who takes an interception from Manning to the endzone putting them up big with only three and a half left. Peyton Manning made a valient effort but in the end, Who Dat?! made it loud and clear. Big time congrats to New Orleans and a great effort by The Colts. In the end, I’m glad the game was close. I knew that the offenses would be going big but they kept neck and neck through the entire game.

Brees taking MVP was an obvious choice and a good one. He’s a stand-up guy from what I can tell and definitely deserved to win the big one.

Here’s to The Cowboys coming through next year!

Still, the play of the first half is easily fourth and two with the Saints going for it. It was a gutsy call by Sean Payton and although it didn’t pay off, it really set the tone for the Saints. They’re feirce and made a statement saying that they aren’t going to back down. And when you look at the field goal they grabbed, I think they did OK rounding out the half.

Going into the second half though I think the Saints will really need to get Brees throwing. He’s getting into a rhythem it looks like and he better keep it up. As for the Colts I think that Peyton will be ready to start slinging as well. They’ve been successful rushing but it’s Manning’s team and he’s going to take charge. I’m predicting this to end up with the Colts winning 35 to 33. Who knows though.

Go Saints!

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• http://www.altoonaultimate.com