I’ve spent several months working with this agency, Family Resource Center of Zion, creating a new website for them, and it’s finally pretty much live!  They’re still working on getting a little bit of the content up, but for the most part, the important information, is there.

I’ve always had a huge place in my heart for the unborn, and this project has been a great opportunity for me to play a small role in their (hopeful) protection.  FRCZ’s work is truly “in the trenches”, as they’re reaching young girls (they’re located right next to a high school) who’ve found themselves pregnant, and not just sharing physical resources with them, but Christ.  I don’t think there’s much better of a calling to have!

The website is:

SO, I decided to switch, and so far, it's running great!  I need to deal with some search engine and spam plugins still, but within a day or two everything should be up and running normally.  I'm also working on a different design - since the old one was temporary anyway and needs something more permanent and professional.

That's all for now!

Here's the deal:  I was deleting and setting up a new MySQL database.  You do this through the host's admin page (in this case, 1and1.com), and the header looks like the following....

I had glanced at the header before I started working, but didn’t study the customer ID number — unfortunately, they don’t display the owner’s name or site domains in the header or I would have known I was working on the WRONG SITE!  Yes.  I ended up deleting and overwriting the existing database on a different project.

Thank God the other project had just started, and I can easily just reinstall a fresh DB and start over — but imagine if I’d made that mistake on a critical site?  I could have shut the entire site down for 12 hours without even realizing it (not to mention deleting all the data on the site in the process).  I’m VERY grateful the site I mistook for the right one wasn’t one that’s live!

I do wish that 1and1 displayed more information in the header though, because it would have saved me from this hassle.

Dropbox.  This is an awesome online service that sets up a shared “folder” on your computer that actually resides on their servers.  Therefore, when you save a document in the Dropbox folder on your computer, it’s instantly and automatically synced with the Dropbox server.  When you install Dropbox on your computers and mobile devices (I also have it running on the iPhone & Blackberry), you can have instant access to any files you’re working on.  The one downside to this, over a flash drive, is that it’s over the internet, so unless you want to sit and wait for the upload/download process, it’s really best suited for small files.  Word documents, a photo or two, and text documents (which I use for lists and emails I’m editing), are the majority of what I use it for, and for those things, it’s wonderful!

Filezilla.  This is an FTP program that I’ve been using for several years.  I used to use WS-FTP, and actually used to pay for the yearly updates.  At one point, I had some trouble with WS_FTP crashing and so I decided to try Filezilla.  Almost immediately I realized it was a much better program (and it was free)!  On every machine I work on, I install Filezilla and then import an XML file that contains the sites I’m currently working with.  Every so often I import a current XML file in all of the machines so that they’re all up-to-date with my project websites.  Filezilla does not take up many system resources and does everything I need it to do, very easily, so I’m happy with it.

LogMeIn.  This site is a real God-send.  It makes logging into remote computers so much EASIER than trying to use Remote Desktop or any other service.  I probably have over 10 computers that it’s installed on and any time I need a file, or make a change to the machine, or anything else, it takes literally <20 seconds to be on it.  This service is also great for working over public wi-fi or a possibly insecure network without having to worry about your sensitive data.  Let’s say you want to do some online banking from Starbucks.  Normally, I’d be really hesitant to do that because you don’t know how secure the connection is, but with LogMeIn, you can securely log into another computer and do your work on that machine (maybe it’s one at home or an office with a secure connection).  The data passed between your computer and LogMeIn is encrypted, so you don’t have to worry about credit card numbers, or any other potentially sensitive information being seen by anyone else.

Xmarks.  Firefox is the only browser I use for several reasons.  First of all, it’s fast and uncluttered, unlike IE.  Second, because of a plugin called Adblock that blocks hundreds of thousands of advertisements from downloading and displaying on websites.  Third, because of Xmarks.  Xmarks is a little synchronization program that syncs all your bookmarks across any computers it’s installed on.  I don’t have tons of bookmarks, but I have a set of ones I use a lot, and I’m really picky about organizing them.   With Xmarks I can do that, and have them organized on any computer I work on simply by installing the program and logging in to my Xmarks account.  I guarantee if you use more than one computer, you will love this program!

Evernote.  I just started using this a couple weeks ago, but so far it’s really nice to use.  I like the fact that instead of saving a document on the machine, your only option is to “sync” — so you never forget to sync later (which I might forget if I was typing in Word or Notepad).  It does act a little flaky sometimes – have had trouble with certain keystrokes pulling it up when I didn’t want it, but assuming that works out, I will probably use it for blog and email drafts.

GIMP.  I am a Photoshop user, but at something like $600 for a single copy of it, I only have one copy (and it’s ancient because I got it back in my second year of college).  Therefore, I only have PS running on my main computer at church – the powerhouse I do for any hardcore editing or projects.  On everything else, it’s challenging to edit images quickly, but of the available options, GIMP is my favorite.  It’s slow, and it’s weird (compared to PS), but it does do a reasonable job of image editing/cropping/saving/whatever and you can’t argue with the price!  A lot of people use and like Photoshop Elements, but personally, I find it to be too consumer-oriented, and it takes me longer to do things in it than in Photoshop.

Google Talk.  As a longtime Gmail fanboy, Google Talk is the best way to use Google Chat as well as getting new mail notifications.  When installed, Google Talk pops up a small (Outlook type) box in the corner of the screen whenever a new email comes in.  For chat duties, Google Talk (although it doesn’t handle video) is the nicest way to communicate with the service — I don’t like being stuck in the browser.

So, there’s my list!

I figure if .CO does get really popular, it's nice to have a really short name in it because it sounds like you're important or something (as if i were!).   I really like NathanGJ.com but it's also twice the number of characters to write out :)

But this year I finally started doing the Twitter thing, and there is now a huge temptation to tweet short thoughts and not take the time and effort to blog on topics. I'm not much of a natural writer - I mostly do it out of necessity and desire to communicate with others, but beyond that it takes a lot of discipline for me to stop and journal or write my thoughts down on paper. So while I often might think, "gee, that'd be a great thing to blog about!", unfortunately my inclination is to not take the time to do so. And with Twitter, now it's so easy to share those quick casual thoughts as opposed to going on ad infinitem about a topic.

Part of my problem is I tend to over-edit and go over and over something before I write it. For that matter, I've got a bad perfectionist streak and my tendency is to do that with lots of things -- if it's not going to be done "right", it's not worth the time. So I might get most of the way through a blog post and then decide to trash it because I'm not happy with how it sounds or what it's saying.

Regardless though, I'm going to try and stick with this blogging thing too! I know writing is good for me, and I'd probably have a lot more clarity of mind if I did take the time to journal and write my thoughts out more, so an attmept is going to be made here, so lookout!

Just my $0.01 cent for the morning!

Today, in addition to working on this website, I updated my Twitter profile.  The background is an image I’ve had as my desktop for a while — I love the motion effect of the taillights/headlights and the nighttime city look.  It’s a photo, taken in Chicago, that I found at sxc.hu I also modified the sides and colors to blend with the amber background colors.

I am almost never out around Chicago at night, but there’s certainly something really curious, romantic, and strangely beautiful about a big city at night!

This is a site that I find endless ideas and inspiration from, http://www.creativemyk.com/ CreativeMYK is a community of church graphics types who both post things to get feedback as well as post things for other churches to use, for free!  I’ve used quite a few of their free graphics (you have to look carefully, there are only certain sections of the site that you can legally use in your church), and many of them are fantastic!
Check them out!