Adding an Opt-in Email Sign Up Form to Facebook Page
Hello everyone – happy new week (sort of since it’s already Tuesday)! Between being a mom, going back to school and moving, I don’t seem to have enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do. Oh why, oh why do we need to sleep at all? It seems so frivolous to lay unconscious & prone for a good 5-8 hours a day (more if you’re one of the lucky ones). With that said, and realizing my limitations, I resigned as fall show marketing chair for the Colorado Potters Guild a few weeks ago. I just can’t manage to find the time to squeeze in one more obligation – though I haven’t gone cold turkey. As web-mistress for the guild, I agreed to continue in said position and am also doing the online marketing component by delivering event notifications to local online calendars, magazines, newspapers and am establishing a social networking presence. I just don’t have time to cold call and do all the press releases etc.
The Colorado Potters Guild Facebook fan page
As a marketing tool, Facebook just can’t be ignored by businesses, individuals and non-profits. It represents viral marketing at its best like the old Breck shampoo commercial – “I told two friends and they told two friends, and so on…”. While the Colorado Potters Guild’s Facebook page is in its infancy, I think the venue has potential. Today, I am super excited today to learn that I could add our Vertical Response Email Invitation sign up form directly on our Facebook page. I have the sign up form installed on our website – but being able to add it to Facebook should help us attract new invitees who are interested in handmade pottery.
Do you have a Facebook page set up for your business? Do you want to know how to add an opt-in email form to your site? In the search pane, type in “Static FBML” and then click on the application. Once you are on the application’s page, click on the link in the upper left that reads “Add to my page” → then a pop up menu will appear prompting you to select your page → after selecting your page, go to your business page and click on the link under your profile photo that reads “edit” → from here you click on the “static fbml” application and click edit → copy and paste the code given to you from your email marketing company → save your settings. Once you have saved the code, go back to the main page and click on the + sign at the top of your page and from here you can add the tab for your form. Voilà – I’ve tested my form and it’s live. If you use Vertical Response, they have a video tutorial highlighting the process – not hard to do and it took less than 15 minutes to set up.
Meanwhile I have a quiz for which I need to study, a paper to write (luckily I like writing) and am past due for my morning run which means I have to sign off.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Clay Kimonos & Ubuntu
Clay Kimono, low fire earthenware
Last Tuesday, I began teaching my very last after school clay class of the school year and perhaps forever though I’m wise enough to know not to say never – who knows what my future holds? The kids are in grades 2-5 and I’m afraid I have made some clay addicts! 
I think they’ve known something was up with me that might endanger their after school clay club and I finally came clean a few weeks ago explaining that my daughter was moving on to middle school next year and that I was also returning to school (a concept they can’t seem to understand – why would someone as old as me need to go to school, lol?) And, besides they explained, “Aren’t you making enough money teaching us?” They started doing the math – $100.00 per student for 8 weeks seems like a lot of money to a kid. Little do they know how much a monthly mortgage costs now-a-days and besides, it’s not all about money…. I tried explaining that this class was truly a labor of love and that I wasn’t making much money, but yes I was paying myself a small hourly wage.
It’s pretty cute – they think I’m getting rich! I tried explaining that it takes money to pay for supplies and then the electricity to fire the kilns – not to mention the extra hours I put in a week to make sure they have a project and get their work fired – all activities that are invisible to them. I’ve never actually broken the costs down, but I’m pretty sure I’m not making much than minimum wage. Now, before you start berating or crying for me, I do this willingly because I’ve consciously made the choice to be a semi-stay at home mom the past few years. I substitute teach in Denver Public Schools (perfect hours for a Mom with a kid in school) and teach after school clay classses to contribute a little extra to the family’s coffer’s and to stay active. I don’t regret dropping out of the work force for a little while – it felt like the right decision for me then and now. As a Mom with an almost 11 1/2 year old, the time is right for me to do something else which is why I decided to finish my graduate degree in landscape architecture. Trying to explain that to young clay addicts is tricky. They can’t imagine wanting to do anything besides clay for the rest of their lives!
Side view kimono
In honor of my daughter attending Denver Center for International Studies next fall to study Japanese as her foreign language course in addition to regular academic classes, I decided to turn to Japan for inspiration for our first project. A quick search for kimono projects turned up this website which looks pretty good for anyone wanting a lit bit of design inspiration or who teaches art to kids of all ages. I didn’t exactly copy the projects but used the projects highlighted on the site as a jumping off point, knowing the skill level and attention span of my students. I designed the clay kimono to hang on a wall by leaving a loop to insert a dowel through the sleeves.
Clay snowmen by k-2nd graders
In other news, my daughter’s school has a very active parent PTA program and I volunteered to teach a clay class to K-2nd graders on Friday afternoons for a program called “Out of the Box”. Basically, the last hour of the school day on Friday is filled with classes taught by parent/community volunteers and the kids get to choose which class they want to take. It’s a chance for elementary school kids to experience an elective that’s not offered in school such as clay and other art mediums, science, robotics, book clubs, cooking, dance, martial arts etc. It’s fun for the kids and it’s not a huge time commitment on my part – an hour a week + prep time. Last Friday, I had the kids make sculptures – anything they wanted. I forget that younger kids don’t have the manual dexterity to make more complicated clay projects – but also know that there is a huge developmental difference between a kid in kindergarten and a 2nd grader.
As you can see from the photo above, good ideas spread like wild fire 
Meanwhile, in a fit of frustration yesterday, I dumped Windows all together and installed a stand alone Linux OS – Ubuntu (if anyone happens upon my site who is interested, I have a Dell Latitude D810 with 256 mb ram and 50 gb hard drive and installed Intrepid Ibix 8.10 successfully). Before installing, I backed up all my files and defragged, but have spent the last few hours trying to get my programs and hardware back in working condition. So far so good – wireless √, printer √, Wacom Tablet √, camera √, iPod √ (sort of), scanner √, thumb drives/external hard drive √. I’m trying to use all the free open source software available such as Gimp instead of Photoshop, Rythm Box instead of iTunes (this one is trickier – I can play my iPod on Rythm Box, but I can’t transfer files to my iPod from my library yet), Open Office instead of Microsoft Office, Inkscape instead of Illustrator, and a host of other FREE programs. I guess there’s no better way to to learn new software when there is no other option than just jumping right in.
I was a little hesitant to dump Windows all together knowing that I will need to use proprietary software such as AutoCad in landscape arch school – but there are a ton of alternatives out there and many people who’ve already made the switch successfully. Good thing I have time to play around this summer. Many of the programs operate similarly as their proprietary counterparts too, so I know what to look for.
On Friday afternoon, I ventured into the Apple store and longingly caressed the MacBook Pros, but walked out more determined than ever to make my 4 year old lap top last a little longer after seeing the prices – $2000-2700 for machine I want, not counting software. I did a disk check after installing Ubuntu – and was pleasantly surprised to see that I have 47 gb left on my hard drive after installation – WOW! I also decided to go ahead and purchase another 256 mb of memory to speed up my computer a bit more – and for only $9.09 – what a bargain.
So, now my daughter’s computer and mine are totally 100% Linux powered OSs – my husband is holding out until I can figure out how to add music to iPod. He’s a little perturbed by the prospect of losing that capability. Like it or not, we have 3 iPods in the house and are going to figure out how to get them working with Ubuntu, despite the difficulty with Apple’s formatting.
Gotta get to the studio,
~Cynthia
Post #500
There is a part of me that thinks that a post as auspicious and milestone marking as #500 deserves to be a little more interesting than what you are about to read – but, I feel happy just to be posting anything at all. It has been one crazy week. I substitute taught the past 3 days in a row, and yesterday about did me in. If there ever was a time where I thought I wanted to be a full time teacher, I am now fully convinced that I am not up to the task. Kudos to teachers who are still smiling at the end of each and every day and who are willing to get up and do it again and again!
I subbed for the art teacher and while I had some really great classes, I also had some nerve wracking – drive me to drink ones too that are forever etched in my mind. 2nd grade girl yelling and dishing huge attitude at me (and I’m considered to be a “fun” sub) – group of girls painting on the bathroom walls, instead of washing their hands. Their homeroom teacher and the principal were not happy! But, I think the worst thing is that the poor art teacher only has 45 minutes to spend with each class once a week – so it’s a whirlwind of setting up/making/cleaning and I had a hard time catching my breath. There were other minor incidents – mostly ones involved trying to motivate kids to make the projects, follow directions etc. Maybe I’ll post some of their apology letters that their teachers had them write to me – they’re pretty funny.
Porcelain cups for my students
Despite wanting to envelope myself in a cocoon every night, I forced myself into the studio to finish making cups for the students enrolled in my after school clay class. You might remember that these are my little apologies for over-firing their work a couple of weeks ago. I procrastinated, so now I’m under pressure to finish them by Tuesday afternoon – our last class of the session. I decided to forgo trimming a foot in favor of using a “wiggle” wire in the interest of my time constraint sort of like the Lapella’s post describes here.
The cool thing about throwing this past week is that even though I had to force myself into the studio after work, just having my hands in clay and watching the wheel spin around in circles had a meditative effect and wiped the stress of the day away.
Ubuntu successfully installed on my daughter's laptop
Meanwhile, my daughter’s old Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop has Ubuntu running and I also have wireless internet access working on it too. I had to buy a new wireless adapter card (a D-Link WNA-2330 RangeBooster) that was more compatible with Linux based operating systems to make it work, but for $29.99 + tax, she now has a really fast computer. Considering we were thinking about buying a new one for her for middle school, I think my time, effort & $29.99 investment will be worth it in the long run. Instead of seeing the usual Windows logo at boot up, the photo above is what pops up first thing after turning on the computer.
And, being a kid who has literally grown up with a computer, she has already figured out how to customize her space, install programs etc. – she’s off and running – unlike myself. I have a stack of books on my coffee table for reference as I use the system. Kids seem to be able to use computers intuitively – not sure why I’m a little slower.
So, there you have it, post #500. More next week – no subbing in the near future and I’ve decided to take myself off of the availablitity list for my own sanity.
Have a great weekend,
Cynthia
I have the hiccups
As with so many things in my life, when I find a new interest (obsession), many other things fall by the way side until I get a grip on whatever it is I’m into. In this case, I havent’ posted in my blog for 5 days because I’ve been wrestling with ubuntu – a linux based OS. I have an earlier release fully installed on my daughter’s old Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop – but don’t have working wireless (a common challenge I’ve learned – there’s a whole thread dedicated to wireless networking on the ubuntu forums). She does have an internet connection via an ethernet cable though, and truth is I don’t think she’ll be taking her laptop to Starbucks looking for wifi anytime soon. I have a few years before that happens, don’t I? Compared to Windows XP – her computer is really fast now after completely erasing the system from her computer. Boots up in less than a minute.
I’ve also installed a dual boot system on my laptop (a 2005 Dell Latitude D810 running Window XP Pro) while I figure out the ins and outs of ubuntu and linux. My goal is to avoid buying a new computer when I return to school this fall. Originally, I thought I’d treat myself to a Mac Book, but after learning about linux, I’m wondering if it’s really necessary. I will be using a lot of software like Auto Cad, Photoshop and other memory sucking applications in school – I’m curious about the crossover or readability of various free open source programs and proprietary ones like the ones I just mentioned.
Speaking of school, it’s now official – I’ve received letters from CU that I have been re-admitted to the graduate in landscape architecture program at CU Denver. Now I’d better do all my recreational reading through summer ’cause there won’t be a whole lot of time for that sort of thing come fall.
I’m not sure where pottery fits in at the moment, but I’m pretty sure that my production levels (if you can call it that) will decrease even more. The Colorado Potters Guild Spring show is just around the corner – opening night is April 30th – eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkk! That’s less than 2 months from now – I had better start cranking some work out.
My daughter also received some school news this weekend – she has been accepted into Denver Center for International Studies for middle school for Japanese - Woohoo! It’s a Denver Public School magnet program and my first choice for her (her second choice). We’re still waiting to hear back from Denver School of the Arts and whether she’s tested “highly gifted” vs. just “gifted” which would guarantee her a spot at a different school. Decisions, decisions…. I did promise to learn whatever language she is going to be learning – Japanese will be challenging.
I hope to catch up with everyone now that I have ubuntu and running,
~Cynthia
