Creative, but can’t draw?  Technology has certainly made those who have trouble replicating real life into an artform. 

www.moonjee.com is a fun website to visit.  If you have some photos of faces on your computer, you can upload them and dabble with all the tools to give the subject a new look. 

You can add features, change shape, coloring, age, or even blend two portraits.

Their is also a portrait analysis based on the points on your face.  If you are brave enough, you can subject yourself to the computer’s attractiveness scale to see if you are considered one of the beautiful people. (Don’t take too much stock in this.)  However, there is a commentary on the portrait’s personality that you might find interesting.  I found it to have strong threads of truth, but then there were threads that were a bit off.  You be the judge.

Anyway, have fun giving yourself a makeover…or venting the frustrations of work by giving your boss a new look (it is convenient that there are a selection of scars from which to choose.  Try not to be too cruel. LOL)

You get to email it to the person as well.  I just spent about an hour messing with the site, but it has definite creative outlet possibilities.

How does this link to writing?  Create the faces of the characters in your novel.  Really get to know them.

It isn’t enough that we are faced with the worst economic conditions since the Depression in 1929, but now we have to think about clickjacking.  Your probably haven’t a clue what clickjacking is, because I didn’t know either until a few hours ago.

Clickjacking is when someone uses a malicious webpage as an entrance into another’s computer to take control of the links that the victim has visited without his or her knowledge.  All desktop platforms seem to be vulnerable — internet explorer, firefox, Mozilla, Apple Safari, Opera and Adobe Flash.  I found this information on a ZDNET blog.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1972&tag=nl.e589

It’s scary that the brightest and best software engineers have been working on developing a patch and haven’t come up with anything yet.  But it is even scarier to think that anyone could come in your computer (your life in a box) and steal your identity, know your preferences, discover who you talk to.

How many of us use online banking?  Are secure pages going to stay secure if the clickjacker can access any link that is stored on my computer?  Are these clickjackers doing this for fun or are they serious thieves?  Government, hospital, and military records would be vulnerable to penetration.  This, coupled with our current economic conundrums, could really send the world in an economic tailspin.

On the bright side, I have confidence that the software engineers will find answers.  Somehow we always manage to pull it out.

About 20 years ago, I was searching for a writing group.  I attended one after another, endured endless hours of self aggrandizing, poorly conceived material, and sometimes even worse readings.  Then, for awhile I hooked up with wonderful person, who was travelling down the same path.  We met monthly for about two years.  During that time, we should have, could have produced at least one marketable piece.  Neither one of us met with success. 

I have been keeping a journal.  In my journal amongst all my wishes for my family, I also dreamed  about starting a writing center.  My writing center will have a large fireplace, large leather chairs, the smell of coffee.  In the foyer will be mail cubbies.  The dining room will have a large round table with comfortable high back chairs.  There will be plenty of natural light.  People talking in small clusters.  A workshop is being held in one room upstairs.  Another room has a poetry reading.  In another I hear a writer sharing her life story with others.  There is a small reading room.  And there is a computer room for writing, although the house has wifi. 

The furniture is solid and attractive.  They all have been donated.  The center is open 7 days a week.  A friend has helped me with the interior decoration, which reminds me of Bloomingdale eclectic. I don’t know how I would ever get enough money to start a project this large.

Then, last week I learn that the Frederick Community College will open a new writing center in Fall 2009.  The location is in an old Victorian house.  I’m sure it will not be quite what I envisioned, but I was excited to hear that my vision was materializing.  But wait.  Is that my vision?  How could it  be if it is managed by an institution?

Am I supposed to get involved in the new writing center so that I know what to do to create my own?  Or is this my dream being realized?   Is this synchronicity?

Have you been wanting to create a website that doesn’t look like an amateur put it together?  Are you hesitant about designing a website because you think that learning the software is a bit overwhelming?

Well, last week I stumbled onto one of the easiest and sharpest looking web design sites.  www.wix.com is  user friendly.  It has great illustrations, which by the way, you can use these illustrations  as a template and insert your own copy.  It offers the flexibility of flash and hosts it to its server.  You can embed it into your facebook or myspace page or any other vehicle for that matter…or you can create your own freestanding webpage.

I give this site a double thumbs up!!! Let me know what you think. Oh and I think you’ll like this.  The site is free.

When I first thought about writing a novel, I immediately thought not of character or plot, but how I was going to organize 300 or more pages and move through the scenes and chapters deftly.

My first thought is to use notecards.  This simple, old-fashioned way of tracking and moving scenes has been updated by computer notecards, but nevertheless, every bit as effective.  My next thought was using Adobe Pagemaker.  It is an excellent software package that enables the writer to see how the words will lay on the finished page.  It anchors images and can format the pages so the layout will stay consistent.  I had an old copy of Pagemaker and remembered that the extensions on the saved documents didn’t easily lend itself with sharing documents on other word processing software.  Realistically, buying the updated version was not cost effective.

So, I found the second best thing to notecards. Chapter-by-Chapter (CbC)is free.  Here’s the link: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/sebastien.berthet/cbc/

CbC mimics the outlining style of Pagemaker.  It isn’t as robust, but who really uses all those features?
This is a simple but powerful program whose goal is to make writing your novel easier to write. You write the pages in a Word document and then tie it to a outline format, so you can visibily see how your story line unfolds.  It allows you to move sections of text to other pages and reformats changes.

I just discovered this tool, so I haven’t had a chance to use it myself. Check it out and let me know how this works for you.

We have all cursed at our computers.  Crashes, printer disconnects, log on issues, and the list is endless.
If you have any tech knowledge at all (and how can you avoid absorbing some things when evidence of the digital age is everywhere), www.zdnet.com has good articles and reviews on everything computer. 

The other site which is informative is Kim Komando’s site.  www.kimkomando.com.  If you can ignore all the surrounding things for sale, her information is solid.  She recaps what is going on in the IT world and offers interesting free downloads.  You should certainly check it out.  This site is not as tech sophisticated as zdnet, but I’ve signed up for her e-newsletter (she has four. I had to cancel three of them.  Way too much time to read them all.). In each newsletter I’ve learned something new.

You might also catch the Digital Goddess, as Kim Komando likes to refer to herself, on her syndicated radio program that airs usually on the weekends in the afternoon.  It is a call in show and this is probably the best way to learn this tech stuff passively. 

TIP:  Hey, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t write this, but I know that most people do this, right?  As writers, we save our material every 15 minutes or so.  Instead of printing a hard copy at the end of each writing session, of course you make a back up on a flash drive.  Hard drives do crash!  And so will you, if you lost the only copy of your work.

Are you a writer that seeks the company of other writers?  Can’t find a group nearby?

I came across a great site for people who want to connect with others with similar interests.  Try www.meetup.com.  Although I have not joined it yet (my cup runneth over), I did surf through the site and read comments.  Since it is a self-directed site, you can be in control.  You either join an existing club or form your own.  You can search by topic or geography. 

Group members often leave their comments about the group.  It seems whether you are there to make new friends in the area or joined to talk about a specific topic, almost all the comments were a strong endorsement. 

Here’s a review from Bryan-Carey on http://www.viewpoints.com/Meetup-com-review-3b7f

So if you are interested in spreading your wings, try something different.  Wouldn’t this make a great venue for a mystery novel?

LinkedIn.com is a fast growing professional social networking site that allows members to create business contacts, search for jobs, and find potential clients.   Members can create a profile that can be viewed by others within their network.  LinkedIn is a free business social networking site that allows users who register to create a professional profile visible to others. 

With over 24 million linkedin users, it is an incredibly effective way to develop an extensive list of contacts rather quickly.  Your network consists of your own connections, your connections’ connections (2nd degree) and your 2nd degree connections’ connections (3rd degree).   From these contacts, you learn of job and business opportunities.  The LinkedIn Answers allows people to post business-related questions.  Responses come from LinkedIn members.

Like anything else, you will have to put some time into developing the information for your profile and inviting contacts to join your network.  I’m not sure how many people really work the network to its full potential, but it is always nice to know that in case your memory starts to slip (too many faces and names over time), you just have to browse your contacts to jog your memory.

LinkedIn also provides you with an instant way of connecting with everyone when you have an important announcement to make such as your fourth father-in-law’s brother is Lee Iacocca.

Be aware that competitors also view these profiles.  Headhunters can snatch up your best employees.  I have noticed that people feel obligated to respond to invitations and asking for recommendations might be akin to begging.  This can be a bit off putting to some.

For writers, start your network on www.linkedin.com and be in position to do viral marketing when your first book is published.