I hate list posts as well..but, I don’t do it often so deal with it. Here’s a few things I’ve picked up in my 26 years that makes life a little easier.
1) Keep a mini bottle of scope, a pack aspirin, and a granola bar in the car
Why these three things in particular? I’ll explain.
Scope: For a date or an interview. Your breath could always use a little freshening up. Doesn’t melt like toothpaste. And, actually does something for your breath unlike gum (do you really think that after eating tuna sandwich that a tiny piece of stride is going to mask that?)
Aspirin: I’m not sure about you but if the temperature outside climbs past 90 degrees I’m guaranteed to get a headache. Add traffic, an AC that’s on the fritz, and a blazing sun and you’re got yourself the perfect recipe for a headache and probably a bad day. I’m a fan of preventative aspirin, too.
Granola Bar: Not the most exciting snack but it keeps it’s form in all types of weather (extreme hot or cold). And, it’s filling, cheap, and gives you a quick burst of energy. Keeps you from driving through McDonald’s and picking up something fatty when all you want is for your stomach to stop growling.
2) Make mental note of the three grocery items you use the most and ALWAYS buy them when you’re at the store
Seems silly, right? If you’re like us you tend to cook similar things on a weekly basis (I’m talking Taco Night..ugh). Instead of fighting it make sure you always are regularly stocked on your often used items. For us it’s white onions, chicken broth, and hummus. For some reason we’re either using these things to cook every other day (onions, chicken broth) or I’m searching for a snack (hummus).
3) If it takes less than two minutes do it right away
This one I’m borrowing from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” book. It is such a simple but powerful statement. I apply this to just about everything- responding to an email, making that nagging dentist appointment, changing the AC filter, etc. Literally- if you can complete it in 2 minutes or less just DO IT. Anything over two minutes can either be delegated out to someone else or will require a different action to complete it. By applying this to my work habits I’ve reduced my stress level and have become more productive day to day.
4) Stop using your credit card in places where a debit card will do just fine
Unless you’re using your card to earn frequent flier miles or Disney points stop using your credit card for daily purchases- especially if you don’t have the money to cover an item in your account when you buy something. Keep this in mind- if you don’t have the money now what makes you think you’re going to have it next month when the bill is due? Sure, you’ll get paid- but you’ll also have rent, a car payment, bills, gas, groceries, unexpected expenses- see, the list goes on. So come for the bill your cash will probably already be spent on the aforementioned expenses. Try to get in the habit of only using your credit card in an emergency or for big ticket items. Otherwise you essentially have to run and manage two different budgets and you’ll end up coming up short.
5) Give yourself, or the people you live with, at least an hour of “down” time a day.
For my wife and I THE MOST volatile time of the day is the first hour after we get home. Between a stressful day at work and Atlanta traffic by the time we get home we’re usually a little punchy. I work from home half of my time and I usually get a little antsy for some company. However, when my wife comes home I greet her and then give her some time to decompress from the days stresses. Equally, when I feel like I’m in a bad mood I’ll go to the gym or go for a run. This hour I’m away lets me clear my mind and work through any stresses in a positive way instead of taking it out on a loved one. Also, people generally have expectations (or make assumptions) of each other and when those expectations are not met the result is tension (ie, I want my wife to be happy, bubbly, and ready to go out to dinner the second she gets home. She wants an hour to relax, watch Dr. Phil, and play in her garden). Realizing this has made a world of difference.
Ok, that’s it for now. Stay tuned for part 2 due later this week. If you’ve got any other suggestions leave them in the comments.
Although there are many ways to get a favicon (ie, upload an image and have it spit out an .ico file) I have not come across many articles on actually creating a SIMPLE (that being the keyword) favicon. To be honest, anything can be a favicon. If you had a picture of a horse you could use that. However, I’ll stick to something a little more universal as my site does not traditionally dabble in equestrian topics.
First, a little history.
“A favicon (short for “favorites icon”), also known as a page icon, is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage.”
~ Wikipedia
Favicon icons are used for bookmarks, appear in tabs making it easier to pick a site out in a sea of tabs, appear in the address bar, and are often snatched for use on other sites in blogrolls.
Using Pages
Let me start by saying that you can use just about any image editing software to do this- such as iWeb, Photoshop, or event MS Paint (shudder). But, you clicked the link that said “How To Create a Favicon Using Pages” so that is what you are about to witness :-). I like Pages because it’s simple to create and add objects, edit text, and it’s fairly easy for a beginner to just create something without having to think of layers, vectoring, etc.
Without further ado…
Launch a blank page in Pages
Start with a nice sheet of white paper (blank document). This is where you will create your image.
Select a shape
As I said earlier- anything can work for a favicon. I want something simple- a circle with my initials “cj” in the center to represent cjupin.com. I could have used a square, rectangle, arrow, or liger but I chose a circle. Get over it.
Size up the shape
You will need to make the shape (again, I’m using a circle. Following?) a little larger. Click the circle and drag one of the corners to scale it vertically and horizontally.
Change the color
Now, unless you want a pea green favicon you are going to need to change the color. Click the inspector icon and then the pea green color and pick out something more suitable to your taste. Since there’s a decent amount of black on my site I am going to use that as the color of the circle.
Type something
If it was not added automatically- click the circle and then select “Text Box.” You will probably want to align it to the center. I’ll type “CJ” as promised. I am original.
Also, using the inspector you will probably want to change the color of the icon (Inspector->text tab). I thought about typing “colour” to make you think I was European- or just eccentric. However, I did not want to fool you. So, I went with my native “color.” At any rate, select the inspector again and change the color to something pleasing. I am using white for the text since the background is black.
What the font
Yes, I am witty (not). Notice now that your text is too tiny to fill the circle. You will want to resize your text either using the inspector, the text size drop-down presets, or the font panel. 96 is a tad small so I went with 100. Also, I’m a fan of Helvetica so I went with that. To be honest, it’s going to be hard to discern the font when it’s that small in the browser but it’s more of an anal-retentive thing.
Moving on.
I also changed the inset margin to 85 to help bring the text down into the circle.
Grab Time
Now, using your favorite (or built-in) screen-capturing tool you will need to make a copy of the image. Now, if you were using photoshop you could export ONLY the image and would be super-perfect. However, you want simple, right? So just copy it! Yes, there will be a little white around the edges of your image. However, this will not really be a problem since your address bar is white- remember? Get over it, really.
Now, you can either use Leopard’s built-in “Grab” functionality (which works great) but I’ll use Skitch (my personal favorite) since that is what I am using to make this tutorial.
Select the image and try to eliminate the white space around it. When you’re done save it to the desktop as a .png, .bmp, or .jpg file. Personally, I have only used .png but I know the other two will work.
Convert image to favicon
Almost done! The hard work is over and now it’s time for some automagical processes to kick in. I use a site that can automatically convert the image into an .ico file. Using the site I have listed (or a personal favorite of your own) upload your image and select “generate favicon ico.”
File selected:
After generating- select download. Notice you can preview your favicon now. Also, you can download the animated one if you’re a tool and still using dial-up via AOL. Sorry, that was mean. Maybe you just like stuff that moves and grabs your attention. What, are you creating a community website for your great-aunt’s assisted living home? Think that would get everyone’s attention? Sad. Very sad.
The above site downloads your image as a zip file. Uncompress it (using either the built-in tool for Leopard/Windows) or some other application like “stuff it.”
Pull this icon onto your desktop for easy access. Make sure your icon is labled “favicon.ico”
FTP your icon
I really, really, hope you have heard of FTP. I mean, if you are creating a site you should know about FTP. Otherwise, how have you been maintaining it? Well, I guess you could be on a blogger account..oh well. At any rate, I won’t go into the specifics on how to use FTP but some good ones for OSX include Transmit, Fetch, or Cyberduck (the latter being free). As a side note- did you notice how all three of those sites have custom favicons? I bet you didn’t. Back to FTP…I use Transmit, personally.
All you need to do is drop the new icon into your root directory and upload. For me, since my site is cjupin.com- I need to upload to this folder (not any subfolders). Make sense? If you already have a favicon (which makes me wonder why you are reading this tutorial) then you’ll want to replace it with your new one.
The root directory:
Replace your favicon.ico file if one exists (don’t be afraid if you see this warning). Again, you will ONLY see this warning if you currently have a favicon set on your site. Otherwise, it should transfer without this.
Now, head over to your site (I think I’ll plug cjupin.com one more time here). Your browser may already have the favicon loaded. If not, hit reload a few times (for safari, it’s command + R, for IE it’s ctrl + R).
Voila! Your favicon will now be seen by anyone who visits your site, bookmarks it, or follows you via RSS. Just another way to stand out in the crowd.
Now, go forth and make way better favicons then I did. Leave a comment if you have another tip, have a question, or wish to berate me on my lack of technique and style.
Enjoy!
Update: Josh suggests The Unarchiver for your uncompressing needs over StuffIt. Vodka tonic. Do it. Do it.
