Here are a few phrases from the commercial, which I am sure will cause something in you to rise up.

“After trials we rallied around what was right and acted as one”

“We find a way through tough times, and if we can’t find one, then we’ll make one”

“Whats ahead? How do we come from behind? How do we come together? How do we win?

“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch. We get right back up again and when we do, the world’s gonna hear the roar of our engines”

“Yea, its halftime America and our second half is about to begin”

See what I mean? Click here to watch it now!

After I saw this I was speechless. All I could say was, “WOW.” I was so impressed, amazed and shocked that such an inspiring, make-you-think commercial would be aired during this annual televised event. I hope it causes something in you to stir, as it did me.

My name is Austin Parham. I am not an employee of PECULIAR but a student of Hillcrest High School. I job shadowed PECULIAR yesterday and today I write about my experience. My original reason for wanting to job shadow was to spend time in Tim’s beautiful recording studio and maybe learn a thing or two about recording music. I attend church with Tim and Amy and asked her what exactly PECULIAR does. She told me that they handle everything from marketing to website design. I had no experience in anything she was talking about other than a very small amount of video editing, but I was still curious enough to want to shadow Tim and see what this company was all about.

When I asked Tim if I could possibly shadow him for a school sponsored program he told me that most of his time was spent answering phone calls and talking to clients, so not the ideal place for someone wanting to learn about the company. He directed me to Susanne and told me she would show me around and let me sit with each member of the team to see what their work day is like.

A few weeks later, on February 2, I got up at 6 AM and drove to PECULIAR, very excited not just to get the day off of school, but to see what this company was all about. When I first came in everyone was extremely nice and inviting, they gave me a summary of their jobs and a tour of what they were working on. I later looked at some of the past projects from PECULIAR and was very impressed with what they had created. Throughout the day I watched everyone work and talked to them about how they got started in their field and when they started working at PECULIAR.

From my experience, I found that everyone has a real passion for what they do and you could see it in their work. Tim has put together a really great team of people and I respect him for what he’s made out of this company. All and all it was a wonderful experience. I had a lot of fun with with the staff and learned what PECULIAR is all about. I am very thankful for Susanne, Amy, Tim, and the Staff (Who asked me not to call them by name), for allowing me the experience of watching them work.

Thanks for reading,

Austin

Everyone needs access to resources and if you have a computer (I assume you do since you’re reading this) and the internet (see previous parenthesis) you have a wealth of information at your fingertips, i.e. The Internet.

Now if you’re a video person (like me) there is a website that I visit frequently for any questions I have and that site is CreativeCOW.net. CreativeCow is a massive site with reviews, product info, forums, etc. They also have information on software such as FCP, AfterEffects, and more. Check them out.

A great place for software tutorials is Lynda.com. I spend a lot of free time here. They have tutorials that range from how to use Windows Vista to Photoshop Mastery classes. It’s an amazing resource.

The bottom line is that you can find the answers you need on the internet. Don’t waste time languishing in agony because your video render stops at 99% and won’t finish. Get online and see who else has had the problem and take care of it. You’ll thank me for it.

One of my favorite quotes is by Zig Zigler, a pretty amazing leader & sales guru. He says, “The big shot is just the little shot who kept on shooting.” It isn’t easy to keep on shooting sometimes. We can doubt ourselves, come up with a bajillion excuses on why we can’t do what we have to do, life gets hectic and becomes its own excuse. In fact, we probably spend more time thinking of ways to get out of the difficult thing we have to do, than actually doing what that difficult thing would take.

So today, keep on shooting! Design that collateral piece with passion, write the RFP with a new fervor for what you believe your company can do for the potential client, make that video using some new tools, develop the website and try adding a new code you’ve been toying with. The point…keep shooting cause one day, you’ll be the “big shot!”

We all blame TJ. He came down with something nasty last week, and our shared space doesn’t help matters.

TJ has some weird cross-pollination of sinus infection, flu, and yucky. Matt and Matthew are both acting as if there’s cotton wrapped around their brains, and I’ve got something between a sore throat, sinus infection, and headache. All of us are mouth-breathing right now.

We’re pretty out of it.

As a solace, I’m going to offer a few ideas about what to do to feel a bit better and save the world while you’re sick.

At work?

1. Go home. Nobody wants that.
2. If you can’t go home, make sure to wash your hands often, sanitize your work area, and cover your mouth when you sneeze. Nobody wants that.
3. Hydrate. I know you can’t taste anything right now, so just get a giant bottle of water, chug it, refill it, and chug some more. Being sick sucks; being sick and dehydrated sucks much much worse.
4. Your brain isn’t going to work very well while you’re sick. It’ll be much better if you accept that fact; pick easy, brainless activities that have to get done eventually but won’t take much thought. Giant email inbox? Now’s a good time to start sorting & deleting. Messy computer desktop (or real life desk)? Time to clean up. Get out your headphones, find something nice to listen to, and zone out for a bit while you get stuff done.
5. Spring for the lotion-soaked tissues. Your nose will thank you.

At home?

1. Give yourself permission to relax & let go of the non-essentials. You can let the dishes pile up a bit. Wrangle a housemate or significant other into being in charge of bills for a bit.
2. Take a hot shower or bath, with the hot water turned up as far as you can stand it and the bathroom fan off. The steam will relieve some of the sinus pressure, help you to breathe easier, and generally just feel good.
3. Go to bed early, and I don’t just mean 20 minutes earlier than usual. Get your ___ in the sack ASAP. Rest and good nutrition are the best ways to help your body fight infection.
4. Which brings us to: Chicken Noodle Soup. ‘Nuff said.
5. Get some vitamin supplements to boost your immune system, like Emergen-C  or Airborne ($3 and $6 at my grocery store). Even if their outrageous claims aren’t true, they taste pretty good (helping with the dehydration!), temporarily soothe your throat, and probably have a bit of a placebo effect.
6. While you’re in bed, if you’re not sleeping, spend the time playing a few brainless games on Kongregate. You can save the world a few times, unless you’re destroying it by spreading infection.

We all have to start somewhere. Take that step. It’s not going to be perfect in the beginning. And if starting a business is your “thing,” you’re not going to open a new business and make millions right off the bat. IT WILL TAKE TIME. Too many people go into something and think they will experience profit the first week. Mistake. But knowing in the beginning that you need a plan is wisdom.

Don’t let a silly little thing keep you from going after your goal. JUST FREAKING DO IT ALREADY. Make a plan, think things through and map out your successes and what would happen if it failed. Be prepared.

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Why would I use a font for icons?

The question is, why wouldn’t you? As a simple example, we here at PECULIAR developed a site that used quite a bit of icons for navigation, reviews, maps, etc.. We had to think creatively about how to manage all the icons, some were the same icons in different colors, sizes, and shapes. When completed, the sprite image used ended up being quite large.

If the opportunity to create a font icon set were available at the time, we could have done all of this much easier, quicker, and kept the file size to a minimum.

With simple css, the icons could change color, size, and other styles without any degradation of quality. We would have only needed to create one icon instead of 5. Also, any edits and updates wouldn’t require opening up photoshop and making edits, uploading the file back to the server and making any css style changes if necessary. It would have just been a quick tweak to the css and done!

Make your own Icon Font

What’s great is that the opportunity to create a custom icon font set is not only possible, it’s completely free.

Check out this post at Webdesigner Depot to get started creating your own custom icon set.

Using icon fonts on your site

The best way right now to use the icons you created from the step above is with the css pseudo elements :before and :after. The only catch is that IE6 & IE7 doesn’t support :before and :after very well. To add support for IE6 & IE7 you will need to add some javascript to the page in a conditional comment.

If your not using jQuery use this: http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/
If you are using jQuery: http://jquery.lukelutman.com/plugins/pseudo/

- Me

When you are driving you have several tools at your disposal. You have a steering wheel which can change your direction. There is the gas pedal and the brake pedal which control how fast you are moving. And of course, there is the air conditioner which controls the environment of the interior.

There is another tool in your vehicle which is very important: the rearview mirror. The review mirror allows you to see behind; it allows you to see where you have been and what or who else may be approaching. However, you cannot drive your car if all you do is stare into the rearview mirror.

The same is true in life. You will not be effective if you dwell on the past. It is important to use the tools at your disposal, but you need to use all of them to full effect. Steer yourself toward success. Gauge how slowly or quickly you should be moving toward your goals. Control your internal environment as best as you can because you can’t control your external environment. Lastly, be sure that you know where you’ve come from, but don’t stay there and don’t stare at it.

Why is that? What is the root problem as to why we do not want to know what’s going on around us? Unconcerned? Better things to do? Lethargy? Yes, I think we are lethargic! That’s the biggest reason, because we all make time for the things we like and want to do.

Start making time to read a little more everyday, this will increase your intelligence also And there is this awesome thing called the internet that contains everything you could possibly need at the touch of your fingertips! YAHOO! is a great site to gain information on news, sports, even weather. And for all you business men and women out there, Linkedin provides top headlines of current events. Example, did you know online ad spending will surpass print for first time in 2012?

Keep yourself informed so you can make wise decisions on your own. Be aware of what will affect you and remember, knowledge is power.

They’ve done it! Nike released the shoe that everyone has been wanting since Back to the Future II came out in 1989. That’s right kids! Nike released the Air Mag, aka the awe-inspiring shoes Marty McFly kicks on upon his arrival to the future. The future is here and these shoes can be yours, if you can find them of course and if you got the cash! As of now, only 1500 have been sold via an Ebay auction to help benefit The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. So the rest of us will have to wait until an official release sometime in the near future, unless you got a Delorean that can hit up to 1.21 gigawatts.

If you’re asking yourself… “What does this have to with design?”, well then shame on you! If you don’t remember how cool the Air Mags were in the movie then you need a little reminder. These shoes are beautiful crafted and  mind blowingly innovative in style and design. Don’t take my word for it though, check them out at http://www.back4thefuture.com/