Heather Foeh

I’ve been a member/supporter of ONE.ORG for about a year now and am always impressed with their amazing ability to mobilize their members when a need arises. When there is a vote in congress that’s hanging on the balance, we all get an email and it’s painlessly easy to reply and sign the petition. Then, after the vote, we all get an email telling us the outcome (almost always positive) — which makes me want to participate again and again.

Now, ONE.ORG has launched ONE Vote 08:
    ONE voice
    ONE vote
    ONE chance every four years.
    Change the world.

They have five achievable goals that they are focusing on for the 08 campaign - check them out.

You can see Matt Damon, Bono, Rick Warren, Don Cheadle and others talk about it in this two and a half minute video.

Let’s wear the wristband and start spreading the word.

I am the proud owner of a 2007 MINI Cooper. The newest member of our family is named Maude and she’s a lovely Oxygen Blue color with black bonnet stripes. She joined us in April and fits right in. I will admit that I shed a tear when I said good-bye to her predecessor, Millie — a 2004 model. No offense to dear Millie, but Maude ROCKS. It’s hard to believe, but she’s even zippier than Millie, the turning is better, the shifting is tighter, even the giant speedometer in the center of the dash is bigger.

But here’s the really cool thing about owning a MINI…the MINI people love you. Just this week I received a lovely black box in the mail emblazoned with the words “MINI ADVENTURE FIELD KIT”. It contained a mouse pad, a pen, a driving journal, an antenna ball, window cling messages, etc etc etc. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Post-sale marketing is the best way to keep your customers happy and it’s one of the reasons I bought a MINI again. (Another great way to keep your customers happy is to create an excellent product, which is the biggest reason I bought a MINI again.)

When the original Millie turned 1, I received a Happy Birthday email from the folks at MINI. And last summer they launched a “MINI Takes the States” driving tour where you could meet up with other MINIs and see the sites. (Alas, I couldn’t attend, but I hope to if they ever do it again!) This kind of community is wonderful…maybe it’s part of the reason we MINI people wave at each other on the road.

If you’re thinking about getting a new car, take a look at a MINI…it’s the most fun you’ve had driving since you turned 16.

I hit upon some lovely free downloads for Photoshop today and thought I’d share:

Deziner Folio: Ultimate Web 2.0 Gradients
and
Deziner Folio: Ultimate Web 2.0 Layer Styles

Go forth and beautify the web responsibly.

It’s a happy day here at Heather’s desk! Six weeks ago I got a beautiful new MacBook Pro (17″ widescreen thankyouverymuch). I’ve really been enjoying it and am definitely now in full Mac mode as far as keyboard shortcuts and related things. But I’ve had one huge issue all along… I had super strange font display issues in Firefox. They’ve been so bad that I had to resort to using Gmail in Safari and I’d like to say that it has not been pretty. (It’s like Gmail in the Dark Ages — no formatting bar, no Reply button at the top, etc.) After multiple Google searches with a variety of search phrases, I finally found an answer tonight! The solution was so amazingly easy and quickly fixed my issues. I’m now back in the 21st Century version of Gmail and am so pleased about that.

In case you too are having the wonky font issues in Firefox on a Mac, here is the Holy Grail: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Text_overlaps_on_Mac

In 2005, right after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I launched a project called Blankets for the Gulf. I had an ache to do something and decided that my fellow knitters (and crocheters) around the U.S. could unite and make handmade blankets for the hurricane victims. My original goal was to collect 5000 blankets and I’m actually happy to report that I didn’t collect that many. For one thing, by the time I got to the 300 blanket milestone, I had to move my son out of his bedroom so I could use it for storage. (Thanks for sleeping on the floor, son.) I shudder to think where I would have actually put 5000 blankets… [This photo shows only 142 blankets!]

It was a very rewarding project and if you’re interested, you can read all about it on the website. We made two in-person deliveries to Cameron, Louisiana, which was leveled by Rita. (See the pictures from December 2005 and March 2006 deliveries.)

For a while last fall, I thought that the project was dead. However, an odd thing has started happening in the last few months. There has been a resurgence of people asking for blankets and (thankfully!) a reciprocal resurgence of people wanting to make blankets. It’s actually eerie how well the two sides have meshed. Every time I get a request in from a victim who wants a blanket, I then get an email from someone who has a blanket to send. Larger forces are at work here.

At the end of May, the National Weather Service released their 2007 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook…and it’s not pretty. Apparently there is a 75% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 20% chance of a near-normal season, and a 5% chance of a below-normal season. What is “above normal”? Well, they’re predicting 13-17 named storms, 7-10 hurricanes and 3-5 major hurricanes. If you want to geek out, you can read their whole report on the reasons they predict this (La Nina is one of them).

As the founder of Blankets for the Gulf, this prediction signifies BLANKETS to me. And in case you don’t knit or crochet let me give you a tip… it takes a long-ass time to make a blanket. Believe me, I’ve made a few for this project and I’m here to tell you that it’s not quick. So, I think it’s time to start making blankets NOW. That way, if a hurricane hits the Gulf Coast this summer, we’ll have some blankets to immediately send to people. If it doesn’t, then we can all give our blankets to other local and national charities that are completely worthwhile. Sound like a plan?

My sister has went to the dark side and she has a My Space page. She has been telling me that if I want to get blankets that I need to get a My Space page for this project. Hmmmm….I’m considering it. I can sacrifice my web design sensibilities for the sake of the greater good. Stay tuned.

If you can’t knit or crochet, you can always make a No Sew Fleece Blanket. Or, at least try to spread the word to your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers and get them to start working on blankets or squares that can be combined into a blanket.