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My sister and I went to the movies to see Twilight on Thanksgiving evening. I had low expectations because, well, we all know how movies are never anything like the book. I have to admit I was totally wrong! This movie was exactly all that a reader of the book series could hope for. It took what I saw in my mind and put it on the big screen. It is no exaggeration when I say that I haven’t seen a book-turned-movie follow the story so well since Lord of the Rings. My compliments to the director. If you’ve read Twlight by Stephanie Meyer, definately go see this movie.

Free seamless orange shag carpet tile for website backgrounds

So I had some random stock photography sitting around and I decided to teach myself a new tool for making seemless tiles for website backgrounds. I have noticed most of the sites that impress me don’t have typical solid color backgrounds. So I took 4 images that I thought would be fun to see on a site and made them seamless. Feel free to download them for your personal use. If you end up using them on a site, all I ask in return is to let me know! Post a comment here with a link so we can all see how you’ve used it.

Happy designing.

Free seamless cork tile for website backgrounds

mesh

Free corrugated cardboard seamless tile for website backgrounds

The most recent shots of my tank.

www.buythereef.com Buy The Reef website design

Background: I had a website build that a client hired me to do. I was on a tight deadline and the programmer I had lined up hiked up the price on me and really screwed me over. So that brings us to the day I thought I was going to lose my mind because I had a website design finished, cash in hand, an approaching deadline, and no programmer. I contacted no less than 10 boutiques in the States for quotes. I was met with nothing but obstacle after obstacle. The biggest one being a lot of the programmers were asking for more than I even charged my client. It seemed that everyone wanted their piece of the pie and most just wanted the whole pie.

I decided to go to elance.com a freelance website for posting jobs and receiving bids. I posted up my job description and a general idea of my budget and received an overwhelming amount of proposals. Some were easy to weed out as their proposals were either too basic, horribly worded, or too expensive. I found one company that seemed to know exactly what I needed and the price was right, but they were located in Egypt.

I was very nervous and decided to try and raise the contact listed on skype to see how we would communicate. Surprisingly, he spoke perfect English and knew more about the programming I was asking for than I did. I talked with him for about an hour and decided he was the right fit.

I awarded him the project and everything over the next month went so smoothly at times it astounded me at times.

We are now done with the site and the programmer was able to stay exactly to my design from the .psd.

I am glad to report that if you follow your common sense and prepare, outsourcing isn’t something for even a small business owner to shy away from. I was able to keep on my deadline, stay within budget, and create the best work I’ve done thus far. Check it out for yourself.

www.buythereef.com

I drove up to my tank today and decided to do a 45 gallon water change. I started to clean the glass first with this little Easy Blade contraption from heaven.

It gets all the hard little algae that grows on the glass and makes it look new again. Anyway 45 gallons later and some new carbon and I swear I’ve never see my tank look so good. There was just something about the water that looked crystal clear and everything looked so happy. For the first time I just sat in awe of my own tank. Made me remember why I love it.

Photo By: Juniors Reef

After seeing the article in this month’s ReefKeeping magazine, I fell in love with the NightSea photography style and immediately wanted to buy the equipment for my camera.

I contacted the owner and he agreed to do this group buy for us and offer about a 20% discount!!!

There are three packages that can be ordered based upon your needs and camera lens size. Each one comes with the glasses that look like these pictured here. They fit over prescription glasses or can be worn alone.

First Package: Group Buy Price $119.60 + $12 Shipping Regular Price $149.50 + S/H

BlueStar Light and Viewing glasses (VGA2) only

Second Package: Group Buy Price $154.60 + $12 Shipping Regular Price $194.50 + S/H

BlueStar Light, Viewing glasses (VGA2), and the Filter for your camera lens in any ONE of the following sizes: 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, and 58mm

Third Package: Group Buy Price $169.60 + $12 Shipping Regular Price $214.50 + S/H

BlueStar Light, Viewing glasses (VGA2), and the Filter for your camera lens in any ONE of the following sizes: 62mm or 67mm

Schedule: Declare Interest by December 6th

Please email me at jessica@creativesoup.com with your name and package you are interested in so I can keep track of how many we are going to order. I will allow emails from interested parties until December 6th to try and get the word out there.

I will email everyone who is interested with the paypal address for payment that weekend, and you can begin payment to Night Sea directly on the 7th. YOUR ORDER IS NOT CONSIDERED COMPLETE UNTIL YOU SEND YOUR MONEY IN TO NIGHT SEA WITH A CONTACT/SHIPPING INFO AND PACKAGE INFORMATION.

Order cut off date is December 12th @ 9pm pst.

Group Buy pricing will not be valid anytime after 12/12/08 21:00 pst and if orders are placed after that, your money will be refunded to you. No exceptions. Shipping is by UPS GROUND in continental US only.

Please check back to this post for further updates. It is your responsibility to contact me if you have not been emailed that you are on my list for the group buy by Dec 7th. I’m just organizing this group buy and not am responsible for any orders that didn’t get placed or if you weren’t proactive in checking this post.  I also am not profiting from this group buy nor do I have any information for answering product questions. Please direct any questions to the manufacturer. Thanks!

Related Articles & Links:

http://www.nightsea.com/aquarium.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-11/feature/index.php

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1404110&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/ac/index.php

Photo By: Juniors Reef

Photo By: Juniors Reef

Until You - Judith McNaught

Yet another romance book. It seems that McNaught’s winning formula is to introduce man to woman, insert a problem that immediately makes it next to impossible for them to be together and start them hating each other. Then in the end, they fall in the most glorious love ever and live happily ever after. It’s simple and possibly over-done, but if you know what to expect, you can enjoy yourself over and over again.

Brisingr - Christoper Paolini

What a surprise when I finished reading the third book in the Inheritance Trilogy to find that it wasn’t the last book. It has gone from a trilogy to a ‘cycle’ which I guess means four books now. I guess I shouldn’t complain since I go through books like they are going out of style…but I wanted the story to be finished!  This series is a great read, not the best ever, or as I like to say “changes my life”, but one worth the time to read anyway. There are lots of things that remind me of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the terminology, location names, names of the races, etc. But if you just get over that little bit of imitation you’ll enjoy the story.