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Ooh, Pretty! Embolden’s Got a New Website

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

At long last, Embolden has a new website. It was worth the wait, and we’re really proud of where we’ve landed with it.

Check it out, if you haven’t already, especially some of the good stuff happening on the home page:

Recent projects. You can check out the synopsis for each of them right there on the home page by clicking on the thumbnail (more to the right if you click the arrow)… or go straight to the portfolio through the nav or by way of the Recent Projects header.
The blog. A few of us will be pontificating on what’s new, what’s cool, who’s got a new puppy, why your organization should be on Facebook, and the like. Grab the feed for some good, dorky stuff. I’ll try to keep the swearing and Wii discussion over here…
Share this. See it down there at the bottom of each of these posts? It’s a cool little widget that lets you share the page via email, Facebook, LinkedIn, delicious, etc… with all of your nearest and dearest. Or if you’re like me and you post it to your Facebook, with a few hundred folks you went to school/camp/worked with at some point in your life.
Find us on Facebook. Embolden’s got a page on Facebook. Become a fan!
Where do you stand? Not literally. On the question of the day or week or however often Mary updates it. It’s kinda cool to see where folks are leaning… on all sorts of things from online annual reports to whether or not your organization has its own Facebook page.
Directions in the footer. I know, strange to point out. But why do I go to websites of companies and organizations? Either find out what they’re all about or to find out how to get there. I love this. Everyone in the whole world should have directions in their footer.

That’s all for now… check out the site. Let us know what you think. Comment on the blog. Interact with us!

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Posted in Communication, Geeky Shit, Generally Fantastic, Tech Tips

Tags: blog Directions Embolden Facebook Share this website

Too Much of a Good Thing

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Once upon a time, there was an annual event known affectionately as Lesbian Christmas. This event, hosted by Elisa and Officer Friendly (her ex), was a madhouse holiday party with more food, dykes, and drama than most normal people can imagine. It always featured a massive, insane, cutthroat Yankee Swap, the likes of which has not been seen before or since.

One year a special new addition to Lesbian Christmas arrived: The Chocolate Fountain. (This is where you say OOOOH and AAAAH!) Elisa had purchased the fountain as a gift for Officer Friendly after they saw one at a wedding.

As we all know Elisa loves homemade chocolate covered strawberries, so this was an easy and fun way to ensure that we didn’t run out. The KP crew had prepared enough pretzel sticks, pineapple, cored strawberries, and an assortment of other sweet and savory dipping treats to feed an army. Dark delicious chocolate was melted and all was good in the world.

Now if you know Elisa, you know that she loves and implicitly trusts her BFF Lauren. So she asked Lauren to be in charge of keeping the chocolate fountain full and loaded. However, Lauren needed to leave briefly to pick up Sister Lolita, who was in town without transportation. During this window of time, Elisa decided that the fountain needed to be refilled, so she pulled out the dark chocolate wafers she had used to fill the fountain initially, and tossed them in.

Did you know that you are only supposed to use special, low-melting-point chocolate in a chocolate fountain? Or even better, pre-melt it before you fill the fountain? Neither did Elisa.

If you’re unfamiliar with the functioning of the chocolate fountain, it is essentially a thin tube from through which chocolate is pumped up from the bottom reservoir and out the top to cascade elegantly down the outside of the upper fountain tiers. The pump operates at very low pressure so the chocolate flows softly and gently.

Have you ever put your thumb over the end of a garden hose with a trickle of water flowing through it? Have you ever gotten a chocolate chip stuck in the straw while drinking a shake? Then you can imagine what happened when a piece of unmelted chocolate got sucked up into the tube.

First, we all noticed a strange sound.

Then, just as the realization that this was an unhappy chocolate fountain pump motor dawned on us, and just as we noticed that no chocolate was flowing out of the top of the fountain, it exploded. It was like that moment in formulaic action flicks where the hero runs toward the ticking time bomb in slow motion while screaming, “NOOOOOOOOOO!”

In the action movies, they make it in time.

We didn’t.

Chocolate went shooting out of the top of the fountain, all over the wall, the curtain, the food. Instantly everything was COVERED.

What’s that?

Chocolate covered chicken satay, chicken wings, and meatballs. Mmmmm.

[caption id="attachment_1852" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Look! The strawberries and pretzels already have chocolate on them! Of course, so does the wall...."] Look! The strawberries and pretzels already have chocolate on them! Of course, so does the wall....

Look! The strawberries and pretzels already have chocolate on them! Of course, so does the wall....

[/caption]

Elisa is a little, um, well organized. Particular. One might even say compulsive. The first time I was at her house she asked me to get a candle, then directed me to a cabinet where they were organized in a complex three-dimensional matrix by color, scent, and height. She doesn’t even hold a candle to the particularity of Officer Friendly. For a moment the room was silent, eyes wide. Then someone shouted, “Clean it up before Officer Friendly comes in here!” and we all sprang in to action before the game of ping pong in the garage ended. Tupperwares of warm water, sponges, and paper towels were distributed. The curtain was removed. Unsalvageable food was tossed. And within 20 minutes everything was back to normal.

Except, perhaps, for Elisa.

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Posted in Communication, Generally Fantastic, Perspectives, Tech Tips

Tags: chocolate disaster entertaining explosions perfectionism

Chocolate Covered Strawberries – Not Just For The Holidays

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

I think chocolate covered strawberries might be close to the easiest bang-for-your-buck hostess gift you can bring to a party. (Yes, I realize the holidays are over, but who doesn’t like a little treat right smack in the middle of their New Year’s resolutions?)

Every time I bring them somewhere, people ooh and aah and make like it took me all 16 years of working in my parents’ pastry shop to learn how to make them.

They’re easy, they taste good, and you can be lulled into thinking they might be a bit good for you since there’s fruit in the name and the middle.

Buy strawberries.
Buy chocolate chips.
Buy those cute little cups for cupcakes… they come in fancy colors.
Buy some white chocolate and maybe some sprinkly bits.
Go home.
Open the bag of chocolate chips and try not to eat the whole bag before you get anything accomplished.
Melt the chocolate on medium heat in the microwave. Hotter and you’ll burn it. Take it out and stir every minute or so. Trust me on this.
Check your strawberries. Don’t use ones that have mushy spots.
Prepare a couple of sheets of wax paper to lay the berries on. If it’s winter, they will likely dry on the counter. In hotter weather, you’ll have to put them in the fridge to harden. If you have to transport them to the fridge, make sure the wax paper is on something hard, like a sheet pan. Otherwise, you can just leave them to dry on the counter for a bit.
Important: pull the green leaves up and away from the fruit and hold it like a handle. This keeps everything pretty and not so damn messy.
Stir your chocolate and wipe down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. If you don’t have one, you should have bought one during the shopping part of the procedure.
Dip and twist. About 80% submersion. You want to see the top of the berry, but you want enough chocolate.
Wipe off the bottom of the berry and put it down on the wax paper. This avoids the big puddle of chocolate at the bottom… gravity will bring some of it down, and you should have a perfect berry every time. It’s all about the wipe.
If you’re doing multiple toppings, do about 10 and then choose your first decoration. Sprinkle the sprinkly bits while the chocolate is still soft so it will stick properly.
Melt your white chocolate. Use a fork, dip and wave. Try not to get the white chocolate all over everything in the kitchen. Move fast enough that it drizzles and doesn’t clump.
One got screwed up? Eat it.
Let them dry. If you move them too soon, they will get all yucky. You don’t want yuck after all this effort.
Put them in the little cups and deliver.
People will swoon. I promise.

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Posted in Generally Fantastic, Perspectives, Tech Tips, Want It

Tags: chocolate entertaining food

Google Calendar Sync with Outlook

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Google is WICKED smart.

They have released a little widget that will sync your Outlook and Google Calendars. You can sync one way or both, which I find particularly fantastic. That is, I can push my Outlook information up to my Google Calendar, but I don’t have it sync the other way too.

Direct from Google, here is the how-to:

To set up Google Calendar Sync:

Make sure you’re using a supported operating system and Outlook version.

Download Google Calendar Sync (version 0.9.3.3) at http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe

Once a dialog box appears, click Save File. The downloaded file should open automatically. If it doesn’t, manually open it from your browser’s download window.

Click OK to confirm that you’re aware this is an executable file.

Read through the Google Calendar Sync Terms of Service, and click I Agree.

Follow through the Installation Options and click Install to finish the set-up process.

Once Google Calendar Sync is installed on your computer, the Google Calendar Sync Settings window will appear:

In the Settings window, enter your email address and password and select the Sync Option you prefer. Read about each Sync Option.

You’ll also be able to set the time interval for syncing to occur. Please keep in mind that 10 minutes is the minimum time interval allowed.

After the initial set-up, you can access the Google Calendar Sync Settings window again by double-clicking the calendar icon in your Windows System Tray.

Icon Status

To access the Google Calendar Sync Settings window, just right-click the calendar icon in your Windows System Tray and select Options.

When your events are actively syncing between Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar, you’ll see arrows in the Google Calendar Sync icon:

When events aren’t actively syncing, your calendar icon will look like this:

Why did I copy and paste the whole thing in there instead of writing my own how-to or just linking?

Google wrote good, clear instructions. No need to re-invent the wheel here.
The people who call me up and say their computer is broken (but it’s not plugged in), the internet is broken (but their cable is unplugged), their computer “ate” a recent file (they don’t know where they saved it): these people will not click the link. They like things nice and spoon-fed. (Or me, coming to their house to fix it for them.)

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Posted in Generally Fantastic, Tech Tips