We Can Haz Stuff!

There are actually a few articles up on www.Re-evolve.ning.com now!  We took some of the templates filled out by our Prince's Trust people to get an idea of how the site will look once we have more information on there.

It isn't perfect yet however.  I feel that the articles still look a little bland because they are just plain text in black and white.  Ideally I would like to work out a way to include colours and pictures, but that will involve some research to decide what will look right.

The other major problem with uploading templates is that you cannot simply copy and paste from Word.  All of the formating and spacing for the text has to be added in HTML and that takes extra time.  Colours and photos may also need to be added in this way.

I've also realised that I need to establish a set way for tagging pages.  At the moment I have some criteria, but it would be a good idea to set them down for other people to use.  Consistency is a good thing.  I also need to check that my guide to the basic HTML involved in this process makes sense to other people.  Coding is a little tricky and it's worth making sure everyone can do it.

These are not the codes I have in mind kitteh...

More graphics

We've started going in a slightly different direction graphics wise.  A simpler aesthetic is developing using bold shapes and colours.  Not much more to say this week, we just working on making some good images.

The focus is going to be on images relating to different jobs.  So far the fire hose has turned out the best because it ended up looking like a snail.  Very cute.

Graphics for the web

Graphics are hard to get right, and unfortunately that's what I'm trying to do for Re-Evolve's Ning website.  At the moment we're trying to create a good look which is both sophisticated and youthful.  Youthful I'm okay at.  Sophisticated is the issue.

Hopefully I'll work out a good solution.  At the moment I'm working on toning down my natural colour inclinations.  I tend to wok very bright.

Here's a kaleidoscope to demonstrate just how my taste works:

Where is it!?

Today I learnt about hidden pages on websites.  Jen told me about them really and they're so useful.  Essentially all they are are web pages which aren't connected to the Re-Evolve.Ning website menu but can still be accessed through links and searches.  They're going to be perfect for article pages!

I also made some nifty graphics to represent the career sectors Re-Evolve is focusing on.  They were all made in Photoshop by my using original line art.

I found the Construction sector the hardest image to compose.  It was the area I'm least familiar with so designing it was a bit of a challenge.

These are actually slightly out of date, even now, the day after I posted them!  We're thinking of adding a Sport section to appeal to the interests of many of the young people we met as part of the Princes Trust.  Logically Sport needs to have a blue theme to match the rest of the site, but we'll probably try to find some photos to match the youth orientated nature of the site.

Re-Evolve Website!

This week we finally succeeded in getting a website started for Re-Evolve!

It's based at Ning.com, which is a free website which offers loads of lovely features for us to use.  We can have a site blog for communications, a forum to talk to the young people who will hopefully use the site and facilities for photo and video hosting.  This is all very good and exciting, it's quite a work in progress at the moment.

I've spent most of the day working on branding it towards Re-Evolve by changing the colours around to match our logo and putting up a header.  It actually looks quite good already and after only a day's work.  Once it has more information and photos on it I'm sure it will look great!

10 Ways to Conquer Writer's Block

I have writer's block.  This is of course a bad think when trying to blog.  And totally unusual for me because I simply do not get writer's block.

However there are always a few ways to get around writer's block, mainly by working around the problem.  Here's a list of tips on how to deal with this dreaded plague of literary ambition. 

1)  Go read the news, under the condition that it isn't just an excuse for procrastinating.  It won't take long to find an article that's relevant to what you're writing about or can at the very least find an opinion.  Talk about that and what it means to you.  If you're lucky it may even lead to blog type number 2...

2)  Rant.  You can go on for paragraphs if you find a topic that really ticks you off.  If you're controversial it might even increase you're readership!

3)  Talk about celebrity gossip.  This really is a stretch, but it's popular and there's always going to be something to talk about.  The downside is that none of it will be relevant to anything.

4)  Hobbies and pets.  They're kind of the same since no one will care all that much but they're interesting and you'll find something to write about.  This works best if your blog can be about anything.

5)  Write an article on a topic related to what you do.  For example for Re-Evolve I could write something about job fairs or what to put in a CV.  The downside to this is that it takes actual time and effort.

6)  Write fan-fiction.  Hang on, I take that one back.  No matter how desperate you might be fan-fiction probably isn't going to help anyone.

7)  Write an ode to spring (or another seasonal event).  It's relevant and interesting(ish).  Alternatively combine it with option two and create a rant about the weather.

8)  Post photos of your weekend.  Or other similar events.  Or doodles.  Pictures are ultra spiffy to have on your blog anyway, and you can justify it as a way of introducing your readers to the real you.

9)  Talk about other people's blogs.  They did the hard work of creating a topic.  You can reap some of that glory by writing a response and linking to theirs!  You might even be able to attract some of their readers!

10)  Write about your writer's block.  That'll teach it to show its face!

Re-Evolve Marketing Event

Re-Evolve is holding a marketing event in London on the 25th March.  We'll be heading off into Westminster in the morning to interview young people about what they would want from a careers resource.  In the afternoon we will retire to the Greenside Community Centre to discuss what we have discovered from the survey.  Hopefully the result will help us work out exactly what we need for our website!

If you are age 16-25 and interested in coming to the event as a volunteer please contact Re-Evolve@cwh.org.uk

Tel Mon, Tues, Fri – 0207245 2267

Tel Wed, Thurs – o2o8 9620 721

Everyone is welcome and it's a great opportunity to find out about the practical side of marketing and business!

Newsletters and other fun stuff

I've been researching how to set up a newsletter for Re-Evolve. We've been thinking that we need to reinstate it as a communication tool and that we want it to be better designed and more eye catching than ever before. However, to do that we need to have a system set up so I've been researching all the different options. Incidentally if anyone knows of a free newsletter distributor which gives users the ability to subscribe and unsubscribe automatically I'd love to hear about it!

The newsletter stuff is all very well of course but it isn't the most fascinating thing to look at. I could show you my research, although I doubt many people would find it all that riveting. Useful maybe. So instead here is a little sketch I did to keep in practice.

It was done using black watercolour paint (because I hate using ink and watercolour is easily available) and a paint brush on a piece of A5. The rules were that it had to be a quick painting with no guide lines. Every line I drew had to remain visible because I can't erase paint and no touch ups to make it neater on the PC. Additionally I wanted to test my ability to draw movement. It also helps that it's quite fun to paint this way :)

Volunteering for the RSPCA

I've been volunteering to the East Finchley branch of the RSPCA for a couple of months now as part of their newly created marketing committee. The branch does do a lot of good work in the area and runs a clinic to provide reduced rate pet care for people on income support as well as working with fostering and rehoming programs. Since vet fees can be very expensive it's an important resource for the community how have them around.

However, there are also a lot of issues with people not knowing exactly what it is that the branch does and how they work. Their clinic is small and they can't keep animals over night, much less run an animal shelter! The main thing I've been doing for them recently is to create a couple of different flyers for them to distribute in their clinic and for more general publicity. It's a simple project, but has given me good experience in communicating information and presenting it in an attractive way. I also drew up a little dog graphic for use on the flyers, which makes me happy. I want to do some other animals as well, but the dog is all that's needed for now.

Presentation

We at Re-Evolve have been working on a presentation recently to send to companies we'd like to make partnerships with.  In the future we hope to have a group of affiliated companies that will be able to provide our volunteers with work experience.  This way our volunteers will be able to get practical work experience and our careers resource will grow exponentially with quality resources!  We also hope that the system will benefit the companies by giving them the help of a volunteer in their company.

Of course this needs presenting to the companies and that's what the presentation is for.  The last few weeks have been spent organising and debating the best way in which to write out and present our information.  As part of this I've made up some graphics to help convey what we do.

I did want to add an image of my graphics but for some odd reason the computer and Blogger are conspiring against me.  This is annoying, but I'll try and add the picture in later instead.  Basically my graphics look like DNA exploding out of the test tube in the Re-Evolve logo.  It's meant to be a bit like a spider diagram, but more attractive.

Jack and the Careerstalk!

Long time, no blog. I should do something about that. Mainly this is because we haven't been in the office much over the holiday period, and we were mainly writing up information. As important as this is talking about writing up careers resources and interviews does not make for a particularly interesting blog entry.


However, I haven't spoken yet about the presentation Re-Evolve did for Vital Regeneration's Award Ceremony which attempted to explain the goals of Re-Evolve through the medium of panto. The basic concept is that Re-Evolve can help a young person's career grow like the beanstalk in Jack and the Beanstalk. So Jack and the Careerstalk was born!
With the volunteers dressed as fairies to symbolise how we are enabling young people and volunteers representing the young people the beans were changed into growing flowers to symbolise the potential of the young person to grow and follow their chosen career.

Sadly I was unable to attend the event, due to a prior commitment with the RSPCA. (I was volunteering though, that must prove my dedication!) I do enjoy dressing as a fairy from time to time so it was a little disappointing. I was involved in making all those props though, so I was happy enough. I love crafting :)

Questionaire

Anybody out there who wants to fill in one of ReEvolve's careers questionaires? Feel free to contact me to get hold of one. They don't take very long to fill out and you get to be part of ReEvolves project. Since we mention your name you could think of it as free advertising!

I visited the RSPCA Finchley Branch yesterday to talk about doing some volunteering for them. It went really well and I'll probably end up doing some marketing for them. All this is completely separate to the stuff I'm already doing for Re_Evolve, but I think it would also be a much smaller time commitment so I should be able to take it on.

I am actually very fond of the RSPCA anyway. When I was sixteen I volunteered at their Southridge Rescue Centre, which is one of the main places the RSPCA rehomes animals from. I spent most of that time cleaning out animal cages and grooming cats, but it was a good experience. Besides I like helping charities.

10 Tips for NaNoWriMo

Yes, I will keep on going on about it :)

So NaNoWriMo is one of may favourite events of the year and pretty much the only reason I look forward to November. Of course, many people many be dubious about whether they really can write 50000 words in a month. I know that I was when I first tried it. Now that I've managed the goal twice I can almost convince myself that I'm qualified to give others advice. So without further ado here's a quick list of things that I found useful.

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1) Write whenever you get a free moment. It sounds obvious but you'd be surprised what you can write in fifteen minutes if you put your mind to it.

2) Keep a running word count. The NaNoWriMo site encourages you to do this anyway and they display your results in graph form. It is incredible to watch that little graph grow as you feed more into it.


3) Listen to NaNoWriMo's podcast. It gives you focus and lots of little tips on how to write, which brings me to...


4)Sugar is your friend. Unless you're dieting or diabetic of course. Then it probably isn't. However, sugar will give you a great rush and inspire faster writing. You can also use food as a reward for reaching a certain target.

5) Don't let writer's block happen to you. Especially with NaNoWriMo when the aim is to reach a certain number of words rather than to create a master piece, writing the first thing that comes to mind can be really effective.

6) Listen to your characters. I always find that my characters evolve as the story goes along. Don't fight it; this will make you write slower and waste precious time. If your character decides that he wants to do something you didn't plan because it makes more sense to him go along with it. Just don't complain about your characters talking to you too much in public, people will give you weird looks.

7)Use NaNoWriMo's forums. You need to procrastinate every once in a while, so you might as well do it by talking to other people who are torturing themselves. They might eventually guilt you back into writing.

8) Don't watch any TV at all. Well, maybe not at all. I certainly don't keep this rule very well! What I have found is that the less TV or film I watch the more original ideas I have. But maybe that's just me.

9) Keep busy. If you have other things going on it will focus you on writing. Or drive you slightly insane. Either way you will get things done and it's more fun than sitting blankly in front of a computer.

10) Tell everyone you know about NaNoWriMo. This will help you write, mainly because once people know what you are doing you'll have to finish it to save your reputation. Remember, friends who know you failed are friends who will never let you forget it (in the most affectionate way of course). Being able to tell people that you completed your goal is the best motivation there is. Post your word count widget everywhere so that they can watch your progress.

So there you have it, my take on NaNoWriMo. Seriously give it a go, it's never too late to start writing.

The Weather Outside...

Is frightful! And I mean that in the strongest sense of the word. Sure, the snow looks all sparkly and pretty now, but in reality it's just made everything cold and wet.

Better yet last night I think it caused a power cut. The power was coming and going for an hour before it cut out completely at 9:30. It came back again around 12:30, which I was accutely aware of because I'd left the light on my bedroom on without realising it and when the power came back it woke me up. True, in the grand scheme of things that isn't too bad, but it does give me yet another reason to not lke snow.

At least the trains were running into London this morning. I was half expecting them not to be. But I'm glad that I was able to get in to work at Re-Evolve today, I don't like it when the weather stops me from doing things.

This time every year...

I think I have cold coming on, and as my title suggests it's become something of an annual tradition. Then again half of the rest of the world seems to agree with me so it's not quite like I'm in bad company.

It's also the time of year when I remember that it does get quite cold again. During the summer months I usually magage to forget how much I dislike winter and as a result I'm always unpleasantly surprised.

The upside is that during autumn and winter there are always lots of events on during the run up to Christmas. I can rely on those to improve my day! Right now The London Games Fringe is coming up, and November holds a special place in my heart as NaNoWriMo. In truth it isn't National Novel Writing Month so much as International Novella Writing Month, but I do look foward to it. The goal of writing 50000 words in a month is quite doable (I have managed it twice before) and if nothing else it is a great excuse to stay nice and warm inside with my laptop. Even my annual cold can't stop me from doing that!

Giant Database?

Does this sound slightly scary to anyone else? I really don't like the idea of the government keeping tabs on everything I do. I mean emails and telephones calls would be bad enough, but keeping track of all the Internet sites I visit? It isn't even as if I go on any that I'd mind people knowing about, I just don't want the government to know exactly how many Disney and cute animal websites I visit everyday!
The personal information they could amass is much more terrifying, and not just because it could focus on me. It may be because I'm a lit student but a Big Brother state isn't something I think we should be aiming for. Of course I'm not the first person to say it, but it does make things all the more alarming that I feel the need to repeat it. Admittedly the government spying on us is nothing new, but it used to be a little bit funny when you could trigger having a phone call recorded by repeating the word bomb. I had some friends who used to take it as a challenge to see if they could set it off. "Yeah, that party was a BOMB last night!" *click* "Hey it worked!" Maybe the answer would be to fill all our communications with rubbish so that no one would bother reading it.
Oh well, I'm sure the government allegedly has our best interests in mind, they just come over really creepy with their suggestions sometimes.

Forum3

I went to Forum3 this weekend, which is sort of like a careers fair for charities looking to find people to volunteer or work for them. Actually it was much nicer than most of the careers fairs I've been to in the past because there were far more companies exhibiting and everyone there was really keen to talk to the visitors. At careers fairs I often get the feeling that the people running the stalls are there under duress (or maybe I just felt alienated by the fact that all of the careers fairs at my university seemed to focus on careers in law and finance).

Anyway Forum3 was a nice experience and I met a lot of charities which sounded like they would like people with my skills to volunteer. Given the huge variety of charities exhibiting there if you were interested in volunteering anywhere it would be a great place to go, and from the large crowds there was obviously a lot of that interest present. If nothing else it was a great way for the charities to raise awareness about their work.

Market Crash?

Yeah, that's not a good thing, right? I mean from an economic point of view it's bad enough, but I can't help but think about it in terms of how it relate to me personally.

I suppose that isn't all that unusual, let's face it everyone is most concerned about themselves. The problem is I look at all these layoff and think "Well, that ups the competition for me considerably." Frankly it isn't a good scenario for young people trying to enter the work place, and we can feel slightly justified that the situation isn't our fault because we haven't had a chance to mess up the economy yet. I'm sure my generation will do something stupid en mass eventually, but the point is we haven't yet.

In a way I suppose this means that trying to find out how to break into the world of work is more important than ever. Any advice we can provide will definitely be needed.

Oh well, on the plus side being worried about jobs is better than my other first thought on hearing about the recession was "At least we'll get some cheerful films out of this." Seriously, whenever there is a depressing period in history Hollywood will make a larger number of happy films. It's like they're saying "Life sucks? Don't worry, here's a musical." And that is why we have The Wizard of Oz and Footlight Parade.

Useful Marketing Blog

This blog looks like it will have a lot of useful information for me to learn from. To be honest I've yet to read it all yet, but what I have is pretty thought provoking.

Even better you can subscribe to a set of email marketing lessons. I've had a look through the first one and the advice seems really good. All of it is based around internet marketing so it's relevant to the things I'm interested in as well