In the past several months, I’ve made some negative (as well as some positive) remarks on Twitter about my experiences with certain corporations. Within minutes of making these remarks, I was bombarded by them apologizing for the inconvenience, asking for more feedback, or telling me flat out that my statement was incorrect. One even tracked me back to my website and sent me a lengthy email via my contact form.
It’s cool how Twitter has actually made this dialog possible with not only corporations, but also politicians, celebrities, and the general public. Someone like me can just casually tell the world what they think, and there are people out there actually listening. We’ve never really had this opportunity before where anyone can get their voice heard. Who would have thought that some corporation would actually care about what I think or say?
I’ve recently been taking an interest in the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover plan. It just makes sense and seems like the easiest way to handle finances. No tricks and no gimmicks. He has some PDF forms available for download on his website, and they’re good too. However, it is a nuisance to have to do it all by pencil, paper and calculator every month. I went on a search to find a decent-looking spreadsheet template, but didn’t find anything worth while. There were some out there, but they looked crummy. I should mention that if you buy Dave Ramsey’s kit, they may be included, but I can’t confirm that.
I took it upon myself to create my own Excel spreadsheet (also compatible with OpenOffice and NeoOffice) complete with built-in formulas. Its easy enough to customize depending on what categories you need by adding or removing rows. I haven’t fully tested the spreadsheet, so let me know if you come across any bugs or incorrect formulas.
It is somewhat self-explanatory, but here’s a couple of notes:
- Fill in the Total Take-Home Household Income field (E103) first and make sure it’s after taxes.
- Items that have a dark gray box next to them use the cash envelope system.
Download Monthly Cash Flow Plan Spreadsheet (4 KB)
I’ve been insanely busy since I started my new employment a little over a month ago at Dyn Inc. I don’t like to keep my personal site stagnant too long, so I recently added a couple of new pieces to my portfolio: Steve Koontz Portfolio and The Dynect Platform.
Steve Koontz Portfolio
Steve is a friend of mine and he wanted a portfolio to showcase his work, as well as have a journal for sharing his thoughts with the world. I was happy to help him out with this project. Together we collaborated on the design, and I developed it using a variety of web technologies. It was a lot of fun because Steve basically gave me creative control, and I got to play with a lot of cool jQuery effects.
Steve’s website is also using TextPattern for content management. It was a little bit of a challenge to set up certain aspects of the site, like integrating TXP to manage multiple images (particularly with the jQuery Carousel effect) and Flash video for the portfolio pieces, but it the end it worked out really great. We are both really pleased with how his site turned out.
The Dynect Platform
The Dynect Platform is Dyn Inc’s enterprise service, featuring clients such as Mozilla and 37signals. This was my first major project at my new job, and I am very pleased with the results. Dynect.com needed to be reworked, making it easier to navigate and present information in such a way that it was easy to understand. I redesigned the website and reorganized content, allowing information to flow more naturally. Part of this project also entailed creating a new Multimedia Flash video player. Props to Liz and Kristin, who helped with a lot of the grunt-work on this project.
DynDNS.com Tour
I didn’t add this piece to my portfolio, but thought it was worth mentioning. I recently designed the DynDNS.com Tour. Not too many of our site visitors actually know what we do or why they need our services. We’ve taken a major step forward in creating this short tour. It explains exactly what we do and what the user can do with our services. Props to Jason, who wrote the bulk of the content for this project.
I just downloaded Adobe InDesign CS3 at work, and like its predecessors, its a great product. My trial was going to expire, so we sprung for the $800 license. Unfortunately, we accidentally bought the Windows license when I needed a Mac license.
Dan, Meet Ethen. Ethen, Meet Dan.
Not wanting to spend another $800 for a Mac license, I decided to try Adobe’s customer service. I wasn’t very pleased to say the least. Here’s an excerpt from my chat with Adobe:
- Dan: The adobe site says that the serial numbers are platform specific… Can you tell if the serial number I have is for Mac or Win?
- Ethen: The serial number is for Windows based InDesign CS3.
- Dan: Ahhh… I’m on a Mac – is there an easy way to sort that out with you?
- Ethen: I regret to inform you that you will be unable to use the above serial number for Macintosh as it is for Windows.
- Dan: I understand that… Is there anything you can do to fix it so that we don’t have to spend another $800 and have a copy of InDesign laying around that won’t get used?
- Ethen: Would you like to change the platform for your InDesign CS3?
- Dan: Well – I don’t want to use Windows if that’s what you’re asking ;)
- Ethen: Yes.
Did He Really Say that?
What kind of question is “Would you like to change the platform…?” No I don’t want to change my platform. I’m using a Mac—I just spent $800 on your way-overpriced product. Do you really think I’m going to go buy a PC just so I can run it?
I’m extremely disappointed with Adobe’s customer service. I just can’t believe that their first attempt to solve my problem was to ask me if I would like to change my platform. I can imagine that this issue arises often too. Is that what they ask everyone else?
Living in New Hampshire, when I hear about catastrophes like the Midwest being flooded, I don’t really give it too much thought. I’m sorry if that makes me sound like a bad person, but it’s not done intentionally. Typically, when something doesn’t affect you, you forget about it.
I do a lot of work for Markup Factory on a monthly basis. They operate out of Iowa City, which I knew, but didn’t put two and two together until a couple of days ago. Iowa City, along with many other cities in the Midwest is currently under several feet of water.
Josh Cramer, who runs Markup Factory, among other companies, is currently on the front lines sandbagging and helping people evacuate. He’s also taken it upon himself to start a Flood Blog called Iowa Under Water. He started the blog to keep everyone up to date on the happenings in Iowa City and Coralville, IA during the floods. Since the sites launch yesterday, it has had several visitors and has even been acknowledged on the radio.
I wanted to post this to help raise awareness of what’s actually happening in the Midwest. My thoughts and prayers are with Josh and his team, along with all the flood victims in the Midwest.