Hi! I’m ROXANE VELOZO

So, it's been a while. I know. I'm in the middle of organizing my thoughts in order to change the direction of this blog a bit.
 
I started a new job a couple months back, redesigning the b2b Staples website. It's pretty awesome. It's in html 5. We are using css 3. Developing for the future kind of thing. And I am learning oh so much. Every day there's something new I learn, both in the technical aspect and the professional world. Like the day we all got fake tattoos. And then kicked IE's ass.
 
So I decided, there's all this beginner's advice that I learned last week and stuff, progressive development stuff that I didn't learn in college, that I'm itching to share. Like a nice discussion on short vs. semantic code, how to avoid becoming class crazy, and the wonderfulness of grid960.
 
I'm starting soon. But until I do, here, have a look at this picture I took, because lately I've been obsessed with caterpillars.

The beach was craaaaazy today! Oh boy do I love living on an island :)
 
Last night when the rain started Xav decided it was a great time to go out and get ice cream and go drive by the shore and see the madness the ocean would be. So we did, and when we got to the Boulevard the wind was so intense I could barely see anything past all the hair on my face, not to mention the fact I didn't have my glasses with me (my relationship with my glasses deserves its own blog one of these days), but I did notice the ocean was moving in a totally different way it usually does, pretty cool. We were going to drive around the island, but the car started shaking and it sounded like we'd blown a tire (there was something stuck underneath the car making the noise) so we came back home. And we'd been home about 2 minutes when Xav was looking out the window and saw some neat little explosions along the power lines, and a second later we were in the dark. SO EFFING EXCITING!!!
 
I hadn't had the power go out since bad storms back in Brazil, so I decided we were not going to use flashlights, just candles, because that'd be more authentic (although the first thing I really did was start tweeting from my phone). This outage was everything Xav had dreamed of, and he rushed to get his shortwave radio so we could sit on the bed by the window and try to find ourselves in the future (please tell me you've seen Frequency). At this point our house was shaking, like really really shaking, and we couldn't tell if the noises outside were from thunder were other houses' roofs banging against ours, but then we started getting signals from China, Russia, Germany and even Bulgaria, and forgot all about that. My favorite was Radio Cuba, in English, from Cuba, with lots of propaganda about how Cuba was super awesome and how Brazil and Cuba are like bffs, because President Lula is cool and stuff. Then I lost interest, Xav put his headphones on, and I started thinking about two of the unreasonable things I'm terrified of happening together: getting struck by lightning and flying (or crashing, I should say) on planes. Not cool.
 

It's hard to write a review about this book without comparing it to the last book I read: Tribes. And I have to say I enjoyed this one a lot more.
 
Both books focus on how to get people to share their like ideas and create a movement. While Godin (Tribes) focuses on being the leader of a group, Scott takes the approach of HOW to gather that group, once you have an idea, regardless of size. That HOW was exactly what I thought was missing from Godin's book, as you can see from my review of Tribes a few weeks ago.
 
The book is separated into different stories of people who started world wide raves, from small, like the man who wrote an ebook about his knowledge in marketing instead of sending out resumes when looking for a job, and made himself into a specialist and speaker in the marketing world, to large, like the VP of new media at Orlando Resorts, who announced the upcoming Harry Potter attraction to only seven people and had it go viral from the inside of the Harry Potter world, reaching all the people who cared the way they would like to be reached, from the inside of the fandom. At the end of each story the leader of the example has advice on what's important when creating a successful rave, and then Scott talks about what made the rave successful, why it succeeded and how the results can be achieved by YOU.
 
Out of all the helpful examples and advice on personas, ebooks, use of social media, control (and how you should aim for losing it, instead of confining a rave to what you can control), what I found the most important idea, and the one that drives everything else, is that "nobody cares about your products, except you." Genius! So true, from a worldwide viral marketing scheme to a cover letter when applying for a job. "It's not what your country can do for you..." kind of mindset is what drives people to be interested in you and what you can offer. Because in our selfishness we only care about OUR problems, and what will make us pay attention is someone talking about how they can SOLVE out problems, as opposed to "jargon-filled, hype-based advertising" that bores everyone to tears. From big to small, this book explains how we can all get noticed by offering solutions to problems, instead of shoveling technical details nobody cares about down people's throats.
 
I loved the book. Will definitely get back to parts of it every once in a while for advice. Only thing I didn't appreciate very much was all the plugs and self referencing Scott added. I refuse to read his ebooks or check out his blog for now, because he told me to do so too many times throughout the book, and I just don't want to do something just because he's telling me to. Marketing fail Scott, people don't like being told what to do. Other than that, it was a great read.
 
Now I am faced with the question: what's next? Audible.com makes reading books so easy I now have a list of current books. Hard copies of Zeldman's Designing With Web Standards and Cederholm's Handcrafted CSS are sitting next to my computer at home, and I just got Castledine's brand new JQuery: From Novice to Ninja from my friend Geoff, but I still need some sort of audio goodness to listen to at work, while doing hours of mindless Photoshop editing on busy product weeks, so I'm buying David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, because the hours and hours and hours of This American Life I listen to every day have taught me David Sedaris is awesome. That was the longest short paragraph on "what I'd like to read" I've ever written. I feel stange.

 
This picture had been sitting in a frame shop for a few months, and apparently this week the guy put it up and today it sold. A picture of mine sold! It's always an exciting feeling that somewhere, in a house in or around Melrose, MA a picture of mine is hanging.
 
And since I'm boasting, let me mention there is also a picture of mine in this book. A picture of my beloved Boston Bruins. <3 <3 <3
 
I'm feeling stupidly hyper today. The dog is eyeing me dancing around in my chair and I bet she thinks I'm having a seizure. It's a great day to do some work!

Wish I could.
 
But my furry child (also known as dog) Zoey seems to be just fine with the idea. She broke the heart of her valentine today at the beach. Everything started out wonderful, they spent the whole time together, he was a little protective, she was making him chase her all over, daring him to go to unexplored places. Then it was time to go home and Zoey said her goodbyes and jumped into the car. That's when he threw himself onto the street to try to get to her window, because he didn't care, life just would have no point if Zoey wasn't there. So I opened my door for him to get off the street, and he tried jumping in my car. This poor akita was in despair. And then we drove away, while he sat down and watched us go. And Zoey, she was thinking about all the bones she would get at home.
 
Sounds like my dog has many things to teach me.
 

Happy Valentine's Day.
 

Lately I've been obsessed with roller derby. And here's why:
 
Since I was a child, I could never engage in "rowdy" activities because, well, I always ended up hurting the crap out of someone, or breaking things. I could always bounce back from punches and kicks, but the moment I retaliated someone ran crying, and I always got the blame for being a bully. So I grew up frustratingly passive, having been in a single fight my whole life, in 5th grade, where I did nothing but try to hold this girl back and stop her from hitting me. Quite pathetic. And there was this one time my brother was in the hospital having jaw surgery and I managed to break his bed by laying on it from over the footboard. Two days before he came home. But I digress.
 
I'm not into girly things. At all. I'd rather watch hockey than get a pedicure. I would love to play hockey. Like the boys do. I would like to do most thing boys do, like drinking whisky in the billiard room smoking cigars and twirling mustaches. Wait, what?
 
After watching a few bouts on youtube I realized these girls are BADASS. A lot of them look like live pinup girls that, omg, get right up after being ruthlessly punched to the ground. Bruised, badass pinup girls. *faints*
 
Tell me these aren't enough reasons to start training now for the 2011 recruiting of the Boston Derby Dames in october. And out of the 3 teams, I'm pretty sure I was born to be a Cosmonaughty. I mean, I totally have what it takes, I love to rollerskate (although I haven't in years, since I destroyed my ankle after jumping, turning and falling on my twisted foot), I am super excited at the idea of getting the crap beat out of me (that sounds so wrong) and being able to hit people without my mother telling me I shouldn't touch anyone because I'm a natural born brute, and hey, I had a wicked Kathleen Hanna phase, meaning I can sing along to most Le Tigre and Bikini Kill, which can never hurt. So roller derby, here I come!
 
Not I just need to learn to brake on my rollerskates, something I never quite mastered. But that' minor.

 
I kind of wish it was snowing today. Would give me a great excuse for spending the whole saturday under the covers listening to Tom Waits, with occasional corn bread breaks. It is, however, 21 degrees out, so I guess I'm alright.
 
This is the first photo of the day. I doubt there will be a photo of the day every day, but what would you like me to have call it, photo of whenever I can remember and have the enthusiasm and time to find or take a photo? I thought so.

I finished reading (or listening to, if you want to know the truth) Seth Godin's Tribes a while ago, but refused to remove it from the section over there until I actually got to write a review about it. I need to get in the habit of writing reviews before I forget my opinion, or let it get corrupted by stuff I read afterwards.
 
The book focuses on leadership, and how we humans need tribes to be happy, and how these tribes need leaders to thrive. Tribes are formed from an idea, a concept, that brings people together and encourages movements to start based on that common idea. Once the tribe is formed, it is up to the leader to keep the tribe tight, no matter how big it is, and encourage action.
 
Tribes are so essential because we all have the need to belong. Tribes bring us together, and make us happier. Take me, for example. Last Monday I updated my Facebook saying that I must really be lacking exercise and vitamin d, because I was just feeling really depressed. A few hours later I received a comment from a former professor, telling me that it was Blue Monday, which is officially the most depressing day of the year, so my feelings were shared by millions of people. I immediately felt better. He said he was feeling the same way. There were articles about Blue Monday. I belonged somewhere. People understood. Then my professor said "it's not about us as it is about we." I understood that my professor was telling me that it's never so bad when you belong so a group of people that share your feelings. He is also a big fan of Tribes.
 
Godin also touches the all important fact that nowadays tribes can be easily formed, because in the age of social media there is no geography barrier. If your tribes members are all over the globe, that's ok, you can still have a tight group of people representing what they have in common, still proud and passionate about their movement. Websites like Twitter and Facebook make is easy for tribe leaders to form a connection with and between the tribe's members.
 
But while I thought Godin's frequent examples of successful tribe leaders was entertainment, I have to admit I had hoped to get more information on HOW to become a tribe leader, not only WHO tribes leaders are. He had the example of the guy who got sick and tired of waiting in line for a party, so he decided to go across the street and, in 4 minutes, created a party of his own, because through Twitter he was able to immediately find other people with the same interest and make that into a movement. Well, that's pretty awesome, but how did this guy go about making all these connections? How did he prepare for the moment when he'd need all those people to come together? I hope there's a sequel talking about preparing yourself to form a tribe, and finding your members, because this book barely touched it.
 
Overall I was pleased with the book (or audio book, whatever). It was simple and easy to pay attention to. It got a little repetitive at times, but spread the idea that we need to be heretics nicely, and in an exciting way. As for the audio book I got, the only problem I had was, maaaaan, I really can't stand the way Godin says "huge" with a silent H. But if that's my only complain, we're good.
 
I just started listening to World Wide Rave, by David Meerman Scott, which, from what I've seen so far, touches on the same concepts of finding people with similar interests and bringing them together. I'm really enjoying it, but I had to stop for a while, because I just received Handcrafted CSS, by Dan Cederholm, and I'm devouring it.

I keep telling myself I need to start writing here, but I have trouble starting things. Not just writing, but with everything. Once the ball's rolling I go with it, but the problem is getting the ball up on the hill and pushing it down. So I'll do what I always do when confronted with this heavy ball at the bottom of the hill: talk about food.
 
Yesterday was my friend Lili's birthday, and a few of us went into Boston for dinner. We ended up at BarLola on Comm Ave, a fantastic tapas restaurant with live Spanish music and a Flamenco dancer. Having never been to a tapas restaurant before, I was super excited to, well, try everyone else's food around me (I have the tendency to do that anyways, and this was encouraged there, which was fantastic) as well as sharing my own.
 
Well, this was a fun experience by itself. Lots of talking, no overeating (because it's rude to eat all of someone else's dish) but just enough so you're not hungry anymore, and fun music. But wait, there's more. There's rabbit. Yes, rabbit. On the menu.
 
After a long discussion on who would actually order the rabbit (nodoby wanted the blood of innocent cuteness on their hands, although the thought of not getting it never crossed our minds), and many backyard rabbit tales while we waited for our dish, we all manned up and tried a little. And it felt like heaven in our mouths. Tender, juicy, heaven.
 
And then we felt really sad, especially when our friend Ivey, who was sitting next to us and is a vegetarian, reminded us of the cute hopping rabbits do, and their families. And that's when I realized I had grown up to be exactly what I always feared: the Walrus from the Through The Looking Glass' The Walrus and The Carpenter. And while I felt terrible for that rabbit's babies, I realized I did not regret eating it for one minute. And then it struck me, how is rabbit different from the chickens and cows I eat every day? Why do we feel more guilt over eating something that's cute? Separating animals sounds prejudiced. And suddenly, I was free from all guilt. And then someone brought up dog soup, and that's just something I'm not ready for, no matter how prejudiced it makes me.

Here's a blog post. Now to find what is different from a story. Kthxbye.