On a Different Note

Disclaimer: This is another post about me moving. If you're tired about me blogging about our move, you can stop here.

Now that just my mom is reading, here goes. Lately I've been verbally dreaming about all of the great things waiting for me in California, but just today it hit me that there are actually a lot of things I'll miss about Fort Wayne.

JK O'Donnell's Most people who know us know that we love, love this little Irish pub in downtown Fort Wayne. In fact, on any given Friday night, you could find us tucked into a corner or hanging out at the bar. We've met some of the most interesting (and most odd) people there.

Cheap cost of living Where else can you rent a 1,000+ square foot apartment for a little over $600?

Lots of friends and acquaintances After moving to Indiana less than 5 years ago, I knew about 5-10 people. And now, I can't count the number of great people I've met.

My Aptera co-workers I started off at Aptera as a lowly intern. A year and a half later, they took a gigantic chance and made me the web team lead. It's been a fun challenge, but the best part has been all of the great people I've been able to work with.

Our nephews (and the rest of our Indiana family) Who wouldn't miss these adorable little guys?! Seriously though, my husband's family graciously accepted this quirky Kansas girl into their lives. I've got amazing in-laws.

All photos by Jenna at Andy & Jenna Photo Design

With all of this said, after being apart for nearly a month, I'm really ready to spend some quality time with my favorite man. January 29 come quickly!

Bringing Holiday Cheer...Aptera Style

One of my most favorite parts of what I do at Aptera is designing the Christmas cards, and I've been lucky enough to snag that gig three out of the four Christmas's I've been there. This year, we sent out a mass Thanksgiving card and decided to ramp up our efforts for an all-out holiday package for our "VIP" clients.

There wasn't a specific budget for the packages, but we wanted to stay as inexpensive as possible while still sending out something memorable...and what's more memorable than a four-pack of Aptera-branded beer?

All of the printing, assembly, and label-scrubbing was done in-house, so the only major cost was the beer.

Awkward Family Photos

I got a call at work today from a person who I assume to be the owner of AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. Here's how it went: Me: Thank you for calling Aptera this is Brooke Caller: You have photos on your blog that don't belong to you. Me: May I ask who is calling, and can you tell me what photos they are? I am happy to remove them. Caller: You have 12 hours.

*click*

Total shock. I was completely shocked. First, let me say that I use photos that are not mine on my blog quite often. However, I try as best I can to reference the photo, which is completely legal.

Here's the thing. Millions of bloggers do this every single day. In fact, there are thousands (and probably even millions) of bloggers who use other people's photos and don't reference the person they took the photo from. Regardless, someone taking my photos, posting them on their website, and linking back to my website is great for a couple of reasons:

1. They are promoting me for free by displaying my work for all of their readers to see. On top of that, they are linking back to my website, and chances are, lots of people will visit my website because of that link. That is good for me.
2. There is also something called search engine optimization (SEO) that helps websites be found by Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. If someone posts my work on their blog and links to me, that is good. Search engines like it when other websites are linking to your website (within reason) because it means you have a credible website. Linking your blog to my blog helps my website SEO. It makes me happy.

Luckily the caller's number was on my call list so I called back. The phone rang a few times, the the person on the other line picked up the call and immediately hung up. So I called again. This time I got a voicemail and left a very polite message for someone named Jane, telling her that I would need to know exactly what photos she was referencing.

About 5 minutes later I received another call from the same number.

Call #2: Me: Thank you for calling Aptera, this is Brooke. Caller: You need to remove the photos from your blog. Me: Can you please tell me what photos you are talking about? Caller: You have photos on your blog that do not belong to you and they need to be removed immediately. Me: I'm very happy to remove them, but I need to know which photos they are in order to remove them. Caller: The photos are not yours. You need to remove all photos from your blog that are not yours.

*click*

The frustration sets in. Now I'm starting to get kinda frustrated. I had no problem removing the photos, in fact, if someone was upset because I used their photos, I wanted to remove them. The small problem was that I didn't know what photos she was referencing. I was also starting to get nervous because I didn't want some sort of lawsuit slapped on me, so I asked my husband to try calling the number.

I don't know what was said during his conversation with her, but he found out that the caller was the owner of the website AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. She was really upset that I had posted her photos on my blog, so he deleted the post.

Here's the weird part. That blog post about her website (which included photos) was essentially promoting her website. In fact, a decent number of the hits I receive from Google are for the blog post, and I'm generating some pretty good traffic for her website considering the size of my blog.

So, if you came to my website looking for my blog post about Awkward Family Photos, I'm sorry. It's not longer online. The images below will have to suffice.

More weird than awkward. Awkward because I've voluntarily posted it online.

The same four plus a couple of extras.

Everyone's done it. Don't tell me I'm the only one.

P.S. If you have anyone has any idea where she found my direct work line, please let me know.

IT'S BEEN FOREVER BUT THIS IS COOL!

Although I realize I have been horribly shirking my blogging duties, there are very good reasons why. 1. I've been crazy busy. I am now leading Aptera's design team, which is great but doesn't feed my craving for graphic design. My position entails more project management and client relationship duties. So...I am in the middle of a few exciting, but fairly good-sized freelance projects. 2. I'm working on a font. Although I'd love to say I officially have my degree, I have to complete an additional class before they actually hand me my diploma. 3. I found Twitter. Sorry WordPress, but Twitter is much more quick and simple. I'm finding it easier and easier to to say what I want in 140 characters.

Just to prove that I haven't fallen off the face of the blogging world, I leave you with this video. I don't care who you are - this is simply amazing. Genius.

More information about the project on Pierre and Damien’s web site, pleaseletmedesign.com. More images onFlickr. You can download the free iQ font from Toyota.

aptera open house

Last night at Aptera (my employer) we celebrated our new building downtown with a ribbon cutting and huge open house. I was one of four involved in the the planning process, so it was great to be featured as the top story on the evening news. Check it out here