Pinterest is a medium I have been using for about a year now. I got an invite early on and thought it would be a great medium for sharing design related things, particularly web design related things such as screencaps of cool websites, fonts and useful code snippets (since about a year ago not many others were pinning those things). Unlike other social media that I tried I used Pinterest largely for myself as an inspirational tool. When I see something I love I pin it there and when I am having designer’s block I go to Pinterest and often feel inspired to create something cool and different or to try something new. I didn’t care if I got followers, I created it for me to remember the things I like.

In the past few months my boards (my websites board in particular) have gotten more and more followers and overnight last night my mailbox was filled with emails of new followers. This morning I found that overnight this post was put up on Design Shack – 200+ Pinterest Boards for Designers to Follow. If you hadn’t guessed some of my Pinterest boards are listed, only about 20 people down. How cool!

I had tried to used other social media mediums for design purposes but it never took hold, yet the one that I did for myself and myself alone did. I guess it just goes to show you, social media doesn’t work if it’s insincere. Be yourself, show who you are and what you love and there are people out there that will take to it.

If you haven’t gotten in on Pinterest yet and would like an invite let me know, I have a few left.

With all the web talking about Steve Jobs death I wasn’t sure if I should put anything on here with regards to it. I am just a lowly web geek and even though I do love Apple products I am no fangirl and I obviously didn’t know him personally so what possible effect could his passing have had on me? What right do I have to say anything?

But when I get right down to it, most of how I see the world every day and even right now as I type this was shaped by Steve Jobs and his very strong vision. Honestly, I’m doubtful I would even be a web designer / developer today without his effect on the world.

Back when I started to learn how to make websites everyone could have one and honestly they were ugly. Apple was on the verge of collapse and computers where more utility than design. Even I didn’t switch to a mac until about 5 years ago, but how I learned to create websites and how I still like to design websites was shaped by Apple once Steve Jobs was back at the helm. Clean, simple and easy to use. I remember seeing the web and how it changed as Apple became more and more popular again. Was it all Apple? Of course not, it was many things but I do think it was a part of it even if it was a small one.

But more than anything it was a call to strive for perfection and to think outside the box that stuck with me. Not to do something just because everyone else is doing it that way. That you can succeed by being different and thinking differently.

So even if it’s trite I still wanted to post my little tribute here. I may not have agreed with everything Steve Jobs did, but he was a visionary who died far too young. Thank you Steve Jobs for all the inspiration and motivation to be great.

So the new Social thing that everyone seems to be excited about now is the still invite only Google+. Google seems to be trying to learn from and even exploit the issues that people have had with Facebook in creating a social network that apparently takes into account all of your privacy needs and concerns. Is it really all it’s cracked up to be?

So, in this world of over-saturated social media channels like Facebook and Twitter Google has decided to launch it’s new service, Google+. I am currently using Google+, and I must say I really enjoy it. The privacy features are insanely easy to figure out and the drag and drop interface is stupidly simple. I think at the moment they are trying to build hype with the whole “invite only” thing since it seems like most people who ask will get an invite or know someone who has invites to give. Still, right now it seems to be filled with techies and friends of techies (since we got lonely and needed more friends).

As much as I like it I see some issues with Google+ becoming the new thing. First and foremost it’s annoying to have more than one social network. Keeping track of Google + and Facebook right now is driving me nuts and I still largely use Facebook since it is were most people are and I would still like to keep in touch with them. I have tried to get people to move but many just don’t seem interested and that’s the other problem. People are comfortable in Facebook and as much as we techies might talk about privacy and all other sorts of features there are many people out there who just don’t care since they have their 500 friends and starting from scratch would be too much of a pain. Plus, who’s to say things on Google + will stay as private as we would like? Google+ Terms of Service are a little troubling and as much as it gives the feel of privacy with the circles and ability to share with as many or as few people are you want the reality is this is the web and once you put it out there it’s out there so falling prey to the idea that this is so much more “safe” could be dangerous. Even with all that, I would greatly prefer to ditch Facebook for the simplicity of Google+ but it’s never that simple. A social network is no fun without friends.

For the time being the businesses are out of the picture since Google is currently deleting profiles that are businesses and not individuals. They are rolling out a business platform but it seems most of the spots have already been taken up and they just launched a new form. Personally I would rather businesses didn’t get their claws into this since social media was always supposed to be for people to connect and now it has become just as advertising saturated as everything else.

In the end only time will tell if people decide that Google + is worth moving over to or if they have the patience for yet another social media network in their lives.

Well, if you know me I am a crafty type and I recently launched a new blog for my most time consuming crafty endeavor as of late, Amigurumi. According to wikipedia amigurumi is ”the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features.”

I have been crocheting for a long time but only found amigurumi in the past year and it has suited my anime loving craftiness so well. I have recently started creating my own patterns as well so I felt it was necessary for me to have a blog to post them in since previously I was just using Google Docs.

In any event, I realize that since this is my design site the readers here may have no interest but just in case or if you are curious about me, my hobbies or amigurumi you might want to check it out so hop on over to ami.jenvasseur.com.

Copyright © 2013 Jen Vasseur

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