Tips for Organizing Pictures on Your Facebook Business Page

What do you know, I'm actually posting something about business! I've been looking through craft business pages I like on Facebook, and I've noticed problems I see with their "Photos" sections. I have my own Facebook page (here), and I don't get a whole lot of business, but I do like to try to make sure my pictures are good. So I posted these tips on my page, and now I'm posting them here.


1. Make sure the titles of albums are descriptive. People aren't likely to look through all the albums titled "Untitled Album" and "December 2011."

2. If you make a custom item, put it on your wall. Then put the pictures in an appropriate album. People aren't as concerned wit

h what you made "For Linda" as they are with a beautiful scarf.

3. Put a good number of pictures in each album. Albums should probably have between twenty and fifty pictures in them.

4. Take two pictures of each item. They should be from different angles so customers can see the whole thing.

5. Do not edit the colors of your pictures. It's better for the customer to see the item as it is than it is for the picture to look "artistic."

6. Make sure your backdrop looks good. If your feet are in the picture, your backdrop isn't good. It's best to take your products outside so you get good lighting and you have a neutral, natural backdrop. If you don't have a good place to take pictures outside or it's too cold or hot, open the curtains inside and put up a neutral, uncluttered backdrop such as a sheet or blanket or some kind of board.

7. Make sure your pictures are in focus. It might take several tries, but it is worth it. Not only do in-focus pictures make your business look more professional, but it helps your customers to see the products better.

Some Thoughts I Have about What's Going On

In case you didn't know, there's another presidential election coming up. Guys are making speeches, and people are making comments. Not everybody knows about all the problems going on in the country or has any idea about how to fix them, but most people understand the controversial debates. I think we agree that the Big 2 are abortion and gay marriage. They've been talked about for a long time. I have some thoughts of my own.

First off are my thoughts on abortion. I am strongly against it. But here's the thing. Unfortunately, there are people out there who participate in its execution for whatever reason. If I had to pick someone to take a stand against on this issue, it would be the doctors who do it. Not only do many of them do it just for the money, but I've heard of doctors who suggest abortions to women who would never have considered it and did not give any indication that it was an option for them. (I have a lot of things against doctors, by the way, but we can save that for another day.) As for the women who get abortions, yes, there are some who just use it as a way out of their inconvenience. However, I don't think that's the majority of them. I think most of them feel like it's their only option, and there are some whose parents (or boyfriends, etc.) force them to do it (shouldn't that be illegal?!!). My thought is that most of the people who are for abortion are those who have never had unplanned pregnancies personally. I think those who deal with unplanned pregnancies should be educated about their options and offered support because there are a lot of young women who get abortions and feel horrible about it or who see abortion as a better alternative than adoption (because they wouldn't know whom their babies were going to live with for the rest of their lives).

But now to the issue: whether or not to keep abortion legal. The thing is that abortion has been legal for several years now. Before it was legal, people were doing it anyway, and it was done in very unsafe ways. Abortions nowadays are safer for women than they were before, but there are still women who die from infections resulting from them. So should we go back to the old ways and have many more women die from improperly done abortions? If we don't want one person to die, we definitely shouldn't want it to happen to two.

Now on to the next topic--gay marriage. I'm also against this because my belief is that homosexual activity is wrong. But you can't change people's thoughts and morality by making them illegal. It's like if the government made church congregation illegal. There would still be Christians. There won't be any more gay people just because we make it legal for them to get married, and there won't be any fewer if this issue is put to rest by making it illegal all over the country.

But here's the legal issue I'm concerned about. If gay marriage is legalized, will the government force churches to hold wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples? Now comes in the issue of separation of church and state. People bring that up when there's talk about wanting gay marriage to be illegal because, according to the major religions, homosexual activity is wrong. People that are for gay marriage say that the church can't force its morality on the government because the two entities are separate. But it works the other way too. According to separation of church and state, if the government decides to follow that rule, it cannot make it illegal for a church to turn down gay couples who want to get married. But I do think that the government will hold on to that rule and will not force churches to marry gay couples. Besides, there's the courthouse, there are nonreligious weddings, and there are even churches who would do it.

So the moral of the story is that if you're against these two issues, you need to be more concerned about the people than you are the law. People need to be loved more than anything else. And once love is established there comes education. People will make their own decisions. It's not your job to make them to it. It's just your job to try to help them get there. Lovingly. Gently. Without anger.

How I Feel about Global Warming

Here's the thing about global warming: I'm not sure if it exists or not. I know that we should take care of the earth, and I'm a strong believer in not overusing resources (creative representation here). However, I don't follow the climate change trend. I also don't know much about it. I will admit that up front. I heard a little piece of data about it, that the average temperature of the earth has gone up one degree Fahrenheit in the past one hundred years. The problem that the one stating that piece of data had with the piece of data was that there were not instruments sophisticated enough one hundred years ago to determine the exact temperature to whatever number of decimal points. I don't know if that's true. I know a little bit of science, but I know a minuscule amount about history that is actually accurate. But anyway, I think that the earth probably goes through cycles. I've also heard that in the 1970s there was this theory called global freezing. So I'm just not sure.

But I have a theory of my own (warning: I may be making up science here and you should not take what I say too seriously). You've heard of the law of conservation of energy right? It says that energy is neither created nor destroyed but only converted. You can see this law in practice when you throw a rock in the water. It doesn't just go in. The energy from the throwing of the rock goes into the water and creates ripples. They just keep going and going and going. But they keep getting smaller, so that energy goes away eventually, right? That's what I thought. I asked someone where that energy goes after you can't see it anymore. That someone said that the energy is released as heat. Hmm. Interesting concept. (Note: I don't know why I was having a physics discussion with someone. I don't know that much physics.)

So most of the energy from movement ends up getting converted to heat. Therefore... not only are you destroying ozone by driving your gasoline-powered car, but it's also letting off heat. Oh no! Cars must be the enemy! But it doesn't stop there. With every step you take, every breath, every keystroke... you're letting off heat. You're putting more heat into the atmosphere and turning the earth into even more of a greenhouse!

What's worse, those people who exercise for their health are being a detriment to the atmosphere even more because they move more. So there you have it. You cannot be an environmentalist and a health nut at the same time. Someone should tell my high school French teacher (who claimed to be an environmentalist but also cut down who knows how many trees to build her huge house).

Please consider the health of the earth. Just sit and do nothing.

Why I Get Mad at the School Establishment

I have a lot of problems with the ways people and organizations use their money. But I get particularly upset with Christian organizations who spend way too much money on things that don't matter and then don't do what they're supposed to be doing, which is loving people and, therefore, taking care of them.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. I go to a Christian university. It has its share of good and bad... stuff. Just about everything. Teachers, areas of study, building amenities, rules, etc. The other day, I was going downstairs in one of the buildings I have class in. I noticed that even though the building should only have two flights of stairs considering it only has three floors, it has almost four complete flights of stairs (or just two double-sized flights, each with a landing halfway up). How can the school justify this? Last time I checked, there wasn't a person in the world who was fifteen feet tall (or however high the ceilings are. They're about that high), so why do the ceilings need to be that high?

The doors are eight feet tall, which I suppose is acceptable considering that's standard size. But since the doors are only eight feet tall, there's no reason the ceilings need to be taller than nine and a half or ten feet tall. Now let's do some math. If the building was built with three 10-foot floors instead of 15-foot floors, that would have been fifteen feet of building material saved all the way around the large building and several thousands of dollars saved. In fact, it probably would have been at least enough to give one more person a half-tuition scholarship.

Not only would having shorter floors save on building material, but heating and cooling a smaller building would cost significantly less money than what the school is paying because of the building's size. The electricity could even have been cheaper because of smaller light fixtures that would have needed to be used. In a few years, enough money could have been saved to give someone else a scholarship.

Is it not worth it to make our ridiculously high ceilings five feet shorter if it means sending another person to school? How does this not make sense?

Now, don't get me wrong. I know some high ceilings are justified. I understand the size of the gym because of the formation of bleachers so they can seat a lot of people. I also understand the recital hall's high ceiling both because of seating and because of acoustics. But in both of these cases the larger rooms take up more than one floor, which makes financial and structural sense.

Weather Man

We have a friend over for Spring Break. He likes to have philosophical, religious, and political "conversations."

Today this friend said someone asked him how we can have free will if God is omniscient (knows everything). I decided to add my input on this even though I wasn't sure if they would pay attention to me. Here's the gist of what I said (which both he and Jon said was a perfect response).

People think about that the wrong way. They think that we do things because God knows we're going to do them, but it's not like that. It's the opposite way. That's like saying it snowed because the weatherman said it was going to snow. No! The weatherman said it was going to snow because it was going to snow!

I've decided to call this the Weather Man Fallacy. (Is that okay? I'd never coined my own philosophical term until today.) People say that God knows what is going to happen, so we have no choice but to follow through with what God knows. But that's not how it goes at all. God knows things are going to happen because they are going to happen.

I mentioned this in fewer words in the single philosophy class I've taken. My teacher said something that made me feel good about it (that it's a philosophical way of thinking or something like that). Then he said it's not a very Christian way of thinking. I don't see how that's true. Isn't our faith dependent on our free will?

New Video for the First Time in Over a Year!

I don't know if anyone's follerin this, but I wanted to let my imaginary fans know I made a new video. I've also been working on Spring and St. Patrick's Day crafts and am planning a St. Patrick's Day event. The event will consist of groups of people finding four-leaf clovers and people pledging money that will go to organizations that help alcoholics (and other drug addicts) and their families.

Also (good news!!!) I'm very excited about the 23rd of March. I get to sing with my brother-in-law's band at a show at his house. :-) I'll try to get some videos to post.

By the way, here's a link to my new video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMB1OoYud3c

Ideal Self

I'm in a psychology class right now because that's one of the options for a marketing degree. This made me happy. Psychology is interesting. I thought I'd share a little bit about what we did today and how it got me thinking.

We did a Venn Diagram of "Real Self vs. Ideal Self." As the terms imply, "real self" means how you are now, whereas "ideal self" means how you would like to be. I began adding things like "unmotivated" versus "seeing opportunities to do what I love," and of course there were things that overlapped such as "being married to Jon." I've struggled over the years, particularly recently, about what I want to do with my life--what I want to be. I'm married, so I've got one thing down. I know I want kids, so I don't have to worry about that. But as far as career, I'm sort of stuck. I should be deciding this. I only have a year and a half of college left. I'm taking a business degree, but I don't want to be a businessperson.

I have a lot of interests: music, making things, acting, art, writing, child care, tutoring, flower arranging, and even stand-up comedy (that is one thing I have not had the boldness to try yet). There is a huge number of things I could do with these interests, and I've thought of many of those things. The problem is that my resources are limited, so I'm going to have to be creative to come up with something that works. I also don't want to do just one thing. That's boring. I'd love to be a singer/writer/actress/painter. But how will I get there?

So I finally decided what I want to be, and it's not what I expected.
Here's what I want to be:

Are you ready for this?

What I want to be is...

Ambitious.

Surprised? Maybe not. I tend to be unmotivated because sometimes I don't feel a lot of support. Jon likes playing and singing with me sometimes, but I rarely get to do crafts with people, and Tell City, Indiana doesn't exactly have a community theater program. To overcome these kinds of things one has to have ambition. That's how people reach their goals and achieve their dreams. I feel a conviction to do some kind of performing because that's a talent God gave me. Because of that, I'm going to need all the motivation and ambition I can handle to do what He wants me to do.

My request to everyone who reads this is that you pray for me. If you have something you want me to pray about, I'll certainly return the favor.

Thanks for reading!

What do you want to be?