Anvil Graphics Blog

The death trap at 25/34 begins reconstruction today – not a moment too soon for this driver. We have been avoiding those clover loops whenever possible for many years now. Congratulations go to Centerra, who is funding the $9 million project, and the City of Loveland, for spearheading the effort for a long time. The project will take nearly a year to complete.

Anybody who has driven the 25/34 interchange more than a few times has a hair-raising story to share. We have been frustrated for a long time to see major interchange construction in both north and south parts of I-25 through Colorado Springs, the massive T-Rex project in south Denver, the new bridges along 25 in north Denver, and the updated entrances to Fort Collins — when all the while the worst of the bunch went from bad to worse. This has been a regional concern when considering the amount of traffic using that intersection everyday by commuters traveling between the cities of northern Colorado and points south. THANK YOU to anyone who had a hand in getting this construction going.

Up next, the I-25 and Hwy 392 exits at Windsor.

YouTube is the brainchild of three former PayPal employees who, back in the early part of 2005, decided the internet needed a simpler way for users to share video with one another. The site is now the fourth most visited in the world, and consumes over $1 million of bandwidth cost per day. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in July we discussed several methods of acquiring nice photos for use in your projects. The best way to have the right photo is nearly always to hire a professional, but that can get expensive fast, and justifiably so. If hiring a professional is just not in your budget, than stock photos become your next best option.

We recently did a thorough review of the major online stock photo services and would like to report on those findings. Read the rest of this entry »

Today in Europe they celebrate Armistice Day, the ending of World War l. Of course, here in the US that commemorative day has become Veteran’s Day, when we have the opportunity to pay homage and say thanks to those who have served in the military in defense of our nation. Thank you veterans and active duty personal for your commitment to freedom and your dedication to the ideals and principles this country is founded on.

It is a cliche to say, “Your freedom it not free”, but it is true. A steep price has been paid for over 200 years on battlefields on nearly every continent by US soldiers, marines, sailers and airman. I honor their lives, the sacrifice of their family and friends, and pay tribute in a tiny little way for all of those who gave their last full measure.

God bless you all, living and died, for defending America and all she stands for. If at all possible, thank a veteran today – and everyday.

We have already had a little preview of the cold months ahead – even cold enough in October to break a pipe on my sprinkler system. Despite the recent beautiful days, we all know that Old Man Winter is about to strike again. Most mornings have been cold enough to require scraping ice on my windshield. So, it is time to clear out the garage.

The house I grew up in had no garage, so my mom and dad, and later all of us kids, scraped thick ice off February windshields. All our neighbors had garages, and my dad always planned on building one but just never got around to it. I swore that my wife and I would park our cars in the garage, and we do every winter.

So here’s the rant: Why don’t more people do that? My neighbor man is a single guy who owns one small truck and a large two-car garage, yet he will certainly scrape his windows every day for the next 5 months, just like he has for the past 15 years.

For goodness sake, take a weekend, park a dumpster in front of your house, and clean that garage out – if not for you, than at least one stall for your wife. Winter is harsh in Colorado, enjoy a clean windshield and warmer car each morning.

I really enjoy Halloween – it is a unique holiday which has an interesting history. I like haunted houses and have been to some pretty cool ones over the years. I like the make believe of costumes. I like the parties and masquerade. I enjoy seeing the little kids come to the door dressed as princess’s, Spiderman, ninja, army guys, and all the rest. My favorite costume is probably the classic “hobo” – but today we have to be PC and call them the formerly housed. Actually, I think hobo was more of a lifestyle choice, but I digress. Halloween is also a HUGE money maker, second only to Christmas in terms of consumer spending. Adults like to fantasize as well.

The problem is that so many people dislike Halloween, and believe it to be a pagan festival or invitation to join the dark side. It reminds me of the original debate regarding the Harry Potter movies. Some parents where completely against HP, yet those same parents watch re-runs of Bewitched. Halloween teaches kids the difference between fantasy and reality, and lets them act out, if only for an evening, the feeling of being a Princess, or even a wicked witch.

Adults, lighten up! Quite spoiling everything. Let kids have some imagination and a playful holiday. You can control the outfit your kid wears, he doesn’t have to go as a vampire. Halloween is fun and can exist at that level – by pointing out all the dangers we actually encourage kids to investigate the darker side — but then knowledge is power, so it probably isn’t all bad.

Sooner or later every Internet user tries to email a file, only to find out that the attachment is too large for the email server to handle. What to do? Well to be sure there is no lack of excellent solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

At the risk of sounding like a bad football coach or an even worse businessman motivator, the cliche’ is true, “Attitude Is Everything”.

Into every situation we bring an essential ingredient for success or failure, ourselves. We are ever present, and constantly making subtle judgments about our surroundings and the people present. Our attitude colors every one of those interactions and causes us to either accept or reject the people and ideas around us.

Our attitude is largely a result of our own self-talk, that little sound track constantly running in our heads. We are taught that we are winners, but so often people feel less than confident. Our inner self-talk reflects those feelings, and begins to come out in how we interact with others. Right now there are a lot of people who have lost a job, or are working fewer hours and making less income. These kinds of outward influences can certainly effect how we view ourselves, and it effects how we talk to ourselves.

I suggest that you are worthy. Your life situations, or even your own bad attitude, are only temporary. You are a child of God, forgiven – and worthy. There is no need to feel shame or guilt, or to carry scares of the past into the future. You are a unique creation from the creator of the universe, magnificent in your complexity and possibilities.

Don’t fall into the trap of constantly speaking what you have and where you are, let your inner voice lead you to something new – something unseen. Believe in something great and move in that direction.

I challenge you to change your inner self-talk to echo a new reality. Your are worthy of so much more, capable of things so much greater. Let your self-talk speak of your destiny and direction. Let speak you to a great attitude were you see new promise. Be a child that your Father can be proud of.

I stay busy, I am pretty sure of it. And I whack line after line off ‘to do’ lists both here in the office and at home. And things get done, I can point to plenty of projects and errands and meetings and phone calls and emails and family time and involvement at church. I don’t watch much TV, perhaps 8 to 10 hours per week (and virtually no sports). We don’t have any of the premium cable channels, so half of what I watch is in Spanish. I don’t game online or with the Playstation. I don’t Facebook or MySpace or YouTube. I do have a Linkedin account, but it took me 3 months to fill in the profile and make my first contact. I don’t spend much time online at forums or surfing the internet. Unfortunately, I don’t volunteer much time at all in the community or at a school or in a nursing home or with Boy Scouts. I don’t spend time online tracking my meager investments or planning my next brilliant financial move.

I don’t remember my parents being so busy. I remember them in the living room having long conversations about work, night after night. I remember long Saturdays doing some house work and then settling in for a BBQ on the patio. I think they paid their few bills in a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon. My parents worked hard full-time, but in their off hours they were really off, and appeared (at least to a child) to have hours and hours of leisure time.

We seem to spend 3 or 4 hours a week inputting every receipt into Quickbooks, researching mistakes by the water company, following up on overcharges at the bank, reconciling multiple accounts, talking to a rep at Verizon about the PureLuv.com charge that showed up on our cellphone bill, finding out why Intuit started charging $39 every month after a one-time tech support call. And so it goes.

Our modern world sucks the time and life out of all of us. We were supposed to be empowered by technology, when the reality is that it is just another thing on a never ending to do list. I have “list anxiety”, that nagging feeling that there is always another thing that needs to be checked off – another project to complete.

So I don’t think I am a procrastinator, I try hard to get the things done which need done. I know I am not alone, on this planet we are the busiest nation of people going nowhere — our faces turned down to our iPhones, checking voice mail for the tenth time today.

Pretty much every day I get emails from otherwise highly qualified professional people who are poorly identified in their email communication. Here is what I mean.

There is a message in my inbox right now from a great sales lady who works for a really good printing company. She is identified as Terry Knox (not her real name) and the subject is “Did you know….”. I sort through a lot of email each day, and I did not immediately recognize this salesperson and the subject line is less than enlightening. This message was one click away from the trash heap.

In the inbox of email there are two things which identify you and the purpose of your message; the SENDER (or NAME) and the SUBJECT. It is really important that you take full advantage of both of these data fields so that your recipient knows who you are and what you want.

Take the time and go into your account settings and adjust your name. If you are writing email representing a business, then use the business name like “Anvil Graphics”, or if part of a larger organization perhaps combine your name with that of the company like “Bob at Microsoft”. Avoid only your personal name, and for goodness sake don’t use only your first name without identifying the business you represent. When you enter your identity in the email account, don’t use quotation marks. When your message arrives I want to know who you are and where your from (so does everyone else).

Take the time to write a meaningful subject line. Avoid phrases like, “Whadaya think???” or “Call me” or “Proposal”. In a very short phrase try to capture what your communication is about – like a thesis statement, make it specific. So instead of ‘Call me’, you might write, “Need to change Friday’s meeting time”. This is much more helpful when your recipient is reviewing their inbox and trying to figure out what action to take (and how long it will take) for each message.

Specific subjects also really help when organizing email. Some of us file away your email messages for future reference, so we like a quick topic overview. We use Thunderbird to manage email partly because it allows for folder and sub-folders. We file your messages away based on the project, so we can quickly find the information in the future. A clear subject helps us do that much quicker, without having to review the message again.

One final note, when possible, try to limit your email to one topic, that way the message can be filed away easily into one folder (one subject line / one topic / one folder). I admit this takes extra time and effort, but when you get a reply, you actually know the moment you see the message in the inbox what the reply is about – all because you took the time to write a good subject line.