Marsie.com | Mary J. Kim Diaz http://www.marsie.com the design blog thereof Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:13:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Wall Street Journal’s Inside Look at Google’s New York Offices http://www.marsie.com/2012/03/wall-street-journal-googles-new-york-video/ http://www.marsie.com/2012/03/wall-street-journal-googles-new-york-video/#comments Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:47:38 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=656

This video shows some of the cool spaces we have in the NYC Google office. And yours truly appears at 1:57.

Yours truly,
Mary

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Stormtroopers can be loving dads too.

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2012/01/stormtrooper-love/feed/ 0 I’d love to stay and chat, but I really… http://www.marsie.com/2011/10/id-love-to-stay-and-chat-but-i-really/ http://www.marsie.com/2011/10/id-love-to-stay-and-chat-but-i-really/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:17:11 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=634

Oh my love for puns and mustaches…

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2011/10/id-love-to-stay-and-chat-but-i-really/feed/ 2 How our guests RSVP’d to our wedding http://www.marsie.com/2011/01/how-our-guests-rsvpd-to-our-wedding/ http://www.marsie.com/2011/01/how-our-guests-rsvpd-to-our-wedding/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:01:12 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=629

It amazes me to see how differently people respond to a simple checkbox.

(Originally posted on our wedding website over a year ago.)

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2011/01/how-our-guests-rsvpd-to-our-wedding/feed/ 1 New York City’s 311 calls http://www.marsie.com/2010/11/new-york-citys-311-calls/ http://www.marsie.com/2010/11/new-york-citys-311-calls/#comments Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:52:45 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=597

An interesting article by Wired about the topics and numbers of complaints made to NYC’s 311 line.

“Launched in March 2003, 311 now fields on average more than 50,000 calls a day, offering information about more than 3,600 topics: school closings, recycling rules, homeless shelters, park events, pothole repairs.”

Wired points out that a 2008 customer satisfaction survey conducted by a third-party firm, showed that NYC’s 311 line finished 1st in satisfaction compared to various public and private call centers. Apparently, at the very bottom of the list, are cable companies.

<random rant>By the way, I despise cable companies. I once called Time Warner Cable about 20 times because of something they screwed up on my bill and refused to fix — when some manager finally fixed the issue for me, I nearly cried.</random rant>

PS: Thanks Sunjoo for the article!

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2010/11/new-york-citys-311-calls/feed/ 0 Vintage shots in Photoshop http://www.marsie.com/2010/09/vintage-shots-in-photoshop/ http://www.marsie.com/2010/09/vintage-shots-in-photoshop/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:08:41 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=593

Achieved some sweet vintage looks in Photoshop. This one’s of me punching my brother. We’re close.

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2010/09/vintage-shots-in-photoshop/feed/ 1 How to wireframe like a ninja http://www.marsie.com/2010/08/how-to-wireframe-like-a-ninja/ http://www.marsie.com/2010/08/how-to-wireframe-like-a-ninja/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:42:02 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=569

User Experience Designer, Travis Isaacs, shares his take on balancing time vs. effort, as well as sketch vs. wireframe vs. prototype vs. comp — by creating high-fidelity wireframes in Keynote. His presentation is called Keynote Kung-Fu: How to wireframe like a ninja and was given at the Big Design Conference in May 2010. He compellingly shows why an affordable, powerful tool is needed and how Keynote can fill this void.

I personally use Omnigraffle for my hi-fi wireframing needs. And it bothers me that he assumes ninjas (Japanese) practice kung-fu (Chinese). That’s like depicting a cat barking or chirping. It just doesn’t work that way.

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2010/08/how-to-wireframe-like-a-ninja/feed/ 0 Lieutenant Geordi-Z’s hit single http://www.marsie.com/2010/08/lieutenant-geordizs-hit-single/ http://www.marsie.com/2010/08/lieutenant-geordizs-hit-single/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:16:05 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=565

Star Trek + hip hop reference = Lieutenant Geordi-Z = AWESUM

]]> http://www.marsie.com/2010/08/lieutenant-geordizs-hit-single/feed/ 0 Must-have WordPress plugins http://www.marsie.com/2010/06/must-have-wordpress-plugins/ http://www.marsie.com/2010/06/must-have-wordpress-plugins/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:14:46 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=560


My list of recommended must-have WordPress plugins. I have these plugins installed across all of my blogs and WordPress instances, no doubt about it.

  • Google Analyticator puts Google Analytics tracking information on your WordPress site to track clicks, search keywords, time on site, etc. You need a Google Analytics account for this.
  • Google Sitemap Generator generates an XML sitemap to help boost search engine traffic
  • WordPress Database Backup backs up your MySQL database to server and email
  • WordPress Backup backs up your theme, plugins and uploads to server and email
  • Lightbox 2 to elegantly display images
  • WP Contact Form to embed a contact form into your blog
  • Wordbook to automatically cross-post blog entries to your Facebook profile
  • …and of course Akismet, which comes with WordPress by default, to fight spam comments
]]> http://www.marsie.com/2010/06/must-have-wordpress-plugins/feed/ 0 Looking good, WordPress 3.0 http://www.marsie.com/2010/06/looking-good-wordpress-3-0/ http://www.marsie.com/2010/06/looking-good-wordpress-3-0/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:51:53 +0000 Mary J. http://www.marsie.com/?p=551

Newly released WordPress 3.0 is looking both beautiful (new default theme) and functional (batch updates, custom menus, custom post types, contextual help). I’m going to upgrade one of my blogs right now!

New features of WordPress 3.0 include:

  • Admin features
    • Set your admin name to whatever you like
    • Unified updating – update WordPress, plugins and themes in batch, in one place
    • Contextual help on every screen
  • New default theme “Twenty Ten”
    • New look
    • Custom backgrounds
    • Custom header images
  • Custom menu system
    • Mix and match pages, categories, custom links
    • Reorder menu items, create submenus, rename titles
    • Sidebar widget to match
  • Custom post types
  • Built-in shortlink generator
  • Update a network of sites from a single WordPress installation

UPDATE: Upgrades ran smoothly. Even batch-updated my plugins.

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