Rachel M. Murray's photostream  

THE BIO:
User Experience designer. Bon vivant looking to experience life. Ex-pat Canuck. Lots of things that can't fit into a box or a 50 words or less description.

THE PURPOSE:
I'm using this Flickr account as:

• a scrapbook: to share things that I come across that interest me, both online and offline
• a repository: to back-up for some photos
• a social network: to link up with interesting people, and to keep in touch with the people in my life.

I'm not the greatest photographer in the world, and right now I'm shopping around for a new camera - if anyone has recommendations, please send them my way.

THE TOOLS:
Here's some of my recommendations - I'm a Mac user, so it skews towards that.

• the best uploader for Flickr: juploadr for multiple images. It's 'cross platform, cross-site' and runs on Windows Linux and OS X and supports both Flickr and Zooomr - *and* it's Open Source. Beyond cool.
• the best screen capture software: Skitch. I take a LOT of screen captures, both for work and for interest, and Skitch lets you upload to Flickr (which is perfect for single uploads).
• the best browser: probably Firefox. Open source means a lot of great extensions, althoughI split my time between that and Safari (which equals speed!)

ME ON FLICKR:
I administer three groups here on Flickr:

• Black Rock City From Above
• Brainjams
• Web 2.0 Diagrams

If you see any pics that would fit into any of these groups, send them my way (via email or a Flickr Mail) and I’ll add them. I have to get around to actually adding pics to the groups, but they, like much things in my life, are a work in progress.

If you have any other questions, drop me a line. :) info "at" rachelmmurray.com always works.

ABOUT THE USER NAME:
Oh yes, about the name 'writeonwriteoff'. I wish I could change it to 'rachelmmurray' but it looks like I'm stuck with this for now. Here's an explanation of why I've called it 'write on/write off':

• the medium: I'm a fan of whiteboards. In meetings I'm always suggesting people use them, and I find myself using them - for work, for home, as a dream journal, you name it. When I came across a most excellent (i.e. usable, affordable) portable whiteboard system I started thinking that what one does with whiteboards - the action of writing on and wiping off - might serve as a metaphor for the blogging experience. We post an entry ("write on") and delete them or they become archived ("write off"). They can become as permanent as the author decides to make them.

• the process of building: finishing up yet another redesign of my site I named two of the images 'write_on.gif' and 'write_off.gif', and for some reason it stuck with me.

• the critic: Whenever I come across things that work - or don't work - I compulsively have to share it with others. Heck, isn't that what blogging is, in part, about? This will be a place to celebrate all that works - the "right on's" so to speak - and what doesn't work - the "write-offs" in my life - be it design related or non-design related. But this isn't just about my life...which reminds me of:

• the interactivity of it all: What makes blogs so interesting is the opportunity for the author to interact with the reader (one wonder what Marshall McLuhan would have to say about the hazards of that). So a blog gives you, the reader, the chance to 'write on' about what you think about a chosen entry. If you choose to 'write off' - that is, stay silent, then so be it; if you take the opportunity to 'write on' and interact, then you can benefit from the dialogue. Books (and any medium of information) need to be critically engaged with to fully benefit from the experience - that means wrestling with the contents through deliberation, discussion and debate. That's the strength of this medium, and why I want you to write on. So that's the name. Nothing more, nothing less. Thanks for reading :)