Heartbeat of the WOMA – April 2011

The mission of the WOMA remains positive and focused on our mission: “increasing media coverage of women who are active in traditional outdoor sports, especially shooting, hunting, fishing and archery.” As always, we encourage you to log in to the WOMA website and read the minutes and attachments from the March board meeting. If you do have any specific questions please send those to me, DFerns@Earthlink.net.

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Baird’s new website features outdoor photography

Jason Baird’s new website is live. Baird, an associate professor of mining at Missouri University of Science and Technology, also freelances as a photographer and writer in the outdoor market. His new site incorporates his professional explosives engineering work and his outdoor pursuits. WOMA member Paige Eissinger designed his website, based on a WordPress platform. See http://lokiconsult.com/ Read more

Can you just show me how you did it?

I’ve been in the web design business since 1999, when I started 2 Smart Chix LLC with my friend, Donna. Donna has since moved on to other creative outlets, but I’ve stayed with web design/development. I can tell you that things have changed a lot since I got started. I’ve spent hours upon hours learning my craft and I’m not just talking about how to write HTML code and insert graphics files in the right places. Read more

Just call me Bass Babe…and I don’t mean the fish!

My husband, Rick, has been trying to teach me to play acoustic guitar for years so we could play together (he’s been playing for around 35 years). He even bought me one that I’d pick up occasionally and on which I’d attempt to make a chord.

I could never get all my fingers to place the right amount of pressure on three different strings at the same time and besides, those little thin strings HURT. I just didn’t want to learn how to play badly enough to wait for calluses to take away the pain. Needless to say, my guitar spends a lot more time in the case than it does in my hands.

Just before I turned 50, I was watching a bluegrass band play special music in church one Sunday morning. I was particularly interested in watching Dave, the bass player.  Hmmmm….a bass guitar has only four strings – and they’re FAT – and you only have to play one at a time.  I announced to Rick after church that I bet I could learn to play a bass.

Instead of reminding me that I never played my guitar, he happily picked out a nice INEXPENSIVE acoustic/electric bass guitar for me. He even bought me a small amp so I could hear myself play. I remember him telling me then that he’d get me started but I’d have to buy my own electric bass.

“Why would I want an electric bass?” I scoffed. That was two electric bass guitars and five bass amps ago.  I was on my way to becoming Bootsy Hambone, Bass Babe for Diezelfitter.

Turning 50 sure started a new chapter in my life. Not only did I pick up the bass guitar, but I also followed Babbs (Barb Baird) into the woods. What started as a business relationship has grown into a firm friendship and I’m learning more about the joys of becoming an outdoors woman every day. I’m sure she still snickers when she remembers the navy blue snowsuit and toboggan I wore when I accompanied her to the woods around my home here in the Ozarks to hunt for does last fall. She took her gun. I took a camera.

We sat on the side of a hill for hours. My butt got numb and we never saw a single deer, doe or buck. I had the time of my life! Just as picking up the bass guitar started my metamorphosis into Bootsy Hambone, that little trip into the woods was the beginning of my entry into the outdoors.  Since then, I’ve been to NWTF with Barb and fellow member of The WOMA, Tammy Ballew. While we were there, we met another member, Tisma Juett, for the first annual The WOMA IHOP breakfast. These women were so cool and they did things I’d never dreamed of doing – like shooting guns and hunting wild game.

Somehow, I truly believe there must have been an outdoors woman inside this tekkie chick all along just waiting for the right time to fly the coop and go outside to play.

Right after I started playing the bass, Rick bought me a T-shirt. I proudly wore it to a concert in St. Louis knowing that it identified me as the musician I now was. We went to eat before the show, and the waitress, after reading what was on the front of my T-shirt, proudly exclaimed, “My boyfriend likes to fish, too!” What would YOU say to someone wearing a t-shirt that has “Got Bass?” printed across the front?

Tech Talk: Introducing Google Voice, another cool tool from Google

Several years ago, Jerrilyn Thomas, a colleague of mine and CEO of  Women Partner International, introduced me to Grand Central, an online application for managing phone calls from my website. In 2007, Google purchased Grand Central and it became a member of the Google family and was renamed Google Voice.

If you have a business at home as I do, you’ve probably noticed that you have a  limited number of choices for managing your phone calls. You can use your home phone number as a business number, put in another line just for business, or use your cellphone as your business contact number. With Google Voice, you have another option–a single telephone number that your clients (or prospective clients) can call, not only from their home, office or cell number, but if you put a call widget on your website, they can call you with a mouse-click.  You can set your Google Voice number to ring multiple phones or even send all your calls to voicemail. If your phone number changes or you move, your Google Voice number stays the same. All you have to do is change the number or numbers in your Google Voice account. The best thing about it is that none of the calls will cost the caller a penny.  If the call originates from inside the United States, it won’t cost you anything, either.

To learn more about how Google Voice works and the features that are available, visit http://voice.google.com (I really recommend watching the short video). You don’t have anything to lose, and all you need to get started is an invitation and a free Google account (which you can set up when you receive your invitation).

Super gals of The WOMA land in Metropolis

Here’s a great example of what happens when gals hit the road for a few days. Tammy Ballew, Paige Eissinger and Barb Baird had to pass through Metropolis, Ill., on their way to the National Wild Turkey Federation convention and show last February, in Nashville. The women spent two days at the convention and one long night at B.B. King’s place in downtown Nashville. The WOMA member Tisma Juett met them there.

Are you worried about your boss or clients seeing your Facebook page?

Some people have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I don’t, but it seems like just when I get used to the “new” interface, along comes another. I’ve even seen groups spring up on Facebook protesting the changes, and even threatening boycotts! Okay, so I’m not THAT concerned about my Facebook page. Sure, I get annoyed, but after being a Windows user for lots of years, I’ve learned to adapt. As for privacy, I just don’t post anything that I worry about anybody reading or seeing.

Recently, I’ve had the occasion to talk with several people who have read about the harm their personal Facebook pages can do to their professional reputations. Since I share my personal stuff on Facebook only with my Facebook friends and I keep my professional stuff on LinkedIn, that’s not a problem for me, but there are times when I do share professional links on Twitter (especially links to my tekkie chat podcast, Views from the Coop) that also show up on my Facebook page, since I use the Twitter gadget.  If my personal friends are interested in my professional links, that’s great, but if they’re not, then they don’t have to click. For me personally, having a separate personal and professional profile on Facebook just isn’t an issue. For those Facebook users out there who do need to be able to share selectively on Facebook, you can do that now without having to create a whole new Facebook account!

Facebook recently added an account option that allows users to selectively choose who gets to see what: The Facebook Publisher Tool.  Computerworld, among others, just blogged about the new feature, and it looks to me like it will greatly enhance the privacy of Facebook users. If you’re one of those users who is worried about your privacy, take some time to explore the new feature. Sure, it takes a little more effort on your part, but it sure seems a lot easier than maintaining separate Facebook accounts! If you need some help getting started, check out this blog post on The Next Web for some simple, clear-cut instructions.

Until next time, this has been another tekkie tidbit from The WOMA’s own tekkie chick ~ Paige Eissinger.

Paige Eissinger – Member of The WOMA

Although a newcomer to the outdoor industry, Paige Eissinger is no stranger to the outdoors. She lives with her husband, Richard, on 113 acres of beautifully wooded property overlooking the Big Dry Fork Creek in central Missouri. Populated with deer, turkeys and other wild game, Sunnyside Farm is an ideal hunting spot for Paige and Richard.

Owner since 2000 of 2 Smart Chix LLC, a one-woman web and multimedia design firm, Paige is the web administrator for The WOMA web site and author of Tech Talk, a regular column on the site. Her background is in the technology field as a web site designer, blogger and podcaster. She hopes to bring a taste of technology to the many women (and men) who not only enjoy the outdoors but want to stay up-to-date on the latest tips, tricks and tools the Internet offers for their business and personal technology needs.

You can hear Paige “Chicki Chicki” Eissinger and co-host Kim Beasley, The Blog Queen on their bimonthly podcast, Views from the Coop, at www.viewsfromthecoop.com, or live on Blog Talk Radio, www.blogtalkradio.com/viewsfromthecoop.