Google Apps

Google goes over the top again - building it's empire.

Google Apps was released last year in August of 2006. I've started using it for the email client for a small business in Austin that needed an all in one solution for email and communication. Anytime you start a small business, budget plays a huge role in the success of the business. Anytime you can save money, it's vital to the business. That's what Google Apps provides...

Google Apps is a great resource for small companies that don't have their own IT resources at their disposal. It brings together communication services to unite your organization. The best part, it's easy to set up, nothing to install, no hardware needed and no maintenance required on your end -- also, did I tell you, it's free!

Here are just a few of the cool communication tools it offers:

1. Gmail - Offers 10 GB of storage for each account
2. Google Talk - You can send IM anytime, anywhere - file sharing and voicemail is included.
3. Google Calendar - You can organize your schedules, share events, meetings and calendars with others. Even publish events to the web for your users to view.

Here are some publishing tools it offers:

1. Google Docs - Create documents, spreadsheets and presentations - collaborate with other users in real time.
2. Start Page - A central place for users to view their inboxes and calendars, important content and search the web.
3. Google Page Creator - Create and publish web pages for your domain easily - you don't even need to know html.

Google Apps offers gmail to organizations with your own personalized email address - ie: irock@ialwaysrock.com. It has powerful virus, phishing, and spam filtering, POP capabilities, free forwarding and mobile access (easily install Gmail mobile app to your BlackBerry for access anytime) to provide you a complete mail solution.

Google Apps offers 99.9% guarantee uptime for all premier edition users. Bonus!

Also it's supported by all of the most widely used browsers, IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Netscape and others.

Expect it to evolve as all of Google's applications do...

Oh, I just downloaded Google SketchUp 6.0. Google SketchUp combines a compact yet robust tool-set with an intelligent guidance system that streamlines the 3D drawing process. I'm going to play with it a bit and blog my review of it on my next posting. I love 3D modeling and think this is going to be another one of my new passions. Stay tuned.

It's been over one week

I have to mention that it's been over 1 week since any of my things have been mutilated beyond repair. Can you believe something so cute is possible of such?

I still wake up each day and let my eyes peruse the room to see if anything is missing or destroyed. It's been a wonderful one week without anything missing (usually find in the backyard shredded) and nothing at home being torn to shreds.

I'm so proud of Boomer...*smiles*

Not sure how true this is...

A cool cat friend of mine, took a "nerd" test. He's brilliant beyond belief - one of those people that know so much and are talented at whatever they do! Well, he took the test and he ranked pretty high on most of the categories and it referred to him as a Cool Nerd King. Well, it's 33% correct. He's is very cool and could possibly be a king if the opportunity presented itself.

I just took the Nerd Test V.2 and here were the results. It's false though. It's 75% wrong! I'm am never kinda in anything. It's all or nothing! I am not a dork by any means - geez. Nerd - nope, nada. The part I completely agree with - yep, I'm a queen.

There is a quote that all us girls should think like a queen.

"A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness."

Har, so all my failures are just helping me reach my grandness! *Whew*

Hermit Days...we all have them and we are okay

I go in periods where I surrender myself at home. I do not have the desire to connect to people on messenging or on the phone -- I want to be a ghost. I'll entertain myself with sketching, reading or creating something that is unique -- perhaps sleep, then wake up after a few hours still feeling like I didn't accomplish everything that I am destined to accomplish for the day - something is always not finished.

Hmmm, do I or any of us really exist? Well, I think I'm alive, I think I still exist, I know I'm breathing and I'm tangible. But who can prove the truth of that when people don’t see or hear from you? Are you actually alive? Perhaps it's the same - If we have no contact with the outside world, is it the same as not existing. So does that mean I like not existing?

Heh, then I can easily rationalize that I am walking the fine line of sanity with a dash of insanity.

It’s defintitely an experience, actually, to feel like a ghost -- when I'm walking through my home as the sun is rising, sunlight barely filtering from the blinds which makes my vision blurred, swaying a bit because I am not fully awake. I don't feel nervousness, panic, happiness or sadness -- nothing --just a neutral twinge of habit. Just like a newborn -- you rest your weary bones on your bed as night falls, then suddenly, you watch the moonlight rise and shine and you feel archaic nostalgia as if you’re remembering the world when it actually began. You feel wise, and all-knowing, yet possibly not alive.

Even when I go out alone, many times I walk through crowds and I feel invisible as if they don’t see you at all. Am I really alive?

I don't long for what many others do - warmth, comfort, or love. In turn, I don’t tire myself from experiencing the emptiness of some emotion. Am I just selfish and want to not have to experience what many do with emotions? Is it easier to remove emotions and then we have no expections of others, just myself.

I am a friend of solitude and melancholia. I like to sit in the shadows, observing the miracle of this world watching it go by, and I feel omnipotent -- almost like a god.

And just like that, I am affirmed that it’s all right to go on my hermit days. It's ok being alone -- away from the world. For myself, anyway. I exhibit unexplainable behavior if I am kept from my alone time.

For the life of me, I don’t even know why I’m designed this way -- that I need time apart from this constantly mingling, constantly talking ecosystem of temporary bonds and sometimes superficial happiness.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I am so fortunate and honored that I get to experience and communicate with individuals who are built differently than I am. I see the smiles and pleasantries involved in dialogue and they are completely happy and content. I thank my friends and loved ones who show me their worlds.

And now, as I sit here as midnight approaches, with the silence for company in the background, and I realize how it pleases me to be alone. I do get a sense of a god-like complex. I get a better hold of myself, my feelings, my thoughts -- and I am finally be able to just enjoy the quiet that I seek after a day full of experiences that create us. It’s not even the "loser-kind" of being alone. I actually thrive when I am left alone. I get peace from the warm and bountiful silence -- and I'm okay, always okay whether I am existing or ultimately, not existing.