• We have official launched more than one Bubbly site. Bubbly is our web-based platform for crowdsourcing creative projects. Check out Remix DC for an example of a Bubbly project.
• Fab Apps worked with Unison Agency to help launch several dynamic new Flash, ColdFusion, and PHP-based websites.
• I worked with Digital Division to help launch their beautiful new website.
• My sister Lacy was the spokesperson for an excellent April Fools Day hoax against Pepco by the Greenwash Guerillas. Read about it in the Washington Post. I officially did not help at all.
• Fab Apps has also continued to do some exciting work with the Social Investment Forum, Green America, and some other great clients in recent months.

Also, sorry my last post was just about South Beach. I just wanted to send some links to a friend and decided to use this blog. I’m totally not an expert on South Beach, but I spent a great week there last year :)

UPDATE: Jim made a map too! It has more locations and comments, check it out!

The Winter Haven where we stayed. Cute art deco place in a great location.

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T-Mex – Our absolute favorite taco stand. (We rented bikes next door too!)

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Le Sandwicherie – Great outdoor sandwich place!

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Club Deuce – Our local dive bar.

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Espanola Way – This was a pedestrian-only strip that was really nice! In this picture it doesn’t appear to be pedestrian only, but the pic may be old or maybe they were trying something new. We ate at the tapas place on the corner here, and at a wine bar across the street. It was great!

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Lario’s – I think this is supposed to be Gloria Estafan’s restaurant. Yummy Cuban food. There is a lot of restaurants on Ocean Drive that are each exactly the same as the last. We mostly skipped them and ate here.

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The Wolfsonian – Art Deco and propaganda art museum. We loved it and went twice. There is a really pretty cafe and a great gift shop here, too.

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Check out Jim’s map for more!

Fab Apps is busily humming along as usual. Some of the really cool stuff we did over the past month was done as a subcontractor to Unison Agency, a very talented design firm in Georgetown. We are also getting close to a few firsts: our first iPhone app in the iTunes App Store and first public launch for a site on the new Bubbly platform. We’re all anticipation.

For a general overview of what the end of 2009 hath wrought, check out the December 2009 Fab Apps email newsletter. Are you on the Fab Apps email list? If not, you might want to go sign up here.

Speaking of email newsletters, have I mentioned the Digital Division email newsletter lately? I help produce it every few months in collaboration with Digital Division, my longest-term client. I usually write the Web Tip column at the end, so go check that out too. I enjoyed writing on this month’s topic: How to send files that are still too large to email in 2010.

Let me add an extra shout-out here to Steven Waters, Fab Apps’ talented and productive Interactive Media Developer. Just because there are never enough chances to say thanks!

I sincerely hope you all enjoy any holidays you choose to observe this holiday season, and have a happy new year!

Since my last update, Fab Apps has at least three bona fide launches to celebrate:

• The Passionists Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation website, designed and developed as as a custom WordPress theme.
• The new Skyline Innovations website, which is a customized version of an out-of-the-box WordPress theme.
• And last but certainly not least, the brand new Fab Apps website! Which features our new branding and is generally pretty fun. Check it out :)

Also — and I hope I don’t sound like a broken record here — we’re going to launch a Bubbly crowdsourcing site in just another few short weeks for a DC-based green company. This is going to be fun!

In other news, some form of madness drove me to join my friends in National Novel Writing Month, a national challenge to write 50,000 words in a scant thirty days. I don’t know if I’ll reach 50k, but I’m enjoying the challenge. Making up words is easy, right? :)

• We are near to launching our first Bubbly website! Stay tuned.
• Fab Apps will also be launching a new site for the Passionists’ Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation very soon, perhaps this week!
• We worked with another Jewish faith-based group, Fabrangen, in September to help promote free holiday services.
• I continue to work with Digital Division on projects for organizations like WomenHeart, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Endocrine Society.

During my “spare time”, you might imagine I have also been busy, considering how long it’s been since I updated this blog. We traveled a lot this summer to Florida, New York, around the Appalachians, and other places. In my free time, I’ve been drawing a lot, writing, reading a bit much Jane Austen (among other authors), and studying the Regency period of British history … for fun. Currently I’m taking a new class on drawing techniques, mostly learning how to do pen and ink drawing.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I have little hope of getting an updated resume posted on this site anytime soon, but I’m adding a link to my LinkedIn page, because that’s pretty current. I’m not planning to hit the job market again anytime soon, so I’m abandoning hope of keeping a resume up to date for the moment.

In fact, my three-year anniversary of leaving my last day job (at Green America) is approaching next month. The impending date makes me consider what life would be like if I hadn’t stayed self-employed all this time, and wonder whether permanent self-employment is in my future. Who knows?

Here are some quick blips about what I’m working on … starting with Bubbly!

• Fab Apps has partnered with CoolTown Beta Communities for a fun project: Creating a spiffy web-based application called Bubbly that will help cities, towns, and organizations crowdsource fresh ideas and build communities of creative people. Check out CoolTown’s blog for more information about their work.
• Fab Apps is working on a brand new website for the Passionists JPIC effort, which will highlight their important work on U.S. and international social justice and environmental issues.
• Fab Apps is preparing to revamp the Ace Recycling website with lots of new information, because the company has now opened its Richmond, VA recycling facility.
• I’ve been working with Digital Division on their website and social media outreach, as well as working with a few of Digital Division’s nonprofit clients on issues like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and email marketing.

I have also been up to a few other things, but this is a pretty good overview of what’s been flashing across my computer screen lately! Until next time … stay classy ;)

So what’s up? I’ve been doing a lot of work with Green America, the Social Investment Forum, and Digital Division recently. More of my clients are interested in social media outreach, so I’m coaching folks on the nuances of Twitter and such a good deal these days.

Wordage.info is doing great! If you haven’t checked out our free expanded thesaurus tool, you should definitely do it now. We have some exciting new developments planned, and just this month, Wordage.info became integrated into the KallOut search tool, a great cross-platform Firefox add-on and Windows tool that you should also check out.

Well there’s some work news. I’m sure there’s more, but you get the idea. (You can find more of my work news on the Fab Apps site.) When I’m not doing that stuff, I’ve been busy drawing, writing, and enjoying the spring. Jim and I just planned a hot summer trip to Miami, which we think is gonna be great!

• Affinity Lab, my home base, continues to get press coverage — check us out on NBC4!
• Fab Apps recently created a challenging quiz for all you corporate watchdogs on the Responsible Shopper website.
• I recently visited the ghost town of Thurmond, West Virginia by train all the way from DC. Also I spent a little time in one of the “Coolest Small Towns” in the country, Fayetteville, West Virginia. Good times!
• I continue to study German at the Goethe Institut of Washington this spring. Viel Spaß!
• Likely upcoming “Secret Projects” include a planned social media platform for a cool client, plus a spiffy mobile website.

I’m sure I have some more news, but I hope this rundown covers a good sample of the things that are going on.

Also, enjoying the springtime! Even if it is 40 degrees here in DC :)

In other news, Fab Apps recently contributed a ton of Flash/Actionscript development to the Unison Agency website redesign, which looks and works beautifully. Check it out.

Also, we’re busily humming away on some fun new additions to Wordage.info — so watch this space for updates on that project, plus more interesting developments.

The latest news is the Green Recycling Network web launch, which I think is a rather nice and polished website based on WordPress as a CMS. Fab Apps designed and developed the website entirely. Check it out.

Over December, Fab Apps also did a lot of work on the online membership system for Social Investment Forum and worked on a project for Unison Agency that will be launching very soon. I have also continued to do some fun work with Digital Division, who later this year will celebrate their 10 year anniversary!

My former employer and current client has, as of January 1, renamed themselves from Co-op America to Green America! I did some work helping them rename themselves (such as creating the morphing logo at the top right when you first visit the website) and will continue to work with them over the new year.

Here in DC, the big excitement is the upcoming Inauguration! It’s going to be like Marti Gras for Washington. It’s the day after MLK Day, and most people get the Inauguration Day off work, so many of us get a four-day weekend. The city should be brimming with visitors, and everyone’s abuzz.

Stay tuned for more news — and have a wonderful 2009!