So far, this has been a busy year. To name some of the things that have been going on with Fab Apps:

• We launched a lively Socially Responsible Investing Jobs Board on the Social Investment Forum’s website, in addition to enabling e-commerce on the Forum’s website to power online donations, publications orders, and online events registration.
• We’ve launched our first Facebook app, an “I Voted” sticker for your profile page.
• We helped the Environmental Working Group distribute their first viral Flash widget for their campaign website, PetsForTheEnvironment.org.
• We are just weeks from launching a web design and total web content rewrite for the OMI USA’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation effort.
• We have located our office at Affinity Lab, a fabulous shared office space in Adams Morgan, full-time.
• But the biggest news is that our free tool for word discovery, Wordage.info, will be ready for the world in just a few weeks!

In addition to my work with Fab Apps, I have been continuing to work with web design firms Digital Division and Unison Agency.

There you have a good bunch of work news. In my personal life, Jim and I have moved from Northern Virginia to Washington, DC. I have grudgingly given up on kung fu classes for now, because the school isn’t near where I live anymore. But I have been drawing a lot, nearly every day, and experimenting more with the charcoal techniques I learned in a drawing class earlier this year. Good times!

Already this month, I wrapped up a large front-end HTML/CSS/JavaScript page build project for Voice of America News with Digital Division. The project was very challenging, and involved developing web templates that will work in more than 40 languages, including languages that read right-to-left like Farsi, and targeted browsers as old is Internet Explorer 5.5 (released in 2000) for older computers in the developing world. This project had been ongoing since at least summer of 2007, and was a coordinated effort between me (the technical lead and project manager), two other web coders, quality assurance testers, and VOA’s in-house design team. I learned a lot from the project, and I’m happy with the results, too! When the full website launches this year, I’ll be sure to post about it.

I also started a new Fab Apps strategic web redesign project for a faith-based social justice and environmentalist group, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Office. This group lobbies for many important global issues here in DC and elsewhere, and works particularly on affordable heath care, international debt relief, climate change, and others. We will be creating a more effective, friendly, and easily-updated website over the next two months.

In addition to this and other client work, I’m still working on creating software-as-service web applications. The pace on this stuff is admittedly slow, because it’s self-funded by my client work. I look forward to saying more about this publicly within another month, and hope to speed up the overall development time on these projects as they gain momentum this year.

Writing this post, I’m reminded that I also need to update my outdated resume and portfolio. Stay tuned!

Besides that fact that Steven and I have a great history as friends and colleagues, I’m especially proud that he works for Fab Apps because of his vision to revitalize America’s sprawling, car-centered cities. Fab Apps offers its web development services only to green businesses, nonprofits, and indy media — so having a expert programmer with an important cause is fabulous. Find out more about Steven and his work at his website, livingstreets.com.

Meanwhile, here in the DC area: While I’m on the topic of promoting urbanism and fighting sprawl, I want to also mention the work that my father, Patrick MacAuley, has been doing to fight sprawl in Prince William County, Virginia, a largely rural but developing suburb of Washington, DC. He’s the Chairman of Voters to Stop Sprawl, Prince William County and is also active with a group called Advocates for the Rural Crescent. Voters to Stop Sprawl recently worked hard to put anti-sprawl candidates into the County Board of Supervisors, and their top candidate for Chairman won County elections this November. Congratulations to my dad, his associates, and to Prince William County for a job well done!

Outside of work, I finally tested for and received my yellow belt in kung fu, which means I’m really starting to know enough to hurt myself. I’m also drawing more than ever and writing a fair amount. I wasn’t able to get into a drawing class that fit my schedule, so I’m doing it on my own.

Also, I have some travel plans I’m looking forward to — a weekend trip to Philadelphia this weekend, and five days in Las Vegas next month! I even found a place we can get vegetarian cheese steaks in Philly, and Jim got us tickets to Tom Jones in Vegas! I can’t wait.

SIF was a truly enjoyable client to work with and I even got big props on the their email list! (Wow, thanks!!) Check out the new website at www.socialinvest.org.

I’ve also been working more on pencil drawing (will post some here someday, I promise!), short short writing, and I’m making slow but steady progress with kung fu and plan to focus more on tai chi later in the year. I think I’m going to start a drawing class in October, assuming I’m not horribly busy with other things, which would be awesome because I’d learn more about charcoal drawing and similar techniques.

I have more or less given myself a license to slack on some of my other blogs, because I feel like what I’m doing with most of my time is pretty well on what I want to be doing. Sorry if you were quaking in your boots for more updates.

Oh, and although summer is almost over, I am enjoying what’s left a whole lot! On Sunday, I went to King’s Dominion and rode the most horrifying roller coaster I’ve even ridden, Hypersonic XLC, which is probably the closest I’ll ever get to space travel. And Jim and I plan to take another trapeze lesson before trapeze school closes for the year.

Well that’s about it for the news. So as to continue this conversation, what’s the scariest thing you did this summer? I hope you’re glad you did it :-)

Since I don’t have any other brilliant new creations to share at the moment, I wanted to share my twin sister Sheridan’s haiku blog project, where she’s posting a new haiku every day. Here is a fun one:

Thinking in haiku
Can be a beautiful thing
If you have a pen

Sheridan also recently sent me a super cute baby picture of us, where Sheridan is the princess, one of my grandmothers is looking sharp, my mom is apparently a pregnant nun (?), and I’m a lion.

A fellow twin I know has the theory that, as twins, we have every right to gush over our own baby pictures. We’re just that cute :-)

But the video is worth a watch, and it’s only three minutes long. It gets across the concept of Affinity Lab and of Adams Morgan as a “small town in a big city” very well.

Check it out — and if you like it, help us out by signing in or signing up and voting for us to win!

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I’m also working on some web projects with Digital Division and Unison that are taking up some of my time. The after school multi-media training program I’ve been teaching for is winding down next week (for me — I’m not teaching classes this summer). I’m also working on comps for a medium-sized web redesign that Fab Apps will be launching in September. And I wrote some fifty-five word stories and submitted them to the 55 Fiction contest.

On the kung fu front, I unfortunately still don’t have my yellow belt, but I’ve nearly mastered ten short forms (featuring the jumping double kick!), ten sparring techniques (grab and jumping knee chop!), and ten self-defense moves (you’re going down!). Yes, I am definitely a physical threat at this point. To myself. There is a gash in my leg to prove it.

Among other things! I will post back soon, probably next week when the new fabapps.com is live and kickin’.