The recipient of October’s Spotlight Award goes to Jay @ ThisFiasco.Net. Jay has displayed a plethora of ace designing skills, coding, and always has a new blog. He shows dedication, cooperation, and leadership. Congratulations to Jay.

We have picked ThisFiasco.Net because of the simplicity of the current layout. Everything is in order, boxed, and has no random images. The layout flows well - and the typography is absolutely b-e-a-utiful. ThisFiasco.Net also displays and shows the life of Jay, he speaks about his problems and that proves that great designers are not all robots. ThisFiasco.Net is a unique name hovering over a lot of good, high quality content and tutorials. Even though Jay’s domain is new, he has displayed the kind of quality in his work that you would expect from somebody that has a little more experience out of their belt. Jay is a fast learner, that is one of his strengths, and you can tell that by how fast he whips out the next tutorial, graphic, or blog about something he learned. Whether it be life lessons, entertainment, website resources, or admiration -  ThisFiasco.Net provides the viewer a unique experience, which is what this Spotlight is all about. Be sure to drop a visit because, trust us, it’s worth it.

Thank you Jay for your time, for the time you put into ThisFiasco.Net to make it into a great success for yourself, and countless others. Visit Jay (ThisFiasco.Net) here.

Any feedback would be amazing, and encouragement is needed.

Ryan

Features

Incognito Mode- Do not want anybody to look through your browsing history? Don’t want your sites logged? Put it in incognito mode! This prevents your websites that you visit from showing up in your history. Hey, sometimes we do need privacy… right?

Dynamic Tabs- Tabs are helpful, so you don’t have so many windows opened at once. You can drag your tags out of the tag row to make it a new window.

Crash Control- If one tab crashes, it will not take the other tabs down with it. Google Chrome prevents it from slowing down your other tabs.

These are just the cool features of Google Chrome. The rest consist of safe browsing, application shortcuts, quick bookmarking, easier downloads, and one box for everything (address bar, etc.).

01 Choosing a Name

When choosing a name, be sure to make it unique, easy to remember, catchy, and most of all, something you personally like. Making it unique will result in more hits for your site. If there are more than two similar site names, people might end up going to the other one and oops, that will give you less visitors.

02 Staying Original

Being original is always the best. You have your own style, your own personality, and best of all, your own you! “Often imitated, but never duplicated,” is a phrase that can be used in this, haha. Copying others is not the best way to go. You may go out and look at other sites for inspiration but do not go too overboard-obsessed, which might make you copy. After all, the best way to go is your own way.

03 Creating a Layout

When creating a layout, be sure to remember that some people’s screen resolutions may be as small as 800 (width) by 500 (height) pixels. Just because a layout looks awesome on your computer does not mean it’s going to be the same way on other computers; not to put you down, but it’s true. Having a layout about 1,000 pixels wide will cause srcolling to occur on some people’s computer and it will make it look tacky. Now we do not want that, do we?

04 It’ll Get Better in Time

When you open your site, do not expect it to be the best out there. It takes time to build up a website, with loads of content or things and activities for your visitors to do. Just because your hits may be low does not mean your site sucks. Look for free advertising and whatever you think will give your site more exposure. Spread the word by whatever means.

Feel free to drop any questions. These tips will be updated regulary so this will be an active post.

You’ve reached the first blog from Ryan (head editor and contributor) of RetroFreak. The newest web magazine, powered by young authors and writers everywhere. Not only does RetroFreak cover web design, tips, and freebies, but RetroFreak has also set out to keep the uninformed simply informed. We showcase amazing literary arts from around the world, as well as keep you up to date on important global issues pertaining to America, UK, Australia, and many other countries. RetroFreak started out as an idea - but now that idea is coming into a reality.

Since this is my first blog, I thought you might want to get to know me in this introductory post. My name is Ryan, I currently take residence in Montana, USA. I’m an aspiring lawyer, politician, and writer…and I am really excited to get this going.

As more young authors join RetroFreak - we hope that this magazine will show more than one point of view. We hope this doesn’t turn into an ordinary web magazine, we want it to be something more, something unique.

Thanks so much for your support.
Ryan

The main focus of the debate will be on foreign policy and national security issues, as well as other showcased events showing this university’s institutes and centers that are working hard to solve America’s problems efficiently and effectively.

The Obama Campaign is especially pulling for active supporters to host a house party, and talk with fellow neighbors about the issues spoken about in the debate. More information can be found on the Barack Obama Website.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/debate-watch-party/

Please tell us how you thing this debate will span out, and we look forward to writing a more in-depth article when it plays out on September 26th, 2008.

They were recently asked if they’ve ever dated non-celebrities, or fans, the Jonas Brothers reply on their MySpace page.

Yes, we have already dated fans or girls that are not celebrities. In fact, we really like to believe that the girl we will spend our lives with will be our biggest ‘fan.

When they were asked who they are currently dating, Nick, Kevin, and Joe avoided the question.

It is our rule to not talk about our personal lives, especially who we are dating. The same would be true if we were dating you.

The Jonas Brothers are starting their new TV show next week, want to venture into new countries and explore new places where their music has flourished.

We want to visit some of the areas where our music has done well, for example Latin and South America, Europe again, Asia, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

The brothers also inform everybody that they want you to keep the questions coming, and they promise to keep the information flowing regarding their future plans.

Aerie International is a new literary arts magazine, showcasing works of writing, and arts originating from across the world. This new magazine had their first publication in the Spring of 2008, is looking forward to producing another quality issue of their new journal in the upcoming Spring of 2009.

Aerie International was born of a desire to offer outstanding young writers and artists an opportunity to share, edit, and publish their work internationally. What makes this journal unique is that it has been designed and produced by an editorial board comprised solely of high school students. Aerie International hopes the magazine will not only draw on universal themes, but also on the particular images, colors, sounds and rhythms of the places and people from which they originate, whether it is Canada, South Africa, India or the U.S. As Melanie Reay, art teacher from Trinity School in England, said recently in a visit to Big Sky High School, “Perhaps this magazine can foster friendships in times where friendship is difficult to achieve across the pond.” That is their hope. - Lorilee Evans Lynn, Advisor.

What students at Big Sky High School are doing is truely amazing. They are connecting with cultures and people around the world. In a way, they are traveling…they get to peer through the eyes of another student their age. The world is plagued with intolerance, misunderstanding, and misperception; Aerie is truley making a difference in the world, somewhere. Maybe making the world a smaller place is an essential step in promoting world peace. We know it sounds far fetched, but it’s projects like these that connect common peoples, and with connection comes tolernace. That kind of knowledge, and the attitude you achieve from gaining the knowledge is priceless.

Here is what the student editors have to say about their publication.

As student editors, we’ve been trying for days to describe what this magazine means to us. Until now nothing we’ve tried seems to truly embody what we hope to achieve, what we envision as the role of Aerie International. We want to offer a window into other cultures around the world, so that our readers can hear what it is like to grow up as a girl in Afghanistan, a boy in Peru, a teenager in the United States or anywhere in the world. In the end, we feel the only way to truly express the value of the arts is through the arts. Please send us your work so that this international magazine can become a reality.

We encourage any young, aspiring artists, poets, or photographers to submit their work. Not only do you get global exposure, but the editors pick the top entries and grant them award money ($100). To submit your works and review the rules/regulations please visit this webpage.
http://www.mcps.k12.mt.us/highschool/bigsky/aerie/international/submissions.html 

Please check out the official Aerie International Website for further information, including examples of poetry, art, and original photography.
http://www.mcps.k12.mt.us/highschool/bigsky/aerie/international/