Dropbox allows you to synchronize files across multiple machines. The main draw that I’ve had with this software is that it is cross-platform compatible. You can set it up on your Linux, Mac, or Windows computers (and iPhone… still waiting on Android and other mobile releases *peer pressure*), and it’ll sync your data across them all flawlessly. Never have to rely on a USB drive again (but keep them around because they can do cool things on their own)!

Have a look at the full list of features.

Here are just some of the things that I’ve used Dropbox for so far:

• NaNoWriMo
  For the entire month of November, I used Dropbox to synchronize my novel across the various machines that I was using. It hurts to loose a large chunk of writing. It also hurts to forget something you were working on on a USB drive, or even worse, suffer from some sort of computer malfunction that results in data loss.  Rejoice in knowing that if you religiously save your work, it’ll be auto-magically backed up elsewhere for you should you need to access it.
• Invoices & Time Sheets
  I keep copies of all my invoices and time sheets, neatly organized by year and company.
• Specific Program Settings
  Sometimes it’s something as simple as a collection of Adobe Photoshop brushes or a Firefox profile (although Weave is looking promising). Other times it’s game saves or gedit plugins. Anything program-specific that I don’t want to lose, I put it in Dropbox.
• Typography
  There are a few fonts that I can’t live without.
• School Projects
  Okay, I’m done school… but damn, this could have saved me a few times. Upload your essays and print them from school (why waste your own ink?). Need to make a midnight run to a 24/7 printing company? Dropbox would have been nice then too. Of course, due to the time sensitive nature of some school projects… your data access is about as trustworthy as your school’s internet connection. If it sucks (like it did at ACAD), you might just be better off using a USB drive.
• Passwords
  Wait, what? Yes, you can do this too. The servers that Dropbox uses are encrypted (AES-256) and inaccessible without your password, so that your sensitive data is safe. I use KeePass Password Safe (another nice cross-operating system application), to manage my passwords. It creates an encrypted password database file that can easily be stored and shared by Dropbox. It’s really useful if you’re like me and create a new randomized password for each site you sign up with.

Moogle is a two year old grey and white tabby, born sometime in December of 2007. She is also adorable. If you have me on Facebook, you’ve already seen photographs of her. I’d forgotten just how much I missed having something warm and fuzzy lurking around inside of the house. Every day after work she’s waiting at the door to greet us (loudly) when we get home. :)

Yet another new addition to the apartment is Brimwylf. Brimwylf is the name that I decided to give to my new desktop. It’s also one of many names that is given to Grendel’s mother in the epic poem Beowulf. I found it fitting because it’s quite the beast. Aron and I spent Friday night building it, and so far I’m really happy with it. It makes playing games… well, amazing. I was long, long overdue for a new computer. My laptop lasted me a whole five years. It’s going to be retired and re-formatted to run flavours of linux only.

Here are my new system specs:

New computer guts!

Brimwylf

• Motherboard: Asus P6T SE X58
• Processor: Intel Core i7 920
• Video: Nvidia eVGA e-GeForce GTX285
• 6 GB RAM (Kingston)
• 2 x 500 GB hard drives (Seagate)
• Antec Performance One P183 ATX Case (Sweet case that has lots of room for expansion!)
• OS: Dual-booting Windows 7 & Ubuntu

I also picked up a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, which is pretty awesome in regards to keyboards that actually “feel” like a laptop keyboard.  Plus it glows in the dark (very Mac/Apple-esque actually) for all that late night typing. Everything is so shiny and new! I’m absolutely loving it so far. Also… rather surprised that Windows 7 doesn’t really suck. I think I may finally be 100% finished with Windows XP. Of course, it can’t replace my Ubuntu development environment.

As far as other computer-related things go, shriker.ca is now being hosted on a dedicated server (Yes! It’s a dream come true!). I’m slowly in the process of moving all of my sites and hosted sites over to this new server. So if you experience temporary downtime, or a site of mine goes missing for a bit – that’s why. All of my domains/subdomains have to propagate to the new server. Goodbye shared hosting! You sucked. :)

Graduation

I graduated from my four year program with a Bachelor of Design degree. The four year long process was both exhilarating and draining. Truth be told, I felt a little bit like an impostor while attending ACAD. Why? Well I’ve always been a person with varied interests (Biology, History and English to name my top three subjects with a smattering of computer programming). As such, I had never really dedicated myself to art. In fact, when I graduated from high school I didn’t even know that there was even such thing as a Bachelor of Design. I was oblivious and misinformed. Coming out of high school I thought that if I wanted to pursue any sort of  career in the Arts field, that it would have to be Fine Arts (and of course everyone has heard of that tired starving artist line). Imagine my surprise when I found out about the Visual Communications Design program. It was pretty much everything that I imagined it to be. I only felt a little awkward when people would be going on about their favourite artists and idols… and I would have no idea who they were. I’ve never really idolized anything.

Still, I had a fine time while I was there and I met some really fantastic people (and it is only they who can really related to my pain/pleasure of school). The only thing I think that really could have benefited the course more would have been some more business oriented programs that circulated around marketing yourself. Creating a portfolio and a resume/CV really wasn’t enough. I’m grateful however to the teachers that answered all of my questions about the business aspect of things. It’s amazing how much stuff is overlooked, and it really comes to no surprise that so many students each year are taken advantage of. It’s not their fault – they just don’t know any better.

Family

What can I say? My family has alway been fantastic. Thanks for supporting me while I was in school, and really, thanks for everything. I wouldn’t be the kind of person that I am now if it wasn’t for them. My siblings better be coming out to visit me this summer! Do you hear me Jamie and Steve? I’ll get the two of you here if I have to drag you across the country myself. It was really fun seeing everyone at Christmas. Here’s to random car dancing and loud music. ^_^

Moving

I’m a hard person to keep track of. I have moved every year for the past five years. Good news is that my android phone has GPS and my phone number has only changed once over the past ten years.

Heartbreak

I’ve had my heart broken not once, not twice, but four times. The last time it happened I think something inside of me snapped. I didn’t get angry. I was upset, sure. Of course, when you’ve invested in someone for two and a half years you’re not really expecting them to turn on you randomly one day and plainly state that they’re not “in love” with you anymore. You can’t really plan for these things though. What really struck me were a selection of his words. He said that he pitied me. Brother, I’m the last person in the world that needs your pity. I have always been my own person with my own ambitions and goals. It takes a really self-righteous and selfish guy not to see that.  In the end though, none of it was my fault and he was the one making the mistake. I mean, who in their right mind would throw away a girl like me? :)

It’s all good though. I wish I could explain it exactly, but ever since that day I’ve felt invincible. No person, and specially no dude, is going to stand in my way. Sucks to your ass-mar. I’m not the one that fucked up.

Music and Entertainment

I finally got around to seeing Edmonton. The red (Sky Screamer) and purple (Nessie’s Revenge) water slides at the West Edmonton Mall are scary. Mostly because they hurt. The red one was almost a straight vertical drop that resulted in a painful wedgie and the purple one threw me up and then slammed me down so hard multiple times that it felt like I was being slapped (it is very aptly named). I couldn’t really breathe all that well after doing the two of those. I sort of regret doing them first because they made the rest of the water park seem like nothing in comparison.

Aside from that, just this past year alone I’ve really upped my entertainment intake. I guess this is the sort of thing that happens when you stop being a student and actually become a consumer. I went to the Calgary Stampede for the first time, saw Evil Dead: The Musical (so much blood and awesome), went to see DragonForce in concert, saw the Blue Man Group, went to Video Games Live (sweeeeet!), attended the Lindy Hop Exchange in Calgary and saw the Polyjesters, and then some!

I’ve also been playing a few more video games as of late. My Steam ID and PSN ID are both “Jaceen”. Feel free to add me.

Aron

He gets his own heading because he’s awesome like that. The title of this post is dedicated to him too. Bwa… hahaha… ha ha… yarr…

Business

I started my own business! It’s not too much of a surprise since this sort of thing runs in my family. Well, one side of my family anyway. I’m working as a media and design consultant with an emphasis on web development, interactive design, and improving user experience. I’ve you’re looking to hire me though, I’m solidly booked until at least June 2010. My large projects have been keeping me busy (and happily fed! No starving here). I still haven’t decided on an official name for my company yet though. I’m sure once I do though, it’ll be great.

Kitty!

I’m looking into adopting/buying a cat. So if you know of a particular fuzz-butt that is in need of a home where he/she will be pampered all 12-25 years of its life until death, let me know!

Here’s looking forward to 2010 being even better than 2009. So far, so good (albeit a little on the sleep deprived side… my brain nearly exploded yesterday).

Screw new year resolutions. Just focus on being as bloody awesome as you can.

However many of these guides leave out one thing: how? (Or in my case, after many unsuccessful attempts at finding information: “How the hell do I create my own corporation?“*) Generally because the incorporation process differs all over the place. (I hope there isn’t some sort of secret business brotherhood or assassin accountants and that’s why I haven’t found much information) I’ve even had a few places tell me that “starting a corporation is easy!” Well, okay, sure. I would possibly agree with you if the last business course I took hadn’t of been in grade nine and over ten years ago. In short, yes, creating a corporation is easy if you know the business terminology involved. Taxes? Payroll?  CPP? EI? Remittances?  I’m still learning as I go along, and because of that, I thought that I ought to document the process in case anyone else has similar questions.

So here it is: How to Create a Corporation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Creating Your Corporation

At first I wasn’t quite sure who to go to. Then I learned that many registration companies have this thing called a “Corporation Kit,” or “Corporation Starter Kit.” Sort of like Pokemon, but more likely to make you dazed and confused than your opponent (Jodie hurt herself in her confusion!). I bet no other corporation guide makes a reference to Pokemon. Anyway, a Corporation Kit contains documents that cover the following topics (and then some):

• Business Name *
• Type of business / description of the major business activity
• Name and address of your businesses Owners, Partners, Directors, etc.
• Share information
• Address where the business is physically located

Just fill these out. They really are not that hard and for the most part just require you to sign your name, print your address, and the date a dozen times. It gets a little bit trickier if you’re creating a business with multiple people or co-owners, but the paperwork is still rather straightforward.

* Business Name

The first thing that I would like to stress is that you do not have to create a business name in order to create a corporation. In fact, if you do not supply one, you will just be given a Numbered Business Name. Now, this is not nearly as fancy as say having Cool Stuff Inc., but it gets the job done. Remember that you can always register for a business name at a later date if you so desire. In my case I just went with a Numbered Business Name because I wasn’t quite sure what to call this… monster that I was creating.

Not only that, but if you choose to register a Business Name, the registration process takes longer and it costs a lot more. You have to pay for a name search (to make sure there are no companies that are named like yours), as well as other things. It felt like a hassle to me at the time.

So I filled out the corporation kit and took it into the registration office in the morning. I had to show them identification (driver’s license in my case) and pay the corporation registration fees (~$250.00 CDN).

The next morning I came back and picked up my Certificate of Incorporation. Fast. I know.

The next few steps regarding hiring employees and the like you so do as close together as possible. Why? Well if you register for a Payroll account number and haven’t paid your employees due to not having any employees yet, well the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) will send you letters and call you up asking why. I like to believe it’s because they care about Canadian employees since it’s to them that you will be sending your remittances (CPP & EI – I’ll get to that in a moment). I actually had to tell the CRA why I hadn’t been sending them money (no employees hired yet!), and give them an expected date of when I’d have income to pay my employees.

Obtaining a Business Bank Account

You are going to need a new bank account for your Corporation because it is to this entity that cheques and the like are going to be made out to. This one was pretty simple. With my Certificate of Incorporation (to prove that I have a registered business), I went to the bank (TD Canada Trust), and spoke to a small business adviser. They set me up with a small business account, linked it to my online banking account, and gave me a shiny new ATM card and some blank cheques. You can also get other things from them, like a business credit card, line of credit, etc., but I’ve been trying to keep these simple. So there are generally other bells and whistles if you so desire.

Business Number, GST & Payroll Registration

Business Number: This number is sort of an identification number that the federal government uses in order to streamline and simplify its processes when dealing with your corporation. Your GST and Payroll numbers are all tied to this thing.

GST Number: Your GST number is also used for identification. You collect GST for the government (and hold it in trust), until it is time for you to give it to them. It is your GST number that generally tells people that yes, you do have the authority to collect GST. This number is often printed on invoices where GST has been added.

Payroll Number: Yet another number! This number is also used to identify you. When you pay your employees both they and you pay a part of their CPP and EI. This “remittance” then gets sent to the Canadian Revenue Agency and you’ll need this number to do that.

So back to GST and Payroll number registration. Want to know something cool? You can do this online!

Want to know how? I’ll tell you because I found the CRA web site to be a navigational nightmare. Talk about user unfriendly. They really ought to hire someone to fix that because I’m not sure how many hours I wasted looking around at documents that were completely irrelevant.

Fun tip:  instead of wasting your time trying to navigate the CRA site, use Google! Look at this magic: site:cra-arc.gc.ca gst register From there I was able to find the “Registering (opening) your GST/HST account” where I was able to find the “How to register” (you can do this online, by phone, or mail/fax) which then took me to their Business Registration Online page. Pretty convoluted, I know. You could also use CRA’s search, but I found it more annoying than anything… although I think I was annoyed with the site in general.

All you need to do is go through the required forms and enter in the information as needed. Like most forms they ask for the normal things like address, name, and such.

I went through and registered for a Business Number, GST Number (since I will be collecting GST), as well as a Payroll Number so that I would be able to hire and pay employees. Because they need to verify your business and such, there is a little bit of a wait time here. Once everything has been processed you’ll receive a paper with your new Business Number and all of that other fun stuff on it.

Hiring Employees

This is an easy one. Of course, it scales depending on the amount of people that you’re hiring. In my case I was only hiring myself because at the time of writing, I am the only employee of my corporation. :)

That being said, I’m sure that you are familiar with this process if you have had any sort of job in the past. Your employer will generally sit you down and get you to fill out a TD1 (Personal Tax Credits Return) Form. Your employer then keeps this. Why? Because they need it in order to calculate your Payroll deductions correctly.

So to hire a new employee you need to:

• Get their Social Insurance Number (SIN)… which the TD1 form has a handy spot for.
• Have them fill out a TD1 (Personal Tax Credits Return) Form.

Where do we find the forms? Let’s use Google again. site:cra-arc.gc.ca td1 form There are different forms for each Canadian province/territory, so be sure to pick yours.

Have your new employee fill this form out and keep it in a safe place for your records.

Payroll & Remittances

Payroll Deductions Online Calculator

The pain. This one hurt. Out of all the steps so far, I think that this has been the most complicated due to the math involved… but that also might be because of my unique circumstances.

The CRA also has a handy online tool for this as well. It’s called the Payroll Deductions Online Calculator (PDOC). This is where you must take into consideration your new employee’s TD1 form that they filled out. Take the info from the TD1, take your employees gross income, their previous CPP/EI contributions (if any yet), punch them all in, and it tells you how much you’ll be paying them once taxes are all said and done.

It will also tell you how much that you need to remit. You see, when you make a contribution to your Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI), so does your employer. All of these things and then some are then added together and this is the amount that you send to the Canadian Revenue Agency by the 15th of every month.

Remittances

You will need to do this for each employee that you have… which is why many people end up getting software and/or hiring someone else to do it I imagine. I bet it can get really taxing… haha.

Depending on your financial institution, you may also have the option of submitting your remittances to the CRA directly. Schwing! I like it when they make things easy on me.

Issuing T4s

[Not there yet either. As you have probably already guessed, I'll be adding more information to this post as I learn about it. - Working on it!]

This is another process that scales depending on the amount of employees that you hire. For each employee that you have, you must create and submit a T4 form. T4s tell the government how much your employee has earned and contributed and is required for them to complete their personal taxes. With that said, you must submit all of your T4s to the government by the last day of February. (If the last day is a Saturday or a Sunday, then the due date moves to March 1st.)

You must also give a copy of the T4 to the employee!

Now luckily, this is also a step that you can complete online. If you have a lot of employees, you can download software to manage all of this information. Worst comes to worst, there are plenty of paid services you can obtain to help you out.

This is the employee information that you need for a basic T4 slip. I say basic because it will differ sometimes between employees, and will vary a lot of you have a pension plan and RSP options.

EMPLOYEE

• [12] Your employee’s social insurance number.
• [14] Your employee’s Gross Income. (What they made before all deductions were taken off.)
• [22] Your employee’s total income tax deducted.
• [16] Your employee’s total CPP contributions for the year.
• [18] Your employee’s total EI contributions for the year.

EMPLOYER

• [] The total amount of CPP that your company has contributed for the employee (will most likely be the exact same as the employee’s CPP contributions).
• [] The total amount of EI that your company has contributed for the employee. This is the employee’s EI [16] contributions times 1.4.
  

Year-End Taxes

I haven’t gotten here yet, but I’ll let you know how that goes. =D As a company you collect taxes on behalf of the government. They trust you with this money until it’s time for you to fork it over to them. So the dollar amount that’s in your business bank account is always misleading.

* I really hope people find me via Google with that phrase.

I actually did really well, specially if you take into account that I decided to participate four days into the challenge, had no preliminary notes, have a full time job, a boyfriend (I’m sorry if I ignored you Aron!), and then didn’t write for 10 of the proposed 30 days. Granted, most of the story was already floating around inside of my head. So writing 50,000 words in 20 days was pretty good.

I think I may have even lost a bit of my writing at some point, because I’m missing a huge chunk of what I thought I’d already written. Although, it’s probably even more likely that I dreamt writing that particular sequence… It’s okay though, because now starts the really fun part: editing. Where I go back and fill in the cracks with Polyfilla (that stuff is awesome).

I decided to write about a story that has been in my head for a very long time. It’s of course based on my play-by-post game setting, Shadowlack, and takes place (for the most part) on a planet called Ramath-lehi. It’s a science fantasy story. There’s space ships, magic, evil aliens, some romance (if you can call it that), a few bad-ass bad guys, a fair amount of fighting, as a result there’s a fair amount of deaths… and well, it was really fun to write.

Fortunately (or unfortunately as it depends on your perspective), I’m not done writing my “novel.” I actually plan on working on it a little bit more because I haven’t quite reached the ending.

Also, some people will be pleased to hear that it a) does not include sparkles of any kind, and b) no one barfs up a fountain of blood. Anyway, here is a short little excerpt from the story. It’s the beginning of a scene in which Koani is pitted against her father’s personal guard, Synachi. Why? Well let’s just say that someone has a bit of a disregard for life. I really can’t say too much or else I’ll give all the good parts away. :s

2009 NaNoWriMo Progress

Excerpt:

Koani stood opposite Synachi, her heart racing wildly in her chest. She was scared, terrified even. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever once imagined a moment like this. She loved magic, but the idea of using it to harm someone terrified her – even if it was for self preservation. Her mother downplayed these feelings of hers and told her not to worry. Karryasa had told her that she was ready, so ready she must be.

Koani watched Synachi carefully, as if noticing the older thill for the first time. Synachi was dangerous – there was a reason why Zamfir had chosen her as head of his personal guard. Synachi was a murderer. Koani looked over at Karryasa, who smiled pleasantly in return. Zamfir, who was standing next to her, remained stoic. As far as he was concerned, he was merely entertaining his wife. This would be over soon.

Koani took a deep breath and relaxed. The quills that lined her spine fell flat against her back. She spread her arms apart and widened her stance as she lowered her centre of gravity. From somewhere along the sidelines a loud horn blew. The match had begun.

Brandishing no weapon, Synachi darted toward the young girl. One hard and fast crack over the head would be more than enough to end this match. Koani had a thin frame and completely breaking the girl’s body seemed more than easy to do. Synachi did not want to fatally injure her though. Knocking the abomination out would be more than sufficient.

As Synachi swung her fist, Koani twirled lightly out of harm’s way. When Synachi struck out at her again, once more Koani twisted away from harm. After a third and then a forth unsuccessful strike, Synachi took a step back and fell into a crouch. The head of Zamfir’s personal guards smiled faintly.

“I see what you’re doing,” Synachi said after a calculating moment. “You’re manipulating the air around me to redirect my motions. That will not work any more, little one.” With that, Synachi jumped to her feet and charged at Koani. This time when Koani tried to redirect the older thill, she found that she couldn’t. Instead the air that she was trying so hard to coax whooshed ineffectively past Synachi. Synachi had put up some sort of barrier that was deflecting the young Grader’s efforts.