Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.0.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Geek Girl Life I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it. - Marilyn Monroe ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://geekgirllife.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Question everything](https://geekgirllife.com/question-everything/) - "Do not accept anything simply because it has been said by your teacher, or because it has been written in your sacred book, or because it has been believed by many, or because it has been handed down by your ancestors. Accept and live only according to what will enable you to see truth face - [The secret of the date bars](https://geekgirllife.com/the-secret-of-the-date-bars/) - My grandmother was famous for her date bars. They had a yummy crust, sticky date filling and streusel topping. She brought them everywhere she was invited - to family reunions, Thanksgiving dinner, summer picnics, church get-togethers. They were delicious. People would even request them when they invited her. "We're having a picnic at the lake - [Everything is Amazing](https://geekgirllife.com/everything-is-amazing/) - I'm making a conscious effort not to get bogged down in negative thoughts and to notice all the good things. I'm starting to notice all the ways different people around me are making this effort too. Humorously, comedian Louis CK tell Conan how much we take for granted: The Weepies sing about being simply overwhelmed - [So this is what happens to my pillows](https://geekgirllife.com/so-this-is-what-happens-to-my-pillows/) - I don't mean for this to become a video blog, but here's another amazing video I stumbled across. 3000 photos and it's beautiful. And it goes a long way toward explaining how my covers and pillows are all over the place when I wake up. I've always wondered, "what happens while I'm sleeping anyway?" - [I Have the Smartest Clients in the World](https://geekgirllife.com/i-have-the-smartest-clients-in-the-world/) - One thing I've heard over and over again throughout most of my life is, "You should be a teacher." I'd usually cringe when I heard that. When I think of a teacher, I think of being overworked and underpaid. Of standing in front of a classroom of children who have no interest in what you're - [How to make time for a side hustle](https://geekgirllife.com/how-to-make-time-for-a-side-hustle/) - In 2013, I found myself working 16+ hours a day (or at least I thought I was), 7 days a week and I was miserable. I had no time to do anything fun, let alone time to tackle any side projects. And I had a lot of ideas. So I started reading and learning as - [Are WordCamps still camps?](https://geekgirllife.com/are-wordcamps-still-camps/) - Matt Mullenweg organized the first WordCamp ten years ago, in 2006. At that time, camps of all sorts were sweeping through the web dev community as a way to connect with others, share knowledge, and build community. Camps vs. Conferences What sets a camp apart from a more traditional conference? Camps are un-conferences: informal, attendee-run affairs. Speakers aren't - [Returning to me](https://geekgirllife.com/returning-to-me/) - I've spent the last couple of years in a whirl of activity, so busy that I couldn't read a book, take time to knit or write, or even take an hour of rest without feeling guilty that I was letting down one person or another in some way. I haven't had time for friends or - [How to Make a Local Copy of a WordPress Site in 5 Minutes or Less Without Dealing with Code, Terminal, or PHPMyAdmin](https://geekgirllife.com/how-to-make-a-local-copy-of-a-wordpress-site/) - WordPress 3.8 was released today. Maybe you'd love to give it a try, but you're not sure how it might work on your own site. Will it break any features on your site? Will your favorite plugin turn out to be incompatible? Chances are slim that you'll run into any problems, but of course, you - [How I Got Brave Enough to Speak at Conferences](https://geekgirllife.com/how-i-got-brave-enough-to-speak-at-conferences/) - In March of 2006, I attended my first tech conference. And while I came back invigorated, inspired and bubbling over with new ideas, I also realized that what I really wanted from a tech conference was to be on stage. Number one, there were not nearly enough women on stage. Or at the conference, for - [Using Google Analytics with WordPress](https://geekgirllife.com/using-google-analytics-with-wordpress/) - Chances are, if you've set up a website with WordPress, it would be really nice to know how many visits you're getting, where those people are coming from, which posts are the most popular, etc. Google Analytics is a great tool for that job. But how do you use Google Analytics with WordPress? There are - ["Here I Am" Moments](https://geekgirllife.com/here-i-am-moments/) - One of my favorite radio personalities, Jad Abumrad, co-host of Radiolab, gave a keynote address at the Third Coast International Audio Festival titled These Are a Few of My Favorite Things, where he talked about his experiences working in radio and the things he loved most about it. It was from listening to this talk - [Place text over images on hover without JavaScript](https://geekgirllife.com/place-text-over-images-on-hover-without-javascript/) - Thanks to CSS3 and better and better browser support for it, we can accomplish things now with CSS that previously required fancy JavaScript work. In this tutorial, I'll walk you through fading in text over an image on hover. Tutorial Updated I updated this tutorial to show you how to take advantage of even more CSS3 - [I Act Too Much Like a Woman](https://geekgirllife.com/i-act-too-much-like-a-woman/) - I was catching up on an episode of The F Word with Gordon Ramsay. Chef Ramsay was on a tear to show people how fast they could cook up healthy, fresh food. He found a group of nurses who ate microwaved convenience meals for dinner every night because thought that's all they had time for. - [I know I can, no matter what you say](https://geekgirllife.com/i-know-i-can-no-matter-what-you-say/) - I was half-way through 8th grade. At the half-year point, we switched teachers and classrooms. Report cards had just been handed out and I had arrived a bit early in my new science teacher's classroom. My report card rested on top of the stack of books on my desk. My new science teacher helped himself - [Once-a-day email](https://geekgirllife.com/once-a-day-email/) - I only check my email once a day. On weekdays. I don't read emails on weekends. I don't have push notifications for new emails set up on my phone. I start my workday by opening up my inbox. I work through everything in there. If it will take less than a few minutes, I do - [The 'Best' WordPress theme is...](https://geekgirllife.com/the-best-wordpress-theme-is/) - In case you didn't know, I'm a regular over on the WordPress forums on LinkedIn. I like helping people out with their WordPress puzzles and conundrums. Without a doubt, the most popular question people ask is some variation on "What's the best WordPress theme?" For example, looking through page one of the forums today, I - [Radical Inclusion](https://geekgirllife.com/radical-inclusion/) - At WordCamp Las Vegas 2011, I gave my first ever WordCamp talk. My topic was Progressively Enhancing Your WordPress Theme. I chose that as my topic because I believed then, as I believe now, that progressive enhancement is nearly always the best way to build a website or web application. Focus on getting the content - [Should everyone learn to code?](https://geekgirllife.com/should-everyone-learn-to-code/) - You keep using that word... We hear about this a lot. Learning to 'code'. But what are we talking about when we're talking about coding? Because that's not just one thing. There are any number of different languages you could learn - HTML, JavaScript, Python, Java, Objective C, Basic, PHP and on and on and - [How to Create an Alphabetical Index of Posts in WordPress](https://geekgirllife.com/alphabetical-index-of-posts-in-wordpress/) - About a year ago, I was handed a design comp from a designer that required me to build out an alphabetical index for a custom post type in WordPress. You know, something like this: ...where clicking on one of those letters would take you to a page showing only posts with titles starting with that - [Animate text over images on hover without JavaScript](https://geekgirllife.com/animate-text-over-images-on-hover-without-javascript/) - A couple of months ago, I published a tutorial showing how to show text over images on hover without using JavaScript. When I presented to an HTML5 Meetup Group a couple of weeks ago, I took that idea and ran with it, adding some extra special animations, and I'll show you how to do it - [Eight tips for improving responsive typography](https://geekgirllife.com/eight-tips-for-improving-responsive-typography/) - Don't underestimate the importance of well-done typography in making a website appear more professional, polished, and just plain nicer. But in the world of responsive design, we need to have a few extra tricks up our sleeve for accomplishing gorgeous web type. Here are eight things you can do to improve typography in your responsive - [Why frameworks make me cranky](https://geekgirllife.com/why-frameworks-make-me-cranky/) - The past few years have been witness to an explosion of frameworks and libraries: CSS frameworks, WordPress theme frameworks, JavaScript frameworks, PHP frameworks...frameworks for just about any language you might want to write code in. On one hand, this is great. As developers, we tend to solve the same problems over and over again. It - [Responsive sticky footer woes and fixes](https://geekgirllife.com/responsive-sticky-footer-woes-and-fixes/) - Over the years, I must have used about a dozen different approaches to coding up a sticky footer, with varying degrees of success. I recently stumbled upon an elegant CSS3 solution and immediately put it to work on the theme on this site. But then I discovered some problems. Here's how I fixed them. What's - [How I beat writer's block](https://geekgirllife.com/how-i-beat-writers-block/) - In today's episode of the WP Unicorn Project, Suzette and I were lucky enough to speak with Jennifer Bourn about content strategy. We spoke a little bit about techniques for overcoming writer's block, and I wanted to share mine. It's call free writing. I learned this technique in a writing class in college. You get - [jQuery for Designers and a weekly screencast!](https://geekgirllife.com/jquery-for-designers-and-a-weekly-screencast/) - I'm pleased to announce that after months and months of writing and editing that the 2nd edition of jQuery for Designers is now available! Even if you've already got the 1st edition sitting on your bookshelf (thank you for that, by the way), you'll want to check out this updated edition because it's a huge - [Creating interactive image maps in WordPress](https://geekgirllife.com/creating-interactive-image-maps-in-wordpress/) - Last year, I created a website for a client to showcase their new building. We wanted to make it easy for site visitors to explore the new areas of the new building while also making it easy for the client to update the building information. The only materials available to us were the architect's plans - [Five Sass-y tricks to impress your friends](https://geekgirllife.com/five-sass-y-tricks-to-impress-your-friends/) - I am not ashamed to tell you that I was really reluctant to try Sass. When you've been doing front-end development as long as I have (20 years this August), you know that there are new tools and techniques made available on an almost-daily basis. Most of them are fleeting at best, so I tend to - [Sketch Letter B](https://geekgirllife.com/sketch-letter-b/) - Now, the second in my series of hand-drawn letters: B I bet you never thought the second letter would be B. I'm releasing these under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. You might use them as fun drop caps or they might inspire you to create a whole floral alphabet. Other letters in the series: - [Leave the World Better Than You Found It](https://geekgirllife.com/leave-the-world-better-than-you-found-it/) - In America, we live in a culture of more, more, and more. We're never happy with what we've got. We always want something else. Something newer, bigger, faster, better. We forget that if we've got a roof over our heads, enough food to fill our bellies, and clean water to drink and bathe in that - [Shyness](https://geekgirllife.com/shyness/) - I think that often shyness is greatly misunderstood. I am painfully shy, afraid to have attention focused on me, afraid to make a mistake.So often, others read this as snobbishness or disinterest. Even when this is so far from the truth. I always knew and accepted that I was shy. It never occurred to me - [How to use Google Web Fonts in your WordPress theme](https://geekgirllife.com/how-to-use-google-web-fonts-in-your-wordpress-theme/) - Step-by-step directions showing you how to use Google Web Fonts in your WordPress theme. - [That time I got fired](https://geekgirllife.com/that-time-i-got-fired/) - Yes, it happened to me. I was fired from a job. It happened about 6 years ago. I was looking for a new job, but the job market wasn't great at the time. The web industry was still recovering from the dot com crash. I snagged a couple of interviews that went nowhere. Then I - [Sketch Letter A](https://geekgirllife.com/sketch-letter-a/) - I started creating some sketch letters on post it notes while I was sitting at my computer waiting for files to download or upload or assorted processes to run. Here's the first in the series: A I'm releasing these under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. They might make fun drop caps for the - [The Mysteries of Interdependence](https://geekgirllife.com/the-mysteries-of-interdependence/) - Some time ago, the wise Rob Brezsny wrote this in my horoscope: For many Aries, independence is a virtue that flows in abundance -- so much so that it's sometimes on the verge of becoming excessive and turning into a vice. That's why I'm thrilled to inform you that the mysteries of dependence could be - [6 Things That Make Me Happy](https://geekgirllife.com/6-things-that-make-me-happy/) - Trisha over at Boffo Panda went and tagged me for a meme, even though she doesn't know what a meme is. Isn't that cute? Anyway, here are six things that make me happy: Chocolate, especially really good rich and creamy chocolate. Dancing around my house to music I love all by myself. So what? You - [Don't let anybody tell you you can't](https://geekgirllife.com/dont-let-anybody-tell-you-you-cant/) - And don't tell anybody else they can't, either. - [The Mindset Game](https://geekgirllife.com/the-mindset-game/) - Isn't it funny how you always seem to stumble on the right tools right when you're ready to use them? Today I accidentally came across The Mindset Game: Does watching shows like The Apprentice and The Amazing Race make you wish you could be on those shows, achieving the unimaginable? It seems that each contestant - [Time for the magic notebook to shine](https://geekgirllife.com/time-for-the-magic-notebook-to-shine/) - At this time of year, there's something appealing about looking back over the next year, measuring it, weighing it, and putting it in a neat little package to set aside and get ready for the new year. When I was little, I used to have this idea in my head of the 'old' year was - [A fun way to give for the holidays](https://geekgirllife.com/a-fun-way-to-give-for-the-holidays/) - I know it's getting to be pretty close to Christmas, but I just found out something that sounds really fun. Each December, the USPS received hundreds and hundreds of letters addressed to Santa at the North Pole from hopeful little children. This I've always known. But I had no idea that you could contact your - [Moonlight visitor](https://geekgirllife.com/moonlight-visitor/) - Fifteen years ago this July, I received one of the best gifts I had ever received in my life: two seven-month old kittens. They were sisters from the same litter. Midori was shy, the runt of the litter, white with a black tail and a weird black patch on her head that made her look - [Small town dream](https://geekgirllife.com/small-town-dream/) - About a week ago, driving in my convertible on the 405, on my way to have dinner with my boyfriend, I thought about the me that existed 20 years ago. And I've been thinking about her a lot ever since. Twenty years ago, a shy and intensely unhappy fourteen year old girl was just starting - [Are you writing an inspiring story?](https://geekgirllife.com/are-you-writing-an-interesting-story/) - A few months ago, I took a class called "Car Care for Women". It was taught by Karen Valenti who owns North Hollywood Discount Auto Service. We all brought our cars and she taught us how to check the oil, check the coolant, check the transmission fluid and brake fluid, check the power steering fluid - [Everything always works out for the best](https://geekgirllife.com/everything-always-works-out-for-the-best/) - Here was my message from the universe today: The reason things always work out for the best, Natalie, is because this is actually the highest of all spiritual laws. Any apparent exceptions are simply evidence that work is still in progress, whether or not it can be seen. Always, The Universe I love this one, - [Acceptance](https://geekgirllife.com/acceptance/) - My Freewill Astrology horoscope a couple of weeks ago had this quote from Christiane Northrup: The only way to get a difficult feeling to go away is simply to love yourself for it...If you think you're stupid, then love yourself for feeling that way. It's a paradox, but it works. To heal, you must...shine the - [Another fitness goal...](https://geekgirllife.com/29/) - Over the past few weeks, I've been working toward running a 5K with the C25K running program . Three walking/running workouts a week gradually progressing in length and intensity to move you from couch potato to running a 5K in 9 weeks. Well, it's taken me more like 11 weeks. I had a tough time - [How not to get a job...or then ridiculousness ensued](https://geekgirllife.com/how-not-to-get-a-jobor-then-ridiculousness-ensued/) - A couple months ago, I was swamped with freelance work and looking for someone to help me out by doing some work - mostly HTML and CSS. I posted an ad on Craig's List being pretty specific about what I was looking for. I got a number of responses, most of them with truly awful - [A little sad about Crazy](https://geekgirllife.com/a-little-sad-about-crazy/) - Crazy is my fish. I've had him for a four or five years. So I guess he's kind of old as fish go. Last week I noticed a big lump on his head. Some quick Google searching confirmed my fear - it's probably cancer. When your $2 fish gets cancer, there's not really much you - [Why I remain calm...](https://geekgirllife.com/why-i-remain-calm/) - I've just finished reading an interview with Charles Hawkins, a concierge at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Yes, the one from Pretty Woman. The interviewer asked him, "Do you ever lose your calm?" He said: It takes a lot to ruffle my feathers. As long as I know there is chocolate somewhere in the hotel - - [Sticking to my standards](https://geekgirllife.com/sticking-to-my-standards/) - A few years back, I got pretty upset with a boss of mine when she told me that not everyone holds themselves to the same high standards that I do, and that I had to cut other people some slack. I've never felt like I held myself to some hoity-toity high falutin' standards, and I - [And Stay Out!](https://geekgirllife.com/and-stay-out/) - Just dusting off my hands and setting down all sweaty to a nice cold glass of lemonade after spending a couple of hours kicking the hackers out of this blog. Hmph. Take that. They're gone. It's safe to come back out now. And I installed this pretty new pink glitter security fence to keep them - [Hello Kitty For the Win](https://geekgirllife.com/hello-kitty-for-the-win/) - Related to number one in my list of 100 things, CNN has published an article about Hello Kitty being officially named the Tourism Ambassador for Japan. You go girl! I also learned from that article that Hello Kitty and I were born in the same year. I bet she's an Aries too. Off to book - [Hundreds of Things](https://geekgirllife.com/hundreds-of-things/) - Inspired by: Tricia I adore Hello Kitty to a point that should be embarrassing for a grown woman. I used to hate pink, but now it's my favorite color. My pet is a fish named Crazy, but I really want a kitty. My roommate is allergic. Growing up, I told everyone I wanted to be - [Girls in Technology](https://geekgirllife.com/girls-in-technology/) - In 2007, A List Apart conducted a Web Design Survey. They found that overall, women make up just 16.1% of the web design industry. That number was further broken down by job title. While as many as 41.6% of Writers/Editors were women just 7.2% of Developers were women. Overall, there's a very definite bias toward - [What color is 5?](https://geekgirllife.com/what-color-is-5/) - I've always had a distinct sense that the number 7 was green. A shiny, glossy green. Number 8 is red. Nine is purple. Five is blue. No rhyme or reason to it. No logical explanation. I think of the number 7, and in my head, I just know that it's green. I never thought much - [What the Universe Told Me About Dreams...](https://geekgirllife.com/what-the-universe-told-me-about-dreams/) - Today the universe emailed me to tell me about my dreams: The Evolution of a Dream Dream is implanted into brain. Dreamer becomes thrilled. Dreamer becomes terrified. If no action is taken, terrifying thoughts grow into flesh-eating monsters. Dream is considered unrealistic. If action is taken, terrifying thoughts are revealed to be paper tigers. Confidence - [Heart gifts](https://geekgirllife.com/heart-gifts/) - I think that often, we give gifts out of obligation or expectation. For a birthday, for Christmas, a housewarming, a wedding. So often, it seems that these are token gifts. The things that you give because you're expected to give something. I want to give more heart gifts. Gifts that really mean something. More than - [Inspiration, incubation, procrastination](https://geekgirllife.com/inspiration-incubation-procrastination/) - I think that a lot of people think that creativity is all about having fun. They process documents and total up spreadsheets and dream of just being able to paint or write or create all day long instead. As though it wasn't "real" work. Being creative is a lot of work! Of course it's fun - [Another way to think about getting fit](https://geekgirllife.com/another-way-to-think-about-getting-fit/) - I think that most of my life I've thought about weight loss as a fight - I had to be strong, had to work hard, had to overcome. I had to behave like it was a war, not just a battle. But here's the problem with that scenario: who's the enemy I'm fighting against? Food - [Being Messy](https://geekgirllife.com/being-messy/) - I have great admiration for people who are messy and who show it. Sometimes they seem embarrassed or filled with regret. "Oh god, I'm such a mess!" The biggest impression I seem to leave on people is that I'm someone who has it all together. That I know exactly what I'm doing and where I'm - [Life changes](https://geekgirllife.com/life-changes/) - In case you haven't heard of it, tut.com offers a fabulous service called "Notes from the Universe." Monday through Friday little bits of insight make their way to your email inbox. It's almost frightening how right they can be, and how well-timed. I received this one recently: When desirous of a life change, Natalie, or - [Perfect Thanksgiving mashed potatoes](https://geekgirllife.com/perfect-thanksgiving-mashed-potatoes/) - Use the right kind of potato. Russets work best. Fill a big pot with cold, salty water. You can't put too much salt in the water. It should be as salty as seawater. Peel the potatoes and drop them right into the cold water to keep them from turning brown. If you want to add ## Pages - [Book something](https://geekgirllife.com/book-something/) - [Sample Page](https://geekgirllife.com/sample-page/) - This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this: Hi there! I'm a bike messenger - [Schedule an Appointment](https://geekgirllife.com/appointments/) - [Contact Me](https://geekgirllife.com/contact/) - I can be reached at: natalie@nataliemac.com (310) 388-7422 - [About](https://geekgirllife.com/about-2/) - Learn more about me at nataliemac.com Lite Brite, pixels, and books As a kid, my favorite toy was my Lite Brite. The Lite Brite was a special treat that I only got to play with while my two younger sisters took their afternoon naps. 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