Rachel originally went to college to do a hairdressing apprenticeship but decided it wasn’t for her, and after working in retail for a few months she gained an apprenticeship with Salford City Council to work with us! And boy are we glad she did, here’s a few of the questions we asked… And all of the answers are serious.

Rachel, you’re often quoted as being in the area. What does this mean and how does one become it? Asked by James (@_Chappers_).

Well, you have to be Manchester born and bred and a bit of a chav – but an awesome chav. There’s no precise definition of ‘the area’. You’re either in it, or you’re not.

Who invented the iPad? Asked by Scott (@splurj).

First answer: Fairies in an iPad workshop.
Second answer: Mr Apple Man?

What is your favourite Fluid website? Asked by Martin (@martindownton)
Lucile and Fighters Only.

Nando’s or Gabbot’s? Asked by Sarah (@LadySarahOz)
Gabbot’s because it’s cheap. Nando’s if Lee’s paying.

What did you make for your #freefoodtuesday? Asked by Nicola (@nicolafred)
Mini Battenberg cakes and rocky road cakes.

What pipe does soup go down? Asked by Nicola.
If it’s chunky homemade soup then it’s the food pipe, and if it’s a thinner soup then the drink pipe.

How do you keep yourself sane at work? Asked by Martin.
I hum and sing in my head. This morning I was singing the ‘we buy any car’ song.

A big well done to Rachel from all of the team at Fluid, and also to Mike who came second! Rachel’s now finished her apprenticeship and has been working with us full-time for over a year.

There are a few reasons why you should try to code to the highest possible standard. The cleaner, tidier and more valid your code, the more search engine friendly and accessible your website will be.

So what are the best ways to make sure your website is up to scratch? First of all, as touched upon above, make sure your code validates. The easiest way to do this is visit http://validator.w3.org and see how many errors or warnings you get. Some errors may be small, such as having images without an alternate (alt) tag. These are some of the errors you can easily get rid of and will make your website more accessible for someone who, for example, is hard-of-sight and may be navigating your website using a screen reader, which can’t process images. Having an alt tag on your image means the screen reader can process this and tell the person what the image is about.

Another point to bear in mind is the speed of your website. If your code is buggy and full of errors, it’s going to have an effect on the speed of your web browser and may take longer to process the code. Even if your code is valid, semantically it might not be correct – for example, you may start wrapping lots of elements in div tags and end up with a case of far too many divs that you don’t actually need. Even if the difference is minute, by removing unnecessary code it’s still an improvement.

The key points to remember are that you should write code that is as clean as possible. Plan the website build from the very beginning and see what you can use, re-use and make sure you know how your website will be structured from the start. This way, you can be sure you know what element is needed where and what you need to do to code it in a lean and efficient way.  Also, keep checking to make sure your website is valid (through the validity checker) and soon you’ll be in the habit of picking up on what may cause a problem and naturally start coding to avoid the error itself.

It started when I made cupcakes for everyone in the office one Tuesday, it’s the day of the week that usually is the most stressful, not Monday and not quite the middle of the week, so as a fun way to share a little joy a week later Martin made some yummy flapjacks and coined the phrase ‘Free Food Tuesday’. We posted to Twitter using the hashtag #FreeFoodTuesday.

The rules of Free Food Tuesday are simple.

1. 1. Items MUST be homemade, not from a packet or shop bought.
2. 2. Items can be anything you like, savoury or sweet.
3. 3. Items must be shared on a Tuesday. (This rule has been broken a few times!)
4. 4. There must be enough food for everyone to try.
5. 5. You must write on the list what you intend to make at least 1 week before.

We’ve had everything from cakes to trifles and here’s a look back over the last 6 months at the ones we managed to get photos for.

After my cupcakes and Martin D’s awesome flapjacks we decided to open the floor and ask people to sign up to a list! So Rachel S (well her brother since she spent the night in A&E) made chocolate crispy cakes, and plenty of them! We then saw shortbread from Iain, and chocolate brownies from Clair that were eaten so fast we didn’t get a photo!

We had lemon drizzle cake from Mike and two types of cake (fruit cake and vanilla sponge) from Ben E. Scott wowed us with his raspberry & white chocolate cookies while on my second round, I made fruit mini pies (pictured above on left), a spin on the new fad of pie pops. After that Graham treated us to a pineapple and cherry upside down cake which got us in a fruity mood for James‘ genius trifles (pictured above in centre) which had us all ooooooing and ahhhhhhing followed by yummy vanilla and chocolate cupcakes made by Sarah (pictured above on right).

September said hello to a cake made by Martin P and a late entry from Rachel S with some melt in the mouth shortbread. We were then all in cake heaven when Martin D stole the show with his coffee and walnut cake (pictured above on left and centre) which he transported to the office in a frying pan because his cake tin wasn’t quite big enough. October was finished with Jo’s double chocolate cupcakes, Rachel A’s brownie muffins (pictured above on right) and I made some Halloween inspired cupcakes, cinnamon and apple topped with apple and caramel (pictured below on left).

Lee swooped in with a triple surprise. Three cakes, and yes, all three were yummy. He made (well Hayley his talented wife made shall we suspect) a chocolate brownie cake, a lemon drizzle cake and a cherry loaf cake (all pictured above in centre) Mike took another go and gave us a lovely soft marble cake and Clair gave us another delight of her chocolate brownies. For my final attempt in 2011 I made lemon biscuits for my birthday (pictured above on right).

Finally in 2011 we have the last stars of the show. Chris broke rule 3 and decided to treat us to his cinnamon buns on a Monday (pictured above on left). They were good so we let him off. And if one rule breaker wasnt enough, Hayley also broke rule 3 with her stain glass window biscuits and Gingerbread Cake with Orange Festive Icing. Made by Hayley, decorated by Iz (age 5) (pictured above on left and right).

We have one more week for this year and so we’ve already started a list for 2012 and we’re hoping to have a few savoury options next year too. We have names on the list to fill 2 months and a few beyond that. So go on, try it in your office, see who bakes like a king, and who can barely bake a cookie. Get a calendar printed up with a name and food column and get baking!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

We’ve got some more photos of the boys showing off their freshly groomed whiskers…

Donations: http://www.mobro.co/fluid

The team

Scott

Adrian

Ben

Chris

Lee

Martin

Mike

Movember Day #15

Young Jack Henderson could well be his own worst enemy.  What started out as a small and well meaning fundraising idea has escalated into an adventure which has consumed his life – as well as those of his parents, Ed & Rose - and turned it into an internet sensation which has charmed thousands.

Jack – armed with his trusty Crayolas and felt tips – set out with an idea: to raise money for the Children’s hospital that cared for his younger brother Noah by drawing whatever visitors to his website requested in return for a charitable donation.  The only restrictions he imposed were the type of rules that you would reasonably expect of a 6 year old: nothing naughty – and in Jack’s words ‘I don’t want to draw anyone dying or being died’.

Their initial target of a raising a humble £100 has been well and truly blown out of the water with the current total on their just giving page (which is still accepting donations!) standing well in excess of £27,000.  Not only this but they have also amassed over 7,000 Facebook fans and nearly 1,000 followers of the Twitter account, diligently and warmly run by his Dad.  You may have seen them in the media recently. Oh, and he now has a book available too.

After completing an amazing 536 drawings, Jack is pooped.  Regular readers of our little blog will know that I enjoy a good doodle myself and I’ve loved checking out Jack’s masterpieces – so I thought I would track down Ed Henderson who has kindly spared us a his time to answer a few probing questions…

So for all the parents out there – just how do you rein in the ego of a 6 year old who has suddenly found himself in the media spotlight?

We made sure we kept him very insulated from too much of the nonsense that can go on. While it is great that everyone wants to congratulate him, being a 6 year old is quite simple, he gets a few people bigging him up, he gets  a big big headed, he gets a few meanies, he gets sad. We had to let him enjoy some of it but made sure that whenever we felt he overstepped the mark, we made sure he knew his standing in the family and the world.

To what extent are you ‘trained’ in web design and social media? Was there a steep learning curve involved in managing a site that suddenly attracted so much attention?

I build websites for a living and have used/advised social media for myself and my clients. On this scale however, no training. When you are at the eye of this social media hurricane it was manic. A couple of times I was so overwhelmed with communication I had to close the Mac and walk away for a while. Its relenting, tough but ultimately rewarding interacting with wellwishers, fans and followers. I wouldn’t have swapped it for the world.

"Gorilla swinging in the lianas in the jungle being chased by a tribe of indigenous people"

A question for Jack this time: who would win in a dancing contest between John Barrowman and Mr Bean?

Mr Bean – because he is a really funny dancer

Did you have a conscious strategy behind your online presence or was it something that grew organically?

We didn’t even have a Facebook page till Day 6 and even then Rose (Jack’s Mum) had to convince me! Jack had a Twitter account since birth (because I am a geek and reserved it for him). After that, “suck it and see” and “make it up as you go” are two phrases that spring to mind.

"Unicorn taking his pet baby elephant for a walk"

Another for Jack – what’s more fun? Getting a Hug from your mum or jumping on your Dad?

Both of them, I like jumping on my Dad becuase its fun and I like getting a hug from Mum because shes warm!

How did the book deal come about?

Someone posted it on their Facebook wall, no idea who. Sara O’Connor spotted it, twas the Heatblast picture.  Sara is a Senior Editor for Hodder Childrens. She called me, I thought it was a windup at first. It progressed from there.

Now that Jack has finished all his drawings and you look back – is there anything that you would have done differently if you had the chance to do it all again?

Jack – Nothing, I loved it all.
Dad & Mum – Closed picture requests a bit earlier than 2 weeks, 536 pics was a lot.

With all the media furore that has surrounded Jack combined with the technical and logistical challenges that surround managing such a popular website, there’s one thing that we really need to know – what does Jack want for Christmas?

Guitar, Space Shuttle (Lego), thats all.

Huge thanks to Ed, Rose and Jack.  Do something nice today and drop them a little donation. Or a really big one if you want to.

Unfortunately, we have a couple of rule-breakers, check out rule #4:

“There is to be no joining of the handlebars to your chin.”

We’ll be dealing with this rule-breaking accordingly.

Take a look below to see how the boys are getting along and if you like our efforts, why not donate a little something to our team page? http://mobro.co/fluid

Scott

Adrian

Ben

Chris

Lee

Martin

Mike

Movember Day #2

The nights are drawing in and the winter months are upon us, which only means one thing, it’s nearly Movember!

We want to help raise the awareness of men’s health “down there” and we’re doing this by joining millions of people around the world who will be growing brilliantly bushy moustaches throughout Movember. We’ll be updating our blog with the progress of our moustachioed boys so you can laugh with/at them and see how their moustache styles are developing.

Prostate and testicular cancers are often ignored by men because they are less likely (than women) to visit their GP if they have a problem. Both of these cancers are highly curable if they are caught early so spreading the word is helping to save lives.

All funds raised will be going to: The Prostate Cancer Charity, Institute of Cancer Research and the Movember Foundation.

If you’d like to donate to Movember, to the Fluid Creativity Mos or to The Prostate Cancer Charity you can do so by clicking here.

Heinz personalised ‘get well’ tins

First up is a clever concept from Heinz; personalised ‘get well soon’ soup tins. Send a personalised tin of soup (either cream of tomato or cream of chicken) to a poorly friend and cheer up their day. You can purchase your personalised soup tin for £1.99 from the Heinz Facebook page. It will take three to four days to be delivered so it might be worth ordering now and storing away until your friend is inevitably full of lurgy. Everyone gets at least one cold a year.

The Feed’s 1st Birthday

A year ago this month Orange launched The Feed, an ongoing collection of social media delights created by Poke London. Popular campaigns over the last 12 months include:

‘Keep me cool‘ – an  ice-cream give-away where users were encouraged to enter their postcodes to entice the ice-cream van into their area.

The winter warmer campaign, which invited Twitter users to nominate their friends to win a hot chocolate delivery to their door.

‘Pimp my pic’ was an opportunity for Facebook users to get a new body illustrated for their Facebook profile picture – click here to see some of the works of art.

Innocent Tweet and Eat

Innocent is offering Twitter and Facebook users discount on one of their tasty veg pots. The more the users tweet the hashtag #tweetandeat, the bigger the discount, so get tweeting your way to a free veg pot.

In his commencement speech at Stanford University, Steve Jobs tells his audience, “You’ve got to find what you love.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

If you haven’t listened to this speech yet, then you must. I always listen to this when I’m feeling a little down or unsure of myself; it’s inspirational and moving without being too cheesy.

In his speech, Jobs talks about being sacked from Apple after an argument with a co-worker, and from reading various sources, it’s safe to say Jobs was a slightly controversial character. He was known for publicy humiliating his employees and having a temperamental personality. But that doesn’t deter from the fact that he was a creative mastermind:

“When you judge Steve as a person — the great things he brings to the world versus, maybe, these encroachments on personal decency or personal honesty with other people or disrespect of people when they’ve worked very hard and do a great job and he’ll say, “Oh, that’s just shitty,” that sort of thing — those are probably outweighed by the good that he does for the world.” Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and friend of Jobs

During his time away from Apple, Jobs founded NeXT, a computer platform development company. He also co-founded Pixar with John Lasseter; a groundbreaking animation studio that produced the likes of Toy Story (the first film of its kind in computer-generated imagery), Wall-E, Up, Ratouille, Monsters Inc and lots of other heart-warming, state-of-the-art productions.

Jobs returned to Apple eleven years later but the company wasn’t performing well and was being slated by its competitors. Jobs’ high standards and perfectionist attitude, which occasionally got him into trouble, turned the company around and made Apple what it is today. The iPods, iPhones, Macbooks, iMacs and iPads are all visionary products, and not only has Jobs had a huge impact on the electronical market but also on the music, film and mobile industries. Apple’s iPod changed the way we purchase and listen to music and the iPhone has introduced us to the world of smartphones and mobile marketing.

The last part of the speech relates to Jobs being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was told the disease was terminal and he had a few months to live but after a biopsy later that day, his doctor discovered the tumour was curable. Unfortunately, in later years, the cancer reappeared leading to his death. Jobs tells us how facing death makes emotions like pride, embarrassment or failure seem insignificant, so take a risk and push yourself while you are healthy and able to.

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

Jobs is proof that you can overcome personal challenges, and here are some of his wise words to encourage you to make the most of yourself.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”