GlossyVeneer

I’ve written about my family’s major history with breast cancer repeatedly on this site. The evil has attacked my mother (twice), grandmother, great-grandmother (twice) and great-aunt.

My grandmother just had a mammogram and they’ve found some new tumors. She’s going to have a biopsy shortly to find out if they are cancer or not, but we’re all cautiously negative in our assumptions and fear the worst. It is easier to expect the cancer and have a pleasant surprise when things turn up benign, although that has yet to happen in my family.

The really difficult thing in this is how hard it is hitting my mom. She was holding on to hope that she wouldn’t have to deal with cancer anymore, but this has kind of smacked her across the face and made her fear future re-occurrence even more.

Also, my grandpa is just devastated. The thought that he could lose his best friend and companion is really weighing on him. They try so hard to live full and active lives (as active as their elderly bodies can) and this is going to slow them down.

So, if you wouldn’t mind… say a little prayer, chant, burn incense or whatever you believe to send positive vibes toward my family. Thank you.

The kind folks over at GreetingFlix.com recently gave me a pro membership to their site, just to get my humble opinion on their service. I’m so flattered.

GreetingFlix is a greeting card/slideshow site allowing users to easily upload their own photos to create a “cinematic greeting” to e-mail or to post on their blog/website. It’s a fun concept and an interesting way to make your photos a little bit more intriguing. It’s also a great utility for people who don’t have a lot of experience with tech tools and want an easy way to create a sharp looking presentation. I could see my grandmother getting a kick out of putting one of these together. Or my mother-in-law.

I did experience some troubles when uploading images that were vertical in nature, the site naturally wanted to distort them, which was a bummer when I tried sending my mom the photo of her with a Chippendale dancer at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K we participated in earlier this spring.

Also, the templates are kind of limited and mainly pretty cheesy. I would like it if I could include my own text more than the overly-sappy text provided on them. They promised me that they are working at expanding their template offerings.

Overall I think the site has promise. It would be nice if it could tie directly into a person’s Flickr account. Some templates that are a little more generic would be good too. But go ahead and check it out. If you play with the site, leave your thoughts in the comments. The GreetingFlix.com people want to know your opinion. After all, they can’t improve and grow without consumer feedback.