Demand Studios Blog Archive August, 2011 | Demand Media Studios Blog

August Grant Winners

Posted by EmilyNF | August 26, 2011 | Comments (7)

Congratulations to this month’s Grant winners!

Our Professional Resources grant goes to writer and titler Darlene Zagata. After an accident involving Darlene’s son, his feet and her laptop screen, Darlene has been left without a laptop. Although she’s been able to sporadically borrow a relative’s computer, a new laptop will allow Darlene to get back to work at her own pace and time.

Our first Work/Life Balance grant goes to writer Chinello Plummer. After countless days and hours sitting in her office chair, Chinello’s back has started to suffer greatly. Chinello will use the grant to visit Hot Springs, Arkansas, and relax in one of their hot spring water bathhouses for a weekend.

The second Work/Life Balance award goes to writer Hugh Patterson, who is currently working on a book about chess for at-risk teens. Hugh currently teaches chess to teens in juvenile correctional facilities and has been pleased to see them using the game to resolve conflict and stress. The grant will help Hugh finish this important book.

Our third Work/Life Balance winner is writer Lisa Mercer. Lisa is preparing to pack up and move to Uruguay for six months. She’ll spend her time learning Spanish and exploring. After a fall last month called for a hospital visit (and bills that followed), Lisa fell behind on her trip funds. Lisa will use the funds to put her back on track for the trip – and give her breathing room to explore Uruguay instead of working the entire time she's there.

The final Work/Life Balance award will go to writer Byrd McDaniel. Byrd recently moved cross-country to attend grad school at University of Alabama. While he’s excited to pursue his studies, the cost of moving and tuition has left him without the funds to go out and meet anyone in his new town. Byrd will use the funds to attend some upcoming school-sponsored trips.

Finally, our Short Film grant goes to writer Kimberly Nunley for her short film, “Sly Sylvester.” In Kimberly’s film, an apartment renter pretends to own a cat in order to make contact with the gorgeous pet sitter, but doesn’t count on his angry landlord getting involved. We can’t wait to see the finished product on this one!

Remember, if you didn’t win this time, you can apply twice more with the same application. It was a tough decision to select just six applications, so don’t get discouraged.

Please join us in congratulating the winners!

Community Kudos

Posted by Jordan | August 26, 2011 | Comments (2)

We like to give kudos to those DMS community members who go above and beyond what is asked of them to make our community great. We want to spotlight those who are active and positive contributors in our forums, on our Blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. It's our creators who make us great and you deserve to be recognized!

This week we want to give Community Kudos to Studio writer Mary Ylisela.

Mary is a dedicated and passionate member of the DMS community. In addition to being a dedicated writer herself, Mary is a very active voice in the DMS Forums, helping to keep her fellow writers motivated while working from home. Her regular “Hardcore Writing” posts help other writers set goals for Fridays and weekends and her posts always inspire her fellow community members.

If you see Mary in the forums, be sure to give her kudos of your own. Thanks and congratulations, Mary!

PM us with your contact info & we'll send you a DMS T-shirt & some other goodies to say,

Thank You!

Community Kudos

Posted by Jordan | August 12, 2011 | Comments (4)

We like to give kudos to those DMS community members who go above and beyond what is asked of them to make our community great. We want to spotlight those who are active and positive contributors in our forums, on our Blog, as well as on Facebook and Twitter. It's our creators who make us great and you deserve to be recognized!

This week we want to give Community Kudos to Studio writer Renee Miller.

Renee is an active and positive member of the DMS community. She is always there to chime in with words of advice and encouragement. She has been with DMS for over 3 years and is not shy about sharing her experiences with her fellow freelancers. She frequently likes others’ posts on the Facebook fan page and is always there to share a kind word, answer a question, or just say “thanks!”

If you see Renee in the forums be sure to give her kudos of your own. Thanks and congratulations, Renee!

PM us with your contact info & we'll send you a DMS T-shirt & some other goodies to say,

Thank You!

Starting Monday, August 15th DMS contributors eligible to participate in Demand Deals can purchase two movie tickets from Fandango.com for the price of one! There are a limited number of tickets available at this discounted rate so be sure to act fast.

For more details on how to take advantage of this exclusive offer head to the forums!

Last week we invited our community to submit their best summer haikus for a chance to win some new DMS swag. We received a lot of great entries but we left the voting up to you. After collecting all the votes and reviewing the entries we are excited to announce the winner! So, without further ado...

Congratulations to Courtney Watson!

Her winning haiku:

Oh, kite, you aren't free /There's that tiny length of string /That binds you to me.

We have some honorable mentions we'd like to feature as well. These haikus received a number of votes but were a few pages into the contest entries. In case you missed them the first time around-- the following were some of our favorites:

Michelle Stone wrote,

Restless and barefoot/ Exploring the sensations/ I savor summer

Diana Braun wrote,

Fireflies flicker / Midnight stars glisten so bright/ I love summertime

Chad Phares wrote,

A summer haiku/ How many syllables are/ in a summer hai--

Thank you to everyone who submitted a haiku.

Congrats again to Courtney Watson!

Studio Blog

August Grant Winners

Community Kudos

Community Kudos

Demand Deals: Exclusive Offer!

Digital Dilemmas - RSS: Rich Site Summary

DMS Summer Haiku: Winner!

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