I have the coolest clients! And today, I was reminded of that when I got the mail. Today, one of my clients sent me a “Happy Birthday” present for WickedWordCraft.com’s 4th birthday. Pretty awesome in itself… but what she sent was even BETTER than the thought…
JJ Murphy of WriterByNature.com sent me the coolest little sterling silver charm in the shape of…
I love my iPod. I really do. I’m always on the lookout for new accessories and ways to make it even cooler than it already is. To that end, I have been thrilled when I’ve found backpacks that are iPod ready (with a plug for earphones and volume controls,etc, right on the strap. (These were at Target, locally). I didn’t get one because I didn’t need a backpack (although with my affinity for bags, it was hard to walk away), and because getting one for my son would mean advertising to the world that he was carrying that expensive equipment with him to school — not a smart move, IMHO. (It had big “IPOD BAG” lettering across it).
I even carted around a zip-front sport shirt this weekend, simply because I noticed it had an ipod pocket with the little rubber earphone cord pass-through thingee built in. My son and I were thrilled to find such a thing at… of all places… Wal-Mart. So, I stuck it in my cart and pushed it around until I realized that the ONLY reason I’d consider that particularly ugly and polyester-tacky garment was for the ipod thingee on the sleeve. I felt pretty stupid, and put it back.
Today was good in several ways, and SUCKED in others. Yesterday, I looked long and hard for a perfect mobile “go-bag” for all my stuff. I’m on another kick about that — see my blog of a few days ago on this topic — and ebags was having a time-change sale. So, until right before the cutoff time of midnight last night, I looked — again.
I finally gave up and decided that my current go bag was ok, until something really moved me. It protected things well enough, it was ok. Then today… I pulled out my camera to take a photo of my son — who just got his shiny new driver’s permit. And the LCD crystal was BROKEN! It was ruined. I carry that thing everywhere I go. I NEED it. And there it was, broken and ruined.
I was working in town today — rather than traveling back and forth — and I had my powercord that I love — my iGo power SOLUTION. A bit more than a power cord, don’tcha know. And it has a short…
Want to watch the latest YouTube content on your 5th generation iPod? My favorite magazine tells you how and runs through those steps in an online-accessible article. I’ve not tried it yet, although my son is anxious for me to give it a whirl — for HIS iPod, of course. Here’s the link…
Video How-To for YouTube.com to iPod conversions and downloads.
technorati tags: you+tube, YouTube, ipod, video, downloads, how+to
Today, Government Technology released an article with some pretty alarming statistics on where America is in the digital revolution. We are losing.
The article, The Truth Behind America’s Digital Decline, by S. Derek Turner, offers a great snapshot of how far behind we are, including these little tidbit-facts…
Ok, I admit it. I’m a bag addict. I like boxes too. Containers, that’s my thing. Things that hold stuff turn me on. I’m not into typical “girly” things. I don’t particularly care about shoes … although once or twice every five years a pair will really catch my eye. The rest of the time, they are purely functional. If they don’t rub, don’t squeak, don’t cause me issues and aren’t terribly ugly — they are good shoes.
The three most important C’s of my existence could be summed up as: Communication, Companionship and Containers. Yup, that just about covers it. I don’t like owning alot of stuff, but I sure want to have a cool container to hold what stuff I do have.
Mozilla has just released the latest version of the “I can’t, I won’t, imagine living without it” browser. I’m headed over to download it now and put it up for my first test drive. In the meantime, I thought you may want to know where to download it, and what types of reviews it’s getting so far…
I’ve been poking around with the newest beta offering from Google - the Co-op Custom Search Engine. I must say, I like it so far. I’ve managed to load up my own custom search with all the sites contained in my favorites. So, although there are some “wide open” URL’s reflected there - like DMOZ - the majority of the results are really something that speaks to me. They are the sites containing pages or information that I deemed above average, helpful, extremely cool or amazingly weird. It’s a fairly eclectic collection with topics ranging from high tech developments to Voluntary simplicity to Marketing to Tiny Houses and Micro-Dwellings (probably just another “container” issue of mine), to search engine marketing and writing for the web and other topics that comprise my world.
If you want to try out my own customized search, I’ve posted it here on WickedBlog (it’s in the right column on the index page). And, if you would like to create your own…
You can do that by visiting http://www.google.com/coop go give it a spin! It’s pretty cool.
As the time passes and the Net Neutrality Nay-Sayers get stronger, I must push aside my differences with some of our political leaders and come together on this one issue. I think it is one of the biggest issues of my adult life… and I think the full impact of how this decision plays out will not be felt for several years.
If you haven’t heard of the Net Neutrality issue yet, or you have not yet “grasped” the full impact of this particular topic, the time is now. A good way to “get your arms around” the complex and particularly important bit of legislation is to watch the recent Bill Moyers piece on what Net Neutrality means to the average American.
I’ve been harping on this on my personal blog for some time now, but it’s imperative that this issue become clearer for small business owners, Realtors(r), real estate agents, entrepreneurs, freelance workers, remote professionals and anyone with a stake in having unfettered access to the wealth of information available at fingertip access… at least what’s readily available for the time being. (more…)
Jodi Diehl (SunfrogServices) has bragged on her own blog about getting the new Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack
Wayne and I have decided to get that for Alexzandria for Christmas (Shhhhh! Don’t tell her!) to go with a computer that we are preparing for her holiday surprise… but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to wait on this particular expansion pack myself!
Wayne is the big Sims fan at our house. We all love the Sims, but this man goes to extremes with his passion for the personalities behind his pet people. He, unlike me, isn’t the slightest bit interested in the pets expansion. He’s already handling enough with all his various households (the man keeps a grid of the households and plays them all in order to ensure that they all grow old at the same time, and to be sure that they are all on the same calendar day at the same time.)
Harumph! (and he calls ME anal retentive… uh-huh… guess that fact just revealed the truth, eh?) :O)
I’d play more myself… if only there were more hours in the day. I loved the pets on the old standard Sims… it was one of my favorite expansions… and this one is going to be so much better!
This last couple of weeks, I’ve been working with a peer using a new “beta” offering from Google. It’s called Google Docs and Spreadsheets and, I must say, it rocks!
How do I use it, and why do I recommend it for people who work remotely? Why is it a good fit for those who travel alot? Because it’s a web-based FREE way to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets and then download them in a multitude of file-type options… like .doc (MS Word format), PDF, .odt (Open office format), RTF (rich text format) or even HTML. You can export spreadsheets in .xls (Excel format), CSV, .ods (open office), PDF or HTML.
You can archive the files on your account, you can flag certain files, you can tell at a glance which (of the people you invited to view or edit your documents) made a change last. It’s like having a whiteboard, a word processor, an spreadsheet program, and a storage place online…. and *God Bless Google* it’s free!
Just a bit of food for thought:
Learn more on www.SaveTheInternet.com.
technorati tags: Net+Neutrality+Video, Save+The+Web, My+Internet
I’m having a fit. All over anyone who will listen. A HUGE fit. I’ve ranted about school attendance policies before, but I’m in the middle of another situation with this topic.
Alex is sick. She got sick over the “fall break” from school. She got worse over the weekend and, against my better judgment, I sent her to school on Monday. I did it because the new attendance policy sucks. Despite the fact that she was snotty and coughing and droopy, I sent her. I knew better. And it was socially irresponsible of me to expose others to the germs and I regret it. But, there was a part of me that was waiting for them to call me to tell me to come and pick her up because she was sick — just so I could ask… “Since you called ME.. is this an “excused” absence?”
It really is about the money from the school’s perspective, else they wouldn’t have “free days” so often and “movies” during library class, and no homework assignments on the days before weekends and often-times very few classes and no homework the days before and after big breaks (like Fall Break, Spring Break, Christmas Holiday, etc, etc…) If it were about educating the children, that would be the focus. That would be how the majority of the time in school was spent.
They are so worried about the “per head” money they get for each child, I figured having a contagious child would make them call me. After all, in the long term, more germs = more illness = fewer kids in school.
I have had more calls lately on the topic of blogging than I could ever have imagined. Even my current clients are calling me saying “So you blog for that ONE client? Why aren’t you doing that for ME?!?!”
It’s a sticky situation for a writer and marketer who makes a living capturing and communicating the “voice” of her clients. Saying “I don’t recommend hiring someone to blog for you” has resulted in a slew of calls asking for me to do exactly that.
Go figure. (I think “reverse psychology” may be a marketing technique I should have pursued in the first year of my business – back when I was “hungry” and struggling!) Ah, hindsight…
So, what CAN I do to help you if you are new to the blogosphere? What WILL I do to help you launch your first blog? (more…)
The newest member to our family, Cosmo, has had a really rough road. When we picked him up at the vet on Thursday, the vet confided that he didn’t think the was going to make it overnight, but he had.
He also told us that the kitten had a serious concussion and that he had about a 50/50 chance of not making it past the next day. The left side of his head was a mess. He had a ripped ear, a busted nose, a cut lip to go with his concussion. He couldn’t stand up for more than a second before falling over and later on Thursday, he gave up trying to stand at all.
The vet told us that he didn’t think he had been hit, he had probably been tossed out a window and had landed on his head. He said if he had been hit, more than likely he would have died instantly. I told him I would prefer to think it was an accident, thank you very much, and that if people did stuff like that, I’d prefer not to know about it. He laughed at me and shook his head.
Personally, I hope there’s a special place in hell for anyone who would be so cruel to an animal.
I’m mulling over my current cell phone bill and I’m wondering… was it a good idea to give up the Treo and go with a separate phone and my Tablet PC? Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ll never give up my Tablet PC. It will have to be pried from my cold fingers… ahem… unless something cooler and better and faster and smaller comes along in the near future… but I digress.
The fact is, I could check my email and do a bit of web surfing on the Treo for $19.00 per month (with Cingular). And now, I’ve got to have this MEGA dataplan to use my Tablet PC from anywhere.
I prefer the Tablet PC. I like the full screen, the ability to actually do work on that full screen and to maintain a size ration as well as a complete program pack that’s identical to the one I use at the office, even when I’m not at the office. I love not having to sync things. I love having this system set up so that my Tablet PC is my main machine, with a server at the office and a 500 gig hard drive that can either reside on my desk in Serenity or travel with me in a laptop bag for longer journeys.
But the cost… whew!
Yesterday morning, my husband walked into my office, kissed me on the forehead and said “I love you.” Now that doesn’t seem all that odd, he’s often sweet like that. I’m a lucky woman.
But this morning, I looked up in his face and immediately knew something was wrong. So I replied, “I love you too, what’s wrong?” And the next words out of his mouth are those guaranteed to horrify any good wife… he said…
Yesterday the good folks at www.SaveTheInternet.com hosted an online web forum for bloggers with Bill Moyers. Bill is doing a segment called “The Net At Risk” during his “Moyers on America” program later this month. He met with several bloggers and net-aware individuals to discuss their own concerns, to ask questions and to offer feedback before the new documentary airs nationwide.
I attended the event and must say that it was a worthwhile use of my time, even though Tuesdays are always extremely busy for me.
The “don’t fix it if it ain’t broke” approach to this topic by the Telcom industries and some politicians irritates me. I’m a firm believer in minimizing governmental interference in most things — so my feelings on Net Neutrality are a little off my usual mark. But, I want to ensure — and I want assurance — that the cable and phone companies can’t, in essence, control the access to unlimited information by shunting the pipelines and filtering content.
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