I would be willing to wager that most people, during their first office supply shopping trip after having read Getting Things Done, pick up some binder clips. This is probably because they happened across the Hipster PDA at some point during their GTD travels and thought, “man, that looks like something I could really get into - and for like $5, tops…”. Hell, you could build Hipster PDAs for a small village for like $20, who wouldn’t be tempted by such a small admission price? I know I wasn’t - I’ve got a whole tub of probably 30-40 binder clips of varying sizes that has been very busy gathering dust for many months now.

If you find yourself in this boat, have no fear, for I have compiled some seriously hacky uses for all those binder clips. They may not all have mass appeal, but they are examples of how to take your productivity gear to places it was never intended

• Wallet - Obviously, this depends on the type and amount of stuff you keep in your current, actual wallet. For me, it was nothing more than a big leather thing to house my credit cards, license, insurance and video rental card. So, for the past 6 months I’ve kept all of those cards clipped together using a small binder clip and it’s been fantastic.
• Food Freshness - Most households have those big plastic “Chip Clips” that are used to seal bags of food to keep it from spoiling. These things usually go for a couple of bucks *each* at the Bed, Bath and Beyond. Binder clips work just as well and cost about an order of magnitude less, so put them all over your chips, cookies and what-have-you.
• Hanging Note System - For this one, you’ll need some type of wall mounting hardware (nail, tack, etc.). Hang one of the arms of the clip over the mount and - presto - you have a place to hang pieces of paper (or whatever). This is especially useful for the inside of the front door, where you can hang notes to remind yourself to take things with you when you leave the house.
• Keyring Reminder Caddy - If I’m leaving wherever I am, I have my keys in my pocket (even if I don’t really need them). So, if I ever need to take something with me when I leave my current location, I put my keys on top of it so I see it when it’s time to go. The principle is the same, but with a little more confidence that you won’t be able to leave without seeing/feeling that thing that’s stuck to your keys. Just attach one of the arms on the clip to your keyring and fold it up when you’re not using it
• Glove Compartment Crap Organizer - There’s nothing quite as embarrassing as having to unload 6 months of ketchup packets, paper napkins and other junk from your glove box in search of your registration and insurance information, particularly when John Q. Law is watching you from outside the driver’s side window. Here’s a novel idea - bundle everything you’d need for a traffic stop together with a single clip and stick it somewhere specific in the glove box (the left hand wall, for example.). Because you don’t really need any extra stress factors when you get pulled over, right?
• Clothespin - Not many of us still dry our clothes on a line running across our yard, but if you do - binder clips!
• Cable Sanity - Most of the techie types out there know what it’s like to have an unholy mess of cables strewn about behind your computer/display. Especially as peripherals get more prevalent, it can get downright unwieldy back there. So, get yourself a box of the big, bad, industrial binder clips (the 2-inch ones work best for this) and start regulating on those cables. You’ll feel pretty awesome once that’s taken care of, I promise
• Impromptu Belt - I’ll admit that this one is a little on the ridiculous side, but let’s just say that it’s a damn fine example of the versatility of binder clips.

  One of the tricks my father taught me is that if you ever find yourself wearing pants that are too loose in the waste (and are starting to fall down), just roll the top of the pants down onto itself for a quick, temporary fix. I’ll do you one better - slap a couple of big binder clips over the folds you’ve just made and watch your pants *not* fall down. Try it.

What are some of your favorite binder clip tricks?

Technorati Tags: gtd, binder clips, productivity, lifehacks

Advertisement: Boss got you down? Take the first step toward freelancing freedom!

I have lots of tattoos. Something like 30 at last count, if memory serves. As tattoos have grown in popularity and social acceptance, it’s very likely that your average 20-something has one or more tattoos. And while I’m certainly not an expert on the art of tattooing, I’ve got a good deal of experience with tattoos (mostly because I get lots of people who want to show theirs to me) and can enumerate fairly confidently what are good reasons for getting a tattoo. I can also tell you what are not good reasons

People’s tastes in tattoo design has always fascinated me. Everything from beautifully ornate recreations of their mother’s High School yearbook photo to a cup of coffee and a donut (seriously, I’ve seen it). Far be it from me to tell somebody I think their tattoo is dumb (to their face, at least), but I think there are some pretty hard-and-fast rules about choosing a design for your next tattoo.

First, what I consider to be good reasons for getting a tattoo.

Memories

Of all the tattoos I’ve seen, this is probably one of the most common categories of inspiration. Whether it be a small “R.I.P.” piece on your arm for a cousin that died before his time or the name of the Company in which you served while in the Military, these are the kinds of things that are begging to be the basis of a tattoo design. From my personal “collection”, I have a tattoo on my right shin for my father who died in 1999 (at age 53).

But another facet of the “memories” idea that is often overlooked would be things that you really loved at one point in life. I feel these are just as viable as tattoo design ideas as departed loved ones, personally. It always makes me smile when I hear somebody talk about how they’re not sure they want a certain tattoo because “well, it’s going to be there forever so I’d better love it forever”. While there is some credence to that, I actually disagree. If you spent your formative years playing chess with your father but haven’t executed an en passant since the Carter Administration, then a chess tattoo would be perfect (if you ask me). Because it’s a memory, something that helped define who you are (even though it may not have manifested itself in immediately apparent ways).

Tributes

While these may look and smell very similar to Memories, there’s an important distinction: tributes are the kinds of things you’d get tattoos for that haven’t yet “ceased”. For example, I have tattoos for both of my children and my wife (kids tattoos pictured below), none of which are dead (a fact I’m pretty happy about). I love my family more than anything, so I really couldn’t wait to get them.

I suppose now is a good a time as any to bring up the whole “tattoos for your mate” thing. First, let me just say that I have my wife’s name tattooed in huge block letters across my lower back, and I’m all too happy to show it to anybody who asks (and even people who don’t) - much to my wife’s chagrin. So, clearly I fall on the “yes, do it” side of the argument. But - and that’s a huge ‘but’ - it’s something that shouldn’t be entered into lightly. There’s always the possibility that your relationship could end (one way or another), so you need to weigh that before taking the “I (heart) Wanda” plunge. But if you’re pretty sure the relationship is going to go the distance (which I am, for the record), then I say go for it. You’re only going to get one pass at this “life” thing, after all.

Passions

I love computers and technology. They’ve been my hobby and profession for many years now and will continue to be for many years to come. So it shouldn’t shock anybody that I have several “geeky” tattoos. Here are a few, and the geeks reading will probably be able to identify most of them:

If you’ve been going to see some sports team play for years and years and it’s something you’re truly passionate about, then go ahead and get that team logo tattoo you’ve been secretly dreaming of. If anybody voices disagreement with your design, you could kindly retort with something about their mother and how it was a good thing they didn’t get that particular tattoo.

Personal passions are fairly few and far between, in my experience. If there’s something you truly love, then a tattoo is a great way to show off how you feel. And if you’re not quite so into that thing a few years down the road, then you can count it as a memory!

Bad Reasons for Getting a Tattoo

As much as it may seem like I pretty much green-lighted every tattoo idea ever in the previous paragraphs, I do think there are several tattoos that are simply bad ideas. I’ll toss these in list form so you can scan them quickly:

• Your Boyfriend/Girlfriend - Unless you’re married (or in some other committed relationship), don’t go getting Mary Beth’s name on your shoulder. Dating relationships have a 99.9% failure rate, so you’re against some pretty hefty odds. So, wait until there are rings on fingers before you start getting the tattoos, please.
• Your Favorite ‘Vice’ - This has got to be one of the dumbest tattoos ever conceived. I’m talking about the guys with the logo of their favorite beer or (worse yet) a big ass pot leaf or something. Getting a tattoo of these types of things will make you look like a dumbass. And if you actually get something like this, you probably are a dumbass.
• “I just really like the design” (a.k.a., No Reason at All) - Even if your tattoo is in reference to something stupid, at least it’s in reference to something. Tattoos that have absolutely no meaning whatsoever (I’m looking at you, guy-with-tribal-band) are, to say the least, not recommended.

In closing, I’ll say this: if you really want a tattoo, get it. Ultimately, you’re the only one who’s going to have to deal with it as you wander through life. If it means something and you like it, go for it! Don’t pay any mind to your negative friends and coworkers who try to convince you that “man, bacon and eggs? seriously?”. At least you’re taking life by the horns and doing something. Tattoos are wonderful, go get yours.

Technorati Tags: tattoos, lifehacks

As some of my twitter friends noticed this week, I’ve made the switch back to Backpack as my primary GTD tool. Some found this surprising, given how heavily I’ve pimped Remember the Milk. This post will outline why I left RTM and why Backpack makes so much more sense (for me, anyway).

Let me get one thing out of the way - this post (and my aforementioned switch) is in now way an indictment on RTM as a service. They have an outstanding product and the sheer number of users they have will attest to that. Having said that, here is the main limitation I found with RTM as a digital tool for Getting Things Done:

It was only a list manager for me with no way to easily associate support material. I realize they offer reminders, calendar integration, RSS feeds for days and a rich API, but all of my needs beside lists are met elsewhere (which was part of the problem). If I had a file associated with an action or project, I had to either put it on the web somewhere and link to it from the project/action or print it out and keep it in a corresponding project folder. This was cumbersome for me.

I’m not looking for a one-stop solution to this GTD thing, honestly. For me, it’s all about the mental distance between two aspects of a project. To use the above example, if one of my actions is to read a PDF on animal husbandry, I like knowing that the actual file is only one or two clicks away from that item in my list. That’s not to say that I couldn’t have achieved this with RTM, but with Backpack I can do it simply by uploading the file to the same page where the list lives.

So, what does Backpack bring to the table that makes me so giddy? Well, several things, actually…

• Polish - Seriously, Backpack looks and acts just like you want it to. One of the driving concepts in the development process at 37signals is that you only include the features that you think most people will need. Obviously, there are tons of people who wish Backpack did [feature] - hell, there are a couple things I wouldn’t mind seeing in the next update - but they choose features to include and make sure they freaking work. And they do.
• The Free-form nature of pages - My Backpack is made up of many, many pages of lists - but there are also a growing number of pages dedicated to specific projects. For example, I’ve been invited to a special luncheon with the Internal Revenue Service in a couple of weeks, and they’d like me to bring along a few things (financial records and such). Before Backpack, it would’ve ended up with me emailing myself a pantload of PDF bank statements, then aggregating all of those emails under a specific gmail tag. Obviously, that would have gotten extremely unwieldy in short order. Now I have all of those PDFs arranged nicely on a few Backpack pages (where you can actually store the files, not just link to them), as well as notes about specific items, a picture of my daughter and a copy of the Gettysburg Address. You shove stuff on a page, drag it where you want it (including to other pages), there’s very little limitation on how you use it.
• Pages can be arbitrarily long - From what I can gather, there’s no set limit on the size of a Backpack page (well, except for the amount of data you’re allowed to store based on the plan you’re using). Using the previous example, I’ve got 38 PDF files on a single page as I write this. I’m pretty sure I could add another 50 and be just fine as cherry wine. I’m also not the least bit concerned with how long my lists get or anything like that, so even you mover-and-shaker types out there can rest easy knowing that you’re not going to “break” the Backpack.
• Each page has an email address - I have one page called “Inbox” where I send random thoughts, new inputs I receive while away from a computer, as well as messages sent from Jott (yep, Jott has built-in support for Backpack through it’s Jott Links service). The magic here is that my new “stuff” is now sitting a click away from the lists that manage the rest of my stuff. Hell, I can even *drag* it to the appropriate list. Freaking sweet.
• iPhone friendly (sorta) - While the default Backpack doesn’t have a special interface for the iPhone (and I’m sure this is one of the most requested candidate features), there are a couple of super easy tricks that allow you to reformat a Backpack page for easy iPhone viewing (without making it look wonky when viewed through a regular browser) and even change the WebClip icon for Backpack when you add it to the home screen.

I know what you’re thinking, “Alright, fine, you like Backpack enough to want to marry it or some crap - but how do you use it for GTD? Be specific, circus boy!”. At least, that’s what I imagine you’re thinking.

Obviously, the primary component you’ll be using for your lists is the… List. Here’s a quick gander at what a Backpack list looks like:

Nothing too crazy, as you can see. But you can rearrange items on a list and move items between lists using the super-cool drag-and-drop capabilities that exist across most of Backpack. And when you check items off of your list, they still live right below the original list so it’s easy to recover from errant clicks. Check it out:

So, here’s a peek at my sidebar, which contains links to Backpack pages (you can decide which pages appear here and which don’t - I have many more pages than listed here):

For the GTD-initiated, this will look pretty straightforward. I don’t have any oddball contexts, except possibly @Mac, which is for things I need to use my home computer for instead of any computer. The non-alpha characters (*, @ and ^) that precede the list items are to force the list to be sorted in a certain way.

Each context (@) page contains a single list. Projects and Someday/Maybe are the same way, but Projects has 2 discrete lists, one for personal projects, one for work. The reason I do it this way is because my work projects typically never number higher than 5-7 and my personal projects number near 30-50 most of the time. I need to be able to see work projects quickly.

As I alluded to before, the real power of a Backpack-based GTD system is in the ability to store many types of information in a Backpack page, not just lists. This brings me to the last three items in the list above, specifically the first two, “Personal Project Index” and “Work Project Index”. Each of these two pages is essentially a list of links to other Backpack pages where project information, support material (including documents, pictures and tasks) and whatnot resides.

So, that’s how I arrange digital information using Backpack. You might notice that I haven’t talked about the Calendar or Reminders services that Backpack offers. Frankly, I don’t really use them. Sandy already handles my reminders (in a much more flexible fashion than the Backpack calendar can) and I use iCal on my Macbook and iPhone to manage hard-landscape stuff (though I do have iCal subscribed to my Backpack calendar, so I can add events there and they will trickle into my iCal calendar fairly quickly). This isn’t to say that I find some sort of flaw in how these tools are implemented - just that I’m extremely happy with how I’ve got calendaring and reminders set up and don’t see a glaring reason to switch (especially because Backpack’s calendar/reminder don’t integrate with pages at all).

Now, a couple tips for really getting the most out of Backpack as a GTD solution:

• Email things to one page - Your home page is perfect for this. I have a contact called “Backpack” set up anywhere from which I email (Gmail, Mail.app and iPhone), and I email things to this page liberally. Just make sure you check that page often for new stuff to process.
• “Email me a copy” - You can email any Backpack page to yourself simply by clicking this link in the page footer. A really kickass way to make backups (or even generate a quick lo-fi version of your GTD system if you expect to be away from a computer for an extended period), this is one of my favorite features.

A quick word on pricing. The Backpack plan I use is the “Solo” plan, which costs $7 per month (or, “chump change” around my house) allows for the creation of 100 pages and 1gb of storage for your files (which is ample for me). If you’re just looking for a place to put lists and you don’t need a calendar or anything else like that, you can sign up for the Free plan. You only get 5 pages but you can easily put all of your @ lists in a single page called “Actions” or something. Hell, you could run the whole list-y operation from a single page if you were feeling particularly masochistic. I’d recommend the Solo plan for personal GTD setups, but you can always go bigger if you need more of the collaborative features (multiple users, etc.).

That’s pretty much it - as you’ve probably gathered, I’m a big fan of Backpack. Give it a test run, I think you’ll dig it, too

Technorati Tags: gtd, productivity, software, backpack, 37signals, sandy, rememberthemilk

We’ve all been there. Something’s dreadfully wrong with your trusty computer - you can’t print, you can’t get on the web, you can’t play Bejeweled. For whatever reason, the problem is major enough to warrant one of the most desperate acts you can imagine - a phone call to tech support.

Now, before we dig in, let me tell you that I’ve done my time answering the tech support phone calls. I spent a good 3 years at it, so I have a pretty good idea what I’m talking about. And while I didn’t enjoy it for the most part, it was an enlightening experience. The support calls that were the most pleasant (or least unbearable, it could also be said) were with people who took the time to perform one or more of the steps I’m going to outline here. Trust me folks, this is the real freaking McCoy.

The key to making things work with your tech support representative is to make things easy for them. I know that there are a great many jackasses out there who feel some sense of entitlement and indignation when speaking to people in service roles, but believe me - you want them to be happy.

Before You Call

As you may or may not know, how you act before you even pick up the phone can pay a crucial role in the success or failure of your tech support experience. It can, quite literally, mean the difference between a quick and complete resolution to your problem and a harrowing grudge match that ends in frustration and defeat.

• For pete’s sake, Reboot - Most people either don’t know to do this or, for some reason, think that their problem is big enough to withstand a restart, so they don’t even try. Anybody who’s worked in support will tell you that a ridiculous number of issues will be resolved by rebooting your computer. So, please, before you pick up the phone, reboot.
• Know how to reproduce the problem - If you’re getting some cryptic error from within your web browser or something, be able to make the error happen on command before you call. Don’t call in and say “Internet Explorer said there was an error and had a bunch of weird numbers” if you aren’t able to do this, because you can bet your bottom dollar that the tech’s first request will be for you to make the error happen again. So, do yourself a favor and (to the extent that you’re able, obviously) get this process straight before calling.
• Attempt to fix the problem yourself - Most people seem to have a very strong aversion to this suggestion. Either they don’t feel like they have the know-how to even try to fix it, or they just feel like they’d rather have a pro look at it. I understand all of this, but people who think that way run the risk of wasting both their time (and money, depending on who they’re calling) and the time of the poor schlep on the other end of the phone. See the “reboot” suggestion above for a *classic* example of this.

Assuming you’ve got all of your ducks in a row and the problem is still rearing its ugly head, it’s time to pick up the phone. There are some things you can do while on the phone that should make things easier. But first, there are a couple things that you should bear in mind as you’re talking to the person on the other end.

Things to Remember

• They (probably) didn’t cause the problem personally - As silly as this sounds, it always amazed me when people got me on the phone to help them fix something and conducted the entire conversation with the tacit belief that I was the one who caused their crap to break and needed to be punished. So, please, don’t forget that the poor a-hole on the other end is just doing his/her job and is probably not directly responsible for your AOL email password not working.
• They can’t see what you’re doing - In other words, you need to be descriptive. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to know (and use) all of the techie jargon (and unless you know what you’re talking about, I would recommend not even attempting to do so), but avoid using words like “thingie” when you’re talking about a pop-up window or the mouse cursor.
• They don’t necessarily know the answer right off the bat - Diagnosing a computer problem is just that, an exercise in diagnostics. Trial and error is the name of the game here, so expect to wander down some paths that end up being dead ends. Effective tech support personnel are able to quickly pare down the list of possible causes of a problem, then systematically eliminate the rest until they arrive at the culprit. Just know that the phone call may not be a quick one.

While on the Phone

• Do exactly what they tell you to do - There’s nothing more infuriating to the tech support guy than some know-it-all, weekend warrior type who managed to install Windows 98 on his own a few years back and is now an expert. These are also the types of people who roll their eyes when the person on the phone asks them to do something they may have already tried (or worse, something they feel isn’t relevant to the issue at hand). Chances are, the person you’re talking to knows more about this stuff than you do. You should operate under this assumption and do precisely what you’re asked. It will make the process go much more smoothly, believe me.
• Be patient - As I mentioned before, the tech will likely try several candidate solutions to your problem before arriving at the winner.
• Context is relevant - If you’re calling about a printer problem, it might be worth mentioning that you recently installed a new cartridge. If your computer is making funny noises, you might want to bring up the series of power outages you experienced in the last 24 hours. It’s better to give more information than not enough, so feel free to share any facts that seem like they might be relevant.
• Don’t lie - The simple fact of the matter is that many, many computer problems are the result of doing things with said computer that you might not want to admit. And I’m not just talking about porn (though, that’s the chief sinner a lot of the time) - it could also be that toolbar you installed for your browser that gives you easy access to pictures of cute cats, or maybe that free Su Doku game. No matter what, if they person asks you if you opened any strange email attachments (or something) recently, just freakin’ fess up, because they’re probably going to figure it out eventually anyway.
• Don’t be an Ass - One of the quickest ways you can get to the land of the banished is to treat the tech like some peon who’s just “beneath you” or something. Trust me, if you want help, humility is like gold. And if you think that certain tech support people won’t give you the runaround if your attitude is sour, you’re very, very wrong. Very.

Most of us will have to get an expert on the horn at some point in our lives. If your time is drawing near, remember these tips and hopefully your experience will be relatively painless.

Technorati Tags: tech support, lifehacks

Advertisement: Boss got you down? Take the first step toward freelancing freedom!

Just wanted to invite everybody (especially those of you reading this via your favorite RSS reader) to come by and take a gander at the new look. I’ve completely redone the layout for this site, the goal being simplicity and a more minimalist feel.

At any rate, I will be posting soon - I promise. For now, I’d love to hear what you guys think of the new theme!

Image courtesy of
London Permaculture

The following is a guest post by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project

We’re all looking for ways to work both faster and calmer, and I recently hit on a trick that keeps my desk tidier and my thoughts clearer.

One of my most annoying habits is my tendency to scribble down important phone numbers, “Don’t forget!!!” notes, and helpful URLs on any piece of paper that happens to be cluttering up my desk.

An hour later, I throw away what appears to be trash, or I flip over a piece of paper —and the key info vanishes. Or even if the information was still there, I have no idea what it means. Sure, that phone number has a star by it, so it must be important—but I can’t remember whose number it is.

I’ve hit on a neat workday solution: a “scratch paper for the day.” I keep a pad of paper by the phone, and anytime I have the urge to make a note, I discipline myself only to use that pad of paper. At the end of the day, I toss the piece of paper, after copying anything I need to keep on the next day’s paper.

It has made an astonishing difference to my sense of order. I’m not surrounded by illegible scribbles that may—or may not—be critically important. When I need information, I can easily find it.

Technorati Tags: productivity, lifehacks, note-taking

Like most adults living in America today, I get many phone calls. Some from my wife, my mom, my brother, my friends. But sometimes, I get phone calls from the local health club, the local car dealership or somebody trying to get me to buy 5 pounds of veal.

Unsolicited phone calls. We all hate them with a raw purple passion, but - if you have a phone - they’re almost as certain as death and taxes. It sucks, but that’s the freakin’ reality of the situation.

This little gem occurred to me just a few days ago. This past weekend, I’d taken our car into the local Toyota dealership for it’s oil change/tire rotation/etc. maintenance visit. It went very well, no hiccups or accidental scratches, none of that. Then, the following Monday morning, I got an email from them asking to take a short survey about my service experience. Took less than 2 minutes and I was happy to do it.

Then they called me. “Just wanted to ask you a few questions about your visit”, the polite man said. “Sorry, I don’t have time right now”, (and I wasn’t lying, I really was busy), “call me back tomorrow.” After I hung up, I quickly assessed whether it was worth adding this number to my address book. “Huh,” I thought, and then I saved it under a brand new contact called “Ignore”.

Seriously, everybody with a phone capable of storing multiple numbers for a single contact (especially you iPhone owners - since you can store an arbitrary number of phone numbers, not just ‘work’,'home’, and ‘mobile’) - create this contact right now. I’ll wait.

Now, the next time an undesirable calls you from a non-blocked number, just tell them you’re busy and to call back later. Then, add them to that “Ignore” contact. Presuming all of the outgoing calls from their call center are routed through a single number (which is typically the case), the next time they call, your phone will tell you exactly what to do.

I can hear you saying “well, why not just ask them not to call back?” - this works sometimes, but not always. And even though they’re required by law to not call you back (assuming it’s an unsolicited call from a complete stranger, which isn’t the case for my car dealership), we’ve all heard stories from people who’ve repeatedly asked to be “removed from the list” and still get those calls.

If you’re really savvy, you can ignore everything you’ve just read and sign up for GrandCentral (assuming you can get an invite).

Technorati Tags: phone, spam, telemarketers, iphone, lifehacks

I got a chance to chat with Dustin Wax of lifehack.org over Skype last week for their Lifehack Live podcast, which was released into the wild today! Though, I must warn you, I tend to ramble a little bit when I get nervous, thanks for understanding cash loan payday tillcash international loan payday servicesadvance cash settlement,advance cash chicago settlement,pre settlement cash advancecash in advancecash advance loan illinois,5 advance cash illinois loanadvance cash day loan payovernight cash advance,advance cash loan overnight,advance cash overnightcash until payday loanadvance america cashadvance america cash cash,cash advance america,advance america cash loanadvance cash faxing money no now,no faxing cash advance,advance cash faxing no paydaycash advance serviceno faxing required cash advance,advance cash faxing no,no faxing savings account cash advanceadvance cash loan payday softwarequick cash payday loanadvance cash loan onlineadvance cash loan loan paydayallied cash advancecheck cash advance,advance cash cashing check gary,gary,no credit check loan cash advancecash advance nowmagnum cash advance,advance cash faxing magnumadvance cash fast loan paydayadvance cash company,scams on cash advance companyadvance cash company loan,advance advance cash company heir,cash advance companypay day loan cash advance,pay day cash advance payday loanfirst american cash advancesultan online casinono deposit casino bonus,no deposit sign up bonus casino,no deposit sign up bonus online casinoonline casino roulette,casino game online roulettelearn to play blackjack free,play blackjack online free,play free blackjackplay casino game onlinehand held video pokeronline bingofree internet casinointernet casino gamecraps free online play,free online casino craps,free online crapsbaccarat casino game,casino game,free casino card gamefree casino game downloadcasino gamesroulette gambling,gambling game roulette,best gambling online roulettevideo poker for freefree casinoskeno gamefree blackjack download,blackjack download free ware,no download free blackjackcasino en language onlineroulette game free online,online roulette game,casino game online roulettevideo poker practiceplay free flash slots,play free slots,play casino and slots free onlinecasino online free blackjack,free online casino,best free online casinowin video poker

You can listen to the episode here, and I highly recommend adding the podcast to your favorite podcatcher - definitely some great stuff happening over there.

That’s all for today, kids. Have a happy St. Patrick’s Day, and we’ll meet again sometime this week for more fun, forest and fantasy. Cheers!

Advertisement: Boss got you down? Take the first step toward freelancing freedom!

Like it or not, the age of social networking is upon us. There is no escaping this reality, and if you’re looking to make your blog a success, there’s a myriad of sites where you can participate: Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Last.fm spring to mind - and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Probably, many of you are already using one or more of these services - so why not share a little bit of yourself with your readers? Of course, most of these sites offer a handy little sidebar widget that lets your audience keep tabs on you in that particular context. But I’ve found a better solution…

BlogCatalog.com lets you combine virtually all of your social networking activities in a single widget. You can have it report on close to 30 different services/sites, including the handful I mentioned earlier. Setting it up is extremely easy - just choose the services you want included and supply your username for each. Customize based on color, size and number of items shown - then copy the generated code into your blog template and off you go. It really couldn’t be much simpler, I think.

And just to show you that I’m one of those “practice what you preach” fellows, I invite you to take a gander at the left-hand sidebar of this very blog to see this widget in action. Seriously, this thing is very cool, especially for somebody like me who’s recently gotten much more involved in these types of sites. Check out BlogCatalog.com for more information and to get cranking on your own widget! (You see what I did there?

Technorati Tags: twitter, flickr, digg, reddit, stumbleupon, social networking

I’m a big fan of Twitter (even though we’ve had our differences in the past - mostly due to my not “getting it”). While my updates may not be as fast, furious or incessant as some of the people whom I follow, I do try to pop on there as often as is feasible without completely kneecapping my productivity at work and home.

Whenever I mention Twitter to my non-techie friends and family, I’m often asked what it is and I can never quite articulate it without making it sound like some über-nerd service that only computer people use. It’s frustrating, because it’s such a fun service (and potential time sink - you’ve been warned, uninitiated readers) and I really wish more people used it.

Fortunately, I found this great video (via Twitter, oddly enough) that does a fantastic job of explaining just what Twitter actually is and why it’s so freakin’ cool.

Oh, and if you haven’t already, I encourage you to sign up, then follow me
(Hat tip to Chris Rodgers)

Technorati Tags: twitter