Weekly Geekery v1.0

A sometimes consistent, probably not at all, gathering of the geeky stuff I come across & love

THENEWIPHONE4 (!!!) Come to mama.

SEOLOL.com – Showing you the stupid stuff people search for when they think no one else is looking.

iPhone App magnets – Total dorkism kitchen perfection.

10 Ways to Convert Your Blog Visitors Into Dedicated Readers – Great advice for all bloggers out there.

USB cufflinks – For the uber geeky groom, which I’d love to have some day. Uber geek part, not necessarily groom part.

Doodle.com – Ever need to figure out what day or time works best for everyone? Doodle it.

Currently Feeling: Guilty for losing the iPhone my work was letting me use. Boo purdue. Some lucky sucker has it now – including my awesome case that always received compliments. Dammit.
Currently Anticipating: Girl Power Hour‘s “Brand You” event at the Columbia Tower Club tonight!
Currently Loving: Peanut butter and honey. On warm English muffins.

Facebook’s world DOMINATION

Image courtesy of Rob Cottingham

Last week, while I was out in Miami and attempting as all hell to “unplug,” which included me disabling e-mail on my work phone and shutting off my personal phone, (I kept my iPhone to check in everywhere on Whrrl still, duh), Facebook held their F8 developers conference and announced what a lot of people are calling “their attempt at World Internet domination.

See what that is? I go out of town for four days, and suddenly Facebook is dominating the Internet.

You can’t win. Take a minute off, and the entire Internet is flipped around. Monday I was out sick – and come to find out that everyone was up in a roar over the arrest of the Gizmodo blog author who released secrets of the top secret iPhone 4, (which I’m SUPER stoked finally has a flash – it’s about time, Apple).

You blink, and the whole world is changed in three minutes. And then people wonder why I get separation anxiety from my phone. I tell yah, sometimes I feel like it’s a giant rat race, and wonder how I’m EVER going to keep up. Something I’ve noticed while working very closely in the tech industry these past eight months is that there’s an inherent need to always be more, more, more. Bigger, better, faster – more features, better features, improved interface – changing, changing, changing. I guess everyone’s looking for that magic potion that’s going to get more users. Or DOMINATE.

Me, personally, I just want to mute the people who complain every time their Facebook photo shows up on the right side of their profile instead of the left and suddenly there are 100 Tweets and Facebook status updates that say, “WHERE did they put my PROFILE photo. I am NOT happy Facebook! ”

I get it. We’re all a little wary of change. Of not being comfortable, and not knowing something inside and out. So, I wasn’t too surprised to see all the upheaval with Facebook’s “attempt to dominate” after their F8 announcements. Immediately I wanted to understand what was going to change…mostly because flipping around my privacy settings every couple months means I have to relearn everything, which is the most important detail of every Facebook upgrade.

My overall reaction? EFFING COOL. I can now “like” everything all over the web, and share that information back to my profile, allowing it all to become more viral. And their Social Graph connects what my friends think to websites I use regularly. I think it’s pretty kick ass that when I listen to Pandora now, it tells me “Your friend Blankity Blank likes this band.” DOUBLE EFFING COOL WITH A CHERRY ON TOP. (I’m easily won over).

Of course, if I want to be dark and twisty I’d say, “NOT COOL Facebook. You’re making me Like all this stuff I already like. I’m NOT happy.”

(You can learn all about Facebook’s new changes with this Handy Facebook to English Translator and can download a sweet plug-in to add the “Like” button to your WordPress blog too).

Currently Feeling: A little bit of a homebody this week. Miami and food poisoning plum tuckered me out!
Currently Anticipating: Checking out Haute Yoga on Queen Anne with neighborhood girls tomorrow.
Currently Bummed: That my new, pink Asus Eee PC died after THREE weeks. Three weeks I tell you! I can pick a new one out, but it was the very last pink model out there. Now they’re discontinued.

Love makes the world go ’round

For one reason or the other, (* queue creepy Brittany Murphy voice* I’ll never tell…) I changed my G-Chat status last week to “I think I’m in love.”

From which I was HOUNDED. Good lord.

It started with an e-mail:

“In love? Really?”

Then from there, no less than 10 of my G-Chat friends… even some really random ones (and professional contacts)… asked me what/who I was in love with.

I even got:

“In love? Did you get an iPad?!”

BWHAHA!

No iPad.

No, I’m not really in love.

But I learned that people can.not.stand cryptic or vague messages. Curiosity killed the cat!

And now I just made all of YOU terribly interested in knowing what I’m in love with.

Neener. Neener.

Currently Feeling: IN LOVE with fleece pants and unwashed hooded sweatshirts – it went from spring breeze to freeze in Seattle!
Currently Loving: My new kickball team – we came back after being down 11-0 last night to tie it in the last inning! Booyah.
Currently Working On: My 2010 goal list – which is now posted!

Closet blanket with sleeves wearer without the sleeves

Me: i don’t like the sleeve concept
they make me feel restricted
i use the snuggie without the sleeves. lol
then it’s just a big dumb blanket made out of cheap fleece

Friend: i just had a great idea. i’m going to put my fleece jacket on backwards and market it as a waist high only snuggie. those cost more cause they’re specialized. i’ll make a fortune.

Friend:
then i’ll take a t-shirt, but it open on the front and put it on backwards. I’ll market that as a waist high, short sleeved, summer snuggie made of lighter fabric.

Too bad he didn’t protect his chats! I’m totally stealing his idea, and I’m going to make a FORTUNE from it! Summer Snuggies made from T-Shirts! Waist-high-only Snuggies!!

Movin’, shakin’ and money savin’

Last week, I was flipping through last month’s Self magazine, and I stumbled across a little box about BooksFree.com, which is basically Netflix for book lovers. If you know me AT ALL or read this blog AT ALL, you know I’m a huge fan of reading and have had a huge Summer Reader list. Not only do I love to read books, but I love to buy them too. I have a rather large (color coordinated at that) bookshelf in my apartment and for some weird reason, it gives me a strange little joy to add books to the shelves every time I finish one.

But the thing is about not having a job, is that you have to learn to cut corners; and buying books in threes and fours every month is rather expensive. So I looked into this BooksFree.com site, and I AMSOFREAKINGEXCITED. The concept is genius, if you ask me. I wish I would have thought of it… I only have to pay $10.99 a month to receive two in two out, just like Netflix. That’s less than most paperbacks you’ll buy at bookstores. And the selection is larger and more available (no long waiting lists for new books) than your local library. You can even borrow cookbooks! So in some ways, it can be a “try before you buy” thing, and you don’t have to keep crappy books you don’t like.

I signed up immediately, of course. The first two books I have coming to me are:

• Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World by Lisa Lillien
• I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

And some additional titles in my queue:

• The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb
• Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir
• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• Unaccustomed Earth: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana by Haven Kimmel
• The Tender Bar: A Memoir by J. R. Moehringer
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I can’t wait to get started! AND… to save even more money, I checked my absolute favorite online shopping saving site – RetailMeNot.com, which has coupon codes for nearly every place I shop online at, so I always check it. And sure enough, they have a coupon for 25% off your first month at BooksFree.com! (DAX8)

Happy reading, lovers.

Currently Feeling: A little shocked and weirded out that it’s already September. This summer went SOOOO fast!
Currently Anticipating: Labor Day weekend and my boyfriend all to myself!
Currently Needing: To finish my professional Web site – so damn time consuming.

Summer Reading

Do you remember, as a kid, those summer reading programs at your local library? There’d be some sort of contest and a cool, colorful list where you could pencil in all the books you read – well, I LOVED those. I lived for them. I wanted to do nothing more than fill that list up and then some. That’s just how nerdy I am on the inside. (Cause clearly I’m fabulously unnerdy on the outside. Like doi). Anyway, I’m bringing back the summer reading list this summer. I mentioned last week that I was super excited to have a little more time to read the looong list of books waiting in my reading queue… I seem to have good books coming out of my ears these days. Here’s what’s on the agenda for this summer; let’s see how many pages I can check off.

Waiting on my bookshelf already:

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
My former coworker highly recommended this one. She said it was a story of friendship, but not overly girly and cheesy. I’m a sucker for novels about best friends since it always makes me feel warm and fuzzy about the girl friends I have. It also takes place in Seattle, so that’s kinda fun!

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Winner of the Man Booker Prize, this book was sold out of the last two books stores I went to. I figured it must be good. The book follows a taxi driver’s story in modern India and was recommended if you’re a fan of Slumdog Millionaire, which um, DUH, I am.

Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman
I was sent this book by the lovely Vanessa, who was my partner for a book swap on Just a Small Town Girl. We had to do some emailing back and forth about possible books to send since I was paranoid I was going to get something I already had. The book she chose follows seven perspectives of characters affected by the abduction of a 6 year old and was rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com!

Bought by Anna David
Harper Collins contacted me again, similar to when I received the copies of Thanks for Coming, and sent a copy of Bought to me a couple weeks ago. It’s a little more chic lit than I’m into these days, but I thought I’d give it a try. Apparently it delvs into women as escorts and the price you pay to get what you want. I sell my body regularly for diamond earrings and Cristal, so I thought, at the very least I could relate.

Waiting on my Amazon.com WishList:

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
I found this book on a reading list from NPR radio. This one sounds a bit creepy, but super fascinating – “The only survivor of the ‘Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas’ massacre that wiped out her family is forced to confront the lies she told that convicted her brother of the killings.”

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
This book keeps popping up on recommended reading lists and in bookstores everywhere I am, so even though I’ve read the back of the book at least twice – Oscar is a 300-pound-plus ‘lovesick ghetto nerd’ with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. – and it didn’t immediately grab me, I’m going to give it a try.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The most recent, 2009 Pulitzer winner, this book is a series of short linked stories about a gruff, 60-something school teacher in a coastal town in Maine. I’m not usually a fan of short stories, but much like Oscar Wao, the whole Pulitzer thing sucks me in. Slap an award on the cover of a book, and I’ll probably purchase it.

(That’s all I’m going to highlight for sake of length, but just so you know, I also have My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler, Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maarten Troost – the follow up to The Sex Lives of Cannibals, which I just finished – and I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley on my list. Who freakin’ knows if I’ll be able to get through all of these).

Currently Feeling: Tan and relaxed after my week of beaching and sleeping in. Next week – time to crack down on resumes.
Currently Anticipating: Camping this weekend – it’s our first camping trip of the summer with The Mini.
Currently Needing: To desperately clean my room. I have zero excuse for not having the time – I just don’t wanna! *Clenches fists and beats them on the ground*

If you talk books with me, I might love you forever

Every month or so, I seem to get a request from a friend for a book recommendation. I think they all know I’m an obsessive reader (perhaps the gigantic color-coordinated bookshelf was an indication). I always try to rattle a few off with very animated, circular arm motions of HOW.much.I.LOVE.this.book, or direct them to my Facebook weRead page. So, I decided I’d share some books on my blog and just direct people here, but after sitting down to write out an uber long list of reviews, I discovered I could link my entire weRead list now in my blog’s sidebar. This is quite good news because I have approximately 100 books in there that I’ve rated, reviewed and kept updated, and I’m a big fan of “not reinventing the wheel.” So feel free to peruse via the “View All” button.

And – in perfect timing for book reading news. I just received an email from someone at Harper Collins via my old dating blog over at the Seattle Post Intelligencer. She wanted me to review a book, and offered five copies to give away on the blog. I told her that while I don’t write on the that blog anymore, I’d be happy to transfer over the review and giveaway to this blog – so VOILA! You have a book giveaway coming your way, blog friends. I think the book sounds super funny – it’s a memoir from a girl who wakes up at 26 and realizes after multiple sex partners that she has never had an orgasm…so goes on a no-holds-barred hunt. You know you want to read it! Stay tuned… and in the meantime, tell me:

Currently Feeling: A little sleepy and groggy from the wine jug the BF and I split last night. Whoopsie. We just got so into Paranormal State – my new FAV!
Currently Anticipating: $2 pizzas and $3 glasses of wine at Sazerac tonight for a double date with Bestie Amanda and her boy.
Currently Needing: A quiet weekend before the rush of next week’s craziness before I leave – crazy business at work, a meet-up on Monday at Tini Bigs, a meet-up with the new roomie on Tuesday at Solo, a hair cut, pedicure, packing… AHHHCKKK.

A tag cloud of everything I’ve written thus far

Today I ran across a neat site – Wordle - which creates a tag cloud from any sort of text or Web site you choose. I came across it while reading an article a co-worker sent me on a word cloud analysis of Obama’s inaugural speech vs. Bush. (Yes, I’m this nerdy).

Anyway, my immediate reaction was to want to know what words would pop up most in my little homespun blog here. So, I took all the text in ALL 500+ blogs I’ve written since 2006 (582 pages in Word – that could be considered a novel, couldn’t it?!), subtracted common phrases such as “posted by 20-Something” and “Currently Anticipating/Feeling”, and I got this:

Could be an interesting point about how much our generation is said to use the word, “like.” I thought there’d be a whole lot more alcohol and sex related words, but what do I know?

Currently Feeling: A little wore out.
Currently Anticipating: Possible Michael Jackson vs. Prince party at Nectar tomorrow night?
Currently Wishing: I had voodoo powers.

Ladies and Gents, I do believe we might have just officially entered the WEB 3.0 era…

I’m probably going to geek out a lot about Social Media lately cause it’s what I’ve been spending most of my time researching.

So, I’ve been exploring Twitter a bit more, even though I’ve been using it on the blog for awhile now. I’ve graduated to searching for things people are talking about, or even better–clicking on the “Nifty Queries” links on the Twitter Search page.

This led me to Ubiquity, which was launched yesterday.

And wow. Oh my gosh wow. Please watch the video all the way through. I do believe how we use the Internet will be completely transformed very shortly.

Mmm Mmm, I Love Me Some Social Media

I freakin’ love any Presidential hopeful who is involved in social media to this degree:

Hi, [20-Something].

Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Barack Obama’s profile here:

http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Best,
Twitter

I read a number of articles on how Obama has a Twitter page and regularly updates it, so I decided to follow good ole’ Obama and the above is the e-mail I received back. It’s slightly intoxicating to feel like you could be this close to having a President hear your voice, even if they are just “tweets,” and I’m one of 64K+ that he’s following.

Oh, and I freakin’ love any job that lets me get this close to Social Media, which I’ve become increasingly more and more obsessed with. I’ve been finding and researching this Social Media stuff (hence learning of Obama’s Twitter page) all week for a presentation I’m giving next Tuesday. Looks like I’ll be heading all Social Media Initiatives for [insert my company name here]‘s North American markets in 2009 – from the grassroots level up. If that’s not a good resume builder, I don’t know what is.

Onward and upward to that dream job!

Currently Feeling: Ready for the weekend!
Currently Anticipating: Getting caught up since I don’t have too many pressing plans for the weekend.
Currently Wishing: I could see results RIGHT. AWAY.