During the Gunn Infiniti launch party of the 2013 Infiniti JX, we had the pleasure of exploring the newest member of the Infiniti family, set to make it’s debut in the summer of this year!  Although we didn’t get a chance to test drive this sleek addition, we were wowed by the numerous features, roominess, and sexy styling:

• Intelligent All-Wheel Drive
• Completely custom seats, 3 row SUV! – The folding 2nd- and 3rd-row bench seats can arrange for any combination of up to seven passengers and cargo
• Tri-Zone Automatic Temperature Control – as a mom this is especially important, when everyone wants a different temperature!
• Two panoramic moonroofs – becoming a common feature, adds uncompromised vision
• Around View® Monitor – Four cameras positioned around the vehicle give you a virtual 360° bird’s eye view on your display
• Infiniti Connection features include Automatic Collision Notification, Drive Zone monitoring, Google Calendar™, and Destination Assistance via your Infiniti Personal Assistant
• Infiniti Intelligent – View Display
• Blind Spot Intervention system – helps alert you to vehicles in the blind spot area when driving

Learn more about the sleek features here.  Also learn how you can pre-order your Infiniti JX from Gunn Infiniti here!

Make sure to keep track of all the latest news from Gunn Infiniti through their social media channels:

• Google+
• @GunnInfiniti
• Facebook page

On a day off, a friend and I went to the Santikos Palladium to watch the second Sherlock Holmes movie. While were debating which show to see, we noticed that “D-box” seats were available for purchase.

Right now Santikos Theatres have D-box seats in three San Antonio locations and 1 Houston location:

San Antonio Silverado - $17.50
11505 W Loop 1604 N, San Antonio, TX 78250
Map & Directions

Houston Silverado 19 IMAX - $17.75
24720 State Hwy 249, Tomball, TX 77375
Map & Directions

San Antonio Palladium IMAX - $18.00
17703 W IH-10, San Antonio, TX 78257
Map & Directions

San Antonio Mayan 14 - $16.00
1918 SW Military Dr., San Antonio, TX 78221
Map & Directions

You’ll know which movie has DBOX seating option in the showtimes section.

By clicking on the movie time (NOT movie name) you’ll be taken to another site to purchase the tickets online with a credit card.

During the online ticket checkout, we were able to select our own seats or best available.

Selecting your own seats shows how many seats are still free and which ones are not.

FAVORITE SEATS: WE got F5 and F4 which had a bar in front of us to rest our feet on but did not obstruct the view in any way.

*NOTE: If you do not purchase a ticket don’t think you can catch a free ride in an unoccupied seat. The seats that were not purchased before the movie sat as still as the old fashioned kind. No ticket, no ride!

Once we got to the Palladium we were able to swipe our card at the self-service kiosk (HINT!! There’s one inside the building by customer service that NEVER has a line…compared to the three outside the box office that are always 3 deep…each.)

Then we made it to our seats after stopping for some light, yet incredibly expensive, concession stand snacks.

Actual Review and Thoughts

Once we got into the movie theater, we noticed right away how room and what a great view we had from our seats. In the first two rows of the elevated section, we found our seats and waited to have our worlds rocked. Reviews that I found said that even the previews came to life but none of the trailers we watched were synced with our chairs. A little bored and very curious we played with the buttons underneath the right side arm rest. I believe there were 4 or 5 levels of intensity that were customizable per chair. You even had the option to turn it completely off. Once the movie got going I didn’t remember to play with these.

Types of scenes that were animated:

• Bumping along a road in a car
• Scenic pans of train traveling scenes, as the camera rounded the bend, so did our chair, very subtly, probably the most welcome animation to me, my friend thought it was cheesy.
• Explosion scenes – no surprises here, whenever something exploded on screen our chairs reiterated each crash and fire
• Peering over something – there was a scene in Sherlock Holmes where we were leaned forward a bit in the chair

The chair completely movies, not just the back vibrating, physically moving. We were concerned about our drinks spilling around but it was never that drastic, especially after we had taken some quick gulps during the previews.

Would I do it again? Not for $18! BUT I have had other movie going friends who insist that it is the only way to experience a movie. I found it a little distracting, that instead of just getting caught up in the movie, I was paying attention to the movement of my chair. I think some movements were more subtle than others and I noticed it less…I would’ve preferred movie watching the old fashion way. That said…a scary movie would probably be 100 times more intense (to levels I’m not willing to experience.) I think anyone who considers them self a movie enthusiast should definitely give it a try.

During one review, a whopping 92% (or close to that number) of a test group surveyed responded favorably to the D-Box…so you don’t have to take my word for it.

Additional review from the SA Current here.

Become a fan on Facebook and tweet your opinions to @dboxTech!

Pictures taken from the Santikos Palladium theatre in San Antonio, TX.

So, a couple days before we saw this movie we saw this demo as we were leaving the movie theatre and I hurried us along, saying we didn’t need to sit in the seats. Had we, we would have experienced DBOX first hand without having to risk not liking the experience for an entire movie.

After coming back from an incredible vacation in San Diego and Las Angeles, California, I had a million pictures to share. Sure I immediately posted them on Facebook and Picasa but there’s not really easy to send a zip file of all the images. The file, too large for gmail, also exceeded the uploading limits of a favorite uploading site of mine, drop.io. (I like drop.io because of the easy, clean interface with advanced, customizing options.)

Here are some other sites that worked for me:

• Another clean interface, no sign up required!
• FREE members are able to upload at slightly faster times, only 25 seconds before start compared to 45 seconds for non-members
• 200 GB online storage

Easy sign up here.

• Max 2000MB limit
• No sign up required
• Simple, fast

Easy sign up here.

What are you doing on the 9^th day of the 9^th month of the 2009^th year at 9am/pm?

Sure a lot of people will get married and babies will be born on September 9^th, 2009.  Already appreciating September (the month of my birthday), I am excited to announce other ways people are choosing to celebrate this upcoming Wednesday:

1. One Million Random Acts of Kindness – @yokoono has been tweeting in support of One Million Random Acts of Kindness being executed on 9/9.

• Follow @BecomePeace2009 on Twitter (and help make #peace a trending topic!)
• RAK (Random Act of Kindness) – but BBC Radio also help start a growing RAK trend…read the blog to find out more (and print your own flyers or cards)!

2. FTD Good Neighbor Day 2009 – The flower experts are celebrating the 15^th annual FTD Good Neighbor Day holiday.

• Since 1994, FTD has encouraged all neighbors to foster community by offering (through local florists) same-day deliveries of beautiful, FREE bouquets.
• Customers are encouraged to keep one flower for themselves and offer the rest to their neighbors.
• Find your local FTD florist here.

3. Monopoly City Streets – Google (heard of them??) launches their Google Maps version of Monopoly!

• Buy any street in the world!
• Monopoly City Streets blog here.
• Play against your friends and finally get into the real estate market like you always wanted to, become a property mogul.

4. Beatles Revolution 9 – the iconic Beatles have a lot going on, 9/9:

• The Beatles Rockband – Comes out for Xbox 360, PS3, & Wii (check back for coupons – I’ll find them!)  Early review from CNET.
• Digitally Remastered – after 22 years, the digitally remastered versions of the Beatles studio albums will be released, as confirmed by press release:

Please Please Me
With the Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (The White Album)
Abbey Road
Let It Be
Past Masters
Yellow Submarine

5. World Day of Interconnectedness – “a shift from I llness to WE llness”…

• Starting in New Zealand, take time at 9am, to participate in interconnectedness (or oneness) opportunities (formal to informal acts.)
• Global Events – see what and when countries across the world are participating in.
• Email a friend
• Join the group.

6. @BarackObama – Don’t just follow him on Twitter, listen to him address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time!

• Obama’s website highlights concisely.
• Obama Mobile – somewhat unrelated, text “HOPE” to 62262 for updates from Obama’s camp.

7. Independence Day – the Republic of Tajikistan declared independence on this day from the Soviet Union in 1991.

8. Father Laval Day – I’d be remiss to exclude Father Laval Day, the 9/9 national holiday for Mauritius, the island republic off the coast of Africa.

• Father Laval – Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the local people.
• Mauritius – famous for being the only home of the Dodo bird!
• On this day, Mauritians (not Martians…) locals head to his tombs in hopes of benefitting from his post-mortem healing powers.

9. SA’s Bartender Bash w/ YVodka – YVodka who I first read about in @SavorSA’s blog, envisioned a vodka for the ’77-’97, you guessed it!!, Y-generation consisting of young professionals (and +21 college students) who appreciated a top-of-the-line bottle for a bottom-of-the-barrel price.

• Free Y Vodka to 1st 300 club goers!
• $2 YVodka all nite!
• Club Newsletters – Not close to San Antonio?  I imagine this is a BIG after-hours night for a lot of venues…sign up for their email subscriptions NOW to get alerts and coupons for Wendesday (and on your birthday, etc…)
• Follow @TheYVodka & @ClubRive on Twitter!

Technically it just another day…but make 9/9/09 memorable by taking the time and participating in several, if not all, of the events listed above.  (If you don’t make it to Martian, I’ll understand…)

3rd Main Way I find People to Follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Backtracking

By definition, backtracking involves problems where you already have potential solutions, now you just have to figure out which one is the right one for you.  Similar to brute force, the first place to browse potential followings is your follower’s list.  In this case you go through your own list to see if there are tweets or profiles that catch your eye.  You can also this is on an individual basis, as you’re alerted to new tweeps following you (by default you receive an email per new follower, in real time.)

Before following them ask yourself:

• Is this a real person? It’s very easy for programmers to script a “twitterbot” which goes out and randomly starts following everyone!  A good indicator is the number of people following them versus the number of people they’re following.  If he’s a 500 people and only 2 people are following him, there’s a good chance he’s not worth following.  Check out his profile if the username or first/last name are not intuitive.  (Another reason to take your time picking a name…)
• Is it ok if this person sees the information I’m tweeting? (If your privacy is set to high, make sure you know who you’re letting follow you…)  Protect yourself, there are iPhone apps that give your exact GPS location…make sure you are comfortable with that information being sent out.

If everything checks out start following them.  If you don’t like their tweets you can always “unfollow” them (by click on the same button you clicked to follow them in the first place.)

Check out my next posts, I’ll go into details about specific Twitter tools I used for efficient delivery, calculating your Twitter grade (see how you’re doing…), and how to write your own Twitter program!

2nd Main Way I find People to Follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Pattern Matching

You know exactly who you want to follow…you just don’t know their username, their official Twitter page (versus the other 300 that get returned), or how to start looking for them.

i.  Twitter’s “Find People” – Twitter’s tab at the top right part of the page (search engine.)  I kind of hate it…I find it hard to quickly find anyone…however there are a couple mildly redeeming tabs:

• Suggested Users - offers a list of probably 200ish tweeps to start following.  List ranges from celebrities to causes to companies.  Good way to get the blood going before you start brute force following.
• Find on other Networks – check your Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo accounts for Twitter users registered with a particular email address you have stored.  (I was surprised to find my mom registered…it can be an interesting task that takes 2 seconds.)
• Invite by email – paste in a comma separated list of emails you’d like to encourage to join and follow you on Twitter.
• Find on Twitter – Twitter’s uber excellent search tool, allows you to search by “Username”, “First Name”, or “Last Name”
  • This goes back to the importance of picking a good username AND specific first and last name.  Practice finding yourself using names, logos, nicknames people looking for you might also try.  Should be intuitive.

ii.  Twitter’s Search box – when on the home page (where all the tweets are displayed) there’s a text box to the right where you can search Tweets for usernames and hashtags.

• See Twitter’s advanced search here.
• Notice you can search by “Place” – another reason why your location should match that to what user’s are most likely to search by.

iii.  Google – good ole’ Google.  I normally use this before I try Twitter’s search.  Normally I search for “twitter <whatever I’m looking for>” as concisely as possible.

• Normally start search string with “Twitter” (don’t know if it always makes a difference but it has occasionally.)
• Use this technique if I’m looking for a company, business, entity, person
• If multiple results are shown there will be an indention in the search results that includes a link to “Show more results from twitter.com”…then you only see profiles (or content found in tweets) on twitter.com

Examples:

“Twitter half price books” found the correct @HalfPriceBooks

“twitter ruff ruff man” found my daughter’s favorite PBSKids show @RuffRuffman

“twitter sports illustrated” found @SI_24seven*

*Notice their username…even if the username is already taken (for example someone already has @sportsillustrated and @SI, I would’ve tried @SI24x7, @SI247, etc before picking something long with an underscore.)  I like their tweets and I’m already following though so I’m ok with it.    Just another consideration.

Listed below are 3 main ways I find people to follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Today’s post will only cover the first, I have gone into detail and to combine all 3 would be a lot. I didn’t want to overwhelmed new Twitter users.

Brute Force

This option works well if you’ve done a preliminary sweep and are following those you wanted to. Also, this method works well when you’ve sat down at the computer for a no-brainer evening. Use the brute force method when you’re not in a rush and would like to browse potential tweeps.

Browse Following List: Be a copy cat and follow the people someone else is following. To browse their list, simply go to that person’s Twitter account and find the link underneath the number of people they’re following. If you know the name of the user you can go there directly by inserted the @USERNAME into the following URL:

http://twitter.com/USERNAME/following

i.e. http://twitter.com/MeeseMusic/following for @MeeseMusic

Click on the button to automatically start following anyone you’ve found interesting. Convenient because you don’t have to leave this page, and go to each Twitter profile to click follow. Quickly add several people instantly by going down this list.

The Twitter profiles are displayed in “Most Recently Added” order.

*The follow button is only available if you’re not already “Following” them. Since I’m following @JoeSingleFile in the second picture, I don’t have the option to follow him again.

Follow @geekettebits!!

*Check out who I’m following – I’ve kept it relatively clean and tended to added in groups (lot of food tweeps in a row, then sports, then beer blogs, etc.):

http://twitter.com/geekettebits/following

My list doesn’t have everything but there are a couple random ones you might enjoy…benefit from the time I took to go through a whole bunch of other people’s following list.

The brute force method is a great to use when you’d like to browse by a particular genre. For example, if someone is following significantly less people then they’re being followed by, see who they’re following. A lot of companies only follow local branches. Some bands only follow upcoming unknowns to help get the name out there.

Another good idea, while on their profile, check out who they starred in their favorites list. A chef might mark all the recipes he was particularly fond of, another person might mark a tweet with a special date.

Check back soon for the final two methods.

Class Objective: Friends and Followers

• Considerations when making friends on a new playground
• Finding friends to follow

First Day of School – How to be a Follower

It’s hard to be the new kid in the cafeteria…while some people jump in head first, most like to dip a toe in first.

Q: How do I start following @MeeseMusic
on Twitter?

A: @MeeseMusic
can be followed doing the following:

Go to their page: http://twitter.com/MeeseMusic

If you are not already following them, you’ll get the option to “Follow” them. Click on the button.

Before: Option to follow

After: Confirmation you are now successfully following
@MeeseMusic.

Numbers don’t lie, so keep the numbers in mind. (I minored in math so I <3 any numerical).

@MeeseMusic has 789 people following them (at post time.) However they are only following 56 people:

Number of Followers >> Number of Following

I.e. 789 >> 56

Normally in this case (where the numbers are so significantly different), the people @MeeseMusic are following people are the only people they want to show they care about. This is a good indicator that these tweeps are well worth following and time has been invested to only follow a select subset.

Why do some tweeps not follow everyone following them? Possible (and perfectly valid) reasons:

• They have 2 million+ followers and know they won’t be follow that much tweet traffic (remember twaffic) so they only follow pertinent tweeps they’re more likely to respond to.
• They appreciate being followed but only want to see tweet messages they know about.
• They are already a household name and don’t need to follow people to be followed. A lot of times, to get to the word out about your tweets, you’ll follow people to get them to follow you back. Your number of tweeps grows from this over time.
• They want to promote specific tweeps. For example, @GoogleVoice has almost 17,000 followers but they’re only following 3. These three are part of the Google Voice team…anyone looking at their profile will instantly ask, “Hmmmm, why is @GoogleVoice only following 3 people?” You feel compelled to find out who are the 3 and why!? They were very specific about who they followed because they wanted to attract attention to other tweeps. Consider if it’s important for people to know who you’re following before you start following everyone under the sun to your timeline.

  Many restaurants only follow the local chains on Twitter; this is the case with many businesses. *Will you have multiple twitter accounts specific to location, etc.? Take the time to create a standard naming convention: twitter.com/MAINzip or MAIN<[4 char of street name, etc.]> That way, regardless of where you are, the user can find your business again in another area. (Keep it short and simple.)

  For example: Bello Pizza has restaurants all over America and each one will have a Twitter page.

  @BelloPizza will be the main head quarters/HR department…and @BelloPizzaSATX & @BelloPizzaLACA will be regional locations that can offer specific discounts or events.

Several ways to find people to follow:

I’ve only been actively been using Twitter for about a month now and a half so I’m not expert follower. (However, to instill confidence I HAVE already written a couple Perl programs with the Twitter API – details in a subsequent post…)

3 Main Ways I find People to Follow:

1. Brute Force – you’ll know it when you see it…(consider this the “browse” option.)
2. Pattern Matching – You know who you want to follow, just need to find them…
3. Backtracking – someone’s following me…should I follow them?

Geekette Alert: Did you know the three I listed are also common computer algorithms? An algorithm is a problem solving method with specific execution instructions. See their wikis here: Brute Force search, Pattern Matching search, and Backtracking
algorithm.)

Although I originally planned to keep all this information in 1 post, my next 3 posts will highlight these three methods, turned out to be just too long for 1 post!

Future Twitter posts will also include details about specific Twitter tools I used for efficient delivery, calculating your Twitter grade (see how you’re doing…), and how to write your own Twitter program!

Website of the Week (WoW): www.vistaprint.com

Quick Bit: If I was on an island with restricted Wi-Fi and could only visit 10 websites, Vistaprint would ALWAYS make my list (even though I wouldn’t be able to receive mail, I could have it delivered to my loved ones back home.) I probably randomly found this website two years ago and have loved it since.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/vistaprint

Twitter: www.twitter.com/vistaprint
Supported M-F 9am-5:30pm EDT by the company’s PR team…above and beyond to me!

E-mail Group:
Exclusive Offers to sign up for!

This print marketing website offers a plethora of products and services at INCREDIBLE, unbeatable prices. I have never paid listed price for anything on the site. If you sign up for their mailing list you will get emailed competitive rates every couple of days. I don’t normally like to get emailed that frequently but it’s well worth it and I even included Vistaprint in my Top 8 Mailing Lists to Join post (if I could only pick 1 of the 8, I even said I’d only pick Vistaprint…) Normally the only thing we have to pay for shipping/processing (you’re allowed to order approximately 10 FREE products at a time, details here) saving you hundreds of dollars.

Rule #1: Do NOT pay for anything on this site unless it’s shipping, photo/logo uploads (AND you’re in a time crunch and can’t wait for an offer with FREE photo uploads…)

• Join their mailing list and create a separate email folder for: Vistaprint@e.vistaprint.com
  
• When you’re ready to print, go through a couple of the most recent offers to find the best one. Offers normally last for a couple days to a month.
• Don’t take the first offer! Hold out for the one you want…sometimes they’ll only have a couple products for FREE but a lot of times EVERYTHING will be free. (Note: It will be difficult to narrow everything down to 10 items in your shopping cart.)
• Best offers include free photo/logo uploads (which also counts towards uploading templates to the site…details below.)

Rule #2: Sign up for their mailing list now: http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/insider_offer_signup.aspx

All in all, the quality is great, the service is great, the creation/checkout/re-order process is great. It’s simple and intuitive. I <3 Vistaprint!

$$$-Saver(s):

• Templates – normally uploading your designs would be costlier to the business. Vistaprint takes the hit, and with good coupons uploads for free. Practically every product can be started from scratch, with multiple file types available! Review their usage and tips before starting. *I have never had an issue upload a template and it will also check for print quality/clarity!
• Refer-a-Friend
  – have a friend that would be interested in this? Get $10 for every friend you refer! I haven’t done this yet (learned about it while writing this post!)
• Partner Offers – before adding a product to your shopping cart, Vistaprint quickly asks if you would also like to take advantage of offers from their associates. One that I like is Google Ads, normally $25, get it free! It’s very easy to say no if you so choose and the checkout process is pretty painless.
  
• Every email is a money saving opportunity. Every email. And they even let you forward the email to friends so they don’t have to wait! (Emails after purchases are less beneficial, hold out for the major holidays or random giving away the farm emails.) Search you inbox for “free uploads” too…most important. (Even half-priced uploads is a good deal.)
  

Time-Saver(s):

• You don’t have to wait for the best offers to start creating. Know you’re going to need business cards for a convention in 2 weeks? Holding out for the Premium Business Cards to go on sale? Make your card in the mean time. Then when you get the offer just check out.
• Want to repeat an order? Vistaprint keeps track of your entire order history. Modify existing purchases, duplicate, quick and easy!
• Do the gift giving and wrapping ahead of time. Instead of Christmas shopping for 25 family members we made a magnet, a personalized card, and a personalized family calendar in October! Wait no longer, have some on standby for any gift giving opportunity.
• During checkout, take advantage of their “other products you might be interested in” suggestions. Using the information you input to the original product, they’ll also auto-generate other products you might be interested in. While I don’t always say yes, when I was doing the print advertising campaign for my blog, I used it a lot!

19 VERY flexible Vistaprint products

Not convinced? Thinking outside the box, how can you say no?! Everything listed below are projects I’ve actually used Vistaprint products for. (Confirming they came out perfectly.) Let me know what you ended up doing so I can add to the list!

1. Business Cards – these are just two things I’ve made with business cards template. Besides making business cards to scatter the world with (250 FREE!) I’ve also made gift labels for whenever my daughter has a birthday party to go to (can order with mini envelopes that can also be personalized – she has the blue below and also pirates.) I also made gift labels for the holidays, choosing this template out of some 300 options (modern, classic, etc designs…fun to browse through.)
   

   
   

   
   

2. Calendars
   – (magnets/print) During my significant other’s family reunion (mother has 8 sisters and 1 brother, breathes new meaning into the word reunion) I took many pictures (since when does everyone get together like that…) I was able to upload some of the family pics to Vistaprint (for FREE with my free upload coupon) and order a set of 10 calendar magnets (1 set, 10 magnets, FREE!) At Christmas I gave the gift (with my personalized labels) and was a bit hit with his family. Took me two seconds but I definitely appreciate how much it meant to them!
   

   Another time I made a personalized wall calendar for my mom with all the important dates for our family. I was able to put a corresponding picture for not only each month but also the special holidays (symbols for the first day of school.) The calendars have many different templates and settings but you can also start from scratch and include little captions for each picture.

3. Car Door Magnets
   – while I’m going to order one for my website, I have already used the car magnets…not for my car but at work. We have a metal cabinet next to the desk where we do our IT support on-call shift. Like anywhere else we get asked the same questions. To mitigate these questions, I included everything they should’ve done or thought about or known about before walking up. That way we efficiently help each other out.
   
4. 
   Hats
   –
   this was a cute one…my daughter is very much a tomboy and loves anything carpentry. (Make sure you read my post about taking your kids to Home Depot/Lowes to make your FREE wood working activity…) She loved being able to pick out the image and the wording:
   

   

5. Lawn Signs
   – throwing a bridal shower? Having a baby? Instead of paying a lot of money for a one time sign, plan ahead and just order it for when the baby arrives. Then you’re not caught up in the heat of the moment when you’re willing to spend more money then normal.
   

If you work on your neighborhood’s HOA or social committees (like I have) use Vistaprint to get signs for annual events. Then you really get your cost of shipping worth by reusing signs for Neighborhood Night Out, garage sales, and swim meets.

I’m not a gardener but I could also see making a cute sign at the entrance of your garden or your child’s playground. Again, limitless.

1. Magnets
   – free Christmas gifts! In a set of 25 small magnets (1 set FREE!!!) I took a CUTE Christmassy picture of Jaden* decorating our tree. Then, all by herself, she wrote a short holiday poem, we slapped that puppy on a magnet and we had 25 personalized gifts for all the family:
   

   
   

   *Child wishes to remain anonymous for privacy reasons.
   

1. Mouse Pads
   – I haven’t made mine yet but what better way to get the word out at work then have a mouse pad with your website’s logo and URL…what a conversation starter! Don’t have a website, no biggie, include a favorite phrase, a picture of a pet/family member…
   
2. Note Pads
   – I am a little scattered and LOVE to-do lists. However I can never find one that has exactly the fields I would need to fill out. It’s pink (I like pink), I can circle the to-do type (errand, work, email, call, etc.), and easily fill in the date. I can take notes if I want to and then create a follow up check list. I have made a couple different to-do lists that I finally actually use because they’re so handy!
   

   

3. Pens
   – I can personalize it with my blogs URL for anyone that wants to borrow it or I can let my daughter entertain herself by picking the colors, pictures, and wording and then go to school with the coolest pen ever!
   
4. Postcards – I used these when I wanted to communicate helpful information at work (stick a calendar on there even!) Announce a grand opening, make save the date cards, and invite people to the Christmas holiday party!
   
5. Return Address Labels – Personalized sticker labels for your kids, let them pick it out and stick them on school supplies, snacks, clothes, etc. I also made my daughter address labels (again all this for FREE!) that I shipped to family members so they could write her back. They loved the gesture and she got closer and enjoyed checking the mail. You can make fridge expiration labels; just include pertinent information, where this was, when I got it, when I should throw it away. Instead of squinting you’ll be able to quickly see what you need to get rid of.
   
6. Sticky Notes – Just like the to-do lists, I can’t always find post its that had what I wanted! Geekette Bits waits for no one! And I used their template (cause it was cute!!) and added my own text.
   

   
   

7. Tote Bags – In an effort to be eco-friendly and generate conversations about my blog, I ordered a tote bag that I take to Half Price Books and other stores with my blogs logo, URL, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Very simple (although I know it sounds busy)…you could also do pictures of your kids, favorite Bible verse for Grandma, and encouraging word about recycling…
   

1. Window Decals – during the election my best friend had a birthday. My politically enthusiastic buddy also LOVES Obama. I browsed through Vistaprint’s many templates and found one I could add text to. Perfect! I sent it to my friend who hung it on her mirror! (Decals allow the option of hanging on the inside or outside of a window, depending on the situation.)
   

These are just 19 products out of many more, some listed below*:

All Vistaprint products/services: Banners, Business Cards, Calendars, Car Door Magnets, Checks, Creative Services, Email Market-
ing, Envelopes, Flyers, Hats, Invitations and Announcements, Keychains, Lawn Signs, Letterhead, Logo Design, Magnets, Mouse Pads, Note Cards,
Note Pads, Pens, Posters, Postcards, Postcard Marketing, Presentation Folders, Rack Cards, Return Address Labels, Stamps, Sticky Notes, T-Shirts,
Tote Bags, Websites and Window Decals.

*List and links taken from Vistaprint’s Facebook page.

Let me know what you came up with!

***See Career Opportunities:
http://careers.vistaprint.com/

Class Objective: Twitter Terminology

• 1. Find out what everything means.
• 2. Understand Twitter ettiquette and syntax.
• 3. Learn what you can do with Twitter and why you might want to!

Now that you’ve setup your account you might think it’s time to starting making friends on Twitter! Nope, that’s the next post. Before you make your Twitter debut (which technically you should assume you’ll only be making once) take a second to understand everything you can and can’t do on Twitter.

You’ll save time by not having to stop and learn as you go. You can be organized from the get go and avoid any Twitter party fouls.

Twitter Term: Are you a Leader or Follower?

On Twitter you can be both!

Maybe you don’t plan on requiring a huge fan base for your business or entertainment group…but you want to find out particular information, as it becomes available – you’ll probably spend more of your time looking for interesting people/places/things to follow, then getting people to follow you.

Maybe you’re a new band (like the one that opened for the Fray – @MeeseMusic) who is looking for another channel to get their music, concerts, and other events out there…you’ll probably be looking for more followers then people to follow..

@GeeketteBits is following 655 and has 415 followers.

Tweeting!

Ok, so now you’re ready to start tweeting. What does that even mean? Below I’ve listed common Twitter actions/terms:

Re-tweet (RT)	Re-Tweeting Tweep’s Tweets – reposting a snippet someone else posted and giving them FULL credit. Now everyone following them AND everyone following you will see the message. * Tweeps take this as a compliment as many’s main goal is to get to word out. geekettebits Thanks 4 this info! RT:@weatherman – it’s going to rain Sunday! fisherman RT: @geekettebits Thanks 4 this info! RT: @weatherman – it’s going to rain Sunday! Notice the first time I re-tweeted a message someone posted. It will automatically pre-pend my message with my Twitter name – my examples are what they’d look like in someone’s timeline. The second time @fisherman thought others could use the information and they gave credit to @weatherman delivering the news and to @geekettebits for finding it. If you want to get your message out, make it easy to re-tweet! A lot of times I have to abbreviate a lot of the message – which takes time, each time. Short, concise messages are much easier to copy paste. (Remember you only get 140 characters, with URLs and ) *NOTE: Right now there is no re-tweet button on Twitter’s website. They are in the process of adding this functionality incorporating RT functionality into its website.
@username	Within any Tweet (message), a “@” followed immediately by a Twitter name will automatically create a hyperlinked reference to that person. Happy Birthday @BarackObama! That way, anyone reading the message can easily go to that person’s Twitter profile.
Mention	Whenever you name drop in a tweet, normally a “@username” in the middle of a tweet. (Normally not the first word in tweet, see Replies.) Happy Birthday @readersdigest, hope you had a good one! @orangecup always posts the BEST specials on frozen yogurt.
Reply	Official Reply - Click arrow next to each message to respond to THAT specific message. Each message has a unique ID so other Twitter tools can easily display entire “conversation” threads. Unofficial Reply – Replies normally start with @username in front of the message. @Dove_Chocolate, I’m replying to an official msg OR I’m just letting you know I had a great time at dinner.
#hashtags	Hashtags – a label/tag that hyperlinks automatically to other tweets with the same #search term. Twitter search is no Google search. Interest groups use the same #hashtag to easily find each other’s tweets. Businesses use them to easily find what their customers are saying, for example: #usaa. You can have multiple tags on the same message. Use this code to get #FREE movies @blockbuster #movies #coupon #promo Now everyone using the hashtags “#free” OR “#movies” OR “#coupon” OR “#promo” will potentially see my message…instead of just the people directly following me. People use this to find Tweeps with similar interests. One very popular hashtag is #FollowFriday (or #FF) – where you let your followers know who you think is worth following. Remember you get only 140 characters so another way to let your readers know who you follow is listed below.

Timeline (Home)

The “timeline” page is the homepage which displays tweets from all the people you are following. On the sidebar (column on the right of each Twitter page)

*Notice that the screenshot in the previous section is what’s displayed in my PROFILE – different sidebars!

• Profile Sidebar – public information, displays my micro-bio, location, website, my favorite tweets/tweeters, and friends that I’m following.
• Timeline Sidebar – private, for my eyes only.

Other Fun Twitter Terminology

Now that you know what it means to follow, be followed…and post and respond to tweets, check out my next post for the best people to follow on Twitter and reasons to keep in mind. We’ll also go over ways to organize those lists so you can cleanly keep track of messages without accidentally missing one. After that we’ll start talking about more advanced functionality within Twitter including responding to tweets, even when you’re not home and finding out what kind of grade your scoring, compared to the rest.

By reading my blog posts, you’ll save hours from trying out multiple accounts and functionality…take advantage of the work I’ve already done.