AH! What to do this weekend

Don’t lie and tell me you haven’t typed it into Google.

I know I have (does that make me lame?) Anyway, regardless of my additions to Google search trends, I’ve come up with a short list of places that I search in order to find stuff to do on the weekend.*

Source #1: Twitter

First, you can always use third party twitter applications to find out what people are doing in and around your city. Try Trazzler, a site that recommends hand-picked trips unique to your location and “Travel Personality” (it’s kicked off via Facebook Connect). Plus our boys/twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams are founding advisers. 

Trazzler Buzz list is determined via Twitter updates on certain destinations. If you want to see what activity is trending now, check it out.  But what adds value is the site itself sends you directly to the website/location of the place being mentioned in the tweet itself.

Source #2 E-mail Newsletters (but cool ones)

Urbandaddy is a free (and very uncorporate) daily digest of cool restaurant, club, event and shopping recommendations based on either the local or national level. Plus you can sometimes get free invites to openings. If you live in any of the following 11 cities, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Jetset, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, National, New York, San Francisco and Washington DC, you’re lucky, because you have your own UrbanDaddy edition.

Thrilllist, similar to Urban Daddy, is another digest filled with (oftentimes) really random and awesome stuff that’s going on around you. Again, you’re lucky if you live in any of these cities…  New York offers essential, city-centric info about NYC. LA, SF, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, the Hamptons, Austin, Seattle and Washington, DC. If you’re more of a “nation” event watcher, you’re in luck, as a national edition is offered.

Source #3: Online/Social Travel Guides

I recently stumbled upon Schmap as one source of information for social-based travel information that you can download to your mobile device. You can download city guides.

*See, the techyness likes to have fun, too.

Two handycams do not equal one full camera.

I don’t know how I made it through the day before failblog, texts from last night, and fml.

But what’s more interesting is the effect these sites have had on my life. Not only do I blog about them, kick off meetings (long meetings with the right people) with a hilarious new video or photo, but now I’m starting to find them in real life (not just on the internetz).

Take for example a recent trip to San Antonio. While at a high school football game (I know) I turn around to see a double decker handycam camera operation.

Not one, but two. Two handycams do not equal one professional camera (sorry) but I did get a good laugh out of this operation.

While laughing (the non techies around me did not understand my fail reference and had not heard of fail blog!!!) a the situation, it made me realize a few things:

1) I need a new cell phone, ASAP so I can automatically send these sort of moments to the correct parties. Droid or iPhone? I may set up a poll on the blog and let you decide…

2) I really need to get out more, since so many of my jokes are based on youtube videos, failblog posts and stuff from my friends over at collegehumor.Not everyone spends as much time on their computer as I do, and I should really hide this information from strangers so I don’t get judged.

More fail to come. as soon as i sign offline…

I think my fairy godmother was present for this life moment.

I like tech. And people. But what I like the most is helping people with technology.  Sure, I’ve received a few frantic phone calls in my time from family and friends that have gone something like…

“ALANA!”

“Hey, whats wrong?

“I’m really sorry to bother you… BUT… I just spilled [coffee, water, hot tea, beer, wine, etc.] all over my [macbook, macbook pro, iPod, blackberry, cell phone] AH OMG!”

Lately, my people+tech work has been a little bit different than the whole “ok. breathe.  make sure your computer is off and remove the battery ASAP! Don’t try to turn it back on! step away from the computer.”

When I see a blog or some sort of online effort that has some serious promise, I can’t keep my mouth shut. I mean, doesn’t everyone love free tech consulting?

It started with Kappa Alpha Theta, @BettieLocke, and their blogs.

Next up is my friend Brittany‘s blog, “Crowning Celebrations.” Brit is an extremely talented designer, event/wedding planner, and overall just the classiest person I’ve met. If you don’t believe me, check out a photo gallery of her past work.

Also up on the list is Run ‘Til I’m Fun. These fellow ‘Cuse alums are dedicated to the cause of running long distances (which is awesome) and they’re pretty hilarious too. It shows that they are fans of 2B1B.  My former (slash lifelong) roommate Sarah says:

A security guard standing outside of a building applauded me, stuck out his hand for a high-five and yelled out “keep it going, gorgeous!”   This man single-handedly made my day.  A standing ovation, a high-five and a compliment when I have no makeup on and my hair is in a sweaty bun?  God, these tights are magical. – via Run ‘Til I’m Fun.

So, all you bloggers out there who are interested in my “5 minute e-mail of advice” feel free to shoot me an email at amedmunds@gmail.com.

Sure I’m no member of the Startup Princess Fairy Godmother Consulting team, but who knows, maybe I’ll drop them an email too.

While browsing new posts from my favorite preppy fashionista, I realized that it’s about time to tackle the “Web 2.0 chain letter” that seems to be invading collaborative outlets everywhere.

Chain letters have evolved over time… first with cheesy letters, then emails, and now in social media, where one can attach multimedia to answer questions or provide additional information.

Sure, it started with the Facebook – 25 random things about me, that we were all tagged in, and I’ve come across another one- “Show Your Heart.”

The directions state to show your heart…

Show your heart in one picture:

There's just something about these two trees that gets to me.

...one item of clothing:

Anything Jackie O had in her closet(s)

...one Disney Princess

Sleeping Beauty. No contest here. Maybe I'm just waiting to wake up too? (corny, had to say it, c'mon).

...one place (it’s a tie for me)

#1. Villa San Michele, Fiesole, Florence, Tuscany.

#2. Belhurst Castle, Geneva, NY (this one is more feasible)

...one poem:

for the sake of irony, my poem is about poems…

As a tool of cognition, poetry beats any existing form of analysis (a) because it pares down our reality to its linguistic essentials, whose interplay, be it clash or fusion, yields epiphany or revelation, and (b) because it exploits the rhythmic and euphonic properties of the language that in themselves are revelatory.  — Joseph Brodsky

…one quote:

Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. -Le Petit Prince (Antoine de Saint Exupéry)

And I can’t forget the final piece… to tag a few bloggers to follow up… so I know George will take this one on…

Alana says... Yay for the Techyness!

Over the past year, I’ve received a few e-mails, gChat messages, and IMs from friends who have mentioned to me that the Techyness is bringing them the news before some of the bigger names in news (not all the time, I’m just one girl!)

Example #1- Online Savings (Retail Me Not, Online Coupon Codes)

CNBC Article: August 7, 2008
ABC News Article: May 8, 2008

Techyness/Daily Orange: November 13, 2007

Example #2 – PadMapper (Display CraigsList results via Google Maps)

GeekSugar: March 3, 2009
LifeHacker: March 2, 2009
TechChuck: March 2, 2009

Techyness Post: February 4, 2009

Example #3 – LiveKick (Love these guys, they even added me to their blogroll)

**Hasn’t hit mainstream yet-couldn’t find anything on NBC/ABC etc

Techyness Post: January 7, 2009

A Wordle of my previous post

So, if you haven’t already heard, tag clouds are all the rage these days. So, why not create your own?

Thanks to a few friends over at IBM research who created the code, Wordle was born, and it allows you to take a few words you enter yourself, del.icio.us profiles or even RSS feeds/webpages to create these fun artsy visual representations of things you say often.

If you’re interested, check out their gallery (it’s pretty cool), or make your own here.

What I love is that it’s totally flexible and customizable. You can choose the directions of the words, create your own custom color palette (hex values).

But I really love the fonts, especially because they partnered with Larabie fonts (I’m a big fan).

These IBM dudes are pretty cool actually, because he links to this site, that teaches you how to take a screenshot on any device (basically)… hahaha amazing.

But if Wordle was to add or change anything, i would suggest a “voting” mechanism so that the best wordles could be recognized by the user population (digg-style).

Since I can’t get enough of blogging and social media technologies, I have joined up on a collaborative, cross-business team to do just that.

After a few weeks of meeting, reading, writing and conference calls, the result is now “live” — the official IMLP Blog.

The bloggers come from across GE businesses- Corporate, Infrastructure, C&I, Commercial Finance, Healthcare, and Money. Gaining perspectives from IMLPs from a variety of businesses allows readers to get a well-rounded perspective on the program.

Check out the GE IMLP blog for more information on GE’s Information Management Leadership Program- especially on Thursdays, because that’s when yours truly posts!!

Hard work. Yea, it’s a bit rough at time, but in the end it can really pay off.

(Oh and blogs count for this too).

Take my situation: I started Techyness in a quest to become “master of my own domain” to say the least. Some sleepless nights, 404 errors and browser incompatibilities later, I’m at the place where the blog is (closer) to where I’ve always wanted it to be. Heck, I’m proud of this baby.

I’ve been fielding some questions lately from friends or visitors wondering, “Who do you write this for? Is it for your friends?”

My answer is a bit less concrete. I wrote techyness without a single demographic in mind. It’s for anyone who is interested in how “techyness” intersects with many aspects of life and love. I’m not talking regurgitated tech specs or technical drawings in this blog. You can get that anywhere.

In working on a new corporate blogging initiative, I’ve met a few people with whom a passion for wordpress and blogging is shared. One is the founder of Newly Corporate, somewhat of a “brother” site to techyness, as we have a similar byline (and it’s not a bad one, thanks to the declaration of independence).

Newly Corporate takes into account perspectives from a variety of bloggers, covering topics that hit home with the driven young professional.

Look for guest post from yours truly in the near future. Could be the beginning of a wonderful blogging relationship (you know, with the whole inalienable rights byline thing in common).

One cliché in particular comes to mind- “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” Personally, I am not a big fan of overused sayings, but opening up your network to new ideas, new points of view, and therefore new people is essential. Essential to personal, professional and also… technological growth.

Last night, while enjoying the display of my new 22″ LCD flatscreen (it’s beautiful), I was searching for one of my two favorite stationary lines and I came across a blog with wit, a little cynicism and quite a bit of original thought. It’s not techy, but it has everything a good blog should have: white space, a central topic/idea, and an easy environment to explore all the blog has to offer. The Preppy Princess.

After posting a comment, the princess herself and I decided to do a link exchange- and she said in an email that

“The Pursuit of Techyness is “just snazzy. I like the way you explain stuff without making it condescending or being patronizing, a very fine line to walk I think.”

Truly, it’s emails like this one that encourage me to keep up with the blog. Never be afraid to leave a comment or ask for a link exchange with another blogger! The benefits from collaboration (even in an virtual setting) can be remarkable. If you read a post and have something to say- always leave a comment, it gives the writer that extra nudge :)