FlickrStorm - one way to find your perfect photo.

If you’re the kind of person who spends hours in PowerPoint every day… you probably know this scenario.

You have slides. They content. But what you don’t have is a photo that works. That flows. That matches the graphic your boss gave you.

Have a color you need to match?

Try multicolr search lab. Simply click on a color (or a combination of colors) from the chart, and photos that match are displayed. It’s simple. It’s awesome.

Looking for a visual answer to a phrase?

Compfight is your answer. Enter a phrase. Find answers.

Worried about Copyright and Acceptable Use?

CreativeCommons Search.

What about browsing through large numbers of photos?

FlickrStorm, baby. Type in a word or phrase, and watch the thumbnails pop up. Click on them and they are displayed on the right hand panel, so you don’t lose your group of photos. Create a “tray” (lightbox) of favorite photos, then bulk download. This is a great way to develop a listing of photos you are looking at for a pitch.

I must be making a lot of PowerPoints lately, as they seem to be a topic of many of my blog posts….

Today, we’re all over the place.

Not just in a busy sense (well, that too), but also in a digital sense. We leave our footprint (Foursquare checkins, Facebook wall posts, Tweets, Blog posts, Comments, Yelp Reviews etc..) all over the ‘net. We share where we’ve been, where we’re going, what we did, ate, thought and felt with our friends, family and even complete strangers whom we’ve never met.

But, in reviewing a few photos that were posted by @GeorgeGSmithJr from a recent trip up north, all of the tweets and foursquare checkins fall in the shadows of some of the pictures he uploaded from the trip.

So my question is– we’re sharing our social lives online- but it all seems to fall short when you compare it to a picture.

I think this one’s my favorite, but check out his Flickr stream here for the rest (if you’re interested).

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…

Presenting on New Media & Millennials in Atlanta, GA

I’m a big fan of blogging.

Maybe that’s why I am currently leading a New Media Team while at my day job.

Or maybe it’s that reading mashable is one of my daily routines.

However you look at it, I like to call myself the CBO: Chief Blogging Officer. [Techyness note: I totally made this title up and the team makes fun of me for it.]

Each week, the team comes together to discuss what’s “going on” in the new media scene, and also to collaborate on our team projects.

A few weeks ago, our meeting was scheduled for shortly after Apple’s Macbook annoucement.We had to take “breaks” to check what the blogs were posting on the subject.

Calls like this one make me think back one year ago – our Blog v1.0 – the predecessor to the blog as you see it now. It was the day when our Facebook page was new, the Wikipedia entry had just launched, and we were the first (and only!) leadership program with a blog.

It’s interesting to work on blogs both personal in nature (techyness) and professional (imlp blog).  But on the techyness, I’m the solo blogger an operator. But working on a blog with a dedicated team while at work has led me to increase my knowledge on blogging, social media and how to manage a team… by just listening to my coworkers.

It’s important to understand the differences between the two – as they have different audiences and “goals” (yes blogs have goals too..)

Excerpts via GE IMLP BLOG

Skype Dates... Like the phone (but better)

Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on skype.

When I told one of my (older, non-millennial) co-workers that I had a “skype date” – he looked confused (and maybe even a little concerned for my well being?)

I didn’t tell him that it was a dinner skype date.

My good friend Urban Dictionary defines it as “an event in which people contact each other using an internet phone calling program such as Skype.”

ex: “I’ll catch up with you later. I have a skype date with Adam. This is the best time to call him because of the time change.”

But what’s funny about Skype is that it’s become the necessary evil of long distance relationships fueled by collaborative technologies (not that I’d know from experience or anything…).

While I was studying abroad in Italy, I noticed that many relationships survived on Skype alone – you would always see the girls with the long distance relationships run to the quietest corner to whisper to their boyfriends across the ocean over the interwebs.  There was no privacy (and not much bandwidth either) – so watching them run to the corner made me laugh (but I was also a little jealous of the dedication to the cause)

But the term “skype date” is popping up — not just online, take the  Skype community forum features a thread on “Skype Love and Dating,” but also in movies — Megan Fox in Transformers 2 was blown off by Shia for a scheduled video chat date and was not happy about the outcome.

Why Skype, You Say?

1) It’s Free (non committal. good for people who have different carriers or travel frequently.)

2) You can see the other person (if you have a mac, a netbook, or basically a recently purchased computer)

3) It gives you that home-away-from-home warm fuzzy feeling that you’re talking to a real person behind all of those bits and bytes.

If you’re going to take the plunge and have a Skype Date, my Advice:

1) DO NOT WEAR A CORNY GEEKY HEADSET. for real here, would you wear your headgear out on a first date? No? Then don’t wear a weird headset. Try an iPhone headset with earbuds or at least something sexy.and YES gadgets can be sexy!

2) Look nice from the shoulders up. OK, so you’re not wearing pants. WHO CARES! But at least do your hair.

3) Keep it fun. Maybe suggest that the next skype date is formal and you expect him to wear a tie. Who doesn’t like a guy in a suit!?

4) Research how it all  works. You would look up driving directions if you were going out to dinner, right? Well, do the same with skype. Make sure your camera works. Check that your headset works. Nothing’s more frustrating than seeing you but not hearing the words coming out of your mouth (unless both parties know sign language.)

So, are millennials crazy for doing this? Yes and No. It’s great to keep in touch with those in different time zones (and where it would cost a small fortune to call) and it’s always fun to make funny faces at people over skype, or use the communications channel to decide what to wear. Just don’t rely on it as your only source of “seeing” someone for a long period of time.

Lay down the law, ladies. They should come and see you. In person. Or you’re taking away the video privileges of skype ;)

There's nothing like professional photography to make you and your loved ones look their best.

There’s nothing like a little bit of awkwardness to keep me going through a tough week.

Whether it be through a super awkward pickup line from a guy (or your dentist trying to set you up with her son, in my personal case), or through a more favorable (and less awkward for me) version… family photos.

After being featured on Thrilllist (one of my favorite e-mail newsletters, along with daily candy and shop it to me) this thing has really tipped/gone viral, and for good reason… it’s good shit.

There’s beauty in the sheer simplicity of the concept. For example, take the family above. One of the children looks like he doesn’t even belong. The entertainment factor continues to increase as you navigate your way through the site.

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…

It’s a (basically) normal Monday afternoon.

I’m hanging out at the Energy corporate headquarters in Atlanta, waiting for a few email responses, so I decide to get a head start on my weekly post for the GE IMLP Blog. (Mind you, my blog used to come up in the first results page in google for GE IMLP before the blog, but no hard feelings you know?)

Anyway, so I’m writing my post and trying to resize and crop some graphics. Sounds easy right? Well, I don’t have photoshop on my work laptop and my trusty macbook pro with the full adobe cs3 suite is back home (and missing me).

So, I start to Google around and find Picnik. Amazing. It’s basically love at webapp first sight. (Plus they are headquartered in downtown seattle… instant cool.) The picnik team is composed of some pretty cool guys- the CEO sold a previous application to Google.

For free, you can upload your images and edit them within your browser. No fancy or expensive editing software needed. Once your image is uploaded, you can crop it, add text, change it to a black & white photo, lower the resolution if you’re using the image on the web, render it as a different image type (jpg to gif if you’re interested), add a border… pretty awesome.

And it also integrates with your photos from facebook, myspace, and flikr. But don’t let the name “picnik” throw you off… no food here (sorry).

We all have the same issue: digital photographs.

If you shoot (& store) at a high res, you already have (probably) a storage issue. But there are better places for your digital pics than your hard drive alone.

Transferring your JPGs to a USB stick and printing them at your logal drugstore is something I would personally advise against. Check out other options- first of all is online printing. It’s (#1) cheaper (#2) better quality (#3) you have a lot of options.

As I’ve mentioned before, mpix is a personal favorite of mine. They’re incredibly fast, cheap, and even hand color corrected on great quality paper. (you can also go the snapfish route)

However, I’ve run into a low-cost alternative that doesn’t require the need for a frame. The Rasterbator is a (free!) online photo collage generator that allows you to upload a photo or use a picture online and turn it into wall art that you can assemble yourself (no artistic talent necessary).

The interactive sizing “planner” is amazing- you can expand the size of your photo and it will immediately tell you the number of sheets that will be used in order to create your newest piece of wall decor.

Since most of us don’t own a professional grade printer with bleed capabilities, the additional whitespace/margins on the page can create an issue. Don’t worry, they have that covered and make it easy to cut them away- or you can keep the whitespace for that artsy look.

Other options include color (black and white, multicolor) as well as dot size up to 100 mm.

In the end, it’s all saved as a multi-page PDF. love it.