I thought up these 5 signs while on the train from Albany to NYC, and thinking of what else… shopping.

• Your heart skips a beat when the daily groupon gets announced
• A daily login to sample sites is not only on your mental agenda, but an event in your calendar as well
• You never pay for shipping and always find a coupon code to give you some extra perk
• You take paying full price for an item as a personal insult – this is the internet, afterall!
• You personally worship (or have an insatiable jealousy of) Jane from Sea of Shoes

Working from the Porch - The Good Life :)

Happy Easter Sunday to All!

Miss Techyness is blogging to you live from sunny Key West, Florida — and so I’d like to share a warm “Happy Easter” greeting to all.

Regarding techyness levels here on the island, I’d have to say the foursquare use is pretty low, as I am continuously adding new venues — while simultaneously explaining to my 8 family members what exactly foursquare is and why I use it.

One venue that I added today (with plans to be mayor!) is bésame mucho. This wonderful store embodies everything I’d ever want in a real-life, physical store. And it’s more than just the name, which means “kiss me often” and comes from a 1940′s spanish song.

The store owner and I had a few techy conversations, first- regarding our love for florence and then regarding my “Keep Calm and Carry On” print purchase from sfgirlbybay on Etsy, and then about our favorite blogs, including sea of shoes and sfgirlbybay’s blog. I’m hoping she takes my advice and starts up a blog!

If you’re interested in the song that inspired the store name, check out the video below with bocelli singing (love it)

(a few lines from the song)

Bésame, bésame mucho,
Como si fuera esta noche la última vez.
Bésame, bésame mucho,
Que tengo miedo a perderte, perderte después.

(love this).

Now You Can Buy that Bag... On the Go.

I grew up wearing a uniform.

So, as a girl, your only way to showcase your personality was through your purse and your shoes, and at my school, it was all about the bag.

Many went for the true americana styles of Coach or Dooney, and of course there was the occasional Euro entry (which were harder to find because they were not available at the local mall).

Thank God for the Internet.

Now, if you want to make a decision on which bag to buy to go with your uniform, or to buy for a holiday gift, you can shop online catalogs, ask for opinions on twitter, and use interactive gift finders from your favorite retailer/brand (like Coach’s cool Facebook app), and find out what people are saying on Facebook.

Or, you can even buy a bag on a mobile site, as Dooney launched their mobile site today. So, if you see “that girl” with the perfect bag, you can buy it on the spot. [I’m loving the canvas bags,  db sport duck print & leather bags).

Another way to kill time while waiting in line…

Finding headphones is a little frustrating.

The only comparison I can make between the number of headphones/earbuds I have been through is to boyfriends. Some relationships ended with an upgrade at the end, and others ended a bit more tragically (take for example the death of my SkullCandy TI’s on Friday).

As of late, the boyfriend side is going well (2/14 update), but the headphone side is lacking. Hopefully the past doesn’t dictate the future…

Therefore, I’ve been updating all of my communications outlets, looking for advice, as well as searching through bestseller lists and reviews on Amazon. It’s really frustrating, because where can you really “test drive” headphones (bose doesn’t count in this category).

Seriously though, I’ve been having trouble in this aspect of my techy life (see chart.)

Why is it that the cheapest pair of headphones are the only ones surviving!?

So, what I’m really looking for is some help. I’m evaluating Shure’s headphone options, but can’t seem to decide on anything yet. So, this mission, should (I) choose to accept it, is to find a pair of headphones.

If you caught the season opener of (my personal favorite show) Gossip Girl, then I’m assuming you’re just as obsessed with the clothes as I am. However, finding the clothes is a bit more challenging. Who says we can’t add a little gossip into our lives too?

Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl

Thankfully, in my long-term Internet quest to find some answers, I came across Polyvore. It’s a site that allows us normal people to create “fashion mashups,” which link to where one can purchase items online. (I have no idea where the name came from).

According to Wired, the site’s creator, Pasha Sadri, was also the creator of Yahoo Pipes (an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator.)

The graphic to the left contains a few of the newest outfits from Gossip Girl, including blair’s marc jacobs white dress that seems to be sold out everywhere.Or her green Milly dress (really cute).

But don’t be fooled- the site is more scalable than just to provide an outlet for the fashion hungry (but not much, I just didn’t want to sound too shallow…)

It’s flexible enough to create interior design and home layouts too. For example, say you’re moving into a new dorm room or apartment and want to make a mock layout of what it might look like. Not a bad idea if you need to make a “proposal” to your parents for funding.

If you’re interested, don’t forget about Polyvore’s blog.

Too bad a pretty picture of fabulous outfits won’t get me a date with Gossip Girl’s Lord Marcus Beaton. sigh.

Let’s face it. The Internet is a wonderful place to find one of a kind stuff, especially affordable art.

But to me, Etsy its just about as good as finding a vintage chanel bag that you can afford (ok maybe that’s a stretch but I know you’re getting the point.)

I came across the site while I was searching for a less expensive version of a poster I found online at Shabby Chic – A reprint of a vintage British wartime poster.  (lets just say one was $295 and the other $25).  I fell in love with it and even had to buy this pendant made out of a scrabble letter by a married couple in SoCal (also via Etsy). You can buy two and get one free :)

The artist behind the poster reprint has a great blog where she links to “affordable art” as well as a list of sites that sell recycled art.

You can find anything on this site- and it gives artists an easy-to-use outlet to sell some really creative and fun merchandise. And it’s not just limited to the USA… people all over the world sell through the online marketplace. The vision of the company is to “provide a better choice.” not bad, eh!

But most of all, it’s well done. Not surprising when you find out that investors include the founders of flikr and del.icio.us

For all you techies out there, check out this wall clock made out of a hard drive, or the other recycled Geeky items available via Etsy.

I feel more artsy already. haha.

I believe that my techyness is multi-dimensional. (Don’t worry, I’ll explain.)

While surfing the web (& choosing RSS feeds) I often find myself torn between straight-up true tech sites like engadget (my favorite) digg’s technology section, gizmodo, slashdot, lifehacker (basically Forbes top tech blogs).

But there’s another side. It’s more like the girly-girl in me that finds myself looking through the “geek chic” sites like GeekSugar and Shiny Shiny that are fun, shiny, filled with pictures, and pretty light on the techy side. Mainly, they feature photos of stars from MTV’s The Hills, Gossip Girl, Sex & the City and Paris Hilton (no surprise) clutching new iPhones, BBs, sidekicks, mp3 players, laptops and other electronic devices with simplified “how-to” guides and descriptions of said products.

My main question here is: are people really using these smart phones or just trying to look like the lc’s and lindsay lohans of the world? (although I do have to admit that I’m a little upset about hearing that john mayer has a blackberry bold.)

For example, check out GeekSugar’s “Top 10 BlackBerry Tips and Tricks,” with the best tip (in my opinion) to put your smart phone in a cup filled with uncooked rice overnight, which will absorb moisture. humm.

I do love GeekSugar’s section titled “Geeky or Geek Chic?” where you can put in your two cents if the (Swarovski) Crystal USB engagement ring from jflume is Geeky or Geek chic. You can also find some cool stuff via Shiny Shiny’s geek chic apparel section.

Mobile Magazine states, “no price has been attached to the Swarovski Crystal engagement ring USB flash drive, but the real price will be the potential for losing your bride to be over your uber-geekiness.” hahahahaha.

Regardless of how shallow some of the posts seem, there are a few hidden “gems” (haha) in these sites. Both are good resources for men who are looking to buy something for a techy girlfriend, coworker, or friend that is a girl (either way).

Looking for ideas? I’m a fan of:

• lacie “lego” external hard drives: amazing and stackable
• turntable ring: badass.
• headphones ring: double badass.
• desktop icon watch: a watch from MOMA that looks straight up like a widget. really cute.
  
• the pixel couch: don’t know how to find this thing but it’s being put into production by some italian company
• emotibles: add ons for your ipod earbuds
• budclicks (you can even use these to endorse your favorite candidate),
  
• charging station: home or office, has an integrated power strip (you could probably DIY if you wanted)
• tech organization cases: you can charge everything in the case at the same time!
• gorillapod compact camera portable tripod:

So, in writing for the Daily Orange’s technology section, I received a small care package from ThinkGeek, everyone’s favorite destination for techy gear.

One of the things I received is the WiFi finder tshirt. The shirt is still sitting on one of my shelves, unopened. It’s not that the thing isn’t innovative or funny, because it’s both of those things.

It’s mainly that I’m more of a Ralph Lauren polo/Jcrew/Anthropologie kind of techy girl.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to give it to the main IT guy here at SU who is always pinging our server … because it always goes down. I have got into the habit of packing a sweater because a trip to the server room is nearly guaranteed on a weekly (if not bi-weekly) basis.

On my 22nd birthday, one of my friends made a comment about the dress I was wearing, and said that she “saw it in her email.” Confused, I asked her to explain more- she said that twice a week, she gets an email filled with items that are on sale in her size.

I was interested. Shop it to me is a part personal shopper, part robot and part smart coding.  Oh and it’s free.

All you have to do is sign up, enter in your size information (shoes too!) and choose what brands you like and what types of clothes you are looking for. You also choose how often you want to receive the emails.  It’s mainly designer stuff from Nordstrom, Saks, ShopBop, A/X, BlueFly, eLuxury, Zappos, Gap and more.

It saves a lot of time, but I feel like the emails could undergo a redesign to make it more fun. Plus it’s better then a clogged inbox with online sale alerts.

Check it out and happy shopping!

I recently purchased the Skullcandy TI’s in pink (proceeds to breast cancer research) after spending months lusting after them on the skullcandy website.

I know what you’re thinking… I didn’t buy the pink furry ones (sorry!) But those are cool too- for people who like that sort of thing.

For the money, these headphones are worth it. Once I take my earrings out, they are comfortable, completely encapsulate my ear and have amazing bass response.

What I didn’t realize until later is that famous people and DJ’s have been sporting the same headphones that I purchased.

Too bad they are my “homework” headphones.

Oh well, at least they’re pink.