Back to school is a wonderful time for most students – seeing friends, filling up social calendars, and a lot of hard work. It also means stocking up on the latest and greatest in tech to keep you academically and socially efficient.

Here’s my breakdown of a couple of cool apps/tech buys that will help you get your game face on this fall. And no you won’t see any suggestions on what smartphone, tablet or computer to get. We’re talking apps, web services and a few tech buys to help you stay on your game.

Academic efficiency

Let’s break my thoughts on being academically successful into its basic parts: preparation, organization, and working smarter (not harder). Bearing that in mind, here are some cool back to school finds that can help with that:

• Evernote- Evernote is a free cloud-based note app that let’s you store notes online – whether they’re text, photos or voice recordings. Organized by notebooks and search tags, Evernote easily lets you search for whatever you’ve stored whether it’s ideas for an essay, pictures of roommate wanted listings, or reminders on what groceries to buy while you’re out! This bad boy is available both on the web and as an app for many different types of smartphones.
  Need more space? There’s an upgrade that will not only give you 1 GB of clipping space but also enable offline notes for your iPhone/Android device and allow others to access and edit your notebooks.
  • If you’re an old school writer, check out this great post from Geeksugar.com that talks about how Evernote and Moleskine are creating a partnership so you can easily add and organize your traditional notes within Evernote. Lusting over this bad boy…hard.
• Dropbox - Available on the web, on your computer and on your phone, Dropbox lets you take your files on the go so you’re no longer worried about carrying around those pesky USB sticks that are so easy to lose. This free service let’s you store your files securely in the cloud so you can access them anywhere.Because you can choose who has access to what files, this service is great to use for group projects where a number of people need to access the same file or just to share files like photos with family and friends.
  The free account starts at 2 GB and goes up to 18 GB or you can upgrade your account to get anywhere from 100 GB – 1 TB of space.
• Whichdateworks.com – This free online tool helps when you’re trying to plan around various schedules. You just name your plan, select a date range, add your friends, they choose which dates are available/maybe available/not available and whichdateworks.com chooses the best date based on availability. When all is said and done you can then email everyone with the final plan details. No more “Reply All” emails you need to sift through and keep track of (at least not for dates) – this really simplifies group meetings, social gatherings and anything else you can think of!
• Daily Routine - This little iOS app is great for helping you set up routines and sticking to them so it’s great for those moving away to school for the first time. Daily Routine allows you to setup multiple routines, print your routines, sync your routine with Dropbox (if you’re more digitally comfortable) and add your routines to your calendar.
  I’ll be adding this app to my iPhone shortly to test it out so I will add a full review soon.
• Livescribe Echo Pen – Ranging from 2 GB to 8 GB of storage, this bad boy records everything you hear, say and write. Not sure what the professor said while you were jotting that note down? Tap on your notes and it’ll replay the audio. Since Livescribe works with your computer, you can search, save and share your notes easily. Where was this when I was in university I ask you?!
  And the great news? The 2GB pen starts at $129.99 at FutureShop!

Honourable mentions:

• The Griffin binder insert case. I know that a lot of students are using their eReaders, tablets or iPads to store text books which eliminates the need to carry these heavy items in backpacks. For those that are doing so, you can find some great school solutions that allows you to safely bring your tablet with you. The one I saw today is from Griffin – it’s a binder that also has a handy insert for your iPad (2nd or 3rd generation). Now you’ll be able to keep all your books with you while you take notes and the best part is the case has openings for all your jacks so you can use your headphones or charge your iPad while on the go.
  Just $24.99 on the Griffin online store.
• Flashcards+ – This iOS app is great for studying as it was designed in association with the Harvard University faculty and students.  The app allows you to create your own flashcards to help you study. Study hard, peeps. Study hard!
• Student T.A. – Student T.A. is an iOS app that lets your organize both your personal and academic life. It allows you to keep track of your classes, assignments and projects so that you’ll never fall behind again.

Social efficiency

Please tell me I’m not the only one who sometimes needs to plan their social schedule. When I was in school it was often hard to balance school deliverables/projects, work schedules, volunteer positions and the *ahem* occasional recreational social activity so I used to plan my social schedule to ensure nothing would drop. As always, my recos:

• Skype – I’ve been using Skype since it was voice chat only. Since it’s added video chat it’s a great way to stay in touch with friends and family members who aren’t in the same city/country/continent as you. A free video chat service, Skype is available on your computer (Apple and Windows) and as an app (Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone) so you can take your conversations with you. Did I also mention it has an IM feature so if you’re not ready to share your face with the world, you can still chat.
• Dropbox - Although I’ve demonstrated the academic use case above, Dropbox is also an effective place to share other files like photos, videos and music with friends and family members. Boom!
• Evernote – Again academic use case aside, I’ve talked many times in previous blog posts about the wonders of Evernote. I use it to store ideas like birthday/Christmas present ideas, blog ideas, and photo reminders.
• Whichdateworks.com – Now remembering how Whichdateworks.com works in the academic scenario I’m sure you’ve already figured out how it can work socially. Planning a trip and don’t want to have fifty “Reply All’s” from people filling in your inbox about which date people prefer? Whichdateworks.com can help you cut down on those nasty emails (at least about dates anyway).

Although I could go on, I’m trying to limit myself to the apps that I feel could make the most impact. Got a great idea you think should be on this list? Feel free to add it in the comments – I love hearing about ideas that make life easier!

Hi I’m Aleks and I love coffee. I also like taking pictures of coffees I drink both domestically and while traveling.

There’s nothing better than the smell of full-bodied perfection in the early mornings. I dare you to show me a better smell than a freshly pulled espresso topped with foamed milk and some chocolate shavings.

Triple dog dare you.

But over the course of the month I found myself drinking not one, not two, but up to three coffees per day. Now let’s set aside for a moment that not every coffee is homemade and thus financially I don’t even want to think about the impact to my wallet, rather I think about how my endocrine system reacts to caffeine. I imagine it looks like this:

Image credit: http://www.thegameeffect.com had this posted when Steam went down. It was so funny I’m reusing it here with cred. I dunno where they found this or if they made it but it’s awesome!

So for the month of July I decided to have a caffeine detox by removing all caffeine from my diet with one exception – one coffee allowed on weekends OR special occasions.

Results:

• Day one – I’m tired. Like really tired. As in I feel like I haven’t slept in days kind of tired. This morning I poured water in my coffee cup and died a little inside. Have officially decided to only use these cups for coffee as any other use puts me in a psychological tail spin – my brain knows I’m lying to it.
• Day two – Coupled with this ridiculous tiredness is headaches. Ugh. Oh and did I mention I’m having a hard time focusing on any one task? I often find myself with pen to paper and not sure what I was going to jot down or I’ll read a line in a document and need to re-read it a few times to understand what’s being said. Efficiency rating is down to code red.
• Day three – Why did I do this to myself?! The exhaustion, headaches and lack of focus are unnerving but I know I’m doing this for the greater good. What did I do before coffee to wake up? Will my body know it’s morning soon and get back to getting up normally again? Tell me it will. Please?
• Day four – My headaches are less intense and I’m starting to be more awake in the mornings. My focus is back completely and am feeling a little better about this. I am not ready to walk into a coffee shop because just the smell of coffee makes my taste buds dance and I worry I won’t be able to hold back.
  • The good news is I’ve replaced coffee with this delicious tea I found at David’s Tea called Bamboozled. It’s super tropical with a combination of bamboo leaves, pineapple, apples and peaches. It’s the perfect summer tea whether it’s hot or iced. I recommend steeping a strong batch and adding cool water or lots of ice cubes to have an iced tea you can enjoy instantly. This tea has quickly become my new morning ritual and has helped me drink tonnes more water throughout the day. WIN!
• Day five – Headaches are gone. Focus is strong. Mornings are slowly getting easier but it’s hard to tell when I was never really a huge morning person. I can do this!
• Day six – I think I’m ok to head into a coffee shop in the afternoons but my morning’s are still in jeopardy. Hope I have the willpower to withstand.
• Day seven – Sweet, sweet coffee. It’s been so long since we’ve had a chance to reunite! This week’s indulgence is a tall non-fat Starbucks with whip (don’t judge but getting it half sweet is the only way I can justify the whip cream, ok?). My taste buds are partying.
• Week two – Amazingly I may actually be a morning person again! As long as I get enough sleep, waking up doesn’t seem like that much of a chore. In fact, it’s downright amazing! I can now go into coffee shops in both the morning and afternoon without giving in.  This week’s indulgence? Kept it simple with an Illy espresso at Espressamente Illy at Yorkdale. Was a little bitter for me but I am beyond jittery right now. Guess detoxing off caffeine makes the effects stronger. Who knew?!
• Week three – No longer need to talk about symptoms or temptation. I’m actually feeling really good about this detox and am happy we tried it. I know my espresso machine at home probably feels differently but I think this had to be done just to see if I could indeed accomplish this. This week’s indulgence was a vanilla affagato from Pizzeria Liberetto on the Danforth which is by far the most amazing coffee I’ve had in the city. Period. Happy birthday to me!
• Week four – Here comes the end of my caffeine detox. What a wild ride it’s been and quite frankly it’s been kind of amazing. Sure it was tough at the beginning (tough might be an understatement because I was downright exhausted) but now I feel like my energy levels are back on track.  This week’s indulgence was a quick run to McDonald’s. I only drank half a small and I was up for hours – in fact I couldn’t sleep for most of the night.

Want to see my indulgences? Check out the slideshow….

Post detox wrap up

Although it’s a little grueling at first, I recommend this detox to any heavy coffee drinkers! It’s nice to just get your body back into rhythm again – it’s almost like you don’t realize what you’ve lost until it comes back. I’ve noticed my energy levels increased and are more stable throughout the day, my water intake has increased dramatically, and my mornings are light years easier to handle than before. I guess it is true what they say, everything in moderation!

In fact, I feel so great I’ve decided to keep a lot of the same principles into August – one coffee (or other caffeinated bevy) per week either special occasions (i.e. my birthday, a wedding if I’m driving home late, etc) or weekends.

Updated in August – So August is coming to a close and I wanted to update you on my caffeine detox part deux as I noted above that I would continue it. For the most part I’ve kept up with my one coffee a week – there have been instances where a special occasion or two have popped up but I’ve had a drum total of six coffees this month and plan to keep it up.

I may need to start adding these to Pinterest as fitness goals!

Last week I had the pleasure of going to my first Mixed Level class at Barreworks. I’ve heard such great things from friends so I thought it was time I gave it a shot and put my instructor through her paces. You see, I have a few injuries I’m working around so I’m not your typical student. Plus, I’m not overly coordinated without a lot of practice so I thought I’d be a bit of a challenge. Funny thing is I don’t think I even fazed her.

What’s Barreworks?

Barreworks is a ballet barre-inspired workout that combines body sculpting, cardio training, core sculpting and deep stretching. The workouts focus on posture and alignment of the body to build long, lean physiques – think of building a dancer’s body without the tutu’s (although I’ll take mine with a tutu thankyouverymuch). Developed by a team of fitness instructors and dance professionals, Barreworks is Toronto’s answer to the barre-inspired workouts that are all the rage in NY, LA and Vancity.

The studio

The studio is beautiful and calming complete with oversized doors, high ceilings, lots of light and a friendly atmosphere. On my first visit I was greeted at the front desk and quickly whisked away to see all the great perks of the studio like brand new, state of the art spin bikes for SpinBarre, a more intimate studio for YogaBarre, and a cool water filtration system saving hundreds of bottles in the mere eight weeks the studio’s been open! Another great thing about the studio is you can book your classes online so you know you’ve got a spot and pay in advance so it’s one less thing to worry about when you show up!

Click to view slideshow.

The workout

And how was it? In two words: amazingly fun!

The Mixed Level class is where all beginners start but it’s by no means easy! My instructor Paulina was great – she was upbeat and knew when to push us and when to make us laugh. In fact I didn’t look at the class once – time just seemed to fly.

Paulina took us through a series of lunges, pliés, bicep curls, core work and cardio activity using a combination of resistance bands, weighted balls, and mats working every inch of your body. And although it was a challenging workout, Paulina kept us laughing and engaged every step of the way! I even had a chance to talk to her beforehand so I could modify some of the weighted activities I couldn’t do (like push ups) with items I could do (tricep extensions with the weighted balls or extended plank poses).

I happened to be in a lucky class of six (of which five people were new to the workout) so we had really great one-on-one attention so we knew we were doing things right. I can’t imagine how hard it must have be as a teacher to give a class of 21 that kind of attention but somehow I’m sure it doesn’t phase an energizer bunny like Paulina.

The aftermath (and afterburn!)

I left that class feeling elated. Who cares about runner’s high when I can have a dancing-at-the-barre high!  It was so much fun and yes I worked up a sweat – in fact for your own good (and mine) I’m not going to post the picture of myself I took halfway through the workout. It’s embarrassing for me – and I don’t feel like I’d be inspiring you all to attend the classes if you saw my sweaty mess.

For the next few days after my first few classes I was sore. My hamstrings were tight, my inner thighs burned and my glutes were stiff which was all expected. What wasn’t expected was how sore my abs, shoulders and triceps were which was a pleasant surprise. This really is a full body workout.

Final thoughts

I definitely recommend this workout to anyone – beginners, seasoned dancers or anyone who just wants to try something new like I did!

And the best part? Your first workout is half price at only $10! You’ll get hooked but you won’t regret it. Find out more at the Barreworks website or by following their Twitter feed.

Welcome to Podcamp 2012!!

Hello and welcome to my liveblog of some of the #pcto2012 sessions I’ve gone to. I’ll clean this up at the end of the day but until then, enjoy my musings.

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Social Psychology of Social Media – Brian Cugelman

• How knowledge happens (in any order): Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviours
• Social context – For whatever happens in real life there is usually an online equivalent (classroom versus e-learning). There are always some spaces that are more public (Twitter) versus private (Facebook). We live in a surveillance society so we can’t control the pictures that get posted on Facebook, as an example, which is an ironic because we behave differently when we’re in public versus in public.
• Social pressure tactics – The line outside the nightclub to make it look more popular than it really is.
• Scarcity – People assign more value to that which is scarce. Builds hype. Think of Google Plus when it first launched – everyone wanted in because you needed a private invite from a user already.
• Search engines are social media sites are just as social. The reason Google decimated the entire search industry is because they created a social metric. Page rank is just the number of websites linking to the page x infinity.
• Unethical uses to manipulate – fake positive testimonials, fake low star ratings of competitor products, questionable numbers of satisfied customers.

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The Future of Social and Talent Attraction – Geoff Webb

Hard Rock Case Study

• They decided to hire by only using Facebook. When they open any new restaurant they’ll open a new fan page with a video of some of their employees singing and post it online. They normally use the most unique looking people because they find those are the ones that stick around the longest.
• They then took out a pay per click advertising campaign, in 3 weeks they went from 500 people to 6,000 people liking that Facebook page.
• If an applicant applied over the site someone would call them right away to tell them if they were in the application process. Those that don’t get selected for an interview get a coupon for a free appetizer at their restaurant turning them into Hard Rock customers.
• Interviews were scheduled using Eventbrite so it was all self-serve .
• Result was hiring 300 staff with a $2,000 pay per click.
• New iteration of using Facebook page for current employees is to manage all their enterprises – they can then have conversations about who needs a ride to work, roommates or for switching shifts.

On Posting Openings

• Most applicants read two lines of any requisition before they decide they are qualified for the job. What that means is that a recruiter spends most of their time disqualifying people.
• Better idea for posting requisitions is the use of video. Text stickiness rate is only 3% but 85% of you will remember what the video content was.
• Additionally, people tend to watch the entire video before taking action.

On Personal versus Professional

• There is no personal anymore – there’s always a good mix of the personal and professional online. Your online profile should be your authentic self. Your brand.

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Stop Giving The Same Presentations – Jon Crowley and David Akermanis

Before:

• Everything you know is wrong!
• TV and social exist in vacuums – you should scrap all your other plans and go strictly digital all the time!

Now:

• YouTube shows presidential debates
• Twitter breaks news before media outlets

How to spot a fraud:

• Social media 101 – “It’s like teaching a kid to drive once and throwing them the keys. It’s a little irresponsible,” says Jon.
• They don’t have clients.
• They never mention numbers – “Remember it’s outcomes, not outputs.” David goes on to explain that it’s not about the number of Facebook Likes or Twitter followers but about using those tools (Facebook, Twitter) to get to the outcome of building communities.

Other notes:

• “I like to look at conversions that take the user away from general social media platforms and go somewhere the brand owns.” Jon goes on to say that he’d rather get someone to sign up for a company email than get a Facebook Like.
• “If there was a market I’d go into it’s politics and policy.” Jon says that social media would be a great fit for that.

Getting the Insiders Onside – Communicating with Bloggers and Influencers – Dave Fleet

Key messages

• Think twice before you reach out to people/bloggers.
• Remember these people are not just a blogger. They have influence.

What’s wrong with blogger relations

• Most inexperience people reaching out to key influencers.
• No relationships built with influencers.
• Irrelevant pitches bother people.
• Standard pitch lists become irrelevant extremely quickly.

We should move to pre, pitch, post.

Relationships are key to build trust.

LEAF approach

• Listen. Who do you listen to? Someone who has authority (trusted source of information), context (significance of the individual in relation to the issue. It’s the difference between being a sports fan vs baseball fanatic), engagement (depth to which the individual and their audience interacts), and reach (highest number of people that could see the content produces by the individual).
• Engage – This step focuses on building relationships before the pitch. Introduce yourself, who you work for and ask if you can work with them sometime, comment on posts, go to events (yours and others), share interesting news, have conversations, and do things that aren’t work.
• Activate – This is the actual pitch. Think about the objective of what you’re trying to drive and that’s how you’ll tailor your approach. Preparing the perfect pitch – know what they write about/where they live, remember their name, write to them personally, think about what’s in it for them, forget that BCC line exists.
• Follow-up – Engage with people (answer questions on their posts, correct mis-information in stories, and get feedback!), say “thank you”, amplify their posts, syndicate their content with permission, and then rinse and repeat (keep building relationship because this is not a linear process).

Investing in the relationship – tips for bloggers

• Why work with an agency? Make things easy for everyone before, during and after the campaign, make everyone look good (build your traffic and brand gets coverage), make people want to include you, make agencies more likely to promote you organically.
• If things aren’t working, give feedback to fix it.

Want to work with an agency?

• Be proactive and reach out to them!
• Put guidelines on your site.
• Make connections in your area of interest.
• Think creatively beyond the original ask.
• Show the return.
• Be nice, professional, or courteous even if things don’t go your way.

Putting LEAF into action requires some set-up, resourcing and maintenance.

Personal note – I’m going to try to link any of the above presentations if they’re available in Slideshare so stay tuned.

I am obsessed with pinterest. It's bad.

—
Aleksandra Stalmach (@alisaan) November 29, 2011

My obsession with butter chicken can only be shadowed by my addiction to pinterest. #ClassicAli

—
Aleksandra Stalmach (@alisaan) December 02, 2011

Since then I’ve watched in excitement as people flocked to the site wondering what all the fuss is about. After the jump I’m going to explain what Pinterest is, how to use it, how brands are using it, and to top it off I’ll give you some basic resources if you want more info (and yes, you will want more info).

So what is it?

These are my Pinterest pinboards. You like?

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard allowing users to pin all the wonderful things they come across on the Internets – essentially it’s a visual social bookmarking site. As one of the 10 most visited social networking sites on the Internet, it’s easy to see why it’s taking off. The learning curve is virtually nil and with the availability of mobile apps and browser add-on’s adding things to your pinboard a snap! According to the Mashable article linked above,

The site is especially popular with women between the ages of 25 and 44, which comprise 59% of its readership, and the majority of those visiting Pinterest are female, consisting of 58% of its visitors in the past 12 weeks.

Although the site may be popular among women, lots of my male counterparts are flocking to it out of curiousity and have started their own pinboards for topics that interest them. There’s literally something there for everyone. (Aside: There’s also a male Pinterest spin-off called Gentlemint if the guys feel they need something a little more focused.)

What is it used for?

Couple people have been spreading this on Facebook and it made me laugh. I went straight from step one to three, skipping two. Did you?

Although you can use it as a storage facility of cool stuff, I use Pinterest much like a virtual vision board – I pin pictures of the home decor that inspires me, healthy pictures/quotes/recipes that I want to try, and funny little sayings that make me happy. I find because I check Pinterest daily, it’s a re-affirmation of my vision which I believe will help me stick to my goals in the long run. Although I love old school vision boards, I have a hard time with the idea because it’s not dynamic. It’s a static, physical entity that sits in my room so the second I leave, it’s out of sight, out of mind. Even if I were to make a picture of said static board my iPhone homescreen, I’ll never see it amongst my file folders of apps.

Additionally, adding to a well planned vision board can be like trying to fit an 8×11 picture in a 4×6 spot – it just can’t happen without tearing the thing apart to make room for that little addition. Virtual pinboarding lets me add to my boards in (literally) a click!

Now if you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I sing the praises of Evernote (like here and here) and Pinterest has not changed that. Instead I found two very different uses for them:

• I use Pinterest for items I enjoy/things I aspire to do. If I like something, it gets pinned. It’s that easy.
• I use Evernote to curate information/ideas that I will be using so it goes beyond something that I like. It’s interesting articles I want to read/reference later in my blog, ideas for holiday/birthday gifts, items that can be clustered using tags and notebooks for improved searchability.

Can brands use Pinterest?

Yes, Pinterest presents a HUGE opportunity for brands to engage with their customers/fans and also to get more exposure to others who wouldn’t necessarily find them otherwise.

Pinterest helps shift the consumer process away from search and focuses more on discovery. Normally when you want something, you Google or crowdsource an idea. Because you already know what you’re looking for you’re in search mode. Pinterest is a constant sharing of ideas so users are in the discovery phase – they didn’t know they wanted something until they came across it.

Not convinced? According to this Mashable article,

Pinterest, with only 5.3 million active users, drives more traffic to Real Simple than Facebook.

In addition, Facebook recently announced Pinterest as one of 60 apps that will function with their new Timeline feature meaning more exposure to brand content (reach is now farther if I post on my Pinterest plus link it to Facebook Timeline), but also likely higher user adoption as non-Pinterest users get exposure to the social platform itself. This is like discovery squared!

How does discovery work? Well take this example: I’m single so I’m about as far from planning a wedding as one could get, yet I have a Wedding Bells pinboard. There I have ideas for creative “save the date” notes, table settings, themes, colours, hair do’s, dresses etc. Now these may not come in handy in MY immediate future (one can only dream haha) but already my friends on Pinterest who are planning weddings are re-pinning my finds and going after them.

Or take my Travel pinboard. I try to take one large trip a year but I normally go to the usual vacation spots – Cuba, Mexico, Europe. Thanks to my travel board (and one Jill Clark where the bulk of these pins are from) I’ve discovered great little nooks of the world I’d like to visit that I would have never considered and am now actively pursuing. Without this discovery I wouldn’t have known I wanted to travel to see the turquoise water in Slovania, the gorgeous sunsets of the Maldives, the architectural homes along the water of Portofino Italy, or the tropical heaven that is Wineglass Bay in Tasmania. By constantly discovering new ideas I’m shifting my purchasing habits to items I may not have considered before.

These are just some of the West Elm pinboards.

So take a big established brand like West Elm – their Pinterest not only showcases their products but also gives added value beyond just the products they carry. They have boards just dedicated to different decor styles (like modernism and naturalist). trends (like stripes), or ideas (like how to furnish that space that doesn’t get used under the stairs). I never thought to put a powder room under the stairs, have you?

Then there are brands who I think would really benefit from Pinterest. Take a brand like Audi – the maker of (my favourite) luxury automobiles. My Cars pinboard is 99.9% Audi (I aim high!) and Audi shared some great shots on their Instagram feed recently from NAIAS (North American International Auto Show) that they could have shared on Pinterest for traction. One could argue that perhaps the Pinterest demo isn’t necessarily the Audi demo given that Pinterest is a female dominated space, but automobile purchases are not a male dominated decision. (Check out this study for more info on that.)

Or what about one of my favourite brands, lululemon athletica. I was surprised that I couldn’t find them on Pinterest (excluding their lululemon lab profile which is on there). Remember this is a huge opportunity not to push the products but to plug their brand proposition which they do so well on their blog. They could showcase their running playlists, desktop screensavers, or their successful goal setting content for others to share.

But don’t be disappointed if you don’t see your favourite brands on Pinterest yet! As I said before, this is a huge opportunity for brands to engage pending there is room in their social engagement strategy for Pinterest as a platform.

Predictions for the future? I think we’ll start to see that it’s not just a consumer tool as more brands adopt the tool over the coming year. Now does it have staying power? That’s a whole other blog post my friends!!

Want more info on Pinterest?

• About Pinterest
• Study Shows Pinterest Will Compete With Top 10 Social Networks
• Pinterest: A Beginner’s Guide to the Hot New Social Network
• The Rise of Pinterest and The Shift From Search to Discovery
• The 50 Best Websites of 2011 – Pinterest
• How to use Pinterest’s pinboard for the Web
• 10 cool Pinterest accounts you should be following
• Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips
• Curated Commerce: How Retail Brands can Cash in on the Latest Craze
• Pinterest Fans Rejoice: Facebook Adds Pinterest Plus 59 New Apps

So tell me – do you use/have you thought of using Pinterest? Know of any brands using it well? I want to hear all about it!

Ladies Learning Code.

So I’m sitting in the middle of the room at the Center for Social Innovation watching Wes Bos teach us how to edit the code for our sidebar in our WordPress theme. This is me dipping my toe into WordPress…and I LOVE it!

This morning I spent the morning with the great girls at my table Jeannette, Haley and Sarah-Joyce learning to install, hack and navigate our way to creating and customizing a Word Press theme. Sounds scary right? But it’s not! The lovely ladies at Ladies Learning Code make it easy by providing a wonderful environment with a 4:1 student to teacher ratio to slowly learn how to make a site your own.

What’s WordPress?

WordPress originally used to power blogs but is now used to power whole sites. Who’s using WordPress? Well for starters I learned that  CNN, The National Post, Mashable and Jay-Z all use WordPress to power their sites. That sh*t cray!

Who comes to Ladies Learning Code (LLC)?

Everyone! We had both users who create, edit and manage sites come for a refreshers and newbies like me who come to learn. There’s nothing more exciting than the squeal of success when we installed WordPress the first time.

Who helps make LLC happen?

More than 200 developers are on the LLC list that want to give up their time/expertise to make events like this possible. There were easily 22 people at the end of the day standing up at the front of the CSI stage who helped out today. Not all the mentors were coders by day – some of them were auditors, teachers and such. Really appreciate all the time.

So what will I do with this knowledge?

Well as you can all see my blog is a little…drab. So I might be taking this new knowledge and spicing this bad boy up sometime soon so keep your eyes open to that!

This is my Christmas wreath. You like?

Now here’s something you don’t hear someone say too often? “I love shopping for gifts during the holidays!”

But guess what?

In my case, it’s true!

I know it sounds crazy but I have mad holiday shopping skills. So if you want some tips on how to make this year’s shopping activities one of joy and not as much bah humbug, read on!

Recently Urban Barn, one of my favourite home decor stores, ask their blog readers to share their advice on staying stress-free over the holidays. I figured I’d take the time to also share that advice here since the moaning and groaning over holiday shopping has started and let’s be honest people, the retail rush has not yet begun so you still have time to make big things happen!

Shopping advice

• Plan it out – I use Evernote throughout the year to keep tabs on potential holiday gift ideas for my family and friends. Then closer to Christmas, I plan a strict budget that I try to stay within and match the up with the gift ideas I have tagged in Evernote.
• Do your research – Then I research my purchases to find the best deal (whether it’s in store or online). This helps me figure out all the places I need to physically visit to pick the items up. And from this list, yes you guessed it, I plan the most efficient route using a combination of transit, driving and carpooling to carry my packages home.
• Shop til you drop - Once you know what you need to buy and the best route to save on transportation costs, get out there and make it happen!
  • Handy Tip - Take a random weekday morning off (like a Wednesday morning) and go shopping. The stores are emptier so you won’t have to fight the crowds and you’ll also have time to wrap and hide the fantastic gifts you just picked up.

Want more? You got it!

• Being a gracious guest – What about being the perfect guest for all those holiday parties you’ll be invited to?
  Make sure when you make your shopping list in the planning stage, you include a number of unisex stocking-stuffers like bottles of wine, vases, appetizer plates, picture frames, candle hurricanes, cheese sets, etc. Buy a few of those, wrap them up and keep a few gifts at home and at work so if you get invited to a last minute holiday party you’re always ready with a fab host/hostess gift without the stress.
  • Handy Tip - I make sure each gift has different wrapping paper to I can easily tell them apart. Before I wrap the gifts I lay them on the floor on top of the paper they’ll be wrapped in and take a picture. This is an easy way to make sure I pick the perfect gift depending on the occasion. Have leftovers? Use them as office gifts, give them to neighbours or save them for next year. If you wrap these items in festive but neutral paper (like silver or gold metallic) they can be used as year round party gifts for any occasion!
    Remember to email yourself a copy of the above picture or to upload it to Evernote so that way if the batteries on your phone ever die or you’re in a pinch, you can easily identify each gift.

Got any tips I left out? Keep em coming in the comments!

This is Kurt Cobain.

This is Kurt Cobain in 12 inches of plastic glory. The outfit, pose and scenery (notice the gym floor he’s standing on) is from the epic anthem “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from the Nevermind album. Today marks the 20th anniversary of its release. With the anniversary comes a special collector’s edition of Nevermind. I’m not going to sit here and tell you what’s in the 20th special edition album. Nay nay. You can Google that. What I will tell you is about why that album is so special to me.

The door that was Nevermind

For me, Nirvana was the door to grunge. I found that cd in my dad’s collection. You see, my dad is cool (if you didn’t know this from earlier posts) and listened to amazing music – Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam and (yes) Nirvana.

I remember seeing the unmistakable cd – the baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a fishing line – lying around his stereo. I distinctly remember sneaking it into my sweater, tiptoeing up the stairs to my bedroom, silently closing the door and blasting it through my earphones.

The music was amazing. The words to every song are seared into my lips; every guitar riff etched into my brain. It was the album I turned to when I needed to release my teen angst; the album I turned to when I needed a moment to be down. Even now, when I’m in a bad mood I often turn to many of those songs as my release.

When I ran my first 10 km race, Nirvana was on my playlist. Smells Like Teen Spirit was my anthem for just about anything – it still is. Something about the energy in the song keeps you going even though your legs feel like lead, your lungs feel like they’re drowning and all you can think about is how it feels like an alien is trying to escape through your stomach (aka stitches). Somehow I made it through and I firmly believe the music I listened to had a big hand in that. Trying to shake off the feeling of pain and use it to motivate yourself to finish.

Many thanks for the music

So let me say this – thanks for 20 great years Nirvana. That cd is a staple in my collection and will be for years to come. And with this I end with one of my favourite Kurt Cobain quotes (no it’s not the burning out and fading away one…he did have other great quotes you know!):

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Well, Kurt, as I look to see you staring at me with your empty plastic eyes, I can say with great confidence you still hold a special place in my cd collection and on my desk. I know what playlist I’ll be listening to tonight.

Patrick Huard as David Wozniak (aka Starbuck). Image credit: http://www.lindaleith.com

What’s Starbuck?

Starbuck is a feature film by director Ken Scott inspired by a true story of a bull (named Starbuck, duh) who fathered thousands of children through artificial insemination.

Cue David Wozniak (played by Patrick Huard) – he works a dead-end job as a meat delivery man, just found out his gf is pregnant, owes crazy amounts of money to some thugs, and finds out he’s fathered a few hundred children from his numerous sperm bank donations way back in the day (apparently he has strong swimmers).

Just how many children?

A lot – 533 children in fact; of which 142 or so file a class action lawsuit to find out the identity of their biological father (aka Starbuck…see it’s all coming together!). And so the movie begins as David tries to clean up his act to be a good father to the child his gf is currently carrying as well as helping his 142 other children stay out of trouble without them finding out who he is…all while battling this lawsuit with his best friend, the lawyer.

My thoughts

That's exactly how I felt about the movie! Image credit: http://www.TIFF.net

In two words: Must see!

This is a great movie with an excellent plot, great character development and humour that transcends language (I did mention this film is in French with English subtitles, non?).

Ken Scott’s direction was excellent and Patrick Huard is a stunning Starbuck – extremely believable as the well-meaning David Wozniak. The film is funny, heart-warming and is full of inspiration. The audience laughed (out loud…literally…and very loudly) during the film and once the film ended stood to give the director and actors present a standing ovation!

If I had stars, I’d give it 4.5/5 stars…the movie loses 0.5 stars only because the subtitles need thicker black shadowing as there are scenes where I can’t actually read the subtitles. Yeah I know I’m a stickler so sue me!

Either way I encourage you all to see it if/when it hits theaters. Totally worth it and I don’t see many movies (except the good ones cos $13 ain’t cheap) so that’s a big deal coming from me!

Disclosure and shout outs: Big thanks to Diet Coke Canada as I won these tickets through their TIFF draw on Twitter.  I wasn’t asked to blog about this at all but seeing as this is my first TIFF movie screening ever, I mean come on!! You know I’m really excited about sharing my thoughts about the movie I ended up falling in love with.

Here's part of my Google + screen. Still figuring out how to use this network so it's not a repeat of Facebook or Twitter.

Let me ask you something – do you sometimes feel like a little spread thin when it comes to your social networks? I mean between my social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now Google+), my location-based services (Foursquare, Hashable and Google Latitude) and my blog (WordPress and the still unknown fate of Tumblr that I haven’t quite worked out the det’s for) I’m not feeling like I’m giving 100% of myself to any one network.

I was reading a great article today about the pro’s and con’s of Google+ and when I finished it I had to say outloud – “Do we really need another social network to keep up with?”

I found that ever since I started using Google+ all people talk about on there is (you guessed it!) Google+!

As gorgeous as the UI is, much of Google+ is solving gaps that other social networks choose not to – I’m sure you’ve read the dozens of pro/con articles out there. The circles feature solves for Facebook’s inability to group friends letting us share updates with certain groups versus 100′s of acquaintances. I’ve found shortcuts for ways to share articles on multiple networks (tweeting with #in adds to my LinkedIn stream, #fb for my Facebook) but now I need to learn a whole new set of shortcuts. Anyone feeling like it’s getting a little much?

I haven’t properly integrated my life with Hashable yet let alone Google+….and yet I sit here staring at the UI thinking: this is pretty sexy. How am I going to make this happen? I just can’t WAIT to customize my feeds and profiles on here. Sick isn’t it?

So tell me – how many networks is too many? Have all you Google+ users found a way to integrate the new network into your day-to-day? Is Google+ going to add to the noise (think Google Buzz which never took off on my end for that very reason)? Is there going to be a whole niche set of users on the system or is it just more noise to filter out?