Get ready for new year with five minute daily writing spree

This past summer, my friend Ginger sent me an email from her T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide (I know very suspect), but the message came from the heart.

Ginger still uses a 3G Slide.

"Ok you might think i am a wacko but bare with me.

For me will you take 5 min?

2 min write what you are freaked about then cross it out throw it away burn it whatever then 3 to 5 min write a list of 5 thankfuls and then the rest of the time design your dream job. Set a timer and stop when it dings but do it EVERYDAY either first thing in the morning or right before bed.

Please please for me!! I promise you wont regret it."

The things that headline my list are items that cash would take care of: insulating the attic, building a deck, loan payments, planning for next year's national Doane family reunion, paying for college, saving for retirement.

The items that cannot be assuaged with cash swirl around my daughter, the tug and pull of college with all its privileges of independence while keeping full throttle on still being a kid with a parent to fund the adventure and to fall back on.

Other items on my list include accomplishments I want to have, zipping through my knitting stash and creating lovely gifts, propagating my Amazon store and shipping out the piles of books. Cleaning the house. Publishing my own book.

As the new year approaches, I think I may finally take Ginger's advice and start that five minute writing spree.

Goodness knows I have enough paper around me to fully stuff the attic -- now that would be some kind of insulation.

.

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Analytics show the number one post won by one pageview

Here's a recap of our 360 Convos conversations. . .

Looking back a month, the post with the most pageviews was Addicted to technology or addicted to distraction?

This article was a mix of how women use smartphones, QR codes, and if retailers are using QR codes in a smart manner. I made the assertion that the option of using them on-site may do nothing more than discount a product a customer may have already intended to purchase.

But I failed to succinctly ask the question (I tried): why discount when the customer is ready to buy? The flubbed point proves the point that a good editor is usually not you, or in this case, me.

That post only won by a thin margin, though.

Smart is the new sexy, but is this smart?, a review of the new brand marketing for newspapers, came in second by a single page view.*

The branding for newspapers, for me, fell a little flat. In other words, you can't tell people what is sexy. They tell you. And really, I don't think the campaign will work, but I'm ready to jump on the band wagon and am trying out my new slogan:

“Read my blog--stay informed--you'll look smart--everyone will think you're sexy.”

Let me know if it works.

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DATE	THE LINE UP FROM FOUR WEEKS AGO
Sunday July 24	Addicted to technology or addicted to distraction
Monday July 25	Smart is the new sexy, but is this smart?
Tuesday July 26	Who rescues the graduates from failure?
Wednesday July 27	Keyboard vs the pad, which one wins
Thursday July 28	When is it time to put the laptop to bed?
Friday July 29	Fav quotes of the week
Saturday July 30	Tatoo artist accesses YouTube to 'game' job opportunity

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*Google Analytics

In case anyone is asking, here's the blog’s QR Code:

When is it time to put the laptop to bed?

A thumb brushes over the keypad while a finger clicks and  flicks through the multiple tabs of the favorite browser. Eyes burn and stare at the 15-inch screen. The gaze grows fuzzy as the eyelids droop and the head lolls.

Suddenly, the eyes fly open and the head bobs.

Is it time to set the laptop aside and go to sleep?

On my reading list: 
OnStar FMV Hits Best Buy; Ad Campaign To Support
New marketing campaign to sell On Star in Best Buy using prime time, cable, network and social media via a Facebook page.

Altimeter Group Is Growing Like A Weed | SiliconANGLE
Former journalist Tom Foremski has soft spot for consultants with a mission to educate corporate America about the value of listening and engaging with customers.

Savvy BTS shoppers using smartphones, social networks to score deals
Inflation-related concerns will prompt back-to-school shoppers to use tactics such as smartphone and social network use, to save money.

Craigs List
Everything under the sun...

What's your bedtime reading?

36 CONSECUTIVE POSTS

Addicted to technology or addicted to distraction

As we sit down to dinner in a restaurant, I hear the same phrase repeated quite often, "Put that away."

A few too many times, I have checked-in on Foursquare and checked one last piece of gmail before setting my smartphone(s) aside and engaging in polite dinner conversation. I have even glanced back occasionally to see if the green, red or blue light is blinking and sometimes haven't felt guilty.

I've tried to distance myself from the phone. We banished our land-line after being drilled by too many telemarketers, and currently, our household has roughly1.5 phones per person.

I couldn't go back and live without a cellphone. I think I could go back and live without a smartphone. But the notepads, calendars, pens and pencils required to keep our schedules and lives in careful balance would be a huge deterrent.

With that said, I have yet to see a piece of tecnology that actually saves me time, as in, now I have time to do something I really want to do, like sit and relax and read a book. I am convinced, with or without a dishwasher I would have the same leisure time. I am convinced, with or without a blender, Cuisinart, bagel toaster, convection oven, or microwave, I would estimate no differently when I hungrily peered at the wall clock and predicted what time dinner would be ready.

Technology has bought me nothing except distraction.

I gave up television to truly bond with a portable keyboard. Now, because I spend exactly zero hours watching tv and many hours on my laptop, marketers are trying even harder to connect with me. In her article, "Moms Can’t Wait for QR Codes" Maryanne Conlin states that over 60% of moms have the ultimate portable keyboard: a smartphone.

That does not give me comfort.

That's 60% of the female population who is tempted to text while driving, tempted to interrupt their conversation with me to take a call from their kid, and are very inclined to over indulge their internal photography beast and dilute the Facebook stream with home movies that will never make it to America's Funniest Home Videos.

But so equipped, moms with smartphones become a target for the latest technology feature and the simplest one on the horizon is the QR code. It will save us time, the marketers will preach as they push links to websites, as they paste blobs on billboards, as they plunder our inbox with e-coupons for designer food as we enter the grocery store to buy bread or milk.

I can see it now. We'll enter a new restaurant and be greeted with a buy one, get one QR code. It'll be a natural step for businesses, after all, they need to use the latest technology to hook us. But as a marketing person, I will have to ask, "If I'm already here, why are you discounting your product?"

Then I'll wonder how they can use QR codes to speed up the ordering process, and wonder why it's not saving any of us any time.

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Since the post, these references have popped on QR Codes:

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POSTED	BRIEF	LINK
July 20, 2011	Festival organized in Korea, will take place July 21-31 anywhere where there is internet access, smartphone users and access to the film festival poster. Link provides event's QR Codes:	World’s First QR Code Film Festival
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UPDATE 7-24-11