2011 Elf Yourself

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Ode to Pinterest

If you are an avid blog-reading, internet-surfing, Twittering fool nerd person you probably come across several items of interest a day that you want to save for future reference. Recipes, products, photos, book reviews, design tips - I love them all! If you are at all like me you probably have a massive list of starred items in your RSS reader, a links folder in your email, photos saved on your hard drive or a Google document with a list of your most coveted items. Half the time you forget what you've actually saved or you know you bookmarked something, you just have no idea where. You've probably wished that you could gather all of these items in one place that not only lists a link to the item but a picture! and a price! and any other information you care to add! Oh, what joy that would bring! Luckily for you, such a place exists and it's called Pinterest.

I've heard Pinterest mentioned on several of the blogs I read and recently, thanks to a kind invitation, I've been able to try it for myself. And let me tell you, I'm in love! Pinterest has made "pinning" items for the future so much easier! All I had to do was add a little bookmarklet to my toolbar in Firefox and any time I come across something I like (as long as there is an image to pin) I can add it to one of my Pinterest boards. Neat and organized with everything categorized and in plain view.

Here are a few of the items I've pinned recently.

Source: spiritbeautylounge.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: jonathanadler.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: locallemons.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Source: notcot.org via Courtney on Pinterest

Follow me on Pinterest!

Best Star Wars synopsis ever!

I think my ovaries just exploded.

I'm gonna be a supermodel...

From magmypic.com

PS. Thing #1028 I love about Vancouver - snow days!

Picnik

Flickr has recently teamed up with Picnik to provide photo editing tools right in the Flickr window. Now each photo has a handy little "Edit Photo" button that will take you over to the Picnik interface. I played around with it a bit and must say, it's a nice tool to be able to access especially if I'm not at my home computer.

Here's a before and after of a shot I took at Buntzen Lake.


Before


After

I didn't change a whole lot, just softened the photo and added the vignette effect, but I think it makes all the difference.

There is also the option of adding text and shapes so I was able to create a nice Christmas photo.



I definitely think I will be using this tool more in the future!

It's Friday!!

First, an update on Google Reader.

I find that as I use it more, I come to like it a little more. I used the "email item" feature for the first time today and I REALLY like that the sent messages automatically get put in my Gmail sent mail folder. This makes it a heck of a lot easier to see what I've sent to people.

And now for a photo.


Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington, October 8, 2007

Battle of the Blog Readers: Bloglines vs. Google Reader

I recently exported all of my RSS subscriptions into Google Reader and I can't quite decide if I like it or not. I decided to try it out because it's one Google feature that I HADN'T tried yet and it seems like a large number of people are using it instead of Bloglines. It does look pretty and has the nice scroll tracking feature (marks each item as read when you scroll past it). I also like that you can mark items as "starred" like Gmail instead of the clippings folder that Bloglines has, which I usually forget is even there. Also, Google Reader seems to be a lot quicker to load than Bloglines. However, overall I think I am still partial to the functionality of Bloglines. I'm not sure if it's just because I have been using it for so long but something about Bloglines just strikes me as friendlier. Some Bloglines features that I love that, as far as I can tell, Google Reader doesn't have are the number of subscribers at the top of each feed and the fact that you can click on that number and see other users that have made their feeds public. I know Google Reader lets you have public pages for each folder, but I have my subscriptions into several folders and I can't see a public page for all of the subscriptions.

For those of you that have tried both out, do you have a preference of one over the other? Why?

My VisualDNA

There are a ton of quizzes out there that will ask you to answer some questions and will then spit out a "personality report" but this is the first one I have seen of it's kind. Instead of various different written scenarios this one asks you to choose between a bunch of photos. They all evoke different thoughts and emotions but only one is right for you. Give it a try.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Life in point form

• Home safe and sound.
  
• Had an excellent visit with A.'s parents (also went to Peterborough & Ottawa.)
  
• Saw a lot in DC - the pictures are up at Flickr.
  
• One of our favourite stops was the International Spy Museum. Very, very cool.
  
• Stayed at the Adams Inn, a fantastic B&B in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood.
  
• I'm addicted to Facebook.
  

That is all.

GoogleTube

Check out one YouTuber's theory on what will happen once Google starts playing with YouTube.

Watch: GoogleTube

via. Table of Malcontents at Wired blogs

Pandora

I realize that I'm probably behind the curve on this one but I recently discovered Pandora.com and I'm loving it! I like listening to music at work and most of the time my station of choice is CKUA, a listener supported radio station out of Edmonton, but occasionally I like to listen to music that I know and this is where Pandora comes in. I've created stations based on some of my favourite artists from different genres such as Hawksley Workman, Belle & Sebastian, Edith Piaf and Loudon Wainwright III and Pandora then creates a custom station of other artists based on similar musical characteristics. You can also create stations based on a song you like rather than just an artist. If you haven't already tried it I suggest you do.

Listen: Hawksley Workman radio

******

As for our condo issues, things are moving slowly and when we stopped by the condo on Sunday the carpet was still half torn up, there were still giant gaps in the drywall and nothing else had been done.

Our temporary accomodations are working fine for now but we'd both rather be home. Hopefully things will start moving along and we won't be out for too much longer.

******

On the reading front, I've completed several books that I need to write about and after I'm done my current one I'm going to move on to some International Relations non-fiction. I'm contemplating possibly doing a correspondence degree in International Relations from the University of London so I thought I'd do some reading first to see if it's something I'm actually interested in it.

Any advice on taking courses by correspondence or on the usefulness of an IR degree would be appreciated.

Jessica Alba?! I wish...

There's a website called myheritage.com that has a nifty little face recognition feature. One of the perks of this feature is being able to compare yourself to your celebrity look-alikes. All you have to do is upload a photo of yourself, click a button and it will show you pictures of the celebrities you most look like (or so it claims, because frankly, I don't think I'll ever look like Jessica Alba.) Here is my completely unrealistic collage.

Gmail continues to rock my world

Wow, every time Google rolls out a new feature I fall more and more in love with them. This time my adoration is focused on a nifty little tool in Gmail and Google Calendar that allows you to create events and invite people. You can enter all the information in the form and it evens adds a link to Google maps for the address. You can track which guests are coming and who has declined and there is a discussion feature for people to add comments. To make things even better there is a little check box that allows the people you've invited to invite people.



Once you've entered all of your information and email addresses and clicked on send, a nice invitation will pop up in your invitees mailboxes.



This is definitely a feature I will be using in the future.

Mmmm... SPAM

Gmail now incorporates headlines and RSS feeds at the top of your inbox that you can customize to suit your preferences. A handy feature if I didn't already use Bloglines to consolidate all my blog reading. At the top of your Spam folder they also have different recipes using, what else, SPAM. Frankly I don't think SPAM is ever a good idea but some of these meals sound truly revolting. Vineyard Spam Salad? Yuck. Or some Savory Spam Crescents perhaps? Noooo thank you. I think the next time I have friends over for dinner I'll serve some French Fry Spam Casserole. heh.