Friday Find: Tomato Slice Bowl with Lid

Tomato Slice Bowl with Lid, Crate & Barrel, $7.95 - $12.95 (available in small, medium & large)

Book Releases – July 2009

Releasing this month:

• Clark, Mary Jane - Dying for Mercy. (7/28)
• Iles, Greg - The Devil's Punchbowl. (7/7)
• Jance, J.A. - Fire and Ice. (7/21)
• Johansen, Iris & Roy Johansen - Storm Cycle. (7/21)
• Koontz, Dean - Dead and Alive. (7/28) - The long awaited Frankenstein Book 3
• Liss, David - The Devil's Company. (7/7)
• Martini, Steve - Guardian of Lies. (7/14)
• Patterson, James - Watch the Skies (Daniel X). (7/27)
• Silva, Daniel - The Defector. (7/21)
• Slaughter, Karin - Undone. (7/14)
• Wells, Rebecca - The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder. (7/7)

Twitter Resources that You Should Know About

New to twitter or looking to improve your tweeting experience? Some time back, when I joined twitter, I compiled a list of helpful resources. Here they are. Happy tweeting!

1. Twitter Lingo – It's pretty essential to know some basic lingo when you get started. Here you'll find answers from the basics - "What's the deal with the '@'?" and "What does RT stand for?" to the
2. Twittonary – If you still haven't had your feel for ways people can abuse the English language using Twitter as an excuse, try Twittonary.
3. What the Trend? – This awesome tool charts the popular topics (or trends) that people are tweeting about right now.  Even more importantly, it will tell you why.  I first started using this tool as a newbie to Twitter.  It helped me figure out everything that I needed to know.
4. TweetCloud – Another trending site.  This tool tells you – in cloud form – the top topics being talked about.  You can also see what your own cloud looks like and grab a widget for your blog to display it.
5. Your Twitter Karma – When first start out and your follwers/follows numbers are pretty low, it's easy to see which of the people you follow are following YOU.  When those numbers start to climb, it becomes impossible (especially since Twitter limits the number of people listed on the page to a number you cannot set).  Enter Karma.  This tool allows you to keep up with all those losers that don't follow you back, so you can whack 'em.
6. Friend or Follow – This is another tool to help you figure out the people not following you back.  For this tool, you do not have to provide your login information, just your user name.  This means that you can't automatically unfollow from the tool itself. On the other hand, that's just a couple of clicks away, and it's kind of nice not to have to share your password.  Also, this tool lets you look at the follow/friend/fan statistics for other twitterers too.
7. Qwitter – This site catches twitter quitters.  If someone stops following you, it will send you an alert.  Even if you don't sign up, it's a cute site design to see.
8. TweetSum – Organize all your tweeps into "Followed" or "Meh".  TweetSum provides a DBI calculation (aka "Douche Bag Index") to help you decide.  From personal use, I have found that the DBI is not always accurate.  I've seen some spammers that fooled the tool somehow.
9. Twellow – Looking for Twitterers in your area?  Twellow can help.  The site usability could be much better, but it allows you to find Twitterers by region.
10. Nearby Tweets – This site will also help you find Twitterers near you.  But, if you live in a small town like I do, "near" is still an hour or two away.
11. Twitter Grader – As if you didn't have enough to worry about with simply keeping your number of followers up, Twitter Grader uses a top-secret algorithm to score your account out of 100 based on certain factors.  For the record, I scored an 85, and I rank 359,845 out of 2,478,105.  Bring on the warm fuzzies.
12. Popular Twitter Directories – If you are looking for more people to follow or applications you can use, you might try one of the directory services compared here.  The author did the work for you – listed out the major directories and what you will/won't like about each.  I won't recap all the directories here, I'll just let you follow the article on your own.
13. Great Twitter Moments – This article features real things that happened all because Twitterers look after each other.  Sometimes.

Michael Jackson (1958 – 2009)

I must confess that I have not been a Michael Jackson fan since the 80s, but there is no doubt he was one of the great musicians of our time. Since his unexpected death, the music world has given him the recognition that he seemed to have craved so much during his life. I am seeing a lot of videos sprout up, spotlighting the high points of his life. There are also many tributes in song, dance & comedy. Here are a few that I enjoyed watching.

"I Want You Back":


"ABC" (video poor, but audio is still good):


"I'll Be There":


"Ben":


"We are the World":


"Billie Jean":


MJ does James Brown:


Steve Martin in "Billie Jean":


KT Tunstall covers "I Want You Back":


Chris Cornell covers "Billie Jean":


Fall Out Boy covers "Beat It":


Philippine Prisoners Dance to "Thriller":

Friday Find: Syntes Konst Bowl

Syntes Konst Bowl, Ikea, $3.99

Friday Find: Mr & Mrs Chin Salt + Pepper Set

Mr & Mrs Chin Salt + Pepper Set, Hive Modern, $56

Art

Art means different things to the observer. Art can create moods and feelings just like a living, breathing entity. Interest in art has saved many young people who would otherwise take a more violent path in life. The stories of those young people saved by art make it vital that we advocate art programs in schools and communities.

Personally, I love it when art and music combine. Tanya Davis's song "Art" explores what art means to her, and in turn to our society. Below is the music video by Andrea Dorfman.

Friday Find: Cordon Bleu Salad Plates

Cordon Bleu Salad Plates, Cooking.com, $24.95 (set of 4)

Tyler's Hope for a Cure for Dystonia

This morning I saw a CNN video on a little known disease called Dystonia, featuring the story of the Staab family, who have two children with this neurological disorder. Dystonia causes irregular muscle spasms leading to abnormal postures and movement.

The Staab family established a foundation called Tyler's Hope to raise money and education for the cure of this disease.

Need Your Screen Cleaned?

You know how you always get those pesky prints from touching your screen?  Go here to find out the best way to get it clean.