• really cool stickers and patches from all of the world (from different schools or clubs/organizations or sporting teams or bands, etc);
• cool track and field stuff from all levels of the sport (pictures, entry tags, videos (dvd or digital), team shirts, etc….ps i’m partial to throwers and distance/cc but i love everybody!);
• bike maps;
• maps from countries other than the USA;
• pictures of you and your favorite stuffed animal doing something awesome (if you actually mail your stuffed animal to me, i promise i’ll mail it back asap…Rattle Bear LOVES visitors [make sure you include an addy to mail it back to]);
• pen pal letters (snail mail is cool, send a picture with it…i’ll write you back! it’d be cool to be a pen pal to deployed military personnel – gotta support the troops!);
• really sweet Alpha Phi Omega NSF paraphernalia or pics of you with your really sweet para (if it’s really precious to you and you don’t want to permanently part with it, i’ll send it back, include an addy to mail it back to);
• other things that are super sweet and cheap;
• stuff you’d like me to review in Soulville

I’m going to write about everything i get in the mail and take pictures of me (or Rattle Bear) with the items. If you want something returned to you, include a name and address so I can send it back once I’ve posted. I’d like to keep stickers, patches, maps, track stuff, and pictures so please mention if it’s something that you want back or I’ll assume those things are for me to keep (obviously not gonna keep an Olympic gold medal but if you don’t put a return address I can’t send back). NOT ACCEPTING anything biological, chemical, radiological, nuclear, biohazardous, needles, drugs, nude photos, creepy letters, anything R or NC-17, jock straps, real animals, food, etc – you get the point I hope.

If you’re sending something electronically, please email it to me here.

If you’re sending something tangible, please mail it to me here:

HarriMac c/o Ellie
PO Box 2098
New York, NY 10027
(If it’s coming a way besides the US Postal Service, please email me first)

Can’t wait to see what cool stuff I get!

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I tested the feature that allows you to see the play by play on a set of recent flights and I must say it will be my preferred method to check and see gate changes and delays when I’m on my way to the airport or in the airport from now on. No more craning my neck to read those busy blue monitors! I was very impressed that the application updates the flight information almost as quickly as it is updated in an airport. My gate changed and I knew almost instantaneously. You do have to check the app to see that, but if you’re in an airport, you’re checking anyway right?

TripAssist has a feature allows you or others to receive emails or SMS messages about flight updates such as take off and landing. I wasn’t as impressed with this feature as a person flying, though I’m sure it could be useful to someone picking you up. I had about a 20 minute delay between my actual takeoff and a text (of course by which my phone was off) and actual landing and a text (I’ve landed already – I know that). But like I said, maybe useful for letting others know you’re safely on the ground. You can add extras, such as hotels and rental cars, directly from the application based off the itinerary information you’ve added.

The only thing that could be added to make this even better would be the layout of every airport, but of course that would bog down the app. And there are already maps in the airport (which tell you where you are). Overall I give this a 4 out of 5 stars.

Click this link to see a video on the Expedia website about the app. Have any of you used it? What do you think??

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What You’ll Need
Camera dimensions
A ruler
Good pair of scissors
Fabric of your choosing
A sewing machine OR needle and thread (with pincushion and a thimble if you’ve got them)*
Dry beans (the smaller the better)
Patience & time

*I used needle and thread. If you use a machine, you’ll need to alter these instructions.

1. Figure out what size bag you need. What are the dimensions of your camera? I took the dimensions of my camera and added about an inch to each side to be careful. I have a fixed lens so I used the shortest lens length possible for my measurements. If you have a DSLR with a very long lens, adding a few more inches wouldn’t hurt.

2. Pick a material. I had some scrap material leftover from a walmart run a few years ago. Great looking fabric and exactly what I needed. While you can go pick a material you like out at the store, also check out what you have around the house like old tshirts or jeans. You want something durable but lightweight.

3. Cut your material to size. Instead of using a single layer in my bag, I doubled the cloth over then cut it so I could have two layers on each side of the pouch. This is the same as laying your material one layer flat then cutting a piece 4x the dimensions you need. If it’s denim you’re cutting, this probably isn’t necessary, but I would recommend for bags made out of tshirts as well. You can make marks on the cloth with a pen or chalk, whatever works. Make the marks on the INSIDE of the fabric. That is, use the side that isn’t going to end up on the outside when you’re all said and done. Cut carefully. There is always the opportunity to trim down after you stitch the bag, but it could end up too small if you’re off at this point.

For my smaller bag, I used this strip of fabric

Notice the difference between the look of the fabric in these two photos? This is the “inside” or dull side of the fabric, while the other is the one we want to see on the outside.

4. If you haven’t already folded your material over, do this now.

5. If you want, put needles or pins in each side of your material to hold it in place while you sew. It’s not absolutely necessary.

6. Start to sew near one of the corners but not at the absolute edge of the material (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 an inch in) with a backstitch. If you’ve never done one before it’s fairly simple. This video demonstrates the general technique, but to start and stop the row of stitches, do a few loops using the same 2 holes (if you watched the video take the needle into hole 1  then hole 2, back into hole 1 then back into hole 2 and hole 1 again before continuing). It allows your stitches to stay put. You can sew continuously around the entire bag if you want at once or do each side one at a time. On the fourth side, do not close! You need enough space to a) be able to flip your bag inside out and b) pour beans in.

If you used a sewing machine, this is a very easy step and should take about 5 minutes. If you sew by hand (like I did), the total process might take 30 minutes. You can see below that I sewed two lines. I did this as a precaution in case my outermost stitching came loose, I wouldn’t break the bag! It just adds some strength to the bag.

Look at the backstitches. These were used all the way around.

Leave a pocket to flip your bag through and to fill it.

7. Once you have the main stitching done, feed your bag through the hole to flip it inside out. This is the same process you’d use if you were sewing a pillow.

8. Now make sure all your seams are strong. Pull the sides a little bit to see if you missed sewing any material or if a stitch breaks easily. If it’s great, fill the bag with enough beans to give it a squishy bean bag feeling. Not too many beans should go in the bag because you don’t want it to be so stiff it doesn’t mold to your camera and the surface it will sit on. But add enough so it is sturdy. I used the top of a coke bottle to keep from spilling the beans everywhere. I used lentils because of their size.

9. Sew up the last part of your bag. I know it’d be awesome to have none of your stitching show, but for this part your stitches will show. Start sewing just before the hole and continue to sew past the other end of the hole. You may find a few other stitches more worthwhile here, but I continued with the backstitch. Since I actually made two bags, I used two stitches for the larger one and just the backstitch for the smaller one.

10. Test it out!! Make sure your masterpiece works as you want it to BEFORE you take it outside. That would be a costly mistake to find out it was too lumpy later. I put in my beans and then actually held the gap shut while I played before I sewed my bag completely shut.

I hope this tutorial has helped with improving your photography and your sewing skills! Post completed pictures of your masterpieces!!

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CauseWorld
Are you out shopping or eating and want a quick easy way to donate to charitable organizations without spending any extra money? Check out this app. It looks for where you are in the world then tells you participating locations where you’ll then “check in”. Once you check in, you earn “karmas”. Get a certain number of karmas and donate them to the charity of your choice. Pretty simple, right? I’ve donated karmas for classrooms and drinking water, but now I’m saving so I can help give vaccines. It’s yet another app with Facebook connectivity (sorry but I’m still on the old school basic Facebook), so you can invite folks you know if you want or share your good deeds. Sometimes I do have problems with the app finding me & local stores, but when it does it’s great. Download it and get to work!

TwitBird
I saw this app in the app store and I had to check it out when I saw it had the ability to find twitterers near you. So I downloaded it just to check that out. It’s a pretty solid twitter app and while the free version may not replace TweetDeck for me, it’s great to see what people in my locale are talking about. Even the twitter homepage can’t do that for me right now (I know it can for some places but not where I am). I really like the features it has including being able to check tweets from the lists you made in twitter, having multiple accounts easily accessible without accidently sending from the wrong one, and push notifications. Rock on!

NYCWAY
Since Ellie lives in NYC and I like to visit her there, I’m always looking for great apps to help both of us out. This app is very good. The only thing I didn’t see listed in any category was bookstores (though they do have all the libraries listed!), but I emailed the app developers and they emailed me back within minutes and said they’d work on adding it to the next release. That gives them major kudos in my book. It’s well organized and I found things I needed quite easily. Pick the category of what you’re looking for and it will locate what is nearest to you by using the GPS on your phone or any location you put in. So if you’re just planning a trip, it can be very useful if you can give it a landmark to search from. You can even use it on their website!!!

BrightKite
I’m still really trying to get the hang of BrightKite but the premise is neat – a social networking site based on your geographic location. Of course you can talk to and see what people all over the world are doing, but you can leave messages at random places in your town and when another BrightKite user is near it, they can see them! Isn’t that cool?

xkcd
If you’re not familiar with this cartoon (xkcd is the name), please download immediately. If you love this cartoon, do the same. It’s exactly what you think it is, a quick way to view cartoons (and probably have people on the bus looking at you funny). You can even see the alt text that can be even funnier than the actual graphic.

last.fm
At first I was in love with Pandora. Until I started getting too many repeats and songs that were nothing like what I asked to listen to. Enter last.fm. It’s exactly what I needed. I can pick an artist, a genre, a random mix, etc. Based on what I’ve played on my iPod or iPhone or computer (using the scrobbler application), it will give me suggestions of artists to check out. I can make playlists of songs I like and listen to just those. The iPhone app is very functional for what you need it for and you can control the site from your computer as well. I really like that it can show me the patterns of my listening by artist. Mine currently tells me that I’ve listened to a lot of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds lately! If you’re listening to radio as opposed to your library, great download.

Period Plus
Ok ladies, listen up! (Sorry fellas!) Have you ever gotten to the doctor and had to fill out the dreaded “last day of period” on a form? Can’t remember exactly, just kinda when in a range it was? Not sure about something that happened 2-3 months ago? Put it all in this free app. That’s all I gotta say.

IMDb
Like the website? Get the app. Look up info on movies, actors, tv listings, etc. Full reviews, just like on the website, and the top film listings are here too. Want to know when that DVD you’ve been waiting on will be released? It’s got the new list of DVDs and Blu-ray discs available. If I even need a suggestion for movies to suggest to my worst enemy, I can check out the bottom 100 films (as rated by users).

Kernel Mobile
I love reading my campus (UK) paper every day. It’s the greatest source of news for what’s happening on campus right now and a lot easier to understand than the university web site. At least from a student perspective. Anyway, this app keeps me from picking up a paper copy of the news from the newsstand (I’m trying to be green). Instead, I can read all the latest news on the go and even check out archives. Need the classifieds? Check. Sports news? Check.  (And to be biased, this is my 3^rd school so I have to pause here to give props to The Appalachian and The Pitt News, though they don’t have iPhone apps).

Indeed
Even though I’m STILL in school, it is almost time for me to be done. So I’m job hunting. I really got turned on to the site Indeed a few months back and they’ve got a great app that works almost identically to their website. Put in all the necessary info and voila! Search results. Check it out, I think you’ll like it! You’ll even be able to quickly re-search a previous search (it keeps track).

In a couple weeks, look for another post – this time a non-iPhone related one. The next post will be on how to spring clean – the advanced version. In the meantime though, tell me what you think about the iPhone apps I blogged about today!

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I sat down with Summer N., owner and lead designer of The Web Boutique, to get her thoughts on web and graphic design a few weeks ago and wanted to share her thoughts with you. The Web Boutique is a web and graphic design firm that does much more than that, including marketing solutions and consulting.

1. When and how did you get started in web and graphic design?

I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Marketing, but didn’t know what to do with the degree. At the time, sales positions were being offered and I had gotten enough of working in retail. I accepted a position working in education and then decided to purse a Master’s in education. My last year of my Master’s program I took a class in Dreamweaver and PageMaker and fell in love! I finally felt like I had some direction with my degree and learned new programs that helped me create more attractive communications. In 2006, I began working with small groups and eventually more and more business opportunities came knocking. It started off very small and has grown into something that I’m very proud of. It gets better each day.

2. Are there any designers or artists that influence your work?

I love girly designs. Before any project, I look for inspiration from others, but not one in particular. A simple Google search will get me far. I try to look at color combinations and techniques used to create a design. I get inspired by many but am able to create things that are uniquely my own.

3. What are the biggest challenges with owning your own firm?

Because I focus on entrepreneurs and nonprofits, I started out trying to make it as easy as possible for clients. I possessed insecurities early on about my capability and offered designs first and then payment if you liked it. BAD MOVE! I wound up doing tons of designs for people who did not follow through with payment. My over-helpfulness has been reason for me not getting paid at times. People don’t take your time seriously, and if you don’t put your foot down, they will use and abuse you. It’s a learning process, but that’s the great thing about taking a chance on your own.

4. What are some of the unique services you provide – and why do you provide them?

I am a small business, business. I like to work with the little people who are just starting up and have more limited budgets. For many, this isn’t worth it, but for me, I feel like there is opportunity to guide the communications efforts of smaller entities, and not just create a design. I like consulting with people and presenting them ideas that may challenge their thoughts and expand their opportunities.

5. If you could let my readers know 3 things about web and graphic design, what would those things be?

1. Image is everything. Every designer has varying levels of skill, but a pet peeve of mine is UGLY design: distorted logos, fonts that are not consistent, colors that don’t match, random clip art images thrown on a design that are stretched too far or squeezed too tightly, web pages with no connection and every piece of Flash script you can think of that makes the page take longer to load, etc.. I try to let people know that ugly designs make you lose business. I’ve gone to many sites to support someone and the minute I see that it’s unattractive, the minute I think I’m getting involved with a scam. Same thing with print designs. I can immediately tell when a person has their sixth grader developing their print collateral versus a professional. AND SO CAN OTHERS…

2. We don’t have to know EVERYTHING about your business in one sitting. Basically, condense your content so readers can learn about your business or organization in one sitting. Content overload can bore a reader right into your competitor’s arms. You want your audience to get a taste of the juice through your marketing and then come to you to purchase the whole bottle. You really don’t have to list out every ingredient and where it comes from and what scientist founded the ingredient, how it has been used over history…and…well…you get my point.

3. Take advantage of freebies. There are “free” features that come along with their web host packages. They provide clients with many things that help aid their communications: emails that feature your domain, message boards, photo galleries. When purchasing a host package, look at what you’re getting for your money and think of the ways that you can use these “freebies” to better communicate with your audience.

Do you have any questions for Summer? Post them in the comments and we’ll use your questions in a follow up post.

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1. TweetDeck – Now my new favorite twitter application for the iPhone, Tweetdeck helps me quickly see what tweets mentioned me or my DMs without having to wade through all my tweets. Very useful if you follow quite a few folks.

2. WordPress – This is extremely helpful for posting quickly to blogs. Recently I was at a conference and needed to update to an organization’s blog and bam! it was done!

Image from http://www.urbanspoon.com

3. Urbanspoon – Those days where I can’t decide what I want to eat when I want to eat out, this can decide for me with the pretty cool random restaurant generator. It allows me to see menus, get phone numbers and even directions!

4. Epicurious - Another cookbook on the go! Similar to Betty Crocker Cookbook, this allows you to search what you’ve got and what you want to find the perfect dish to make at home. Even cooler, I can add all the ingredients of a dish to a quick to pull up grocery list!

5. Facebook – Ok, so I’m addicted to Facebook. Though it certainly doesn’t have all the functionality of the website, it at least lets me see what’s going on, read my messages and post to walls.

6. PayPal – If you are on the go and want to send or receive money quickly or want to check your account status, this is a pretty cool app. Perfect for a secure login to pay for your auctions while away from the computer or to send a friend a dollar!

Image from: http://www.imapmy.com

7. iMapMyFitness/iMapMyRide – I’m a big fan of the iMapMy sites. I regularly keep a log of my exercise there and it allows me to track my bike rides quickly with maps! On the go, you can add to your fitness calendar and check your stats. You can also time yourself and use the GPS function of the phone to add a real time map to your account. How cool!

8. Units – I’m always getting units confused (I attribute that to high school chemistry but shhh don’t tell anybody). I also tend to deal with fields that use both metric and english measuring systems so this app is great for quickly converting within a system or to a different system. Just pick what type of measurement you’re using and run for it!

9. ESPN ScoreCenter – This will prove more handy during a major sports season, but ESPN allows you to pick what teams you want to follow and get a one stop shop for scores! Only downside is that all sports aren’t included (can I get the T&F Grand Prix race times or throwers distances please??).

10. iHandyLevel – Ok, I’m lazy now. Just kidding. When I was moving recently, I needed to set my desk (with adjustable legs) up and make sure it sat correctly. So I downloaded the free iHandyLevel and voila! I had an even desk without guesswork! I also used it to make sure my marker boards and picture frames were straight. Awesome!

What are some of your favorite apps? How do you use your iPhone?

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As evidenced by my “go bag” and HarriMac‘s, there’s plenty of analog stuff we geeks carry with ourselves on a daily basis, too!

But, today, I want to help you get control of your digital world. It won’t hurt, I promise, and you’ll be feeling a lot better physically and mentally once you get rid of some things by combining them, upgrading or downgrading!

The first thing you should do is take an inventory of what gadgets you have, what functions they have and how often you use them.

What items have duplicate functions? Does your phone have a camera but you also carry a digital camera? Does your laptop have phone – VOIP (voice over IP) capabilities? Is your back begging you to stop carrying so much stuff? Do you panic if you do not remember if you put something back in your bag after leaving Starbucks?

Well, try to pare down your gadgets by eliminating duplicate items. Do you really need two or three cameras on you everywhere you go? Camera phones can usually fit the function of a digital camera in a pinch. So, leave the regular camera at home! All-in-one devices can save space and make life a lot easier for you.

Are you going to the park to work or are you just going to play? Leave your laptop at home if you are just planning on lazing around and use your cell phone’s wireless network – especially if you have unlimited data – to play around online for a while.

photo credit: nengard

Determine if you need the biggest or fanciest camera on the market? Or will a small digital camera work? Most of us are not professional photographers, and grandma is not going to care about how many megapixels your camera has – she just wants to see your smiling face!

If you have gone three or six months without using an item, do yourself a favor and sell unused items online; use the cash to pad your savings account, put toward a ‘staycation’ or pay a bill. If you don’t use an item, you probably don’t need it. When it is time to move, you’ll thank yourself.

You definitely should have a ‘landing pad’ for your digital items – a single place in your home or office where digital items can be plugged up to charge or stay available for picking up and packing in your bag when you are on the go.

Clean up your digital files and see how much space you can save on your computer or laptop. Follow the top five tips for organizing your computer files – and copy important files to your flash drive, PDA, Dropbox or cell phone for use when you are on the go. Save yourself the hassle of taking a laptop with you everywhere. Most public libraries have computers, so take advantage of flash drives and online storage options.

How have you gotten control of your digital world?

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Every couple days, I find some really neat applications that help all facets of my life – school work, organization, entertainment, hobbies.

Here are 15 of the coolest free iPhone apps I have located so far.

1. The Weather Channel – For quick updates on weather, this is where I turn first. It’s easier to check the weather here upon waking up than getting up and going to a website on the computer.

2. Twitterfon – I love Twitter! Twitterfon is a pretty cool application and updates my Twitter account quickly. I also have Twitterific on my phone just because it’s the required application to tweet directly from the USA Today application. Both are easy to use.

3. SitorSquat – I don’t know about you, but I’m always stuck somewhere and get the urge to “go”. This app is pretty cool to find a nearby bathroom and I can even add some of my own! They are rated and you can find comments so it makes it pretty simple to avoid crappy (no pun intended) bathrooms.

4. NYTimes – Especially with the newest update allowing one to email articles directly from the application, I love being able to keep up with the news on my iPhone.

5. Wikipanion – Definitely an improvement from the resizing you have to do to read a regular Wikipedia page on the Safari browser, this puts it in a simple easy to read format. Saves my eyesight!

6. TV.com – I can watch my favorite CBS tv shows and other tv shows from this application and look up the schedule for the week. Pretty awesome, don’t you think?

7. PubMed on Tap Lite/PubSearch – Another 2 for 1 in my list. In my field, I’m always searching for articles pertaining to my research. ALWAYS. These apps make it simple to get a starting place and read some abstracts. I might even get to read the entire article! PubMed on Tap Lite also has a paid version which allows access to more articles at once.

8. Call A Cab – As someone without a car, I occasionally need a taxi to get somewhere I can’t walk or bike to. This can locate where I am and give me local taxi numbers and even directly call the service. Great for late nights!

9. PghTraffic – Ok, so I’m biased. I like this app solely because it lets me see Pittsburgh whenever I want. (Yes, I miss PGH – GO STEELERS!)

10. NPR Mobile – If you are a lover of NPR or any of the podcasts, this is a must have application. Directly link in to all the programming and podcasts.

11. PhD Comic – One of my favorite comics on the move!

12. Google Mobile App – I can quickly get to any Google application with the touch of a button. Easy to use and keeps me organized!

13. Craigsphone – CraigsList for iPhone is easy to read and well organized. It definitely is better than the internet page! Only issue is that you can’t change the adult settings so some listings are tossed even in my favorite section “best of…”

14. NYC Subway Map – When Ellie is traveling in NYC, I can know exactly where she is because I’ve got this nifty NYC subway map on my phone! I see every stop!

15. Lose It! – I can keep track of everything I eat and see where my intake is going (put the Girl Scout cookies DOWN). Easy to add new foods that aren’t in the program.

Other iPhone applications of note: Wolfgang’s Concert Vault (not as good as their website, but decent amount of material); Yelp; Kindle for iPhone; and the Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook (recipes to go? alright!)

What are your favorite iPhone apps?

Related posts:

1. Ten More Cool and Free iPhone Apps
2. More Free iPhone Apps for the Holidays!!
3. More (yes MORE) free and great iPhone apps!

Updated to reflect changes in today’s blogging climate, this e-book is full of tips and tricks to help even the most experienced blogger learn more about blogging!

Read about how to personalize your WordPress blog with plugins and code!

Get inspiration on blogging topics, staying focused on blogging and getting publicity for your site.

Take advantage of the geek girl’s research, and avoid the pitfalls of blogging.

And as a bonus, download the e-book, leave a comment on this post, and get entered in a drawing to win a $10.01 via PayPal!

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RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. A RSS feed document can contain a summary or the full content of that site. It allows you to know the latest of all the sites you regularly visit saving you the trouble and time of visiting each individual site everyday to get the latest content. Almost all blogs, news sites and other sites that have regularly updated content provide RSS content.

View this three and a half minute video about RSS from CommonCraft:

So how do I get the content from ultimate geek girl or another website?

You can subscribe to the RSS feed of any website by using any feed reader or aggregator of your choice. You can subscribe by adding the RSS feed link into the software or by clicking on the RSS button on the site and adding the link to your web-based client. RSS software makes your life easy by checking if the sites you subscribe to have new content for you.

I prefer web-based feed readers, because the content is easily accessible from anywhere with an internet connection! Some of the most popular web-based feed readers are:

• Bloglines
• Google Reader
• Netvibes
• Vvvroom News Reader

You can read more about the top RSS readers here.

Readers, do you have a favorite RSS reader? Let’s hear it in the comments!

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