It’s a time of maturation for The Practical Nerd. As you can see, a lot of changes have been made to the site, and I’m really excited about where it’s going to take us! There have been some problems on the backend in the last few months or so, and I took some time to finally clean them out and update the site. Let’s take a look at what’s new:

Cleaner site design

I have a soft spot in my heart for the last design – it was an uncommon theme and it grabbed the eye. However, the theme itself caused quite a bit of problems for the way the site ran. After a while, it felt like the site design was getting cluttered and bogged down. I was not a fan of that.

This new theme is simple, but still has a nice splash of color to it. There’s a sophistication to it – just like us nerds. I think this will go a long way in making this site more pleasant to spend some time on.

The return of the podcast

You bet. The podcast has been strangely absent, but that has mainly been due to a month-long battle with bronchitis that saw me fluctuate between endless coughing and sounding like Barry White. The fiance and I both had to load up with antibiotics and cough medicine, and it just wouldn’t make for a very good podcast to listen to. I’ve since cleared up and I’m excited to record one this week. I also have since upgraded my microphone, so we will have a nice, clear sound – again, a little more professional!

ACTUAL related posts

One of my pet peeves over the past few months has been the "Related Posts" section of each post. Previously, it would just list the most recent posts for some reason. I have since fixed that, and now you can see posts actually related to the one you’re reading from the full Nerd Archives! How cool is that?

Condensed categories

As a baby blogger, I thought having a bunch of categories would help in organizing the site. Now, I realize simpler is better, and tags are where it’s at. So I pulled back on the categories for a more streamlined approach to organization.

New tagline

I have retired the "Helping Cooler People improve and enjoy their lives." I had a dream that I could make "Cooler People" the official buzzword of the blog – a derogatory term for people who live in the mainstream. I now know that I should be focusing my efforts on the word "nerd". So now I am redefining the word "nerd" and the tagline zeroes in on that. This was also aided by the surprise popularity of my "9 Reasons Why Being a Nerd is Awesome" post.

A return to WLW

This one doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, but I have installed Windows XP on a virtual machine within my Ubuntu operating system just to use Windows Live Writer. If you are a blogger, you understand why: WLW is quite possible the best thing Microsoft has ever put out. Ubuntu just didn’t have a comparable solution. I wanted consistency in formatting and WLW is the way to do it, so we’re back in that regard.

More focused sidebar

As of press time, there are 236 posts on The Practical Nerd. That’s not a lot of content for some bloggers, but that’s a good chunk for me. And I want people to be able to navigate through some of that and enjoy all of this great content that I’ve put up here over the last year and a half (if I do say so myself). The simpler sidebar highlights the "Random Posts" section and the tags. Start browsing around and enjoy some classic Nerd stuff!

FIXED FEED!

My most hindering complaint about the site, technically-speaking, over the past year has been the broken feed, which screwed up how the posts looked if trying to subscribe to the site (via Google Reader and others). Happily, we can chalk that one up to the previous design as well, as the feed is fixed! This means I will be setting up the Facebook feed once again, and those looking to subscribe can finally see the content as it is supposed to be presented!

Cleaned up backend

Once again, I believe the last design caused a number of problems on the backend of this blog. You probably won’t notice much of a difference in performance, but all the blog plugins have been updated and the entire system is running remarkably better. To be honest, this whole update has restored my faith in WordPress, and it gives me a better feeling to be writing in a nice, clean blog again.

This update was a long time coming and is a big step for the future of this site. I thank everybody who has stuck around, and I hope to continue to see you guys (and more) throughout the near future!

Ah, April Fool’s Day – the one day a year where nobody can resist making terrible, terrible jokes. Especially on the Internet.

Not here, though! Here, we’re all about sharing some love today. Check out some solid articles from around the Web:

Fix Up Your Finances

Some great stuff here:

• A Two-Step Approach To Breaking Bad Money Habits [Get Rich Slowly] – A great guest post by April Dykman gives you the simple, George Costanza-esque method of getting yourself back on track financially.
• 5 Reasons Why You Might Not Be Out of Debt Yet [Christian Personal Finance] – Erik Folgate writes a guest post that enlightens you on why you’re still struggling with debt.
• Wealth Isn’t How Much You Earn [The Simple Dollar] – If you can internalize this attitude, you will win in your financial life. Guaranteed.

Get a Few More Things Done

Not as productive as you wish you were? This is your section:

• Start Work Fresh Tomorrow by Slaying Your Most Unpleasant Task First [Lifehacker] – Well, I’m more a fan of the snowball method of getting things done, but this one certainly has its merits! Do whatever’s going to work for you.
• "Finish a Dozen Things You’ve Been Putting Off For Weeks" [Lifehacker] – A quick blurb and a quick kick in the pants.
• 5 Big Ways to Add Time to Your Days [Dumb Little Man] – You’d be surprised how much time you waste in a day if you really looked at it. Add some time with this post.

Be More Healthy, For Cryin’ Out Loud!

Didn’t pay attention during Health Week last week (and Monday)? Check these out:

• Jamie Oliver on Food, Kids, and Death [mental_floss] – I don’t think we as Americans truly grasp how much of our problems revolve around our awful diets. Even people who think they are eating healthy are eating crap. Jamie Oliver has a great show right now where he tries to change that, and this is a short speech he gave at a TED conference, and it is phenomenal.
• 9 Tips For Better Sleep [Stepcase Lifehack] – I know sometimes my sleeping habits need a little work. Try to follow these and you just might wake up feeling refreshed, instead of clinging to the covers for 10 more minutes.
• Scientists Finally Prove High-Fructose Corn Syrup Risks [The Kitchn] – Anything in moderation is okay, but are you aware of all the things you eat that have this stuff in it? Check the ingredients on your loaf of bread…

Happiness. ‘Nuff Said.

You can be happier. Use these links to give yourself a little motivation:

• Building Your Resiliency: Part VI – Quit Catastrophizing [The Art of Manliness] – Don’t let the blog fool you, ladies. This is a great post for anybody who panics when things start going wrong.
• The Free Version of How To Be Rich And Happy [How To Be Rich And Happy] – It’s a book, and I’m eager to get it myself, but take a glance at this snapshot of the back of the book, and you’ll learn all you need to know about how to be happier.
• The 7 Most Motivational Quotes Ever Spoken [Dumb Little Man] – If you need to be a little inspired to become great in life, this is the post for you.
• You’ll Never Get Ahead With Resentment, Jealousy, and Hate [The Simple Dollar] – It boggles my mind how many people spend their day in the office complaining about everybody else. You can change your attitude and put yourself on the road to success.
• Personal Growth: Comfort Is NOT An Option [My Super-Charged Life] – Just like in my days running cross-country races, the only way you can win in life is by breaking out of your comfort zone.
• 9 Surprising Habits To Simplify Family Life [Christian Personal Finance] – The opening line: “Having a family isn’t a free pass for chaos.”

And just a bunch of other stuff

Couldn’t categorize these ones, but they’re all really good, anyway:

• How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords [Lifehacker] – Yeah, it’s posts like these that inspired me to create all new, different passwords and manage them with Lastpass instead of the same password for everything anymore.
• The Menaissance: The Death of the Metrosexual and the Rise of the Retrosexual [The Art of Manliness] – Here you go, fellas. Let’s all learn what REALLY makes a man.
• A Man’s Guide to Dining Etiquette and Proper Table Manners [The Art of Manliness] – Another post from a great site, but this one is a great refresher for both sexes.
• DVDStyler Burns Virtually Any Video to DVD [Lifehacker] – Last year, I used this program to burn all seasons of Boy Meets World that aren’t out on DVD, The Drew Carey Show, and every Magic of David Copperfield special. Yup, I’m cool. But this program is cooler.
• 15 Reasons Why I Utterly Refuse To Give Up On Freelancing [Freelance Folder] – One of the best lists that inspire me and explain my relentless goal of freelancing for a living to people who don’t understand it.
• My Experiment To Break Free From TV [Dumb Little Man] – This post shoots down all the excuses people have for paying an arm and a leg for television. Very cool.
• Time is Money: The Best Times to Do Everything (100 Tricks and Tips) [Online Degrees] – A pile o’ links within the Pile O’ Links, a great list jam-packed with all kinds of useful advice.

If you see anything out there that you want included in the next Pile, fire me an email or tweet me or whatever and we can get it in here!

Time for another edition of Big Pile o’ Links, where I feature some of my favorite links and groups of articles from all over the wonderful world we call “The Internet”:

Yes, Cooler People Can Use Evernote, Too!

Ah, Evernote. It’s one of the most useful and versatile programs/cloud storage ever, and yet so few Cooler People use it. It’s not just for tech bloggers and people with lots of crap to write about – it’s also incredibly useful for normal people in their day-to-day lives. I use mine every day, and I can’t tell you how useful it has been at the office, at home, or even running around. Here are some great links from recent times that list a bunch of great, easy ways you can start using Evernote more often in your life:

• How Much Do I Love Evernote? Let Me Count The Ways… [via lyndamk] – 7 ways to use Evernote and 10 reasons why you should.
• How To Use Evernote: 21 Creative Uses [via Christian Personal Finance] – My friend Bob runs down a bunch of killer ideas for any Cooler Person!
• Searching Through Evernote With Google Chrome [ via The Evernote Blog] – If you’re a Chrome user like me, you want to check out this sweet tip.

Get Yourself On Track To a Better Life

Job got you down? Feel like you’re headed the wrong way? Here are a handful of great articles (and one AWESOME documentary!) to help you make some changes:

• The Ultimate Formula For Success [via Copyblogger] – It amazes me how many people overcomplicate this formula. Seriously, people.
• Do You Make These 3 Common Mistakes When Trying to Improve Your Self-Confidence? [via The Positivity Blog] – Everybody takes time to try and feel a little more confident, right? So where are you going wrong? Hit the link to find out.
• cherished mementos [via mnmlist] – One of my new favorite blogs shows you how to get rid of clutter without getting rid of the memories.
• Lemonade: A Free, Must-Watch Documentary to Inspire You [via My Two Dollars and Hulu] – Ever been laid off? These people have. Instead of letting it crush them, they took some chances – and with the support of their families, friends, and children that depended on them, they built lives worth living. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, and it’s absolutely gripping. I watched it on my break at the office one night and I immediately knew I’d be sharing it here. Hit the link to watch the trailer and then follow through to Hulu to watch the full 40ish-minute documentary. It’s well worth your time.
• 29 Semi-Productive Things I Do Online When I’m Trying to Avoid Real Work [via Marc and Angel Hack Life] – Who knew the internet has so many ridiculously useful things to do? Learn something, inspire yourself, and be productive, even when you’re not being productive.

Money, money, money, money, moneyyyyyyyy…

It makes the world go ‘round. Here’s a quick handful of resources to further your knowledge on the subject:

• Thoughts on Post-Purchase Rationalization [via The Simple Dollar] – I did it with my $500 recliner. I did it with my first Zune. I did it with my mattress set. Heck, I even did it with my car! I bet you do it too.
• New Credit Card Rules: Who Really Benefits? [via Wise Bread] – The cold, hard truth on this stuff. Yeah, credit cards still suck, guys.
• FillerItemFinder Helps You Secure Free Amazon Shipping [via Lifehacker] – My favorite site shows you an awesome tool to help you round out the last $2.73 you need to qualify for free Amazon shipping.
• "Superman Syndrome" Revisited: Money and Self-Esteem [via The Simple Dollar] – When I got out of credit card debt the first time, I celebrated by taking my family out to an expensive dinner. I paid for it with my credit card. Yup, I’m guilty of this stuff too.

And of course, a few of my favorite randoms:

• How Can I Ditch Cable and Watch My TV Shows and Movies Online? [via Lifehacker] – A giant list of sites and tools to help you score all the free entertainment you want (legally). I’m still struggling to figure out why anybody is still paying for cable, I really am. Mom, Dad, and the kids can all find something here.
• 16 Things Your Lawyer Won’t Tell You [via Wise Bread] – Spoiler: one of them is “You don’t need me.”
• Flavors.me Is a Simple and Elegant Personal Portal [via, yep, Lifehacker] – A really slick online way to share all your info, like a business card (but much, much cooler).
• ZipList Creates Sharable Grocery Lists from Thousands of Recipes [via Mashable] – Share the grocery lists with the other shoppers in the house, and make building them DEAD SIMPLE.
• Ubuntu 10.04 to Include Built-In Music Store [via Lifehacker] – Geez, I miss Linux.
• Set Up a Fully-Automated Media Center [via Lifehacker again] – You bet I’m doing this after the wedding. It’s like a fully-fucntioning, open-source DVR system with movies and TV shows, and infinitely better-looking.
• FillAnyPDF Lets You Electronically Fill and Sign Any Form [I’m thinking of just making a Lifehacker section next time] – Need to sign something? Ditch the scanner and the fax machine and just use this thing. I’ve been using Photoshop, but this is a great way too.

Phew! There you go! Another Big Pile o’ Links for your pleasure. If you have an article or site or tool or whatever that you want featured in the Big Pile o’ Links, send it my way at tom@thepracticalnerd.com (it doesn’t have to be yours either, just something you like!).

Boy, do I hear this stuff a lot.

I’ve got friends and family who will ask about The Practical Nerd, and then they’ll spout off some reason why they don’t follow it and apologize to me. First, it’s not like I get offended for every person that doesn’t read what I have to say. My words aren’t for everybody (though, in most cases, they should be reading this stuff!). But as a blogger, you tend to thicken your skin towards that stuff. But the Cooler People of the world have an excuse for not reading a few blogs, and they think they need an excuse for everything. Just think of some of the long, drawn-out explanations you might hear for the following topics:

• Why I Don’t Have Money
• Why I’m Fat
• Why I’m Grumpy
• Why We Broke Up
• Why I Bought That

And the list goes on. Today, however, I want to go with the three reasons I hear most often for people who tell me they don’t follow The Practical Nerd, or blogs in general. Consider it my rebuttal to the Cooler People of the world.

“Blogs are just written by a bunch of losers who live in their parents’ basements.”

Hey, back off! It’s only for nine months!

Yes, I have recently moved back in with my parents to save some dough before I get married and be a grown-up forever. But I want to list just a few types of people who have very successful blogs: brilliant marketers, people who have successfully morphed their lives into dream lives, sports commentators and pundits, best-selling authors, people who lost weight without having high-priced personal trainers scream in their ears while millions of people watch, and personal finance experts. These are not people who live in their parents’ basements. These are people who have changed lives and are darn good at what they do. They have valuable life experience and they share it with you. This leads to…

“Blogs are just a bunch of useless information. I don’t want to spend my time reading some loser’s rant about [insert topic here].”

Bloggers do rant, there’s no doubt about that. But here are a few blogs I follow that have some ridiculously useful information:

• Christian Personal Finance – A blog by Bob, who is a proud Christian and a smart money man. He has useful tips and motivational advice for people of all faiths looking to improve their wallets.
• Budgets Are Sexy – Another great personal finance blog, J shares his personal stories on his quest for financial improvement. There’s a lot of great community interaction here as well!
• Lifehacker – It’s nerdy, but it rocks. Lifehacker is chock-full of tips on productivity, software, computer tricks, and everything in between, like building cool stuff for your home in a weekend and saving money on liquor. If you can wade through the nerdy stuff that you’re not interested in, I guarantee you will still find useful information several times a week.
• Location Independent Professionals – If you’re looking to take control of your life, LIP has stories and advice from people who have done it and can work wherever they choose. These are not “get-rich-quick” scams. These are people building businesses apart from their full-time office jobs. I also happen to be a writer there, too!
• The Art of Manliness – Easily one of my favorite blogs, AoM celebrates true manliness, which involves living with honor and respect, and not about how many chicks you can bang and how much cool stuff you own (it’s the opposite plot of Jersey Shore).
• The Art of Non-Conformity – Chris Guillebeau is my inspiration for starting The Practical Nerd. His blog deals with work, life, and travel, and great practical tips to get more out of all of them.

That’s just the tiniest footprint of all the blogs out there. Sure, some are full of idiots who just want to complain about [insert topic here]. Some are celebrity rumor blogs like that piece of crap Perez Hilton. But some are honest, interesting people who are trying to teach and help. Those are the people I follow.

In addition, there are plenty that give you a good laugh after a long day, like 11 Points, Awkward Family Photos, Calvin and Hobbes (the best comic strip of all-time, every day).

“I don’t have time to follow a bunch of blogs. I have a life.”

This one is easily the most common one I get, and usually the word “life” is emphasized as a way to make me feel like some kind of loser.

Do you ever read a magazine? How about the newspaper? Ever watch anything on TV? Then you have time. It’s that simple.

What is the best use for your time? Is it watching another crappy fake “reality” show? These are shows with people who add nothing to society other than generally wanting a bunch of attention so that they can justify their giant contracts and sponsorships by playing to your emotions with overproduced crap. Why not experience the true reality of people’s lives and actually learn from and enjoy their experiences without corporate involvement? That’s what a blog does. The blog is the ultimate reality show. There are podcasts, video podcasts, and plain ol’ blogs that all exist for people to bare their lives. There are some captivating stories out there that would put the “I’m a single father with three kids and instead of getting a job I traveled all the way here to sing for you” stories to absolute shame. Put down the remote and belly-up to the monitor for a few minutes.

Newspapers and magazines are going by way of the dodo. Think you’re going to miss much? Most magazines have their articles on their websites, and most can be subscribed to. Same with newspapers. You can get your daily dose of news just about anywhere, and you can tailor it to just be news you’re interested in.

Then use an RSS subscriber like Google Reader to pull them in. Instead of searching through each individual website, it will highlight all the new content, pull it to the front, and you can move through it, skipping articles you don’t want to read and highlighting the ones you do. The other reason I use Google Reader is because it’s web-based, so I can access it on my work breaks or on my phone’s web browser, which is great for waiting rooms and other times where you just need to kill a little time. Plus you don’t have to carry around anything extra – you already have your phone! And finding that article from the past you were just thinking about is as easy and entering a few terms into the search box. All your sites are saved and past content can be searched in seconds.

The truth is, many blogs are written by respected, well-rounded people with inspirational and practical advice for you that can be read any time. You have the time. Start following a few blogs and see how your life will change for the better as a result. Or not. Then you can go back to sitting on the couch and watching Jersey Shore instead. I’m not here to judge.

Now, they are in reverse-chronological order, so they start at the bottom. Also, please try to ignore the side picture of him wearing a t-shirt with a plunging neckline and looking deep into your eyes. Unless you’re a lady, because I think that’s what he’s going for. What’s your view on the 2000s?

It was one of the biggest games of the season. Any season, really. Any time my Green Bay Packers are dueling with the Chicago Bears, it is must-see television. Regardless of standings and divisions, the Packers-Bears rivalry is fierce. And to be honest, it was bigger than usual, because the Packers are trying to push their way into the playoffs. Every win counts.

At my church, we were having a pot-luck lunch. I was eating a little shredded beef and watching Ryan Grant take it to the house on the first Packer play of the game. We were having fun, and the Packers were winning.

Then I had to go to work.

I sat in the car at the office parking lot while listening to the last precious few minutes of the game that I could hear. I didn’t have a radio at work, so this would be it. After this, it was going to be word-of-mouth.

Thank God for Google.

My computer at work blocks just about everything: email, Twitter, Facebook, ESPN, whatever. But it doesn’t block Google, and I can’t think of a workplace that would. So, when I want to keep up with a game, I type the team name in the search box, and the first result on Google’s results page is a scoreboard with a game clock. I just hit “refresh” every time I check in to see the score, and I’m okay.

This game was different, though, as the Packers were up 13-0 when I left the car. After a few refreshes, it was 14-13, Bears. I was stunned. I had no idea what was going on; who was in? Who wasn’t in? Did anybody get hurt? Did we give up a big play? WHAT?!?

Then I saw a little box that was updating with Twitter results down the page. It wasn’t blocked because it was google.com, not twitter.com! I moved to the options section (see above picture) and clicked “Updates”. Up came a scrolling, constantly-updating commentary on the game from the Twitter universe.

There’s no game on as I write this, so you’ll have to imagine it.

It was beautiful. I could just keep checking, and any big play was commented on by plenty of people! It was like having a crowdsourced play-by-play of the game (and the Pack won, too!). I could see when somebody missed a field goal, when Jay Cutler threw an interception (or two), or any big defensive stand.

If you’re at work and you want to keep track of the big game, just search for the team name on Google and click “Updates”. Then you can see what the world is talking about as it happens.

This has other great implications, too:

• Monitoring big news developments. Want to know the latest on Tiger Woods having sex with people? Type in “Tiger Woods” and watch everybody comment on stuff that isn’t their business all day!
• Keep tabs on your fantasy football players. Search for the player’s name and you can see any big play they come up with, so you can monitor performance (and thank you, Quinton Ganther!).
• Watch other live event happenings in real-time. The Oscars. An Apple convention. A big press conference. People are tweeting about this stuff all the time. Keep up with it all at work!

Anything you can search Twitter for, you can use this for. Obviously, you want to work hard and make sure you’re getting things done, too. But if you can’t miss the big news or game, Google’s new real-time search is a killer way to do it quickly and easily.

No, this isn’t going to be another debate on why I like my Zune better than the iPod. Today, we’re all together: we are owners of portable media players. And it’s not just limited to us: there are those who were more economical and chose simpler, non-brand-name media players, and even some that use their mobile phones, such as their Blackberry or Droid, to carry around music and video.

In any case, the main reason we got these things was music. We love us some music, right? Heck, even the option to carry around some video is pretty cool too (if we can). But our little media players can do us one better, and I learned it while I was sitting at a desk.

Recently, I took upon a rather boring desk job to pay a few bills (one being this giant party I’m throwing next October). This job basically entails staring at a computer screen and answering customer service emails for 8 hours a day, second shift. It ain’t glamorous, I’ll tell you that right now. But while there, I realized that I needed brain stimulation if I wanted any chance of surviving this job.

As I’ve stated before, I’ve got a Microsoft Zune. While putzing around on the Zune Marketplace, I started perusing the podcasts. I’d always thought about grabbing a podcast – after all, they seem to be pretty popular, but I never really knew anybody that listened to them. I figured this would be a good chance to try a few out.

Holy cow. I should be kicking myself for not trying this years ago.

Podcasts: Knowledge, Entertainment, and The Rejuvenated Love for Radio

Think about all the time you spend doing mindless activities: driving a car, sitting at work (for some of us), cleaning the house, working out, etc. There are about a billion different times of day when we could be putting our brain to good use. Enter the podcast. Here are a few cool reasons to start loading up:

• Constantly new content: Most podcasts update at least once a week, if not more often. That’s a steady stream of new stuff to listen to, all the time!
• Automatic updating: Adding new ones is as simple as plugging in your media player (and in some cases, you don’t even have to do that). Just subscribe and forget about it!
• Something for all interests: You’d be surprised at just how many genres you can take advantage of and enjoy.
• Any podcast feed can be used: If you can find it online, you can add it to your subscriptions, regardless of what you are using.
• They’re free: Even if you just want to listen to them on your computer, you can load up on podcasts to your heart’s content.

A podcast, for those of you who have gotten this far and still don’t know what they are, is essentially a radio show. For some podcasters out there, it’s adapted from their actual radio show. For others, it’s like their blog on steroids – interviews, audio clips, and special content can be found on their podcasts. What kinds of stuff can you find out there? Anything.

The Practical Nerd’s Favorite Podcasts

After some trial and error, I’ve hammered down the podcasts I look forward to listening to every day (links go to the RSS feed address to add to your podcasting software):

• Bob and Brian On Demand – This is the morning radio show from 102.9 THE HOG, based out of Milwaukee. Sure, there’s some definite Midwest charm in here, but there are plenty of hilarious news bits and sports coverage with Steve Czaban to keep anyone happy. Best feature: any of their "listeners write in" stories, including Father Knows Least (funny/horrifying experiences with your dad), Smashed In The Face (your story of getting hit in the face), and Holiday Horror Stories (bad experiences with holidays). Best of all, they’re not tasteless shock jocks, either!
• Radiolab – Easily the best of the bunch. Radiolab is an NPR radio show from WNYC. They generally run an hour long, but they contain some of the most thought-provoking and beautiful stories out there. It’s a science show about human behavior and other stuff about nature, but done with sound effects, music, and storytelling that sucks you in completely. What a wonderful program – one of the few places you can find science-related content that is unbiased, entertaining, and completely accessible for everyone. After one day of listening to the three podcasts I had downloaded, I went back and downloaded their entire archive of over 60 shows.
• The Dave Ramsey Show Podcast – Dave is the author of The Total Money Makeover, which is highly-regarded as one of the best personal finance books around. Dave opens up every show by saying that this is "where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off mortgage has replaced the BMW as the status symbol of choice". He takes callers, emails, and tweets, giving solid and real-world financial advice to his listeners. He has a no-nonsense approach that I totally respect, and his main goal is getting you out of debt. Great program.
• ESPN Football Today – Some things just need to be entertaining. Jeremy Green takes you inside football every weekday for analysis and opinion. It’s like having ESPN in your ears.

There are tons more out there, from comedy to Christian, food to music. Go search around, either in your iTunes, Zune Marketplace, or even Google. You’ll find some good stuff.

Okay, so how do I get this stuff?

One way is through your media software. The iTunes Store and the Zune Marketplace both have dedicated sections to podcasts. If you don’t use either of those, there is another very popular option: Juice.

Juice is a cross-platform podcast subscriber that organizes your podcasts and syncs them up with your media player of choice (or, if you want, you can just play them through the software).

Podcasts give your brain a little food to work with. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. After all, learning is an ongoing process throughout your life. Why not give it a try? Do you have any favorite podcasts you want to recommend? Let’s hear about it in the comments!

For those who don’t know me personally, I am a freelance writer. I’ve done copywriting for several years now, and I decided, earlier this year, to take the plunge into becoming a full-on marketing firm. As I putzed around for a year, completely in over my head, I manage to get a project here and there. Then it dawns on me: social media marketing.

Blogging. Twitter. Facebook. Everything is going social these days, including marketing. This was a slam dunk! I even managed to get Erik Chopin from season 3 of The Biggest Loser to sign on. This was going to be great!

Uh… wait.

After getting into it for a few months, I realized something: social media can’t be done by a marketing firm. Sure, they can put together campaigns. They can develop iPhone apps and YouTube videos. But the execution and the engagement has to be done by the company. So, as I pull away from the social media marketing flop, here’s a few lessons I’ve learned that we can all use in our real-world relationships.

Don’t be somebody you’re not.

I’m not Erik Chopin. I didn’t lose hundreds of pounds on national television. I’m not a no-B.S. guy from New York City. I’m Tom Meitner, a skinny guy who’s never been on TV and who hails from Milwaukee. The people are going to go to Erik’s website to see Erik, not me.

Are you pretending to be somebody you’re not? I’m a fairly quirky guy, and my friends just have to accept that about me. I don’t try to hide the fact that:

• I think everybody should like the same television shows that I like.
• I’m a Christian man.
• I sometimes eat bread and ketchup as a snack, to the disgust of pretty much everyone.

But that’s me. People accept it. Be true to who you are. Don’t be a ghostwriter for yourself.

Engage people in conversation.

Sometimes, when I’m on the phone with my fiancé, if I’m tired or distracted, she winds up getting the “uh-huh” and “mm-hmm” from me. It becomes clear I’m not paying attention, and she gets mad at me. And for good reason. Social media is a two-way conversation as well. The best bloggers out there respond to emails and comments. They get the most loyalty from readers.

Be a part of the conversation you are in. Don’t just be polite and half-listen. And don’t just talk to people either; ask them about their lives and how their day is going. I guarantee you, it will breed a much stronger relationship. Be pleasant to talk to.

Mix it up.

The people who market the best with social media are involved in different areas: they blog with video, they do audio podcasts, they write, they post pictures. They have different methods of reaching out and interacting with their audiences.

Look closely at your friendships: do they just revolve around going to the bars? Do you only interact with them at work? Do you only approach them when you have nothing else to do? A friendship is based on shared experiences of all kinds: go see a concert or a movie together. Stay in and hang out (is that an oxymoron?). Take a short trip together. Build experiences with people, and they will respond in kind.

Make the other person feel important.

The best blogging tip out there is to write for the audience, not for yourself. Which means, base your posts on what they need to hear, not what you want to say. It makes the reader feel like they are important.

Call up a friend to just say “hi”. Buy or make them a gift. Do a nice gesture for them. That’s how you show true friendship.

Don’t do it for your own personal gain.

Social media is to be used for your passion. It is to be done to connect with your audience. After that, if you want to make money, there are ways to do it. But if you head into it with money being the sole motivation, you will fail. Just like I did.

Don’t just be friends with a coworker to get ahead. Don’t just hang out with the guy that always buys the drinks. Spend time with people you care about; don’t patronize people just to get stuff you want.

I’m sure there are other lessons – can you think of any? Share them in the comments!

Twitter can be a very educational place, whereby following the right individual or brand, you can learn from their tweets. In fact, we’ve already highlighted usability experts, entrepreneurs, authors (fiction and nonfiction), environmentalists, foodies, and musicians that we think are must follows.

But Twitter can also be a medium ripe with humor and capable of making the masses laugh with a single tweet that resonates throughout the Twittersphere. So now it’s time to a take a more comedic turn, and point out 10 LOL-inducing Twitter accounts that break the monotony of our work days, add spice to our weekends, and make Twitter a more entertaining place to be with their colorful characters.

Do You Make These 5 Common Mistakes When Switching To A More Positive Attitude? [The Positivity Blog]

“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice”
Wayne Dyer

“For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else”
Winston Churchill

If you are reading this then there is good chance that you agree with me that positivity is pretty awesome. But it is not always easy to adopt a more positive attitude and there are some pitfalls. So today I’d like to share a few mistakes that I have made in this area and that I think are fairly common.

14 Ways a Notebook In Your Pocket Can Save You Money [The Simple Dollar]

Melinda writes in:

“You constantly write about how having a notebook in your pocket all the time helps you in life and saves you money. I get that you can write down your ideas in it all the time, but I’m not a creative type. I don’t see how having a notebook on me at all times can save me money at all.”

Aside from the fact that I’m able to use the notebook to write down my ideas – my career’s bread and butter – a pocket notebook constantly comes in handy for many other financial reasons as well. (FYI, I usually just keep a simple small Mead reporter’s notebook in my pocket, along with a good pen that doesn’t run out of ink.) Here are fourteen ways I use that notebook to directly save money.

Glue Suggests Movies, Music, and More [Lifehacker]

Once you sign up for a Glue Account, you can begin flagging things you like to build a profile of tastes. What kind of things? Glue can suggest books, music, movies, video games, wine, artists, and movie stars. You can log in using Facebook or Twitter and Glue will not only suggest items based on your own tastes but on the tastes of your friends.

I thought it would be nice to share some of my favorite posts from this week. Here they are, with a few excerpts from each article (and one video demonstration). Enjoy!

Break out of your “Victim Mentality”

How To Break Out of A Victim Mentality: 7 Powerful Tips [The Positivity Blog]

Why do people often have self-esteem problems? I’d say that one of the big reasons is that they don’t take responsibility for their lives. Instead someone else is blamed for the bad things that happen and a victim mentality is created and empowered.

This damages many vital parts in your life. Stuff like relationships, ambitions and achievements.

That hurt will not stop until you wise up and take responsibility for your life. There is really no way around it.

And the difference is really remarkable. Just try it out. You feel so much better about yourself even if you only take personal responsibility for your own life for a day.

Make your web clips more printer-friendly (or Evernote-friendly!)

Printliminator Quickly, Easily Makes Any Page Printer Friendly [Lifehacker]

[Note: Pair this service up with Evernote’s “Clip Selection” tool and save yourself a lot of hassle for clean web clips!]

It’s that time of year again!

The Quick 10: AFI’s Top 10 Thrills [mental_floss Blog]

The American Film Institute has done a pretty bang-up job of releasing movie lists in the past few years – best lines, best laughs, best musicals, best film scores. They even recently released the 10 best movies in a bunch of different genres, including “Courtroom Drama” and “Gangsters.” But they have yet to release a “best horror movie” list, much to my chagrin (and the chagrin of many others… lots of horror nerd bloggers have made their own to make up for the AFI’s omission). But they have released the 100 “Best Thrills,” which I guess is as close as they are going to get. I’m listing their top 10.

Hulu Desktop starts reaching out a little farther…

Hulu Embraces Publishers, Linux Users With Shiny New Tools [Mashable]

Hulu Desktop’s new compatibility with Linux assures that Hulu’s slick desktop app for watching TV is available on all three major operating systems. They got the Linux version out surprisingly quickly. Heck, there’s still no Chrome for Mac and it’s been over a year, much less the Linux version, so we applaud Hulu’s speed to market.

Put together that photobook keepsake quickly, easily, and CHEAPLY!

HotPrints Prints Free, Ad-Supported Photo Books [Lifehacker]

If you’re cool with that at the cost of free, even free shipping, HotPrints’ Facebook app makes it fairly easy to pull in tagged photos of yourself or any Facebook contacts for a quickie album, with a limit of one per month. It’s a free service, requires a Facebook account (and app authorization) to use.

Cut the stupid drama out of your life

Live Simply, and Save The Drama for Your Mother [Zen Habits]

If you have gotten fat, instead of making a big deal about it, go outside for a walk, and make it a simple daily habit (perhaps gradually turning it into a jog). And then just start eating fresher foods — fruits and veggies and beans and nuts — rather than unhealthy foods. Start cooking for yourself instead of eating fast food. The drama will only serve to get you depressed and fatter. Simply getting on with it will solve the problem, rather easily if you don’t make a big deal of it.

We all need at least a FEW tools

10 Tools For The Non-Handy Person’s Toolbox [Stepcase Lifehack]

Below are some of the tools I have in my tool chest. They’re the “extra” tools – that is, not the basics that everyone should have. If you don’t have any tools, you’re going to want a decent hammer, at least two screwdrivers (one each, Phillips head and flat head), an adjustable crescent wrench, a handsaw, and a couple pairs of pliers (needle-nose and adjustable). Once you have those, look into adding these to your collection. They’re listed roughly in order of usefulness – but of course, that’s subjective.