Laptops: How NOT to Beat the Summer Heat

Look familiar?

Here are five things you shouldn’t do if you value your laptop:

1. Catch some rays with your favorite mac. As an added bonus, prop it up on  your legs with the fluffiest beach towel you can find.
2. Don’t clean your laptop up or attempt to remove blockages from the fan. You want that fan humming a seaside-sounding tune to lull you to sleep.
3. Don’t let that machine rest. Summer nights are made for living, and let’s face it, you need your music, social media, banking, and Skype on at all times, just in case mom calls.
4. Air conditioners are for quitters. As Canadians, we have an obligation to pay respect to the three months of nice weather we get by working outdoors (think patio, beach, on the family boat perhaps) as much as possible.
5. Stuff that laptop in your beach bag when you’ve had enough. Time for a game of marco polo? Wrap that laptop in your towel and stuff it in your favorite floral beach bag. Nobody wants to geek out with a laptop bag in front of friends.

Please feel free to add to the list in the comments!

Pinterest-ed? So is my 94-year-old aunt…here’s a simple how-to

A virtual oasis, filled with images of everything you adore. What’s not to love about Pinterest? You can look up tutorials, post a gigantic wish list and link it to Facebook guilt-free, map your travels and share all the wonderful places you’ve been, get inspired with DIY and craft ideas, plan weddings and events, and much, much more.

What’s the best part of it all though? It’s simple. My 94-year-old great Aunt Lil (who is almost blind) can appreciate the fact that I can pull up a gallery of my dog, Kahlua, or her favorite flowers (bright, vibrant coloured ones) and she can literally see them. It brings a smile to her face and it warms my heart. She can’t get out like she used to, but I can create a gallery of memories for her and she click through with delight. She can barely write by hand anymore, but she can click a mouse pad. And that’s what social media should be about right? Connecting people to their favorite people, places and things.

An easy-to-follow tutorial courtesy of Tristan Higbee

Here are 4 tips I’ve learned along the way:

1. Be simple, stay original. Pictures speak 1000 words so that you don’t have to. Let folks know why you love it, then keep it moving.
2. At’s @ and daps #. Found something you think a fellow pinner would love? Like Twitter, if you ‘@’ their name it directs them to the fun. For a quick search, use #hashtags.
3. Get creative. Original content is king. And whether or not your photos are originals, write descriptions in your posts that people want to keep when they repin. Also, spice up your board titles and make it fun.
4. Consider using boards for organizational purposes. A virtual cookbook, or gift registry so that you can get exactly what you want, from where you want, and folks can buy it for you with the click of a button.

Have any questions, tips and/or tricks?

You'll Never See the Shoe Again

Reblogged from Rage Comics:

Good morning, winter wonderland

Ah, I could hear it. The light gusts of wind knocking against my bedroom window like an alarm clock with a pleasant wake up call. Reluctant to accept the fact that I had to get out of my large, cozy, ‘sheets-that-were-freshly-laundered-an-hour-before-bedtime’ bliss, I covered my head with the soft down duvet that encompassed the warm, snuggly feeling one gets from a full night’s sleep. It didn’t take long before a feeling of dutiful guilt rushed over me and so I slid my legs off the side of the bed, dancing my toes around the floor to find my favorite pair of slippers.

I made my way over to the window and was met with a brilliant scene of winter. Delicate pieces of ice mingled on the glass forming an intricate piece of frozen art, the trees branches coated with sparkling fresh snow and birds delighting from the seeds put out by the neighbour. The pattern of paw prints and snow dog angels on the front lawn tells me her new puppy, Boots, is definitely a fan of sub zero delights.

Yes, it was the kind of vision that would inspire a photographer to take shots, a poet to write poems, and a commuter to groan in ‘slippery road conditions’ agony…

Good morning, winter wonderland.

Photo via

A one stop shop of awesome

via

Are you a creative person who would appreciate validating eccentricity? Perhaps you want to set yourself up for productivity. After all, it’s getting towards that time of year when people realize that what they thought was resolve might actually be a nice to have.

Maybe you’ve poured your heart and soul into a campaign and you want to captivate your audience in the hopes that they’ve soaked up every ounce of awesome you can deliver.

In this collection of articles, there are ways to achieve all of these things and more.

Where do you go on the interwebs to seek a creative push?

The 99% by Behance, a bewitching site for creative minds

I can’t say enough great things about the 99% by Behance. It’s a wonderland for creative people (and folks who aspire to be) that actually explains the how-to. From dealing with difficult clients to overcoming writer’s block, every article is fully loaded with awesomesauce.

Today’s Quotable

“Yeah, I believe in sequels. I just remind myself that they didn’t cast Adam West to play Batman in The Dark Knight.”

-J