1800askDonna

PackageMapper.com

Link: PackageMapper.com.

I'll admit it. I'm a package stalker. When I'm awaiting a package, I'm apt to check the status of it online from the time it leaves the vendor to when it arrives at my home. Now, PackageMapper allows you to actually watch your packages progress for Fedex, UPS and USPS!  Discovered at http://www.lifehacker.com

The Number...Do You Know Yours?

Link: 800-CEO-READ Blog.

800 CEO READ features the best in business books. Today's featured selection is a book that I'm currently reading "The Number". Now if you're a baby boomer (did you know that the oldest baby boomers are turning sixty this year?) it turns out that most of us are not adequatly prepared for our retirement days (that is, if you even believe that we will retire...a 1998 AARP survey of over 2,000 adults age 33-52 found that 80% say they plan to work at least part-time during retirement.) But the book is about more than a finance book on how to calculate how much you need to retire. It's a book that will have you ask yourself "what will I do with the rest of my life". And check out the blog at http://www.thenumberbook.com/blog/

The Coach's Toolbox

Link: The Coach's Toolbox.

I posted this on my coach's toolbox blog. But really, anyone with an office or a room full of tech toys, needs to know about this one.

Link: Cool Tool: Tabletop SmartSockets.

I don't know about you, but I have a ton of equipment in my office that requires an electric socket. Even if I lived in a more modern home (mine is a carriage house built in the 1880s) there would never be enough sockets in the right place. So I use power strips. But have you noticed how the big, bulky plugs preclude you from using all of the spots on those strips?

Kensington has come up with an attractive, affordable and practical solution with their Tabletop Smart Sockets.  Normally $90, available for $58 at Amazon.

Working Smart: Could This Be the iPod for Books?

Link: Working Smart: Could This Be the iPod for Books?.

I'm still skeptical about ereaders. While I can see the benefits of it...not having to pack several books while traveling, taking up less space on my book shelves...how will you make notes in the margin? Dog ear pages? Highlight important passages?

How will you lend it to friends?

While I probably will have one someday, I still prefer holding a book in my hands.

Nothing Like a Power Nap

Link: MJ PEAK PERFORMANCE: Snooze, You Win - Improve your mental and physical performance by power napping.

You know you love to nap. It's decadent and restorative...quite a combination. But did you also know that there's a right way to nap? Read this article from MJ Peak Performance to learn how to nap correctly.

When Silence is Really Golden

Link: Time Goes By - What it's really like to get older.

I discovered Ronni Bennett's blog this morning, and delighted in reading her rant on the deterioriating movie going experience. Writing as the Crabby Old Lady, she touts rude people with ringing cell phones, crying babies and misbehaving children as part of the problem. And the lack of movie management's controlling the environment for the rest of the patrons.

The movie-going experience has deteriorated in more ways, and I blame the theater owners. Ushers to hush the crowd...there are no ushers. There aren't even people in the projection booth. Several times this year there has been a problem with the movie (one time it burned) and it takes a patron going out to notify the manager to get it fixed.

And of course, there is the movie industry. More and more the trailers give away the best moments of the movie. I've concerned doing a compilation of trailers in order to have one movie that is only made up of entertaining moments. One more remake and I think I'll scream.

Boing Boing: MP3 of "It's a Wonderful Life"

Link: Boing Boing: MP3 of "It's a Wonderful Life".

Tis the Season. Seems appropriate to listen to this one hour original radio broadcast of "It's a Wondeful Life" with a cast including the inimitable Jimmy Stewart.

Enjoy!

Women seize the power

Link: Salon.com Life | Broadsheet.

The woman of a town in Croatia were tired of the menfolk not serving the community adequately, so they took it over (legally, by winning all the seats in an election.)

There's a lesson here!

A Selection of the Most Blogged-About Books of 2005 - New York Times

Link: A Selection of the Most Blogged-About Books of 2005 - New York Times.

"This list links to a selection of Web posts that discuss some of the books most frequently mentioned by bloggers in 2005. The books were selected by conducting an automated survey of 5,000 of the most-trafficked blogs." 

Need I say more?

How to fold a shirt!

Link: http://www.jillsobule.com/media/HowToFoldAShirt.mpg

Video (by way of the Ted blog) of the way to fold a shirt perfectly.