Trent at The Simple Dollar has been reading my mind again!

One art form that seems to have fallen by the wayside for many people is that of the handwritten thank-you note. A thank-you note is an elegant and inexpensive way to show appreciation to someone who has assisted you in some fashion and also is a stellar way to improve a potential business contact.

While old-school human resources folk fret over how much work productivity is wasted on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, I’ll be over here at my gig happier and more productive as a whole for being able to connect with old friends, learn more about my peers and track fascinating people in real time.

Nothing says “Happy 3^rd wedding anniversary!” like a good geek conference. We think so, anyway, and have already registered for SXSW (South by Southwest) INTERACTIVE FESTIVAL in Austin next March.

We try to go every year (except this year because hubby went to CHINA). We attend about a million technology sessions, eat lots of Mexican food, drink free beverages and celebrate our vows. Yes, we’re total dorks. We don’t even try to hide it.

I’m a fan of knowing what folks are talking about, which I guess makes since I basically talk to and listen to folks for a living. If you are word-obsessed like me then you’ll really dig TwitScoop, the website that tracks in real time the most frequently used words on Twitter.  

TwitScoop is like a lava lamp. Its flow is memorizing and its vibe is cool – but it’s better than a lava lamp because it’s not ugly and it’s educational.

If you love creating your own Amazon.com Wish List of fabulous things you really, really want but don’t need in hopes your husband or grandmother will buy them for your later, then wait til you try Amazon’s Universal Wish List button!

Go to this link and drag the button to the bookmarks toolbar in your web browser. If you have no idea what I just said don’t worry, they show you how to do it on the website.

Laughing too hard to really type anything witty about this video of Obama set to Rick Astley's 80's hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up."It's supposed to be funny because it's some You Tube inside joke/trick that I've never heard of before. You can read more that from Daily Axioms. Regardless of why it's actually funny to You Tubers, it's still stand alone funny to me!

So, I’ve always been a New York gal. Lived there very briefly, love the subway and the super hurried pace. My heart just about stops beating when I see 42^nd Street and I’ve always said I’d love to live there again one day.

Trent Hamm of TheSimpleDollar.com breaks down the September issue of Consumer Reports. Some interesting findings include:  

From Lifehacker.com --

Top 10 Modern Life Survival Skills to help you "avoid everyday problems and modern mini-calamities by arming yourself with the right know-how before you head out into the world."

A couple of my favorites include how to tell time without a watch and how to read body language to tell if someone's lying.

Enjoy!

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled upon it, but over the weekend I found http://posterous.com/.  It's a new blog site that allows you to update your blog my simply sending an email from your computer or phone. Even better, you create this fabulous blog in just three steps: sign up, email something to Posterous, view your new blog post.

Could you go a workday without checking your email? I’d like to think I could, but I’m not apt to try it anytime soon. 

I attempted it once -- on a Saturday. But the stress I felt from not knowing who was trying to tell me what was unbearable. I made it through the day, but I was fussy.

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You know I love Google, but I’ve recently become addicted to Addictomatic, which bills itself as “the search of the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images.”  Here, you’ll “inhale the web” in a very user-friendly and organized way. Since I’m severely type-A I really appreciate the organized part.

Consumerist.com shares 10 Things You Might Not Know About Your Credit Card. Follow that link to read the full list, but the two that stand out to me are:

I confess, I was a very early adopter in the 2007 cultish iPhone movement -- and I paid the price.

I didn’t camp out and wait in line for seven hours or anything, but I did have the phone within about 15 days of it being on the market. I loved just about everything about it – the instant Gmail retrieval, the weather function, the built-in iPod...but I didn’t love that, try as my IT guys might, the thing just did not work with my Outlook at the office (sigh).

So, I know that I’m supposed to focus on geek-ish stuff, but this post is more about financial stability and how much I love online money/savings accounts. I’m not trying to push a product on folks, I’m just saying that doing some saving and investing online is a great use of technology … and it saves trees (as long as you go for paperless statements).

We've already discussed how much we love Google for the instant and interesting search results on all topics from "How do I change the oil in my car" to "How do I wash my bra without ruining it." If you found other fabulous uses, please email me here!

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Chances are that if you come to me with a logistics, beauty, or technology need I am going to reply, “you should Google it.” When this happens don't be alarmed.