I am so excited to read The Tall Book. Why? Because tall people ROCK. (Not that I am biased, being 6'1" and all.) Need more proof that we're super cool? Read this TIME article. Here is an excerpt: "... tall people have a more pleasant disposition and are more easygoing. They don't have to make an extra effort to command attention. When they walk into a room, it tends to come naturally to them." Yeah, we're awesome.
So since I'm on a tall kick, here are some of the best sites for Amazon ladies like myself. Admittedly, most of them deal with online shopping since 1) I hate shopping in stores (malls = hell) and 2) it's impossible to find clothing in a normal store that fits long-legged ladies like myself.
- Barefoottess.com: Ok, not specifically for tall people per se, but since tall chicks usually have elephant sized feet, this site is essential. Cool and fashionable shoes up to size 15? Um, sign me up. (Side note -- my feet aren't that big. I wear an 11 or 12. Ok, fine, I wear a 12.) Make sure to sign up for the newsletter to get access to amazing sales. (I scored $300 Delman shoes for $150.)
- Zappos: Duh. Have you been living under a rock? Like Barefoottess.com, lots of shoes, lots of sizes.
- Bananarepublic.com: Y'all know the mall store, but did you know that the online store sells most of their clothes in tall sizes? And here is what truly makes BR rock: I got a few pairs of nice dress pants for the wallet friendly price of $80 bucks a pair. (Quite the steal compared to the $150 I used to drop at J. Crew, who also sell tall, albeit, expensive duds.) Plus, as I said above, I hate shopping in malls, so this saves me a trip. Yay! (BONUS: Check out sister site Gap.com. Their jeans come in extra long. Sweet!)
- SeatGuru.com: Not only am I very tall, but I am also all legs. My inseam is 36" -- the same as my 6'7" brother Robby. (I know, woe is me right?) So traveling by plane is pretty painful, if not impossible, because my legs barely fit into the tiny seats. SeatGuru rocks 'cause it has all the details about what seats are most comfy, have the most leg room, etc. Essential before any trip.
- Last minute addition: BCBG. No idea why, but their stuff fits me -- and most tall people -- perfectly. Only issue is that the skirts are a tad bit short, but I just don't bend over.
- Tallpersonals.com: I'm kidding.
By the way, want to check out the weirdest web site ever? Click here. A friend forwarded me this a while back, and I just stumbled upon it again. The dude has the weirdest tall fetish EVER. So strange.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Addicted to the internet?
Yeah, me too.
Great Alt Text post on Wired.com that has you rate your internet dependency. Here's how it works: assume that your DSL goes down. What are you going to do? Compare what you would do with the different stages of internet dependency listed on the post...and then go turn off your computer for the first time in 2 months and pick up a book. (You know, one of those bound paper things? Yeah, remember?) Me, I'm stage 4. That's why I don't remember what a book is.
Oh yeah -- HAPPY FRIDAY!
Great Alt Text post on Wired.com that has you rate your internet dependency. Here's how it works: assume that your DSL goes down. What are you going to do? Compare what you would do with the different stages of internet dependency listed on the post...and then go turn off your computer for the first time in 2 months and pick up a book. (You know, one of those bound paper things? Yeah, remember?) Me, I'm stage 4. That's why I don't remember what a book is.
Oh yeah -- HAPPY FRIDAY!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Saving Cali's schools...
...one joint at a time?
Ok, seriously -- check out the new ad campaign brought to us by the Marijuana Policy Project. Apparently, taxing pot will save California's budget deficit? Huh?
This is ridiculous.
Ok, seriously -- check out the new ad campaign brought to us by the Marijuana Policy Project. Apparently, taxing pot will save California's budget deficit? Huh?
This is ridiculous.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Pandora's Box
Is anyone besides me OBSESSED with Pandora? I love it. I have about 10 stations that I switch between while I am at work. Chill hippy music? Check. Really bad 1980s music? Got that too.
Anyway, until earlier today, Pandora was in danger of being shut down. (The horror! You can read about it here -- but to sum it up, it involves royalty payments with music labels.) However, it just reached an agreement with SoundExchange (a non-profit group that works with the U. S. Copyright Office to collect royalty payments for online music) that changes the manner by which Pandora (and sites like it) make royalty payments. It's a little complicated, but TechCrunch sums it up pretty well:
The key part of the resolution involves SoundExchange agreeing to a 40-50% reduction in the per-song-per-listener rates. In exchange, Pandora is giving up either 25% of its U.S. revenue or the new per-song-per-listener rate, whichever is higher. This agreement runs through 2015.
That second part (the "new per-song-per-listener rate" and "whichever is higher") is important -- because these rates are pretty heavy on the wallet, Pandora is implementing a 40 hour per month usage cap on users. For most people, it's not a biggie -- in fact, it only impacts 10% of Pandora's heaviest listeners. But guess what? I'm one of the 10%! In fact, I got an email today from Tim Westergren, Pandora's founder, that said this:
While we did the best we could to lower the rates, we are going to have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the web. Because we have to pay royalty fees per song and per listener, it makes very heavy listeners hard to support on advertising alone. Most listeners will never hit this cap, but it seems that you might.
Wow...I had no idea I was listening to that much music. Anyway, I'll still be able to get my Pandora fix pretty easily -- once I reach my 40 hour limit, I simply pay $.99 to continue listening to unlimited music for the rest of the month. Seems like a sweet deal to me, and well worth the buck. After all, Pandora has introduced me to a ton of new artists and genres....artists and genres I wouldn't have been exposed to had I just been listening to my iPod, cds, or (heaven forbid) the whirl of my computer.
Anyone else a crazy Pandora addict? Or am I the only one? If they had Pandora's Anonymous, I would so have to join....
My Pandora Station....I think I was listening to my Euro Trash music when I took this screen shot.
Anyway, until earlier today, Pandora was in danger of being shut down. (The horror! You can read about it here -- but to sum it up, it involves royalty payments with music labels.) However, it just reached an agreement with SoundExchange (a non-profit group that works with the U. S. Copyright Office to collect royalty payments for online music) that changes the manner by which Pandora (and sites like it) make royalty payments. It's a little complicated, but TechCrunch sums it up pretty well:
The key part of the resolution involves SoundExchange agreeing to a 40-50% reduction in the per-song-per-listener rates. In exchange, Pandora is giving up either 25% of its U.S. revenue or the new per-song-per-listener rate, whichever is higher. This agreement runs through 2015.
That second part (the "new per-song-per-listener rate" and "whichever is higher") is important -- because these rates are pretty heavy on the wallet, Pandora is implementing a 40 hour per month usage cap on users. For most people, it's not a biggie -- in fact, it only impacts 10% of Pandora's heaviest listeners. But guess what? I'm one of the 10%! In fact, I got an email today from Tim Westergren, Pandora's founder, that said this:
While we did the best we could to lower the rates, we are going to have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the web. Because we have to pay royalty fees per song and per listener, it makes very heavy listeners hard to support on advertising alone. Most listeners will never hit this cap, but it seems that you might.
Wow...I had no idea I was listening to that much music. Anyway, I'll still be able to get my Pandora fix pretty easily -- once I reach my 40 hour limit, I simply pay $.99 to continue listening to unlimited music for the rest of the month. Seems like a sweet deal to me, and well worth the buck. After all, Pandora has introduced me to a ton of new artists and genres....artists and genres I wouldn't have been exposed to had I just been listening to my iPod, cds, or (heaven forbid) the whirl of my computer.
Anyone else a crazy Pandora addict? Or am I the only one? If they had Pandora's Anonymous, I would so have to join....
Monday, July 6, 2009
Tom Cruise makes a commercial. Or, to be more accurate, his freaky weird religion does.
It starts out ok. In fact, it actually seems like a decent, half-slick spot. Is it a new cotton commercial? Another annoying AT&T ad? Nope. Just wait.
Quite a change from the old ads, eh?
Eek. Just remember: If your religion needs commercials, run away. Fast.
Thanks to Consumerist for the links.
Quite a change from the old ads, eh?
Eek. Just remember: If your religion needs commercials, run away. Fast.
Thanks to Consumerist for the links.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Tour de France...sur le web
When I first bought my bike a couple years back, I only used it for commuting. Then, last fall, I started hitting the road for real. Granted, I'm not a very good cyclist, and my road bike needs some serious upgrades (which should be taking place this week....I *think*) but it's still an awesome way to get out in the sun, burn some calories, and explore the area.
So given my new-found passion for aluminum and carbon on two wheels, as well as my obsession with all things web and interactive, I was pretty stoked to find this Wired article online. It lists all the ways you can use the net to stay up to date on what's going on with the Tour -- even if you are seven timezones away. Among the cool ways you can track Lance and the other bikers: live video and audio streams, really sweet interactive maps and Twitter updates. Check it out.
So given my new-found passion for aluminum and carbon on two wheels, as well as my obsession with all things web and interactive, I was pretty stoked to find this Wired article online. It lists all the ways you can use the net to stay up to date on what's going on with the Tour -- even if you are seven timezones away. Among the cool ways you can track Lance and the other bikers: live video and audio streams, really sweet interactive maps and Twitter updates. Check it out.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Privacy and Facebook
I recently became involved with the social media committee of the Houston American Marketing Association (AMA). I'm responsible for tweeting for the AMA (@AMAHouston) and monitoring the social media sites (like LinkedIn). This also means I manage the AMA Houston Facebook group, page, and updates, so I've been getting a ton of friend requests from people who are involved in the AMA but who I don't know. I don't want to not accept their friend requests (they could be valuable business contacts in the future, of course!) but do I really want a potential future client or employer to see those photos of me out with girlfriends for my birthday last weekend? Hmm, that's hard -- no.
So given that privacy settings are pretty important to me and my two-sided relationship with Facebook, I was stoked to find out that Facebook is implementing better privacy controls -- or more importantly, simpler ones. The old ones were a bit unwiedly and confusing (they took 6 pages to work through!), and they often required a lot of trial and testing to see if they worked. Now, you'll be able to decide right when you post an update to FB publisher who should see that one particular post -- everyone (meaning the WHOLE world, or anyone who goes to your facebook page) or only your friends. Got a complaint about your job? Send that post out to your close friends only. Want to announce a cool AMA event (like I often do)? Post it to the world. They are also ditching the regional networks, which were confusing for a lot of people, and putting all the privacy settings on one page.
So in summary: Although FB didn't really add any new privacy settings, the entire process of deciding who should see your info and updates will be greatly simplified. However, will anyone bother using the new settings? Most people I know use FB for either all professional networking or all fun social stuff (or they mix the two and just don't care :) ). And although I suspect these new settings will be a breeze to use, some less tech savvy people (ahem, my Mom, who yes, is on FB) still won't get it. It's just too much/too many choices for most people.
Maybe FB is trying to be too much to too many people. LinkedIn is all professional, MySpace is all social, and Twitter is 100% public. Facebook is trying to do it all -- and do it so it is simple and easy to use. Is that even possible? I guess I'll see when I get access to the new settings in the next few weeks.
Do you use FB both socially and professionally? If not, will the new privacy settings change that?
So given that privacy settings are pretty important to me and my two-sided relationship with Facebook, I was stoked to find out that Facebook is implementing better privacy controls -- or more importantly, simpler ones. The old ones were a bit unwiedly and confusing (they took 6 pages to work through!), and they often required a lot of trial and testing to see if they worked. Now, you'll be able to decide right when you post an update to FB publisher who should see that one particular post -- everyone (meaning the WHOLE world, or anyone who goes to your facebook page) or only your friends. Got a complaint about your job? Send that post out to your close friends only. Want to announce a cool AMA event (like I often do)? Post it to the world. They are also ditching the regional networks, which were confusing for a lot of people, and putting all the privacy settings on one page.
So in summary: Although FB didn't really add any new privacy settings, the entire process of deciding who should see your info and updates will be greatly simplified. However, will anyone bother using the new settings? Most people I know use FB for either all professional networking or all fun social stuff (or they mix the two and just don't care :) ). And although I suspect these new settings will be a breeze to use, some less tech savvy people (ahem, my Mom, who yes, is on FB) still won't get it. It's just too much/too many choices for most people.
Maybe FB is trying to be too much to too many people. LinkedIn is all professional, MySpace is all social, and Twitter is 100% public. Facebook is trying to do it all -- and do it so it is simple and easy to use. Is that even possible? I guess I'll see when I get access to the new settings in the next few weeks.
Facebook Privacy Enhancements
View more presentations from guest5f7bf4.
Do you use FB both socially and professionally? If not, will the new privacy settings change that?
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