Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Create a wishlist for the gift items you desire

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Now this sounds like an interesting idea. Have you ever been planning a party for someone, possibly an anniversary, a shower, a baby shower, birthday, or graduation party? People often want or are required to bring gifts for these types of parties but sometimes it’s hard to let everyone know what the person you are holding the party for needs.

Well, Wishbin.com, has create a site that allows you to create and organize as many wish lists as you like. If you have an event coming up for yourself- say you are pregnant and the babies due in a couple of months, you suspect that your best friend will have a baby shower for you – why not be proactive and create a baby gift registry wish list? The site lists products from well known online retailers such as Amazon, Target, Banana Republic, and Best Buy, and all one needs to do is add products that they’d like to receive to their list as they browse the site. The list can even be downloaded and placed on a website for all to see so that when you send out invitations for that special party you can direct the guests to visit the site where you posted the wishlist.

I just thought of another use for the wishlist too. You can create multiple lists on the site. Why not create lists for your loved ones and as you learn what items they’d like to receive for their birthday or Christmas you could add the product to the list. As their special day approaches you can just look at the lists and select a gift to give to your loved one.

Check out the Wishlist.com site and see what you think. Now, hmm, maybe I should create one and put it on my site so that you’ll all know what you can get me if you’re feeling generous. LOL





American Greetings online calendar

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I don’t know about you but I really enjoy using an online calendar to list all of the things that I tend to forget about in. I already use an online calendar service but after looking at, and signing up for, American Greetings free online calendar I’m going to fully switch over to their service.

I use the online calendar to list appointments – you know I’ve got a lot of doctors appointments, family and friends birthdays, Anniversaries, and other upcoming events that I want to be sure to remember. What I really like about the American Greeting service is that I can set it up to remind me of important dates in advance either by email or by a message to my cell phone. I think that’s a fantastic idea.

Once you get a reminder for someones birthday you can just go back to the American Greetings site and choose a free birthday card and send it off to that person right away or schedule a delivery in advance. Another great feature at the site. Check it out- and get yourself more organized.

Bluebox image compression software

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I just came across and interesting new product called BlueBox. The company says “If you have a digital camera you need this product.” . Alright – I guess I’m one of the people that need this product. What does it do?

It’s a software product that lets you compress and encrypt images and text. The Bluebox software can compress over 480 different types of image formats including the most popularly used ones like JPEG, TIFF, and BMP. It will compress the files up to 95%.

Why would this come in handy? Well, I don’t know if you’re like me, but when you take a photo digitally you might set your camera to take the best quality photo that it can. Have you ever noticed the file sizes on those photos once you load them onto your computer? Yeah, their huge, 1 or 2 MB or more. Run them through photoshop and add some special effects to the photos and they only getting larger in file size unless you end up making the image smaller.

Again, if you’re like me, once you’ve fiddled with your photos you want someone to see them, so you send them to friends and relatives by email or upload them onto free photo display sites like flickr etc. It can take forever to send an email with a large file in it … and to make matters worse, if the person to whom you are sending the photo too has a small or fairly full mailbox sometimes they don’t end up getting the photo at all because their inbox couldn’t accept it because the email was too large.

It’s frustrating isn’t it?

Well that’s what BlueBox has come along to solve. Simple compress your photos or large text based files prior to sending them to someone via email or uploading them onto a site and TADA the file size is drastically reduced and much easier to transmit.

You can save up to 20 times more data on your hard drive and memory devices when using this compression software. Also, the compression technology doesn’t alter your original image. It’s easy to use too. Just drag and drop your images into BlueBox and they’ll be compressed to a fraction of their original size, and stored in a secure and encrypted box. Learn more about this amazing new software program at the BlueBox website.

The aliens have landed

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The Japanese have come up with yet another strangely compelling toy. Where the heck do they get these ideas anyway?

Now you can grow your own test tube alien – actually you can grow two of them if you purchase one of the Alien Adoption World Collectors Kits. Your kids would probably get a huge kick out of having their very own alien and watching it grow. Plus, as I said you get two aliens in the alien adoption kit so if you have two kids you’re all set.

How does it work? It’s simple really. When you, or your kids get the kit all you have to do is add water to the tube that contains the alien and the chrysalis inside will begin to bubble and crack open. Within a few minutes you’ll see that the chrysalis has become the beginning of an alien that will continue to grow for a few weeks. The brain, which contains a computer chip, appears first, then you’ll see the heart start beating. It just keeps growing from there.

The alien is interactive. You can take your alien to the research lab online and interact through signals using the infrared black white portal on the website. This portal communicates with your alien, but you’ll have to input your aliens reactions into the website.

The adoption kit contains two aliens, 2 video games and an alien head gurglin keychain, and a feeding material for your alien called sloog which will help your baby alien grow into a big strong alien. You’ll also receive a certificate of authenticity.

Have a look at this video to see how the alien grows and how it reacts with the portal. Now, do you think your kids might like their very own alien this Christmas? If you think they might then order before December 19th and you should get your aliens in time for Xmas.

Get yours today!

Leave yourself a message

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I just found a site that offers a very unique and helpful service that I think many people could use. The site is BrainCast. It’s a free message and memo service that allows you to record reminders for yourself on the go, and automatically delivers them to your PC at home for later use. You can even store and organize your messages online if you want to keep track of them.

Not only can you leave your self a message from anywhere using any US based cell or land line telephone network, but you can call the Braincast toll free number and access your messages via the phone anywhere you are at absolutely no cost.

For example- you are at work and a meeting is going to start in a few minutes, and you suddenly remember that you need to buy more laundry detergent. Quickly use your cell or telephone and leave yourself a memo. Go to the grocery store on your way home from work and when you have that nagging feeling that you are forgetting something you can call the Braincast toll free number to collect your message and get that reminder that you need to pick up laundry detergent, which you would have forgotten about if you hadn’t been able to listen to your message.

Whenever you leave yourself a message you’ll get an email reminding you that you’ve left a message. Then you can listen to your messages on the Braincast website or by calling the toll free number from anywhere that you happen to be. You can label your messages too, and by doing that you’ll be able to organize your messages anyway you want.

It’s free and I think it’s worth a try. I did not try out this service myself because I’m in Canada and the site states that it works with US based cell and telephone systems so I figured it wouldn’t work for me. I might sign up and see if I’m right later. Either way, I think this might be a handy service for you to try.

If you do sign up to try Braincast’s message system would you let me know if you enjoyed the service and if my post was helpful? Thanks.

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