Don’t know what IRL means? Don’t worry. I’ll explain.

There’s been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about Mindcrushes and Blogcrushes and whether what you see is what you get with either one. Is the infatuation with bloggers who speak to our soul just a passing fancy based on projected images of perfection? Are the recipients of our affection real and worthy? Or as many of our less tech-savvy friends and family may wonder, are they just mysterious constructed “others” swirling around a crazy Wild Wild West Internet vortex?

I propose that the Blogger IS real

Just not the way you picture him or her. First, the caveat stated so eloquently by Derek Shanahan in his post, The Blogger is Not Real. Derek describes the fallacy of thinking you know someone from reading their blog. He says, “We, as authors, bloggers…we are not who our blogs say we are. We are not what the reader sees.” I agree wholeheartedly. No matter how much I reveal here, how many pictures and videos I post, how often I tweet – you won’t really know me until you meet me in person.

But here’s what I do want you to know: despite the fact that you can’t truly “know me” without meeting me in person, I am real! I sit here typing and darting my fingers around my keyboard just like all of you. I have feelings, insecurities, and identity crisis’ with the best of ‘em. And who is to say that people we interact with everyday truly “know us” anyway? I feel more seen and understood by people – especially other bloggers and tweeters – than I have in my whole life. There are many times I actually feel more ME on the Internet than I do at social events in real life (abbreviated as IRL for those of you still wondering).

Take a Leap! Talk live or meet in person when the opportunity strikes

I feel incredibly blessed when I meet or talk to people I’ve met online in real life – whether in person or on the phone. During my recent trip to New York City, I had the great fortune of meeting up with six (count them, six!) blogging friends. We had cupcakes at Magnolia bakery, breakfast at Google, coffee at Starbucks and danced on a bar in the Meatpacking District (videos are NSFW and thus will not be posted here). My co-workers looked at me a little sideways when I told them I was meeting up with “strangers” after work (their word, not mine). I loved every minute of it.

Is the blogger as you know him or her real?

Not the version you’ve constructed. But are your connections real? Hell yes. And when you get the awesome opportunity to meet one in person, will they be different from how you pictured? Always. But hopefully in that fun, exciting 2D-comes-to-life kind of way. You’re probably sick of me saying this, but meeting in real life (over a red velvet cupcake) is how I met the hilariously fabulous Jamie Varon (look At, I didn’t describe you as lovely!) – who is now one of my closest friends…wait for it…IRL!

The message I tweeted earlier sums up my feelings well: all these amazing connections give me the sudden urge to run around the internet hugging people I’ve never met in real life. So to those of you still reading: come in for the real thing!

No related posts.

The New York Times ran an article this weekend about an emerging company, Kosmix, that takes a whole new spin on search. The article describes the Kosmix experience quite well: “For a key word or topic that a user enters, Kosmix gathers content from across the Web to build a sort of multimedia encyclopedia entry on the fly. For many queries, the results are pretty satisfying and look as if they have been compiled by a human editor, not a computer.”

My ears always perk up when I hear someone mention a search competitor to Google that shows promise. Search is a tough market that Google has pretty well cornered. But a page with dynamic, robust information from a variety of multimedia sources (including standard search results) is not a competitor so much as a suppliment, and this one is definitely worth checking out.

I’ll share a personal example to highlight the comparison between Google and Kosmix. My doctor recently sent me a letter saying my Triglycerides are slightly high – which means I need to cut back on my sugar intake (unbeknownst to you, I am possessed by a dessert vacuum that eats any and all sugary foods in sight). At first I Googled, and came up with the typical list of sites to check: WebMD, About.com and Wikipedia.

But then I tried my search on Kosmix, and rather than having to click back and forth between a bunch of links, I had whole page of information to peruse. The Kosmix page had a wikipedia summary, articles, resources, videos, images, Q&A, blogs and even tweets! I was (and still am) thoroughly impressed. It’s like an instant Encyclopedia page, but on crazy-awesome Internet steroids.

Wanna try something scary? Try Kosmixing yourself (Yes, I just used that term as a verb).

No related posts.

I’ve been having lots of fun lately with an online tool called Wordle. You provide a link or a chunk of text and it spits out a fun, interesting and customizable image, or word cloud. Words are displayed by size based on their frequency. Anything you create on Wordle goes into a gallery that you can then print or share with friends. The best part about Wordle is that after it spits out an image you can cycle through various formatting options, from colors to fonts to vertical or horizontal orientation, all with unique visual appeal. Check out the Wordle I created from the Life After College homepage:

Related posts:

1. Happy Two Year Blogiversary to Life After College! Just as babies born near Christmas forever have their birthdays...

Take it from a converted skeptic. Twitter rocks. I used to think it was the ultimate time-suck: typing status messages into a vortex all day long?! You’ve GOT to be kidding me. But as a Web 2.0 lover and prided early adopter, I couldn’t stand not being part of this seemingly-inane yet rapidly-growing phenomenon. Finally, after hearing speakers at a blogger panel rave about their love for Twitter early last year, I signed up begrudgingly but with a dash of excited curiosity.

At first interacting with Twitter was about as exciting as watching paint dry. I started following five people, and had two others following me. I tweeted Facebook-esque status updates and wondered why on earth anyone would care. It definitely felt strange writing messages for two people. This would be so much more fun if I had more friends on here, I thought. If you tweet, they will come?

Little by little, my community started growing. It started with people I knew in real life – coworkers and random friends. Then it expanded to runners (when I was training for the marathon), bloggers, fellow life coaches, famous athletes and people who just make me laugh.

Twitter is not just about what you ate for breakfast this morning or how badly you want to pick your wedgie. People link to interesting articles, post quotes, share random thoughts, ask for advice and create a wonderful sense of far-reaching community. And every unexpected @ reply (someone responding to me), brings a generous smile to my face. I feel seen and heard.

For bloggers, Twitter is a fantastic way to broaden your network, meet new people and share ideas. It’s also a way for me to share a little more of my personality and every-day thoughts beyond what I find post-worthy for my blog. For non-bloggers, it’s a quick way to consume content and engage in guiltless voyeurism. And in the weird way that only micro-blogging and social media can, Twitter strengthens and adds layers to your real-life connections too.

I still have my fair share of insecurities about Twitter (and blogging, for that matter): Am I interesting? Am I funny? Am I useful? Am I inspirational? Do I actually have anything NEW to say? But then I remember not to take it too seriously, and to forge ahead anyway. I tweet and I blog because it makes me happy. And isn’t that all that matters?

***

What would this post be without a plug to follow me on Twitter?! And for a funny related read, check out David Pogue’s “The Twitter Experiment.”

No related posts.

Seomoz’s Web 2.0 Awards highlight 170 interesting websites in 41 categories, and I always have fun scouring the list for new online applications. Based on winners from their “food” category, here are three recipe sites to add to your repertoire:

Im Cooked
From Seomoz: “An entire site dedicated to food, Im Cooked lets members share recipes, make friends, watch cooking videos and learn more about culinary arts without the frills that often come with gourmet food television shows and websites.”

Recipe Key
Similar to Super Cook, Recipe Key allows you to find ingredients based on the items in your pantry.

Cocktail Builder
From Seomoz: “Have a lot of bar fixings lying around and aren’t sure what to do with them? Enter your ingredients into the Cocktail Builder and let it tell you which concoctions you can make! Find recipes, drink suggestions and purchase bar paraphernalia.”

No related posts.

An interesting article ran in the New York Times today: Lose Confidence in Your Bank? Try the Web. The article says that despite people’s growing mistrust in banks, they are placing more trust in online financial management tools. Unlike the economy, registrations are up not down, and people are getting smarter and more disciplined about how they manage their money (which is a very good thing). Below I’ve shared the financial tools mentioned in the article and a few other helpful sites.

Seven Great Online Money Management Sites

Mint
Mint pulls financial information from all of your accounts (for example: checking, savings, credit card,  investments, mortgage); shows spending trends, allows you to create and manage budgets and sends weekly or monthly financial summaries via email. You can also text Mint to receive an instant update on your account balances, or download its free iPhone app for instant access.

Credit Karma
Allows you to check your credit score for free as often as you’d like.

Smarty Pig
A “social savings” account that allows you to share savings goals with friends.

Wesabe
In addition to online account management features, Wesabe describes itself as “part money management tool, part community.”

Cake Financial
A system to specifically help you manage and view investment accounts.

Thrive
Also similar to Mint.com, Thrive brings all your credit card, checking, savings, retirement, and investment accounts into one place so you can “easily see what you have, what you owe, and where you can grow.”

Rudder
Rudder’s best feature is it’s detailed financial summaries – delivered straight to your inbox. Account management features are in line with the other websites above.

No related posts.

Ever since I discovered Jott, I’ve been waiting for the next fun, useful, how-the-heck-do-they-make-money-on-this web 2.0 application. Yesterday I found it.

The service is called ChaCha and it so much fun! It’s great for cocktail parties, proving yourself right in a bet and generally satisfying the burning desire to know something without doing any work to figure it out.

Here’s how it works: you call 1-800-2Cha-Cha (or text ‘chacha’) and ask any question you want (no need to register). They’ll send you a text confirming your question, and anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes later the ChaCha guides will send you an answer. The guides are a network of stay-at-home moms, college students, etc who make $0.20 on each answer they provide. Looking for extra cash? Here’s more info on how to get paid doing this (average wages are $4-$10 an hour).

So yesterday I went ChaCha crazy. My brother and I asked what the largest whale species is and got the following reply: “Dwarfing even the largest dinosaurs, Blue Whales are the largest known species. The largest blue whale was recorded at 110 feet long.” We also asked about sports statistics, the most popular hybrid vehicles and the distance to Palm Desert. Despite the fact that I have an iPhone and could very well look this stuff up on my own, it was so much more fun to call ChaCha instead!

No related posts.

I have a feeling this will be a recurring post. Earlier this week I told you about Jott.com, my new favorite personal assistant. There are so many other free innovative web services out there, and I wanted to share a few more of my favorites:

Google Bookmarks
Google Bookmarks are a feature of the Google Toolbar. The feature allows you to add and view Bookmarks from any browser on any computer at any time (as long as you are logged in to your Google Account). You can start by importing your existing bookmarks from Firefox or IE (or any other browser). The other nice feature is that each bookmark can have more than one label, so you can find your bookmarks in multiple categories.

Doodle.ch Event Polls
Welcome to the democratic version of Evite. Doodle.ch allows you to create a poll (in under five minutes) that you can send to guests before an event to gauge who is available and when. For example, you provide three options for the day/time of your party, then Doodle will keep a running tally of the most popular choice as people fill in their name. Once the poll is complete, you can make a much more informed decision about when to hold your event.

Mint.com
In their own words, Mint.com is a “free, automatic way to manage your money.” If you don’t already have a system for keeping track of your finances, I highly recommend this one. It can help you see where your money goes each month, complete with beautiful graphs and easy-to-read reports. For those worried about privacy, when you create your account they never ask for your name or bank numbers, just the log-in info for your online accounts.

Got a web service you love? Add it to the comments so we can all benefit!

Related posts:

1. Learn to Love Feedback: It’s Your Career Currency “Never flinch at failure: If you’re not making some mistakes,...

First, thanks for visiting the site! Second, I want to ask you a question. How many times have you thought of an idea, errand or task while driving or otherwise out-and-about and completely forgot what it was when the time came around to make it happen? I do carry a notebook for these sorts of things, but given that most of my work is in front of the computer, I’ve found something even better. Earlier this year my co-worker introduced me to an amazing service called Jott, and I haven’t forgotten anything since.

Here’s how it works: you sign-up for a free account, program the toll-free Jott number into your phone, and voila! Next time you think of something while you’re away from your computer, call the friendly Jott operator. She’ll start by asking, “Who do you want to Jott?” and you’ll say “Self” (sign your friends up so you can harass them too). When you hear the tone, leave your message. Jott takes it from there and transcribes your message into an email, waiting in your inbox for the next time your ready to take action.

I can’t tell you how many times this has helped me remember and be proactive about ideas I have at random moments. Plus, it feels like I have my own personal assistant!

No related posts.