• Step One: Connecting your Google+ to your Twitter

  In my search, I found a lot of very bad ways to connect these accounts. One was to make a special Google+ circle for just Facebook and another for just Twitter, using special respective email addresses, but there was a ridiculously small character limit. It’s pointless! Another was to use a Chrome Extension, but simplicity is still the goal. It must be easy and universal—any browser; any device.

  The best way I’ve found is by using ManageFlitter. You just fill in your Google+ account URL (the original kind with all the numbers), then sign in using your Twitter account, and it connects them for you. So now when you post from Google+, it also goes to your Twitter.

• Step Two: Connecting your Twitter to your Facebook

  The second and last step is to make your tweets go straight to Facebook. Go to Twitter on Facebook and just follow the simple instructions. If you’ve already been doing this, then you’re done! Be sure to check your Applications in Facebook for anything that might interfere with this new change. You’ll never have to physically post to Facebook again (aside from commenting/Liking, and adding photos to albums).

• You must use the 140 character limit

  Since Twitter has the tiniest character limit of all three of these networks, we have to keep that limit in mind when posting. If you try to send more than 140 characters from Google+ to Twitter, what will appear in your Twitter feed is a few words and a Google link! People without Google+ will not see the content.

  My method (whether on a computer or on my phone) is to perfect my post in Twitter, to make sure it’s under 140 characters, then copy/paste that into Google+. It’s just how it must be done for now, til Google+ gets a character counter.

• Your Google+ post must be Public

  You can have your Twitter & Facebook locked down, but the only way Google+ will let any posts be cross-posted is if you are sharing Publicly. So any posts that are directed to specific Circles will not be cross-posted.

• You have to be a link Nazi

  There are lots of little opportunities for this method to backfire and give nothing but a Google link. Be sure to keep your links super small as often as possible (using TinyURL.com). And no matter what link you use, you must ALWAYS hit the little “X” at the top right of the Preview that appears… Otherwise your post will be Google-ized. :\

• You have to simplify your way of posting photos

  If you don’t mind a Google link coming up for when you post pics from your Google+ albums, then go right ahead. I personally haven’t gotten used to sending people to my Google+, because I think it requires Google+ membership. My one-off mobile pics are posted to TwitPic.com and I just paste that link into Google+ manually. For posting an entire album of photos, I post them to Flickr and paste the set link into Google+ manually.

Current Mood: Awake

I haven’t painted in 2 years! Yay inspiration!

Current Mood: Loving

 
Turntable.fm came around at the same time Google+ was introduced as a better alternate and obvious future replacement of Facebook. And perhaps only coincidentally, many Google Chrome extensions were being made to enhance the Turntable.fm experience. So after years of using Firefox and a week of using Turntable.fm, I finally made the switch from Firefox to Chrome. It’s free, has tons of great extensions that are constantly being created and added, and has the same renegade open-source flair of Firefox, but with less of a memory footprint.

As a graphic/web designer who is always at a computer, I am most concerned with satiating my obsession with Turntable.fm while remaining productive at my desk job. The goal is to hide the page at all times, because it’s difficult to justify a cartoon rave that looks like a time-waster game as a legitimate way to listen to music. With these Chrome extensions, you can get work done while enjoying the music, and seem active to other participants:

• Go to a bigger room. It just isn’t possible to chat and be productive. So it would be best to go into a room with 20+ people so you aren’t really expected to chat.
• Get Auto Awesome. It lives in your bookmarklet toolbar. When you go to a room, you right-click your actual Awesome button in the room, select “Inspect Element”, and copy that first quoted portion of the highlighted text. Then paste it into the Auto Awesome field. So now when a song comes on, it hits Awesome for you auto-magically! This lets people know you’re present and digging the music. “But how do I hit Lame, Manda?!” Oh I’ll feed you, baby birds.
• Get Turntabler. This is a little button next to the address field of the browser window. You click it and it offers thumbs up/down, add to queue, mute, and song info; no matter what tab you’re on! So while Auto Awesome is going, and you hear a song you dislike, you just hit the thumbs down and it changes your Awesome vote to a Lame.

Here are other great ways I enhance my Turntable.fm experience:

• Get Turntable Scrobbler. This allows Last.fm to scrobble what you listen to in Turntable.fm. Easy install, just follow the instructions. In case you aren’t aware, Last.fm keeps track of what you listen to and allows you to connect with other people with similar music tastes. It’s also great documentation of your own music growth.
• Get Turntable Extended. This adds a few extra features to Turntable.fm. The most beneficial features to me are Playlists (for organizing your queue into genres), and Room Users (for when you’re in a packed room and want to see who all is in there).

Sooo let’s not talk about how ironic it is that I wrote this at work.

Current Mood: Dorky

(click to zoom)

Last night was my friend Casey’s aforementioned June-O-ween party and I ended up being a unicorn after all! Not a My Little Pony, mind you; but a magical, majestic unicorn! Of course in true proCRAFTstination form, I did all this within three hours before the party. Went to Party City for the rainbow “punk rocker” wig, bunny ears, and feather boa; then to Target for a princess party hat, pipe-cleaners, and white clothes. For the horn I cut up & tightened the party hat and used silver pipe-cleaner for the detail. Cut off the bunny ears from their headband, shortened them, then sewed them back on. Looped the feather boa through the back belt loop of my shorts, and tied the ribbons from the party hat around it. Bam! I will be at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans this Halloween, so I guess this counts as my only Halloween costume of the year. It’s about time I made a unicorn costume though. Seriously.

Current Mood: Dorky

Current Mood: Angry

• January 7, 2011: Less talk, more do. Show your work using both sides of the paper if needed.
• March 2, 2011: Look at the synchronicities & patterns in your life. You brought them there. They’re yours to study & change. Why ignore them? #lifelesson
• March 2, 2011: Cliché excuses ≠ accepting responsibility for one’s own actions.
• March 9, 2011: Choosing to fear what “could” happen is setting yourself up for it to become a reality. Stop fearing what hasn’t happened or it WILL happen!
• April 14, 2011: Knowing you’re “able”, or thinking you “would if you had to”, doesn’t propel you. Present evidence & move onto the next thing.
• April 17, 2011: Entertainment is important in life, but there is more genuine enjoyment through participation. Engage. Involve. … Evolve
• April 20, 2011: Hoarders let go of what they “can’t let go of” by letting other crap accumulate over it.
• April 27, 2011: “I mean what I say” shows integrity, and “I say what I mean” shows authenticity. Strive for both.

Current Mood: Pensive

Current Mood: Silly

• Real job: I feel pretty lucky everyday realizing this job chose me and how much I like being a part of such a great company.
• Driving a hybrid: I think my car is smaller, but I swear I have more room and pay half as much for gas!
• Movie night Thursdays: My roomie and I go over to my friend’s place and watch an old, foreign, and/or inspiring movie together.
• Work band: I sing with pals from work and we perform at our work events. Practicing is always more fun than actually performing, but I love having an outlet for something I really enjoy.
• EFT every 3 weeks: My therapist has helped upgrade my thinking in so many ways, and opened my eyes to things that were right in the middle of my face.
• More Crafting: I am finally tackling little projects I set aside a long time ago!
• Sewing: I’ve owned a sewing machine for 4yrs and finally took sewing classes! I’m officially now a seamstress! So far I’ve made a drawstring bag, a pillow with zipper & piping, a complicated purse with inner lining & magnetic closure, and a stuffed animal! *beam*
• Cooking: It turns out, all you hafta do is DO it! I’m no longer purchasing Lean Cuisines. I now purchase salad stuff for lunches, and raw meat & frozen veggies for dinners. I am also gonna do Christmas dinner this year with my mom & sis! :)
• Yoga: I admit I totally fell off the wagon a few months into this year. But now that my company moved directly next door to this big awesome gym, AND have gym reimbursement, there’s no excuse!
• Lasik surgery: No more plastic apparatus on my face that always obstructs my daily life somehow and makes people associate me with Tina Fey!
• “Female parts” recovery: I had stuff to worry about before in that department, but now I don’t. And that is awesome!
• Privatized online networks: I decided I don’t want people I’m not connected to, to read my day-to-day thoughts. I used to be an over-sharer online, and I’m trying to learn how to be sensibly mysterious.

Think about some of the things you’ve always said you “can’t” or “don’t” do, and decide to change your story. I used to always say I don’t cook (or sew or sing in a band or have good eyes). Well. Now I do. There’s no reason to remain a prisoner of the past, when you could make a choice to be a pioneer of the future!

Current Mood: Awake

About two years ago, I decided to renovate my mom’s circa 1970 jewelry musicbox. The actual musicbox mechanism was worn and broken by the time I acquired it in my youth, so I purchased a new one online that plays Rainbow Connection!―Well, it twinkly-plunks the intro strums, and the part that goes “So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it / I know they’re wrong, wait and see” then repeats til it cannot twinkly-plunk any longer!―Then I took it apart and primed it, left it in my closet for 2 years, and finally painted it a couple weeks ago! :) Here is the result!

This isn’t the only craft I’ve done actually, I am finally tackling my crafts at a faster pace! A long time ago I bought an “@” and an ampersand with the intention of decoupaging them. I started Mod-Podging bright wrapping paper pieces onto the ampersand and 2hrs later I realized I wasn’t even halfway done! So I peeled it all off with the new intention of spraypainting it! But then it was too rough, so I primed it first. But when I spraypainted it, it looked bubbly and yucky so I threw it away. :( However the “@” is now a dark magenta and I love it! :)

I also painted my bedroom mirror frame turquoise… And I’ve started on some wooden nesting dolls I plan on turning into cute pandas!

AND… I finally decided to take sewing classes so I won’t be scared of my sewing machine anymore! I have my Beginning I Series (three 3.5hr classes all in a row) November 8th, and then another one the following week on how to make plush dolls and toys! So excited! I’m a mover and a shaker! *moves and shakes* If you’re in Austin, check out Stitch Lab! They have supplies, fabric, and teach intimate classes all the dang time!

Now let me shift gears back to Words, as previously mentioned. The word “Accoutrement” has been the only recent random word that pops into my head like a strange tick or brain glitch, until around September when I noticed a new one that crept in: “Curmudgeon”! It’s a word for a grumpy old man haha! Why? I do not think I’ll ever know, but it’s interesting to document. I’m also trying to be more aware of my music-associative tendencies. Just yesterday while I was driving, I thought about how I haven’t gone to the gym in so long, and how I’m paying this YMCA gymbership for nothing… And of course the next thing I know, I’m singing, “It’s fun to stay at THA–” . . . *sigh* I think it worries me because it could easily be connected to subliminal messaging. I am apparently so easily suggestible, I get hungry whenever I see the McDonald’s logo. :(

I think this is outdated programming from childhood.

Current Mood: Excited

While we’re on the subject, I just did a site for some old chums Courtney & Earl, a married musical duo called The Long Tangles! I think it turned out just darling, and they’ve already started playing with it! :)

thelongtangles.com