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Merry Christmas

Wishing you the happiest of holidays, whatever you celebrate, and the best for you and yours in the coming year.

Weekly Online Twitter Chat: BudgetPulse, Breaking Even, and You

Friend and blogger Craig started a weekly personal finance chat on Twitter with BudgetPulse last week. He was looking for cohosts and since I like Craig and talking about money, I offered to be a part of it.
Each week, the topic is different with the undercurrent of money (sound familiar?). Tonight on the Weekly Personal Finance Chat, we’re talking about dating.
What does personal finance have to do with dating. More than you’d think: Who pays? Is it more expensive to be single or in a relationship? Basically all things love and money will be all over Twitter tonight, and if you have a Twitter account, you can be a part of it!

Too Cute Tuesday: 2009 In Review

Too Cute Tuesday is a weekly event on the Breaking Even blog that involves, friends, crafting, and cocktailing. Every week it’s a different and inexpensive craft to make and a different cocktail to keep things social. If you have an idea for a craft or otherwise want to participate, contact Nicole.

We now have a logo, which is really just the beginning of the Too Cute Tuesday empire. *evil laugh* Well, if evil is creative crafts and fun with friends...Actually sounds like a fun empire to us!

It’s been another exciting year of crafting and cocktailing every Tuesday night at Craft Central.

Too Cute Tuesday began in 2007 when Nicole was bored one night and said ‘Pfft! I can make that!’ Mostly a solo effort, Nicole moved to Bar Harbor at the end of 2008 and told Dorrie about TCT over a pint at O’Learys. Dorrie was sold. ‘We can do it at my house!’ And often, we do.

Salt dough ornaments inspired Jodi, our Facebook friend, to make them at home with her kids. Awesome!

The first part of TCT 2009 was with Nicole and Dorrie. Slowly the crafting circle grew as Sarah moved in with Dorrie. Sam started coming. Then Sarah brought Sue in, and then Christie. Now people bring friends, visitors, and even their moms. Making Too Cute Tuesday a weekly event people looked forward to was by far the coolest part of 2009.

Marketing Monday: Maine Maven

Know an individual or business doing something cool to promote themselves online? Let me know about it!

I first came across the Maine Maven site a couple years ago. It’s one of those blogs I subscribe to that’s kind of like a good old friend: no matter how long it’s been, I seem to be able to pick up right where I left off.

I was having a bit of writer’s blog when my Twitter friend MargaretsCards suggested I write about Maine Maven. Good idea!

The Maine Maven keeps things fresh and graphically pleasing with a periodically changing Maine related illustration. And that's just the beginning of the thoughtful design.

What Would Jesus Buy?

What Would Jesus Buy: Whether you agree with the tactics or not, this movie reminds us all the reason for the season.
I subscribe to the Daily Worth newsletter, where I was alerted today that the movie “What Would Jesus Buy” was streaming for free on Snagfilms. Being that it was Friday afternoon and I was getting much else done, I decided to watch it.
It was a pretty good tongue in cheek look at our consumerist culture, which ramps up to new levels during the holiday season. Seeing clips of crazy shopping footage, encouraging television anchors (buy now!), and pervasive holiday commericals all together made me realize just how bad it was. Sometimes I forget about these things since I don’t have cable!

A Note About Online Privacy: There Is None

It’s been interesting to watch reactions to Facebook’s changes in their privacy policy. Status updates of some of my friends have outlined how to change privacy settings by unclicking a box in the administrative options of a profile. Then I saw an interesting post on Beth’s Blog about a movement called Seppukoo (named after the noble death of samaris who threw themselves down on their swords) to get people to cancel their Facebook accounts and reclaim their lives.
Committing virtual suicide: One way to ensure your privacy. The other is to embrace the internet as part of your public life.
I haven’t felt very strongly about any of this because I’ve always felt that anything I post on the internet, whether it’s a tweet or a blog or a status update, can be accessed by anyone with enough tech skills.

Too Cute Tuesday: Christmas Candies

Yeah Christie, just sweep it up quick and Sue won't notice all the kitchen spills!

Too Cute Tuesday is a weekly event on the Breaking Even blog that involves, friends, crafting, and cocktailing. Every week it’s a different and inexpensive craft to make and a different cocktail to keep things social. If you have an idea for a craft or otherwise want to participate, contact Nicole.

It was back to the regular format this Too Cute Tuesday of friends getting together for a craft and a cocktail.

Tonight, we did a little Christmas baking, which was Christie’s idea. Note that coincidentally Christie is having a holiday party on Saturday with hors d’oeuvres, so I get the sneaking suspicion that she’s going to serve her share of treats at this social event. And in addition to saving Christie some work, we all have our fair share of sugar and chocolate to tide us over into the next year.

This week, we had a new TCTer. Jordanne joined Christie, Sue, and I for a Christmas sweet cooking extravaganza. Both of these recipes are from our very own Christie.

Marketing Monday: Jack Frost Ski Shop

Know an individual or business doing cool things with marketing/promotion both online and off? Let me know about it; I am always looking for ideas!

I spent this past weekend skiing in New Hampshire. I have a couple of friends who are members of ski clubs in the Mount Washington area and this weekend was the kickoff of the ski season for the Eastern Inter-Club Ski League or EISCL (pronounced “ice-sill”) at Bretton Woods. I attended as a guest, helping my friends at the registration table in exchange for a free lift ticket.

I later found out that the whole event was underwritten by Jack Frost Ski Shop, located in Glen New Hampshire.

By being visible at big ski events, like 13 Hours of EICSL at Bretton Woods, Jack Frost is reaching its target audience in a place where they enjoy being.

Sadly, this was not obvious to me at the event but the good news is I learned a lot about the Jack Frost Ski Shop anyway. Here are some things we can all learn from them, and what I think could be improved upon:

This Week In Business: Eggs And Issues Edition

Nothing like coming home from a long weekend and not having the internet for a few days! It was a week of catching up here at Breaking Even Communications. Also, almost as if to drive me crazier, my computer hardware began failing me. First my printer, then my mouse, and finally my keyboard (well, the ‘5’ key) all bit it within 72 hours. Still, I managed to accomplish a few things this week.

Tweetdeck: the software with a dark background that's lighting up my life.
I installed Tweetdeck on my computer, and have been kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
To be fair, there is a lot of free software that I rely on almost daily: Google Reader, Feedburner, Joomla!, Wordpress… Somehow installing another piece of software to manage my social networking stuff seemed ridiculous.

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