Saturday, March 14, 2009

Lookin' Good?

From my email this morning:

How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200

Posted: 12 Mar 2009 11:34 PM PDT

hart48 How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200

Whether a man has made his fortune or not, he desires others to see him as confident, trustworthy, and professional. We live in a world of perception, and although our outward appearance is not nearly as important as our inner character, men are best served when they dress sharply. Fortunately, it doesn’t cost a fortune to look great. If you pay attention to the details and are willing to spend a bit more time putting your wardrobe together, you can build an outfit that makes you look like a million for less than $200.

But before getting started, let me warn you what not to do. Do not purchase clothing simply because it is on sale. You have not saved 70% on a $500 suit when it doesn’t fit, will go out of fashion in a year, or is made from poor fabric. No, you have wasted $150 that could have been invested in an outfit of timeless class that may be harder to build but will be well worth the effort. Smart men cannot afford to waste money on cheap items; put your dollars to smart use by buying quality items that will last.


Looking beyond the sales and promotions at major retailers, here are some tips that you’ll want to consider when assembling your wardrobe on a budget.

Thrift Stores & Garage Sales (suits, shoes, ties $5 & up)

thrift store How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200

Second-hand clothing has long been a source of inexpensive outfits, with many of us being the third recipient of worn out hand-me-downs. But with so many of us on a strict budget in this recession, it pays to revisit the option of pre-owned clothing. If you haven’t been to a Goodwill store, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the quality - much of this clothing is more appropriately described as gently or once used, and some of it you’ll find with the original tags intact. In visiting thrift stores, I’ve personally seen numerous high quality garments from makers such as Ralph Lauren, Burberry, and Oxxford.

The downside of secondhand stores is that it takes some work to find the gems among the vast aisles of 1970’s leisure suits and ugly t-shirts. You’ll have to travel to several shops, oftentimes the customer service at the store is non-existent, and the only way to find deals is to dive in and search. Items are usually sold as-is and cannot be returned. Yet the trade-off can be quite worthwhile; the satisfaction you get from pulling a quality suit from the rack and paying a quarter of the original price is deeply satisfying.

Key Tip – Thrift stores in smaller cities are gold mines for great deals. While a second hand store in Chicago will be picked to the bone, a thrift store in Omaha or Sheboygan is likely to contain numerous high quality items going for pennies on the dollar. Maybe you do have a reason to head home this weekend.

Smart eBay Bidding (suits, shoes, ties $10 & up)

Everyone knows about eBay, but not everyone knows how to shop smart when using this online auction. In a perfect open-market system, an item will sell for the highest price all bidders are willing to pay. Good for the seller, bad for the buyer. The key to shopping on eBay is to find quality items that are not being marketed properly and therefore are not receiving all the bids they could be. This type of shopping takes discipline. It’s very easy to fall into a bidding war and overpay for something. When shopping on eBay, search for items that are mislabeled, have no photograph/a poor photograph, and that are being sold by a new eBay seller. The key as a seller to getting a great price for your item is marketing; when a seller neglects this, you can bet that their item won’t receive the attention it may deserve and thus go for a below market value price.

Friends and Family (suit, shoes, ties most likely free!)

An often underused resource is perhaps the easiest and least costly of all. Simply ask friends and family if they have any menswear that they would be willing to pass on to you. In particular, target the best dressed and older gentlemen in your family or circle of friends. Even if the sizes are off on the clothing you receive, this free but good quality clothing can be used as currency when visiting vintage clothing and thrift stores. And for some items, like ties and pocket squares, one size works for most.

80% Off the Finest Quality Shoes You’ll Ever Own (re-soling $40, re-crafting $95+)

shoe repair How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200

A quality pair of shoes from Alden or Allen Edmonds is well worth the investment; however, when it comes to forking over $350 to $500, most of us are a little hesitant to take the plunge. But how would you like to get a pair of these shoes for $95?


Many high quality men’s shoe manufactures offer re-crafting and re-soling. This business caters to men who have owned a pair of the manufacturer’s shoes for years; it’s a service designed to retain customers and keep them happy, not make money off them. So it’s very reasonably priced. But you may be saying, “I don’t own a pair, how does this apply to me?” True, but by carefully keeping your eye out you may find that a friend, family member, or thrift store is carrying a pair and willing to part with them at a reasonable price. If you are satisfied with the style and general color, and assuming it fits you properly, you can ship these shoes back to the manufacturer where they will (depending on the service you choose) remove the old soles, heels, welting, cork footbeds, and laces and replace them all with brand-new materials. You can also pay for them to strip and refinish the upper leather and hand polish it before shipping. Oh, and many of these companies cover the shipping both ways. The end product is a new pair of $350+ shoes for a fraction of the cost. The blogger Sleevehead just wrote a great article about this process with pictures.

Cut a Deal (savings varies widely)

lets make a deal How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200

When purchasing items in Hong Kong, my favorite part of the experience is the haggling. An art form that isn’t seen to the same degree in the West, it’s now making a bit of headway due to the recession. Retailers realize that it’s better to make a little profit on an item than to lose money when it doesn’t sell and sits in inventory. Numerous national chain stores have quietly authorized their salespeople to bend on the price. But they aren’t going to just give these saving to you. You have to ask.


When closing a deal, always ask, “Is this the best you can do?” Furthermore, bring in an advertisement, even if it’s from the web, showing that the same item is being offered for less elsewhere. And if you’re really aggressive, don’t settle until you speak with a person who is authorized to make the decision. Often the sales clerk doesn’t have the authority to give a discount, so always ask to speak with a manager. But please remember your manners - always be polite and friendly, even when the final answer is no – people want to help, but there are limits to what they can offer.

Bartering

To barter is to exchange one’s services or products for another’s service or products. It’s the oldest form of commerce and worked for a long time until it was replaced by the tangible units of value we have today, money. But sometimes bartering is more effective than using money in a transaction, and you’d be surprised how many people are open to it. If you have a skill or excess inventory, think about how you could trade this for a service or product you need. Good with computers? Think of how many barbers, tailors, and small menswear stores need help with a website and getting their name out on the web.

The problem with bartering is that it’s harder for two parties to come to terms vs. when they are exchanging currency. Also, there needs to be an equal need on both sides for the transaction to take place; a dire need on one side does not constitute an emergency for the other participant. Finally, be aware that the IRS views barter exchanges as taxable income and has requirements for filing.

Choose Potential over Reputation (save 50% on tailoring & clothing costs)

tailor3 How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200

All other factors being equal, the vast majority of us will choose a tailor based off their experience and past work. But all factors are rarely equal, and experienced artisans with a strong reputation often command much higher pay than their counterparts without the name recognition. With this in mind, consider choosing potential over reputation when selecting a tailor or company to purchase your clothing from.


The advantage of choosing potential is that the price point is lower; they haven’t established their brand and must compete on price while building clientele. These professionals and young companies are also often more open to deal making and bartering, and if you are willing to spend the time clearly explaining what you want and carefully inspecting the finished product, you may find that you’ve discovered a diamond in the rough.


The disadvantage with choosing potential over reputation is that you are taking a bit more risk. Dealing with a lesser known brand in a sense opens you up to the chance of lower quality and disagreements on what constitutes a successful completion of work. However, much of this can be minimized by doing your homework and interviewing the business or artisan extensively before committing to a project.

Similar Articles

There are some big box retailers with great deals, many of whom carry product lines with good quality at very low prices. I was just talking with the Houndstooth Kid, a blogger who covers vintage menswear from the 1930s-50s, and he put together an article covering this very topic. Check out his blog for how to find the hidden gems at Wal-Mart, Target, the Gap and others.

Conclusion

Many of us have lost our jobs only to find ourselves searching for work in an environment more competitive than anything in recent memory. If you still have questions, or need any more help putting together a wardrobe for less, please feel free to email me through A Tailored Suit’s website or ask a question in the comment section below. I can’t give away clothing, but I can give you guidance on how to look your best with what you have.

Written by
Antonio Centeno
President, www.ATailoredSuit.com
Quality Custom Clothing & Sound Style Advice
Join our Facebook Page for a chance to Win Custom Clothing

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Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


Friday, March 13, 2009

Video Time: You Gotta See This

Kim Komando featured this video recently:

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


My dad used to call it eww-eee, peww-eee,

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Making $$$

from the DLM Blog:

9 Excellent Free Tools For eBay Buyers And Sellers

Posted: 11 Mar 2009 04:29 AM PDT

Ebay, the well known online auction and shopping site is always the preferred destination for people looking to buy stuff at reasonable prices. In these tough economic times especially, it is also a place to sell products and services online.

If you're one of those who use eBay quite often, you know that there are many tools, some of them built into eBay itself, which can help you use this site more efficiently. Although there is no dearth of eBay related tools and apps, not all of them are free and useful. Hence I decided to go through a few of them and pick those which are really good and free to use. The list includes tools for both buyers and sellers.

I hope these tools help in making your experience of using eBay a better one. If you know about other tools which are excellent and free and not a part of this list then please do tell about them in the comments section.

Firefox toolbar for eBay
The Firefox toolbar for eBay is an excellent Firefox add-on that lets you quickly access things like your eBay auctions, price comparisons for various products and customer reviews. You can easily search eBay using this tool and get preview pictures for products in the search results. Apart from ebay.com, it also supports ebay.co.uk, ebay.ca, and ebay.com.au.

Internet explorer users can use the default toolbar provided by eBay which has similar features.

Stuff Alert
If you are having a hard time searching eBay for that one rare item and just can't find it, then Stuff Alert is for you. It will help you set up a customized alert for that product and let you know when it becomes available for sale on eBay. Alerts are sent through email or via SMS on your cellphone.

Wipbox
Wipbox is a very useful tool for eBay sellers. It makes posting to eBay easier and also helps you in researching things like average prices of products and customer reviews. It also lets you upload photos related to your eBay auctions and store them for free.

Auction Sniper
Auction Sniper is a cool tool which can, as they mention, dramatically increase your chances of winning eBay auctions. It lets you bid just before the auction closes so that you can outbid the highest bidder just in time.

Although this tool isn't entirely free (it charges a nominal fee only if you win the auction), it certainly is much better than other similar paid tools.

RSSAuction
RSSAuction is another cool tool that lets you create RSS feeds for custom searches in eBay. Hence it makes tracking a particular item on eBay a breeze.

AuctionBloopers
AuctionBloopers lets you search for misspelled items on eBay which escape the eyes of most of the buyers and hence you could get them at a lesser price. A simple but effective tool which saves you money.

PicClick
PicClick is an awesome visual search engine for eBay which which lets you browse through the product images based on product categories, price range and listing or ending time of bidding. It certainly provides a better way to browse through thousands of items on eBay.

FatFingers
FatFingers, like AuctionBloopers, is another free online tool which helps you find misspelled items on eBay and cash in on the low bids. It also provides some advanced search options.

Auctiva
Auctiva is a cool tool for eBay sellers and lets them choose from hundreds of free auction templates for their products. It also provides free image hosting.

Cheers,

Abhijeet

Written on 3/11/2009 by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is an internet entrepreneur who loves writing about tech, productivity, blogging & making money online. Catch him at Jeet Blog and also subscribe to his weekly newsletter.Photo Credit: whiteafrican

Video Time: Greed

This time the video is not a funny one, but a step back in history to 30 years ago. Sent to me by a friend today...

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


I admit, the picture is really weird, but it's from this Fort Wayne Blog. Click here to go there.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Video Time: George & Dave

Do you miss "W" yet?

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


I have friends who work here

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Your Health

4 years ago I lost about 25 pounds in 3 weeks. I had my gall bladder removed.
This year my daughter Rachael lost 10 pounds, she had her appendix removed.

While a trip to the hospital, surgery, and recovery is one way to lose weight, it's not the recommended way.

Here's 15 tips from the DLM Blog:

15 Simple Changes That Will Quickly Improve Your Health

Posted: 05 Mar 2009 08:01 AM PST

Did you start January full of health resolutions, determined that this would be the year that you ate better, lost weight and exercised regularly?

If you’re back to your usual habits – skipping breakfast, grabbing chocolate to get you through that afternoon slump, neglecting your fruit and veggie intake and chugging down mug after mug of coffee – don’t feel guilty about it. Your problem isn’t that you lack willpower – it’s that you tried to change too much at once.

Instead, try making some of these very easy changes to your eating, drinking and exercising habits. Once you’ve got used to a few of them, add in more. You’ll be making huge strides towards your health goals, with hardly any conscious effort. Sound good? Read on...

Easy Changes to Your Eating Habits
  1. Eat a piece of fruit before lunch
    Get into the habit of eating an apple, banana, pear or other piece of fruit before lunch each day. It’ll take the edge off your appetite – making you less likely to dig into greasy fast food or bag or crackers. You’ll also be one step closer to hitting your five-a-day.

  2. Don’t use vending machines
    Let’s face it, have you ever bought anything healthy from a vending machine? They’re overpriced and full of sugar-and-salt packed stuff that your body doesn’t need. Plus, they’re open all hours (unlike your corner shop) and they won’t look at you funny if you buy ten candy bars at a time. Make a pact with yourself not to buy anything except bottled water from vending machines.

  3. Go vegetarian one night a week
    Most nutritionists agree that we eat more meat than we need to. Have a meat-free dinner once a week – it’s a great opportunity to try out some new recipes that are packed with vegetables and flavours. You’ll also save yourself some money.

  4. Switch to wholegrain bread
    If your lunchtime sandwich or sub is always on white, switch to wholegrain. The extra goodness in the grains (including lots of fiber, B vitamins, vitamin E, and various minerals) helps keep your heart healthy and cut your risk of cancer. Plus, fiber-rich foods make you feel you full for a longer period of time – very helpful if you’re trying to lose weight.

  5. Switch to skim milk (1% or less fat)
    Do you drink whole milk or put it on cereal? If so, switch to skim (less than 0.5% fat) or 1% milk. It might seem odd for the first few days, but stick with it for a week or so: your taste buds will quickly adjust. You’ll be getting just as much calcium and protein as before, but cutting fat.
Easy Changes To Your Drinking Habits
  1. Keep a bottle of water on your desk
    Many people mistake slight thirst for hunger, leading to unnecessary snacking. Keep a bottle on your desk and drink it whenever you get a little mouth crazing. Getting sufficient water also helps prevent you from becoming constipated. Note: Save money by using a refillable thermos or water bottle instead of purchasing bottled water.

  2. Switch half your cups of coffee to herbal tea
    How many coffees (or regular mugs of tea) do you drink in an average day? Try having just half of your usual amount – and make the rest a herbal, caffeine free tea. Many government health authorities recommend that we limit caffeine intake to 400mg per day, which is the equivalent of four cups of brewed coffee, or seven cups of instant.

  3. Avoid milky drinks from coffee outlets
    Do you have a giant latte every morning? You could be clocking up over 300 calories in just one drink, and chances are, it doesn’t fill you up at all. And don’t assume that being caffeine-free means you can get away with this: a hot chocolate with whipped cream has over 400 calories...

  4. Have four alcohol-free days per week
    If you go out drinking every day after work, or split a nightly bottle of wine with your partner over dinner, your habits are putting your liver under pressure. They could also be stopping you from losing weight: alcohol makes you peckish, and contains calories (around 200 calories in a bottle of beer or a medium-sized glass of wine).

  5. Swap soda for water
    Are you addicted to soda? Even diet sodas aren’t great for you – they generally contain a lot of additives. Try swapping some of your sodas for plain water (add a slice of lemon, or a dash of cordial, if you don’t like your water unflavoured). If it’s the fizz you miss, try carbonated water.
Easy Changes to Your Exercise Habits
  1. Go for a twenty minute walk every lunchtime
    If you’re struggling to fit exercise into your day, get away from your desk for a twenty-minute walk each lunchtime. It’s a good way to force yourself to take a break from work, and refreshes your mind and your body.

  2. Walk (some of) your commute
    Can you walk all or part of your commute? That might mean jumping off the subway a stop earlier, or even just leaving your car in the furthest part of the car park.

  3. Take a gym class once a week
    Wherever you live or work, chances are that you can find a convenient exercise class somewhere nearby. (Many gyms have quick pre-work slots and lunch-time classes, as well as several evening options.) Find one class you can do, once a week – and stick with it.

  4. Make Sunday afternoons active
    As Monday looms ever closer, you might find that your mood and energy levels take a dive. A great way to counter this is to do something active on Sunday afternoons. Mix this up from week to week: how about a long walk, a swim, ice-skating, having a kick around in the park...?

  5. Exercise during commercial breaks
    Whenever you’re watching TV and adverts come on, get up off the sofa and do some exercise. Fit in a few stretches, some jogging on the spot, or some weight lifting. You might only fit in a few minutes at a time, but over the course of an evening’s TV viewing, that could easily add up to half an hour. And if it stops you grabbing yet another snack, it’s definitely helping...
Do you have any easy, manageable, tips that help you meet your health goals?

Written on 3/05/2009 by Ali Hale. Ali runs Alpha Student, a blog packed with academic, financial and practical tips to help students get the most out of their time at university.Photo Credit: AndrewBecherer

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


You have no idea who this blog belongs to, so click here to go there.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Cleaning Up Your Online Reputation

I saw this a week ago, very good stuff from the DLM Blog:

Make Sure Your Facebook Profile Doesn't Lose You A Job

Posted: 24 Feb 2009 10:22 AM PST

Do you use Facebook? I do too -- and so do a heck of a lot of other people. Including my mom, and my former boss.

Employers are increasingly using Facebook (and other social networking sites) to check up on potential and current employees. People have been disciplined at work, have missed out on job positions, or have even been dismissed due to comments they've left on Facebook and similar sites.

In the credit crunch times, you can't afford to have anything working against you. Here's how to make sure your Facebook profile isn't visible to your boss - and how to clean it up if necessary...

Step 1: Check Your Privacy Settings
Do you know who might be reading your Facebook profile? Are you really certain that it's only limited to those people who you've accepted a Friend request from? Log into your account, click the "Settings" button on the top left: then look at the "Networks" tab:
Like me, you might well be in two or more networks - probably a school one(mine's Cambridge University) and a regional one (mine's London - so pretty huge). Have a quick glance at the numbers of people in those networks: 44 thousand at Cambridge and three MILLION in London.

Now click on the "Settings" tab, and on the "manage" link next to "Privacy Controls"

Then click "Profile". This is what mine looks like:

Hang on a minute ... "My Networks and Friends"? Well, I've got three hundred or so friends on Facebook -- but my networks cover three and a half million people: all of whom are either graduates of the same university (so high on my list of potential networking contacts), or people who live in London (where, if I was looking for another full-time job, I'd be seeking employment).

As you can imagine, giving potential bosses (and your past professors - people who might write you a reference) access to your entire profile could be a no-no. I don't actually use Facebook a lot and the few obligatory drunken photos of me aren't particularly risque, so I'm not too bothered who can see my information. But if you pack your profile with rude quotes, if your status update regularly includes how drunk/stoned/lazy you are, and if the photos of you are ones you'd never want to be posted on the office noticeboard ... you might want to limit all of the information in your profile to friends only.

Why Should I Bother?

When an employer decides to check you out on Facebook prior to interviewing you, they won't be able to see your profile, photos of you, and so on. The first impression they get of you will be a professional one from the interview. Leaving your Facebook profile open to them is a bit like inviting them to come and nose around your home (when it's at its most untidy, with your stack of dodgy magazines left lying around...)

And if you doubt that employers do make these checks, here's food for thought from an article on "Facebook Can Ruin Your Life" from the Independent (a UK newspaper) - emphasis mine:

At Cambridge, at least one don has admitted "discreetly" scanning applicants' pages – a practice now widespread in job recruitment. A survey released by Viadeo said that 62 per cent of British employers now check the Facebook, MySpace or Bebo pages of some applicants, and that a quarter had rejected candidates as a result. Reasons given by employers included concerns about "excess alcohol abuse", ethics and job "disrespect".

Do you want to risk missing out on your dream job because of your Facebook profile?

Step 2: Cleaning Up Your Profile

You might not want to limit access to your profile to only your friends, if you use Facebook for a lot of networking. Or, you might have a lot of "friends" who've added you because they read your blog, or because they knew you in kindergarten: you never know when one of these friends might be a useful ally, a potential employer or mentor.

And although your profile might not contain anything too dreadful (such as admissions of just how you ended up leaving your previous job), things which seem perfectly innocuous could still cause employers to decide to pass on you. The recruitment site www.onrec.com offers ten top turn-offs for employers who are performing discreet background checks using Facebook and similar sites:

Top ten turn-offs for employers on social networking websites

1. References to drug abuse
2. Extremist / intolerant views, including racism, sexism
3. Criminal activity
4. Evidence of excessive alcohol consumption
5. Inappropriate pictures, including nudity
6. Foul language
7. Links to unsuitable websites
8. Lewd jokes
9. Silly email addresses
10. Membership of pointless / silly groups

And from the New Zealand Herald:

Interestingly, employers were not just concerned about alcohol or drug use, or inappropriate photos. They also used the information posted to identify those with poor communication skills, and inaccurately stated qualifications. Bad mouthing of former employers and colleagues was also identified as a concern in a large number of cases.

So it's worth cleaning up your profile to get rid of anything that's not contributing to the impression you want to give to employers, business colleagues and other contacts - anything which undermines or contradicts your personal brand.

I'm going to focus on two key areas that could be letting you down: "Your Info" and "Your Photos".

Your Info

Click on "Profile" in the top bar, then on "Info":

Have a good read through what's listed there. You might want to update old information (I'm awful at doing this...) You may need to self-censor some of your "favorite music" or "favorite movies", if you have somewhat extreme tastes in either. Think about who might read your profile here: if you're going for a job with a right-wing political or charity body, a long list of slasher/horror movies and death metal music might not go down too well, but it could be just the thing if you're trying to land a job with a design agency that prides itself on "alternative" styles and creating shocking, engaging concepts.

Some quick tips that might help you are:
  • Get rid of any silly, profane or potentially bigoted (racist/sexist/etc) group memberships

  • Try to list some favorite books, not just films and music. Employers will be impressed if you look well-read.

  • Make your Quotations ones which are funny/profound, not all lewd jokes that your friends made after a few drinks..

  • Check for typos and spelling mistakes: these might seem unimportant to you, but they could be sending a negative impression to potential employers
Your Photos

Click onto the "Photos" tab. This will show everything which someone's tagged with your name. It's worth going through every single one, and untagging it if it's not something you want to be associated with! Again, use your own judgement here: an unflattering shot might be a disaster if you're trying to become a supermodel, but could be an actual asset if you're aiming for a career in stand-up comedy...

Click on the thumbnail to view a photo full-size, and click the "Remove tag" link next to your name (at the bottom, under the photo) to remove the tag - meaning snoopers can't find that photo of you:

For most of us, photos to look out for are:
  • Photos where you look drunk/stoned/comatose (even if you were "just caught at a bad angle, honest")

  • Photos containing a number of "unsuitable" looking friends

  • Photos where someone's put a really dodgy caption about you (sadly, employers may decide against you based not only on your profile, but on what your friends seem to be like).

  • Any photos containing evidence of illegal or semi-illegal activity - especially if your employer or school could penalise you for it
Why Should I Bother?

Current employers (or your university/school) may check up on your Facebook profile. The Independent article mentioned the unfortunate case of:

Kevin Colvin, an intern at Anglo Irish Bank, who told his employers he had a family emergency, but whose Facebook page revealed he had, in reality, been cavorting in drag at a Hallowe'en party.

Photographic evidence can also be used to catch student culprits:

Oxford University proctors disciplined students after pictures of them dousing each other in shaving foam, flour and silly string in post-exam revelry were found on their Facebook pages.

Step 3: Keeping Your Profile Clean
Once you've limited access to your profile and cleaned it up, you need to keep it safe for work. In my last full time job, my boss was "friends" with a number of my co-workers: this calls for considerable caution! If you have parents who are paying your tuition fees, you might want to make sure your Facebook account gives the impression that you're making the most of their money (rather than partying constantly...)

Some good points to pause for thought are:
  • When setting your status. Do you really want to declare that "John thinks work SUCKS" or that "Jane is thinking of throwing a sickie?" Even something a bit less obvious, like moaning about a difficult client, could rebound badly on you.

  • When uploading photos. Is it really something you want your office colleagues to see? Or your mum?

  • When commenting on other people's photos, wall, etc. Think about what your words might convey to someone who wasn't in on the joke or the conversation. Would you look bigoted, illiterate or plain nasty?
It's also unwise to use Facebook while at work - your actions are time-stamped, so if your boss sees that you've been updating your account at 11am when you should've been hard at work, s/he's unlikely to be impressed.

Why Should I Bother?

Thoughtless use of Facebook has led to people losing their jobs in the past (though this is usually due to admission of some serious wrong-doing, such as theft from the company). Even if you don't get sacked, you might have to face up to consequences.

I'll leave you with the cautionary tale of Kyle Doyle, a call center worker who pulled a sickie ... and bragged about it on Facebook:

Kyle Doyle, a 21-year-old resolutions expert for telecommunications firm AAPT, bragged about his day off on the social networking site while telling his employer he was away for "medical reasons".

But he was found out when his boss spotted this Facebook profile update on the day in question, August 21: "Kyle Doyle is not going to work, f*** it I'm still trashed. SICKIE WOO!"

So ... head on over to Facebook, and check out the employer-friendliness of your profile. Let us know what you decide to change (or whether you look squeaky-clean already) -- but don't say anything too incriminating in the comments. Remember, bosses read Dumb Little Man too...

Written on 2/24/2009 by Ali Hale. Ali runs Alpha Student, a blog packed with academic, financial and practical tips to help students get the most out of their time at university.Photo Credit: facebook

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


Sunday, March 08, 2009

Video Time: Spinning Head

Just to prove that there is plently of weird stuff online:

Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day


Do you know about the Fever? Click here to go there...