Check out this article posted today giving the lowdown and skinny on how we can and should be using Klout.

A quick google search for blogs about the service have mixed opinions.

Some recommend it. Some flame it.

*Not so surprising in this digital world we live.*

Some articles slam it, like this one right here. 

It should be an important issue to anyone using social media. Unless, of course, you believe in a world where Justin Bieber is actually the most influential human alive.

Some say:

Yes Klout is flawed, but currently it’s the only real contender offering influence metrics.

How does it work? Here how:

Once you’ve hooked up all of your social networks, Klout assigns you a “Klout score.” It also gives you three other measurements:

• True Reach: How many people you influence
• Amplification: How much you influence them
• Network Impact: The influence of your network

What my Kout score says? I’m an focused and consistent “specialist”. I’m influential about Steve Jobs and Slideshare only?…. But what I’m most surprised about is not ranking on shoes…or food… or I don’t know, communications, or gaming!

What do you think of Klout? Do you use it, do you agree with the article, how does the service benefit you?

Recently the new report called State of the Blogosphere 2011 released, you can read the full report here.  A first glance into this report made me think about how the landscape has changed over the years and what sort of bloggers we are now.

For me, I got started a LONG long time ago before the days of geocities and before “blogging” software existed. I coded my pages in html without a database. Ah the good ‘ol days when it was massively time consuming to blog. Enter now, those of us at the start of the movement most likely still fall in the Hobbyist category. Lucky ones get to do it for work. Even luckier are the ones who get to do it for multiple categories.

Which do you fall in?

1) Hobbyist: The backbone of the blogosphere, and representing 60% of the respondents to this survey, Hobbyists say that they “blog for fun” and do not report any income. Half of hobbyists prefer to express their “personal musings” when blogging. 60% indicate they spend less than three hours a week blogging, yet half of hobbyists respond individually to comments from readers. Because 72% blog to speak their minds, their main success metric is personal satisfaction (61%).

2-3) Professional Part- and Full-Timers: These bloggers represent 18% of our total group. They are independent bloggers who either use blogging as a way to supplement their income, or consider it their full-time job. Most of these professional bloggers don’t consider blogging their primary source of income. This group primarily blogs about personal musings and technology

4) Corporate: Corporate bloggers make up 8% of the blogosphere. They blog as part of their full-time job or blog full-time for a company or organization they work for. These bloggers primarily talk about technology and business in their blogs. 70% blog to share expertise, 61% to gain professional recognition, and 52% to attract new clients. They have found that blogging has given them greater visibility in their industry (64%) and company (63%). 63% of corporate bloggers use their number of unique visitors to measure success.

5) Entrepreneurs: 13% of the blogosphere is characterized as entrepreneurs, or individuals blogging for a company or organization they own. 84% of these bloggers blog primarily about the industry they work in, with 46% blogging about business and 40% about technology. 76% blog to share expertise; 70% blog to gain professional recognition; and 68% to attract new clients for their business.

Read more: http://technorati.com/blogging/article/state-of-the-blogosphere-2011-introduction/#ixzz1dCRop9vq

It’s an interesting report, check it out!

Today it’s Stuffed Pepper day! I modified this recipe, originally my mother made this growing up in the oven. It was always comfort food for me, with great memories. So, I have innovated it and make it my own way now. Here goes.

First, the things that you need first and formost a crock pot (or slow cooker).

Then you need the rest of the ingrediants including:

• enough peppers to fit your crockpot. I use 4
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 cup cooked rice
• 2 containers of diced tomatoes
•  1 container of tomato sauce
• 1 t worcestershire sauce
•  1/2 chopped onion
• 1 t black pepper
•  2 teaspoons italian seasoning mix
• shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup water

Next up, let’s get started!  Well first, you’re going to need about 5-8 hours cooking time so plan this out well!

First, cook up your beef and onions on the stove. They don’t have to be ultra cooked since they are going to cook in the pot, but halfway is good.

Meanwhile, cook your rice if it’s not cooked yet.

In a bowl, mix the ground beef and rice with seasonings, 2 containers of diced tomatoes, salt and pepper, and italian seasoning. Set this aside.

Ain’t it true!

What a great commercial by Sony, well done and if you are a gamer, it should spark a familiar feeling in your soul. You are a Hero!   :)

How many IPs can you spot?  List them in the comments here!

Zombies. Do you like zombies?

Well… Who doesn’t love zombies? We all do right? What’s better than zombies at this time of year, especially since Halloween is around the corner.

To get you into the Halloween mood, here’s a few treats for you.

First, there must be something in the water (or espresso) here at the office, afterall this isn’t normal, right?

Yes..this.. is me.

I’ve been zombified! eek!

When’s that Halloween party again?

I think I am ready to roll :)

Secondly, if you aren’t making it to a Halloween party this year there’s no reason you shouldn’t still celebrate in your own way. Grab some friends, buy some of these zombie bowling balls, and get cracking down the bowling lanes!  (check the link for more images of them in action).

<3 Mr Clean

It’s time to clean it up. Here’s what I did to help clear the clutter and take control again this week. These tips also work for your business-life, so read on!

Tip #1 — Attack Email Spam
I came back to the office with hundreds of spam email, only of which 200 was filtered to my junk folder. I am sick of this! What did I do? I went into the junk filter settings in Outlook, and jacked that bad boy up to High. Let’s see what gets through the door now :) Sure I may have to check the junk folder more often, but I’m totally ok with that!

If you are a Gmail user, you probably know that it’s spam filter is pretty much one of the best out there but things still get through! Take a look at your settings and see if you can do anything to tighten it up.

Tip #2 — eNewsletter Overload
Do you have a knack for singing up for all the newsletters you can get your hands on? One day you realize you have thousands of unread emails? Once upon a time, I created a rule in Outlook and a new folder called “to read” and had all of my newletters filter automatically into that folder. It worked great! That is until one day I realized I had 8k undread emails in there. Yeah. I guess that didn’t work as well as I expected.

Best thing you can do is start clicking on the Unsubscribe button. I just did that for all my Google alerts, and years of email newsletter subs I simply never read. I don’t need that junking up my email anymore. Be gone pests! Now I only am sub’ing to less than 10, of which are all directly related to my work and life at this very moment. Clean. Clear. Peaceful.

Tip #3 — Blog and Website Overload
If you find yourself overwhelmed by the number of blogs, web sites,that you frequent then take these two quick steps to get a handle on the time sink:

1. First, setup an RSS reader and add your most visited blogs to it. I use Google Reader for this and love it! I have separate categories of rss feeds for marketing, communication, photography, gaming, and more. I can easily scroll through at my own time to see what new articles and news has hit the wires. On my own time, this is key to taking control.  Note: After some time, and a few too many feed additions, it can feel like opening up a fire hydrant in front of your face. Be careful not to take this out of control also. 
2. Second, synchronize your links with Delicious, Weave, XMarks or Google Gookmarks. These tools will help you organize your bookmarks, synchronize them online, and avoid losing them. It takes a bit of setup, but in the long run what’s the cost of your time and peace of mind anyway?

Tip #4 — Stop Being an Email Hoarder
First, answer this – Do you save every email? Next, ask yourself “why” you save all email? Do you also save and categorize your sent emails? Yeah this can easily cause you information overload. How can you find things like this? It can be daunting sorting through thousands of emails in your inbox without any clue of status. Bottom line —  You can decide in under 10 seconds if you will ever need the email again, if not, delete it straight away and don’t hesitate!

On the same token, do you sign up for email alerts just to check the tickboxes on online forms? Stop doing this! How many emails do you get from Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and other various social networks that so-and-so just added you? or liked you? or walked by your house? or saw you at the coffee house up the street?

This week, I went into my preferences and turned of ALL notifications from social networks. Now I see what I want to see, WHEN I want to see it. Don’t let social networks run your life!

Tip #5 — Disconnect more often!
Finally, disconnecting often from the information sources, be it the computer, PC, mobile phone, iPod or any other such device, is a recommended step if you are serious about taming this beast called digital information. These are quick and easy ways to start taking control and clean up your digital life.

Next up I’ll give you some tips on clean up other data outside of your email. How man icons are on your desktop today? Count them for me. Tell me yours and I will tell you mine!

Ingredients

• 1 salmon fillet, skin intact, weighing about 1kg total
• 1 lg. onions, peeled & thinly sliced
• 1 large lemon, thinly sliced
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 3 lg. garlic cloves, minced
• large pinch red pepper flakes

Let’s make it!

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Rinse the salmon fillets and pat dry. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and arrange 3 quarters of the onions and lemons on top. Arrange a fillet, skin side down on top and place the remaining onions and lemons on top. Place the fillet, skin side up, on top.

Mix the olive oil and garlic; brush liberally over the fish. Sprinkle with red pepper. Fold over the edges of the foil to seal in the fish and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the fish flakes when touched with a fork. Remove and serve with the Lemon Parsley Sauce.

LEMON-PARSLEY SAUCE:

•  1/2 c. butter
• 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, mashed
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and stir in the lemon juice, garlic and parsley. Blend well and stir over low heat for several minutes. Serve with the baked salmon.

So, I’m on this “a Healthier Mii” kick (see what I did there? Wii.. Mii? Gaming? :P)   For me, it means spending more time taking notice of what food I eat and be conscious about what that food will do to my body. I am aiming to get healthier! Cut out those chips, french fries, delivery pizza, processed foods, and eat things that are good for your body, full of vitamens and nutrients.

Afterall, I quit smoking more than 2 years ago and it’s hard to believe it’s been so long! It’s about time I take the next steps.

While I’ve always been inclined to cut out meat, I hate chocolate and LOVE veggies and fruit, I also have some terrible food-weaknesses (zomg hello real burgers and four-cheese pizza and french fries). Now to live a healthier life, these items don’t have to be cut entirely out. Done right, made at home and eaten in moderation – there really isn’t a problem with eating the foods you enjoy. It’s about total picture.

Getting healthier isn’t simply a diet change, it’s a lifestyle change. For a foodie like me, it’s one that I have to work into my lifestyle in a special way. It means creating healthier concoctions myself, dining out at special places, and grasping the moments.

Here’s 5 quick tips to your own Healthier Mii that you’ll find easy to get started in your every day life:

1. Cut out white breads (go brown, wholegrain, or nothing)
2. Snack on fruits and veggies throughout the day (stop grabbing for chips)
3. Never skip lunch, this article kindly reminded me of why this is so important for your mind, body, and soul
4. Drink water throughout the day (brew up some green tea or other herbal tea for a feel-good body kick)
5. Always eat breakfast, even a small healthy one. A quick 1 minute breakfast is a smoothie! And it’s yummy

How can you go wrong when you combine your passion of being a foodie, wanting to live healthier with something you’re totally intrigued about and interested in getting better at (digital photography) all while being a geeky-kinda-gal? You create a site like this one.

Follow me as I combine things I learn to live a healthier life, summon up some food experiments in the kitchen, review local and not-so-local restaurants we visit, and re-explore digital photography again. A while ago I ordered a new book called Digital Food Photography… soon I’ll be cracking it open for some fun!

I am a foodie and I always strive to live a healthier life, what’s your story?

I know that I can relate to it, can you?

• Are you an Apple fan-girl/boy?
• or are you a Google fan-girl/boy?
• or are you that coveted Linux fan-girl/boy?

Or are you like that tiny percentage of the online world these days that simply has zero preference or brand loyalty?

I find it hard to NOT have serious brand loyalty, bordering on obsessions. Don’t ask me about my Starbucks mugs…..