Author Archives: serentipity

A Peek Into My Freelancing Toolbox

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As a freelancer, I sometimes find myself in need of office tools I don’t have. As a freelancer on a budget, I’ve had to find workarounds to get things done. Here’s a peek at a few of the tools I’ve found especially helpful:

GotFreeFax.com

One company with which I works requires work orders to be faxed to a fax machine. Not email, a gen-u-ine fax machine. While my all-in-one printer/scanner/copier has fax capabilities, I don’t have a separate line for faxing and it was too cost prohibitive to put one in for only one client. Also costly was ($2/page) using a nearby copy/shipping-type company’s fax service. Fortunately, I found gotfreefax.com, which allows me to fax scanned pdf or doc files to a fax machine at the low cost of zero dollars for up to two faxes (3 pages or less) per day. And if I need to send a larger packet, I can send 10 pages for about a dollar. Sweet!

PDFSplit!

This week I had a situation in which I needed to split a 5-page PDF file into two separate files in order to meet gotfreefax’s 3-page-per-fax criteria. With PDFSplit!, I was able to do that in about half a minute. And it’s free!

DropBox

I travel a lot and need to have easy access to all my client files wherever I am. Dropbox is an easy-to-use file/photo cloud-based storage service that provides 4G of storage for free, with other packages available for a fee. I’ve been using it for a while now, and I’m still not at 50% of the limit. (One of my goals is to become so wildly successful that I have to buy storage! :) ) I have it set to sync with both my desktop and my laptop computers, so I can access my files from both…or even from a client’s computer.

Google Docs Drive

While I use Microsoft’s Office suite for most of my work, I do use Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) when I’m working collaboratively with others. Drive offers word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation applications (and more besides), with the ability to give access to others for viewing or editing the files. Real life example: when planning a conference, the main organizer and I were able to manage the registrations, calendars, and communications by using the same set of documents. No sending files back and forth, no uploading to a server–we used the same set of documents, and it was perfect!

Those are just a few of the tools I’ve found helpful for my freelancing work. Most have also come in handy in everyday life as well. And the best part of all is that they’re all FREE!

Tip Test: Cleaning Foggy Headlights

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One of my first Pinterest re-pins was a tip claiming that one could clean and restore foggy headlight covers using only toothpaste and a clean cloth. Every time I scan my pins, I think, I have toothpaste. I have a clean cloth. I have foggy headlights. And yet, I’ve not ever tried it. Until today. :)

before during after photos

As you can see, the cloudy area is somewhat diminished (smudged), but it’s still very much there. :( On a positive note, the non-foggy parts are ever so much shinier. :)

Before I proclaim this tip a total fail, I’m going to try again with a cheaper toothpaste and a little more elbow grease. I’ll update after test #2.

Have you tried this one? Do you think you might try it? Please let me know your results!

Good Use for a Low-Balance Prepaid Debit Card

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Have you ever wanted to sign up for a free trial of some product or service, but were hesitant to give your credit or debit card number? Maybe you don’t know much about the company and are leery of this unknown entity having your number, or maybe you’re afraid you’ll forget to cancel the service in time to avoid the eventual charge. Whatever your reason, you don’t want to use your card.

low balance prepaid debit cardIf you have a low-balance prepaid debit card laying around (I always seem to end up with a few dollars left on those things), you can use that card number to sign up for the free trial.

This method provides several benefits:

1) If you don’t want to sign up and there’s a problem with the cancellation, you’re only out the small balance on the card.

2) If it turns out that it really was a shady website, they might have your few dollars, but they don’t have your real debit/credit card number.

And, of course, if you like the product/service and want to sign up, you only have to change the billing info to your real card before the trial is over.

One caveat: The person who told me about this said he’d only had one situation in which the trial transaction didn’t go through due to the low balance on the card. So there’s that possibility.

All things considered, it’s certainly worth a try!

Tips for Shopping Garage Sales Successfully

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Spring excites me for the warm temperatures and the return of green everything. I’ll admit that I also get excited at the thought of new garage sales to be explored. So many possibilities…

I’ve shared tips here on having a successful garage sale, and I thought I’d share some of my tips for getting the most out of shopping garage sales. I’m no expert, by any stretch, but I do have a few successes in my past. Here’s a wee sampling of my favorites:

garage sale finds: chair, mixer, purse

As Tippy Toe Diet readers know, the Kitchen Aid Mixer is my favorite. I had one on my “want” list for a while, but I wasn’t about to shell out $250-$300 for one. I found this one at a small (read: car hood) sale and almost cried with joy. I still can’t believe my good fortune in finding it! Oh well, this doesn’t help you with your shopping, does it? Moving on…

Tips for Shopping Garage Sales Successfully

Get your finances in order. Make sure you have smaller bills on hand. For one thing, it’s rude to show up early at a sale and then try to pay for a $1.00 purchase with a $20.00 bill. Another consideration is that if you spread those small bills around various pants or purse pockets, you won’t be advertising that you have more money to spend. I’ve actually had several experiences in which the seller offered me a price lower than I was prepared to pay, just because he or she saw me pull a single bill out of my pocket. They didn’t know I had bills tucked in every pocket, and I didn’t bother correcting them!

Plan your route ahead of time. Whether you use classifieds or Craigslist or both, write down the sales you want to to hit and plan your route the night before. I usually group sales by start time and then map out my route based on where they’re located and what they’re advertising. For me, sales with “lots of baby items and kids’ clothes” go to the bottom of the list. At most, I’ll drive by those that are on my way to more promising sales and stop only if I see something that catches my fancy.

Keep a running list of items you hope to find. I usually scan first for the things on my list, and then for anything else that looks “interesting”. My current hopefuls are pretty plates, small bowls, a small shelf-suitable lamp, storage jars, and a couple of cabinet spice shelves.

Scrutinize and test everything. This one is really a given, but I’ve had people buy plenty of things without asking if they worked or if they could try them out. (I usually have a tag with, “It Works!”, on it, and I guess I must just have a trustworthy face. :) )

Open all boxes. People often keep original packaging and will put a used item back in it to sell. I don’t think they’re trying to pull a fast one; more likely they’re just trying to corral the contents. If you’re at a garage sale, you probably don’t care that it’s used, but you want to make sure the condition and the price match up. (Also, a friend of mine once got home and opened a box to find a wad of cash tucked into a pair of shoes. Fortunately, she remembered where she made the purchase and was able to return the cash to the seller, who gave her back what she’d paid for the shoes and $20 besides.)

Choose your haggles. I’m not one to try to negotiate every single purchase. If a $5 or $10 item seems worth the price, I pay it. The seller makes a little money, I’m saving a little money, and all is in balance. When I do engage in haggling, I usually simply ask, “Are you willing to accept a little less for this?” Quite often, the “little less” they respond with is lower than I would’ve asked for. If they aren’t willing to lower the price, I thank them anyway and leave it at that. Sometimes the seller will change his/her mind and lower the price before I leave. If they don’t, I just chalk it up as not meant to be.

Group items for a discount. This is my more common negotiating technique. If I have a total of $13 in items to purchase, I’ll ask if they’ll accept $10. It almost always works! (That said, I once had 6 or 7 items collected that totaled $11, and the seller wouldn’t accept $10 for all of it. The $11 was more than fair, and I actually needed the items, so I went ahead with the purchase. But I did pay with a $20. :) )

Carry a few business cards or index cards with your contact info. If a seller won’t make a deal with you, leave contact information with them and ask them to call you if they’re unable to sell the item and are willing to lower the price. It helps if you smile and wish them good luck in getting their price for it. :)

Consider “shopping the curb” later in the day. Many times, sellers will simply put unsold items at the curb when the sale is over. This boggles my mind, especially when I see an item that “couldn’t be sold for less than $20″ sitting at the curb four hours later. Personally, I’d rather get something for it rather than just throw it away, but some people don’t see it that way.

Shopping garage sales can be fun, and there are certainly savings to be had. For me, a little organization (but not rigidity) enhances the fun and the savings!

Do you have any favorite garage sale tips or strategies?

Waste Not, Want Not

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It’s Tuesday morning, which is trash pick-up day in my neighborhood. That means it’s clean-out-the-fridge day at my house, time to clear out the tired and expired and remind myself of what needs to be used. With my goofy schedule, I forget sometimes. It’s especially problematic in the warmer months with fresh fruits and veggies are available in abundance and I tend to stockpile “cold foods”. With Spring rapidly approaching, I thought it might be a good time to look at a few ways to cut down on food waste.

Look what Susy Morris of Chiot’s Run does to keep track of her freezer inventory:

Source: chiotsrun.com via Susy on Pinterest

Yep, she uses a dry erase marker for tracking what’s in her freezer–very clever and very organized! This household of one doesn’t need quite that elaborate a scheme, but after testing a dry erase marker on the wall-side of my fridge, I have recently started using it to keep track of what’s in the fridge or freezer that needs to be used soon. I like having the visual reminder that there’s leftover barbecue chicken in the fridge before I make pasta with marinara for my dinner. :)

While I like the extra space in my fridge after a clean-out, I don’t like having to throw food out. Such a waste. Money Talks News published a good article, 12 Ways to Keep Good Food from Going Bad, with some ideas for making use of foods from your pantry or fridge that you might otherwise toss. (I’ll admit, though, that #9, “Bake old Oreos into crust”, had me laughing. As if Oreos in my pantry would ever go bad. :) )

One thing that might help with reducing waste and committing to eat what you buy, is to calculate the value of foods you purchase but don’t consume and then write a check to the local food bank for that amount. I haven’t had to write one yet, but if I do, that amount will come out of my future grocery budget. That’s actually inspiring me to check my pantry shelves for “aspirational foods” (they seemed like a good idea at the time) and donate them before they expire.

This week’s clean out was a good one for me. I only had one little stub of a cucumber that had passed it’s prime (and a step below that). It was a humongous cucumber, so I’ll give myself a pass on this one. :)

I hope you found some helpful information from this post. Be sure to leave a comment if you have tips of your own to share!

~

*One more note about the dry erase marker–you can also use it on other appliances. Washing a load of laundry that has an item that needs to be hung to dry rather than moved to the dryer? Write a note on the washer and wipe it away when the load has finished!

How to Lead Criminals Right to Your Door

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Police officers were at our neighborhood meeting last night. Not because there was threat of a rumble–I’m 54, and I was the youngest person attending for the first half of the meeting–but to share crime-fighting advice. Most of the tips were the routine things like locking your car doors, stowing packages in your trunk, leaving lights on when you’re away from home, and so on. All things most of us know and do on a regular basis.

One tip, though, came up in a side discussion and was something I’d never thought about.

gpsI purchased a GPS device last year when I took on a work contract that involves a great many road trips. I promptly took advantage of the neat Home feature and programmed my home address into the device. When I finish a work assignment, I don’t have to enter my address–I just press the Home button and the GPS maps the route from wherever I am.

It never occurred to me that if a criminal type broke into my car and stole my GPS that my beloved Home button could lead them right to my door! And it would be my rotten luck that it would get all the directions right that time!

Needless to say, I immediately went home and reprogrammed the Home feature to a different address. Now if someone steals my GPS, they’ll think I live at the grocery store a half-mile away. (Which wouldn’t be far from the truth during one of my more disorganized weeks.)

If you have your home address plugged into your GPS unit or smart phone, you might want to change it to someplace nearby.

Ignore: D3P4JMA526PB

Proper Use of Images in Blog Posts, Pt 3, Flickr

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Continuing the series on choosing copyright-appropriate images for blog posts, my focus today is Flickr. If you need to play catch up on this series, read Part 1 for a discussion of copyright (and a horror story) and read Part 2 for information on using Google Images.

Flickr is a huge repository of online images and videos, with over 6 billion images on site. Not all of those images are available for public viewing and among those that are public, many are labeled “All Rights Reserved.” We admire those images but don’t use them. Right? Right!

Flickr Basics

Searching for images is easy in Flickr. Say I wanted to find an image representing copyright for this post. I’d just type copyright in the the Flickr search box in the upper right corner of the main page and wait for Flickr to return a grid of images that match my search.

moreinfoEach image in Flickr has data stored with it, including license and usage information. For any image I consider using, I should check that information by hovering over the image and then clicking on the little i icon in the lower right corner of the image. You should see a pop-up box like the one shown below:

Flickr image info some rights reserved

I’ve underlined the license information, which is reserving some rights for the image owner. Just to the left of that is a small icon. If you hover over that, you’ll see a pop-up box that indicates this image is available for use with proper attribution. Or you can click on the part I underlined to see the license with explanations of what you’re allowed to do and how you need to do it. So handy!

The search results for the word copyright returned 6.5 million results, and a good many of those were licensed as “All Rights Reserved”, meaning I can’t use them. Going through each image searching for one I can use is going to get tiresome. Quickly.

To help with sorting out the usable from the ‘hands off’, I’ll use Flickr’s Advanced Search feature. I can not only search for keywords but also limit the search to only those images that have Creative Commons licenses. Ready? Let’s get started.

Finding the Advanced Search Feature in Flickr

There are a couple of ways to do this, the short way and the even shorter way.

Short way: Near the top of your search results page, you’ll see a link for Advanced Search:

advanced search link

Click on it to go to the Advanced Search Page.

Or you can just bookmark the link to the Advanced Search page and start your search there.

Make sure your search term is in the search box and then scroll allll the way to the bottom of the screen for the Creative Commons section:

Flickr Creative Commons filter

Check the box for the filters you want. Usually, I check all of them to ensure that I get an image that I can use in the way I want. (When I applied this filter in my search on the term copyright, my results page went from 6.6 million to 640,000, which shows how many of the original images were NOT available to use.)

Using a Flickr Image

So I’ve decided to use an image. Now what? I left-click on the image and then the Share at the top of the screen:

Flickr share dialog box

Left click in the code box to highlight the text and then either Ctrl+C or right-click/copy, toggle over to blog post and paste it in (Ctrl+V or right-click/paste). And this is what I get:

Copyright Symbols

Ta-da! If you hover over the image, you see the attribution.

From what I understand, that’s enough to meet the license requirement, but I like to take it a step further and include an in-post mention as well. I’ve tried this beneath the image but not being particularly adept at coding, the results aren’t visually pleasing. I’ve also included an attribution at the bottom of the post, but that feels a bit like a footnote and the image owner deserves more than that, in my opinion. Fortunately, there’s an app for that!

Using ImageCodr for Flickr Images

ImageCodr works with Flickr images, checking the licenses for appropriateness and then generating html to display the image, the attribution, the license, and a link to the image owner’s Flickr page. Even better, it’s super easy to use.

Instead of grabbing the html code for the image, grab the link instead. Copy it from the Flickr page, toggle over to ImageCodr Get Code page and paste in the link.

imagecodr get code

Here’s what you get:

image codr html

ImageCodr has checked the license, given me the green light (or green checkmark, in this case) and generated the html. I just need to copy it (I have to either Ctrl+A or right-click/select all first) and paste it in my blog entry. Check this out:

Same image as before, but now I get a clickable link to the Creative Commons license, a clickable link to MikeBlogs Flickr page, and a visual credit for MikeBlogs. No hovering required, and anyone who has thoughts of using the image knows that there’s a Creative Commons license covering it.

An even easier way to use ImageCodr is to drag the bookmark to your bookmarks toolbar. When you’re viewing a Flickr image you want to use, click the bookmark and it takes you straight to the ImageCodr page with the html to use for your blog post. It saves the cut/paste step.

But what if the Flickr image doesn’t have a CC license? Using one of my images, I gave ImageCodr a test:

ImageCodr restriction

You have no idea how happy this makes me! :)

Was this all as clear as mud? Feel free to ask any questions. I’m no expert, but I can usually find an answer.

Finding appropriately-licensed images to use is not that difficult at all. Just a few extra steps is all it takes. I hope you’ll join me in taking those steps and encouraging others to do the same!

Proper Use of Images in Blog Posts, Pt. 2 Google Images

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For important information about copyright and fair use, along with a bit of a horror story of improper use of someone else’s images, see Part 1 of this two-part series.

So now that I’ve scared you half to death with copyright concerns, let’s explore a couple of ways to reduce the likelihood that we’ll need to seek legal advice after posting images. Specifically, we’ll look at two of the most popular photo repositories: Google Images and Flickr. Today’s post features Google Images.

Finding Copyright-Appropriate Images in Google Images

In the past, I didn’t use Google Images as a blog image source, because I found it tiresome to click on image after image until I found one that had copyright terms compatible with my need. One day, I got to wondering why Google Images didn’t have a function to narrow down the search, and so I Googled the question. Lo and behold, there is a very simple way to filter Google Images by usage needs, and it’s located in the Settings area of the Google Images results page.

On the Google Images search page, type in your search term and click the blue magnifying glass. I chose “copyright” as my search term, just to follow the week’s theme.

google images search box

You should have a page of image results displayed. At the top of the screen, waaaay over on the right, is the Settings Button. It looks like a little wheel. Or a techno-daisy.

google image results settings menu Click on the wheel to display a drop down menu, and then choose Advanced Search.

This is where it gets fun!

As you see, you can set all sorts of criteria for narrowing your image search (by color even!), but for today we’re most interested in the usage rights filter at the very bottom of the list (naturally):

google image advanced search usage rights menu

Click to enlarge

If you enlarged the image, you’ll see that clicking usage rights filter box displays a menu for selecting the appropriate type of image, based on your needs. If you don’t intend to modify an image in any way, “Free to use or share” is probably enough. Since I have ads on my blogs, which to my mind makes them commercial, I usually choose “Free to use, share or modify–even commercially. (I never know when I might want to plop a quote on an image, so I like to include the modify option.)

When you’ve made your selection, click the Advanced Search button to see only those images that fit your needs. Not so fast, though. You’ll want to take one more step to be sure.

When you find an image that interests you, click on it to display more information, and then visit the page (there’s a button for it) to read with your own eyes the specific statement of appropriate usage. Here’s an example, using one of the results I liked a lot:

wobbling blob of copyright by Abi ParamaguruThis image, titled “Congealed Wobbling Blob of Copyright”, was created by Abi Paramaguru and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License. (I include the link to the license so that anyone who comes along and wants to use it can check the license to see if it’s permissible and under what terms.)

I know all of this because it was clearly stated at the bottom of the article in which it was used, a report on issues with Australian copyright law.

That wasn’t so difficult, was it? Plus, it feels good to share the love by bringing recognition to the image creator.

Play around with it, explore, investigate and have fun. And then come back for my next post, which will address the wonderful world of Flickr. Teaser: It includes a handy, online tool for coding your image with all the proper citations!

Next Up: Part 3: Flickr

Proper Use of Images in Blog Posts, Part 1

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Since I started using Pinterest, I’ve been exposed to a lot more blogs. It’s interesting to see the commonalities and differences in how blogs in different interest areas are developed. A weight loss blog is likely to have before-and-after photos. A home decor blog will usually have a ‘home tour’ page with photos of the blogger’s home. A writing blog will feature images of…well, usually images of the writer’s self-published book cover. :)

One common habit I’ve noticed across all the various blogging niches is that we generally do a lousy job of attributing images not our own but used in our posts. There seems to be a misconception that if it’s on the internet, it’s free for the using, but that’s just not so. Or we stick an “Image Credit” at the bottom of the post or behind a link and call it attribution. It’s not. In fact, you could find yourself in a whole heap of trouble. If you don’t believe me, read Roni Loren’s story of the nightmare she endured when she unknowingly used an image under copyright by the photographer. She thought what she was doing was okay, and it was anything but. Her situation is not something I want to go through, that’s for sure!

So how do we find and use images properly?

The first step, in my opinion, is to gain a greater understanding of copyright and fair use. I’m no expert (I’m still in learning mode), but I can point you in the direction of some folks who know a whole lot more and have the information to prove it: Smashing Magazine’s “Copyright Explained: I May Copy It, Right?” is a comprehensive, informative, plain English discussion of many aspects of copyright and fair use. Read it. (Hat tip to Lorelle on WordPress for pointing me to that valuable resource and saving me from a potentially costly and/or embarrassing situation.)

Okay, we read it. Can we go find images now?

Not quite. Many images and creative works have copyrights under Creative Commons licenses,so we need to learn more about those. For that, why not go to the Creative Commons website, specifically, the license page. In addition to an explanation of the license process, there’s a good summary of the various types of licenses. Some works can be modified, some can’t. Some can be used commercially, some can’t. And so on. It’s a good resource to bookmark.

One way to avoid issues with copyright is to use works in the public domain. Wikipedia has an excellent list of resources for finding public domain images. Please note their cautionary warning at the top of the article: “The presence of a resource on this list does not guarantee that all or any of the images in it are in the public domain.” It’s still our responsibility to research the copyright.

And one last thing to consider. We can always contact the image source and ask permission to use the image, politely thanking them no matter what their response. :)

Copyright might seem like a dry subject, but it’s important to understand what it’s about. It’s both an issue of respect to our fellow creative types, and an issue of protecting ourselves from legal repercussions.

This series continues…
Part 2: Google Images
Part 3: Flickr

Organizing Receipts

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I’m still here plugging away at my organizing tasks, one small step at a time. This week I decided to tackle a long-time nemesis, receipt clutter, and found a delightfully simple solution.

For my own simple purposes, I have three categories of receipts:

  1. Business receipts
  2. Big-ticket purchase rceipts
  3. Everything else

I have good systems in place for the first two categories:

  • Business receipts go straight to the tax folder or, in the case of reimbursable client purchases, into the client folder to await the next invoice. Easy-peasy.
  • Big-ticket purchase receipts get taped to the instruction manual or a large sheet of paper and placed in a folder labeled, oddly enough, “big ticket items”. (I never said I was particularly creative.)

messy pile of receiptsThose work well for me, month in and month out.

For that third category, Everything Else, I’ve played with different methods but hadn’t found a really sustainable solution. Whether I used a file folder, an envelope, a plastic bin, or whatever, I still ended up with receipts tucked in every nook and cranny of my desk and purse. Receipts both old and new were all intermixed in these little tucked away bunches. Messy and disorganized, not to mention totally unnecessary.

Most of my Everything Else receipts are for necessary consumables: groceries, gas, etc. Once I’ve verified they appeared correctly on my credit card statement, there’s really no need to keep them. What I really needed was a simple, short-term storage method, and I think I found it in an post on Homestead Revival. (Who said Pinterest was a waste of time?)

It is with great pleasure I give you my version of Amy’s desktop storage solution:

receipts in a jar

This was my grandfather’s tobacco jar. I remember watching with fascination as he went through his ritual of filling, tamping, lighting and then savoring his nightly puff. He seemed to spend much more time preparing than he did puffing. :)

I’ve had this jar for 25 years, using it to store a variety of household items. Now, it sits on my desk to hold my current month receipts. Each night, I take any receipts from my purse, and if they’re not business or big-ticket receipts, I put them straight into the jar. At the end of the month, they’ll get moved to an envelope in my desk drawer until the next month’s receipts get transferred, and then the oldest will be thrown away. No keeping them for a year (or longer)

Besides having a neater purse, I’ve found another simple pleasure in this method. I love having my grandfather’s jar on my desk! I rarely saw it when it was used for other storage, but now I see it several times a day and use it at least once. The little clink I hear when I replace the top on the jar takes me back to those long ago days of my grandfather’s nightly ritual. And that makes me happy.

Workable and practical storage solutions don’t have to be complicated. This one is certainly simple, and I’m hopeful that it continues to be both effective and enjoyable.

How do you store/organize your receipts?