It’s summer time and with this hot and sweaty season, most people go on some type of vacation and I’m proud to say I am one of those “most people.” I am heading to Destin, Florida in a week with my family and my boyfriend and I must say I’ve never been so ready for relaxation in my life!

This year has been a crazy and busy year. I just started a new job, I’m busy with my blog, my podcast and writing on Culture Feast, and I’m ready to just sit on the beach and stare at the ocean. What is it about life that gets us so stressed out that sometimes we get even stressed about taking a vacation?

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Unless you’re living under a rock, you know by now that the new 3G iPhone has been released from its proverbial locked case. I drove by Knox-Henderson’s Apple Store in Dallas Friday morning and gasped at the 4 block line that was created at 8:00am. What you may not know is that the activation process for the 3G was downright hellish in most big cities due to AT&T and Apple servers going down through out the country. I’ve written about the 3G iPhone before and I’ve also compared the 3G to Blackberry’s Bold, but what about those of us who already have an iPhone? Is it really worth getting the new one?

The biggest news in the last few days has been the new iPhone 2.0 firmware that was pushed out for all iPhone users. In essence, this firmware update was for the 3G so that it would work properly and add more benefits. Thankfully, Apple was smart in that they decided everyone should have these benefits, not just the new iPhone folks. With that said, this new firmware has basically changed the “1.0 iPhone” to a new masterpiece thanks to the addition of 3rd party apps from “The App Store.”

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Popularity: 20% [?]

A couple of weeks ago, EA games created a very successful marketing campaign for their new game, Spore.  Spore Creature Creator is an application you can download for free and it gives you partial access to create your own Spore (creature). EA released the Creature Creator on June 16th, 2008 and they’ve had over one million creature created with one week’s time.

I’ve never been a gamer. That being said, I can say that EA’s Spore Creature Creator was a marketing campaign success. Why? Take people like me, for example. I like to blog, surf the net and get my social networking on. I don’t play games, but I couldn’t help but be interested after hearing several friends on Twitter talk about their newly created Spore. EA even held contests with “web celebs” such as iJustine, Phil DeFranco and Veronica Belmont to see whose Spore Creature Creator was the best creation.  It generated tons of buzz.

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Popularity: 25% [?]

It’s really hot outside. We hit 100 degrees yesterday (June 27th) which was our 4th time to hit 100 this summer. Sadly, it’s not even July yet. But one thing we can all agree on, in this time of political debates, technology debates and any other debate… it’s hot outside.

Dallas, from the four years I’ve lived here, has always had hot summers. Most everyone knows that. But doesn’t it seem to be getting hotter as each summer roasts by? I recall moving here in August 2004 and instead of frying and praying I wouldn’t get a heat stroke, I was actually pleasantly surprised to see the temperature gauge read 81 degrees! It was 4:00pm when I read the temperature. It was truly an amazing, beautiful and not-hot day! Now, I realize, that was an anomaly.

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Popularity: 36% [?]

Ladies and gentleman, let the summer season of awesome TV begin. Bravo's hugely popular hit series, Flipping Out, has begun airing the premiere of season two tonight (Tuesday, June 17th).  If you've watched Flipping Out, then no need to read any further.  If you haven't watched it, give me until the end of this post and I'll give you a reason to program your Tivo and begin recording a summer series that will stay with you for months to come. 

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Popularity: 17% [?]

One of the things I love most about my Apple TV is watching TV series in their entirety.  I'm what you call a "TV-holic" and nothing gets me more excited than a phenomenal TV series.  I'm here to tell you I've found one in Weeds.  Showtime's ever-so-popular drug dealing TV series has really captured my attention.  Yesterday, I decided to download the entire first season of Weeds since I kept hearing so many good things about it.  I don't subscribe to Showtime so I've never seen the show when it officially aired in 2005.  Obviously, I have some catching up to do. The show is currently producing its 4th season. 

According to Showtime, Weeds is an American "dark comedy" television series.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Written prior to Steve Jobs' speech at WWDC yesterday. 

As you know with my earlier iPhone post, I'm very excited about the upcoming announcement regarding the new iPhone.  However, I would be ignorant to think that iPhone's next-generation 3G phone is going to be the only one on the market.  Blackberry Bold has consistently kept it's users happy by continually upgrading it's 9000 series so that it can be a strong contender with Apple.  I thought it may be interesting to compare the two and then let you, the reader, make a decision on which one is going to take the market.

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Popularity: 34% [?]

I've been a recruiter, professionally, for nine years.  Recently, it seems more and more people are asking me about the best ways to find a job or how to improve their resumes and cover letters.  It's obvious, no matter which political side you sit on, that our economy is taking a major hit.  Employers are beginning to lay off people, albeit ever-so-secretly, but it's happening.  Employees are realizing that they need a job that pays more money since gasoline is up so high, the cost of food has radically increased and their economic stimulus check has already been spent.  I decided that maybe I should try to shed some light, from a recruiter's perspective, on the best ways for someone to land a job.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

If you haven't heard that Apple will be releasing the 3G iPhone in June, you must be living under a rock.  Several major sources, including AT&T, have hinted and announced that the 3G iPhone is on its way.  The next big Apple conference is June 9th, 2008 otherwise known as the WWDC conference.  Most reliable Apple sources have confirmed that the 3G will be announced on June 9th, when Steve Jobs takes the floor at the WWDC.

According to Engadget, the 3G iPhone will also be cheaper than the original iPhone's price when it first launched.  The new iPhone will also have proper GPS capability installed in the phone.  The new generation phone is also supposed to support advanced IM and MMS features.  Several sources have also confirmed that testing has already been complete and therefor the release of the next generation iPhone is imminent.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

We hear "Web 2.0" all the time, and primarily what the experts are saying about Web 2.0 is accurate.  According to Wikipedia, Web 2.0 is describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing and collaboration among users (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0).  I want to touch on the creativity aspect of a cool new service I just found that's so very "Web 2.0".

I came across this really cool yet different idea on several social networking sites that I participate in on a day to day basis.  Somethingstore.com is a fun, new website that operates quite simply: they send you something which is selected randomly from their inventory for $10.00 (free shipping) and you will find out what that special something is when you receive it in the mail.

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Popularity: 7% [?]

In the days of social networking sites gaining more and more exposure, there's one in particular that I find personally the most satisfying.  Twitter is becoming one of the most talked about social networking platformsthat is currently on the web today.  Twitter has been explained as "the center of the internet" by Geekbrief's Cali Lewis.  We've all read by now how a student twittered his way out of jail and there are beginning to be more and more stories of how effective this medium can be.  Still, there are a lot of people out there who don't understand Twitter. 

One of the reasons I find this social medium to be exciting is because of it's social networking power.  You don't necessarily have to have 4,000 friends to create influence on Twitter.  If you can grasp the concept of sending a text message on your cell phone, you can understand the functionality of Twitter.  Twitter only allows you to write 140 characters within each message (or tweet) you send out to the "twitosphere".

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Popularity: 7% [?]