Product Placement: Support Entrepreneurs… and Look Good Doing It

You may have noticed that, recently, I put a pretty, pretty new banner ad up in my sidebar for something called Sweat EquiTees. While I typically wouldn’t advertise for apparel on Freelancedom (despite the fact that “shopping for pretty things” is totally at the top of my my top 5 list of favorite hobbies), Sweat EquiTees is different. Their mission is directly aligned with that of Freelancedom, and with everything I’ve been trying to do with my career lately.

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GQueues: Making It Easier for Me To Run My Life on Google

A few weeks ago, I read a blog post over at Zen Habits about going Google-free. Leo’s post proposed that it could be dangerous to give all of your information to, and rely so heavily on, one corporation.

While I found the post interesting, I obviously have no such reservations about allowing Google to run my life. I rely heavily on Google Search throughout the work day (in fact, I just used Google’s blog search function in order to track down Leo’s post so that I could link to it here). I keep track of all of my blog subscriptions with Google Reader. And, when researching practice management services the other month, I came to the conclusion that it would be most cost-effective (aka “free”) to run my business using a mix of Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs.

And now, there’s GQueues.

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Where We Work

[Photo via]

My husband and I have been living in our one-bedroom condo for almost four years now.

When we first moved in, we agreed to forgo the formal dining room in favor of a home office, and so we set up our desks in that space so that we were sitting back-to-back, each of us facing the opposite wall.

Over time, I’ve had less and less patience with this arrangement. Two litter boxes sit to the immediate left of my desk, guaranteeing that there is always a light dusting of litter beneath my feet, and a faint eau-de-cat-poop lingering in the air. The space is also pretty tight. If I shift my chair just slightly, I either bang my left elbow into the china cabinet, or bang the back of my chair into my husband’s. Our office also opens up into the living room, making it impossible for Michael to unwind in front of the television if I happen to be working (he apparently hates the wireless headphones I bought him).

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Product Placement: A Washable Keyboard

kensington-washable-keyboard

I don’t replace my keyboards because they’ve stopped working. I relpace them because they’re so disgustingly filthy they’re beyond all hope.

I have a bad habit of snacking at my desk, working through lunch with a sandwich at my side, spilling coffee droplets, cookie crumbs, etc. Once, when I was still working in an office, I even spilled an entire mug full of tea with honey onto my keyboard. All of the keys got stuck.

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Product Placement: The Lapsac

lapsac-brown

The other week, my husband bought me a laptop, which was just about the most exciting thing ever in the world. (He’s so good with gifts; last year, he got me a GPS for my car and, the year before that, my Nikon D40X.)

It meant that I could be mobile…if only I had something to carry it in.

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Product Placement: The Tripod

I’ve raved about my Nikon D40X in the past. About how — even for non-photographers — having a good camera can be invaluable when it comes to blogging, marketing materials, and more.

Now that I’ve unearthed my husband’s dust-covered tripod and used it to shoot some photos for an upcoming blog post over at Nerve, I’d like to rave about that as well.

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Product Placement: Laptop Sets Me Free

stockxpertcom_id25950101_jpg_bf0545557c87597243b9df96dc3c6aee

I’ll admit it.

I only wanted my husband to get his laptop fixed so that I would never have to leave the cozy safety of my bed ever again.

I loved propping up several pillows behind my back, setting up the small breakfast-in-bed tray, and writing, tweeting, and surfing Etsy to my heart’s content. It was relaxing, and appealed to my inherent laziness.

So it drove me crazy that he was taking his sweet old time replacing his laptop’s defunct power cable.

Then he presented me with an early birthday gift, and suddenly the possibility afforded by mobility seemed limitless!

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Product Placement: All Your Bright Ideas

bright-ideas-notebooks

[$18 for set of 3, Etsy]

I carry a polka-dotted notebook in my purse at all times. There is a collection of moleskines on my desk. And I have the NiteNote tucked away in a drawer underneath my bed.

But that’s not all. In my hall closet, there is a large plastic container filled entirely with blank notebooks, some purchased in various B&Ns and stationery shops…most gifted to me by those who are aware of my enduring notebook love.

You’d think that would be enough to last me a lifetime, but I’m always on the lookout for something new, cute, and small enough to fit in my purse.

Which is why I’m digging these Bright Ideas pocket notebooks on Etsy. Because lord knows I could use a few more bright ideas.

[Via Design Dish]

Related: Product Placement: NiteNote, Product Placement: Freelancedom Survival Kit

Product Placement Plea: Throw Away Your Smartphones!

Just a week ago, I linked to my review of the Peek Pronto over at the Modern Materialist.

I had been eager to review it as an alternative to the  iPhone or BlackBerry but, in the end, I found it wanting.

In fact, I even went off on a minor rant on how having such a device made me feel more immobile, rather than mobile.

I know that not all of us have this problem, though, which is why I’m trying to reach out to all of you smartphone users in a different way.

After the jump, 5 reasons you shouldn’t spend money on a smartphone:

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Product Placement: Peek Pronto Not Pronto Enough

I was thrilled to have a chance to review the Peek Pronto. Loath to spend money on a smartphone, the cheaper plan for this standalone e-mail device seemed ideal.

In the end, though, even that small cost proved to be not worth it.

Head over here to see my full review.