Last Minute Online Gifts For Good

It’s the night before Christmas,
and all through the house,
the screams from the office
have upset your spouse.

You made a gift list
and checked it your best.
How could you have forgotten
your brother out West?

It’s a last minute panic,
driven by fear.
Is there anything out there
that can save you this year?

On Google, on Yahoo, on GoodSearch, on Bing!
Visit the K.I.N.D site and you’ll find the right thing.
Now only will you deliver that gift that you should,
You’ll be doing young students a whole world of good.

Instead of calling your brother
to say that you’re sorry,
give a desk in his name
to a kid in Malawi.

A desk will be built,
creating local employment.
A child gets off the dirt floor,
creating school time enjoyment.

Right now you contribute,
in a process that’s swift.
Your brother gets an e-card,
acknowledging your gift.

This couldn’t be easier,
it sure fills a need.
Relax now at Christmas,
you’ve done a good deed

Making a donation to a good cause in someone’s name brightens the day of 3 people. You feel good doing it, the person whose name you are giving it in is both surprised and delighted, and the charity that you help improves the life of a person or animal, perhaps all year long.

This year, we’ve been especially intrigued by the K.I.N.D: Kids in Need of Desks project that is a cooperative project of Lawrence O’Donnell on his MSNBC show, “The Last Word,” and UNICEF. What makes this project so compelling is that for a mere $48, you can have an entire desk built in Malawi and delivered to a classroom in need. This desk will be used for years, perhaps decades, to improve the learning of kids who now sit on the floor and write in their notebooks the best they can. It’s amazing how such a small contribution on our part can make such a huge difference in the lives of youngsters and adults in the third world. Adults? Yes, the adults are hired to build those desks out of metal pipe and wood on-site in Malawi. When ready, they load the desks into a truck and deliver them to delighted students at one lucky classroom. The next load goes to a different classroom.

You can read more about this K.I.N.D project, see the happy faces of the school kids in Malawi and watch a video about the project. Then, go to the K.I.N.D. donation page and contribute what you wish in your own name or for anyone else you want to honor. Your donation will be processed instantly online and an e-card from K.I.N.D. will be sent to the recipient of your choice.

Did someone say it was too late to buy a last minute gift this year? Ho, ho, ho. There’s always time for giving on the Internet. For the animal lover on your gift list, have a look at "I Want a Baby Elephant for Christmas."

Happy Holidays!

Happy 4th of July

Wishing You a Safe and Joyous Independence Day!

No Luck Returning Christmas Gifts? Recycle!

The holiday whirlwind is subsiding. Most of the wrapping paper has been rounded up and set out at the curb in a bulging plastic bag. What’s left is a pile of stuff under the tree that needs to go somewhere. Not the decorations, mind you. They have a box in the basement. It’s all those new gifts that loving friends and family showered upon you this year. You didn’t have the heart to tell them that you already have a smartphone or game console or MP3 player or navigation device or even a laptop computer that’s better than the new one in the box. Now what?

The week after Christmas is traditional for schlepping gifts back to the store from which they came. Another item or, better yet, a cash refund is your reward for standing in long lines to present your paperwork for inspection.

Oh, no. You have no paperwork. These gifts did not come with a refund register slip. The giver never thought of that or was so sure they were giving you the gift of a lifetime that you wouldn’t consider exchanging it for something else. Are you going to tell Aunt Millie, your mom or your bosses boss that you really don’t want that electronic whatever?

Save yourself the embarrassment and the standing in lines. There’s a much easier and more discrete way to unload a Christmas burden... er... gift. Just go ahead and recycle it.

What? Stick that new e-reader in the curbside recycling bin? That’s nuts!

Of course it is. I’m not talking about trashing a valuable piece of new electronic or photographic gear. What I’m suggesting is that you quickly and easily sell your new, but unwanted, stuff for cash to an online recycler. They’ll take care of finding it a new home where it will be wanted and you’ll be all the richer. Best of all, nobody’s going to rat you out to the boss or relatives.

How much can you get? The best way to see is to find your item on the Gazelle website. They maintain an up-to-date database of all the stuff they buy, with an instant online offer. You simply find the item you have to sell, check a few boxes indicating condition and available accessories, and then click a button to get an offer. If you like what you see, you accept the offer and you’ll get a free postage paid shipping box sent to you. Then carefully pack your item in the box, wish it the best for a new life, and drop it off for shipment. Once your item has been received and evaluated, you’ll get a check. It’s that easy.

What sort of gadgets does Gazelle buy? All sorts of cell phones, digital cameras, desktop computers, external drives, tablets, video games, PDAs, calculators, streaming media, e-readers, movies, gaming consoles, LCD monitors, home audio, laptop computers, GPS devices, camera lenses, projectors, MP3 players, camcorders, satellite radios and Blu-Ray players.

You’ll get the most money for new items, but you can also sell used devices of recent vintage in good condition. Cell Phones that have just come out of service are excellent candidates for resale. Sometimes you can get paid a good chunk of change for a cell phone that you got free from your provider. It’s well worth your while to check offers for every piece of qualified gear that you have around the house or office.

Now that you know how to convert gifts to cash the easy and discrete way, go ahead and get all that unwanted but valuable stuff out of your way before you have to find a place to store it. Once you have cashed-in unwanted gifts, you can look the givers in the eye and honestly say that you wound up with exactly what you wanted.

Happy 4th of July

Yo! Happy Independence Day from T1 Rex’s Business Telecom Explainer and the Founding Fathers:



Best wishes for a safe and happy 4th,

John

Workaholic and Proud of IT

Are you a workaholic? OK, is technology your profession? Enough said.

Well, did you know that workaholics have their own day of recognition? It's not exactly a holiday. That wouldn't be in keeping with the workaholic tradition. Workaholics Day is July 5. You know, the day when everyone else is recovering from the 4th celebrations.

They're all in a semi-stupor with their ears still ringing from standing too close to the fireworks show. Or nursing burns from foolishly lighting off their own backyard shows. Meanwhile, you're roasting in the server room while installing some much needed hardware upgrades. Holiday weekends are traditionally the best times for hardware and software upgrades. There's little activity in the office and most customers aren't hitting the servers.

Sadly, holiday weekends are just a small slice of the work schedule. All the other days and nights, weekdays and weekends are also work days in this 24/7/365 economy. If you're one of the driven who embrace the "always on" lifestyle, then you are certainly qualified to celebrate your day - Workaholics Day.

So, just how does a workaholic celebrate? More work? That seems redundant. Time off? That seems wasteful. How about proclaiming to the world that you are a workaholic and proud of it. That's it! Put it in their face!

You can do just that with workaholic themed items, such as mugs, T-shirts, bumper stickers, magnets, hats and the like. Cafe Press has a pretty complete selection of stuff for the true workaholic.

Treat yourself, or treat someone you know who really doesn't have time to be shopping for themselves. You can also send a Workaholics Day e-card to share a few smiles with somebody you care about who is slaving away instead of slacking this July 5. Just don't send it from some exotic beach vacation area. Unless, of course, you are actually sitting on the beach with your laptop computer and BlackBerry online and hard at work.