One of my favorite things about the Internet is finding something new, funny, intriguing, or surprising to share with my friends. Sometimes, I write about the best stuff and share it here on Geek Mom Mashup. Other times, I just share the link, because I don’t feel like writing a whole blog post.

Scoop.it Dashboard Heading

This is where the curation process starts. You view Scoop.it‘s suggestions and choose which ones are the best. Add your own intro, image and keywords, and click Publish! The story is posted to your own niche microsite, with built-in sharing tools. For an example of how it works, check out my topic pages.

Here are my Scoop.it topics:

• Geek and Gamer Stuff
• Geeky Creations (crafts, food, artwork)
• The Hunger Games Books and Movies
• The Twilight Saga

You can make your topic pages more popular by choosing the best content, weeding out the unrelated or spammy search results, and sharing your published stories. You can also set up your account to automatically post to your other accounts, including Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and WordPress.

Scoop.it‘s still in beta mode, but I have 9 invitations to share! If you’d like to try it, just leave me a comment below. It’s a fairly fun, and amazingly easy, way to gather and share the freshest stuff on the web.

See the Attention Bar in action

Recently, I started working as a freelance website designer on Elance.com (see my Elance profile). Fixing up a client’s site inspired me to try some new features right here on GeekMomMashup.com.

One feature is a new plugin called “Attention Bar.” It’s the piece of code responsible for that nifty yellow bar at the top of the site.

I just created a Facebook page for Geek Mom Mashup, so I decided to announce it with the Attention Bar. The color, text, and link are customizable. The plugin comes with a few ready-made skins, or you can make your own. It’s easy to install and configure, and I like the way the user can hide and reveal the bar.

The Attention Bar is inspired by the Hello Bar, which allows only a limited number of clickthroughs on free accounts. The Attention Bar is free and unbranded, which makes it a better choice for poor bloggers, like me.

If you’re looking for a slick way to get your visitors’ attention, give the Attention Bar a try. Let me know what you think!

P.S. Please check out GeekMomMashup.com on Facebook!

Using my smartphone to browse my favorite blogs and shops is convenient, especially when I’m stuck in a waiting room without any good magazines. While I was at the dentist with my son yesterday, I decided to check on this blog, to see what it looks like on a mobile screen.

Well, I had looked at it before, but I decided to look again. I loaded GeekMomMashup.com and waited for it to load. Then I scrolled down, which took quite a while, because the three-column design was forced into a very long single-column view. The flow of content and widgets was nearly unrecognizable, and the overall effect was messy and disorganized. I could hardly find anything, and I know exactly where to look! Not good!

I did some quick searching on “how to make a mobile version of a blog,” and other variations on those terms, and I ended up at MoFuse. It took just a few minutes to set up a free account, plug in my feed, and claim a MoFuse location for my mobile version. Easy!

And for even more mobile blog fun, I designated a new subdomain of my blog (m.geekmommashup.com) and pointed it to my MoFuse site. Then, I added a snippet of automatic mobile detection code (provided by MoFuse) to my blog, which sends visitors on mobile devices directly to the clean, lean, mean, mobile layout. Finally, I added a mini-mii version of my blog header, and voila!

It seems to be working, and it was quick, easy, and free. You can take a look from your mobile device at m.geekmommashup.com, or by taking a picture of this code (yes, that’s how it’s supposed to work, but I haven’t tried it myself). Or, you can enter your number here and have the link sent directly to your phone.

A while back, I posted a prototype of my blog business card, and asked for comments and suggestions. You all came up with lots of great ideas, and I promised to post a picture of the finished product, so here it is!

I decided to go with the vertical front design and horizontal back. Your suggestions were incorporated by adding white space to the back of the card, and only using the glossy coating on the front. The position of the blog address was also moved so it doesn’t look like a mustache anymore.

Thanks for all of your input! I really appreciate it, and I love the way the cards turned out! Also, a huge thanks to Jason at GorillaSushi, for his patience, design skillz, and willingness to tweak the details until they were just the way I wanted them. (I made him change the color of the hair a couple of times. I’m annoying like that.) If you need something printed, go ask Jason.

P.S. – And don’t forget to enter our contest to win a free month of advertising on a whole bunch of blogs! It used to be 10 blogs, but now it’s up to 35!

UPDATE: Hey, I just found out my card design was selected as one of the “30 best business cards of August 2008.” Yaay!

Hello, dear friends, loyal readers, and random lurkers. I am notoriously indecisive (just ask Hubby), and I am having a hard time deciding on a final design for my new blog business card. Since you’re all savvy bloggers and internet addicts, I need you to tell me what you think of this design, okay? Please share your honest first impressions in the comments. Thank you, thank you!

EDIT (7/21/08): Thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions and comments! I have finally decided on a design, and my new cards are on their way! I’ll post the winning design, which incorporates some of your excellent ideas, once they arrive. I can hardly wait to see them for real!

this is the front of the card

back of card

This post is all about self-promotion, in more ways than one. First, I’m promoting my post over at Posh Mama, where I do a weekly feature on something tech or geek related. And second, this week’s post is about self-promotion! So how’s that for a double-whammy of ME? If you’re interested, go take a look. I think you’ll be able to view the article while it’s on the front page, without registering for PoshMama (a free online women-only community — sorry, dudes). Oh, and the articles I write for PoshMama are “exclusive,” so they don’t get posted here. You have to go over there to read them. It’s fun over there, though, and if you go visit, I think you’ll like it!

And there’s more!

Also, this is exciting news: My previous PoshMama feature (on the Asus eee PC) was picked up and published at ComputerShopper.com. And the one before that, on the WiiFit, was run by Reuters and the Southtown Star (part of the Sun-Times group).

So if you happen to be visiting through one of those sites, I’m sending a big, geeky hug your way! Welcome, and thanks for stopping by!

Hello, friends. First, I must thank you for your patience and support while I dealt with my hosting problem this weekend. As you can see, the problem has been solved, at least for now. I strive to keep my site clean, safe, and fast-loading, and am continually making improvements toward those goals (like the new theme?). I won’t bore you with additional details right now.

In other news, I’ve been tagged by Jolene, for the Seven Weird or Unique Things About Me meme. Here we go!

1. I love to put peanut butter, applesauce, and maple syrup, on my pancakes and waffles.
2. I’m terribly afraid of heights. I freeze up and can’t move. For this reason, I don’t like stairs with spaces between the steps. Yikes!
3. I used to be allergic to red food dye, which would cause me to break out in hives. No cherry Kool-Aid, popsicles, or Twizzlers for me.
4. I am a darn good pianist.
5. As long as I’m bragging, I was also valedictorian of my high school class.
6. I’m just 5 feet tall. I can only touch the ground with my toes when I sit in this chair.
7. I went to Space Camp in junior high, and loved every minute of it. But you already know I’m nerdy like that.

Now I’ll pass this on to five lucky people, so we can learn how fascinating they are behind their blogs! techfun, mumsgotta, tipidmeals, fiveblondes, lisa365 Gotcha!

Elliott, the 21st Century Dad himself, and pioneer of the 50-50-50 Plan for balancing work and family life, asked me to do a guest post on his blog. I gave it a try, and here is the resulting article, “Happy to be a Hapa Girl.” It’s a little bit about my experiences growing up half-Japanese in the midwestern United States, so if that sounds interesting to you, go read it. Thank you!

GeekMomMashup is now being displayed on Alltop, the “digital magazine rack” of the Internet. Yaay! The Alltop team selects the best sites, regardless of whether they are big or small, and loves to find hidden gems. I’m flattered that they like my little nugget of geeky goodness. Thanks, Alltop!

Nothing cures a case of the “Mondays” like doing something thoroughly unproductive for half an hour, right? Here’s an idea…

I love playing with avatar creators, because I’m no good at drawing, and I’m too cheap to hire someone to make me a custom caricature. Now that WordPress has built-in gravatar support, you might be looking for a new image to use when you’re out and about in the bloggy neighborhood.

Here’s one for you to try, from gamedition. It doesn’t build a whole body for you, but you can customize a cartoon head for yourself. There are even some cute and quirky accessories, like a pirate eye patch and 3-D glasses. [EDIT: I had initially linked this post directly to the flash file for the avatar creator, but GamEdition has redirected that to the main page, which contains thumbnails to games that are not G-rated. Just thought you should know before you click.]

Here’s what I came up with after about 30 minutes of messing around with it. I think I like it!