Yes, I know Cyber Monday is only a few days away but I plan to enjoy Black Friday, the traditional opening of the Holiday shopping season, from my couch. As I’ve mentioned before, I recently left my job so I am looking to get the most “bang for my buck” (a phrase I never used until I represented a well known online retailer).

I’m not exactly a morning person, you’ll be lucky to hear from me on a holiday/weekend before 10am, so getting to the mall at 5am is very unlikely. I’ve already noticed some great sales online before Thanksgiving so I’m sure Black Friday will be no different. I’m planning to check out Overstock.com (a personal favorite), the Gap, Amazon.com and Victoria’s Secret. Once I’m done, it’s time for a little coffee and breakfast.

I’m not sure what deals will be found online on Black Friday but I’m looking forward to hearing from my friends and family to compare best finds and what’s left on the list. Any hidden online gems I should know about before beginning my holiday shopping on Friday?

In the mean time, I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!!

I was just reading Slate’s prediction about who will be pardoned by President Bush come pardon time. I have to begin by admitting that political pardons are not my area of expertise at all but I thought it would be fun to make my own predictions on who should be pardoned by the president on his way out. I’ll begin by stealing one from Slate’s list of predictions:

-Martha Stewart: As Slate says, “Why not?”. I’m not a huge Martha Stewart fan but from all the news coverage it appeared that she served a much more severe sentence than other folks who commit similar crimes. The law should be fair and if Martha is guilt, all of those wrong doers at a similar level should be punished as well. Assuming that isn’t realistic, let’s all move on and pardon Martha.
-Palin E-mail Hackers: Although there is yet to be a conviction, let’s get ahead of this one. I think we all understand that the Internet is a public domain and there can never be a level of absolute security on the web, so be careful with your email. If it’s that easy to hack into Palin’s email, it’s that easy to hack into anyones. We shouldn’t punish the people that were smart enough to teach us all that lesson. Say Thank You and move on.
-Verizon Employees: Yep, the ones who snooped on Obama’s phone bills. Yes, it’s wrong but when you have access to all of that confidential information, what can you expect. I’m personally to paranoid to cross such a line because I know that I will get caught and in trouble but curiousity is not always a bad trait. Also, I heard that the folks who actually did the “snooping” were told to do it by senior management. Please be sure to punish the right folks and not the unfortunate folks who just follow orders.

We’ll have to wait and see who Bush picks to pardon but I have a feeling there will be a couple of folks that are expected and a couple of surprises.

I’ve been on the job hunt for about a week and a half now. No, I haven’t walks around looking for “help wanted” signs or gone business to business asking about available positions. In all reality, I haven’t had to lift my hand from the keyboard. I made the decision to leave my job so I haven’t been as aggressive as I probably ought but I’ve sent a handful of resumes each day. Most of those end up in the corporate site or Craigslist black hole but I’ve received a few responses, all declining my application but a response is a response.

I did hear from a company that I found on Craigslist saying that they received over 500 applications and had to select a few to interview. How does a company, big or small, sift through that many resumes and cover letters. I can’t even fathom selecting from a small handful let alone 500. I would love to hear from other job seekers about where they’ve had the most luck. Here’s what I’ve tried thus far:

-Craigslist
-Corporate sites
-Reaching out to to network of peeps
-Attending events
-Recruiter

Again, so far, not so good on actually finding a job. I am very tempted to go a little more low tech and start visiting companies that I would like to work for. Apple and Twitter, I may be knocking on your door shortly! i did take extra steps to control my online persona by setting both my Facebook and Twitter to private so hopefully there is nothing on this blog that makes me unemployable since I want folks to keep coming back and reading me.

Did I mention, I checked out my stats for the first time? I’m either super popular or super confused about how to read that stats. Either way, put me in a super mood this morning. Hopefully some positive job updates to come. In the mean time, enjoy this celebratory YouTube clip. Love it!

So sad this morning. All I want to do is update my Twitter. How is anyone going to know where I am, what I’m doing or that I’m posting this.

For those of you who know me well, you’re already aware of the fact that I’m leaving my job. I’m currently work at a PR agency representing tech companies and will soon be unemployed (yes, by choice). It’s a weird experience to be honest. I knew I was unhappy and was becoming less and less productive and knew it was time for a change but stepping out and doing it was tough. The financial impact is obviously going to be painful but I understand that. The part that makes me truly sad is that I will no longer see my favorite people on a daily basis. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will actually succeed in staying friends with my buddies from work. Only time will tell if that can happen.

It’s also weird to think that I won’t have that unintentional daily exposure to the tech world. I won’t be working in the SOMA, I will probably attend only a fraction of the tech events that I attend now and I will likely be working in a slightly different industry. Again, time will only tell.

Then this thought crossed my mind: I’m a blogger who writes about the tech world, I will make sure I stay on top of what’s going on. That thought really made me smile and I know I will actually have a reason to attend events and stay in touch with my people. Yay! Good news. I’ve neglected pseudotechgirl while I made this tough decision. More tech focused posts to come, especially since the Digg party is next week and a few other events scheduled before the holidays. 

As my tech friends say “w00t, w00t” and peace out for now. 

An almost weekly rundown of social media trends/stories

1) CNN and the holograms (please get the Jem reference here)! CNN election night coverage went back to 1977 and said “Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope” with the Will.i.Am hologram. The virtual Will.i.Am chatted with the very real Anderson Cooper while Jessica Yellin the hologram chatting with Wolf Blitzer. Using 44 little cameras and 20 computers to project a very life like image into the studio, CNN made sure to keep folks entertained while waiting for California’s to assign delegates. Who knew Star Wars technology could be so progressive and modern almost 30 years later?

2) SuccessWhale! The big story following the election was not the Obama win or the silly results of Prop 8 but the fact that the whale never showed up. With an increased level of tweets on November 4th, Twitter pulled through without one failwhale arrival. Good job Twitter! November 5th featured a couple of whale sightings but they were few and far between.

3) R.I.P FakeSarahPalin: Let’s wrap of this edition of social studies with a good bye to FakeSarahPalin. By far, she was one of my favorite tweeters on the micro-blogging site. She was funny, timely and a little too real. Sarah, you will be missed and hope you’ll make a few guest appearances for the inauguration ceremony.