My Own Personal Assistant - I can dream, can't I?

While doing research on an article about female CEOs in technology-based companies, I ran across Leah Busque, CEO and founder of Task Rabbit.
You can find Leah at:

• Her Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook

Wouldn't you love it if someone would take care of the little errands that have to get done but you've got no time to do them? I have an old friend who is a CEO in a large company, due to the red-tape involved in mentioning what company and who I've opted not to name her and the company. Been there, done that. This friend often says, usually when she's got too many balls in the air, "I really need a wife." I know, its kind of a sexist statement, but knowing the source of the comment I know what she means.  She knows that women are so good at getting done what has to be done. Leah Busque needed something done when she didn't have time to do it and the result was Task Rabbit.

Image via CrunchBaseTask Rabbit is like having your own staff of personal assistants without the hassle of contracts. Say you forgot to buy dog food, you post it on Task Rabbit, either on their website or phone app, and receive a notification that someone's taking care of it for you. Wouldn't it be dreamy?

"TaskRabbits are friendly, awesome people in your community who are either under-employed, retired, parents with grown children, or folks who just want something more interesting than a standard desk job."

The most popular tasks appear to be donation pickup, IKEA delivery and assembly and whole foods delivery. If you leave comments about the person who completed the Task you get "carrots" that can be applied to a free task.

Unfortunately, Task Rabbit is limited to major cities and is not in my area. Task rabbit locations: Boston, New York City, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles; With Chicago, Portland, Seattle soon to be added. If you don't see your city listed you can drop them an email to request a task rabbit.

There are other websites that offer what is called virtual assistants that I guess I could check out for my area. The top two include taskeverday.com and zaarly.com.

Not having a TaskRabbit, I gotta run: so much to do, so little time.

NOTE: This is day No. 5 toward keeping my commitment to post once a day. Have you joined yet?

'Dogtooth': Disturbing and Thought Provoking. On to 'Red State'...

Last night I broke down and put in a Netflix DVD that's been sitting on my desk for months now. I was reminded that it had been sitting there when Twitter became inundated with posts about the break down in the Starz-Netflix contract. The Satellite TV channel had a distribution agreement with Netflix to provide digital access to movies from Sony and Disney through Feb. 28. 2010. But, Starz announced that it will not continue the arrangement and so Tweets were telling everyone they'd "better" go watch all the Starz movies in their Netflix que. 

When I do watch movies, I tend to watch digitally. I only use the DVD feature when a film I really want to watch isn't available. 

I had read a review about Dogtooth and was intrigued. It was a well-respected film critic and it was the shortest review I'd ever read. It said something like "I'm not telling you NOT to see Dogtooth. I'm NOT telling you TO see it. All that I'm telling you was that it was disturbing." That was it. Then, when it received the nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, I decided to order it.

Now I know what he meant. Whoa. There are few films that I'd say I'd remember all my life. Most of the stuff i watch are chick-flicks so that's not surprising. I forget the premise days after I've watched some of that stuff. 

Disturbing isn't the half of it. I picked up my remote a number of times to turn it off but I was, I don't know, mesmerized? Like the lookie-loos who stare at a car accident, I couldn't look away. And, it had nothing to do with the fact that my Greek is practically nonexistent even though I am married to a Greek. Learning Greek is another item on my To Do Someday list. So, I had to read the subtitles to follow along. 

Stream of Consciousness Post

Hmmm. Today's NaBloPoMo prompt is "How did you feel about the start of the school year growing up?" No. I said I wasn't going to follow the prompts. School is a boring topic. I was lucky though. My brother was, as my geeky friends said, "One of the beautiful people", so I never had a lot of peer pressure. I was always on the fringe of all the groups at school…

Image via Wikipedia

My geeky friends…lol. What ever happened to "Beetle Bailey"? Why did we call him that? Haven't kept in touch with any of my school friends. Well, actually there are a few school friends who managed to "friend" me on Facebook. That's amazing. How did they find me? Its not like I advertise who I "was." I don't have my school listed in my profile, do I? Nope. I don't even have my maiden name on there…
Geeze look at my wall. Natalie needs some LOVE for her Sims. Better send that. Dang, Lana wants to share a special delivery package. I hate those things. Every time I open them I get a freaking brick. Makes me feel like Charlie Brown trick-or-treating and what does he have to show for it? @CB: "I got a rock…"

Hit the Road Capt. Jack

Image via WikipediaAre you going to go out of town for the Labor Day weekend? This year, we're getting four days off. We are going to be visiting with some family at least one of the days. So, its a great time to put my new mobile apps to use. I got an iPhone last Christmas (thank you dear hubby!) and its really made life easier. The "Around Me" app alone really saved us when we were in Texas this summer for my nephews wedding and couldn't locate the hotel. After the third time around the block, I pulled out my phone, put in the name of the hotel and it showed us exactly what turns to make to get there. Really cool.  Playing with "Around Me" some more, we found local museums and other hot spots. As an addicted genealogist, of course I had to pull up directions for the local libraries and cemeteries.

NaBloPoMo - Why are they hounding me? Why? Why? Why?

Its that time of year again. A time that I have to face reality. A time that I sometimes dread and other times can't wait to sit down to my keyboard. It's NaBloPoMo. Well, it officially starts tomorrow. What in the world makes them hang this over my head? Why are they so cruel? I can't even remember to take my one-a-day vitamins, so why do they think I can do this every day? Why are they hounding me? Why? Why? Why?
For those who don't know. NaBloPoMo is National Blog Posting Month and it starts September 1st. You sign in and make a commitment to post at least once a day. My problems with it are many. First, I HATE, with a capital H-A-T-E, any one telling me I HAVE to do something. Telling me I have to do something is like telling me to do the opposite. Are you like that?

Cleaning House Tip - Use an Elephant

It's been a while since I've posted. The good news is that I've been very busy with work, the bad news is it doesn't give me a lot of time to catch a wave on the world wide web. Yesterday, however, I decided to tackle the nightmare that is my bookmarking world. While surfing I often will bookmark a page with the honest intention of coming back to it. However, even after I've read the page, it ends up that I have lots of left over bookmarks. A couple of weeks ago, a cousin asked me if I've used Evernote? She "loves it," she said. Well, truth is, I had installed Evernote a long time ago and it had just been sitting there.
It seemed to me that it did the same thing as Instapaper--saving a webpage to be read later on your iphone or computer. I do love Instapaper. It's saved me from boredom many times. I'm not a big fan of the magazines that doctors' offices, hair salons, and what have you, tend to keep in their lobbies. People Magazine, Us Magazine, year-old copies of Time Magazine or Newsweek, have me yawning before I hit the second page.

Watch Out for the SmartFlu

The reason you haven't heard from me lately is I've had a terrible battle with the flu. Judging from the CDC's Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report, that's probably not a surprise to you.

With most states and territories ranked as having "widespread" outbreaks, its highly likely that you've probably had it or, heaven forfend, will get it soon. Even my never-get-sick-but-when-I-do-watch-out-cause-I-transform-into-a-3-year-old-baby husband got it this year.
You can read all about the 2011 Flu season at the CDC, which describes it basically as a ho-hum, run-of-the-mill, seasonal outbreak. Its what they don't tell you, that concerns me. I'm not talking about a conspiracy, rather I have it on personal experience, that there's something very, very weird about the flu this season. Of course, I don't blame them. They are only going by information given to them. The CDC gets its information from physicians who have no way of documenting this whole new mutation of flu.
You hear reports of viral mutations every so often on the news (i.e. bird flu, swine flu, Hong Kong or h5N1) in which strains of the flu develop immunity to flu shots. MIT researchers, in following the flu, say that the only way to prevent this strain from causing "disastrous consequences" is by identifying the sequence of mutations. I have some bad news.
The flu has mutated with some kind of artificial intelligence. Perhaps the virus picked it up from the traits of the many victims who are uninsured professionals with geek tendencies such as myself. These uninsured, intelligent individuals know that there's no "cure" for the flu once you've got it and so there's no reason for a doctor's visit. All you can really do is drink plenty of fluids and wait it out.
This new flu, which I've named the SmartFlu, sent out the smartest ones in the bunch to infect those least likely to contact a physician thereby changing the rules of the CDC/MIT researchers' game. You can't track what you don't know about.
Image via WikipediaThese smart little devils, having artificial intelligence, also seem to have picked up the ability to determine the most opportune time to infect its victims. Just when you've signed a major contract, picked up a new client, started a class, cracked open a long-awaited book, and/or any other time-encompassing ventures, that's when the SmartFlu strikes forcing you to throw all plans out the window and lie in a trance-like state while it has its way with you.
So, the next time you're out hobnobbing around and run across a particularly brilliant individual, just think twice about shaking their hand.