Welcome back from the Thanksgiving weekend, and hopefully it was a long weekend with some time to recharge your batteries!

On Sunday I worked off a little of the extra stuffing I ate at the gym, and worked to tidy up my email and desk, not to mention catch up on my blog feeds. One of the posts I read was from networking guru Jason Jacobsohn, reiterating his belief in writing personal note cards, especially around the holidays. This is a belief I share with him 1,000%, as when I had my letterhead and envelopes printed for Dunkirk Systems I also had note cards made.

Then I remembered – I hadn’t sent note cards to everyone I met at Tech Cocktail! So I took out a little time in the afternoon and wrote out about a dozen cards, as the accompanying photo shows. I ran out of stamps and will have to pick up some at The UPS Store. It felt good completing this task, and it felt even better reaching out to those I met at the networking event.

Business • (1) Comments • Permalink

Happy Cyber Monday! This is the day when people are supposed to jam the Internet and buy items online, as compared to Black Friday where people jam the malls and shop traditional brick-and-mortar stores. In this spirit, I thought I’d share today a gift idea from one of the eCommerce clients of my consulting business, Dunkirk Systems.

SportsScarf is the leader in specialized, full-color scarves promoting your team, school or business. If you are familiar with European soccer and have seen the fans wearing scarves with their team logo or country name, then you know about these scarves. You are seeing them more and more in the US every day, and the best ones come from SportsScarf.

A great gift idea is a scarf for yourself or someone else for their favorite NCAA team or nationality. If you own a business, you can custom order scarves with your logo and branding. Check out their Web site for complete custom order options and information.

Not only do they look great, but also they come in handy with the cold winter months ahead.

Business • Diversions • (2) Comments • Permalink

Many of you are either giving or receiving digital music players of various brands for the holidays. But you need music to put on them, and this is where today’s gift idea comes into play.

Nite Train Band With The High Voltage Horns is an awesome blues band based in the Albany, NY area. My good friends Ken and Marla Briggs are members of band and their latest album is titled Best Man. It is 10 rocking blues songs and a must-have for all blues and general music fans.

Listen and see for yourself on their MySpace pages and their Web site. If you like it, you can buy it from CD Baby, DigStation and iTunes. And if you’re in the Albany area, check them out and tell Briggsy that Mikey in Chicago sent you!

Business • Diversions • (0) Comments • Permalink

You have only through the end of the year to buy a truly unique gift – the One Laptop Per Child computer. Originally billed as the $100 notebook computer to give to children in developing countries, the cost is a little higher, and this offer allows you to buy one for yourself while at the same time buying one for a child.

For $399 plus shipping, I will get a green XO notebook computer that runs Linux with unique and useful software – more information on the machine is on their Web site. As you get one for yourself or someone else, you can deduct from your taxes $200.

I ordered one myself, and am awaiting its arrival. As someone who got into computers at a young age and made a career out of it, I appreciate the need for children to be exposed to technology early on. It is a unique item that I will be able to use for my consulting business, Dunkirk Systems, as I can test and present Web sites on it.

Business • Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink

Let’s kick-off my gift suggestions with a great product at a great price. MyMugs.com creates custom designed coffee mugs for individuals and businesses. It is run by my good friend and fellow entrepreneur Steven Benjamin. All you do is submit a logo, photo or design, and MyMugs does the rest.

For Black Friday, MyMugs is offering a special price - $.99 per mug! No special coupons or codes required. Ordering information and pricing is at MyMugs.com. This offer is only good today, Friday, November 23.

And not only am I a friend, see for yourself – I am a customer too.

Business • (0) Comments • Permalink