BuzzSugar

First Listen: "Thirty One Today" by Aimee Mann

BuzzSugar — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:30:13 PDT

Seeing as Aimee Mann is one of my all-time favorite musicians, I've been eagerly awaiting her next venture, an album titled @#%&! Smilers that's due to release June 3. Lucky for me, the first single off @#%&! Smilers is online today - and I love it.

Called "Thirty One Today," the track has Mann's signature morose-but-lovely quality to it, with lyrics about the sadness of growing older paired with a fun beat and her sweet, mellow voice. It's a good song, totally easy on the ears. If it's any indication of things to come, I am officially psyched for the rest of this album.

Check out the track here - and thanks to Stereogum for the MP3. What do you think of Mann's new track? And speaking of Aimee Mann, did you ever catch the viral videos in which she tries to secure talent for her Christmas show? John Krasinski is adorable as always in this one.

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Polaroid's Z340 Instant Camera Comes With a Digital Twist

Kelly Schwarze — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:41:35 PST

The success of The Impossible Project has shown that demand for the nostalgia of capturing memories via instant photography is strong. Years ago we mourned Polaroid's decision to stop producing instant film and cameras, but today's announcement that the Z340 Instant Digital Camera is finally available promises to breathe new digital life into one of our favorite mediums.

Polaroid's Z340 Instant Digital Camera ($300) integrates a 14MP digital camera with a ZINK-enabled printer directly in one gadget. The printer uses classic Polaroid-size three-inch by four-inch paper with ZINK's ink-free technology, which embeds the paper with cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals. The paper looks like normal white photo paper before printing, but the heat of the camera causes the crystals to activate and print the captured image. Within the camera itself you can choose to print using the basic Polaroid border or download additional photo borders.

The digital aspects of the Z340 include the 2.7-inch LCD screen and the auto saving of photos to the included SD card. Settings can be configured to automatically print each image as it's taken, or store pictures in the camera and wait to print until just the right frame is captured. Use the LCD screen for in-camera editing and cropping before storing or printing photos. Thirty sheet refills of the ZINK three-inch by four-inch paper are $20, a relative bargain considering old Polaroid film packs cost the same for much fewer prints.

5 Tools and Tips For National Novel Writing Month

Kristy Korcz — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:19:02 PDT

Today is Nov. 1, which means we're not only speeding down the Fall and Winter holiday highway, but for the next 30 days, writers everywhere will be producing massive amounts of words by participating in National Novel Writing Month. Thirty days to write at least 50,000 words? You better be prepared. Make sure you take these tips into consideration and have these tech tools on hand as you dive feet first into noveling mania.

A clean workspace - There's nothing more distracting than a cluttered workspace to keep you from diving into your novel. Be sure to clean off your work area at home and get organized before you begin to minimize procrastination.
A lightweight laptop - Some people can write for hours at home, while others need to get away from their comfort zone to focus. Keeping a netbook, lightweight laptop, or iPad and portable keyboard in your bag at all times allows you to write when the urge strikes, even when you're on the bus.
Google Docs - Rather than write your novel on a Word doc that you have to keep updating and sending to yourself, write your masterpiece in Google Docs so you can access it anywhere, no matter what computer you're using. Cloud computing also provides a good way to sneak in some writing time at work. Just have another doc ready to click away to when the boss approaches!
A timer - One trick of the NaNoWriMo trade is word sprints. For a few minutes at a time, write as fast as you can to get your word count up. For this, you'll need an egg timer or your smartphone's timer app to challenge yourself.
Inspiration - Sites that help you come up with new and fresh ideas can keep you from getting into a writing rut. Try these random plot generators and random storyline generators to keep the juices flowing.

10 Jobs That Didn’t Exist 10 Years Ago

Kiplinger — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:30:29 PDT

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

Thinking about a career change? For the best odds of snagging and hanging onto a job for the long haul, you'll want to avoid professions on the decline in today’s economy (think bookbinders, textile workers and machine-tool operators) and focus on professions whose outlook is rosier (such as health care, financial analysis or social work).

Technology, cultural shifts and changing demographics combine to create new career fields all the time. Here are ten of our favorite new roles for 2011 and beyond, ones that didn't even exist ten years ago:

Social Media/Online-Community Manager

Social media or online-community management is a field made possible and necessary by the gargantuan rise in social networking activity. Sites like Facebook serve 500 million (yep, that's half a billion) users, who share personal and public messages, photos, videos, games and other experiences at a dizzying pace.

Social media strategists focus on building their employers' or clients' brands through the use of social media sites and tools, whereas online-community managers specialize in fostering user discussion and evangelism for the marketers they support. There is overlap between the two fields; one can manage social media tools without dabbling in online community, and vice versa, or the two functions can be combined in one group or person. What does a social media or online-community manager need to succeed? Essentials include great written communication skills, a sense of humor, empathy, a marketing background and lots of experience with social media tools (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube among them).

For more jobs that didn't exist 10 years ago, read on.