Check out this great video from our friends at Lasting Links-
Lasting Links is a great new site that provides information about preserving your memories. To learn more, you can visit their site Lasting Links or chat with their CEO on Twitter.
Archive for January, 2010
Video: Why Preserve Memories?
Friday, January 29th, 20106 Tips to Take Control of Your Inbox by Melissa Stacey
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
1. Clean Out Your Inbox Daily
The best way to avoid email overwhelm is to clean out your inbox daily. The only emails that should be in your inbox are those emails that are pending action.
2. Delete, delete, delete
When you receive junk mail, advertisements or duplicate information… delete them. If you have emails that have nothing to do with you, are trash or not worth your time…delete them.
3. Take Action
When you receive an email that will take 2 minutes or less to deal with, than take the necessary action immediately. Then delete or file the email.
4. File It
If you need the email for reference in the future and this information is not available anywhere else, than file it in an email folder. Be sure that the folders you set up are easy to understand so you can find the email later when you need it.
5. Clear Out Email Backlog
If you have 3,000 emails in your inbox, then start taking the steps to clear out the backlog. Start with the most recent emails first and work your way back. Each day spend 15 minutes working on this project until it is completed.
6. Create a Junk Email
Use this email address to order things online or sign into random websites. Once this email address starts to get overloaded with spam, you can shut it down and create another junk email address. This will help contain the junk email so it won’t take over your real email.
About Melissa:
Melissa Stacey started Feeling Organized because she truly loves organizing and planning. She says, “I also love working with people to find creative solutions to their organizing problems. I named my company Feeling Organized because the key to organization is how YOU feel. When you feel organized, you have less stress, are more productive and have more time to do the things that you love.”
Contact Melissa:
To contact Melissa for more organizing tips, visit Feeling Organized. To receive her monthly organization tips for yourself, just email Melissa@feelingorganized.com for the add! You can also find Melissa on Twitter, where she also shares great organizing tips.
Scan My Photos To Create One-Of-A-Kind Cards For Valentine’s Day
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010Use Old Pictures To Send Vintage-Style Greeting Cards To Loved Ones
Recipients Will Appreciate The Thoughtful, Personalized Gesture
Remember the Valentine’s Day cards you received as a child? How teachers made every classmate give each other one so no student would feel left out? Thankfully, those rules don’t apply anymore.
As an adult, personalized greeting cards on February 14th are the ideal way to express your affection. And though the holiday may still be a few weeks away, now is the best time to begin assembling the things you’ll need to craft a meaningful message. This vintage picture, for instance, is a unique way to send a greeting.
Rummage through old albums for pictures to scan. My photos?, you’re probably wondering. Yes, because on Valentine’s Day, your loved ones will want a picture of you or at least one that includes you. Rather than a current-day digital image, which is much too easy to snap and share in seconds via email, photo sites and social networking, take the time to dig up old but treasured pictures that loved ones can enjoy reminiscing or chuckling over. If you’ve just started dating someone, for instance, he or she may relish the chance to see a childhood photo of you. Customized cards also work well for parents, grandparents or aunts and uncles. (When it comes to relatives, you can give them all copies of the same card or create an individualized design for each, such as a photo of you and Aunt Alice at your first birthday.)
Sending images to ScanDigital to be transferred to electronic format allows you the freedom to edit your pictures before creating the card. Rather than place a faded or yellowing image against a red or pink background, you may color correct it so the contrast is complementary. This does take a little advance planning, so think now about which images are good candidates. Tell yourself, I need to scan my photos. Your gift may not be worth millions, but it’ll be a keepsake for years to come.
Scan Photos To CD To Organize A Successful & Fun High School Reunion
Monday, January 25th, 2010Relive Traditions & Memories Through Nostalgic Yearbook Pictures
A Hunt For Old Photos Can Ignite Old Friendships
People say laughter is the best medicine – and few things can make you laugh as hard as the silly haircuts, lame trends and awkward moments of your youth.
That, in a nutshell, is the beauty of the high school reunion.
Such reunions give us a chance to look back on this period through rose-colored glasses. The month of January is a great time to begin planning, whether you’re leading the effort or just pitching in. People want to get organized now, and they’ll be eager to help.
You must feature yearbook pictures, of course. Scan the photos to CD to make them easy to manipulate. Perhaps you’ll want to blow up poster-size images or work them into the programs – having the pictures in digital format now will make this a breeze down the line.
Collect photos throughout the process, but especially in the beginning. Nothing jogs the memory like a picture of time gone by. Round up your old yearbooks to start the process, but also reach out to former classmates for their personal photographs; you will find this act is the best way to renew friendships and advertise the reunion through word of mouth.
The pictures you transfer to digital form are simple to tidy up and enhance. Once you’ve converted your photos to CD, they can be used in emails, featured on Web sites and printed on reunion-related publications, from name tags to place cards. Oh, and about that Web site? It will help you track down missing classmates. Rather than depend on names alone, you can post or email their pictures to kick off the search. Enlist your committee members to help you. Also, a number of companies specialize in building reunion sites, so you don’t have to exert too much of your own effort on technical development.
High school is typically a period of growth, but thankfully, yesterday’s embarrassing moments are often today’s barrel of laughs. So break the ice with former classmates by sharing funny, old photos and traditions.
Scanning A Photo To Digital Can Illustrate A City’s Rich History
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Thanks To The Olympics, Vancouver Increases Its Appeal As A Vacation Spot
Four Things To Do In Vancouver
Vancouver is a cosmopolitan city well-known for its vibrant culture, fresh culinary scene and beautiful surroundings. With its prominent role as host of the 2010 Winter Olympics next month, the city has moved to the forefront of touristy spots to visit.
So if you go, what is there to do? Here are four can’t-miss attractions.
- Spend the afternoon in the park – but not just any park. Natives and visitors love the thousand-acre Stanley Park. Previous visitors, who may have converted their vacation photo to digital for preservation, know this spot as a lush and green retreat, encircled by a six-mile walkway along the water. Just walking along the seawall, as shown in this picture, you can observe the changing of the seasons. At the park, plan on participating in activities such as swimming, tennis and even tea time (as in sipping afternoon tea). There’s an aquarium and petting zoo to keep kids occupied, too.
- Experience Vancouver’s street life. On Commercial Drive, you’ll come across vintage clothes and cafes (not to mention protests and petitions). Peruse art galleries in South Granville, or spend all day shopping on Robson Street.
- Take in the view. Vancouver Lookout, at the top of Harbour Center, boasts a 360-degree view of the city, which combines downtown buildings, expansive greenery and blue waters. The spot is open every day of the year and offers a view 430 feet above the ground.
- Visit an island. Granville Island, that is. Its Public Market is a foodie mecca for all things fresh and delicious, and the revitalized neighborhood features street music, craft stores and microbreweries. There’s a free Water Park for kids as well. 10 ½ million people flock to this island each year, though it hasn’t always been such a popular draw. Transferring a photo to digital can highlight the area’s dramatic transformation. Old images reflect its worn, industrial past, one that’s a stark contrast to today’s tourist-friendly appeal.
January’s Organizing Tips: Keeping Information In Check by Jodie Watson
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Over the holidays, I took time to organize my home & office papers. It’s something I love to do at the end of each year so I’ll start off the new one on a clean slate. Every year that I do this, I’m always amazed at how much paperwork has accumulated, even though I’m good at processing, streamlining and eliminating it as I go along! Which made me think as we start not only a new year, but a new decade…how much paperwork will pass through each of homes and offices during the next ten years? From mail and magazines, to bills and receipts, not to mention the paper we generate ourselves, we would build a mountain out of paper throughout the course of a single year if we aren’t careful.
In this Age of Information, it is perfectly understandable that we all feel overwhelmed at times. All the information that constantly comes at us shows no sign of slowing down. What is exciting about it though, is that we have the latest news and up-to-date information, literally at our fingertips. With each passing year our world is becoming more advanced than I could have ever imagined possible and it’s happening faster that I can keep up with!
Therefore, it’s important to slow down long enough to be able to take the time out to focus on what is such an important aspect to staying organized. Life is much more relaxed and manageable when we set aside time on a regular basis to organize our paperwork and information.
January is national “Get Organized” Month and there’s no better place to start than getting all of your print and electronic paperwork & information in order. Make yourself a cup of tea, put on some good music and spend a few hours of this new decade preparing your space so it can better handle the demands that are inevitably going to be placed upon it by. Check out my January Organizing Tips section of this newsletter for some great ways to get started.
January’s Organizing Tips: Keeping Information In Check
Streamlining:
1. Go through the stacks of magazines you have lying around the house. Tear out only the articles you find interesting or useful, and keep in a binder for later reference. Recycle the rest.
2. Check and update your files. Discard any outdated information from years past? Clean out the old to make room for the new.
3. Tackling email. If your inbox is overflowing, go through it and delete what you can. Create folders in your email with different subjects to separate out the ones you need to reference later. Make a goal to answer emails right away, continually delete what you can and keep your inbox clean.
Processing:
1. Sort mail as it arrives. Mail has a tendency to build up, and fast if you wait too long to deal with it. Process mail on a daily basis. Toss what you can right away; inserts, outer envelopes, etc. Put bills in a separate place until they need to be paid.
2. Keep up with receipts. It’s easy to lose your receipts if they’re given a chance to find their way to the bottom of your purse of pocket. When you get home for the day clean out all receipts and put them in a box labeled “RECEIPTS.” Keep track on a monthly basis and input expenditures into a financial software or system.
3. Make a binder for sentimental items. Thank-you cards and birthday cards that you want to keep need to be kept in a separate place from other important paperwork and mail.
Eliminating:
1. Spare your printer and the environment. Print out only what is necessary, many articles and information can be found online, save to a folder in your email instead.
2. Shred important information. As you update your files, shred and purge items that are no longer needed. Remember to shred old bank statements or anything with personal information
3. Stop getting junk mail. Save yourself the time of throwing these papers away, sign up at www.donotmail.org.
Contact Jodie Watson:
If you have any questions, would like to schedule a free professional organizing telephone consultation, or would like Jodie Watson to speak at your next corporate function, group meeting, social event, or retreat, call at (818) 590-7800. You can also contact Jodie on Facebook and Twitter or visit her website at Supreme Organization.
Picture-Scanning Technology Helps Recall Past Olympic Torch Relays
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010This Year’s Relay Will Enlist 12,000 Torchbearers
106-Day Event To Involve More Than 1,030 Canadian Communities
Every four years, the world becomes enthralled with pixies on ice and hipsters on snowboards. We watch and root for our own nation’s athletes, but also bask in the friendly, global vibe that is the Olympic spirit.
Before all of this happens, the torch must be lit. Although the 2010 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Vancouver, the flame itself was lit on October 22 in Olympia, Greece. The flame arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, via plane on October 30 and has been part of a 106-day relay ever since. (And thanks to picture-scanning technology, today’s fans can still relive the excitement and glory of previous Winter Games.)
The Olympic flame is typically carried by foot on land – as shown in this photo – but it also can travel by air and water. Traditionally, it starts in Olympia, where the Ancient Games were held. For the most part, the lighting of the flame is the same for Summer and Winter Games, and involves actresses serving as priestesses. For the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and this year’s Winter Games in Vancouver, that actress is Maria Nafpliotou. She passed on the flame to Vassilis Dimitriadis, an Alpine skier and the Vancouver relay’s first torchbearer.
If air travel is required to transport the flame to its host site, the flame is protected in several lamps resembling a miner’s lamp. This year’s relay is scheduled to pass through more than 1,030 communities and will feature 12,000 torchbearers. The relay concludes on February 12 at the Opening Ceremony, but the flame will stay lit throughout the Games until the Closing Ceremony.
The Olympics date back long before digital cameras, but early Games can be experienced through an old picture. Scanning historical images allows a whole new generation of fans to appreciate the significance of the world coming together for this event, and how such a tradition came to be.
Picture Scanning Services Can Help Illustrate Snowboard History
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010Snowboard Was Invented In The 1960s
Its Popularity Continues To Rise Today
As far as winter sports go, snowboard is a young one. Its appearance next month at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver will only be the fourth time in Olympic history.
Snowboard is a hybrid of skiing, surfing and skateboarding. In the 1960s and 1970s, early adopters of snowboard and the boards they used were called “snurfers.” Snowboard’s rising popularity and cool factor are undeniable, yet like many things in life, the evolution of this sport is a bit murky.
If you gathered old photos of the sport for picture scanning services, you could use the converted digital images to create a visual timeline that looks something like this:
Sherman Poppen is credited with the invention of the snurfer by attaching two skis together for his daughter in 1965. Five years later, a surfer by the name of Dimitrije Milovich, inspired by cafeteria tray-sledding, designed the first snowboard. Other early designers include Bob Webber and Jake Burton Carpenter. The media, including skateboard magazines, started paying attention to the sport in the mid to late 70s. The first official competition was held in 1981 in Colorado. In 1985, a snowboard-specific magazine debuted.
As illustrated in this photo taken at the Breckenridge Dew Tour, the sport of snowboard is an impressive one that involves high jumps, spins, rotations and tricked-out choreography. It gets more difficult and intense each year. (One Olympic halfpipe hopeful, Kevin Pearce, sustained a serious brain injury in late December while training for a complicated new move, and still remains in the hospital.)
Today, you’ll often find snowboarders sharing snowy mountains with skiers. Lessons are easy to sign up for, and gear is simple to buy or rent. We’ve come a long way from the days of Poppen’s bolted skis, but photos from that era remain a treasure, so preserve any that you discover. Picture scanning services make it a cinch to explore the evolution of snowboard.
10 Productive Phrases to Remember by Meggin McIntosh, The Ph.D. of Productivity
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
A number of statements and phrases are worth remembering in your quest to be more productive. Consider these ten:
- ‘No, but thanks for asking.’
- ‘Not now.’
- ‘Let me get back to you after I’ve checked on a few things.’
- ‘I am busy right now, but let’s schedule a time to meet or to talk by phone.’
- ‘Let me verify some details with you about this project, request, or meeting.’
- ‘I want to clarify my conditions, parameters, and/or constraints, so that we are both in agreement.’
- ‘I am not the right person for this, and here is a suggestion of who might be.’
- ‘I cannot agree to the whole task, but I can agree to take on one part.’
- ‘No, I simply can’t say ‘Yes’.’ (This is my personal favorite).
- ‘I can easily say ‘Yes’ to this because I know exactly what it entails.’
Say one or more of these in the next day or so and see what happens. Be clear on your intent to be more productive. If you need a reminder on these, just print out this page and display it somewhere so you can see it when you need it.
About Meggin McIntosh
Meggin founded Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., a company that changes what people know, feel, dream, and do through workshops, consulting, and publications. She is the productivity queen, who shares her knowledge on how best to become peacefully productive. If you want to become more strategic, optimize your productivity, and just generally create a fabulous life, then Meggin’s website is a place you can find solutions and options worth exploring. You can also sign up for her Top Ten Productivity Tips to receive regular emails with tips on how to become more productive.
Customer Testimonials: “HUGE timesaver”
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
To assure we’re doing our job right, we follow up with every customer after their order is complete. If there’s ever any issue, we address it immediately. Most of the time however, we receive rave reports. On behalf of the ScanDigital team, I’d like to say “Thank You” to our amazing customers. We’re truly flattered to know you are happy and honored to have been trusted with your family’s precious memories. Please find a sampling of the testimonials below that we’ve recently received.
If you’d like to hear more from our customers, you are welcome to visit our Testimonial page. If you have any questions or would just like to chat, you can always find us here on Twitter and Facebook, by email at info@scandigital.com or by phone at 888.333.2808 if you have any questions or just want to chat!
“Thank you so much! I just viewed the gallery and am very excited to get started on my parents Anniversary present. I also want to thank you for your quick response to all my emails and for the simple tracking information you provide.” Kris – Lakeville, MN
“After the weeks I spent just sorting and arranging slides, it was such a relief to be able to turn them over to your company for the actual scanning work. I’ve not regretted it, and I would be quick to use your services again. I’ve also recommended you to friends and my family members. I’m extremely pleased with the quality of the scanned images, and am very happy to have this tedious chore on two large slide collections now completed for the benefit of those with whom I shared the DVDs. By the way, the recipients have been effusive in their praise for the final products.” John – Rio Rancho, NM
“First, I want to commend you and ScanDigital for taking the time to send e-mails seeking feedback – very few companies do this and I truly appreciate this sort of effort. I had included several older photos and was very impressed with their quality” Renee – Kennewick, WA
“I received confirmation that my order was completed today. I went to the online gallery at my office and was laughing out loud with the memories that these pictures brought back of my kids when they were younger. My daughter is a senior in high school now and we can share these at her graduation. She was born in Long Beach and we moved to El Segundo shortly after her birth. We really enjoyed El Segundo but moved back to Texas in 1994 to be closer to my family. I am very pleased with the service and it was worth the wait. I am likely to use the service again- probably when there is a special offered (2 kids and 22 years of marriage equals tons of negatives). I would recommend the service to family members and am sure that they will ask about how I got all these old pictures converted to digital.” Diane – San Antonio, TX
“I actually have another groupon burning a whole in my account right now that I can’t wait to use. I think that moving photos into the online cloud is key to memory preservation, as we all become more digital. I love that your pricing options are straightforward. No hidden fees, etc. I was SUPER pleased to find that I had been charged the exact cost that I had calculated based on your website info. Thank you! I was very pleased with the ScanDigital service, pricing and quality. I will definitely be back and have endorsed your service on Groupon and by word of mouth with my friends and family 
“Natasha – Sunnyvale, CA
“I was introduced to your service when I purchased a Groupon. I’d been thinking about having my old family photos scanned for over a year but just hadn’t gotten around to doing the research on where to send them. As you know, it’s hard to send off old family photos, some almost 100 years old, and have faith that they’ll be returned safely and not get lost in the mail. I’d heard that similar services send the photos off to India or some other country, so I’m glad that you don’t do that. I received my photos back in excellent condition and am very pleased with the scans. I sent photos of many different sizes, from tiny 1″ ovals to at least one 8×10. It looked like a real human (and someone who knew what they were doing) scanned each one and applied the necessary correction to make sure that the photo was sharp and clear. Your communication along the way was excellent, so I never felt abandoned or that I didn’t know what was going on. Thank you and your employees for a wonderful service.” Barbara – North Aurora, IL
“I received my order from ScanDigital and was very impressed with the transfer of the Super 8 film to DVD. I cannot wait to give my husband a DVD of his childhood films taken by his grandfather! I am very likely to use your service again for film transfer and will most certainly recommend it to friends/family. I think the service you provide is something that a lot of people are looking for to preserve old memories, especially now that so much can be done digitally. I like your company because I received updates on the status throughout the process, which made me more comfortable about family films being out of my hands. The final product was very neat to see, as well. I liked that the DVD case had still images of the content on it. It definitely built the excitement for me! As for pricing, it was straightforward and your company makes it easy to understand.” Karin – Leesburg, VA
“I enjoyed my experience with ScanDigital. I most appreciated the email updates about my order status. My products, both new and old, were well preserved and packed nicely. I would use your service again with a promotion/coupon. Thank you for the wonderful service!” Michaela – Milwaukee, WI
“I am impressed with the high quality picture on the DVD’s I have received. They are sharp, focused, and good color. I am using your service to update my 8 mm movies, and VHS tapes to the current DVR format, and am very pleased that when I have viewed the DVR, the picture quality on the TV screen is excellent. Thanks for the opportunity to comment.” Al – AK
“I had a great experience with ScanDigital - still have a credit so I will be digging out a few more tapes and sending them to you. Would definitely use ScanDigital again.” Lori – CO
“I heard about your service on Groupon. I bought two at first to start scanning our family photos. I had meant to try and scan our photographs before we put our belongings in storage for an extended stay overseas. The only item we owned that could not be replaced were the photo albums and that was a nagging worry. When we returned I took advantage of the Groupon and have been delighted with the result and the quality of your service. I have told everyone who will listen how wonderful it is to have the photos scanned. It saves space and my IMac puts the photos into a slideshow, I can add music and can enjoy the photos easier than if they were still in albums. It was a leap of faith to send off photos to California but I get the e-mail when they arrive and when they leave to come back to me. Your team takes care to let me know what the status of the order is and now that I have experienced that I feel comfortable sending orders to you. I will definitely use your service again. Thanks for your wonderful service.” Barbara – PA
“We were very happy with our experience with ScanDigital. We have used your services on two separate occasions now and are very pleased with the results. Some of our photos were quite old and not only were they returned in the same condition but the digitized version looks amazing as some of the areas that were compromised over the years were able to be recovered. I also appreciate the timeline on the website account letting you know where your pictures are in the process. It’s reassuring to confirm that pictures were in fact received and underway. We have recommended your service to family and friends. Though it seems as though we have now been assigned the role the family to be the photo preservation people! Ironically almost none of the photos that we sent in actually came from our household, just the extended families. You have made it very easy and predictable to get photos transferred to a digital format. Pricing, I think, is quite reasonable. We like that we were given CD’s of the photos and that the photos are also posted online to share with others. Thank you for a great experience with your business.” Holly and Jake – MD – October 2010
