I'd personally like to thank the pouring rain last night for giving my car the refreshing washing that it's been begging for. However, as I stopped at 7-11 on my morning commute, I could tell the store owner wasn't as grateful towards the rain storm.

Huge branches and rubber-covered wires laid in the parking lot entwined. As I walked into the unlit store I wondered if they were actually open. Right away, a man greeted me with a half hearted hello and said, "Anything but hot coffee."

Since my main prerogative was to purchase a steaming cup of cappuccino, I quickly headed to the refrigerator section. "Then I guess its cold coffee for me!" I replied to the store owner. "Anything but hot coffee!" he repeated to every customer that walked in through the propped door. None of the patrons looked happy.
                                       
"Ya don't got a generator?" one man questioned the down and out owner. "Nope," he said as he headed to the check out counter. Perhaps he should look into alternatives to the power supplies he's used to. If only there was a giant custom printed Solarlink crank radio large enough to function as a generator. I mean it can already charge your phone or MP3, why not hook some coffee pots up to it? Using solar power or a crank would be much more sustainable then the gallons of oil needed to fuel a generator.
                                         
I made my way to the counter and I held out a twenty dollar bill next to my Starbuck's canned frappachino and pack of gum. "Uuuuuh," he said while counting on his fingers, "I'm just rounding it up today." He handed me back seventeen dollars and I headed back to my car.

Unfortunately, with the lack of coffee, a real 7-11 selling point, I'm sure the store lost business today. They may want to consider a promotion of their own. Maybe they'll consider custom printed hand powered flashlights for any customers interested in shopping in their powerless store at night.
                                       
At least we don't need to have our promotional ice scrapers out yet. Instead of snow packed on my car, I got a car wash and a pretty good deal on my gum and coffee. Motivators snow graphics are accumulating right now, while it's 65 and sunny out there.

This is going to change how we IM, email and social websites. Bold claim, but if it was from anybody else I would doubt it.  Being from Google you know it's going to be huge. http://wave.google.com.  How many of you spend most of your time in an "Instant" message conversation reading what the other person is typing. It's more like "delayed" message. Plus threading and covering multiple subjects is never good in IM or email because you have to go back to previous parts of an existing message that are not current.  With this you just "inject" replies directly into the part that is relevant. You can also invite people into existing conversations and they can play everything back in order, so they can see how the conversation started and how it ended up.  Plus you can split the "waves" into separate threads for other people and start new conversations which is the best parts of realtime IM, email and photo sharing all at once. Wave robot is an awesome multi-lingual translation of wave contents. So if you deal with people overseas with bad English or you only speak English, you can add the robot into the wave and it will handle translation of the conversation automatically.

On Tuesday, I had my first encounter with the Promotional Business Card Sculpture. At first, I was incredibly skeptical and confused. However, after a close analysis (and with the help of the Sales Team - wink), I finally understood what the Promotional Business Card Sculpture was all about. And now, I WANT ONE!!! With over 100 sculptures to choose from, you are sure to find a fit for your family member, co-worker or friend. So, if anyone is wondering what I want for the holidays, the Promotional Behind a Desk Business Card Sculpture would make me smile ear to ear!!!

People have differing views on Twitter. Most people who do not have accounts think of it as a place where people can write about what they are eating or that they're going to the gym. Those of us with accounts know that it's much more than that. It can be informative and funny. Every now and then, you come across something that can make a difference.

One such example came up recently. Director/Actor Kevin Smith retweeted a link to "Let's Say Thanks". This program, sponsored by Xerox, let's you pick a card (drawn by children around the country) and add a message. A postcard will then be printed and sent to military personnel overseas. I think this is a great way to bring a moment of holiday cheer to our soldiers. It's important that they know how much we appreciate their sacrifices. There's nothing like receiving custom holiday cards!

My siblings and I often refer to ourselves as our parent's slaves. It's a smart idea; have kids and make them do everything for you. Of course in reality parents are constantly working for their childrens. None the less, as the second youngest in a family of 5 kids, I felt like a servant in my home sometimes. Today, while I don't have kids of my own, I'm able to enslave my neices.

Contrary to the beliefe the kids don't like to clean, I think kids will do anything as long as you present it well. When I'm around my neices everything is worth clapping for.

When my mom tells me to do the dishes after dinner I just tempt me neice, "Ooooh Trinie, wanna help Aunt Jenny do some dishes!?" As long as I soudn excited, she is excited. Likewise, just last week I had my 2 year old neice drying and my 10 year old neice putting everything away.
                                  
Another thing I've learned about kids is that often, if they have a grandmother, they constantly expect, "TREATS." The above advertisment reads, "They'll still think it's a reward. Popsicle Fruity Kanuti. Heart Foundation approved." I'd say a healthy popsicle is great incentive for kids to do some chores around the house.

But my mother gives the kids treats for absolutely anything. "Oh Desi you drew a circle? Have a scoop of ice cream." "Ana you sneezed! Have some Cheerios." "Oh you just sat down at dinner without spilling anything, have some pie." It doesn't matter what the girls do. Grandma just wants to bring a smile to their faces.

Now that I think of it, isn't that what trade show giveaways are? Treats? In fact, I believe that all promotional products are special treats no matter if they're for a classroom of kids or a nursing home full of seniors.

Last week I talked about my favorite part of the holidays, gifts. I talked about how great and how powerful promotional gifts can be, especially when done effectively. Well I failed to mention that promotional holiday gifts can be...edible. When most people think of promotional products they don't normally think about candy, pretzels or popcorn. However, all those things are promotional products and all are in fact very tasty. For example, what would you think if you came in to work tomorrow to find a promotional tin filled with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. There are endless possibilities when it comes to promotional food and candy products.  There are tins filled with cookies, candy, popcorn or pretzels, there are beautiful and professional style gift baskets customized with a variety of options, there are also jars of candy or single bags of candy or even just packs of gum. Just think about how many times a day you sit at desk and need a little bit of sugar to keep you going, or even just a snack to get you to lunch. Promotional food products shows your employees you care and also can increase productivity by keeping everyone energized through the day. Sweets and snacks can be the ultimate stress reliever to keep people smiling. If you are going to order promotional products for your employees, why NOT make it something tasty?

Now I have to admit I haven't seen anything quite like this before but I have to say I am very impressed. Let us say that you are a pet owner and you have to go away on vacation for about a week or two but you have no way of feeding the dog or cat, what do you do? Well Mathew Newton has actually put together a very cool DIY internet enabled cat feeder. According to Engadget.com, "When it's feeding time the user logs onto a web interface to choose the dispensing quantity, or you can also have an automatic feed schedule set up if you trust the system..." Hey if he can mass produce this it will make for one hell of a promotional pet product, but if you still doubt the whole internet feeding aspect check it out for yourself.