Every year I try to pick an actor or actress to study to learn more about their films. I always try to pick a star that is truly unique in the choice of characters and the way that those characters are presented. It’s actually not that easy to do. Most movie stars get typecast into certain roles and don’t really do much beyond that single type of character.

Last year I studied the films of Ryan Phillippe. I failed to pick a star to study this year but I’m thinking that I may start late and study up on Johnny Depp. He’s a really unique actor who plays very different types of roles than what most people are playing. And even with those roles that are stereotypical, he manages to spin them in a unique way.

I’ve seen some of his films. Ones I particularly liked were From Hell and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. But I’m interested in checking out more of what he has to offer. I’ve heard that he’s playing The Mad Hatter in an upcoming release of Alice in Wonderland and I think that’s going to be an amazing role to see him in so I’d like to gain some insight into his work before that comes out.

Any suggestions on the best Johnny Depp films to make sure to see?

Tags: actors, depp, films, hubpages, johnny depp, kathryn vercillo, movies

The weather in San Francisco has been sunny and beautiful for a change. In fact, it’s been so beautiful that I actually got the chance to spend an entire day at the beach over the weekend which is a rarity around here. There was a breeze but no wind and the perfect amount of California sunshine. It was ideal for lounging around with an easy-to-read novel and that’s exactly what I did.

My book of choice was The Summer of Naked Swim Parties by Jessica Anya Blau. It’s the story of a teenage girl growing up in the 1970′s with hippie parents whose liberal attitudes cause her a lot of discomfort and confusion a she tries to develop her own sense of self and sexuality. The book is about self-development as well as about relationships.

There are three types of relationships that play out in the book – the girl’s relationships with boys, her relationships with her friends and her relationships within her family. Each of these relationships is described in such a way that the reader can truly relate to what the girl is going through. There is a thud of honesty here that makes you think, “yeah, that’s actually how it really is” in regards to how these relationships change and develop at that age.

Through the series of events that happen in the novel, the main character learns the lesson that most of end up learning … that boys will come and go and friends will come and go but our families will always be there for us. We may be embarassed by them or frustrated with them or we may need to separate from them as we establish our own identities but in the end they are going to be there.

Put simply, this is a very human book. It’s an easy read but it’s an interesting one and I’d definitely recommend it as summer reading this year.

Tags: book recommendation, books, jessica anya blau, kathryn vercillo, reading, summer of naked swim parties, summer reads

I recently researched a company in the UK that pays drivers money to place advertisements for businesses on their car. Is this something that you would do? A lot of people who wouldn’t have answered yes to that question a year ago are turning up with applications in hand for this business because times are tight and the need cash.

It doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all. You get paid money for the driving that you would be doing anyway. This allows you to reduce the cost of driving and gain an income that you didn’t already have access to. You don’t have to go too far out of your way to do it either – just commit to driving a certain amount of miles each month, checking in with the company and parking in visible areas.

There are certainly some drawbacks to this. You have to make sure to keep your car clean and to drive appropriately since you’re representing someone else’s company. And you have to remember that you’re going to be supporting a business or product while you do this. But that seems like a small price to pay for a little bit of extra cash right now.

From the reverse side of things, this could be a great way for small businesses to get valuable advertising without having to spend a lot of money during these tough times. Are there programs like this in the US right now? If there are, would you consider signing up?

Tags: advertising, business, driving, earn money, kathryn vercillo, marketing, money, Personal Finance, Travel

I love “to do” lists. I make a To Do list at the start of every week with the tasks that must be completed for work as well as the tasks that I need to complete in my personal life. I find that it brings a sense of order to my days and makes me capable of easily seeing how to organize my time.

However, I realize that the To Do list isn’t the most efficient tool for this type of organization. There are several alternatives to the To Do list that are probably preferable to this method including calendaring, the use of task management software programs and simply doing tasks as they come to mind instead of writing them down and putting them off until later.

I do use these tools to some extent. I rarely work on team projects as a freelancer but when I do I have been know to use different task management programs such as BaseCamp and Liquid Planner to get the work done more efficiently. I also use Google Calendars when organizing my own work.

Despite my ability to use these tools, I still hang on to the habit of using a To Do list regularly. I think there’s some value to having rituals in our lives and that’s one that seems to work for me. I’m not arguing that it’s efficient but it’s working for me.

Do you use To Do lists? If not, how do your organize your tasks?

Tags: business, freelance, getting things done, kathryn vercillo, productivity, task management, to do list

I’ve been reading a lot lately about coupon queens and coupon divas. These are people who pride themselves on an ability to use coupons to save a large amount of money on everything that they purchase. They offer all sorts of tricks and tips to enhance money-saving with coupon use.

This is all smart stuff. However, I think that the average person needs to balance saving money with saving time. Clipping coupons can end up wasting a lot of time if you don’t know what to look for and how to do it efficiently.

One of the most important things to learn if you want to save money with different types of coupons is how many different types of coupons are out there and which ones are even worth your time. There are coupons for free stuff, coupons for half off, coupons for buy one get one free … You have to really know what’s what if you’re going to be able to quickly sift through coupons and really make use of them without spending too much time on them.

See my recent article describing 10 different types of coupons to learn more about this area of personal finance.

Tags: coupons, discount codes, kathryn vercillo, money, Personal Finance, saving money

I think that the development of various mobile phone applications which we have seen grow in the past couple of years is a great thing. The iphone, Blackberry and new Android phones all offer phone users the chance to personalize their phones in such a way so as to make them more fun and efficient to use. However, I think that there are some mobile phone apps out there that are just a complete waste of time.

I’m not saying this just because there are phone apps that I don’t like. There are plenty of phone apps that I don’t use but can see the value of. For example, I am not someone who is interested in instant messaging from my mobile phone so I ignore all of those apps when I see headlines about them in the news. Nevertheless I think those could be valuable apps.

But there are some applications for phones out there that just seems absurd. There are applications that heighten your paranoia by informing you about crime rates in the area that you’re in. There are applications that remind you to pray at certain times of day which I think is something you should be doing without help from your phone. And there are applications that take features that you can already find on your phone elsewhere and try to market them in an appealing way even though you really don’t need the app to enjoy the features. It’s silly.

See my picks for ten of the most ridiculous mobile phone apps out there today. What do you think – agree or disagree on these?

Tags: cell phones, kathryn vercillo, mobile phone applications, mobile phones, phone apps, Technology, Wireless

I remember sometime in the late 1990′s when daily newspaper headlines constantly alerted us to the fact that kids in bad neighborhoods were being murdered for their sneakers. The point of these headlines was to highlight the senselessness of gang violence and other violent crimes. I was reminded of this recently when I did research into a rash of reports about people who have been assaulted for their mobile phones.

Just a cursory glance through the mobile phone news throughout the United States and the UK reveals that there are people all around the world who are getting physically attacked for the purpose of robbing their mobile phones. It’s hard to say in some of these cases whether the victim was assaulted for another reason and then the phone theft was secondary to the crime but it’s clear in at least a few of these instances that robbery of the phone was the sole motivation for the attack.

That’s some scary stuff. It reminds us of just how senseless most crime is. Phones are not that valuable and they’re easily accessible to almost anyone and yet we’ve got these crimes where mobile phones are valued as property to be stolen. It’s frightening and the reports are eye-opening as to what’s going on in the world around us.

Check out my whole article titled Today’s Thieves Want Your Mobile Phones.

Tags: cell phones, crime, law, legal, mobile phones, news, robbery, Technology, theft, violence

When you create a website for your business you need to make sure that you flesh out that website completely with the information that readers are going to want to find when they get there. This includes information about your business, your products and services and where to find additional information as needed. You need to do this not only for the benefit of your site readers but also so that search engines know what’s on your website and can draw attention to it accordingly.

So how much website content do you need to have for your site to be a good one? The answer is really that there is no such thing as too much content. The only caveat here is that you need to make sure that the content is organized in such a manner that it is easy to find and understand and that it doesn’t overwhelm the reader of the site who is looking at it. Beyond that, the more the better.

A blog is a great way to continually add fresh new content to your site in an organized fashion. Blog archives are easy to search through and get stored on the site but they don’t fill your site with lengthy passages of information that would bore readers. Adding video and images to the blog further improves how compelling the site is for readers as well as how attractive it may be to search engines. Never stop developing your content!

Tags: blogs, business, content, graphic design, marketing, website

I really love looking at gadgets and technology that are only in concept form. I’m a huge fan of concept cars (like Terrafugia) and am also really interested in concept phones. Basically I think that any technology that’s only in concept form has the capability of showing us what things might look like in the future. And I think it shows off the kind of innovation that only a handful of designers in any field are actually capable of working on.

For example I’ve been reading lately about the Kyocera EOS Concept Phone. This is a phone that is made from a bendable polymer that allows you to reshape the phone. I don’t know that it would work well in actuality – you can just see it breaking over time – but I think it’s an idea that is going to be worked into handset design in some way in the future. Likewise the phone’s ability to self-charge using kinetic power is something we’re going to see in tomorrow’s mobile phones.

It’s not that I think every single concept phone brings about change and ends up being the device that we want in the future. It’s just that I think we start moving in a new direction with these types of products. Anything that’s different captures my attention and anything that’s cutting-edge in design manages to keep it for at least a little while!

Tags: cell phones, concept phones, creativity, design, innovation, kyocera, mobile phones, Technology

It’s been awhile since I contributed one of my blog posts to a blog carnival. I love blog carnivals but sometimes it’s hard to make the time to submit posts to them since there are so many other things to be done in terms of web writing work and writing promotion.

However, a post of mine is finally featured in a new blog carnival. My thoughts here on how to be a smart shopper were included recently in the Fabulous Festival which is all about fashion, beauty and shopping. My post was in the shopping category. Other posts in this category were about vintage shopping and buying socks for men. There were also several posts on dresses in this category including wedding dresses, prom dresses and celebrity dresses.

Posts that fell specifically into the fashion category were on a wide range of topics. These topics included military jackets, vintage lingerie, bustiers, pajamas, hats, mending your own clothes and making clothing donations. There were also book reviews and interviews. In the personal style and beauty categories are posts on jumpsuits, recycled fashion, acrylic nails, shoes, spring fashions, big hair, mineral makeup, skin care (including wrinkle prevention) and the man purse.

Happy reading!

Tags: arts, blog carnival, blogs, fabulous festival, Fashion, kathryn vercillo, style