Scrapbooking meet the QR Code

Everyday at work I get to apply my craft as a digital marketer. My main responsibilities include managing our marketing automation campaigns in an effort to generate new leads and to nurture the existing ones. One new tool that we started introducing to our online/mobile marketing efforts in 2011 was the QR code.

I can't help but bring home some of the ideas that float around my head. One time when my wife, the Crafty Cucumber, asked for my opinion about a scrapbook page she was working on it occurred to me that QR codes could be used in scrapbooking. After explaining to my wife that QR stood for Quick Response and that the concept is that you could scan the code with a smart phone and get directed to anything online you would like. She politely smiled and continued asking for my thoughts on the page she was working on.

So the idea is to simply help enhance what was being beautifully communicated with paper with a little help from something digital. The example I have is a scrapbook page that she made of my youngest daughter's first birthday. I had taken a few videos of the day, specifically when she was devouring her cake, and proceeded to post them on YouTube. It was simple creating a QR code using the Google URL shortner tool; you create it, save the QR code image, and then print it out on scrapbook paper and add to your project.

What will it take for me to buy a cell phone?

I will first start off this posting letting you know that I love technology and the ways that it can advance and improve our social and work lives.

I last had a cellphone eleven years ago and back then it was just voice service. It was for those emergencies that never seemed to happen; not that I am complaining. I don't think my wife has never had a phone outside of using anything for work related purposes, and again it would have been just voice service. So the closest my family has come to a modern smart phone is my 3rd generation iPod Touch (the one without the camera).

Here are the reasons I don't have one currently.

1) Cost - They don't come cheap. Be it the phone purchase or the addition of a data plan. I don't see the value in it.

2) Accessibility - I work in an office and I sit beside a phone, if someone calls me, there is a really good chance I'll be there.

3) Necessity - I've gotten by the last eleven years without one, and I'm not sure what would change that.

Which leads me back to the question of this post, What will it take for me to buy a cell phone?

Blogger: Pages versus Posts

I am slowly but surely getting this blog/website to look and feel the way I want it to. Blogger is the tool I am using to manage the website and I've chosen the free NewsMagazine template from Deluxe Templates as my look and feel. I specifically loved the 'Featured Post' ability; that I hope doesn't get annoying. (please let me know)
I've recently added two tabs at the top of my navigation: Web Marketing and About Me. For a very frustrating day I thought I had to do this via the (Design > Edit HTML) section by editing the code so I could indicate the specific page. I turns out I add items to my navigation in the (Posting >Edit Pages) section. Although it wasn't what I expected.

What I wanted the 'Web Marketing' tab to show you was this 'Web Marketing' - which is showing you all the postings I have written about, you guessed it, web marketing. Instead what the Blogger Pages section creates is static pages. This is great for About Me type information, something that you can write once and occasionally update. I wish the Blogger help section was more clear on this.
So in Blogger, Posts will always show up in the main page. You can't move them into one of your pages. Pages are great for information like your personal bio, a static picture gallery, and any other information you need to only write/share once.
So with this new understanding I need to find a new way to allow people to navigate to certain types of posts. While I might find posts of my kids cute, those just looking for information about web design and social media might find it distracting.
Does anyone know how to create a custom navigation?