I haven’t done a book giveaway in a while, so I’m giving away a copy of Blake Mycoskie’s Start Something That Matters today. Just answer these questions and I’ll pick someone at random later tonight.

1. If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be?

2. What’s the best FREE thing you’ve ever gotten online (physical product, album, eBook…whatever)? If possible, link to it.

3. Are you married? If so, for how long?

I’ll go first in the comments.

Oh, and we’ll be releasing our new video today/tonight, so be on the lookout.

There’s a strong-to-quite-strong chance our Sh*t Nobody Says video is going to be featured on The Today Show this morning. It’s scheduled for the Kathie Lee/Hoda Kotb hour starting at 10am EST.

Key words being Kathie Lee and Hoda. Since it’s a live show and they’re controlling the pace, we’ve been told they could run out of time. If it gets cut from broadcast, it’ll still be online afterwards and there’s a 1000% chance I’ll post it here.

We’ll see.

Oh, and I’ll be in a meeting during the broadcast, so if you see it on there, let me know on Twitter – @tylerstanton. Thanks!

A lot has been written on the subject of Twitter etiquette, but I just couldn’t resist the urge to weigh in. Here are a few rules to ensure your followers’ experience is the best it can be. Also, it should be noted that I’ve broken nearly all of these in the last week. I’m not proud of it.

+ Retweeting a compliment about you is bragging. Adding a “Means a lot!” to the front end of it doesn’t negate this fact. I promise that they’ll feel just as thanked if you use an @reply.

+ Chill out on the hashtags. Yes, I’m aware this is another way to make a witty joke, but the two minutes it takes to decipher where the spaces are supposed to go in your clever two-liner is time we simply don’t have.

+ Be conservative in your use of “my friend”. I’ve noticed a trend lately where people like to add “my friend” when referring to someone more popular or famous than them. I’m not doubting the friendship, I just find it odd that you don’t say the same about people on the tier below you.

+ Pimp your thing twice a day max (three times if you space them way out). This is completely arbitrary, I know, but I think we can all agree that once you’ve passed five, you’re doing much more harm than good. Oh, and while we’re at it – a good rule of thumb is 4 non-pimping tweets to every 1 pimping tweet.

+ No one is happy about TwitLonger. Please, on behalf of all of us, just stick to the allotted 140 characters. Simple math: The annoyance that clicking the link causes > The quality of your run-on remainder that is revealed on the next page. This will always be true. You’re probably the only one who understands why Facebook just increased its character limit to an asinine 63,206.

+ Quit not using Instagram. There is no reasonable excuse for using another platform for your photos (I’m looking at you, Lockerz with a “z”).

+ If you think you might be tweeting too much, you probably are. My friend Bryan once said that no one has ever complained about blog posts being too short. Likewise, you rarely hear anyone complaining that so-and-so doesn’t tweet enough. PS – If they are saying that, it’s a compliment.

+ Tweet ONCE about that awesome thing you’re doing. The more times you tweet about it (ie type on your phone instead of experience said awesome thing), the less awesome it seems.

+ Ignore jerks like me. Ultimately, it’s YOUR Twitter account. So, really, you should just do whatever YOU want to do.

What did I miss? Any other Twitter rules you can think of?

I loved having a third son – Warren Jude.

I learned about the Galloway Method and how it enables anyone to run a marathon.

I loved Rdio for literally revolutionizing how I consume music.

I loved Roku for literally revolutionizing how I consume television and movies.

I loved Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, which led to a new lifestyle – juicing. (currently streaming on Netflix)

I learned what it feels like to get pegged in the nipple by Tony Romo.

I loved Knox McCoy’s Bachelor/ette recaps. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be reading one tomorrow.

I learned a lot about myself and my faith by reading Love Wins and A New Kind of Christianity.

I loved the bio you wrote for me to go in the Catalyst program.

I learned that not everyone agrees with our decision to buy our kids an iPod touch.

I loved the last Harry Potter movie. Epic.

I learned a lot more about Compassion on our trip to Ecuador.

I loved winning the bet with Tripp.

I loved my Nike+ GPS watch.

I loved reading on a Kindle.

I learned that I’m an ISFJ (and that Strengths Finder results are not always what you were expecting).

I loved traveling to Boston to see my brother graduate from Harvard. Speaking of, did you read his post exposing some of the myths and truths?

I learned that few things in life are worse than leveling a trampoline. #firstworldproblems

I loved finally getting a back cover for my book.

I learned about memory palaces.

I loved the decision to sell my MacBook and iPad 2 to buy a MacBook Air.

I learned that kids’ listening level is three years beyond their reading level (and loved experiencing the results – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory anyone?)

I loved the Nerdist Writer’s Panel podcast.

I learned about a lot of stuff from this guy.

I loved so many things that charity: water did, especially this project.

I loved Amazon Prime and all of the benefits associated with it.

Lastly…

My 3 favorite TV shows I watched this year:

The Shield
The Wire
Parks and Recreation (staring in Season 2)

My 3 favorite stand up comedy albums I listened to this year:

Stand Up Comedy 2 by Tommy Johnagin
Impregnated with Wonder by Pete Holmes
Sleepwalk With Me by Mike Birbiglia

My 3 (okay, 4) favorite books I read this year:

Bossypants by Tina Fey
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes

 What about you? What did you learn and/or love in 2011?

Oh, and it should be noted that I stole the “Things I Learned and Loved” idea from Tim Ferriss.

And the top overall post of 2011 is…Cancel Cable and Still Watch It All (Part 1)

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Amy and I swayed back and forth for months about whether or not to cancel our cable and try to capitalize on all the free options out there. There was always something we objected to or some minor inconvenience that we weren’t willing to look past. Not to mention the torturous call we’d eventually have to make to a Comcast representative.

Recently though (and kind of by accident), we were able to find answers to practically all of our objections. So we did it. The world’s biggest fan of television cancelled cable – andwe’re still able to watch everything we want.

There are a ton of options out there, but I’m just going to focus on exactly what we did. In Part 2, I’ll address some of the specific objections we had before we switched and how they’ve been answered along the way, as well as some other things we’ve loved about the switch. But first…

The cheapest option (which we didn’t do):

Simply connect your computer to your TV. It’s kind of a hassle, but it is definitely the cheapest. There are many different ways to do this, depending on the type of computer and TV you have.

To connect my MacBook to my Philips TV, this is what I use:

MacBook  –>  MiniDVI-to-HDMI Adapter –>  HDMI cable  –>  TV

Then you can download Boxee or Hulu Desktop for free and watch away. Sure, you could just manually visit all the different websites that offer free content, but who doesn’t love a good one-stop shop and beautiful interface?

While this is easily the cheapest option, it’s just too much of a hassle for us. I didn’t want to plug my laptop in every time I wanted to watch TV. I wanted more of an all-in-one hub that I could plug in and not have to fool with anymore. So…

To read the rest of the post (and Part 2), click here.

In case you missed it earlier, I’ve been highlighting my top 5 posts of the year throughout the week (based on a complex algorithm involving visitors, comments, and Jasmine Guy’s Twitter follower ratio).