Are we calling them Bucket Lists anymore? Or does anyone who has owned a Honda before have to refer to it as a Leap List?

Whatever it’s called, I’m making one. I realized yesterday that I could only name like six things I want to do before I die. Not because there are only six things I want to do in life, but because I’ve just never thought much about it.

I want to though. But I need some inspiration from you.

Do you have a Bucket List? What are some of the things on it? Obviously, there are no bad answers here…unless they involve heights.

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Fact: Twitter makes everything better. The Super Bowl was no exception to this. So in honor of this wonderful social media platform, the fantastically embarrassing Bradyface vignettes, and the overall forgetability of the commercials, I present my 14 favorite tweets from last night. Not sure why they’re blurry.

(Click image to watch the commercial)

What about you? What were your favorite tweets from last night?

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

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!

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

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?

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

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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).

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

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I know I’m stating the obvious here, but the real reason any of us help a friend move is so the favor will be returned at some point in the future. That, or he’s already helped you and this is your payback. The point is, no one’s doing it out of pure kindness. It’s too awful.

You will find yourself in this situation sooner or later, though, so you need to be prepared. I’ve compiled a guide to help you make this, the most painful of situations, a notch less painful.

Timing is everything. Unloading a U-Haul is like a game of chess. You’ve got to be thinking 4-5 moves ahead at all times so you don’t get stuck carrying the solid oak chest of drawers.

Limp early and often. It is imperative that everyone is fully aware of your knee problem so you can avoid hauling a sleeper sofa up two flights of stairs. Speaking of…

FACT: Humanity is at its absolute worst when carrying furniture up stairs.People can’t be held responsible for what they say or how mad they get at inanimate objects.

To read the rest of the post, click here.

In case you missed it earlier, I’ve been highlighting my top 5 posts of the year throughout this week (based on a complex algorithm involving visitors, comments, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing price on the day it was written).

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Number three on the list: 16 Things That Don’t Impress Me

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I’m pretty easily impressed. Show me a good Christopher Walken impersonation or a toddler who can dance and I’ll be talking about it for weeks. There are a few things, however, that have never, nor will ever, impress me. Here are 16 of them:

[Note: In order to balance the scales, I made sure to include a few of the things that do impress me as well]

1. Horsepower
Am impressed by: High miles-per-gallon and stowaway seating

2. How you faired on your latest Facebook quiz
Am impressed by: Whether or not you’ve figured out how to permanently hide quiz-sharers from your news feed

3. Your successes in fantasy sports
Am impressed by: Your successes in something real

4. How fast you can go when light turns green
Am impressed by: Were you paying attention when the light turned green?

5. The special features of your non-iPhone smartphone
Am impressed by: People still using the iPod Mini

6. Your ability to quote movies
Am impressed by: Your ability to unashamedly go to movies alone

To read the rest of the post, click here.

In case you missed it earlier, I’ve been highlighting my top 5 posts of the year throughout this week (based on a complex algorithm involving visitors, comments, and Atlanta’s barometer reading on the day it was written).

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Number 4 on the list: Rules Regarding Weddings

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Recently, I was about to send a soon-to-be-married friend the following text: “What on your registry do you need the most in the $30 price range?” It seemed thoughtful and direct, but my wife informed me that this kind of thing is frowned upon in the wedding world. You just don’t do it.

That got me thinking about some of the other unwritten rules regarding weddings – Lord knows there are many. I think it would be in everyone’s best interest if they were addressed right here, and written down once and for all.

1. If you haven’t been invited, it’s never okay to ask the groom where your invitation is. This happened to me. An acquaintance told me point blank that he/she hadn’t received the invitation. Naturally, I lied and made up some excuse about how a batch had been returned due to parcel irregularity.

1b. Don’t force the groom make up concepts like parcel irregularity days before his wedding. He has other things to be thinking about.

2. No one has ever taken an invitation to be an usher as a compliment. It’s like the varsity basketball coach letting you sit on the bench with the players, but you have to wear khakis and keep track of free throws on your clipboard.

Check out the rest of the post here.

In case you missed it yesterday, I’ll be highlighting my top 5 posts of the year throughout the week (based on a complex algorithm involving visitors, comments, and the current Yen-to-Dollar conversion rate).

©2012 tylerstanton.com. All Rights Reserved.