Xmas Toy Drive and Black Friday Sale at Air & Earth in Mount Pleasant, SC

Some call it a modern day surf shop, others an action sports center. Any way you put it, Air & Earth are simply “big kid” toy stores owned by Elea Faucheron and Adam Von Ins in in Mount Pleasant, SC.  Adam and Elea are so thankful for the support Charleston has given them this year, they want to give back by  helping every kid, little or big, get a toy this holiday.  Air & Earth’s 13 Days of Xmas Toy Drive, a collection of new and used toys for those in need, starts on Black Friday, November 27, 2009.

Air & Earth’s 13 Days of Christmas are focused on making toys available to those in need. They are giving back in two ways:

1.  They are collecting both New and Used toy donations. There are several drop-off locations. The first is at Air & Earth’s shop by the Mt. Pleasant Target @ 1313 Long Grove Drive. They’ll also be donating staff (AKA Santa’s Xtreme Elves) along with the Earth Mobile Skate Park, their large funky truck, to set up various mobile collection points at high traffic shopping areas. As a bonus, each donator will receive a free Air & Earth gift card.

New Toy donations need to be in original packaging. To support the recycling efforts of the store, the owners are also asking for used board sport donations in good condition. Bring any board that is gathering dust in your closet, either it is a skateboard, surfboard, skim board, body board, snowboards or kiteboard. They are also collecting things associated with these sports: like used helmets, pads and wetsuits.

Air & Earth are accepting donations from both individuals, and businesses. Donations will go to various charitable groups such as Toys for Tots, Charleston Boys & Girls Club, local Churches and any other groups needing toys. They will pick up.

2.    To help you get a new toy or a gift, Air & Earth are giving away free Gift Cards to the first 113 people through their doors the day after Thanksgiving November 27, 2009. They’re starting the 13 Days of Xmas on Black Friday. These gift cards can be used to get a toy to donate, or give to someone you know. The store will also offer large discounts, starting Nov. 27, on their most popular items such as skateboards for $25, wetsuits for $50, and 50% off sunglasses.

Air & Earth’s two-story surf, skate and kite sports center is located at 1313 Long Grove Drive, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464.

For more information on Mobile Drop-off locations, donation details & requests, Black Friday events and the 13 daily featured items:
•    Online: 13days.catchsomeair.us
•    Email: 13days@catchsomeair.us
•    Phone: 843-388-9300
•    Texting: Text “13days” to 41-411 for mobile drop locations and 13 days special items.

Online Applications That Will Make Your Search, Collaboration and Analytics Easier

Journalistics.com published a comprehensive list of online applications and tools that will make your life and job easier. We only selected our favorites:

Aggregation & Collaboration

• Alltop – one of the leading blog aggregators out there; check out the Journalism section as a good example
• Digsby – get your IM, Email and Social Networks all in one place, that’s what Digsby is all about
• Tinychat – create chatrooms on-the-fly; BackNoise is another good one for this
• Gist – helps you learn more about the contacts you’ve made – all in one place
• Google Apps –check out Google Reader or Google Wave
• Instapaper – a fast, easy, and free tool to save Web pages for reading later
• Utterli – another online chat tool you can use to start discussions via the Web or your mobile device
• Skribit – let your readers suggest topics for you to blog about, and put an end to writer’s block

Monitoring & Analytics

• ConvoTrack – a bookmarklet that enables you to see the entire conversation surrounding a post (see comments from Twitter, FriendFeed, Digg, Reddit, etc.)
• TweetBeep – the “Google Alerts” for Twitter – monitor keywords in Twitter and receive email summaries for free
• Google Analytics and Google Alerts
• SocialMention – a free, real-time social media search and analysis tool
• Monitter – real-time, live Twitter monitor – lets you monitor Twitter for keywords, similar to features in some Twitter clients
• Twitterfall – my favorite tool for following any topic on Twitter, powerful Twitter monitoring tool that displays tweets in a “waterfall” window

File Utilities

• YouSendIt – easy way to share large files online
• Twitpic – easy way to share photos via Twitter

For a full list of apps and tools collected by Jeremy Porter, please check out: Journalistics.com

RT: More Americans Tweeting – 19% of Internet Users on Twitter or Another Service

Here are some findings published in Pew Research Study, click here to learn more about the study.

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices and younger internet users (those under age 44).

Internet users who already use social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn are also likely to use Twitter (35%), compared with just 6% of internet users who do not use such social network sites.

And, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of internet users with four or more internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console or Kindle) use Twitter, compared with 28% of internet users with three devices, 19% of internet users with two devices and 10% of internet users with one device.

Who is on TWITTER
Demographic Group	% of US Adults Tweeting
All Online adults	19%
Sex
Men	17
Women	21
Race/Ethnicity
White (non Hispanic)	19
African American	26
Hispanic	18
Age
18-29	33
30-49	22
50-64	9
65+	4
Education
Less than high school	18
High school diploma	17
Some college	21
College graduate	21
Household Income
< $30,000	22
30k-49,999	21
50k-74,999	20
≥ $75,000	20
Internet Connection
Broadband	21
Dial-up	11
Wireless or Tethered
Wireless	25
Tethered	8
Number of Wireless Devices
One	10
Two	19
Three	28
Four or more	39
Social Network User
Yes	35
No	6
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, (August-September), October 2009

As of September 2009, 54% of internet users have a wireless connection to the internet via a laptop, cell phone, game console or other mobile device. Of those, 25% use Twitter or another similar service, up from 14% of wireless users in December 2008. By comparison, 8% of internet users who rely exclusively on tethered access use Twitter or another service, up from 6% in December 2008.

Analysis also shows that wireless access is an independent factor in predicting whether someone uses Twitter or another status update service. It is not simply because this group is likely to be young or tech-savvy. Owning and using a wireless internet device makes an internet user significantly more likely to tweet.

Age is another strong, independent predictor for use of Twitter and other status-updating services. Internet users ages 18 to 44 report rapid uptake of Twitter over the last nine months, whereas internet users ages 45 and older report slower adoption rates. For example, 37% of internet users ages 18 to 24 use Twitter or another service, up from 19% in December 2008.

The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for a MySpace user is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.

Median Twitter Age is 31
	% of Internet Users
Twitter Age Group	Dec ‘08	Sep ‘09
18-24	19%	37%
25-34	20	31
35-44	10	19
45-54	5	10
55-64	4	10
65+	2	4
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, (Nov-Dec ‘08, Aug-Sep ‘09), October 2009

The report points out that Harvard Business School researchers analyzed a random sample of 300,000 Twitter accounts and found that “the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets.” In addition, says the report, Sysomos analyzed 11.5 million Twitter accounts and found that most people post just once per day (and one in five have never posted).

CFADA Artists Painting in Washington Park on Satuday, Nov. 7 from 9am till noon!

West Fraser Painting in the Park

CFADA artists are donating their time and talent to raise money for visual art programs at Charleston County high schools. Over $140,000 has been donated since 2004 to:  R B Stall HS, Wando HS, James Island HS, St. John’s HS, West Ashley HS, Charleston School of The Arts, North Charleston HS, Burke HS, Septima P. Clark Academy, Garrett Academy of Technology and Academic Magnet High School.

CFADA artists that will be painting in Washington Park during the CFADA’s Charleston Fine Art Annual on Saturday, November 7 from 9am till noon include:

John Doyle, Mark Horton, Chris Groves, Lese Corrigan, Lyuba Titovets, Hilarie Lambert, Sue Stewart, Rick Reinert, Kevin LePrince, Laurie Meyer, Karen Larson Turner, West Fraser, William McCullough, Amy Lind, Robert Lange, Jennifer Smith Rogers, Shannon Smith, Simon Kenevan, Gary Grier, Chestee Harrington, Johnson Hagood, Rhett Thurman and Ted Ellis.