Work Wednesday - Online Volunteering

Every now and again I interject some thoughts on work life on the blog. I'm going to try to organize these subjects onto Work Wednesdays ... not every week, just as they come to mind. Hope you enjoy!

Are you ever stuck at the computer, piddling through the umpteenth blog post advising you on how to transform that antique toilet paper holder into an impressive interior decor item and wondering -- isn't there something better I could be doing with my time?

here

Maybe it's this: Online volunteering with the UN at onlinevolunteering.org.  What an amazing concept. In this day of global interconnectedness, you can work with a NGO in faraway Tanzania or Thailand via the internet. Many NGOs submit requests for assistance with webpage design, blog content writing or translating, assistance with online courses or even fundraising. Passionate about women's empowerment? Search for opportunities with NGOs focusing on justice and equality for women. Love Africa? Choose your favorite area and volunteer with a group from there.

This could also be a really great way to beef up a resume. We all have so many skills that may not be reflected on that one-page resume. Volunteering could be a great way to get experience with those skills and highlight them on your resume.

I've done a little informal volunteering like this with a fair trade group in East Africa. I helped them work on a business proposal and marketing pieces, and it was a great chance to wake up some brain cells that have languished, unused, at my current job. And I killed a couple empty hours - win win!

Got any other great volunteering ideas? Would you volunteer online?

Pin it to me, baby!

From here via Pinterest

Ok, everyone. If you are not already, it's high time you become addicted to Pinterest. It's the nifftiest online tool I've ever used, and I am by no means techy or savvy, let alone tech-savvy. But this is easy enough that a preschooler or fairly computer literate grandma could do it.

You have to be invited to join (I know, it sounds snooty, just hang in there) and once you do you are able to download a magical bookmark to your bookmarks bar. When you're hitting the internet and come across a particularly lovely picture, you can then hit the Pin It book mark and the program grabs the picture for you and lets you save it to a virtual bulletin board (or moooood board as the fancy people call it).

From here bc I don't know how to screen grab ;(

You can have a bulletin board of your favorite clothes, trip destinations, wedding ideas (not that I have anything like this...cough), whatever you want! And your buddy Pinterest keeps the original source of the picture, so it's a great way to keep track of articles to read and websites to visit. I have one devoted solely to maps and another for cute things that make me go Squee! I've got some baby shower ideas up there for this weekend's celebration of my friend who's preggers <3. You can also browse through and repin other people's posts and share comments and like their pictures and probably more things that I haven't discovered yet.

 So, if you're not in the cool kids' club yet, send me and email and I'll get you started. I feel a little like drug pusher here, so I'll include this caveat:

***Joining Pinterest may result in extreme cases of procrastination, overestimation of your DIY abilities, and severe drooling over accessories and/or baked goods. Be aware that your free time may be fully and inextricably consumed by "pinning" and that you may be susceptible to becoming a pinaholic.***

Any Pinners out there? What's your current Pinterest obsession? Do you actually do any of the DIY things you pin??? ('cause mostly I don't.)