Teen Checkup | Internet Safety

WoW Rears its Ugly Head

Every year as birthdays and Christmas pass, the age old question of “What can I get for them this year?” rears its ugly head. No matter for whom you are buying: your mother, your best friend or even your cat, you’ll want to make sure that you get them a present that is special, is useful for them. Hopefully something memorable to maybe earn you some brownie points! So, if you’ve got a particularly difficult friend to buy for and you are looking for something a tad more imaginative than the pair of socks or smelly soap you’ve gotten them for the last 3 years running, a personalised calendar may be just the thing for you.

Ever since Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, recording dates and scheduling time has become essential for personal as well as business use. And with the pressures of modern day life, juggling a whole range of commitments has become ever more complex. Without it, how on earth would we stand any chance of remembering our Great Aunt’s birthday, our cousin’s anniversary or that meeting with the bank next Wednesday? Any of these things can so easily slip from our minds! Not only is giving a calendar a subtle way in which to ensure that your birthday is announced in plenty of time, reducing the chance that the recipient will forget about it, but it also ensures that you won’t be receiving a bouquet of droopy looking petrol station flowers and a hurriedly scribbled card from the other half. Sound familiar anyone?

Whilst most of us know that calendars are essential for organising our time and scheduling where we’re going to be, we all know someone who is yet to see the light and as a result is always running late, missing appointments or double booking their time. A calendar will give them the opportunity to manage their time more effectively. Not only will they be able to plan their lives so that they can achieve so much more in one day, but they might stand half a chance of being on time to meet you, saving you many an hour waiting outside the cinema or cafe on your own wondering if you’ve been stood up!

Now just because a calendar is functional, doesn’t mean that it can’t also be a special and unique present for someone as well. Whilst a calendar with 12 images of the latest actor, sports personality or pouting pop band draped over various props may be attractive to some, think of how much more unique and original a calendar adorned with their own name will look hanging in the kitchen or in their bedroom, catering for even the world’s vainest friend or partner. With any number of different themes, there’s definitely going to be something to suit even the fussiest of tastes. For those who have always dreamed of being a rock star, why not opt for getting their name put onto a gold disc with the personalised ‘Music Legend’ calendar.

Alternatively, for your significant other, if organising a plane to spell out your names in the sky is a bit too over the top and would blow the budget, why not use the calendar to make a different romantic gesture each month with the personalised ‘Romance’ calendar? Each calendar provides you with twelve unique images with the name of your chosen friend or loved one, cleverly incorporated within each via digital imagery and will guarantee a truly unique and one off gift. And as they come in a choice of two different sizes, you can either proudly display it on the wall for everybody to see with an A4 sized calendar, or be the envy of the office with a smaller desk size calendar.

It is also possible to specify at which month you wish the calendar to start, allowing you to make an even more personalised gifts, not only at Christmas, but for birthdays, anniversaries, Valentines Day - in fact for just about any occasion you care to think of! No longer will giving calendars be confined to simply the New Year: you could try getting one for your son or daughter at the beginning of the academic year or getting one for your partner on the month of your anniversary.

So, forget the cute Scottie dogs, puppies in drawers, the racing cars or last week’s pop sensation. Personalised calendars really are gifts that keep on giving and are the perfect way to regularly tell that special someone just how special you think they are. And of course in future they’ll be on time to hear you tell them!

Written by John Smith co-founder of GettingPersonal

GettingPersonal are one of the UK’s leading on-line retailers of Gifts, personalised gifts, Christmas Gifts and Personalised Calendars. Their website is packed with over 1,500 gifts for any special occasion.

For more go to [http://www.gettingpersonal.co.uk]

advertising on Answers?

Wow. Remember a little while back when Tom’s of Maine asked questions about what is stopping people from buying ‘natural’ products? The way it was worded, it seemed to me to be a (not so) thinly veiled marketing ploy. I even complained to Answers about this- lo and behold, ‘guess who’ is advertising on the home page of Yahoo Answers right now??! Nepotism rears its ugly head… anybody else think this is pretty shady?

Many of the ‘official’ questions are simply there to draw interest and attention, either to products or people. However, since Yahoo gives us email and Yahoo Answers for FREE, I wouldn’t complain too much if they post these types of things. It is the payment from companies like that that keep this free for us!