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Christmas Present Tips for Guys

Christmas Shopping Tips for Guys

giftgreen1Most of us guys are useless at Christmas shopping. Here's a few tips I've picked up over the years.

Ladies, you might want to share this with the men in your family to avoid getting an undesirable and badly wrapped present this Christmas.

  1. Buying your Christmas presents at a petrol station or dairy on Christmas morning really isn't the done thing - apparently not everyone wants a funnel, box of biscuits or a car care kit. Don't do it.
  2. Get started early, no not on Christmas Eve, yesterday was already too late.
  3. First thing in the morning is the best time to Christmas shop, and I mean first thing, teenagers are still in bed.
  4. It's not the thought that counts, it's how MUCH thought that counts.
  5. Cash is a GREAT present for teenagers - and me.
  6. If you must give gift vouchers make sure they are from a shop the recipient actually shops in and try and avoid those with an expiry date.
  7. Wrapping and cards are important, you and I know it's just paper but for some reason they are important.
  8. Before you start browsing in a shop check that it does gift wrapping and accept the service - wait if necessary. If the shop doesn't do gift wrapping move on to the next. Unless you are an expert present wrapper - Yeah Right!
  9. Even if every present you buy is gift wrapped, buy plenty of wrapping paper and sellotape. You are going to need it because dairy's and petrol stations don't gift wrap and being a bloke you'll probably ignore number 1.

Guys ignore the above at your peril and have a wonderful Christmas.

Schemes for Scheduled Messaging

I'm finding more & more useful things my smartphone can do.

Flynn van Os (who was educated at Otumoetai College) has written a free application for most smart phones called Schemes that anyone use to schedule messages to be sent in the future.

Schemes Logo

I use Schemes to send reminders. When my daughter goes out at 7:00 pm and is supposed to be home by midnight I can compose a text message at 7:00 pm that Schemes will send for me at 11:30 pm reminding her she should start heading for home. And I can send myself another one timed for midnight to wake me up to check she is home!

If she isn't home I could program Schemes to send a message every 30 minutes saying "where are you?" and go back to sleep. I said I could, I didn't say I do, it's called responsible parenting.

Click here for Schemes on GooglePlay

Schemes is a simple tool that allows you to send scheduled messages via SMS, Facebook, Twitter or Email (Gmail only!). Whether you want to send that happy birthday text at midnight (or a minute before midnight if that's your thing), Tweet about your favourite time of the day, make a Facebook status without your friends on the other side of the world missing it, or send that important business email right on the hour, Schemes will do it for you!

But don't take my word for it, I'm biased, Flynn is a relation, read other's reviews at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oxapps.schemes

FEATURES:
- Send scheduled SMS, Facebook statuses, Tweets or Emails from your device!
- Clean Holo card-based UI, even on Gingerbread!
- Notifications on sending
- All messages are added to their respective threads in the Messaging app
- Cancelable, editable messages
- And more!

PERMISSIONS:
* Messages - used for SMS contact suggestions
* Vibrate - used by the date/time pickers
* Reading contacts - used to store the messages in their respective threads
* Your accounts - for Gmail

Schemes Logo

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oxapps.schemes

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