Everyone has morning rituals. Some people get up, stretch, have a cup of coffee, hop in the shower, brush their teeth, let the dogs out, etc. The first thing I do in the morning is check Woot.com.

My friend and former Quicken Loans team member Jarrett “Spiderman” Knyal introduced me to Woot about four years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. Maybe it’s an uber-geek personality that drives people like Jarrett and me to get so excited about a cult-like “deal-a-day” website or maybe it’s an online shopping addiction - who knows. Call it what you want, but you really can’t have too many Roombas (those nifty robotic vacuums that clean your floors, Jetsons-style).

Since my first Woot purchase (a Roomba, of course), I’ve amassed nearly 50 Woots (that’s what us in the “in crowd” call the daily Woot products), ranging from over a dozen t-shirts, countless screaming monkeys, a “bag of crap” (the most coveted of all Woot deals), two Dyson vacuum cleaners, a color laser printer, the greatest oven mitts I’ve ever owned, and of course, a marshmallow gun. There’s a special feeling when you arrive home from a long day at the office to discover a Woot box on your porch. It’s like one more little slice of happiness to round out the day.

Quicken Loans has been named one of FORTUNE Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the 7th consecutive year! To celebrate, our Recruiting Team is hosting a Career Fair on Tuesday, 3/9/2010 to showcase some of our open career opportunities! The Career Fair will be from 4:00 pm – 7:00 PM EST.

If you are a high-level performer who makes a difference in all that you do, check out our Mortgage Banking position at the Quicken Loans Careers site and attend our Career Fair! You’ll be on your way to success within your first year.

When: Tuesday, 3/9/2010 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Where: Quicken Loans, 20555 Victor Parkway, Livonia, MI 48152

Welcome to what we hope is the first of many posts to feature the launch of a new Bizdom U business. For those who don't know, Bizdom U is an entrepreneurial school in downtown Detroit from Quicken Loans Chairman Dan Gilbert.

You might remember us mentioning Guffly before - they're another Bizdom business which is about 6 months old.

So, without further ado, here is the first pitch to you, our dear DIFF readers from one of the newest Bizdom grads - Roger Williams of Launch Learning Group:

In these economic hard times chances are you know someone out of work or looking for a new career path. If so, a career in insurance may be right for them.  There is an unlimited income potential, flexible hours and it’s an industry that is still growing even in this economy.

To assist people in breaking into the insurance industry, my partner Antonella Solomon and I just launched our business out of Bizdom U to help prospective insurance agents acquire their license by training them to pass the State exam on the first try.  Our business, Launch Learning Group, has a new training model and we have broken the old mold of insurance training which is typically traditional, lecture based and boring.

The 11th Annual Cavaliers Career Fair is tomorrow from 1 - 4pm. It’ll be hosted at the Quicken Loans Arena, just before the the Cavaliers take on the New Orleans Hornets at 7:00 PM. Your $27 admission to the career fair includes a ticket to the game! For more information, check out The Q's website.

While we'd love to have all our DIFF readers come work at QL, there will be more than 35 companies represented at tomorrow's career fair. If you're in Ohio and need a job, this is shaping up to be the career opportunity of the year!

While you're there, say hi to my friends Pete Ferency and Amanda Huizenga, who will be attending to represent QL and Fathead. AND they’ll be raffling off free Fatheads at the fair!

As always, visit the Quicken Loans Careers website for a current list of available opportunities.

We did it again!

For 7 years running, we've had the privilege of being a part of FORTUNE Magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For"! We're proud to retain the same position as last year, #29. We also continue to be the #1 ranked company in Michigan.

Check out part of FORTUNE'S profile of Quicken Loans:

What makes it so great?
Nation’s fifth-largest retail mortgage lender will move its headquarters this spring to downtown Detroit from the suburbs. The move, which will affect 1,700 employees, is owner Dan Gilbert’s idea.

Some of you might think a move to *downtown Detroit* is not a perk. But if you read the DIFF, you know we think it's the best thing since sliced bread. Not only are we excited to be a part of Motown's revitalization, we're excited to just be in the city - working, living, loving it.

You can see a little more insight in these quotes from our Chairman Dan Gilbert in a press release posted this morning:

“Our ranking on FORTUNE’s list is proof that a company’s culture and people can overcome any challenge. The last several years have been difficult for many companies in the home finance sector, but thanks to our extraordinary team members, and our take-charge, innovation-based culture, we not only survived – but achieved new company records in closed loan volume, client experience ratings, revenue and profitability,” said Quicken Loans Founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert.

“Our 3,000-plus dedicated and empowered team members continued to raise their level of awareness and met the challenges that faced them every single day. The passion and will to ‘figure it out’ was key to Quicken Loans’ accomplishments in an extremely difficult economic environment during the past couple of years,” Gilbert added.

I can't really say I've ever agreed with anything more. We did have challenges. We're not perfect. But the greatest thing about working at Quicken Loans is that everyone is a leader. You see something that doesn't make sense? Fix it. You want to make a DIFFerence? Do it.

My everyday job here as Social Media Manager is help make clients I come across on the web happy to work with Quicken Loans. And I'll tell you this...if I wasn't happy, I don't think I could do my job. My one bit of unsolicited business advice - make your employees happy. If they're happy, they'll make your clients happy. There's your bottom line.

This morning Kelly sent me a Tweet that today was the day Motown Records founder Berry Gordy incorporated his first record label,  Tamla Records.

A year later Tamla became Motown Records and the rest is history. Dozens of top 10 hits. Millions of records sold. Detroit became an international leader in the music industry and the hits of Motown are songs that we're all still singing today. 

It all started with a dream. I'm assuming everyone knows about Motown Records, but if not I linked to the Wikipedia page above. Check it out and teach yourself some history. Even if you don't like the Motown sound, you have to respect the awesome machine Berry Gordy built with his own hands.

And since we just finished the Christmas season, I thought I'd share my all time FAVORITE Motown song - Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer by the Temptations. This is a jam.

Thanks for all the great tunes, Mr. Gordy.

One of the things I love writing about on this blog is great consumer stories.

The examples of when businesses, both small and large get it right and make me want to share.

That's what happened recently on my most awesome 10-day excursion to Aruba (check out the video below and you can see the Jeep!).

We found the best place to rent a jeep in Aruba, Value Aruba Car Rental. Value Aruba Car Rental is a small, family-owned business far off the main track and we only found it because my wife's due diligence in researching out Aruba jeep rental options. Her work paid off and saved us about $300.

That's right. By going with Value Aruba Car Rental, we paid $300 less than the big name brands (you know the ones I'm talking about) for our Jeep for one week. And I'm talking the EXACT same Jeep. The only difference was we paid $300 less than the big names wanted for the weekly rental.

Google is celebrating the 2009 Holiday Season by donating $20 million to charities around the world. I know I've pat Google on the back before, but I just see it as giving credit where credit is due. Sure Google is a huge company that I'm sure makes huge profits. And really there are a bunch of other things they could've done with this money. But instead of adding to their empire or throwing an epic party, they decided to be The DIFF and do the most good by donating to those in need.

So hats off to Google again. They've put their money in the right place and done a world of good in the process.

Earlier this week, Quicken Loan team members were greeted in the lobby by 4 members of the the Detroit Doubletree Hotel staff with around 600 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies!

The cookies were a welcoming gift to us at Quicken Loans, who will be Doubletree's new neighbors when we relocate to downtown Detroit in spring 2010!

Every Quicken Loans team member was handed a cookie in a Doubletree cookie sleeve and a flyer with more information about Doubletree's lovely downtown Detroit location.

Thanks Doubletree for cookies and satisfying some team members' morning hunger!

Real is always better than fake. And apparently Caribou Coffee agrees. On our most recent after-lunch coffee run, we discovered that they've switched from using chocolate syrup to pieces of real chocolate instead.

Now, I didn't get a chocolate drink myself this time, but my friend did and she gave it rave reviews.

Caribou even took the extra step and gave a little blurb about the switch on the cup sleeves...As if the wonderful chocolatey goodness you're sipping on wasn't enough of a clue.

So good job Caribou, for switching to the real stuff and making your coffee that much better.

Got an email from my Twitter friend Charlie Wollborg of Curve Detroit last week.

Now, Charlie knows the interwebz and Charlie knows (probably all of) Metro Detroit, so I take his emails very seriously.

Because he's a serious dude.

Not really. He's actually a really funny guy who loves bacon.

But he is a total wealth of knowledge.

Charlie was writing me about this neat competition going on for certain places to be included in a special collection of Street View for Google Maps.

From the GOOG:

Thank you to everyone who sent suggestions for locations they'd like to see photographed by the Street View trike. We were inundated by more than 25,000 great ideas!

Now it's your turn to cast the final vote to tell us which locations you'd most like to see on Google Maps.

Explore the finalists listed below and shown on the map, then cast your votes within each category. You can vote as many times as you like until the deadline at 11:59pm PST, Monday, November 30th.

We'll work closely with the relevant organizations to secure permission to collect images of privately-owned locations.

Michigan is lucky enough to be in 2 categories: Michigan State in University Campuses and the Detroit Zoo in Theme Parks & Zoos. All it takes is a click to help the Great Lakes state win. Go here to vote. Let's make Michigan The DIFF!

And I totally agree with this last sentiment from Charlie: "Twitter, Facebook, email, blog or carrier pigeon, help spread the word. This is a great positive PR opportunity for our state." Go vote & share!

I got an email this morning passing along this great list of cool sites for Twitter lovers.

You can read the full list here of 101 Tools for the Ulitmate Twitter Expert.

It's a pretty comprehensive list and covers everything from Twitter backgrounds to integrating the music you're listening to into Twitter.

I won't repeat the list here, but please go check it out.

Thanks Michelle for send this along!

Indecisive about what to wear in the morning?  Unprepared for the temperature outside? Thanks to StyleCaster, there's now an app for that.  Yes, your iPhone can now suggest what to wear to help you get dressed every morning.

This iPhone app takes into consideration what the temperature is outside in your location, and provides recommendations of stylish looks.  Like the StyleCaster website, this app it provides customized style tips, news, videos, and beauty trends.  You can now have an extensive catalog of the latest designer clothing right at your fingertips.

Beyond clothing, consumers can also get information on products, hair styles, stores, and makeup advice all from each styled look.  The best part about this app?  It's completely free.  So check out the StyleCaster iPhone app, and cut your time getting ready in the morning by half.

I know what you're thinking. Another video, Kelly? Too easy. GIVE US THE GOOD STUFF! WE NEED THE DIFF!

Well, my people, this is it. Over the weekend, I became more than slightly obsessed with this video from Chow.com. It's not new, not cutting edge, fancy schmancy technologically-advanced or even celebrity dance-y pants. This video? THIS.VIDEO.IS.PURE.AWESOME.

There are times in life when you come across someone with such a zest for life that it leaves you scratching your head. They're that happy? Can't be *that happy* all the time. They leave you questioning their motives or even the source of their unapologetic energy (whatever they're on can't be legal).

While no one I know at work actually plays a guitar, our halls are filled with a ton of Rock Stars. Which is why Quicken Loans is proud to be involved with the RockStars@Work conference on October 20 in Minneapolis. 

About RockStars@Work straight from their site:

The RockStars@Work Conference was created to address the talent gap in a trend-setting event, featuring:

Star Speakers
Executives of some of the largest companies in the U.S. will share their stories of success as a result of working with younger generations. Purchase a VIP pass to meet these leading stars!

Proven Strategies
View mini-performances (break-outs) led by the most innovative organizations that are effectively recruiting, retaining, managing, and marketing to younger generations. A non-profit track is included.

Trend-Setting Tools
From tech gadgets to green space, experience the future of the workplace at the World Tour -- a series of interactive displays featuring the latest and greatest instruments preferred by Generations X and Y.

Next Generation Celebration
Apply for a Next Generation Employer of Choice Award or learn from the best during an entertaining, Grammy-style awards ceremony.

Rockin’ Entertainment
From the red carpet to RockStars TV, music videos, light show, and live band, this conference is guaranteed to deliver great information in an especially entertaining and engaging way.

We're even lucky enough to be sending one of our brightest, Regional Vice President Tony Nuckolls, to be a speaker! And rumor has it yours truly will be flying out as well to cover the event from every social media angle possible. I can't wait! Here's a bit about Tony's preso:

Check out this great post on the Big Picture Blog, courtesy of the DIFF Ninja.

Blogger Charly Caldwell II gives his top 5 results of going green. Here they are:

1) Reduced office power consumption – energy savings of 15%.

2) Consolidated computers – energy savings of 30%.

3) Reduced monthly lease payment by over 50%.

4) Reduced on-site client trips – nice reduction in energy & cost savings.

5) Reduced printing & paper consumption – energy savings to be determined.

You can read the blog post for a full description of each of the five reasons.

A great example of how going green makes financial sense. Thanks Charly for the great post and thanks DIFF Ninja for sending it to me.

Ok so I love food.  Like, I watch Food Network when I’m by myself at home because I don’t like cheesy dramas, horrors, and reality TV is replayed too often.  Oh, and news, CNN, etc are just too intellectual for me when I want to relax.  I really started watching brainless TV after college started, before then I was still trying to be smart and relate with current news, politics, etc.  But once college began, after the weekly 300+ pages of reading, the last thing I wanted to do was learn.  In comes Flavor of Love, and the many other tacky reality TV put on by VH1 to exploit the lower class.  But eventually, even that got old, so now one of my favorite shows is Ace of Cakes. 

I love this show because #1 you don’t have to think.  It takes about as much brain power as thoughts such as: “Ooo pretty…”  Secondly, I love cooking and especially baking, it’s what I do when I’m feeling antisocial but bored.   And in my browsing, I came across this amazing post called 20 Tasty Cupcakes.  These people are talented; I could never do all that to a cupcake.

Canine to Five, my favorite Detroit dog day care (and night care for that matter) was recently featured on CNN Money as a business that is beating the recession.

That's cool. I'm glad they are doing great because I really like this business and I hope they continue to grow for a long time.  Here's why I like them:

• They offer a good service at reasonable rates
• They have invested in a pretty run down part of Detroit and replaced an abandoned building with a thriving business
• The owner(s) and workers are always nice and very friendly
• They have a really cool Saturday morning dog park where you can take your dogs and meet cool people
• They get involved in the Detroit community and support local causes
• Rumor has it there will be a discount for Quicken Loans employees when we move downtown (sweet!)

I've attended the Saturday dog park several times and I've used Canine to Five for weekend boarding and for a dog training class I can say my dogs really seem to like the place. Here's the video of Canine to Five on CNN Money. Congrats to Liz and the staff over there. Excellent publicity for an awesome local business!

This is exactly the kind of post I had in mind when we first starting planning for this blog about three years ago. It's picture-perfect as a matter of fact! He he he.

Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about us (Quicken Loans employees) sharing things that we think qualify as something special or cool and worth talking about. Which brings me to today's post.

It's about Flower Power, a really cool company that offers some really cool photography of flowers (and at least one butterfly). Flower Power is owned and managed by a young artist who does this in her spare time. And her amount of spare time is dictated by how much homework her elementary school teachers hand out to her.

That's right. The owner/operator of Flower Power is 11-year old Lily Arnett, whose talents have not gone unnoticed. She was featured recently in an article in the Oakland Press. We hear her business is doing well, and growing. Awesome.

Lily even donates a percentage of her profits to Oakland County, Michigan animal shelters.

Pretty cool.

Please check out her site and buy a photo or two if you're so inclined.

Congrats Lily. Your entrepreneurial spirit is amazing.

We hope you have a very successful and fun business for years to come.

The Evian babies rapping and rollerskating vid has over 5 million views (and growing quickly). That, pretty much, qualifies as viral and I can see why it's so popular. It's really cool

Excellent graphic and really cool (cute) concept. I don't even like bottled water (don't believe the hype, I say) but man this video is great!

Check it out:

And just in case you want more, the even made a "Making of the Evian babies video" video.

Good job Evian.

Check this out.

Quizzle - everyone's favorite place to get a free credit report every six months now offers something really cool. A chance to get a credit report and score for just $7 in case the free one every six months isn't good enough.

Suppose you need to know your score and don't want to sign up for one of those expensive credit report services? Or pay 15 or 20 bucks for a report from another website? And you've already used your Quizzle free credit score and it will be several months before you're eligible for another? What do you do? Pay 15 or 20 bucks for your credit score and report? Sign up for an expensive service? No, silly. You get the super cheap $7 Quizzle credit report and score.

Just seven bucks and you'll know if all is ok in your credit world. You'll be able to verify all open accounts and check for any errors. You might save yourself a lot of hassle and trouble if you find a problem (or notice some sort of credit fraud) and you're able to take care of it before it causes any serious headaches.

That's worth seven dollars, isn't it?

Just to www.quizzle.com for more info about this great new offer from our friends at Quizzle.

Quizzle interesting fact of the day: the guy who designed Quizzle also designed this blog. None other than the one and only Chris Kaufman. Wow. Bet you didn't know that, huh?

I'm no gardener. But I'm darn good at clicking a mouse. I can even plant a tree with it! No, I'm not crazy. Well, sort of. But that's besides the point.

Check out this very DIFF-tastic movement from the juicy people at Odwalla - by just visiting their site and clicking a button, you can plant a tree!

More from the Odwalla tree planting page:

Planting a tree on your behalf is our way of saying thank you for choosing Odwalla!

The Odwalla Plant a Tree program is available May 27, 2009 through December 31, 2009. When you choose a participating park system for your tree (CA, CO, FL, MI, MD, NY, OH, PA, TX, UT, VA), Odwalla will donate $1.00 towards the purchase of a tree to the state parks in that state on your behalf. Only one click allowed per person. Participants pay no money under this program. The cost of the donated trees will be paid solely by Odwalla, Inc., up to $100,000 worth of trees. Tree costs generally range from $.25 to $1.20.

Awesome! So go check it out, pick your state of choice and plant a tree! It's http://www.parkvisitor.com/odwalla/

A few weeks back, I was at a very inspiring performance by the very creative young people of the Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit (I'll write more about them later) and ran into Angie Johnson, a former team member here at Quicken Loans.

Angie recently launched her company and clothing line - God's Lyric Clothing - and I'm impressed.

The designs are cool. Very cool. Her husband had a God's Lyric shirt on and it really looked good. I have to admit, I'm probably the last person that will wear religious inpsired clothing, but if I was to wear it, God's Lyric would be the brand.

Rumor had it that Angie got some design help for her logos from none other than our own Chris Kaufman - you might know him better as the guy who designed this blog - and the designs really are cool. Here's a little bit about God's Lyric clothing from their site - http://www.godslyric.com/index.html

The cool folks over at my favorite search engine wanted to do some spring yard cleaning - and do it with a green twist. So they hired some goats. From the Official Google Blog:

I'm impressed.

Hit your neighborhood Baskin-Robbins tonight for 31 cent scoops of ice cream and a chance to help firefighters in your community.

Cheap ice cream and helping a good cause. Hmmm. Makes sense to me.

Check out more about it from the Baskin-Robbins site (http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Spotlight/31CentScoopNight.aspx)t:

Everyone is invited

I am so psyched about my new bag.

I've been in the market for awhile to find a new bag. My requirements: messenger style, hold a lot, and preferably be earth friendly in some respect. I had been researching solar powered bags, and also looking at bags made with recycled materials. I mulled and dreamed and shopped, and never could really make the committment.

Finally, while travelling recently in England, necessity pushed my bag-acquisition pursuits into high gear, as the bag I had was just not cutting it for holding the guide books, umbrella, and other accoutremount I needed for urban adventuring. I spied many Freitag bags in the backs and shoulders of Londoners, including on one of my hosts, and mentioned I'd love to have one. They took me to a couple of cool shops in Soho and helped me pick out my practical souvenir...an expandable, durable messenger bag with multiple comparments.

Zen Habits contributor Jonathan Mead wrote a great blog post on Zen Habits giving the top 10 reasons to work from home.

I love this because I am a BIG fan of working from home. I think it's great for morale, great for productivity and (at least in my case) it's great for my personal life (I can let my dogs out, take care of stuff like laundry while I'm working, etc.)

And I can tell you with 100% sureity, that I am more productive working from home than I am working from an office. I'm not saying all people are, but I am.

So give it a quick read. It's great and really gives some good reasons to not drive to the office everyday. My favorite reason?

#7 - Work in your underwear.

Enjoy!

Upside down Youtube? The Guardian abandons its print edition to go "fully Twitter"? Amazon launches a new cloud computing service and Google master artificial intelligence?

Wow.

What a coincidence all this amazing stuff (and much more) is happening today! You can read the entire list of the top April 1 stuff on Techcrunch.

My fav is by far the Youtube upsidedown thing. It's hillarious. Here is our Quicken Loans Deposit video upside down. You can do this to any video, for today at least.

I love it

Happy April Fools day! By the way, what did Quicken Loans do to celebrate April Fools day? Not much other than to offer America the lowest mortgage rates in almost 40 years. And that ain't no joke!

This is great. Talk about being outside the box, or "rocking the box" as MCs used to say back in my youth.

Not much of an intro is needed for this. A Southwest Airlines flight attendant raps his safety pre-flight message. Just watch and enjoy a cool video from a cool company doing something cool.

Imagine how surprised we were when we found out that one of the DIFF crew was featured in a new book that promises to help you "dominate your market one tweet at a time."

That's right. The DIFF's own Chris Kaufman (aka Dr. Kaufman) runs a side hustle called Twitart and it is turning out to be one helluva side hustle. In fact, it's such a great idea that it deserves a coveted spot as "something that is the DIFF."

Anyway, a new book from NY Times best-selling author Joel Comm called Twitter Power features Twitart as a great spot to get a really cool and professional looking Twitter background. And that it is.

Actually, Twitart is enjoying a bit of an explosion in business and popularity lately, due to the fact it has two very important elements on its side:

1. it's cool
2. it's inexpensive

Sounds good to me.

On February 24, 2009, IHOP (the International House of Pancakes) is hosting National Pancake Day 2009 to raise money for Children's Miracle Network and other great causes.

Here's how it works from IHOP's National Pancake Day site:

Known also as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products…hence the name Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday.

I like Kashi. I think it's a great brand with great products.

So it doesn't surprise me that I just got an email from them notifying me, as a Kashi consumer, that they are launching a voluntary recall of certain products to reduce consumer fear relating to the recent salmonella-tainted peanut butter scare.

Kashi products have nothing to do with the salmonella poisoning, but they made the call to do the recall regardless. I think that's cool and to be honest, I'm not surprised.

It's what I actually expect from a quality brand like Kashi.

Here's the entire email: 

Our beloved Quizzle is now one and let me tell you, we are proud of our little success story!

In fact, Quizzle is probably the coolest website I've ever been involved with (except this blog, of course).

What started as a crazy idea has turned into a crazy success.

A crazy idea indeed.

Offer a free credit report. A free mortgage analysis. A free home value report. A free budget review. And a free rainy day fund review.  And what's the catch? We just want you to like us and consider us when you are looking for a mortgage or other financial services. That's it.

Did I mention Quizzle is free?

Of all the social websites that have been launched in the past few years, two have really struck me as being something beyond ordinary. Well, then there was also MySpace, which had it's place for a while, but I could NEVER stand how Myspace pages broke every design rule for websites known to man. It was almost like everyone out there was in a big contest to make the ugliest and hardest-to-read Myspace page in the world. Whatever. I never go to Myspace anymore and could care less.  The two sites I'm talking about are Twitter and Facebook.

I have to admit I've been in Twitter absentia lately, but I'll get over it and join back in. I've been interested in Twitter since I first saw it being used by Melanie Seasons at the 2007 WOMMA Summit. She was like "I'm Twittering" and I was like "what's Twitter" and she was like "this great new site that lets you post short messages" and I was like "cool!"

But I don't want to talk about Twitter or Myspace.  I want to talk about Facebook.

I want to wish Facebook a happy 5th birthday. Here's why think Facebook is a great site for both people and brands.

Just found out about this one, so it's kind of late.

But you can still get over to your local Krispy Kreme donut shop and pick one free donut of your choice today, to celebrate the Presidential Inauguration.

I salute Krispy Kreme for putting the needs of hungry Americans first on this very patriotic day.

Good marketing promotion, I would add. We like that at the DIFF.

George Vlosich, the worlds greatest Etch-A-Sketch artist, is back with another REALLY cool Etch-A-Sketch, this time of Pres-elect Barack Obama.

Tell your friends you heard about it here on the Quicken Loans DIFF first. This could be another big one. The LeBron James Etch-A-Sketch video that George created in 2007 for the NBA finals got over 2 million views on YouTube.

In conjunction with the video, Quicken Loans sister company Fathead is offering 10% OFF and FREE SHIPPING on the Obama Fathead wall graphic. Go to http://www.fathead.com/obama and enter: ETCH to get the discounts.

Enjoy the video. It really is cool. George has some serious Etch-A-Sketch skills!

That's right. Get your free bottle of shampoo (or you can pick from other products from Suave) today.

Today only. Check the date. Don't procrastinate. Don't wait.

Get your free bottle of Suave shampoo by going to:

https://suavenomics.sweeply.com/

You'll actually get a coupon in the mail for free bottle of shampoo, lotion, conditioner, or body wash.

Tell them you heard about it on the DIFF!

There are many reasons I love Ben and Jerry's.

First the ice cream is great. No questions there.

Second, Ben and Jerry's makes it fun to like them. They're a fun company. They have a fun image and they have fun packaging. I picture a bunch of folks having fun working there. I think fun when I think Ben and Jerry's.

Third and most importantly, Ben and Jerry's supports great causes and they make no bones about it. The latest is their Yes Pecan campaign that supports Common Cause, a nonprofit that gives a political voice to the masses. That's kinda fun also.

Wondering what to get the eco-conscious people in your life this holiday season? If a hybrid car is beyond your budget, and an in-kitchen composter is a little too weird, you might consider giving a solar-powered handbag or back pack.

That's right folks, you can plug in your laptop, cell phone, camera, recharger batteries, or GPS right into your personal portable solar cell. How many times have you been stuck looking for an outlet in an airport of coffee shop?

You can give your friends and family freedom from plug panic with this practical present.

Kelly LaVaute loves Mashable.com. Much more than she loves me. I know this because she visits and reads Mashable every day, but doesn't ever listen to me.

Anyway, yesterday Mashable put out a list - DIGITAL CHARITY TOOLBOX: 50+ Ways to Get Your “Give” On that's really cool and I figured I share it here.

If you have a few fins to spare and would like to spread some love, Mashable gives you more than 50 worth while sites to consider. Trust me, now more than ever, charities need our support.

Give if you can.

First of all, I wish it was the 70s.

Back in the 70s, it was cool to be a man with body hair. Burt Reynolds was super cool and he had a huge man pelt. Sean Connery may have been balding, but he had no lack of manliness from the neck down. And guys back then wore their fur with pride.

Not anymore. Now, it's "eeeewwww" and "oh my God" and "put on a shirt" when, heaven forbid, some poor soul is forced to view some of my chest hair. I'm sorry, but God made me this way and  people today hate me for it.

This hatred of body hair has even made it to the big screen. Did anyone notice in the movie 300 that not one of the warriors had any chest hair?

Excuse me? They were Greek guys right? And all 300 of them had bald, shiny, glistening chests. Oh, whatever. I defy you to show me 300 Greek guys in the entire world that don't have chest hair. I defy you.

Cool and creative marketing is what we love here at the DIFF. The cool and creative folks at HubSpot have really gone and done something cool and creative. And trust me, I LOVE this so much more than the original song. So much more...

Wow. Tyson Foods has done some cool stuff with their blog.

Today it was all over Twitter that Tyson was donating food to the hungry in the Boston area.

What was unique about it was that Tyson was asking folks to visit the blog Tyson Hunger Relief and simply leave a comment.

For every comment left, Tyson would donate 100 pounds of food, in conjunction with the Greater Boston Food Bank and Boston's Social Media Breakfast.

They got so many comments they filled two trucks full of food and reached their goal in just a few hours. As of this post, there has been 881 comments.

And reading the blog, I see they've done this in other cities.

What a great example of using a corporate blog to raise awareness for and help a cause that is directly related to Tyson's core business. This is one of the best examples of using social media for cause marketing that I've ever seen.

This is a story of two things I love - art and social media - coming together in a cool way.

This past summer, the Detroit Institute of Arts (we call it the DIA here in the D) had an exhibit Kenro Izu: Sacred Places and wanted to promote it. It was a cool exhibit by the way.

So, the DIA set up a Detroit's Sacred Places Flickr page, a blog called Detroit Sacred Places, and asked anyone interested to submit a photo that was their version of somewhere in Detroit they consider sacred.

The winner is this pic (I don't think I'm allowed to copy it here so I'll just link to it). It's amazing. A tree sapling growing out of rotting books at a defunct and abandoned DPS book warehouse. Out of urban decay and neglect, life shines through and continues.  I love it.

Here are the other winners.

The cool folks from Mashable had a great post yesterday to recognize The American Cancer Society's "Great American Smokeout" - held each third Thursday of November since 1977.

The Great American Smokeout has one purpose - to help you stop smoking. I don't have to go into the reasons you shouldn't smoke, if you do. But I recommend reading Mashable's story on 9 resources to help you quit.

My favorite might be the Quit Meter. Pretty cool.

Remember, only quitters quit quitting.

Here's a sweet little nugget from the Google geniuses to curb all your ailments as the nasty winter season approaches - Google flu trends!

Okay, so it won't prevent all your sicknesses or lower your fever. But Google flu trends could give you a heads up when the dreaded influenza is headed your way.

From the GOOG:

"Each week, millions of users around the world search for online health information. As you might expect, there are more flu-related searches during flu season, more allergy-related searches during allergy season, and more sunburn-related searches during the summer. You can explore all of these phenomena using Google Trends. But can search query trends provide an accurate, reliable model of real-world phenomena?

We have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States."

Ta da! There you have it. Pretty sweet, huh?

Everyone knows that the best part of voting is the "I voted!" sticker you get afterward. We took up a collection around the office at Quicken Loans of everyone's stickers. Now we want you to weigh in. Which "I Voted" sticker reigns supreme?

Take our poll here.

After you vote for a sticker, as an added bonus, check out these smarty-pants kids from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta as they parody rapper T.I with "Vote However You Like!":

Seems like we've been highlighting sites that offer free stuff a lot lately.

Maybe that's cuz we LOVE free stuff. Free is good.

So, I figured I'd share the latest sample I found that you might enjoy. Some good old-fashioned Dunkin Donuts coffee.

Now, I have to admit I haven't had Dunkin Donuts coffee in years. I used to drink it all the time when I was a hipster, hanging out till all hours of the early morning at downtown Detroit clubs, but it's been awhile. I look forward to the coffee sample to bring me back to those glory days.

Also, you can follow Dunkin Donuts Twitter to keep connected to your fav donut company. And, of course, you can follow Quicken Loans Twitter to keep connected to your fav mortgage company. Keeping connected is good.

Almost as good as a free stuff in the mail.

On Thanksgiving at 9 PM (EST), CNN's Anderson Cooper will host "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute."

These aren't heroes who can run 40 yards in four seconds, or score 100 points in a basketball game. They aren't guys who have built business empires that makes billions.

They are regular people who have dedicated their lives to helping others. According to CNN:

"Our Top 10 CNN Heroes are proof that you don't need superpowers -- or millions of dollars -- to change the world and even save lives," Cooper said.

CNN launched its second annual global search for ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary deeds in February. The network has aired weekly CNN Hero profiles of those people, chosen from more than 3,700 nominations submitted by viewers in 75 countries.

by Dave Rigotti of Career Fire (and former Quicken Loans intern)

Startup Weekend, the 54 hour event that brings together entrepreneurs to create an online company, from concept to launch, is coming to Detroit. 

It's an event where people come together to build an online company in a weekend and all the people who help build it are given an equity stake (usually around 10%) in the company.  What's great about it is you don't have to be a whiz with coding.  There are opportunities to join as a marketer, project manager, and even a cook. 

The event is being held at the Compuware World Headquarters (downtown Detroit) on Nov 14-16, 2008.  It costs $40 per person.