Burn off that turkey dinner!

The epic countdown has officially begun for a Thanksgiving feast! Turkey, dressing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie.... Mmmm, mmmmmmm! Of course, the flip side is the massive amount of calories we are about to consume -- not simply on Thanksgiving, but also throughout the joyous holiday season. As much fun as it is to procrastinate, why wait for the new year to start a work out regimen?

With Turbo140, it's easy to source and screen amazing, qualified personal trainers... Below are links to help you find personal trainers throughout Los Angeles.

The best personal trainers in...

Venice

Playa del Rey

Manhattan Beach

Redondo Beach

Los Angeles

Culver City

Beverly Hills


Don't see your city, email us at sprocket@turbo140.com or tweet us and we'll create a custom page for your town in seconds!

And after a fantastic workout with your new personal trainer, what could be more fun that curling up with a protein shake and watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!?!?

No time for coffee? No problem!

It's that wonderful time of year when your favorite coffee shops start featuring fall flavors. From a peppermint mocha to a winter-blend house brew, who doesn't love fall coffee? Here at Turbo140 headquarters, we went crazy with some toasted pecan and pumpkin lattes this week...

Of course, with your busy schedules, it's sometimes hard to find time for that morning or afternoon coffee run. Or, perhaps you want a bunch of coffee delivered for your next meeting -- only you don't want to schlep cartons of java from the store to your car to your office.... Turbo140 is at your service!

In less than 60 seconds, you can use the links below to post your coffee delivery order. Just state what you want, from which coffee shop, and when you want it delivered. Turbo140 will do the rest, getting you quality, reliable service people to bid on and complete your task.

Below are links to major areas in Los Angeles... Don't see your city, no problem. Tweet us or email us at sprocket@turbo140.com and we'll create a page for your location ASAP!

Find the best coffee delivery in...

Los Angeles

Culver City

Marina Del Ray

Venice

West Hollywood

Santa Monica

Playa Del Rey

Hermosa Beach

Beverly Hills


Ironically, we never stop working so that our users don't have to...

10 Worst Cities for Landscaping: Taking the Work Out of Fall Foliage

With fall comes that breathtaking time of year when the leaves change colors. For those lucky enough to live in these places of the country, fall is a beautiful time of year... Except of course for the loads of yard work that ensues as those once red and yellow leaves began to turn brown and cover our yards -- not to mention hoards of tourists as illustrated by one of our favorite Family Guy episodes:



To make this time of year a little easier for those who would rather be watching football, going to their kids soccer games, or studying for mid-terms, Turbo140 is excited to launched our newest mad-lib for landscaping! Whether you need leaves raked or gutters cleaned, or perhaps that and then some -- Turbo140 has you covered.

Below is a list of some of the prettiest places in the country to take in fall foliage, and thus some of the worst when it comes to time required to clean up the mess. In less than 60-seconds, you can outsource this part of your honey-do list, and if you don't see your own city -- not to fear. Turbo140 has you covered. Just email us at sprocket@turbo140.com or tweet us @turbo140 and we'll get you taken care of ASAP.

Oddly enough, the Turbo140 never stops working so that you don't have to!

1) Find trustworthy landscapers in Madison, WI

2) Find trustworthy landscapers in Boston, MA

3) Find trustworthy landscapers in Albany, NY

4) Find trustworthy landscapers in Portland, ME

5) Find trustworthy landscapers in Aspen, CO

6) Find trustworthy landscapers in Birmingham, AL

7) Find trustworthy landscapers in Manchester, NH

8) Find trustworthy landscapers in Beaverton, OR

9) Find trustworthy landscapers in Anchorage, AK

10) Find trustworthy landscapers in Burlington, VT


And, of course, if you're looking for landscaping work in your town, Turbo140 is the place. Visit our Find a Gig page to find work... If you hurry, there's was a gig just posted in Louisville!

10 Best Tutoring Towns

There has long been a strong correlation alcohol consumption and academic performance -- strongly negative. But with a little help from awesome tutors and Turbo140.com, now you can have your booze and drink it too. We've made it easy for people anywhere in the country to find amazing tutors - from finance to Chinese. Just this weekend there was a student from Arizona State University (also known to be a party-friendly school) looking for a Spanish tutor.

The Turbo140 Team is excited to launch our new tutoring pages, designed to make it hangover-proof to post your local tutoring needs and find the best tutors in your city or on your campus. After reading a story in The Huffington Post about party schools, it was clear where tutors would be in greatest demand. Below are the Top 10 schools most likely to need tutors. If you're still in high school or perhaps chose a different academic path, please leave a comment, email sprocket@turbo140.com, or send a tweet to @turbo140 with your city of choice and we'll get right on it (i.e. in less than 140 seconds)!

#10	University of Georgia (Athens): Find the Best Tutors in Athens, GA
#9	Ohio University: Find the Best Tutors in Athens, OH
#8	Penn State: Find the Best Tutors in State College, PA
#7	West Virginia University: Find the Best Tutors in Morgantown, WV
#6	University of Mississippi: Find the Best Tutors in University, MS
#5	University of Texas (Austin): Find the Best Tutors in Austin, TX
#4	University of Florida (Gainesville): Find the Best Tutors in Gainesville, FL
#3	University of California at Santa Barbara: Find the Best Tutors in Santa Barbara, CA
#2	University of Iowa: Find the Best Tutors in Iowa City, IA
#1	DePauw University: Find the Best Tutors in Greencastle, IN

8 Best Dog Walking Cities

Labor Day has come and gone...which inevitably means a busy autumn is in store.  Whether you are looking to give work or find work, Turbo140 is the transparent and trustworthy site for gigs of all shapes and sizes, from cleaning jobs to our newest featured category -- Dog Walking Gigs!  What better way for students and enterprising individuals to makes some extra money?! And what better way to free up some time in the busy life of a parent or student?!


The Turbo140 Team is excited to launch our new dog walking pages, designed to make it super easy to post your local dog walking needs and find the best dog walkers in your city.  In so doing, we've thought about a few of the best dog walking cities in the US!  If you don't see your city here or have a suggestion for another locale, please leave a comment, email sprocket@turbo140.com, or send a tweet to @turbo140 with your city of choice and we'll get right on it (i.e. in less than 140 seconds)!





#8: Seattle With about 38 days of rain per month -- on average ;) -- why not outsource your dog walking duties to a dog-loving professional?


#7: Austin From the University of Texas campus to beautiful hill country, so many amazing places to take the pooch for a walk in Austin.  Your best friend will love it, even if you're stuck in the office.



#6: Boston Between tailgating at Gillette Stadium to a Patriot's post-game party, that's a long time for Sparky to be left alone, so we've made it simple for you to find the best dog walkers in Boston at a moment's notice.


#5: Phoenix It's anyone's guess (much less Al Gore's) as to when Phoenix temperatures will drop below 100 degrees.  Give your dog some exercise while you stay cool with a certified dog walker (who will surely bring some water).


#4: Los-Angeles In the land of movie stars and a median dog weight of less than 10 pounds, there's still a bunch of "real" dogs who love a good walk.  You may not have time to take your dog on walk up Runyon Canyon, but you can find someone who can!


#3: New-York This city may never sleep, but that leaves even less time for busy dog owners in to find their way home to take their puppy for a quick stroll through Central Park.  Especially if you're building doesn't have a friendly door man that can help you out in a bind, Turbo140 can get you the best dog walker in just three clicks.


#2: Chicago Who doesn't love Chicago, and a walk along the lake sounds amazing -- especially if you've got four legs!  Plus, Google says this is the most active dog walking city in the United States!


#1: San Francisco With hills, ocean, and a ton of dog parks in between, it's no wonder that the City by Bay comes in at #1.

Back 2 School

We just took a poll at Turbo140 HQ if "Trapper Keepers" still exist... A bit of a debate ensued (along with a fair amount of nostalgia), but if they are still in production, demand for those puppies is skyrocketing, along with crayons, backpacks, and iPads. That's right, folks -- it's back to school season! Swimming pools filled with raucous and screaming children have been replaced with school yards and play grounds filled with raucous and screaming children.

We started on this topic after reading an interesting article from The Huffington Post about the 13 LEAST common jobs in America -- many of which would fit nicely on Turbo140's job marketplace, except for prosthodontists. We're constantly getting asked about very unique and infrequent job requests on Turbo140, but that doesn't mean that the MOST common are really the ways that people make money these days. From maid and cleaning services to iPhone apps, Turbo140 is both the place to give and find work. In no niche is this more true than the student worker.

Within a campus, there are so many job opportunities. From editing a paper to rides to the airport, Turbo140 is a great place for students to find their inner-entrepreneur -- especially regarding the tasks of finding tutors and finding tutoring gigs. Whether you're struggling with geometry or looking to tutor elementary math students, check on Turbo140.com or follow @Turbo140_Jobs for tutoring opportunities across the country.

Find work. Give work. Community stimulus on Turbo140.com.

AZ Immigration vs. Turbo140

Have no fear... Turbo140 is here! Find work and temporary gigs from the comfort of your couch or local internet cafe.

The immigration issue that began in Arizona with "SB 1070" has swept the nation, and is now moving to the courts. While some parts of the bill were blocked -- as reported by the Associated Press and Huffington Post -- honest citizens may still face harassment while looking for work outside of the Home Depot. Regardless of how anyone may feel about the bill and its purported pros and cons -- we here at Turbo140 want to get people working and getting paid.

People want jobs, and they need money. Our goal at Turbo140 can be thought of as community stimulus -- a marketplace where people give work, temporary gigs, etc. to people who need to earn extra money. If you have an odd job that you've been putting off, help your neighborhood, help your town, help your campus... Sign-up on Turbo140.com and post a gig. If you're looking for day labor or one-off kinds of gigs (from plumbing to finding bugs on a web site, check on Turbo140 for ways to make money! Posting, bidding, and extra karma are free!

The politicians can battle this out. Let's keep everyone in this country working!

"Lend a Helping Hand"

Since launching our public beta a few months ago, the Turbo140 Team has been excited to see all the ways in which people are using our platform. In an effort to be applicable on both a global and local scale, we have been adding new and improved features and functionality to our platform. The latest feature is a category of gigs for "volunteering", and we are really excited to have the Press Institute, an international nonprofit organization, join our "Lend a Helping Hand" program. The Press Institute is an international nonprofit organization that brings responsible, investigative journalism to communities throughout the world. As with most non-profits, the Press Institute is constantly in need of donations, grants and volunteers to make their mission a reality. If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and area and are interested in volunteering, you can send an email to cristi@globalpressinstitute.org.

Regardless of where you live, if you have a spare 20 seconds, check out the Press Institute's latest volunteer gig. Also be sure to check back with Turbo140.com for volunteer and fundraising events coming to your area, and you can also keep track of the latest news coming in from Press Institute reporters in 22 nations on The Press Institute Newswire, http://www.globalpressinstitute.org/landing/global-news. (Donations too, are also more than welcome and 100% tax deductible.)

We're also are excited to see universities start to use our new volunteer feature, with Thunderbird School of Global Management using our platform to source volunteers for one of their amazing global galas. We've also begun talks with organizations helping out with the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a number of local non-profits around the U.S. If you're part of a non-profit or university, please drop us a line at sprocket@turbo140.com and let us know how we can help your organization. Our mission at Turbo140 is to help people and organizations find gigs and source available labor. A natural extension of that is helping to organize the often tedious process of finding volunteers. Let us know how we can help. From rocking the social media scene to rolling up our sleeves, we're ready to lend a helping hand. Are you?

Who Wants a T-Shirt?!?

In a rapidly changing economy, Turbo140 is working for you to find gigs so you can earn extra cash. Some gigs are dirty, some are multilingual (as is this current Turbo140 gig up for bids), and some are too good to be true -- which brings us to @Turbo140's latest feature -- "gag" gigs.

Today we are featuring a newly posted "gag" gig on Turbo140.com wherein we are looking for a properly hilarious punishment for FIFA President Joseph "I Can't Hold My" Blatter. Sign up and place a hilarious bid and win a Turbo140 t-shirt. It's that simple! We'll award the gig to the funniest bid and ship the coolest "Turbo140" t-shirt on earth. Make us laugh world, because the World Cup is making us cry.

What Hat Do You NOT Feel Like Wearing?

Since launching Turbo140 a few weeks ago, we've been receiving a lot of questions -- such as "Can you design Sprocket [our beloved logo] wearing a mankini"?  Probably the second most frequent question we receive is what kinds of gigs should I post on Turbo140?  We're working on designing a new page for the site to help generate suggestions, but in the mean time -- try thinking about hats...

In one episode when Homer Simpson was getting ready to make a lot of phone calls, one of my favorite quotes is, "Marge.  Give me your address book, four beers, and my conversation hat."  So when thinking about what to post on Turbo140 -- essentially what you want someone else to do for you -- consider all of the hats you DON'T feel like wearing.  Granted, I'm not sure it's wise to outsource calling a bunch of family members, as tempting as that may be, but here are a few suggestions to get your started.  

Take off your...

• I-hate-computers hat -- there's no reason why you should have to design your own blog or website

• Yard work hat -- have someone else mow your lawn and trim your hedges

• Honey-do hat -- enjoy a cold one while someone else runs your errands

• Workout hat -- it's a whole lot easier (often with a better view) when you have a trainer to help with your workouts

• Good samaritan hat -- why should you have to actually haul your donations to Goodwill

• Gardening hat -- it's too hot to toil in the garden; enjoy an iced-tea while someone else gets their hands dirty

• Crazy bride hat -- from invitations to color swatches for your dress, take a load off while other people do the hard work

• Oops hat -- so what if you forgot something at the store, have someone else run that errand instead of doubling back

That's just a few ideas, and we're surprised every day by the interesting and unique ways that people and businesses are using @Turbo140 to make their lives easier.  And the best part about it is that actual people (as opposed to spammers and scammers) bid and compete for your gigs.

Now go get your gig on.  I'm going to see if someone on Turbo140 will pick up a sandwich for me...  It's good to be lazy.  Or to put it euphemistically -- it's good to be efficient.

Who needs Disneyland?

Who needs Disneyland? Turbo140 is going to The Launch Conference!

ThisWeekIn hosted its first live, global meetup tonight for its TWiST show. Yet another brilliant idea from the freakish Calacanis mind. People from all over the world tuned in live to watch a special broadcast featuring key cities and pitches from deserved – if I don’t say so myself - startups that are crushing it… Of course, Turbo140 was one of them!

Led by our trusty CEO @hegranes who organized the Phoenix event which was held at Gangplank (no, there aren’t pirates, but you wouldn’t want the captain of the Black Pearl to utter their wifi password to you), Turbo140 was well represented, receiving good reviews and comments from the chat room. We didn’t walk away with an iPad, but @Jason did award Turbo140 (and the other presenting companies) a ticket to his Launch Conference (slated for this winter).

A great event that continued to get better after the show, as the bubbling startup minds at Gangplank stuck around, critiquing business plans, showing off technology, and providing some unique insights and suggestions into each other’s businesses. Really cool cats over there. Looking forward to spending some more time at Gangplank. Plus, I found a guy to make some much needed Turbo140 t-shirts! Most importantly, I found a couple of people who seemed interested in bidding on a recent Turbo140 gig where someone is looking for lessons for his (currently out of control) radio-controlled helicopter.

Turbo140 Splashes Onto the Scene at OAF LA

From the demo-style format to the group of ACTIVE angel investors - it's immediately apparent that the Open Angel Forum Open Angel Forum was conceived in the mind of an entrepreneur rather than a bored retiree who is tired of fishing everyday... In summary, what an event for Turbo140 to make its first big splash in the world, less than two weeks following our beta launch! For a poetic take on the night, I highly recommend Scott Walker's blog.

Los Angeles OAF #2 began with a top-shelf spread, including kobe burgers and great wine. After an intro from @Jason who was sporting his new bayonet freshly delivered from Afghanistan, each angel (around 15) introduced themselves (including some of their recent angel investments). Based on what I've heard, read, and experienced - I would wager that not many angel groups would be able to discuss their RECENT investments at the level of the angels this past Tuesday at Mahalo headquarters. Especially given the space of Turbo140 -- internet, SAAS, social -- this was a perfect crowd for me to demo our site Turbo140 for micro-gigs and outsourcing your to-do list. As Jason has long believed, don't tell me; show me! PowerPoints are useless in this OAF format, and as I've come to appreciate -- demoing your service is an efficient way to explain to your audience what your company is all about in ways that slides cannot.

The five-minute demo went great -- not only is our site tight with killer design, but we avoided the dreaded "fail whale" as the gig posted to Twitter. The demo was then followed by a five-minute Q&A. Besides the networking and any potential investments that may come from OAF, the Q&A was an invaluable part of the night. Where else can you have some very smart investors and world-class entrepreneurs thinking critically about your product and business model? Many of the questions we had thought of, but others we had not. Both the validation of some strategies and insights into others will prove extremely valuable as we augment and scale our site.

Without question, OAF was everything that I had hoped for! But one very cool unexpected outcome of the night was the bonding with the five other startups who also presented - FaceChipz, Belgrave Trust, Kidzmet, MeeGenius, and OneLogIn. By the end of the night, we had bonded to the extent that it felt like we had gone through a full TechStars program. I have no doubt that we'll stay in close contact and help each other out as we proceed to conquer the world!

A final thanks to everyone at Open Angel Forum and Mahalo. In addition to Jason and Tyler, there are a lot of people putting in long hours to make these events extremely valuable for everyone involved!