I’m downloading RockMelt for my PC – this has to be the best landing page for a download — the big text above this photo (of what is presumably the team who worked on RockMelt) reads: “We hope you love it” – and then a link to start the download.
How could I NOT like this product after seeing the faces of all these nice people who worked on this? Good move RockMelt, I like you already!
Aaron Strout (aka the Stroutmeister) himself has originated a fun meme — Brand Haiku. Love seeing all the familiar folks on Twitter participating and decided to join the fun.
As a mom of two boys, I don't scope the doll aisle very often. But we were shopping for a friend and I came upon these dolls. Now, I remember when there was that backlash about the Bratz dolls being over-sexualized, but really THESE dolls have to be the exact opposite of Bratz dolls. #creepy
This is Sarah. She broke her nose 5 weeks ago (in a game) and had surgery just 4 weeks ago to repair it. Rather than sit out the rest of the season, she found this crazy contraption. The gal took like 10 headers today (it was like a magnet for the ball) – and no probs to her nose at all. As a bonus, I think she also intimidated the other team.
I think Sarah goes on to prove that injury nor age can hold you back when you have a sport you love to do. I play soccer with women who are moms and even grandmothers… these ladies are my heroes.
I’m constantly looking for this Frenchie template – so by “bookmarking” it here, I can easily find it. Click on the pic to get to the blog post where there is a pdf for the cut-out.
If you missed San Diego’s first ever TEDx on Monday, November 11, you can get a flavor for the types of talks that were given at the conference from this great slide show. Enjoy!
My Twitter inbox is full of Auto DMs. Why do I keep them? To remind me to unfollow those people later when I have more time. I really dislike auto DMs and hats off to @augieray for surveying the Twittersphere about this practice. The results of his study are clear: By a margin of 40 to 1 among people who actually had an opinion about this, auto DMs are decidedly unwelcome.
If you auto DMing your followers or new followers – please reconsider your practice. Don’t believe me? Check out Augie Ray’s full write-up about Twitter Auto DMs on the Forrester blog.
Leaping Lime Chiffon! – did you KNOW that Strawberry Shortcake just celebrated her 30th birthday?! As a kid, I ADORED Strawberry and her pals – the squatty, Pippi-Longstocking clothed figures took residence in a dollhouse my dad and brother built for me – the dollhouse was better sized for glamorous Amazonian-like Barbie and Ken doll set, but I was faithful to the crew from the berry patch. Heck, I even remember performing a Strawberry Shortcake rap with my friend Suzanne to the entire school in 4th grade.
Anyhow I got an email from Josh, a dad of two who developed a new Strawberry Shortcake app for iPhone and iPod touch asking if I’d like to try the app. I don’t usually do reviews but given my affinity for Strawberry (and quite frankly, my sons’ obsession with my iPod), I decided to give it a try.
The objective of the game is to sort fruit into bins as they tumble into a bowl – kind of like Tetris for the under 6 set. After all the fruit is sorted, you’re taken to a screen where you watch the the fruit turn into smoothies. (I yelled “Oooh… smoothies!” the first time we got to this screen… and now we do it every time.) If you made a sorting “mistake” you will see that the smoothie process, as your smoothie will be multi-colored instead of all one flavor.
Couple of notes for parents:
The game is easy to learn, fun to play and both of my kids – aged 5 and 2 – are big fans. It keeps their interest, offers the right challenge (levels get harder and they throw sour berries into the mix that you must discard), and is fun all the way around. Have to say, this mom is a fan too. 🙂 The game is .99 in the App Store. Hope they consider an Android platform but for now, the game will reside on my iPod.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary code for the app (total value $.99) which enabled me to download and evaluate the app. The company didn’t ask me to post a review but wanted me to let them know if I did – so here it is! The opinions expressed in this post and on this blog are my own and my disclosure policy is here.
Another app review for kids games I did is on my site in case you’re interested in this topic.
I’m serious. I’m not a huge candy freak but I am a sucker for dark chocolate. And this offering is the exactly blend I like – not too bitter, not too sweet. The spice in this particular flavor adds a subtle – not too spicy – kick.
From Arianna Huffington (below – from her HuffPost announcement about the divorce column)… a couple months ago they announced they were launching this. I was going to leave a comment about how positive a move this was, only to find other people had written comments that said “Divorce is child abuse.” Kind of took the wind out of my sails… I couldn’t disagree more but I wasn’t about to share my thinking with people who had such closed-off hateful thinking. Anyhow – I’ll be interested in reading these stories about divorce and relationships – wondering if you will tune in, too.
I’ve been single, I’ve been married, and I’ve been divorced. And getting divorced was the hardest of the bunch — at least in terms of finding a way to be happily divorced (and, yes, there is such a thing!).
That’s why I’m so excited about the launch of HuffPost Divorce. Inspired by HuffPost editor-at-large Nora Ephron, who knows a thing or two about the subject (see Heartburn), our newest section will tackle the topic from many angles, providing insight, resources, community, and some comic relief to those impacted by what Nora, in her new book, calls the Big D.
My parents divorced when I was nine. I adored my father but could see the pain his philandering was causing my mother. When I heard him telling her once that she should not interfere in his private life, I started urging her to leave. She finally did. My father often quoted to me his favorite story of the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who, when asked why he kept begging from statues, replied: “I’m practicing disappointment.”
Disappointment and the broken promises we make to ourselves and to each other are at the heart of divorce. My ex-husband and I have now been divorced 13 years — two years longer than we were married.
But even though we no longer had a marriage to keep us together, we had something even more powerful — our daughters. Spurred by our mutual devotion to them, we have made a huge effort to work through all the difficulties and be friends. And, little by little, with a lot of hard work, we’ve now gotten there.
But it wasn’t an easy journey. And I’ve watched many of my friends struggle through their breakups, dealing with legal and financial battles, the perils of post-divorce dating, the pitfalls of co-parenting, the shock of dividing up the couples you used to socialize with when you were married, and navigating the turbulent waters of blended families.
I’ve always thought that, as a country, we do a lousy job of addressing how we can do divorce differently — and better. Especially when there are children involved.
Over a million children a year watch their parents get divorced — most of them wishing more than anything that mom and dad would get back together. That’s how it was with our oldest daughter, who was eight when her father and I broke up. She was devastated — and steadfastly refused to accept it. She kept pleading with me every day to go out to dinner with Daddy. I’m not sure if that was the influence of The Parent Trap, but she had convinced herself that a romantic candlelit dinner would solve all her parents’ problems. After all, if she loved both her parents so much, how could they not love each other? It was heartbreaking. But it motivated us to work hard to go beyond the inevitable anger and resentments of any divorce. This included spending every Christmas Day and both our daughters’ birthdays together as a family every year.
A few years ago, we even took our first post-divorce summer vacation together as a family. When I wrote about it, the response was overwhelming — with so many people writing to tell me about their experiences with trying to make their divorces work.
So I definitely have skin in this game — and the scars to prove it. Even so, as I said, the idea for the section was Nora’s.
I was spending a weekend with her in July at her home in Long Island, as was Alessandra Stanley, the television critic for theNew York Times. One morning, Alessandra and I headed off on a long walk down the beach, and we ended up talking a lot about our divorces. When we got back to Nora’s, we recounted some of our conversation, at which point she told us that she had actually been thinking that HuffPost’s next section should be devoted to all things divorce.
Over breakfast, Nora came up with the tag line for the section — “Marriage comes and goes but divorce is forever” — and Alessandra offered up what has become our inaugural divorce aphorism (the first in a series): “His happiness is a small price to pay for my freedom!” As Nora says, “far too much attention is paid to aphorisms about falling in love and not nearly enough to those about falling out of love.”
So the spark was lit and, four months later, here we are. I’m thrilled that this new section is launching with an exclusive essay about divorce taken from Nora’s new book, I Remember Nothing. Special thanks to HuffPost Senior Editor Willow Bay, who worked tirelessly to get HuffPost Divorce up and running. Though never divorced, Willow is a stepmom familiar with the joys and trials of blending families. She brought her exceptional editorial sensibilities to the new section, and signed up former Los Angeles magazine associate editor Sara Wilson to be our Divorce Editor.
Our goal is to produce a fast, fearless, highly interactive guide to the profound changes divorce brings to families, friendships, careers, and finances — to say nothing of the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of those going through it. We’ll bring you all the latest divorce news, plus fresh takes from our Divorce group bloggers.
So whether you are divorced, divorcing, or just curious about how others manage the complexities of divorce, check out HuffPost Divorce. Breaking up is hard to do… but reading about it isn’t. Let us know what you think.
i.iz.Liz 