Jan 13, 12 12:51pm

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Remember when a million dollars seemed like all the money in the world? Times have changed.

Jan 13, 12 12:10pm

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2011

Advice and Plans
Dear Mr. Baby:

According to the advice we’re getting, we’re very much on track, not at all.

It’s best, after four months, to let you cry in your crib until you exhaust yourself in order to facilitate getting you on a schedule. We must not have a limit for crying at bedtime or you will be taught nothing more than to be a big crybaby. You cannot, because of your level of neurological development, establish bad habits yet, so it is very important to never let you cry for more than an hour, and you should be carried everywhere to keep you from crying. When you give up crying, it’s because you have stopped trying to communicate with me, to the detriment of your communicative development, the speed of which is indicative of nothing (yes, Einstein again), and is also a barometer of your general well-being. In fact, it’s actually bad parenting masquerading as tender affection to rock, sway, or console you to sleep, because it impedes your learning to fall asleep unassisted and will sow the seeds of terrible sleeping habits, and you will be a sullen teenager who dresses in black and fights the establishment. Furthermore, you will ruin your vocal chords if you cry hysterically, which is simply a sign of being overtired, and I must make sure to allow you to go to sleep at that point by not interfering because there is no case of a baby anywhere who injured himself merely by crying. Naturally, this is neglect.

Dear Mister Baby

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Jan 01, 12 5:27pm

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I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

-Roger Ebert

Happy New Year, y’all. Let’s all strive to make ourselves and each other a little bit happier this year.

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Dec 06, 11 12:07am

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Definitely the finest pole dancing I’ve ever seen but it’s so much more than that. Enjoy!

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Dec 02, 11 1:23pm

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@xx4xmas, the grassroots twitter movement to encourage holiday shoppers to spend their dough with women-led companies, is going strong on this second day of December. Tereza, who is spearheading the effort, asked me to highlight one of the companies from the master list today and though I tried to convince myself to choose something I’ve never written about/promoted before I just couldn’t resist talking about 20x200 because it is genuinely my favorite retail site on the web.

Jen Bekman, 20x200’s founder, is a Manhattan gallerist who loved art but hated how exclusive and snobby the art world is. She wanted to democratize it and demystify it and make it both easier for her artist friends to sell art and affordable for people who love art but aren’t made of money to live with art.

I included some of the prints that I’ve either given or received from 20x200, ranging in price from $20 to $200. I get so much joy out of giving, getting and living with art I think a gift certificate to 20x200 is slam dunk of a gift for really anyone on your list. The certificate itself is beautifully designed, it arrives in a spiffy envelope and gives the receiver the chance to add a piece of art to their lives that they may grow to love infinitely more than anything else they’ve ever spent twenty bucks on.

Not convinced? Well, I tried. If fine art’s not your thing, there’s always this. Betony Vernon is woman-owned, of course.

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Dec 02, 11 12:51pm

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Who me, multitask?

My husband thought the playing of this particular NPR story this morning was a sign that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed but I was too busy washing the dishes, cooking breakfast and teaching my son to read to argue with him…

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Nov 29, 11 12:47am

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XX for Xmas: A Holiday Guide

This is one of the most positive things I’ve seen come out of the whole “let’s start Christmas shopping in October” nonsense. A really phenomenal woman entrepreneur, Tereza Nemessanyi (founder of Honestly Now), had the idea that since everyone IS going to shop at some point between now and the new year, we might as well harness those dollars and funnel them toward women-owned businesses. Why? Because one of the best ways to support equality and women in positions of power in business is to become their customers. It might even be THE best way. So if you want to see more women-led companies succeed, peruse the list below and see if you can get your holiday shopping done while doing something great for women (and really for all of us) at the same time.

My personal favorites on the list for gifts this year are 20x200 (founded by Jen Bekman) and Birchbox (founded by Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp)

And if you like this idea, please spread it far and wide across the Twitterverse with this: http://bit.ly/tX5nBv #BlackFriday #xx4xmas

honestlynow:

Forget the mall. This Black Friday, get comfy on your couch and browse the best that women-led businesses have to offer.

It’s the XX for Xmas Holiday Guide!

Everything from gadgets to jewels, for everyone on your list — check in early and often, as we have hundreds more to load up.

Buying XX for Xmas: A Holiday Guide

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Nov 11, 11 12:48am

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It’s Not Gender Warfare… It’s Math.

I practically failed CS 1 at Stanford, a class that most people thought was a joke, an easy A. I don’t just not have an affinity for computer science, I have an ineptitude at it. I really wish that wasn’t the case. Is there a place for adults (and maybe specifically adult women) to go learn CS without revisiting the horrors if undergrad? If not, will someone please create such a place? Thanks!

annaholmes:

(A shorter version of this piece appears in today’s Washington Post. Photo of Google executive and engineer Marissa Mayer via. Headline via.)

Let’s say I was designing a new piece of software to make my life as a writer a little easier. First, I’d program it count how many characters I’d typed out and in what amount of time, in order to document my productivity on any given day. Then I’d ask it to compare words, phrases, sentences and entire paragraphs from one draft to the next, in order to calculate how much of what I’d written had changed…or stayed the same.

Read More

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Nov 10, 11 10:59am

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A little surfing porn to start your Thursday. @kellyslater just won the ASP World Title at almost 40. Which is just a tiny bit amazing.

From Quicksilver on youtube:

Quiksilver’s Kelly Slater clinched an historic and unprecedented 11th ASP World Title today in the cold and challenging waters of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. Slater, 39, is the first surfer to achieve 11 ASP World Titles, an accomplishment spanning two decades of an astounding career during which he has dominated competitive surfing as both the youngest and oldest ASP World Champion.

Youngest AND oldest? That’s just badass.

Here’s the complete shrine to @kellyslater.

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Nov 02, 11 10:18pm

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Lela is a comparison shopping guide for baby gear that is launching in private beta as we speak and someone super on Team Lela extended an invite to 20 of my readers to check out the site and give some feedback in exchange for 20 American dollars. All you need do is click this link.

I checked it out last night and think it might be a very good way indeed to improve upon the chaos of choosing the right gear for your baby and your lifestyle.

We are very (very) low-maintenance when it comes to baby gear. I’m happy to use any and all hand-me-downs and never feel like we’re missing out on the coolest, gear-headiest, high-fashioniest thingamabobs. That said, for the things that weren’t handed down, Lela would have made things a bit easier. We chose our crib because our friends who were having a baby four weeks before us chose it after a bunch of Consumer Reports research. I’d share it with you but I haven’t the slightest idea what it’s called. Although it was rated the safest on the market and came from Ikea so we saved a bloody fortune by being cheapskate copycats.

We chose our carseat the same way. Chicco Keyfit 30. I think mainly because it was highly rated for safety and would last until our son was 30 pounds. Which he isn’t yet but he is so very tall for his age he grew out of the Chicco ages ago.

For the record, Lela isn’t paying me to say nice things about them. The nice things I’ve said are my actual opinion. Imagine that :)

Happy browsing and please pass the link along to anyone who you think might like Lela or the easy 20 bucks.

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