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Category: Everything Else

  • Targeting Children with Treats Infographic: Marketing to Children Sucks

    Targeting Children with Treats Infographic: Marketing to Children Sucks

    Seriously, it does. We realize this when our kids get the gimmes from the marketing machine alerting them what they need to ask for for Christmas, but we overlook the constant day-to-day bombardment of ads about foods.

    Interesting how cereals ads outnumber fast food ads by more than half. And while most people (I think) limit fast food meals to one a week or so, we give our kids cereal pretty much every day. It’s one of the foods that are easily mistaken for healthy, but the numbers don’t necessarily bear that out.

    We know that sweets aren’t good for kids, maybe we need to take a harder look at the nutritional value of the stuff they get all the time.

     

    childhood obesity infographic

    Brought to you by Teach.com and MAT@USC.

  • Leap Day! Leap ‘Round the Blogosphere

    Leap Day! Leap ‘Round the Blogosphere

    leap

    Don’t exist.
    Live.
    Get out, explore.
    Thrive.
    Challenge authority. Challenge yourself.
    Evolve.
    Change forever.

    Become who you say you always will. Keep moving. Don’t stop. Start the revolution. Become a freedom fighter. Become a superhero. Just because everyone doesn’t know your name doesn’t mean you don’t matter.

    Are you happy? Have you ever been happy? What have you done today to matter? Did you exist or did you live? How did you thrive?

    Become a chameleon— fit in anywhere. Be a rockstar— stand out everywhere. Do nothing, do everything. Forget everything, remember everyone. Care, don’t just pretend to. Listen to everyone. Love everyone and nothing at the same time. Its impossible to be everything, but you can’t stop trying to do it all.

    All I know is that I have no idea where I am right now. I feel like I am in training for something, making progress with every step I take. I fear standing still. It is my greatest weakness.

    I talk big, but often don’t follow through. That’s my biggest problem. I don’t even know what to think right now. It’s about time I start to take a jump. F*ck starting to take. Just jump— over everything.
    Leap.

    -Brian Krans, A Constant Suicide

     

    You get a bonus day this year.

    What will you do with it? How will you leap?

    ____________________________________

     

    leap day 2012Jessica at Found the Marbles invited me to take part in her Leap Around the Blogosphere. Answering some questions just for kicks and leaps— you should, too!

    My childhood nickname was:

    I’ve never had a nickname; most people don’t even call me by my actual name. I’m always sort of startled when I hear Robin. I’m more of a “hey, you! C’mere!”

    My mother used to call me the Devil Slut Child. Does that count?

    If you want to spoil me rotten, buy me a:

    macro lens. And a fisheye lens. And a good telephoto. And a tripod. I spent all my monies on the camera and all I could afford after was kit lenses. I swear the macro on my little Elph point and shoot was waaaay better (see yesterday’s post about 3 years of crocuses for visual confirmation).

    The television character I most identify with is:

    Jess (Zooey Deschanel) on New Girl. As I am also socially awkward, plus I think I’m funny and no one else seems to agree with me.

    If I had a whole day to go shopping and money to spend, I would go to:

    Anthropologie. I’d spend the whole day trying everything on and walk out with one dress, one pair of pants and ten tank tops. I love their clothes but my broad-shouldered man body doesn’t fit quite right in them.

    The most wild and crazy thing I have ever done (that I can admit to publicly) is:

    Hmmm… I am not really known for wild and crazy. Eccentric and mildly amusing, yes. I can think of a few things that fall under the heading of “drunk and stupid” but I’m not about to let my kids know about them… I guess it would be how back in the day, before kids, we’d just decide on the spur of the moment to go on a trip… Once we decided to drive to the beach during a snowstorm, just to see what the ocean looked like. We left at midnight, walked the beach and the boards, and were back in time for me to shower and be at work at 9am. Another time we drove to New Orleans and back in a 48 hour period. Just because. Now, if I want to run out to the bookstore there’s like 10 things I need to do before I leave the house.

    The one thing on my bucket list that I am most eager to do is:

    Learn to scuba dive and then go on a Cousteau expedition. First I need to learn to swim.

    My family will always be loyal to:

    the Polynesian at Disney World. We had a fantabulous time there and if’n we ever get to go back I’m not sure the kids (and Jeff, especially) would settle for a different resort.

    If I could spend a day with a celebrity I would choose:

    my celebrity BFF Justin Timberlake. But ideally it would be me and JT and David Letterman hanging out for a night on the town. The three of us? Fireworks. Johnny Knoxville could come along too if he asked nicely.

    In my opinion, the best invention in the history of the world is:

    the water heater. Sure, there are snazzier things in the world but do any of them compare with the joy of a hot shower after a tough workout or a cold winter’s day? I think not.

    When life hands me lemons, I make:

    Dang, somebody send me a whole CRATE of lemons and let’s have ourselves a party.

     

    Pick a question! Tell me your answer!

    Give me more lemon recipes for my party!

     




     

  • #VlogMoms: ‘What’s an event that changed your life forever?’

    #VlogMoms: ‘What’s an event that changed your life forever?’

    warm february

    What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
    Stand a little taller
    Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone
    What doesn’t kill you makes a fighter
    Footsteps even lighter

    -Kelly Clarkson, “What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)”

    Yeah, I’m quoting Kelly Clarkson. What of it?

    Kelly, in turn, is referencing Nietzsche when he said “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” And studies suggest that’s totally correct. Depending on the situation, of course, but not every hardship or traumatizing event causes permanent damage. Sometimes they prepare you for something coming down the road.

    This week, Jennifer of Hip As I Wanna Be asked the VlogMoms: Describe a moment in your life (other than the birth of your children) that changed you for the better forever.

    Here’s my answer.

     

     

    The event in question for me was pretty sucktastic on a lot of levels. I survived. And it was one of those moments, like Robert Frost’s path forking in the wood, like Robert Johnson’s crossroads, that force you to make a decision about how you’re gonna live the rest of your life. I call these moments hinges, because becoming unhinged is always a possibility.

    In this case, the hinge swung me towards becoming an advocate. Towards not tolerating the intolerable. I believe people are basically good, dammit, and I was going to demand that they live up to that.

    I had basically spent my whole life up to that point being told to keep quiet, to keep secrets, and I had done it because I thought the only person I was hurting was myself. I was wrong.

    I can’t keep quiet anymore.

    You shouldn’t either.

    Make some noise. Get loud. Make your mark on the world.

    Be not merely good. Be good for something.

    Look,

    I really don’t want to wax philosophic,

    but I will say that if you’re alive,

    you got to flap your arms and legs,

    you got to jump around a lot,

    you got to make a lot of noise,

    because life is the very opposite of death.

    And therefore, as I see it,

    if you’re quiet, you’re not living.

    You’ve got to be noisy,

    or at least your thoughts should be

    noisy and colorful and lively.

    -Mel Brooks

    What event, what hinge, changed YOUR life forever?

    Tell me about it.

    And check out how the rest of the VlogMoms responded:

    Postscript: It’s totally 60 degrees outside. In February. I recorded this video on my deck in a tank top. Hence the harshness of the light but WHATEVER. FEBRUARY.