Kudos to Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and everyone else at Apple.

Look how far you’ve come. People seem to forget your status as the underdog just a decade or two ago.

I remember.

I remember being reluctant to switch from the industry leader, to move from a PC to a (gasp!) Mac. The PC was king. IBM was a player — a blue chip/work-there-for-50-years-get-a-pension-and-a-gold-watch company. In fact, I remember having IBM as a client, touring a facility in Poughkeepsie, New York and marveling at the mainframes.

What a different world it was. It was all about the software. Or so some people thought.

Who predicted that you would be bigger than Microsoft?

Not many.

But you are. I consider it a magnificent accomplishment, worthy of some applause and respect.

Instead, you get an uproar over death grips and faulty antennas.

Many (most?) iPhone owners don’t mind a little frustration and imperfection.

My guess? The vast majority of iPhone 4 owners (okay, well, at least my husband and I) believe the product is marvelous. Beautiful and efficient. Elegant and powerful.

Yet some critics delight in their schadenfreude over a pseudo furor that’s actually relatively insignificant.

Why?

It leads me to wonder (with some degree of sadness) why people like to knock other peoples’ success. Why they expect (demand?) perfection and then pounce (shine a spotlight on it?) when they discover the slightest flaw.

I believe in a principle of abundance, where people support one other and trumpet the greatest achievements of friends, family members and respected colleagues then support them and encourage them through hard times or whenever they stumble.

So I applaud you, Apple.

And you know what?

The iPhone has improved the quality of my life. I often forget that it’s a phone because that’s the least important part of the device. People who don’t use the iPhone don’t understand that fact. It’s not about the telephone. Even the word, telephone, is so…last millennium.

Now, it’s all about the apps…and the developers’ passions. Not to mention the passion of each and every iPhone owner. Each device is so customized, so specific to each user that it becomes special. Each owner makes it special, depending on his/her own interests, needs and passions.

Oh, and FaceTime?

It’s now. It’s tomorrow. It’s very Jetsons. And it works. Simply. It helped me endure some recent trips away from my family. Heck, it made them feel as if they were right there with me. It affected our quality of life. It brought us immeasurable joy.

So forget about those naysayers, haters and foes.

Congratulations on another extraordinary creation.

They seem to be going in an interesting direction…

Not bad, for a start.

What do you think?

This is my kind of super hero flick:

Can’t wait to see it.

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No, I did not (sadly) get an Audi R8 or even a model replica of an Audi A8 for posting this message. I just liked it and wanted to share it.

The iPad.

Ahhh…soak in its loveliness.

My favorite part? It’s too hard to choose.
hi-res color iBooks, the keyboard dock, the revised iCal (that looks much better (and resembles my ancient (no, wait, did I ever actually use one of those?) Filofax)) or the ability to view all my apps on a larger screen.

Here are David Pogue’s first impressions.

Honestly? It is so very tempting for me. To say the least.

I was in a bus filled with middle school kids today and they were all atwitter, excitedly chattering away about how each and every one of them wanted to get an iPad. Mmmhmm.  Those naysayers on Twitter don’t know what they’re talking about.  This baby is going to be sizzling hot. I can feel it.

What about you?

Just another gadget you don’t need or want? Or are you dreaming about it and frequently thinking about it? Giving up your Kindle for this thing? Or sticking with your hardcover bestseller?

Hmmm….

____________________________________

Image by Nicolas Kamm / Getty Images

And a family with strong family values.

Photo by Annie Leibovitz/Released by White House Photo Office

Happy Holidays!

]]> http://soapboxmom.com/2009/12/style-and-substance/feed/ 0 http://soapboxmom.com/2009/11/holiday-cards-and-family-time/ http://soapboxmom.com/2009/11/holiday-cards-and-family-time/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:00:32 +0000 Nicole SoapB http://soapboxmom.com/?p=1826 What do you think of when you hear the word, “stationery”? Do you enjoy spending time in Hallmark stores and boutiques like “The Papery”? Or do you cringe at the thought?

I like paper. Not in a Dunder-Mifflin kind of way. No, I like writing papers. When I open my mailbox and see a handwritten envelope with an address label of one of my friends, I smile, walk quickly back into the house, put the stack of mail on the counter, then pull out the special envelope and put it at my place at our kitchen table.

I delight in its existence. I can’t wait to open it.

But I do.

I make a cup of tea, kick off my shoes and slowly sit in my chair, eagerly awaiting the discovery of the contents of the special envelope.

“Mmm…nice stationery,” I think as I flip over the card.

Yeah. It’s a moment for me.

When I was a teen, my friends and I loved to discover beautiful papers or fun cards. We wrote letters to each other even though we lived less than a few miles away. We wrote to each other at summer camp. My favorite stationery was a fold-over Snoopy note card that served as its own envelope. Fold the bottom up and the top down, then turn it around and boom! There’s your address box. Sort of like a postcard, sort of like an envelope.

Later,

when I was engaged to be married, I thoroughly enjoyed selecting our wedding announcements but, by that time, I had moved well past Snoopy to a very traditional, formal style.

Then, when Soapbox Dad and I were newlyweds, I remember having difficulty deciding on holiday cards. He wanted formal, straightforward holiday cards. I wanted either cleanly designed or cutesy cards with gushy sentiments like, “Peaceful New Year” or “Joyful Christmas” or “Fuzzy Warm Feelings.” We usually settled on some inoffensive compromise card with toned down but sincere sentiments.

Then we had kids. And the need to announce their births. I remember spending way too much time selecting our first child’s birth announcements.

Soapbox Dad and I actually visited a store in our town that had samples of birth announcements pasted into over-sized, unwieldy scrapbooks that weighed about fifty pounds each. We hoisted several books onto a huge desk and slowly thumbed through each book, carefully turning the pages, letting our imaginations replace the name on the card with our daughter’s name, which at that point was still an unknown.

After weeks of deliberating and seeking advice from our parents, we selected announcements that, in retrospect, were probably more formal than our family’s current lifestyle and a little more to our parents’ standards than our own.

We played it safe.

After the kids were born, the next great stationary challenge was the annual holiday card. If we ever considered being overly formal and sending William Arthur or Crane, I don’t remember. The driving force was our desire to share a photo of our baby girl.  So the first criterion for the cards was the ability to hold a photo.  Options were extremely limited.  In fact, the first year we just used a traditional holiday card and inserted a photo of our little girl.  As soon as we had two kids, we found a card style that worked.  We used double stick tape to attach a photo of the kids to each card.

The most challenging part of the holiday card had less to do with the style or the sentiment of the card and far more to do with successfully capturing a lovely photograph of two smiling children.

Photographers would use bubbles, toys, puppets, jokes, and other creative means to try to get a good photograph of the kids.  I would stand off to the side and try to laugh, giggle, make faces, or do whatever I could to get both of them to smile at the same time.  All we needed was one good shot…

Eventually I tried to take the pictures myself.  Heaven knows why, but I thought a seemingly impulsive moment might be more effective.  If I could just wait for good afternoon light when the kids were both in good moods and/or just had a snack and turn a quiet afternoon into a photo shoot, I was bound to get a good shot. Sometimes it worked and other times…

Keep in mind, this was back in the days of 35mm photography.  Film in cameras.  Shooting three or four rolls of film not knowing whether any of those pictures would be suitable for a holiday card.  Then taking the rolls of film to the store to be developed, waiting for them to be shipped back, flipping madly through pack after pack, hoping and praying for that one special shot.  If I happened to be lucky enough to have one good one, then I would have to sort through the negatives to find the shot, go back to the store to order a hundred or more copies of the picture and wait for those to come back. Argh!

And which card would I use?  Who cares?! I would use whatever folding paper could hold that *$% picture that I finally had and would actually send to friends and family before the holidays were over!

Whew.

There had to be a better way.

Enter the joys of modern technology.

Cue confetti, happy music and smiling faces.

__________________________________________

For my review of the cards we used this year, check out my review blog by clicking here.

…in which I report back about my experience as one of 60 bloggers who spent about seven hours touring Ford’s Chicago Assembly plant and listening to Ford employees’ presentations about their company.

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When I walked into the hotel conference room to join the other bloggers for breakfast, I was greeted by some folks from Ford and Caitlyn and Karen from Ogilvy. Very soon afterward, I discovered that I was probably the most skeptical attendee. In fact, when Scott Monty, the Ford host, approached me, I sheepishly admitted that, if they were hoping we would leave singing Ford’s praises, I would most likely disappoint him. He emphatically insisted that he wanted to hear what I had to say. Good or bad.

In a nutshell? My perception of Ford vehicles was simply horrible.  Where I grew up in the midwest, people regularly referred to FORD as the cars you had to Fix Or Repair Daily.

And now? If you were to ask me to name one person I know who drives a Ford?  I couldn’t do it.  Okay, maybe one – and she drives an Expedition SUV.  Because she has a big family. My mom had a Lincoln, but I’ve never owned a Ford. In fact, I’ve only owned one domestic car.

Be honest.  When you think of Ford, what comes to mind?

For me it’s this:

Which, if you like trucks, isn’t such a bad thing.  I mean, they won Motor Trend’s Truck of the Year.  And hey, there’s a site devoted to Ford Truck Lovers!!  I kid you not! These folks love their trucks.

The thing is, I’m not a big truck fan.  Nothing against them, just not something I need in my life right now.

So, if you put aside the trucks, where does your mind go next? The Taurus, right?  Top selling car in the 80s, it competed head-to-head with Toyota’s Camry.

Remember this?

So what happened between 1986 and 2009? Plenty.

As Bill Vlasic reported today in the New York Times, the Taurus is back and better than ever.

Not only is it sleeker and updated for this millennium, it’s full of state of the art technology and high quality details.

But, could I imagine myself driving my family around my town in it?

As we entered the Ford assembly plant, I found that each Ford person I met reminded me of the people I grew up with — charming and industrious with midwestern sensibilities.  These people really seemed to be honest, straight forward, hard-working employees who are loyal to the company and care about the people with whom they work.  Frankly, I’m proud of my midwestern heritage and often miss the down-to-earth friendliness with which I was raised.  Indeed, as I met more and more people at the assembly plant, I felt as if I were breathing cleaner air. I appreciated their kindness, folksiness and candor. It felt a bit like taking off my pumps and pearls and putting on my favorite slippers and pajamas.

With that level of comfort, I kept an open mind about all the information the Ford crew conveyed to us.

And they conveyed a lot of information.  They dazzled us with their presentations about sustainability, quality, manufacturing processes and technology.

As the minutes ticked by, I grew more and more impressed by the innovations and attention to detail.  In particular, I loved the Blind Spot Information Mirror, adaptive cruise control, SYNC, MyKey and more.  Then we went inside to hear about the work that Ford puts in to designing the interiors of their vehicles.  Amazing information.  I had no idea.  Zen inspired cup holders (?!), seats that massage backs and rumps (not to relax, rather, to invigorate!!) and design input from Vera Wang, Michael Graves and others.

I was actually beginning to feel excited.

But…

Then, I sat in one of the cars and found that I still had trouble getting past my long held stigma of these cars being lower quality autos. Honestly?  I started to lose hope.

Why?

I was looking for something even more sexy, sleek and special.

I looked at the cars on the assembly line and noticed that some of them were Lincolns.  I thought, “Oh, right, the Lincolns are their higher end autos. Maybe they’ve improved the quality there, too.” But I soon remembered that the most well known Lincoln was the Navigator, with a horrible reputation as a gas guzzling tank.  Bad for the environment.  “Besides the Navigator,” I remembered, “there’s always the Town Car.  But I can’t imagine myself driving a Lincoln Town Car.  I mean, aren’t those the cars that pick up people at the airport?”

So, in all honesty, I started thinking that I would not find anything that appealed to me in this automaker’s lineup.  I wanted to like something, I really did.  Of all the domestic automakers, Ford is the one that stands above the others in terms of its P&L statement.  It’s the only company that refused federal aid.  That’s respectable.  Frankly, I’d love to support our country by buying American.  Now’s the time.  So, doggone it, I wanted to like one of these cars. But it just wasn’t happening.

Then I saw the Lincoln MKT.

Sexy (yes, really!!), sleek, enticing.  I was intrigued but still a wee bit doubtful.  “I have to see the interior,” I mumbled. When Kate Pearce, the marketing manager responsible for the MKT, signaled that it was time for us to test drive the vehicles, I quickly made my way over to the MKT and sat in the driver’s seat.  I looked down and around, almost looking for faults.  Steering wheel? Substantial, real wood inserts, nice thick leather, very nice. Gear shift? Same.

How about the seating? I love being able to carpool my kids and their friends.  How many can I transport? Just one?  Nope!  Look at this:

Configurable seating means I can make that middle row into a bench seat to fit three kids or keep the second row bucket seats because, get this, then I can have the built-in refrigerated compartment in the “flow-through” console! Check this out:

No more worries about bringing home ice cream from the grocery store.  Just stash it in there.  Kids complain about their drinks being hot during summer sports?  This compartment holds seven full size cans!

What about the quality of the seats? Stitched, hand-wrapped leather with sustainable padding. Gorgeous. Wait, what? Sustainable padding?  Surprisingly, the website doesn’t make a big deal out of this, but Ford employs a team of women who continually search for sustainable materials from which to make the interior components of their cars.  Funky sources like hemp, soy and corn.  These folks really care about the environment and really care about their people.

In the early 1900s, Henry Ford introduced and developed the assembly line to build the Model T and his company continues to improve it.  We saw impressive aspects of their line that demonstrated a concern for the men and women building these vehicles:  things like power lifts which raise up the suspension to make it lighter for the people attaching it to the underside of the car so that “at the end of the day when these workers go home, they won’t be hurting.”  We also saw moving platforms and portable drills to make the work environment safer for the employees.

I digress.

Back to the seating capacity.  I wondered whether the passengers would feel cramped, so I looked in back.

Plenty of legroom and, what’s this, OMG, look at that power sunroof!  Fills almost the entire roof – and – there’s another window above the rear passengers.  The kids will love that! “Oh, I’m liking this,” I started to think.

This photo doesn’t do it justice. You have to see it.

-

Then it just kept getting better.

For example, I loved the ECO-Boost engine which drives like a V-8 but boasts the fuel economy of a V-6, the THX sound system with its ability to play my iPod through it, the more-than-sufficient air vents in the back seat, the standard sunshades, and the tri-zone temperature controls. The ambient lighting was a bonus that I knew would go over big with the kids.

Bottom line? The state-of-the-art technology that goes into Ford/Lincoln vehicles is undeniably impressive. My heart started to beat a bit faster. I actually would love to drive my family around in this car.

I rushed over to Kate Pearce, the MKT marketing manager, to return the favor of candor. “I have to tell you, I was beginning to believe that I wouldn’t find a car that I could imagine driving for my family. But this Lincoln MKT is gorgeous!”

In her humble midwestern way, she just smiled and agreed.

That smile seemed to be saying (and I have to agree), “You’re going to see a lot more people driving Fords and Lincolns real soon.”

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*Full disclosure: No, we didn’t all get free cars as swag, but Ford did cover the cost of our hotel room the night before the event (so we could be up bright and early to get started with the activities). They also provided breakfast and lunch, a notepad and pen, and a flip drive.

“Just write off about five years of their lives.”

“During those years, they think you know nothing.  Then, in college, miraculously, you’re once again brilliant and they ask you how to do everything from folding laundry to paying rent.”

“Oh, they’ll tell you they hate you, but they’re just really mad at you.”

“I didn’t know the person who inhabited my daughter’s body during those years.  But, in about eleventh grade, the daughter I knew returned.”

In the early years of their lives, many kids try hard to please their parents. They implicitly acknowledge their necessary state of dependence and pretty much worship the ground we walk on. The effect on parents’ egos is rather intoxicating. We reach a point where we start to believe we know what we’re doing.  We stand tall and breath sighs of relief, as we begin to feel confident in our parenting abilities.  We go through stages where we proudly boast about achievements and quickly pull out photos of the little angels.  But if we talk to parents with teenagers, we often hear them say (to those of us with younger children) that we should “enjoy it while you can” because it can change in a flash when those adorable toddlers and grade school kids reach adolescence.

As my kids approached middle school, I witnessed other teens grow sassy and more defiant so I found myself getting a little nervous, worrying more than I used to, wondering if my kids would change and, more importantly if our relationships would drastically change.

Well?

So far, so good.

One of the few notable differences in our household involves my daughter’s preferences in clothing. In elementary school, she would wear nearly any clothes I brought home, whether they were from the Gap, Limited Too, Abercrombie, Nordstrom, or even (gasp!) Tar-zhay.  Now, however, due in part to television shows like Gossip Girl and books like The Clique series, she has grown more and more brand conscious.

The cast of characters in these titles wears (among others) Prada, D&G, Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Ralph Lauren Collection, Juicy Couture and Miu Miu.  They carry Birkins. And they can’t yet drive.

So, when my daughter and I were shopping yesterday, looking for cute pumps (for me) to take to BlogHer, I probably should not have been surprised when she approached me carrying oodles of Coach, Michael Kors, Gucci and Tory Burch shoes that she wanted me to buy for her.

My head filled with jumbled, conflicted thoughts.  “She appreciates good quality and is certainly developing a sense of style,” I thought, “but I shudder at the thought of purchasing Tory Burch shoes for a young girl whose feet might grow tomorrow or next month.”

“Furthermore, have we learned nothing from the excessive materialism of the last decade? We try to teach our kids to save money, give to charities, and to focus on family activities (which should rarely include shopping at the mall or boutiques).”

Right?

“What values am I teaching my daughter if I spend money on designer clothes and shoes instead of putting it into a college fund?”

But I have to admit, when I see Lily van der Woodsen sashaying across rooms in gorgeous Chanel suits toting her Birkin, I feel inspired to put on one of my favorite skirts rather than slipping into my comfy sweats and flip flops.

Similarly, if these shows and books influence young girls to dress a little better or to discover a sense of style, then I’m inclined to tolerate them.  I see it as analogous to Stacy London, host of What Not to Wear, when she helps ordinary women understand (among other things) that tapered pants flatter no one.

So, at the end of our shopping excursion,  I made a point of explaining to my daughter that style can be found at many stores.  It’s not exclusively reserved for haute couture.

She seemed to understand and agree, at least to some extent.  We talked for nearly an hour about priorities and values, outward appearance and inner beauty, as well as the fashion industry and catty classmates.  I’m not sure that her heart won’t leap a little when she picks up a pair of Jimmy Choos, but I know that she understands that it’s unreasonable absurd outrageous for a middle school girl – in the real world – to wear Christian Louboutin stilettos.

Most importantly, I feel just as connected to my little girl as I did before she started watching Gossip Girl.

]]> http://soapboxmom.com/2009/07/stylish-teens-and-gossip-girl/feed/ 0 http://soapboxmom.com/2009/04/if-you-have-a-kindle-2/ http://soapboxmom.com/2009/04/if-you-have-a-kindle-2/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:49:18 +0000 Nicole SoapB http://soapboxmom.com/?p=1326 When I first heard about Amazon’s electronic reader, the Kindle, I was skeptical.  Actually, I was close to being outraged.  I feared Jeff Bezos planned to eventually eradicate traditional printing methods for all books and newspapers.  I hated the idea of reading books on a screen, especially given the inordinate amounts of time I spend looking at computers, iPhones, handhelds and televisions.  Then I tried it.

And fell in love.

My daughter and I devoted one of our family podcasts to the Kindle and the Kindle 2 and I taped a webcast about the Kindle 2 and the iPhone Kindle app.  This blog post is not about the attributes of the Kindle, rather it’s about my recent discovery of a necessary accessory for the Kindle 2: a carrying case.

Unlike the original Kindle, the Kindle 2 arrives to you with no carrying case.

No handy dandy (albeit synthetic leather) cover.  As you might expect, Amazon sells oodles of covers, like this one, this one and this lovely sleek high gloss number.  Before buying one, I wanted to see how I used the Kindle, where I took it and how I carried it.  After a couple of months, I still hadn’t decided which cover to buy.  Then I found this:

It’s also available in Plum Berry and Black.

At Target.

On clearance for $13.98.

W00T!

Is it a perfect fit? No. It’s intended for 7″ laptops.  So it’s slightly larger than the Kindle 2, but it works quite nicely. And it comes with a practical, adjustable strap. Belkin claims it will protect a laptop from “light wear and tear” and I’m hoping it will do the same for my Kindle 2.

Stylish, functional and reasonably priced.

Don’t you love a good bargain?

My intention was to publish a review of Amazon’s new Kindle 2, but after learning about the release of the iPhone Kindle application, I felt pretty strongly about its release and wanted to tell the world about it.  After calming down (and researching more information about the intent behind Jeff Bezos allowing that Kindle app to be sold), I recorded more rational (and hopefully helpful) comments.

To hear general information about the Kindle 2, start about halfway in (5:10).

Also, in mid-March, my daughter and I talked about the Kindle 2 on our radio show, Parents and Kids Talk Radio. Download the show by clicking here.