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.
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 another 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.
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.
Do you find yourself longing for the good old days when privacy concerns never crossed your mind? When you felt confident that information about your family members was known only to people who were actually part of your real life? Well, consider this:
No, seriously though, what do you think about the burgeoning privacy issues? No big deal or the beginning of a world ruled by potentially corrupt mega-corps-as-big-brother(s)? Or something somewhere in between? Heh.
Have you heard that Oprah is searching for a new personality to host a talk show on her new network, OWN? Well, as soon as I heard about it, I thought it would be fun to put together an audition video. The guidelines were fairly expansive: be creative, smart, and passionate and tell us a little about your show.
My family and I got to work, shooting a week’s worth of video, full of different skits, shorts, and scenes. We had a blast. The vast majority of footage ended up on our cutting room floor. But I didn’t want it to completely go to waste. So I’m putting together bits and pieces of it, hoping you’ll find it entertaining.
Take, for example, something that started out to be an example of a technology segment but ended up sounding more like a commercial for an Apple product. So…yeah…we nixed it. Here it is:
And the title of the show? “Let’s Talk About It”? Turns out it’s nearly identical to Greg Grunberg’scharity effort he co-founded a while back, called Talk About It. So…even though, my daughter did a great job designing that logo, we all thought we should just stay away from it. Thanks anyway, sweetheart! You did a great job!!
Then there’s this one – where I just couldn’t keep a straight face when I tried to defend my qualifications to speak about parenting:
More to come (about the iPad as well as our cutting room floor clippings, some of which are quite amusing).
I did something today that pushed my usually risk averse self off a bit of a faith-testing cliff. I submitted an audition video for a long-shot slot to host a talk show on Oprah’s new network. It’s only about a minute and a half long (and now iPhone and iPad compatible!).
Most of the other candidates submitted their auditions a week before I did, so I’m far behind. I’d love to have your help and your vote.
But please don’t ask me to tell you the answer to the question at the end of the video. Well, unless you vote for me and I win. Then you’ll be one of the first to know.
The site is “a ten minute, commercial-free daily news program” geared to middle and high-school students.
If you’ve been looking for ways to get your teens interested in the news, I recommend bookmarking the CNN Student News site and showing it to your kids. It’s geared to them, so it’s a bit more hip, clean and concise than the main CNN site.
You know how much my family and I loved Super Mario Galaxy on Wii? We put it on our list of favorite video games of 2007 and even referred to it as the best game of all time. So you can imagine how excited we are about the coming release of the sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2. Game Informer rated it 9.25. That’s a good sign.
We hear that players will once again be able to play as Bee Mario and Boo Mario but will also be able to roll over Goombas as Rock Mario (see transmission 8 below) and make platforms with Cloud Mario. Hmm…probably need to see that to appreciate it…and you can! Check out transmission 1 below.
And this one – check out that tongue-swinging by Yoshi. Niiice:
And you’ll discover an important little hint in this one:
So you move around the level map in a ship that’s shaped like a Mario head (and they say that you can load up on 1 Ups in one of his ears (always helpful in Mario games, don’t you think?!)). Watch it again if you missed it.
Even multi-player gets a little better, giving a second player just a bit more power to be able to defeat some enemies (in addition to that ability to collect gems). Here’s a tiny peek:
And finally, here’s the first transmission Nintendo released. It’s the one where you see what may be our favorite new feature, Mario can become Cloud Mario and make platforms. Sweet.
When I heard Dave Barry’s story about embarrassing his teenage son by picking him up from school in a Wienermobile (true story!), I thought I’d try his advice. He suggested that one of the easiest ways to get attention from teens was to sing. I’d add to that a bit by saying that song choice matters, too.
So here’s what I’ve been trying:
when my kids are screwing around, laughing and wasting time instead of doing their homework, I start to sign a song that I know they really don’t like (e.g., What Do You Want From Me?). It gets their attention much faster than saying expected phrases (like, “Focus, guys.” or “Get back to work now, please.”). Before long, they’re begging me to stop and agreeing to focus on their studies.
Believe me, when they become teens you have to get creative.
Regular readers of this blog know how much I love books. I’ve co-chaired the Book Fairat our kids’ school for several years, taught Junior Great Books (another program I strongly support) and, for a brief time, considered starting anotherblog devoted to books. I love books. I encourage my kids (and others’) to read.
I also promote philanthropy. Each year I believe more strongly that we all need to challenge ourselves to find ways to be more generous and giving.
Wouldn’t it be great to somehow combine reading and giving? Hmm…
So last week, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, when the Pearson Foundation gathered together a group of bloggers, authors* and others to announce the launch of the site, We Give Books, I was happy to attend.
*Including Pulitzer Prize winning author, Dave Barry!
How does it work?
Here’s the gist: We Give Books encourages parents or caregivers to read with their kids and then donate a book to a charity selected by the reader. Read a book, give a book. For every story you read on the site with (or without!) your child, they donate a book! The reader’s only obligation (if you even want to call it that) is to read the online book. Pearson/Penguin then donates the book directly to the charity you and your child selected.
These are some of the folks behind this initiative.
How easy is this?
1) Choose the charity
2) Read a book
3) Click to donate
For every book read on the site, the Pearson Foundation will donate a book to a worthy charity (selected by the reader(s)) of the book(s) from among those listed on the site).
Just give it a try. The site is very easy to navigate. Your youngest kids can participate in turning the pages of the book. In fact, I recommend that you get your kids involved from the start. Tell them a little about the charities, let them choose which one they like most, then let them pick the first book. I bet you’ll read more than a few (and then donate more than a few).
Mark Nieker, President of the Pearson Foundation, believes “We Give Books gives parents an opportunity to read with their children, and its innovation is that it surrounds reading with those important conversations that can start a young person on a life of giving.”
You can still have that special, quality time with your child in your lap, reading a story but now it’s interactive and helps other kids! This site puts an interesting twist on story time in our hi-tech world.
The only thing that I believe could make this even better and more current? If they had an iPad app for it.
I’ll bet it’s just a matter of time.
Visit We Give Books. And let me know what you think.
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Note: I wrote this review as part of a campaign by Mom Central on behalf of We Give Books and received coffee and a gift certificate. But I would have told you about it anyway, because it’s right in our sweet spot and it’s just that good.
