Strollerderby : email

Are Email Holiday Cards Tacky?

Brett Singer — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

You know the drill. The holidays are coming and you need to get the family card ready. In my house, my wife takes the lead on this, mostly because I'm not inclined to do it. Some people are tremendously organized and take the whole process very seriously — photos taken by a professional no later than the 1st of November, cards printed by Thanksgiving, in the mail by December 1. Most people (our family included) use Shutterfly or another online photo service to get their cards made, which is a little boring but very easy.

Even easier, though, and certainly cheaper since there's no printing or postage, is the email card. I've received many from acquaintances and merchants, but I've only gotten a couple so far from family types. I'm not knocking anyone for doing it, especially if the reason is financial. At some point its fair to call The Annual Holiday Card a luxury item, even if it doesn't cost that much. I haven't priced them out so I don't know how much the cards will set you back. But they certainly aren't free, nor are the stamps. So if someone chooses to go this route, whatever the reason, that's your choice. (That's a disclaimer meant to make up for what I'm going to say next.)

Still, it's not the same, is it? The email card? Maybe I'm just old-fashioned but I still like to get regular mail (when it isn't a bill, catalog, or junk), and I enjoy hanging the holiday cards I receive on my door for everyone to see. I suppose you could print out the email card, but that seems a little silly.

So what do you think? Are the email cards tacky? (The Obamas did one in 2006 [see image at right], but I imagine that was for general supporters, rather than family and close friends.) And have you gotten/sent one yet?

image: respublica

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Mini Baby Sculptures Not Edible, Selling Like Hotcakes

Brett Singer — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

When I became a parent, many things changed. For example, I started thinking quite a bit about someone else's poop. Also, I now look at babies, both real ones and artistic images, with a very different set of eyes. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I paid a tad more attention to this headline from a recent press release:

Realistic Miniature Baby Sculptures Are Not Edible

I think that falls under the "Free Beer! Now that I have your attention…" chapter in the PR 101 Handbook.

The subheadline is much more obtuse, but when combined with the opener was intriguing enough to get me to read on:
Accidental Viral Marketing Gives Birth to Instant Success for Canadian Sculptor

So what exactly does this all mean? Basically, a Canadian artist named Camille Allen sells tiny little baby sculptures on eBay. All of a sudden the price on these unique (and, in my opinion, somewhat odd) works went up by 500%. According to the press release, "Recently a 1.5 inch (4 cm) baby named Jaimie sold for $2,650.00 US dollars." Not bad.

Why the price increase? Aren't we in a recession? Apparently it was the result of "a bogus email that turned viral." Someone took the photos of Allen's work from her web site and claimed that they were made of marzipan. As in, something edible. The always-helpful Snopes.com confirms that this was indeed a hoax.

The only thing I find a tad specious about this is the fact that it isn't exactly a new thing. Snopes' entry is dated October 2005. Still, it was new to me, so perhaps it was new to you as well. And we're always up for something weird.

Regardless of when this sales-increasing hoax actually began, I was curious what you, the reader, thought of the little babies. Obviously if they were edible that would be eligible for The Creepiest Thing EVER Award (an award that doesn’t exist but it really should.) Despite the fact that sculptures are not, in fact, food, I still thought they were weird, but the more I look at the picture I have to admit that I find them cute. Not cute enough to purchase, especially not for $3000. But I can admire the artistry that goes in to making the little…babies…

OK, the fact that they're babies still creeps me out a little bit. Like I said, becoming a parent changes you, at least it did me. So – what do you think of Ms. Allen's art?

Source/Image: mmdnewswire.com

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Mom blackmails daughters ex with nude photos

Brett Singer — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

The punchline? Her daughter, and the ex-boyfriend, are 13 years old.

This is all in "alleged" territory right now, but the basics are wacky: Police in Elgin, Illinois "are investigating whether a local woman used nude photos of her daughter's 13-year-old ex-boyfriend as blackmail to get the two back together." The mother and daughter live in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois. The Headless Horseman has not been charged.

The photos were on her daughter's cell phone, since the kids had been sending nude pics to each other. That's wacky enough but I guess not that uncommon these days. (By the time my kids get to be that age, thirteen year olds won't be doing that anymore, right? RIGHT? Hello, anybody there?) After the kids broke up, the girls' mother found the photos, and allegedly sent "hundreds of threatening e-mails and text messages" to her ex, saying that if they didn't start dating again, she – the mother – would post the pictures online.

Can you say, "much too involved in your daughter's life"? I knew you could.

Adding to the weirdness, the mother could potentially face the following charges: "intimidation, harassment…[and] possessing child pornography." It's that last one that makes me go "whoah." But, if you think about it, it's true, right? Hard to get your head around, but technically true since the boy is underage. The kids won't be charged.

Source: 9news
image: here

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Virginia Teachers Get Flack for Pro-Obama Email

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:30:00 GMT

The Virginia Teachers Union is in hot water for allegedly mixing education with politics. A union member sent out an email encouraging teachers to participate in “Obama Blue Day” by wearing a blue shirt (without displaying any candidate names), and getting at least two people to register to vote.

The author concedes that she should have worded the email differently—perhaps “Obama Blue Day,” for instance, was not the wisest turn of phrase. But the union stands by the email as an example of the nonpartisan voter registration efforts that Virginia educators have long engaged in. The union voted to endorse Obama because of his education policies, so the left-leaning tone of the email reflected that endorsement; it was not an indication that teachers should influence their students' political leanings.

According to the union president, no teacher interpreted the email as a call to encourage students to support Obama, as state Republicans have, quite understandably, charged. The president pointed out that "Obama Blue Day" was all but ignored. She even forgot all about it and wore red that day.

Just another reminder to take to heart the adage, "Always assume that whatever you write in an email will be published on the Internet."

Photo: Bag News Notes

Giant Palin Poster

Brett Singer — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:00:00 GMT

When I was a kid, I had posters on my walls. The biggest were of Reggie Jackson (great New York Yankee hitter from the late 1970's) and Superman (Christopher Reeve).

This over five foot high Sarah Palin poster is presumably for adults, but I'm not sure if that's better or worse. That is, if it's for children, what child wants this on their wall? And if it's for adults, why is an adult hanging a gigantic poster of the Vice-Presidential candidate on their wall? Even my Reggie Jackson poster wasn't that huge.

To be fair, you can order in three sizes: 12 inches ($19.99 for 4 – such a deal!), 48 inches ($49.99) or 5' 6" ($69.99, described as "life-sized").

Order now for guaranteed Chanukah delivery! (Note: I made that up. Although in theory, it's probably true.)

Source/Image: wallmonkeys.com

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They say: Sarah Palin should step down

Brett Singer — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:50:00 GMT

A few they's are saying it, including "Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker," who was a big fan of McCain's VP choice a few weeks ago.

See, if the Democrats had done this, you would have heard a chorus of "Flip! Flop!" But hey, what's bad for you is good for me, right?

In a column dated September 15, 2008, Parker wrote, "Both a frontier woman and beauty queen, the square-jawed Palin not only neutralized the sisterhood, but she animated the brotherhood. Men are suddenly riveted as never before by the frontal lobes of the vice-presidential candidates." In a column at NationalReview.com dated September 26, 2008, Parker writes that Palin is, "out of her league." Other comments about the woman she thought was just ducky a couple of weeks ago: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself." (Emphasis added, for obvious reasons.)

So how can Palin get out of this gracefully? "She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first." Gawker says that this is how we all got permission to be sexist. That sounds about right to me. No one with any sense is saying that Palin isn't qualified to be Veep because she lacks a Y chromosome. It's because she seems to have no idea what is going on in the world, or even a working knowledge of John McCain's record. Also, it needs to be said that Parker is suggesting that Palin blatantly lie about her reasons for dropping out in order to engender sympathy. Hey, maybe she could cry a little bit too! That'll really make the men weak in the knees!

It's worth noting that other writers are calling for Palin to go back to Alaska and keep an eye on Russia, including Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, George Will, and David Frum.

In closing, here are a couple of the numerous comments from the CNN article:

"Palin should take a flying leap."
Followed by:
"Be nice. She could just float away on her own HOT AIR!"

This one makes no sense at all:
"Let the smear campaign continue…"

Um, how is it a "smear campaign" when writers who support McCain are calling for Palin to get out of the race?

This one is my favorite:
"Ah.. the link was just to some little blog site. Sort of ironic when a tiny blog site says that someone is out-of-their-league."

Dude. That "some little blog site" is the NATIONAL REVIEW.

Same comment, gets better:
"Kathleen Parker needs to READ what the job of VP actually is. A squid with one brain cell would be over qualified for that job! The major thing you need to do is stay awake in the Senate."

Riiiight. Except that the "P" is VP stands for PRESIDENT. As in "next in line to be leader of the free world." Nuclear codes. (Or, as Palin would say, Nook-you-lehr codes.) That type of thing.

Lastly, it's worth pointing out that some random person at Yahoo! Answers was posting the "Should Palin step down?" question three weeks ago. Meaning that perhaps, at times, commentators, even nationally syndicated ones, can be a bit slow on the uptake.

Source/Image: CNN
Other Source: Gawker

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Palin's Email Hacked and posted online; UPDATE: Anonymous Hacker Speaks

Brett Singer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:15:00 GMT

UPDATE: The "hacker" speaks out! From ZDNet:

A college student identified as Rubico has claimed responsibility for hacking into Sarah Palin’s personal email, and provided a detailed 1st person account of how he hacked into the email account using the password “popcorn” which he managed to reset by successfully answering her security question “Where did you meet your spouse?” by Googling for the answer.

So I guess I was right -- Sarah Palin definitely flunks Computer Security 101. This wouldn't matter if all she was using her Yahoo account for were baby pictures and personal messages, but she used it for Government business.

My original post follows below:

*-*-*-*

I have a few things to say about this so I’m going to just dive right in.

The basics: some computer nudniks got into Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account. This is the account she uses for government business; it has been previously reported that she did this to because "e-mail messages sent to a private address on a 'personal device' like a BlackBerry 'would be confidential and not subject to subpoena.'"

By using a public email account for state business, Sarah Palin is doing something that is so incredibly stupid it defies comprehension. First of all, if the quote from the New York Times is accurate, she doesn't understand how email works. Web based email accounts are not tied to a device. They exist on the server of the email provider, in this case Yahoo. Second, if she told her staff to use accounts like these in order to avoid a potential subpoena, the first question should be – why? If you're conducting state business, shouldn't that be done in a proper manner? If Barack Obama said the same thing, do you think for one minute that the McCampaign wouldn't have an ad out saying, "What is Barack Obama trying to hide?"

The main reason to avoid using a public email account for any sort of sensitive information is that, frankly, those accounts are easier to break into. On the most basic of levels, anyone can tell you where the login page is for Yahoo Mail. But I bet they don't know where the webmail log in page is for the government of Alaska.

So how did the group, who are called Anonymous (clever!) get into Palin's account?
My guess is that the "hackers" just tried a few passwords and eventually got the right one. ("Trig", perhaps? Or "Bistol"?) This article on ChannelWeb points out that "password hacking" is extremely common. For my part, I'm avoiding using the word "hack into" because I don't think guessing a password qualifies as "hacking." It certainly isn't complicated, "Wargames"-level hacking.

None of this excuses that fact that the group who got into her account and emailed some of her messages broke the law and, if they can be found, should be punished. But the fact that Governor Palin put herself in this position should tell us something about a person who could potentially be the President of the United States.

What does this have to do with kids? My children are learning about computers, both by osmosis (they see grown-ups using them) and more formally at school (my oldest is learning "keyboarding" at school.) We expect them to be computer savvy and to understand certain basic things about these wondrous devices we used every day. It's not unreasonable to expect the same level of computer literacy from our candidates as we do from our kids.

Is it November yet? Because I've had a headache for two months.

image: Amazon.com

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Girl Talk May Fuel Anxiety

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Naturally you want your children to have strong friendships, people they can trust to help them navigate social and emotional concerns. But there may be such a thing as too much talking.

Psychologists call it “co-rumination:” the tendency to dwell on a personal problem with a friend, seeking empathy and validation of your feelings. Anyone who’s responsible for paying a teenage girl's phone bill is probably more than a little familiar with this type of conversation: do you think he likes me? Is so-and-so mad at me? Should I break up with him?

As this tendency has started to figure more heavily into female friendships with the advent of MySpace, Facebook, cell phones, and email—which mean that the majority of friendships can be based on chatting or gossip, rather than activities—researchers have started to wonder if it’s such a healthy way for friends to relate with one another.

Indeed, several studies of third, fifth, seventh, and ninth graders have shown that co-rumination can lead to increased anxiety and depression in girls, at least in the short term. Obsessing about a problem with a friend can make that problem seem bigger than it is—and worries can be contagious: if my best friend is so concerned about how many times a week her boyfriend calls her, maybe I should be, too.

Researchers found that emotional conversations did not affect boys negatively, perhaps because they occur less often or because the tone is different. Boys may be more likely to focus on solutions to problems instead of just venting them, which psychologists say is the most effective way to converse.

One way parents can help their daughters avoid this self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety, obsession and validation, and hence more anxiety is to encourage your children to come to you for advice, so they get the perspective of age at least some of the time. Any other tips for parents to help their daughters most effectively deal with emotional upsets?

Photo: New York Times

Denise Richards Reality Show Canceled

Brett Singer — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

It's official – you won't have Denise Richards to kick around anymore.

The E! channel has canceled the unwatchable "It's Complicated," which followed Richards as she tried raising her kids and a lot of pets… or something like that. I watched the first episode and found it mostly dull, but also somewhat depressing, since she had her young children on camera all the freakin' time. Remember that it was her ex-husband Charlie Sheen who wanted to keep the kids off of the show, but Denise took him to court and won. It's an old joke now, but when Charlie Sheen is the good parent, something is very, very wrong.

The reason for the cancellation isn't very complicated at all: nobody was watching. Page Six quotes "a source" who said, "The numbers started out pretty good - just over 1.5 million tuned in for the premiere episode…But the audience has dropped off." In other words, people would have been interested, but she just wasn't that interesting.

It's worth remembering that Denise Richards had a career as an actress for awhile. Granted, it was largely based on her looks, but she was considered one of the hotter young starlets around (think Megan Fox). Things were already on the decline career-wise when she married Sheen, so it would be easy to say that she is a victim of Hollywood ageism. But I have a feeling that some of the behavior she displayed on her reality show – the Post cites one "her confrontation with an editor for a magazine over how she [was] portrayed in the tabloid press" as a "low-light" for the series – was also her behavior in real life. That's just a guess, of course. Oh well. At least her kids won't have their lives on display anymore. Maybe she can do "Dancing with the Stars."

Source: NYPost

Image: LATimes.com

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Creepiest spam message ever: "we have hijacked your baby"

Brett Singer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I just got this in my inbox and thought I would share it.

It's the typical attempt to get you to open an attachment, in this case "photo.zip", which I assume contains some sort of nasty viral payload. In other words, don't open it.

In the past, these sorts of messages said, "Naked Ana Kornakova Picz!" or something similar (I misspelled her name on purpose, by the way.) This time, though, it's a little more personal, at least if you have kids.

Anyway, don't open it, and hopefully you won't get it. If you'll excuse me, I need to go adjust my spam filter.

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Denise Richards still trying to prove she's insane

Brett Singer — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

It's Friday the 13th, which must be why I'm drawn to stories about weird, evil people today.

Denise Richards isn't in the same league and Josef Fritzl or Charles Manson, but she does seem to be trying to prove to the world that she's out of her gourd. Showbiz Spy reports that the former Mrs. Charlie Sheen is, "pleading with the star to stop publicly bashing her now he has re-married…'He loves to trash me in the press and discredit me and has tried to sabotage my show. I hope that now that he's married, he can move forward and be civil.'"

Now, we're not excusing Charlie Sheen, who has his own issues, to put it mildly. Back in May he claimed that Denise emailed him asking for a sperm donation. Denise's reply was, shall we say, something less than "civil": "I don't want Charlie's prostitute-tranny-infested sperm." Nice.

She also accused Chuck of exploiting, "our entire situation." Um, you have a reality show on E! that features your kids. Pot? Kettle? Neither one of them is winning parent of the year, but I think when you put your toddler-age children on a reality show you kind of lose the right to accuse your former husband for "exploiting the situation".

I have a wacky, wacky idea for Denise and Charlie. Yes, you hate each other. Yes, it's an ugly divorce. But you have kids. Stop talking to the media for awhile. SHUT-UP.

image: Page Six

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Honey, Why Don't You Ever Write?

Kelly Mills — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:23:00 GMT

One of the best things about becoming a mom is that you get to mess with your kids in many of the same ways your mom messed with you. It's often unintentional of course, but when I'm singing along with the radio in the car and my kid begs me to stop, I know I've entered that special club. Someday my driving, the way I talk to waitstaff, and my bitter complaints about the price of things nowadays will all fill my child with the exasperation only a kid can feel towards their mother.

Now I have one more thing to add to the list: I can't wait to send her e-mail. And I'm totally in love with Postcards From Yo Mama, a site where readers can submit the choicest correspondence from their mothers. Right away the one about Jessica Simpson's salad caught my eye, perhaps because the line "I think it would be kinda fun to make my own croutons. What do u think?" slayed me. Here's to the day when I make the site. Happy Mother's Day, xoxoxo darling, I luv you.