Facebook has inevitably increased levels of narcissism, thus making its users crave attention from friends, exes and friends of friends.
Imagine what would happen if all of a sudden our favourite social networking site disappeared! Watch, enjoy and ponder that possibility.
Is the bird jumping over the moon supposed to be the bird from Twitter’s logo?
I’ve heard about research studies suggesting to unplug from gadgets 1 hour prior to bed to help clear your head of distractions and ease the falling to sleep process. Well, before you close your laptop tonight, watch this video.
This book might just be the best book for the technologically savvy iPad-toting parent who already knows what to expect when you’re expecting. And if you’re childless, pick it up as a coffee table book anyway – it can be a conversation piece when you’re entertaining guests and they look up from their phones to notice your decor.
I fondly remember reading this book, the original classic:
I don’t usually like when people expect listeners to pay attention to their every word as they read aloud long passages of text, but on Monday afternoon, I was captivated by a TA who shared a newsworthy blog post circa November 2010.
Two days after Halloween, Trick or Treating may still be trending on Twitter, but most people are more concerned about finding discounts on candy and the latest gossip about the Kardashians than discussing who cross-dressed over the weekend.
Nevertheless, when a 5 year old boy begged his mom to order a costume resembling Daphne from Scooby Doo for him two years ago, this caused a huge commotion. Uptight mothers in their community were outraged, even though their children seemed unfazed by his costume choice.
The bottom line is that costume choices shouldn’t be a big issue at all, unless of course they are outright offensive or obscene. The boy didn’t dress up as a Disney Princess anxiously awaiting Prince Charming’s arrival at his doorstep; he dressed up as one of his favourite animated TV characters – so what?
In her blog post, the mother (who coincidentally is another Sarah) mentions that her son’s “best friend is a little girl.” When it comes to trick or treating, those kids will remember spending the night or school festivities with their best friend. Early childhood friendships don’t always extend into adulthood or even the teenage years, but if the friends lose touch, they’ll remember who it was running up neighbours’ front steps beside them to collect candy. That’s the memory for him to cherish – friendship and fun, not that a Halloween costume he wanted to wear sparked an online debate about gender and sexuality.
It is one thing to document your children’s funny musings or share advice about parenting, but it is quite another to turn an innocent child’s desire to have fun dressing up into a rant about attitudes towards gender norms. Sometimes I think that moms should just take photos to capture their kids growing up and leave it at that. After all, “it’s just a costume.”
Surely there is a better way to become famous than starring in a controversial blog post.
2025 Update: The original blog post I linked to at nerdyapplebottom.com/ has been removed.
When I’m at school in London, I long for exploring Toronto’s sprawling downtown core, whether it is for shopping, dining or entertainment. Hence, when I went home I was elated to finally experience Nuit Blanche.
After returning home from a shopping excursion over the border, I refuelled with my second Starbucks pumpkin spice latte of the day, this time with an extra shot of espresso. I refused to let a lack of sleep put a damper on participating in one of Toronto’s largest cultural events.
Once my friend and I exited Dundas subway station, we were confronted with food trucks selling cotton candy and corn on the cob, which immediately brought back memories of The Ex. Though I was familiar with my surroundings, Toronto’s downtown atmosphere had been completely transformed into an artsy extravaganza. There were at least three couples square dancing in the street, friends posing for photos all over the place, and street performers galore.
Tweets from friends and overall hype about Nuit Blanche assured me that there were exciting surprises and attractions to come. More importantly, I’m thankful that I skimmed the Twitter stream on the official event website because I’m grateful to whoever recommended wearing gloves! Boy, did they come in handy. Pun intended. I wish I’d twitpic’d and captured it on camera when I walked by a convenience store with a storefront sign that read, “Ice Sold Here” because that was the last thing anyone wanted when they’d pulled out winter jackets (or hoped that they did) for the first time since March or April.
My three favourite exhibits were Honey, I’m Home, inspired by 90’s sitcoms; Observer FX, a multimedia installation that offered commentary about surveillance; and McLuhan’s Massage Parlour, inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s work.
If you’re looking for Nuit Blanche GIFs to share on your Tumblr page or forward to co-workers, The Grid has you covered. I’ll admit that as I reviewed the GIFs, a couple of the male artists closely resembled male artists I’d seen at other exhibits – it must be because they fit the Queen West [West] stereotypical hipster mould.
This techie would be an exception however; he seemed like a cool guy:
Special thanks to She Does the City and Notable for their lists of recommended exhibits! Including the location of each was much appreciated while planning my night out. Unfortunately the Nuit Blanche BlackBerry app is incompatible with my temporary loaner phone, but I managed to navigate the downtown core without difficulties. The truth is that when it’s so cold outside, you don’t want to be taking your gloves off to use your phone, so I did minimal live tweeting.
It doesn’t take a large survey of tween girls to realize that feather hair extensions are the latest craze. This new trend is popping up across North America, including in L.A. and Toronto, although very few hairstylists have been trained in Canada to date. Demi Lovato is one of many celebrities sporting the new trend and rocker Steven Tyler is another fan who has been seen wearing them on American Idol. Demand for the feathers remains high as people search online beauty shops and salon owners scramble to find suppliers.
I was able to act as a guinea pig, so to speak, for a local hairstylist just hours after she received her training. I couldn’t test out the blonde/black feather weave that she was wearing, but for the past week I have had a purple/black feather in my hair. I probably wouldn’t be able to find it if she had inserted a solid black feather, so this ‘purple streak’ seemed to be the most suitable option. It doesn’t make nearly as bold of a statement as the skater chicks who eagerly don bright pink streaks in their hair at Avril Lavigne concerts, but it certainly adds a unique touch to my ‘do. Pink hair is trending right now too, by the way.
Unless I put my hair half up or clip some of it back, it’s hard to notice because it blends in with the rest of my dark hair. The same goes for my naturally blonde friend (whom I share initials with), as she was given a light blonde feather extension that blends in with her highlights. The extension is expected to hold for 2-3 weeks, at which point it will simply fall out.
Growing up, I occasionally got a colourful hair wrap while at a theme park or all-over braids at a summer festival, but haven’t done anything like that for several years already. If I were to try out this trend again, I would definitely choose to get multiple extensions scattered throughout my hair so that it’d noticeable and look more playful.
Until posting this online, I’ve remained discreet about the addition to my hair, which has had no chemical treatment or colouring to date, and now I find myself tempted to experiment further. I also recommend it as a birthday party activity idea for girls – just envision how that group shot will look in the end!
