I recently started using a new-to-me app to listen to podcasts on my phone -- Google Listen -- and I love being able to make my own "news" mix with Marketplace, Science Friday, Writer's Almanac, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and other podcasts. It's genius, and I'm never stuck listening to the 50th repeat of "Moves Like Jagger" on pop radio. Although I did kind of like the interview with Adam Levine about the song on NPR's Music Interviews.
I also liked these articles this week - culled from favorite blogs, friends' Facebook postings, and my Twitter feed. Happy almost-Friday!
~ Mitten envy? Wisconsin promotion draws ire in Michigan. This made me laugh, especially the following line from the Wisconsin tourism person:
"The mitten was used as a single creative element, you guys still own the mitten," she said. "We'd much rather our travelers consider us the 'fun' state."
Burn!
~ I made Jon read C Jane's post about how she had her 3rd baby at home with her husband acting as midwife. As he read it his eyebrows inched north, but he just said "huh" when he was finished. It's not something we'd do voluntarily, that's for sure - but an interesting read. Also, I dug my elbow into his ribs and said "see!!! I'm not the only woman to delusionally demand an epidural past the point of no return!"
~ Julie, who writes one of my most favoritest blogs ever at A Little Pregnant, posted this link in her Facebook feed this week - a vintage LEGO ad with a little girl holding her LEGO creation. The little girl is not wearing pink. None of the LEGOs in her creation are pink. And there are no princesses. And it almost makes me cry, because we have been looking and looking for superhero stuff to buy Bel for Christmas and there are pretty much no girl characters. We have princess stuff too, and it's not like we deny her pink -- but why is that all there is?
~ Patagonia’s Founder on Why There’s “No Such Thing as Sustainability” was a good interview this week at Fast Company. I like reading about people like Mr. Chouinard who are passionate and focused and who lead their lives in a way that really illustrates their beliefs. His latest push is for people to look for used Patagonia products before buying new, to keep the "reuse" part of "reduce, reuse, recycle" going. So Patagonia teamed up with eBay to create a special site called the Common Threads Initiative. I've been haunting eBay the past month for outerwear for the kids anyway, and one of the pieces I just won is a fleece Patagonia vest for Otto.
~ Last but not least, the Computer History Museum launched an awesome exhibit about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs this week. Steve Jobs: From Garage to World's Most Valuable Company is a good read.
And, in the spirit of Patagonia, it looks like I'll be shipping my 7-yr-old, 4th generation iPod to Rapid Repair to see if they can resuscitate it yet again. It slipped out of my hands last night and hit the kitchen floor, knocking something askew in the interior by the way it sounds when it tries to boot up. I suppose I could ask Santa for a new one, but I like my old one. Sadly, I only brought it into the house to load Christmas music onto it. Guess I have to burn a CD if we're going to listen to a Christmas song in the car on the way to school tomorrow.
I'll be a cookie-making fool this weekend. We get to go to a friend's annual cookie swap on Saturday night, and I have to get hoppin' if I'm going to get 8 dozen cookies done in time!
