Chromebooks seem to be having a moment. Which is odd, because for a while there, nobody seemed to be giving them a chance. Since the first Chromebook came out, about three years ago, Chrome OS devices have gotten flak for not being able to do as much…
On June 12th, most football fans around the globe will have their eyes set on Brazil’s Arena de Sao Paulo, where the host nation is set to take on Croatia in the opening match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Here in the States, ESPN has already revealed…
Just when you thought the hipster world had found their peak of retro/modern fusion devices, there’s always got to be something bigger and better. More often than not, things that appeal to the retro style are more gimmicky than functional. Every now and again though, something crops up that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
The Lomo’Instant Camera not only works like the Polaroids of yore, but has a lot of customization options for the modern day photography enthusiast. This has wide angle, fish eye, and and portrait lens attachments, and comes with some color gels. There’s a two-step focus which makes getting the perfect picture an easy ordeal. You can take an unlimited amount of multiple exposure photos, as well as have an infinitely long exposure. This basically means you can make up whatever you want if you have some creativity to spare.
This uses Fujifilm Instax Mini Film, which costs about a $1 a sheet, but isn’t too hard to come by. This is combining aspects of old and new world photography and is creating a hybrid that looks somewhat promising. The best part is that it only costs around $110, which isn’t to bad for such a particular camera. There are a variety of styles to choose from, but the price will fluctuate depending on what you choose. Of course, that price is only going to go up when you need to buy more film.
Available for crowdfunding on Kickstarter
[ The Lomo’Instant Camera combines Polaroid and Instagram into one copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Here is one more thing to hook up to your iPad to help entertain the kids this summer. It’s called “Hit the Beats” by digital media researcher and graphic designer Lorenzo Bravi.
This device connects to an iPad and uses MIDI to turn the beats from a drum machine iPad app into a rhythm section in your house. The great thing about “Hit the Beats” is that you can experiment with absolutely anything to make sounds. All that needs to be done is placing the different items on the wooden platforms that have actuators hidden inside which then vibrate to create sound. So, a handful of M&M’s, some dry pasta, and plastic cup may be all it takes to make the next big hit.
via Gizmodo
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Divorce and what leads up to it are not tidy and polite affairs. The children who bear witness to the demise of their parents’ marriage inevitably get wounded — some very deeply and invisibly at first. No matter how old a child is when his/her parents’ divorce occurs, the child learns a life lesson about the shadow side of love and its potential impermanence. Learning this lesson through the end of your parents’ marriage and perhaps the subsequent re-partnering of either or both parents, is confusing at best and life-threatening for young children who are dependent upon their parents for their very survival.
When we fall in love and marry, many of us have stars in our eyes and fantasize about living happily ever after. Then reality sets in and tests our ability to fulfill our vows to love, honor and cherish each other through the trials and triumphs of life. If we lived in a perfect world, love would last and be stronger than all the challenges that tear us apart. In reality, maintaining a loving relationship takes a lot of commitment, honesty, and vulnerability. It’s not for the faint of heart.
As a child of divorce, a life coach, and an interfaith minister who officiates at many weddings, I do not think that divorce, in and of itself, is a bad thing. In fact, I wish my own parents had divorced much earlier than they did which would have spared us from living in a cold war of mixed messages at home that wore a public mask of a perfect family.
When a parent leaves, so does a part of the child — we often hide the vulnerable and innocent parts of ourself to avoid dealing with our feelings and needs. We lack the personal resources to cope and our parents are too busy fighting, so most of us are left with the options of either expressing or repressing our emotions and fears. Hiding them is usually a safer bet.
These days most parents are too busy to be as attentive as their child(ren) need them to be when the family is falling apart and the kids are too often left to fend for themselves. However, this is a crucial time for a child. No matter how young or grown a child of divorce is, he or she has probably internalized some deep lessons that may remain as an unconscious filter through which he or she experience the rest of their life unless and until becoming aware of those messages and developing a realistic and healthy understanding of the matter. The two most dominant messages that kids of divorce internalize are believing that their parents’ divorce is somehow their fault and that love is conditional and might not last. Let’s take a closer look at both of these messages.
Younger children tend to be more susceptible to thinking the divorce is their fault. “If only I hadn’t … then Mommy and Daddy would still be together” is what many kids tell themselves. Some try to “fix” the situation by being on good behavior, imagining that doing so will be all that is needed to bring the parents back together so they can live happily ever after as a family. Even after the parents are officially divorced and are living separately, many children fantasize about what they can do to get their family back together again. For a child who thinks his or her bad behavior is responsible for the parents splitting up, it makes sense that they think their good behavior might reunite them and that their bad behavior might stave off a new suitor.
The second dark message many children of divorce hear is that love is conditional and does not last. ‘You loved my Mommy or Daddy, then he/she did something you didn’t like and now you are divorced. I better be careful or you’ll divorce me too.” We want our children to believe that our love for them is unconditional, but divorcing their other parent gives them a mixed message.
When we internalize the message that love doesn’t last, we learn to protect ourselves from getting hurt by not getting too close to anyone. We may evolve a survival strategy of avoiding intimacy – especially emotional intimacy as a way to avoid the vulnerability of ever feeling so powerless and devastated again. We may keep to ourselves or choose to use other people without actually bonding with them.
What can parents do to help their children thrive rather than hide when the family is breaking apart?
These days most parents are too busy to be as attentive as their child(ren) need them to be when the family is falling apart and the kids are too often left to fend for themselves. The health and well-being of your children is your responsibility until they are able to take care of themselves. Pay attention and be sure they feel your love no matter what.
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If you’re a fan of Lee Pace or if you enjoy dramas set in the technology world, “Halt and Catch Fire” (10 p.m. ET Sunday, AMC) is worth checking out.
Given that AMC made the very strange decision to only send out one episode, it’s hard to make much more of a case for “Halt” than that. Given that the network greenlit the show a year ago and production ended at least a month ago, it’s difficult to believe that there weren’t more episodes available to share with the media, which usually gets at least a few episodes of new cable dramas. Of course, the stinginess with episodes could be a sign of caution stemming from the (deserved) drubbings that “Turn” and “Low Winter Sun” received. Or it could say something about where “Halt” is heading next, which would be a shame — but to be fair to the show, we just don’t know.
In any event, consider this a provisional review, one that makes that case that “Halt” is probably worth checking out for at least a few weeks. The pilot features multiple scenes of people hunched over the disassembled innards of an early-’80s personal computer, which is not the most dynamic of scenarios, but the good news is, “Halt” has more promising elements as well.
Chief among them is Pace, who has an uncanny ability to play remote or arrogant characters who are nevertheless fascinating and who even betray hints of vulnerability. Pace’s flashy salesman character, Joe MacMillan, burns with a mysterious intensity and there are indications that something dark lies just below the surface of his slick, practiced charm. Despite the obvious danger, MacMillan’s charisma ends up being a draw for sad-sack engineer Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), who has shelved his dreams of taking the personal computer in exciting new directions.
The first hour, while decently paced, does display some growing pains. If there’s one thing I never need to see again in a cable drama (or any drama), it’s a female character whose main job is to put limits on a man who wants to Take Risks and Do Things (Women! Why don’t they ever get it??). Kerry Bishé is forced into the maddening Complaining Cable Wife role in “Halt,” unfortunately. Donna Clark, Gordon’s spouse, once shared his technology dreams, but not after a big project flamed out on the pair. Donna’s role in the pilot is to remind Gordon that he has a family (you know, that thing that always drags down the big dreamers), and it’s my fond hope that Bishé’s role is expanded well beyond those semi-shrill parameters as the show goes forward.
MacMillan’s boxy, double-breasted suits and his ’80s bravado take up much of the mental and physical space in “Halt,” but Toby Huss is terrific as Joe’s irascible boss, and Mackenzie Davis also makes a strong impression as Cameron Howe, a bored computer major who is unimpressed with the state of the industry’s ambition in the early ’80s. Unlike “Silicon Valley” — which is set several decades later — “Halt” makes it clear that women have always been involved in technology. Don’t get me wrong, I generally like “Silicon Valley” (though the second half of the season took a dismaying turn toward dopiness and crudeness), but its insistence on treating female programmers and engineers as nearly non-existent unicorns is not just lazy and troubling, it’s incorrect.
There’s a tentativeness to “Halt’s” first hour — it doesn’t end especially strongly — but overall, the drama has a mostly credible pilot and lead actors who will probably be able take the show in compelling directions. We’ll just have to see how the program runs from here.
“Halt and Catch Fire” premieres 10 p.m. ET Sunday on AMC.
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