If you’ve ever wanted to keep those embarrassing Netflix choices from family members or your social-networking pals, you might soon be in luck. According to the folks over at Gigaom, the streaming subscription service is currently testing a “Privacy…
The restructuring plans from Microsoft caused a ripple effect throughout the company, with its recently acquired Nokia Devices and Services business being the most affected one. Now, as part of this, The Guardian reports that Nokia’s MixRadio…
Editing media via mobile is getting much easier, but the small screen can make you clumsier than you might like. Apps like iMovie are pretty easy to use, but not always what you’re looking for. These two apps for iOS and Android will make editing your media into a polished, finished product much easier. Vyclone You and a few friends … Continue reading
Today we bring you a straight up release of the first 20 minutes of Destiny in Beta mode. This – barring gameplay choices – is exactly what every Beta player is experiencing this week, start until 20-minute in. Here we see – basically – what Destiny will be in its latest form. The video you see here was recorded on … Continue reading
Japan is a very special place where obsession goes deep. So very deep for some games, in this instance, that a gamer would purchase a PlayStation 4 branded specifically for that game, and that game alone. Two new versions of the PlayStation 4 are being released for the games The Last of Us Remastered and Destiny – currently in Beta … Continue reading
Forget the fitness wearable; what about the fitness tracking home accessory? AirRam is a new vacuum that promises to not only clean up your home, but track how much exercise you get while doing it. Best of all, it’s cordless, and can charge via cables you might already have in the home. At nearly eight pounds, the AirRam is as … Continue reading
While my childhood friends thumbed through comic books and bartered for trading cards, I poured over photo albums. The magic of my father and stepmother’s wedding pictures captivated me. Each page told the fairytale story of a statuesque woman with crimson lips on the arm of a dignified man dapperly attired in a suit and tie. As I turned the pages I witnessed them profess their love, walk down the aisle as man and wife and celebrate with a champagne toast. I could almost taste their wedding cake and hear the mellow notes of “Unchained Melody” playing under hushed voices as they rose for their first dance.
I perused their wedding album countless times, but on one occasion I paused and flipped back through the pages, eagerly looking for my myself in their pictures, any picture. Why can’t I remember what I wore that day? Was I a flower girl? As I reached the first page of the album, I realized I had not been at their wedding. It was all in my imagination.
The sting of rejection drove deep. I knew what a wedding was — an unmissable milestone in a person’s life. I spent hours studying my stepmom’s copy of Weddings by Martha Stewart. At six years old I had carefully selected the Martha-approved bouquet and cake I wanted for my own wedding. I bottled up the pain of being left out and tucked it away. Still a question beat into the back of my mind: If marriage is the joining of two families, why wasn’t I there?
To their credit, not long after the wedding my stepmom and dad presented me with a pendant, three linked circles in silver joined by a small golden orb at the middle. They held what they called a family medallion ceremony to symbolize our joining as a family. My stepmom bought a flowery dress for me and together with some friends and family we stood with a pastor at the front of our church while I accepted the necklace. I knew the event was special, but did not grasp what it represented.
Years later I pulled my dad aside to ask why I had not been invited to their wedding. He heaved a heavy sigh as if he knew I might pose this question one day. “You were young and prone to outbursts and tantrums. We thought it would be easier to have a separate celebration as a family. If I could do it over, I would have you at our wedding.”
I felt my resentment and heartache melt away. Forgiveness and love go hand-in-hand, and at that moment I forgave them both and let go of my hurt feelings. I cannot imagine the difficulty they faced in negotiating a new life together with a child from a previous marriage. I have compassion for the difficulty they faced in negotiating stepfamily life from the very beginning, all on their own. I know they made the decision with the best of intentions, and I cannot fault them for that.
Now I understand the meaning behind the pendant, and I wear it to remember that we are all linked as a family. I appreciate how they included me in their union with the medallion ceremony. I do not feel forgotten anymore. While I may not be in their wedding photos, I feel incredibly blessed to have them in mine.
See more cartoons by Mike Smith at Las Vegas Sun.
Micromanaging can show up in many forms, but most typically in bosses who dictate how employees complete tasks, question employees’ judgments, frequently ask for updates, and check in incessantly. While the line between effective involved leadership and micromanaging can be thin — detail-oriented or obsessive? Constructive or controlling? — many employees have felt the effects of a manager whose management style is more overbearing than hands-on and collaborative. In his book My Way or the Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide, author Harry Chambers reports that 79 percent of those surveyed said they’d been micromanaged at one time or another. A 2003 survey by office products manufacturers FranklinCovey found that employees singled out micromanagement as the most significant barrier to productivity they faced, confirmed by a 2011 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology that showed people who believe they are being watched perform at a lower level.
So why do it? Many helicopter bosses feel the need to hover in order to monitor efficiency, or to keep things on track, especially if an employee has erred in the past. But most micromanagers do so out of a need for control that often has more to do with them than the performance of their employees — perhaps their own feeling of job insecurity or fear of failure. Others simply don’t know any better: Maybe they were promoted into a manager role without proper training, or maybe that’s how they were managed.
There are steps you can take if you think your boss is a micromanager. First, though, make sure she’s not responding to your own weak performance; that is, that you haven’t “asked” to be supervised so closely. And find out if there are others who feel the same way. If your boss breathes down everyone’s neck, you can be confident that it’s not just you.
Do your job well. The first step toward getting a boss to loosen her grip is to remove any possibility from her mind that she needs to be that way. Get to work on time. Meet deadlines. Be productive. Make clients happy. Show her that you’re trustworthy, thorough, and on top of your work.
Ask how you’re doing. Instead of complaining to your spouse or friends, or getting to a point where you need to quit, gather up courage and speak to the boss. But frame your discussion in a way that makes it clear you want to know how to improve, and not that you’re here to criticize his management style. Be positive and respectful. Ask what’s expected of you and how you’re doing. Offer reassurance that you can do the job without constant supervision.
Be a proactive communicator. Don’t wait for your boss to ask you how things are going. Instead, make sure he feels informed and in the loop. Send regular messages with reports and next steps. Consider copying him on important emails to clients or others. This will help reassure him that everything’s under control, and eventually his need for the regular reports will diminish.
Teach her how to delegate. Help your hovering boss delegate more effectively by prompting her to give you all the information you need upfront, so that you’re not getting bombarded with emails and directives along the way. Set times for check-in meetings. Volunteer to take on additional projects to help her see the need to delegate — and how you can handle the responsibility. When a job goes well, discuss the process, ask her if she has suggestions for how to improve next time, and thank her for the opportunity — and the hands-off approach. The next time, she’ll remember how well you did without any the constant input.
Washington state regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of cannabis-infused treats by marijuana dispensaries, with one exception: nothing that may appeal strongly to kids.
“There are no bans except those products that may be ‘especially’ appealing to children,” Brian Smith, communications director for the state Liquor Control Board, told The Huffington Post. “The key word is ‘especially.’ We recognize that there are some products that adults and children may like. However, there are some products on the medical market now that a reasonable person would say are especially appealing to kids.”
This means foods like brownies, cookies or other baked goods may be more likely to be approved by the board, while items like candies or lollipops may face more difficulty getting approved.
Sanctioned marijuana edibles must receive mandatory product and label approval from the board; serving size must be clearly indicated on the product packaging; and each product must be tested to ensure that the infused cannabis-based compound, like THC or CBD, is uniformly spread throughout the food product.
Three commercial kitchens have passed inspection from the Department of Agriculture, Smith said, and at least one, located in Seattle, has been fully licensed.
Despite shortages of legal weed, Washington state dispensaries began selling recreational marijuana for the first time earlier this month. Fewer than 10 shops were able to open across the state on the first day of sales, but those fortunate businesses were met with throngs of exuberant shoppers and sold thousands of bags of weed in that first week alone.
Seattle’s only dispensary, Cannabis City, opened with about 11 pounds of marijuana to sell. Owner James Lathrop told HuffPost last week that he expected his shop to sell out, but wound up selling only about 35 percent of his stock on day one. The shop had enough product to stay open for two more days, but was closed by the end of the week when it ran out of pot.
The other shops around the state were able to remain open, some of which did so by securing more marijuana later in the week, keeping limited hours or capping the amount of shoppers per day.
The first retail marijuana-growing licenses weren’t issued until March of this year by the state’s LCB, the agency charged with regulating the nascent industry. That left only a few months for producers and processors to grow enough weed to supply the stores. Only 79 licenses for marijuana producers and processors had been approved by the time the first shops opened. Only five retail marijuana shops, out of a total of 25 licensed shops statewide, were able to open on the historic first day of sales.
The LCB saw an overwhelming interest from individuals looking to open a marijuana business in state, receiving around 7,000 applications back in 2013 when the board first began the licensing process. Since then, the LCB has stopped accepting applications and capped the number of recreational marijuana shops in the state at 334. But just as in Colorado, there are dozens of local bans and moratoriums on recreational marijuana shops across the state, so it may take some time for all those state-allotted retail outlets to open.
“I’d call it a tempered success,” Smith told HuffPost about legal sales in the state thus far. “We built a comprehensive system of growing, processing and retailing marijuana from scratch. Nothing like it in the world.”
Smith said that while supply is still tight, a “robust supply network” will be up and running smoothly before long. “We already have over 700,000 square feet of canopy licensed to grow which represents supply measured in tons. And, we add new producers every day,” he said.
The state caps the total grow space allotted at about 2 million square feet of canopy.
Washington and Colorado both legalized recreational marijuana in 2012. While Washington’s shops just began selling this month, Colorado’s first marijuana shops opened in January and have since seen soaring revenue. To date, with more than 100 shops now open statewide, recreational marijuana retailers have generated about $90 million in revenue.
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