Hasta La Gadget!

You can never be too safe these days, but then again, being overly cautious and worrisome about everything all the time is also going to drive you to an early grave. With VSN Mobil’s V.ALRT Personal Alert Device, this tiny, wearable device is capable of work alongside a smartphone via Bluetooth connectivity in order to place urgent calls to one of three pre-configured phone numbers, as well as send out texts and location information with but a single press of a button, now how about that?

I would suppose that you can call the V.ALRT to be your personal Bat signal, although do not expect Batman to come “save” you from a particularly tricky situation, but rather, the local authorities. Designed in a discrete and foolproof form factor, it works even if your smartphone is out of reach, thanks to the Bluetooth connection. A single CR-2032 battery will power the V.ALRT for up to a year before it requires a replacement.

There is also the V.ALRT customizable, simple companion application that will play nice on both iOS and Android mobile operating systems, and is also useful not only on schools and campuses, but it also works great if you love to exercise alone in the great outdoors. With the V.ALRT, at least it gives your family peace of mind knowing that you can summon help should you get into a particularly challenging or difficult situation. It measures 32mm in diameter, is 1cm thin, tips the scales at just 8 grams, and is waterproof up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. Expect the V.ALRT to retail for $59.99 a pop. [Press Release]

V.ALRT Personal Alert Device From VSN Mobil

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For many entrepreneurs, your first office is often your home office. And while you can’t beat the rent, every successful entrepreneur eventually outgrows their humble beginnings. (Steve Jobs didn’t work out of his parents’ garage forever.)

But how do you know when it’s time to make the move to an office outside your home, like a shared office space? Here are the five tell-tale signs:

1.) Your professional image is being compromised.

If there is the sound of a barking dog, child or lawnmower in the background of a client call, it can affect the way you’re perceived and make it difficult to focus. If working from home is keeping you from putting your best foot forward, it could be better for your business to office elsewhere.

2.) You want your business to grow.

If your business growth seems to have plateaued, working from home might be to blame. A change of scenery and a dedicated, private office space could be just what you need to spark creativity and take your business to the next level. Plus, if you opt for an office at a shared office center, you’ll find the added benefit of built-in networking opportunities, too.

3.) It’s not just you.

Do you often meet with clients, or do you have employees or freelancers who come to your office? Rather than shuttle them past your pile of dishes in the sink, or have to offer access to your private bathroom, leasing office space, like that at a shared office center, gives you a professional environment for meetings – and lets you keep your private space private.

4.) The lines are blurred between home and work.

Maintaining separation between your business and personal life is one of the biggest stresses of working from home, according to many home office workers. So, if you’re finding the lines are blurring, it may be time to consider leasing space elsewhere.

5.) You want to reward yourself!

After years building your business, the move into professional office space is a very exciting milestone. As a small business owner, nothing is quite as exciting as seeing your name on the office door or building directory. So if you’re ready to reward yourself while investing in the future of your business, finding the right office space might be the perfect way to do both.

J.Crew ruffled many feathers this week when the retailer announced that it will be adding a 000 to its size charts. Yes, that’s three zeros, so just in case that double zero or size XXS hung off your frame like a smock from your third grade art class, there’s now a solution.

The chain store insists that the size addition caters to “demand coming from Asia for smaller sizes.” And when asked about whether the addition has to do with “vanity sizing,” the practice in which retailers label sizes despite items’ actual measurements, the company denied it.

In a statement read on the “Today” show, a spokeswoman said, “J.Crew’s sizes run across the board to try and accommodate as many customers as possible… We run up to size 16, we carry petites and talls, and our shoe sizes run from 5-12. [It’s] all based on customer demand.”

Despite the explanation, the decision to include pants with a size 23-inch waist sparked quite the debate online.

“The US retailer claims its new 000 size will appeal to ‘smaller-boned’ women. In reality, it would fit a healthy eight-year-old,” The Guardian wrote. Racked.com asked, “What’s next, negative numbers?”

Let’s hope not.

Ladies, ladies, ladies, what’s it going to take for you to stop bashing yourself in the face with a meat mallet every Election Day? Does the twisted, sanctimonious GOP state senator you voted for have to propose legislation making it legal for you to be sold into white slavery because… well… just because? Does the whacko Tea Party congressman you supported have to craft a bill saying that you should be stoned in the street (no, not the good kind of stoned) for wearing a halter-top in public? Do the nutjobs you repeatedly, repeatedly vote for have to repeal the 19th Amendment (you know, the one that enfranchises women), before you finally decide to vote for a sane person? (Oops, sorry, too late, you won’t be able to vote for a sane person. Or a crazy one either. Or anybody.)

Seriously, ladies, to what absurd level of fracking-depth lunacy do these bottom-feeding misogynists (is that redundant?) have to sink before you perceive, in your Limbaugh-inspired wisdom, that perhaps, just perhaps, your beloved Republican Party doesn’t have your best interests in mind?

Ladies, in case you haven’t noticed, the Republican geniuses you robotically vote for have saddled their horses for a Holy Crusade and guess who the infidels are? They’ve already suggested that you should show a little more enthusiasm about getting raped because it’s all part of The Almighty’s glorious plan; that men should be allowed, allowed to rape you if abortion is legal; that your privates should be probed for no legitimate reason; that hospitals should allow you to die rather than perform life-saving abortions.

If that doesn’t piss you off even a teeny-weeny bit, some of your GOP buddies have also opined that you should stay home with the kids instead of working; that perhaps some of you should not be allowed to vote anymore; that you should get a judge’s permission to date or have sex if you’re going through a divorce.

Not convinced yet? The same guys you helped to elect are also against lowering interest rates on your kid’s college loan and think your wages should be lower than a man’s. If you’re out of work and need an extension on your unemployment insurance, forget it — that’s oil subsidy money. How many times does a tornado have to decimate your house before you consider the possibility that your beloved party just might be mistaken about climate change? Oh, and how’s that $7.25 minimum wage working out for you?

Ladies, your kids aren’t safe anymore because it’s okay with the GOP if the mentally unstable loner up the block — the one with a taxidermist’s rendering of his deceased mother chillaxing, albeit a little stiffly, on his Barcalounger — owns thirty automatic weapons so he can open fire in a schoolyard because he couldn’t get a prom date. Here’s the punch line — you support background checks but the arrogant simpleton you voted into office doesn’t care what you and the majority of his constituency think.

And now there’s the Hobby Lobby decision, a stunning work of 15th Century jurisprudence produced by… take a wild guess… five men, one of whom is a ventriloquist’s dummy. The good news is that if you work at Hobby Lobby, you can buy a do-it-yourself birdhouse building kit for 20 percent off. The bad news is that you’ll have to spend a month’s salary on contraceptives.

What’s next, ladies? No mammograms because your boss belongs to a recently-invented-by-him religion which preaches that breasts are an evil temptation wrought by Satan to lure men. (Hello?) Or the Holy Cervical Church, created by another lunatic who thinks cervical cancer is God’s way of punishing you for promiscuity and… well… good luck.

Common sense dictates that it’s not a brilliant strategy for a political party to deliberately piss off the majority of the electorate, that majority being you. Face it, your Republican pals simply don’t care about your demographic — they figure you’ll vote for them anyway.

And they’re probably right. But why ladies, why? Is it because your parents were diehard Republicans and it’s some sort of stupidity legacy? Because your husband might not react too peacefully if he finds out you switched parties? (Don’t worry, they’re okay with that in some states.) Because Republicans are better at national security? (They’re not.) Because the GOP always lowers the deficit? (They don’t.) Because they cut taxes? (Nope, not even Saint Ronald.) Because one day, when you’re really rich (you won’t be, thanks to them) you sure as heck don’t want to pay taxes on all that gosh darn loot?

Or is it because of the biggest myth of all — that Republicans believe that government should be smaller so it won’t… um… probe into peoples’ private lives? (Just ignore the stone-faced guy in the dark suit and sunglasses standing watch 24/7 in your bedroom.)

The alarm clock is ringing, ladies. Wake the hell up.

Internships can be daunting, difficult and downright scary. Whether you’re filing papers, getting coffee, or sitting in on meetings with CEOs, there are always things you wish you did better.

We asked HuffPosters to share advice they would give to their intern selves with the hope that their mistakes and wisdom will help you current and future interns make the best of, and get the most from, your own internship experiences.

Check the ego and the entitlement at the front door. Embrace the opportunities, including the menial tasks.

–Sujata Mitra, Director of Communications, News and Politics

Fake it ’til you make it. You will make it. Jump in head first. You’re going to make mistakes no matter what, but you’ll make a lot less a lot sooner if you’re not afraid of them. Trust yourself. The validity of your gut, your opinion, your taste, and perspective is constant and permanent. Don’t apologize (too often). Stand tall. Physical posture translates to emotional confidence. Live by the mantra “can’t stop, won’t stop.”

–Jessica Dickerson, Editorial Fellow Black Voices

No one at the company knows who you are, what you’ve done before or what you’re capable of — so tell them! Your boss WILL notice if you get in late for work every day.

–Joe Satran, Food and Taste Staff Writer

Be careful what your ringtone is — while having this one go off in the office is mildly hilarious for everyone else, you probably won’t think so. If someone can send you this in response to your question, think again about asking it. Always do what you’re doing, no matter what it is, with an enthusiastic attitude. Youtube has a bevy of wonderful Excel and Word tutorials — use them. Take advantage of classes or trainings your new office offers — you never know when it’ll come in handy. Be proactive — come up with a project that will leave its mark on the office, even after you’re gone.

–Lauren Weber, Author of The Morning Email

I wish my 20-year-old internself knew to not harp so much about your supposed abilities and focus on learning the position. While I managed to do well and find myself in a great job at HuffPost Live, I was always that “hot shot” kid that would walk around talking about how great I am on camera… I just overall tried too hard.

–Jacques Morel, HuffPost Live Production Assistant

Meet anyone and everyone. Whether that means other interns, your boss’ boss, or someone in a completely different department. Most employees will be more than willing to grab coffee with you to talk about what they do and how they got where they are. An internship is an amazing place to make as many connections as possible in a short amount of time, and you never know if those people will be hiring down the line.

–Jessica Kane, Director of Millennial Outreach

Unless explicitly told by a superior/supervisor, anything and everything you discuss with mentors and co-workers is a direct invitation to do more and show more of what you can do. There will be few moments where ideas will be given to you as an assignment. This is one of the most direct differences between school and career. Opportunities to make a name for yourself and show off your abilities will almost always come from a situation where you took the initiative without being told.

–Ibrahim Balkhy, Associate Producer HuffPost Live

We learn more by listening than speaking. When I was an intern, I was busy trying to impress my mentors with how much I knew (which in hindsight, wasn’t much) instead of learning by listening to them. Be grateful & appreciative that you were chosen for what was a very competitive post. Acting entitled is very off-putting. Remember that you were hired because of your potential, not because of your knowledge base.

–Ann Brenoff, Senior Writer Los Angeles

You want anyone you meet to remember you as that friendly and smart intern, not that intern who complained about making copies. Everyone has to do menial tasks sometime in their life. Your time is now. Do it with a smile. People will remember that you did. In one of my internships in college, my job had a communal kitchen and no one ever did the dishes. I got there early every day because I was commuting from far away, so I always washed whatever dishes were in the sink while I was making my coffee. This is a small thing and who knows if anyone noticed, but it kept the sink a little cleaner, and it wasn’t hurting me to help out. If they don’t give you enough work, make work for yourself. Think of an area where you can be helpful or a project that you think would be useful somehow, and ask your supervisor if you can work on it. You might not fill up 40 hours with the tasks they give you (in fact, you probably won’t), but they will notice if you just hang out on Facebook in that extra time or if you use it proactively to be even more productive and useful at work.

–Ellie Kaufman, Social Impact Fellow

Don’t be afraid to reach out to people whose work you admire! One of the main ways I got my internship at HuffPost this summer was cold calling/emailing people whose work I had read or seen from the site and picked their brains for advice on how to enter into the business.

–Amanda Golden, Editorial Intern HuffPost World

Speak up. In meetings, with your editor, and for everything really. If you have opinions, state them. I found (after a couple internships, I was nowhere near this confident with my first) that it’s better to be the person who always has an idea than the one who never does.

–Gabriela Kruschewsky, HuffPost Viral Team

Take networking seriously. You may hate the idea that who you know matters, but that sentiment is true. Ask to meet up with as many people in your industry as you can to get to know them. When you hit the ground running looking for jobs, you’ll be on job seekers’ radar more often. This even includes on Twitter! That’s what led me to The Huffington Post — a job post tweet from an editor I followed.

–Mandy Velez, Associate Editor HuffPost Parents

Make a case for a job at the end! Too many interns — especially these days — are so excited to be working alongside a company that they don’t even think to (or don’t think they have the expertise to) apply for a job. In many fields, companies won’t come to you when they have an opening. It’s just as easy to pay an employee less for the same amount of work. You have to take the reins and apply for that job. I wish I’d have made that case way earlier.

–Andy Campbell, News Editor Crime and Weird

Never stop taking notes. Never say, “I don’t have a pen or a notebook.” Never ever say, “I remember more when I concentrate on listening instead of note-taking.” Office life in the 21st century is life in a cubicle. Think about the volume of your voice, the ringtone choice on your cell phone, the aroma of your food, and the amount of stuff that’s spilling out of your work area.

*Taken from The New Rules for Succeeding at Your First Job.

–Farah Miller, Executive Editor HuffPost Family

If I could go back to my intern-self, I’d remind myself that everything you do — from answering phones, to suggesting ideas, to even getting coffee — all pays off in the long run. It might not show every day, but at the end of the internship, your supervisors will see that you’re a team player and have an ambitious personality, something that could help you get a job once the internship is over!

–Christine Conetta, HuffPost Live Producer

Don’t behave or work like an intern; act as if you are part of the team. The worse thing that can happen is they don’t like you and don’t hire you for working hard and doing your best. You have nothing to lose from pushing yourself and striving to learn. Solve problems both big and small. If you see a problem that can be fixed then fix it. Create a Google doc and share it with your manager that contains a summary of what you worked on, any company events you’ve attended, and anyone important you met or worked with on something specific week by week. If you meet others inside the company that are interested in what you are working on then share it with them too. It will not only help you craft the position on your resume, but will inform everyone you work with of your contributions to the company.

–Joey Meijas, Technology Intern

In college, I always spent so much of my time trying to plan everything and calculate my next move. If I’d stuck to that, I never would have noticed the awesome opportunities that awaited me and got me to where I am now. I would tell my younger self to keep working hard and try to plan, but also to not stress out as much and know that everything will work out for the better.

–Carly Ledbetter, Editorial Fellow Lifestyle

Bring a lunch on the first day. You might not have time to duck out for food!

–Suzy Strutner, Associate Editor Travel

Be yourself, but don’t push the boundaries of the current culture too much. You’re an intern, not the CEO hired to rock the boat. Don’t be timid. They brought you in for the internship because they believe in you, so don’t be afraid to show everyone how awesome you are. You might know things that more established employees don’t know. (Think how much you could contribute as far as knowledge on new technology!) That said, don’t be conceited. Even if you know how the latest social media tool works, your more established co-workers have the wisdom that comes with having experienced a lot more in the industry. You don’t want to lose their respect by acting like a know-it-all.

–Sara Bondioli, News Editor NewsDesk

You’re smart, but a lot less smart than you think you are. Be humble and be willing to learn from those around you. Being on time counts more than you realize right now. Work ethic matters much more than talent.

–Riddhi Shah, Editorial Director Strategic Partnerships and Social Impact Platforms

Know that you are still an intern. One of the worst things an intern can do is act like they’re full-time or equivalent in stature to their managers. And realize others know you’re an intern, so it’s not only acceptable to ask questions, it’s expected.

–Tyler Kingkade, College Editor/Reporter