The crew at Epic Games has made a point of welcoming virtual reality with open arms, and it’s not about to shy away any time soon. The studio recently updated its roadmap with indications that Unreal Engine 4 will support Steam VR (and by extension, …
The first thing my Spanish mother-in-law asked me when she saw the Xiaomi Yi was, “Is that a toy camera?” With its lime-and-aqua-marine color scheme, it’s not hard to see why she might think that. But no, it is not. In fact, Xiaomi’s Yi camera raised…
TomTom, a company best known for its GPS gadgets and a line of watches for runners and athletes, is diving deeper into action sports. Meet the Bandit camera: a GPS action cam that’ll beam footage to a connected smartphone. If you’re in a hurry, and d…
How many times can you say you’re really, actively using your brain? When you’re in school, you have to constantly stuff new information in your head, and then study it so you can apply it to tests and homework. Once you get settled into a job, you may come across a few problems now and again, but it’s nothing like the constant critical thinking that school puts you through.
If you want to make sure your brain keeps its problem-solving abilities, playing word or puzzle solving games can help your mind to stay active. These Japanese Pocket Puzzles will surely give your gray matter a workout, as these brainteasers were crafted with precision to be insanely difficult. Each piece fits together masterfully, and will take some critical thinking to work through. Just when you feel like you may have it figured out, there will be an aspect you didn’t take into account that will put you back to square one.
Of course, once you solve a puzzle a few times, the answer becomes pretty obvious, and you’ll need new challenges to overcome. Thankfully, there are 9 level five puzzles and 7 level six puzzles to choose from. If you breeze through all of these too quickly, there are always more brain games out there to choose from. Made of a solid zinc alloy and measuring only 2-4” long, these can go with you anywhere to challenge your brain. They are $12.99 a piece, and will be brain-stakingly fun.
Available for purchase on ThinkGeek
[ These Japanese Pocket Puzzles make your brain play twister copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]
Winter is over and Spring is here with Summer shortly behind. That means that most of us no longer need warm fleece blankets. But even in the 105-degree Texas weather, we still need blankets for one thing – picnics. Without a blanket to sit on the giant ants will carry you off.
This cool map of Westeros fleece blanket is perfect for summer picnics or keeping warm while camping in cooler climates. You can also throw it on the couch so when your wife is shivering while you sit there with sweat on your brow she can cover up and stop asking you to turn down the fan, or at least that’s how it happens in my house.
ThinkGeek will sell you one of these for $24.99(USD). They don’t mention the iron price. The blanket is 48″ x 62″ blanket is printed only on one side and is 100% polyester. Sadly, it’s hand wash only. Hand wash stuff should be illegal if you ask me.
This week, all eyes are on Baltimore.
There are reports on police officers’ indifference about Freddie Gray, neglecting to buckle his seatbelt while he was in custody, and refusing to get him medical attention in a timely manner. There are reports of similar mistreatment stemming back decades.
There are reports of angry rioters smashing glass and setting property on fire, as if to fill the void of police officers’ indifference with a violent rage that cannot be ignored.
As we watch the news this week, it’s easy to assign blame to either or both sides, and it’s safe, from the comfort of our living room recliners, to prescribe solutions.
We advocate for police to act with fairness and restraint.
We advocate for protesters to swallow their anger and practice peaceful non-violence.
We advocate for the dueling sides to come to the table and use dialogue to open helpful, healing lines of communication.
But if we leave it at that, if we see this only as a black-versus-white, privileged-versus-poor, powerful-versus-powerless problem, we’ll miss the point.
If we prescribe hard-to-swallow medicine for Baltimore and then walk away without taking it ourselves, we’ll miss the biggest lesson to be learned from this situation.
Because Baltimore isn’t just about people who live in a city in Maryland. Baltimore is about each of us.
Baltimore is about the false dichotomies we each create, dividing the world into “us” and “them.”
It’s often more subtle than black versus white, or police versus civilians, but it’s just as harmful.
It’s “Us the Republicans” versus “them the Democrats.”
“Us the Christians” versus “them the nonbelievers.”
“Us the progressives” versus “them the fundamentalists.”
“Us the straight” versus “them the gay.”
“Us the men” versus “them the women.”
“Us the legals” versus “them the illegals.”
“Us the taxpaying” versus “them the unemployed.”
“Us the homeschoolers” versus “them the public school-attendees.”
The divisions go on and on and on.
After we’ve drawn the line that distinguishes “us” from “them,” we behave more like Baltimore than we’d care to admit.
This week, out of one side of our mouths, we’ve said, “Violence is not the answer. Anger doesn’t solve anything. What we really need are peaceful negotiations….”
But with the other side of that same mouth, we verbally attack the people who stand on the other side of the lines we’ve drawn, lobbing bricks of anger, hostility, sarcasm, exaggerations and lies at the other side.
We justify our behavior by telling ourselves the same things the rioters in Baltimore are saying — that we are right, that the other side deserved it, that if we don’t act extremely we won’t get their attention.
This week, if we sit at home watching the news, telling the police in Baltimore to treat people with dignity and respect, and telling the protesters to use peace instead of violence to address injustices, we are hypocrites if we give Baltimore advice that we ourselves refuse to take.
For those of us who profess to follow Jesus, we cannot tell other people to practice Jesus’ words without heeding them ourselves. We need look no further than the upcoming 2016 presidential campaign to see the opportunities we have to live out Jesus’ radical message of peace, to transcend a system that divides “us” and “them,” and to stop using these artificial divisions as excuses to treat other people worse than we treat ourselves.
We cannot call for unity in Baltimore when we are constantly drawing lines that distinguish “us” from “them.”
We cannot tell rioters to be peacemakers when we ourselves are not living in peace with the people in our lives, whether they’re personal relationships or public figures.
We cannot tell people in Baltimore to love their enemies when we treat our own enemies with disdain and disrespect.
We cannot recite the words, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” while using anger and fear to stir up suspicion of the “other” side.
We cannot accuse others of “destroying America,” when we’re destroying it ourselves by refusing to calm down and use peaceful dialogue to understand the other side, reach compromises, and work for helpful solutions.
We cannot repeat Jesus’ words to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile while we’re using all the verbal weapons we can find to fight for every millimeter of the moral high ground.
We cannot pray “In Baltimore as it is in heaven” without first praying “In me as it is in heaven.”
In the days and weeks and months to come, instead of distinguishing ourselves from “them,” let’s see the world as simply “us,” where everyone is our fellow human being created in the image of God.
Let’s remember that we are to love not only the least, but also the worst, of these.
Let’s love, pray for and bless our enemies.
Let’s stop using rage as a shortcut to reconciliation.
Let’s stop choosing weaponization over peace.
Let’s come to the table, lower our voices, lay down our anger, surrender our rights, treat our enemies with respect, and choose radical peace over angry protests.
This is good advice for Baltimore.
It’s even better advice for the rest of us.
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One of the best things about finding a community of mothers to join is that there is always someone there to commiserate.
You overslept and kids missed the bus? Someone else has done that. You couldn’t figure out why Junior wouldn’t sleep, so you let him snuggle on your chest from 3am until the end of the Today show? Been there. And that time you ran out of clean clothes, so your turned your kid’s (and your own) shirt inside out so that you could run to the grocery store for diapers? I’m with ya, sister.
There are stories all over the internet about that one time a mom screwed up so badly that she thought her kids were going to hate her forever, followed by hundreds of reassuring comments from women all over the planet who want to reassure her that she’s doing her best and it’s all going to be okay.
All of that is good and wonderful, and provides a safe place for moms to be themselves, to find a sense of belonging amongst other women who are sharing in similar struggles. I participate in that community, actively and whole-heartedly. I have screwed up, and it helped to know that I wasn’t the first, and that we would all recover.
But, amongst all of this commiseration and sympathy, something is glaringly absent: the pride.
Where is the crowing from the rooftops, the shouting from the streets? We don’t hear often enough from mothers who take the time to see what they do right, not just what they’ve done wrong.
And moms, we do so much right.
Aside from the fact that we manage to clothe them and feed them and bathe them, mothers all over the world contribute positively to their children’s upbringing on a daily basis. We are phenomenal at what we do.
The world deserves to hear about that part of motherhood, too. We should take every opportunity to celebrate ourselves, unencumbered by a “but”, or a justification, or worse, an apology.
Let’s change the equation. Let’s be proud of ourselves, and allow no excuses or mitigating circumstances to interfere. Let’s recognize our strengths as parents.
Because I am a damn good mother, and I make no apologies for it.
I know my kids. I can look at something and tell you immediately whether or not my children would appreciate it, whether it be a toy or a shirt or anything else.
I am patient. I am constantly surprised by the depths of my tolerance and composure.
I am affectionate. I give hugs and kisses and cuddles and tickles and all the things that really matter.
I am not short-sighted. I have a solid view of the “big picture”, and am able to adjust my parenting priorities accordingly.
I am light-hearted. I can make my children laugh even when they’d rather cry or shout.
But mostly, I love my children. I love them actively and loudly and deliberately, each and every day. I tell them I love them, and I mean it.
I do so many things every day that are right. The mistakes happen, too, but I am a good mother.
And so are you.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
My husband was driving the car home from the hospital, with me and my sweet newborn riding in the back seat. As uncomfortable as he looked, my brand new baby boy was safely buckled into his carseat, but I still insisted on sitting right next to him.
I kept leaning in close to him, taking big, deep breaths of that sweet new-baby smell. He was sound asleep and all I could do was stare at him, taking in his perfectly round head (taking great pride in the fact that my lady parts could produce such rounded perfection), his tiny little angel lips, his pristine skin.
Oh my, he was perfect.
He squished his face up and made a little squeak, so I put the tiny tip of my pinky finger in his mouth to suck on (of course my hands had been previously boiled and scrubbed with antibacterial everything).
He settled immediately and tears welled up in my eyes as I made a mental note: “Don’t ever forget this moment.”
That was 16 years ago.
That tiny, beautiful boy is now a teenager. A vile creature, really.
He was such a good, happy baby. He was a funny toddler. The tween years were almost completely uneventful. He was even an easy teenager until very recently.
I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but it’s true: if you blink, you’ll miss it. Your cuddle-loving child will be replaced — almost overnight — with a dark, moody version of himself.
I don’t even know this person who shares our home with us.
Rarely caring, only occasionally happy, almost always sarcastic and grumpy, he skulks around the house (most certainly not putting his clothes in the hamper or dishes in the dishwasher) with his earbuds in his ears. So he doesn’t have to deal with us, I’m guessing.
He towers over me by a good eight inches and grunts responses to my questions in his deep man-voice that sounds just like his father’s (except in a much flatter, far more negative tone… and using as few syllables as possible).
The silly things I say that used to make him laugh, now get me a deadpan stare or an eye roll. Heaven forbid I speak to him when his friends are around. That earns me a death stare that screams, “Oh my GOD, Mom! Go AWAY!”
I’ve seen him — from afar — interacting with his friends, and it certainly looks like he still has a sense of humor. And the ability to speak to other humans. It appears he saves all his teen angst just for his family.
He’s tested us lately and we’ve had to come down on him pretty hard.
His decision-making is almost certainly based on what he suspects is the exact opposite of what his dad and I would advise. I realize he’s at “that age,” where kids start figuring out who they are and what they’re going to be all about. He can’t do that without making his own decisions.
But good grief, my patience.
There’s just a teeny, tiny hair of it left. I sometimes think that I might not be cut out to be the mom of a teenager. I’m worried constantly, my stomach is in knots, I’m not sleeping, and my martini consumption has gone up considerably in the last few months.
I think, “You know what? I’m done. Call me when he’s 20.”
But then: late one night last week, everyone else in the family had gone to bed, except for the two of us. We hung out in the living room and talked for over an hour. It was so special. We talked about all the things going on with his classes, the stuff he’s learning, the friends he hangs out with.
We talked about the pressures he’s feeling: pressure from his extracurriculars, his course load, and some minor teen drama (thank God I have boys, or this part would be a bigger player, I’m sure).
He also shared that he feels his dad and I have him on tight reigns and that he feels trapped by the pressure of that.
I remember that feeling from when I was 16.
I wasn’t mature enough to voice it to my parents in a calm, collected way like my son did, though. Hmmm, so he’s got one up on me here….
I made a mental note: “He really is such a great kid. He’s got a strong, confident head on his shoulders. He’s really making some great points here.”
I started thinking how smart my husband and I were to have been firm — and frankly pretty strict — recently. “It’s really worked,” I thought, “And so fast! That’s my boy, just one little hiccup and with our loving and wise guidance, we’ve nudged him right back on track.”
I silently gave myself (and my husband, ok sure) a few kudos on our expert parenting, and then mentally tuned back into what my son was saying.
“…and that’s why I think that grounding me from everything for a month is a bit… excessive,” he said, with his hands mirroring each other, fingertips touching, a la persuasive politician.
And there it is.
An hour. That’s how long he crafted this little manipulation disguised as a bonding session.
Un-freakin-believable.
“You know what?” I say, as I pop up to go make a martini, “I’m done. Call me when you’re 20.”
Author’s note: This article was submitted with my son’s permission, and only after making one tiny tweak in wording (in the original, I mentioned that he was rarely funny these days, which is not only untrue, but was highly offensive to my boy, who prides himself — rightfully so — on his ability to make others laugh with his wit. It’s funny to me that THAT was what he took issue with.)
The purpose of this article is to share with other parents that even the “good kids” clumsily make their way through the teen years. Though I’ve shared how frustrating this stage can be, I do realize that it could be far worse (my husband and I often say that if our biggest battles are dealing with a smart mouth and some laziness, we’re in great shape!).
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NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) In a move that has stirred the anger of Kenya’s anti-gay Christian groups and sparked celebration by pro-gay clergy, the nation’s High Court has ruled that gay rights activists have the right to formally register their own groups and welfare organizations.
A three-judge panel issued the ruling Friday (April 24) in response to a 2013 petition by the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. The organization had unsuccessfully tried — five times — to register under the nation’s Non-Governmental Organizations Co-ordination Act since 2012 but had been rejected on grounds that Kenya’s penal code criminalized gay and lesbian associations.
This time, things were different, with the court ruling that refusing to register the organization was an infringement of the constitutional rights of association for LGBT people. The judges said registration was not about the moral and religious views of Kenyans, since the constitution does not set a limit of rights.
“Every person has the right to freedom of association, which includes the right to form, join or participate in the activities of an association of any kind,” the judges ruled, quoting Article 36 of Kenya’s constitution.
Kenyan laws bans homosexuality, and many clergy regularly preach against it as sin before God. But the ruling means that LGBT Kenyans will have an official platform from which to fight for their rights and freedoms.
“This is what we have been crying for,” said the Rev. Michael Kimindu, a former Anglican priest and now president of Other Sheep-Africa, a gay rights organization. “It is the beginning of the journey towards freedom. We will now start asking: What happens when two people who are gay want to have a baby or want to go to church to marry?”
Pastor John Makokha, who runs the pro-gay Riruta Hope Community Church in Nairobi, welcomed the development as an acceleration of the push for gay rights. He said he fears, however, that the ruling will face strong resistance from the clergy and other community members.
“I see religious groups going full-length to challenge it using their doctrines,” Makokha said. “We have to ensure that (the right of association) does not remain guaranteed in the constitution but cannot be practiced on the ground.”
As he received the ruling, NGLHRC director Eric Gitari saw historic momentum toward the inclusion of sexual minorities and gender minorities into Kenyan democracy.
“It alludes to a country that is keen to becoming much more open and democratic despite challenges. By underscoring the constitutional morality of inclusion at the expense of religious morality, the judges honored the spirit and aspiration of Kenyans,” he said.
As expected, the judgment has drawn the wrath of politicians, anti-gay groups and some clergy who are calling for an immediate reversal.
The Kenya Christian Professionals Forum said Wednesday that it will appeal the ruling since it was hostile to the fundamental values and moral norms of most Kenyans.
“We are not happy with the ruling. There are fundamental omissions and wrongs in it. That’s why we are appealing,” said Charles Kanjama, a lawyer who is vice chairperson of the forum.
“Kenya is a multicultural country and most people are opposed to any attempt to legitimize or legalize same-sex behavior,” added Kanjama.
Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, too, was troubled by the ruling, saying Kenyan society is organized around “family units,” not gay rights groups.
“The judgment was made with very narrow considerations and it is not only against Christianity, but also against Muslims’ teachings and traditions,” said Wabukala, who leads Kenya’s 4.5 million Anglican Christians, the country’s largest Protestant denomination.
Churches had warned about these developments in the drafting of a new constitution in 2010, said the Rev. Wellington Mutiso, the head of Baptist churches in Kenya. “I am disappointed with the ruling, but gratified that we had warned about it that time.
“These rights are now in the constitution and there is little we can do about it, unless we amend the constitution. That is a very costly affair. So think we may have to live with it.”
READ THIS STORY AT WWW.RELIGIONNEWS.COM
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For two glorious days in June, cat lovers’ every fancy will be fulfilled.
CatConLA — delightfully billed as Comic-Con for cat people, and taking place June 6-7 in Los Angeles — will naturally feature lots and lots of cat merch, like cat-related jewelry, art, furniture, clothes, bedsheets, a cat-shaped urn for beloved cats who are chasing that great ball of yarn in the sky and more — so, so much more.
Yep, cat wizard hats will be available at CatConLA. Your cat may use his or her three wishes to wish you’d never attended. Photo: I Heart Needlework via CatConLA
There will be a massive cat adoption village. Francesco Marciuliano, a poet who specializes in kitten confessionals, will give a reading, while famous cats like Lil Bub are themselves scheduled to “speak” — and no, we don’t know what that means exactly, but we are super excited to find out!
A team of manicurists will be on hand to festoon your claws.
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Posted by CatConLA on Wednesday, March 11, 2015
And even going to the loo will be fun in a kittenish sort of way. The company Purpose Cat Litter is taking over the bathrooms, although the details of that arrangement are still, as of this writing, a fascinating mystery.
“What they have in mind is top-secret, but I’m definitely intrigued,” said CatConLA organizer Susan Michals.
Michals isn’t new to cat-related gatherings. Last year, she curated a very cool exhibit of cat-related art, also in Los Angeles.
This upcoming event is, in part, another opportunity to elevate the image of cat lovers.
“When you say you’re into cats, people think ‘crazy cat lady,’” said Michals.
OK, well, sure, it would be great if the outside world could see our love of cats — and our love for cat-printed bedsheets, and kitten poems, and whatever is going on with those cat-litter bathrooms — as nothing more than a charming quirk.
But really, all we’re looking for — all we’ve ever been looking for — is a magical time and place where we cat people can enthuse unabashedly about felines, together. And we think this might be it.
“More than anything, CatConLA is a celebration of our feline friends — how they enhance our lives and make us happy in so many ways,” said Michals. “Everyone is here for one sole reason. Cats!”
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How excited are we? PetSmart Charities is an official sponsor of CatConLA! They’re going to be spreading their kitty wisdom, adoption tips, and talking about us cat ladies being oh so chic.
Posted by CatConLA on Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Head over to the CatConLA Facebook page for more info, and more photos, and more cats.
And get in touch with the reporter at arin.greenwood@huffingtonpost.com if you have an animal story to share!
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
