Back in skinny jeans

Trump fires Carolyn because of nepotism..no?..fame went to her head, right

This is no Punk'd episode. Carolyn Kepcher, Donald Trump's #2 female sidekick on The Apprentice, can officially fall in line for unemployment and COBRA because the arrogant one canned her. And her replacement on the show is Ivanka Trump because you know she is a savvy, experienced business woman at the ripe old age of 24, and VP of Real Estate Development at Trump Inc. Oh and lest we not forget, she was a high fashion model, and we know just how much biz smarts models have.

Apparently, according to a planted media mole, an unidentified insider:

"She became a prima donna. She was giving speeches for $25,000 and doing endorsements."

So, I don't know about you all but I don't buy this story at all. I think the one who has let fame get to their head is the one with the penis and bad hairstyle. This is my conspiracy theory:

• Donald has to look like a business genius, so therefore he cannot have people who are more talented, smarter, or popular than him. George was a fossil and not sexy. Carolyn pretty much spoke when given permission, and was in charge of 2 golf courses and not any buildings or hot downtown properties. Initially, Donald thinks that Carolyn's speaking engagements are "Pumping up the brand" but then she starts to get popular. She is in demand. People are paying her big bucks to speak. She writes a book. Carolyn is doing good for herself. But heaven's no we cannot have anyone being more popular than Donald especially the woman. We'll have none of that.

• Donald Jr and Ivanka are now the 2 sidekicks. This has nepotism painted all over it like red on communism. Come on! I'd buy this firing story if 1. We heard more stories of Carolyn's "only green M&M's and pure Swiss water" antics in the news, and 2. Her replacement was a seasoned, smart, executive at Trump Inc, not the boss's kid.

• At a Learning Annex Wealth Expo, Donald said, "Hire the best people, and then don't trust them." I kid you not. Great working environment, huh. So, you are guilty until proven innocent. Loyalty is crucial to Trump, and he has probably taken Carolyn's non-compliance to devote 1000% of her time and energy to Trump as a dis-loyalty worthy of public humiliation a la Martha Stewart. Donald can control his kids, and if they step out of line, he can easily cut off the purse strings as fast as he can say, "You're Fired!"

New blog find: Mariska Hargitay blog, aka Olivia Benson Law & Order SVU

Since we still have the Emmy's on the brain, I thought a great pick for this week's New Blog Find would be Emmy winner, Mariska Hargitay's blog, simply titled, "Mariska's blog", which is tied into her regular website where you can learn more about this amazing woman.

I love Law & Order SVU, and have been a faithful since the beginning. The show has personally helped me in my own challenge coping with rape (part 1 here. part II here). The stories on SVU are wonderfully written, and the main characters, Olivia Benson and Elliott Stabler give hope to those who are afraid of reporting sexual assault, incest, or rape. More than half of rapes that occur in the U.S. are not reported, and of the rapes that are reported almost 50% of the victims knew their attacker. It's not always strangers you have to be concerned about.

Along with catching perps and perverts on SVU, Mariska also is an advocate for the program Turn Beauty Inside Out (TBIO) which helps promote healthy body image and increased self-esteem for young girls. I first learned of TBIO from Audrey Brashich whom I interviewed back on August 11. Audrey consequently is a guest blogger on Mariska's blog.

Mariska also founded a non-profit called the Joyful Heart Foundation:

"The Joyful Heart Foundation (JHF) is committed to the total healing and recovery of survivors of sexual assault by introducing unique programs centered on dolphin-human interaction in the wild as a way of stimulating a survivors healing journey."

To raise money for The JHF, Mariska has donated some outfits for public auction which she has worn to awards show like the Emmys and the SAG awards. The auctions are done through the Clothes Off our Back Foundation a non-profit that hosts charity auctions showcasing celebrity attire with proceeds going to benefit children's charities. Clothes Off Our Back was founded by actors and philanthropists Jane Kaczmarek ("Malcolm In The Middle") and Bradley Whitford ("The West Wing").

Some of Mariska's items for auction include:
Carolina Herrera Emmy Gown worn at 2005's Emmy awards
Carolina Herrera Gown worn at the 2006 SAG awards 
Amanda Wakeley Gown worn at NBC's 75th Anniversary event in 2002
Emporio Armani Beaded Dress

There are more items to chose from. The dresses are beautiful, and  the profits are going to a good cause, so pony up the cash if you can spare it.

Please take a gander at Mariska's blog. She is an inspirational role model, and I wish that more of the younger starlets would follow in her example; class, grace, and giving. The design of both Mariska's website and the The Joyful Heart Foundation was designed by the talented folks at Romeo and Julie design. The illustrations are fabulous and fun. Check it out!

Katie Couric sheds 15 pounds on Photoshop diet

Forget the South Beach diet, the hottest celebrity diet in town is called Photoshop. Within an hour, you can drop 15 pounds because the real you is not good enough. How amazing is that! Sprint. Don't run. Knock over any biatch that gets in your way, and grab your copy of Photoshop as fast as you can, and make yourself confirm to society's unrealistic standards of beauty. Yeah!

CBS' Watch! magazine obviously thinks that Katie Couric is not thin enough as she is because they have photoshopped about 15 pounds away from an official first-pic-of-Katie released by CBS. On the left is Katie in the original photo and on the right is the "fixed" picture in the actual Watch! magazine spread.

When asked what she thought of her "skinny-izing", Katie replied, "I liked the first picture better because there's more of me to love." What kind of P.C. crap is that? Watch! magazine is the rah-rah piece for CBS, so it's obvious that Katie is being "non-confrontational". I'm already feeling constipated. I mean how insulting.

Katie is making history as the first woman to be solo evening news anchor on a major TV network, and her first official photo is doctored to make her look "prettier" to sell the anchor's debut. This is the kind of crap that contributes to making women feel "not enough" even if they have the brains and talent to make it to the top. It's always reduced down to the woman's looks. Damn media.

Your passion can bring opportunities you never imagined

Last night, I had the honor of guest speaking at a class at San Jose State University called New Media and Journalism (JMC 163). I spoke on Introduction to Blogging, and 3 ways blogging can help journalism students in their careers. The teachers Steve Sloan and Cynthia McCune are new friends of mine that I met through the San Jose Bloggers MeetUp which Steve heads up. If you're in the area, please join us. It's fun and a good time to get face time with real humans. We bloggers can spend TOO much time interacting online.

For the full lowdown on the class and what it is about, I wrote an article about it on my Simplr blog, "San Jose State offers cutting edge class on Web 2.0. Robert Scoble to guest speak." 

For those of you in tech or are just plain geeky, you will know of the famous Robert Scoble. Those of you who are not, Robert used to work at Microsoft and was their "official, non-official" face in the blogosphere. Microsoft decided not to do an official corporate blog, but instead chose to let their employees blog. Robert also co-authored a book with Shel Israel titled, "Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers" As of today, Scoble's blog, Scobleizer, is #18 in the world according to Technorati. The students in JMC 163 are very lucky to get face time with Scoble.

Being the very first guest speaker of the class, I am also honored to be grouped as professional speaker in this class with the likes of Scoble.

The point I want to share with this story is that when you are passionate about something opportunities you never thought about will come your way. In the back of my mind, I thought about creating a class to teach at The Learning Annex called "How to blog and make money through blogs for beginners." The universe gave me a chance to "try out" teaching, on a small scale. It was dee-lish!

One of my talents is translating Geek speak into Oprah speak to show people how technology can help them live their best lives. To me technology is power and freedom, but there is a big gap between the techies and everyday people, that most of us don't get or realize what is available simply because there is a "language" barrier. Most people don't really care about gigabytes, front side buses, or code? They want to know stuff like how to start a business online, become financially independent, or find a husband/wife. How will technology help you do that???

I love blogging, not only for the freedom it is giving me, but for all the really cool people I have met. It's incredible! Whether it's blogging, food, politics, or whatever, if you have a passion, dive straight into it, and watch what amazing opportunities come your way. Most of it will be things that you never imagined.

Angelina Jolie pimping make-up, saving the world

Can you pimp make-up and still be taken seriously in your efforts to save the world? I say yes. It has always bugged me that in order to do "noble" work, people assume that you have to live poor, that you cannot have glamour in your life, that material desires for yourself is evil. It must be all that Catholic guilt pounded into my psyche. I disagree, and there are real people who prove that.

Angelina Jolie donates 1/3 of her paychecks to the causes she believes in and works for. She doesn't just talk about Africa, she lives there for weeks at a time. Oprah Winfrey has donated millions of dollars through her Angel Network, and is now building a university in Africa for girls who would never get the chance. Bill Gates will be retiring from Microsoft in 2008, and will devote full time to his foundation with his wife Melinda which supports global health, education, libraries and natural disaster relief. All these people also live in mansions, fly in private jets, have designer clothes, and eat at the finest restaurants. The glamorous things they do enable them to make money and use their celebrity to do the things they want to help make the world a better place.

Today's scoop

Dropping pounds? Forget big plans. Take small steps.

"I have never been impressed by the heroics of people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another."        - Ellen Goodman 

I saw this quote today, and it reminded me actually of trying to lose weight and one reason why most weight loss programs don’t work in the long run. What does changing the world got to do with losing weight you ask? Let me illustrate. 

You step on the scale or you see a recent picture of yourself in which you have bulging, in all the wrong places. You fret in terror and disgust, and then proclaim, “Okay, that’s it! Damn it! I’m starting a diet and exercise plan on Monday! This time it will be different!” It may be a Wednesday when you make this declaration, but you need time to create your plan, go find a gym, collect recipes, create schedules, buy a tape measure, and find books and sources online. It becomes a big production physically and emotionally. 

You are going to change your fat world into a skinny one, so you’ll need a BIG plan, and the bigger the plan, the better because this is America and we do everything BIG here. People are impressed with BIG plans. You are absolutely pumped up about Monday. 

You envision you’ll be at your goal weight in 10 weeks. All you can picture is you back in those skinny jeans. The image is delicious. Armed with your big plans, and enthusiasm, Monday comes and your program officially begins. You do good for the first 3 days. You’ve measured your food, thrown out all the “bad” foods, counted calories, stopped eating before 7pm, and air kicked & punched imaginary enemies at kickboxing class for an hour each day.

On day 4, you just DO NOT feel like exercising....(read more)

How to create a favicon for your blog

What is a favicon you ask? It is short for “favorites icon”, and is a snappy little image that dresses up your url address in the browser window, in your bookmark menus, and in the header in Tabs. For those of you who use TypePad for blogging, you will recognize the Lilypad image next to your TypePad blog url. Here’s an example of favicons in action.

Favicons are a nice touch because:

• It helps your url standout in a sea of bookmarks and web pages
• It carries through your brand from your blog to your url
• It’s FUN!

Getting started
The process of creating a favicon for your blog is easier than any of Rachel Ray’s recipes. First, you will need to create or get an image (gif or jpeg) that is square in format, and that will look good at 16x16 pixels. Keep it simple. The area of 16x16 pixels is VERY small, so small that even a 4-letter name would be pushing it.

To create a favicon image from scratch you will need a program like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Some of you are saying Yikes! Not to worry, there are stock image sites like istockphoto.com where you can find image (photo and illustrations) for $1. You can also use clip art from your favorite collections. You can use a picture of your face, your dog, cat, whtever. Remember, whatever image you select is a reflection of your image. Pick something you are proud of.

Once you find an image, just make sure you crop it into a square format. If you leave the image in a rectangle format, it will get smashed into a square and end up looking yucky. Your image file size does not have to be 16x16 pixels in order for the favicon process to begin. You can resize to 16x16 if you want to get a preview of what the real thing will look like. Here’s a favicon gallery, for some inspirational ideas.

If you don’t have a creative bone in your body, and are okay with just text and color, you can use this favicon generator.

Convert your image to .ico format
If you have a lovely image picked out, we will now convert your gif or jpeg into .ico format, the format browsers need in order to display your cool favicon, right here. Yes! You don't have to leave us yet, thanks to Favicon from Pics.

Select Image:
using FavIcon from Pics

• Click the “Browse…” button to upload the image you want to use.
• Click the “Generate Favicon” button, and the faviconizer will do its magic.
• A zipped file will be downloaded to your computer. Unzip the file.

Installing your favicon into your blog
Installing your new favicon into your blog address will depend on the blog platform you use. If you use:

• TypePad, instructions are here. NOTE: TypePad recommends using Favicon from Pics to convert your image to .ico format, so you can skip down Step 2: Upload your favicon.ico to your account.
• Blogger, instructions are here.  NOTE: Blogger is a little more challenging because you will need to do some code. I'm a code scaredy cat which is why I use TypePad, land of the drag and drop. In these Blogger instructions, they use MyAvatar instead of Fsavicon from pics  to convert your image into .ico format. Here is a list of help at the Google Blogger Help Group if you're still stuck.
• Movable Type, Wordpress, or any other blog platform not noted here, please ask "How do I install a favicon?" from the company you use for web/blog hosting. Tell them that you already have converted your image file into .ico favicon format.

If this tutorial helped, be sure to point me to your url with your shiny new favicon. Enjoy!