Computious

MeiMei:  

All this attention on American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar got me thinking about smiling and laughing.

What a gorgeous smile Sanjaya has! Which is one of the reasons many people say he has lasted this long on the show.

A washingtonpost.com story quotes Robert Thompson, Director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television: "Sanjaya is a really cute kid with a unique look and an incredibly dreamy smile that can get thirty 12-year old girls to vote a million times a piece on speed dial." You can say that again!

Some people give Computious a hard time for smiling so much (what’s she so happy about?!) But there are health benefits to smiling and to laughing.  

And we laughed a LOT when we saw Sanjaya’s hair style the other night, when he came out looking like The Last of the Mohicans meets pop rock! He’s still got my top vote for “cute-itude," though. Here’s a link to a gallery of Sanjaya hairdos, or maybe we should say “hair don’ts.” Have fun — LOL!!

More on the Sanjaya "controversy" from washingtonpost.com / Reuters.

This posting is written by MeiMei, little sister of Computious^® – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! — and friend of DotComplicated, Serge deFault, Sweet & Sour the Pig, C.C the Cat, PingPong the Panda, and Elman the Elephant.  What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line includes fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

Filed under Entertainment, Helpful Information, Music, Shopping & Gifts by MeiMei | 1 comment

DotComplicated:

I felt relieved when I saw an article written by the New York Times yesterday about the limits of multitasking. I’ve never been great at it! I get more done if I do things one thing at a time. In today’s 24/7 world, I thought I was productivity challenged. Maybe not!

A cognitive scientist who heads up the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan says that multitasking slows us down and increases the chances of mistakes. The article quotes the Director of Vanderbilt University’s Human Information Processing Laboratory saying that even though our brains are powerful, “a core limitation is an inability to concentrate on two things at once.”

The article mentions a new organization called the Institute for Innovation and Information Productivity, which sponsors research to “teach workers in groups how to manage the overload of digital communications efficiently.” Wow! Institute members include Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, the London School of Economics, Oxford University’s  Institute for the Future of the Mind, and the University of Washington. Exciting!

Tips on making the most of our brains by managing information overload include:

- the number of times we check email;  

- the frequency of interruptions; and

-the elimination of distractions like music with words and TV shows in the background. 

Technology creates overload, but it helps us manage it, too!  More good information is in the article; here’s the link.

Now, if I can just learn to be more decisive … or maybe I don’t need to be, after all it’s good to consider many points of view, right? … but then that may take too much time … on the other hand, what if I make a bad mistake … oh dear …!

This posting is written by DotComplicated, friend of Computious^® – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! – as well as friend of Serge deFault, Computious’ sister MeiMei.  Other friends include Sweet & Sour the Pig, C.C the Cat, PingPong the Panda, and Elman the Elephant.   What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line includes fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

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Elman the Elephant:

Yesterday we watched a short video that glued our eyes to the computer screen. It’s the latest version (released March 8^th) of Prof. Michael Wesch’s video definition of “Web 2.0.” He’s an assistant professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The video is the first project of a research group he started that looks at how digital technology affects the way we interact with each other.

(Speaking of new types of interaction, for example, you can type your own message (online) on my greeting card or shirt below if you want to get it at the online gift gallery. “Web 2.0” user interface and creative collaboration! Just click on their images below this blog entry.)

Click here to see "The Machine is Us/ing Us." The first version of it was the #1 featured video on YouTube February 7. Enjoy!

This posting is written by Elman the Elephant, a friend of Computious^®  – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! — and friend of DotComplicated, MeiMei, Serge deFault, Sweet & Sour the Pig, C.C. the Cat, and PingPong the Panda . What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line includes fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

Filed under Entertainment, Helpful Information, Shopping & Gifts, Technology by Elman the Elephant | 1 comment

Sweet & Sour the Pig:

I’m a “Bach to Rock” music lover, and I’ve been wanting for a long time to hear the operatic pop group Il Divo. They’re the quartet of male singers where “GQ” meets popular music with a classical sound and format! Simon Cowell, well known in the U.S. for the “American Idol” TV show, spent two years to find and put the group together.

The four Il Divo members are each from a different country and three of them have been classically trained:

  David Miller, tenor – United States

  Urs Buhler, tenor – Switzerland

  Carlos Marin, baritone - Spain

  Sébastien Izambard, vox populi / tenor – France

 
"Il Divo” means “divine male performer” in Italian. I just listened to them online — wow, talk about divine! I’m going to buy some songs for my iPod and have a heavenly time. Here’s a full article for more information. (Photos are from Wikipedia.)

This posting is written by Sweet & Sour the Pig , a friend of Computious^®  – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! — and friend of DotComplicated, Serge deFault, MeiMei, C.C. the Cat, PingPong the Panda, and Elman the Elephant . What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line includes fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

Filed under Entertainment, Helpful Information, Music, Shopping & Gifts by Sweet and Sour the Pig | 1 comment

C.C. the Cat:

In Dublin, Ireland, the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day for five days. Meeee-owww! This year the fun in Dublin goes from March 15 – 19^th.  I’m still celebrating (I think someone put some catnip in my green St. Paddy’s Day water)!

The first St. Patrick’s Day parade was in New York City, not Ireland. The “Big Apple” becomes the “Big Shamrock” on March 17^th and continues to be the world’s biggest St. Patrick’s Day parade, with about 2 million spectators!

So here’s to the Emerald Isle’s patron saint. I wish you “the luck of the Irish,” (and I mean it in a good way — I'm trying to be less sarcastic)!

This posting is written by C.C. the Cat, a friend of Computious^®  – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! —and friend of DotComplicated, Serge deFault, MeiMei, Sweet & Sour the Pig, PingPong the Panda,  and Elman the Elephant . What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line includes fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!
  

Filed under Entertainment, Helpful Information, Shopping & Gifts by C.C. the Cat | 1 comment

Computious and DotComplicated:

Last week, Forbes came out with its yearly list of the world’s billionaires. Here are four female members we admire:

Oprah Winfrey...

We respect the strength and intelligence it takes to overcome the challenges she’s faced to create a $1.5 billion media and entertainment enterprise.

Meg Whitman...

We love it that such a smart businessperson is also nice! She developed her expertise at companies like Proctor & Gamble, Disney, FTD, and Hasbro. She donated $30 million to Princeton University, her alma mater, to build a residential college named “Whitman College.”

J.K. Rowling…

We thank the author of the Harry Potter book series for hours and hours of reading fun. What an imaginative mind! (We’ve always wanted to visit Hogwarts Hall and learned that Oxford University’s Christ Church Great Hall was its inspiration.) Ms. Rowling recently finished her 7^th and last in the series; we heard it will be available this July! She's the first person to become a billionaire (U.S. dollars) by writing books.

Weili Dai...

We're inspired by Ms. Dai's drive and confidence. She studied computer science at the University of California - Berkeley, where she met her husband and his brother. The three of them founded a computer chip company called Marvell Technology Group, which recently had almost $2 billion in annual sales. We wish her continued success!

Here’s Forbes.com’s story.

This posting is written by Computious^® – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! – and her best friend DotComplicated.  Other friends include Serge deFault, Sweet & Sour the Pig, PingPong the Panda, Elman the Elephant, as well as Computious' sister MeiMei.   What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line includes fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values! 

                             
                            © Computious - All rights reserved

Filed under Entertainment, Females/Girls, Helpful Information, Shopping & Gifts, Technology by Computious | 1 comment

Sweet & Sour:
The second largest theme-park group in the world, after Walt Disney Co., is Merlin Entertainments Group in Poole, England. They own Legoland, Sea Life aquariums, Gardaland in Italy, as well as other attractions. (I love Legoland – we’ll have to talk about it another day!)

The owner of Merlin Entertainments Group is buying Madame Tussauds waxworks museums. Mme. Tussaud lived during the French Revolution and up to the mid-19th century. The very first wax figure she made was of the famous political philosopher Voltaire. Others she made included Ben Franklin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. She even made one of herself!

Now there are many modern-day celebrity wax figures in the Tussaud museums (currently there are six locations). Some I’d like to see are Brad Pitt, Woody Allen, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Julia Roberts, Winston Churchill, and Tiger Woods! They just added one of our favorite TV chefs, Rachael Ray, to the New York location. They also recently added Christina Aguilera to the London museum.

 
The wax figures look so real! And you can get interactive at some locations. In Las Vegas, you can sink a putt next to Tiger! You can even order a wax figure of yourself. That requires 500 body measurements, four months, and 20 designers!

            Thanks to Reuters for the story.

This posting is written by Sweet & Sour the Pig , a friend of Computious^®  – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! — and friend of DotComplicated, Serge deFault, MeiMei, C.C. the Cat,  PingPong the Panda,  and Elman the Elephant . What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line has fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

                             © Computious - All rights reserved   

Filed under Entertainment, Shopping & Gifts by Sweet and Sour the Pig | 1 comment

C.C. the Cat:

Last summer the Rev. Will Bowen, a minister in Kansas City, Missouri, asked his congregation to cut down on complaining, gossiping, using sarcasm (uh oh!), and criticizing. He challenged them to go 21 days without complaining. Many studies show that’s the number of days it takes to form a new habit.

Rev. Bowen gave church members purple elastic wristbands to remind them. If they complained, they switched the band to the other wrist and had to start the 21-day challenge over.

Thousands of people have joined in — at least 126,000 so far!

I have an edge to my personality (it’s called “cattitude”). I did get a purple band (someone anonymously mailed one to me). OK, maybe I’m too sarcastic sometimes. In my opinion, there will always be some good reasons to complain. Computious asked me to complain in a different way, though.

I’m getting sore from switching the band a lot. (My 21-day plan may turn out to be a 21-YEAR plan.) This may not be a bad thing since my paws are turning purple.The band is too tight. Can I complain about that?! Here’s more on this story.

This posting is written by C.C. the Cat, a friend of Computious^®  – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! —and friend of DotComplicated, Serge deFault, MeiMei, Sweet & Sour the Pig, PingPong the Panda,  and Elman the Elephant . What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line has fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

              “PURRR-FECT CHEF”                            “CAT-and-COMPUTER MOUSE"
                            APRON                                                            MOUSE PAD

                                  © Computious - All rights reserved 

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Computious and DotComplicated:

A Ziploc bag of ladybugs made a mysterious visit this past Friday to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Magritte exhibit had to be evacuated for 15 minutes while the colorful insects were collected. Talk about surreal!

We just learned that “ladybugs” are also called "ladybirds" and "lady beetles." We like them because they eat aphids, which eat up the garden. Also, of course, they’re really cute! Their bright color is supposed to protect them because many predators equate bright colors with poisons. 

There are fun beliefs about ladybugs. Some people say if you find one in your house in the winter, you’ll have good luck. So the L.A. County Museum of Art will have a lot of good things happening to it! The news story is by the Associated Press.

This posting is written by Computious^® – The Everyday Sage of the Digital Age! – and her best friend DotComplicated.  Other friends include Serge deFault, Sweet & Sour the Pig, PingPong the Panda, Elman the Elephant, as well as Computious' sister MeiMei.   What a group of characters!

The Computious^® product line has fun, unique gift items at the easy-to-use site www.computious.com. See the Special Values!

                                © Computious - All rights reserved 

Filed under Entertainment, Helpful Information, Shopping & Gifts by Computious | 1 comment