Mariam Shahab

While this blog is built on WordPress, and I typically recommend most clients use the platform for various reasons, Posterous has always been a blog tool I’ve been somewhat enamored with.

In fact, I’ve created numerous Posterous blogs over the last couple years as a way to play with and test the tool (including the recent Bad Ass Shoes blog). I even started a Posterous Group a while back to experiment with that tool.

And while Posterous isn’t quite the tight-knit community Tumblr is, there are a number of great blogs out there that are definitely worth following. Let’s take a look at six I would highly recommend:

Talking with Tom

URL: http://www.talkingwithtom.com/

If you don’t know Tom Martin, make it a point to follow and start reading him now. Founder of Converse Digital, a digital marketing firm based in Louisiana, Tom interviews some of the leading thinkers in digital marketing in this blog. Among the list recently: Amber Naslund, Scott Stratten and Matt Ridings. The goal of the blog? To post one interview a week through Dec. 20, 2011. Mission accomplished so far, Tom. Keep up the good work.

The 3six5 blog

URL: http://the3six5.posterous.com/

If you haven’t heard of the 3six5 blog by now and you consider yourself “plugged in”, you’ve been hiding in an online hole. The brainchild of Chicagoans Len Kendall and Daniel Honigman, The 3six5 is a story based on 365 different people’s individual experiences. That’s right, the blog is written entirely by 365 different volunteers from across the U.S. Len and Daniel pulled off one version of the blog last year–they’re at it again in 2011. Great reading–and, consider contributing yet in 2011.

Jack Draws Anything

URL: http://jackdrawsanything.com/

Meet Jack. Jack has a brother who is sick. He’s in and out of the hospital regularly. So, Jack decided to start a blog based on his drawings in hopes of raising 20,000 pounds for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation. So far, Jack has more than 500 drawings–and more importantly, he’s raised more than 15,000 pounds (he started the blog hoping to raise just 100 pounds). Sure, it’s not the most relevant blog for PR/marketing types–but it’s one of the more inspirational stories I’ve seen in quite a while (and you’ll love the drawings if you’re a parent).

Tweetdeck Blog

URL: http://blog.tweetdeck.com/

If you’re a Tweetdeck power user, subscribing to Tweetdeck’s official blog is a must. In it, they share all sorts of useful tips and tricks for how to best use the tool. They also share new pieces of functionality, include the new Deck.ly service earlier this year. Highly recommend subscribing.

E-Strategy After Hours

URL: http://afterhours.e-strategy.com/

Without question my new favorite Posterous blog–by fellow Minnesotan and friend, Dave Erickson. In the blog, Dave routinely shares interesting and relevant statistics and data targeting everything from content to location-based demongraphics to infographics. I’ve found myself bookmarking many of Dave’s posts lately. Great information for presentations and blog posts in the last couple months.

Holy Kaw

URL: http://holykaw.alltop.com/

Love him or hate him, Guy Kawasaki still has one of the better Posterous blog around in Holy Kaw. By subscribing, you’ll have access to a dearth of information (he posts upwards of 25 posts a day most days) ranging from useful infographics to Muppet Star Wars characters to scientific findings. All interesting stuff–and for PR folks who love learning new and unusual stats and information, it’s a nice, easy blog to sift through every day.

Bonus: Summer of Dresses Blog

URL: http://www.summerofdresses.com/

I’m a guy, so this blog obviously doesn’t interest me, but I want to highlight it because it was founded by Nicole Weiler, Meghan Wilker and Liz Bastian right here in Minneapolis. The blog has gained so much traction over the last year-plus (including some great mainstream media coverage) that it was recently highlighted on the Posterous blog. And, I think it’s a great example of how to use Posterous creatively to build community.

6 Posterous blogs you should be following–and why is a post from: Communications Conversations

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to make drastic changes in order to notice an improvement in the quality of your life. At the same time, you don’t need to wait a long time in order to see the measurable results that come from taking positive action. All you have to do is take small steps, and take them consistently, for a period of 100 days.

Below you’ll find 60 small ways to improve all areas of your life in the next 100 days.

Home

1.  Create a “100 Days to Conquer Clutter Calendar” by penciling in one group of items you plan to declutter every day, for the next 100 days.  Here’s an example:

• Day 1: Declutter Magazines
• Day 2: Declutter DVD’s
• Day 3: Declutter books
• Day 4: Declutter kitchen appliances

2. Live by the mantra: a place for everything and everything in its place. For the next 100 days follow these four rules to keep your house in order:

• If you take it out, put it back.
• If you open it, close it.
• If you throw it down, pick it up.
• If you take it off, hang it up.

3. Walk around your home and identify 100 things you’ve been tolerating; fix one each day. Here are some examples:

• A burnt light bulb that needs to be changed.
• A button that’s missing on your favorite shirt.
• The fact that every time you open your top kitchen cabinet all of the plastic food containers fall out.

Happiness

4.  Follow the advice proffered by positive psychologists and write down 5 to 10 things that you’re grateful for, every day.

5. Make a list of 20 small things that you enjoy doing, and make sure that you do at least one of these things every day for the next 100 days. Your list can include things such as the following:

• Eating your lunch outside.
• Calling your best friend to chat.
• Taking the time to sit down and read a novel by your favorite author for a few minutes.

6. Keep a log of your mental chatter, both positive and negative, for ten days. Be as specific as possible:

• How many times do you beat yourself up during the day?
• Do you have feelings of inadequacy?
• Are you constantly thinking critical thoughts of others?
• How many positive thoughts do you have during the day?

Also, make a note of the emotions that accompany these thoughts. Then, for the next 90 days, begin changing your emotions for the better by modifying your mental chatter.

7. For the next 100 days, have a good laugh at least once a day: get one of those calendars that has a different joke for every day of the year, or stop by a web site that features your favorite cartoons.

Learning/Personal Development

8. Choose a book that requires effort and concentration and read a little of it every day, so that you read it from cover to cover in 100 days.

9. Make it a point to learn at least one new thing each day: the name of a flower that grows in your garden, the capital of a far-off country, or the name of a piece of classical music you hear playing in your favorite clothing boutique as you shop. If it’s time for bed and you can’t identify anything you’ve learned that day, take out your dictionary and learn a new word.

10. Stop complaining for the next 100 days. A couple of years back, Will Bowen gave a purple rubber bracelet to each person in his congregation to remind them to stop complaining. “Negative talk produces negative thoughts; negative thoughts produce negative results”, says Bowen. For the next 100 days, whenever you catch yourself complaining about anything, stop yourself.

11. Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for the next 100 days. Then make sure that you get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings, open the windows to let in some sunlight, and do some light stretching. In 100 days you’ll be waking up an hour and forty minutes earlier than you’re waking up now.

12. For the next 100 days, keep Morning Pages, which is a tool suggested by Julia Cameron. Morning Pages are simply three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning.

13. For the next 100 days make it a point to feed your mind with the thoughts, words, and images that are most consistent with who you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to achieve.

Finances

14. Create a spending plan (also known as a budget). Track every cent that you spend for the next 100 days to make sure that you’re sticking to your spending plan.

15. Scour the internet for frugality tips, choose ten of the tips that you find, and apply them for the next 100 days.  Here are some possibilities:

• Go to the grocery store with cash and a calculator instead of using your debit card.
• Take inventory before going to the grocery store to avoid buying repeat items.
• Scale back the cable.
• Ask yourself if you really need a landline telephone.
• Consolidate errands into one trip to save on gas.

Keep track of how much money you save over the next 100 days by applying these tips.

16. For the next 100 days, pay for everything with paper money and keep any change that you receive. Then, put all of your change in a jar and see how much money you can accumulate in 100 days.

17. Don’t buy anything that you don’t absolutely need for 100 days. Use any money you save by doing this to do one of the following:

• Pay down your debt, if you have any.
• Put it toward your six month emergency fund.
• Start setting aside money to invest.

18. Set an hour aside every day for the next 100 days to devote to creating one source of passive income.

Time Management

19. For the next 100 days, take a notebook with you everywhere in order to keep your mind decluttered. Record everything, so that it’s safely stored in one place—out of your head—where you can decide what to do with it later. Include things such as the following:

• Ideas for writing assignments.
• Appointment dates.
• To Do list items

20. Track how you spend your time for 5 days. Use the information that you gather in order to create a time budget: the percentage of your time that you want to devote to each activity that you engage in on a regular basis. This can include things such as:

• Transportation
• Housework
• Leisure
• Income-Generating Activities

Make sure that you stick to your time budget for the remaining 95 days.

21. Identify one low-priority activity which you can stop doing for the next 100 days, and devote that time to a high priority task instead.

22. Identify five ways in which you regularly waste time, and limit the time that you’re going to spend on these activities each day, for the next 100 days. Here are three examples:

• Watch no more than half-an-hour of television a day.
• Spend no more than half-an-hour each day on social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Stumbleupon.
• Spend no more than twenty minutes a day playing video games.

23. For the next 100 days, stop multi-tasking; do one thing at a time without distractions.

24. For the next 100 days, plan your day the night before.

25. For the next 100 days, do the most important thing on your To-Do list first, before you do anything else.

26. For the next 14 weeks, conduct a review of each week. During your weekly review, answer the following:

• What did you accomplish?
• What went wrong?
• What went right?

27. For the next 100 days, spend a few minutes at the end of each day organizing your desk, filing papers, and making sure that your work area is clean and orderly, so that you can walk in to a neat desk the next day.

28. Make a list of all of the commitments and social obligations that you have in the next 100 days. Then, take out a red pen and cross out anything that does not truly bring you joy or help move you along the path to achieving your main life goals.

29. For the next 100 days, every time that you switch to a new activity throughout the day stop and ask yourself, “Is this the best use of my time at this moment?”

Health

30. Losing a pound of fat requires burning 3500 calories.  If you reduce your caloric intake by 175 calories a day for the next 100 days, you’ll have lost 5 pounds in the next 100 days.

31. For the next 100 days, eat five servings of vegetables every day.

32.  For the next 100 days, eat three servings of fruit of every day.

33. Choose one food that constantly sabotages your efforts to eat healthier—whether it’s the decadent cheesecake from the bakery around the corner, deep-dish pizza, or your favorite potato chips—and go cold turkey for the next 100 days.

34.  For the next 100 days, eat from a smaller plate to help control portion size.

35. For the next 100 days, buy 100% natural juices instead of the kind with added sugar and preservatives.

36. For the next 100 days, instead of carbonated drinks, drink water.

37. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix breakfast meals.

38. Create a list of 20 healthy, easy to fix meals which can be eaten for lunch or dinner.

39. Create a list of 10 healthy, easy to fix snacks.

40. Use your lists of healthy breakfast meals, lunches, dinners, and snacks in order to plan out your meals for the week ahead of time. Do this for the next 14 weeks.

41. For the next 100 days, keep a food log. This will help you to identify where you’re deviating from your planned menu, and where you’re consuming extra calories.

42. For the next 100 days, get at least twenty minutes of daily exercise.

43. Wear a pedometer and walk 10,000 steps, every day, for the next 100 days. Every step you take during the day counts toward the 10,000 steps:

• When you walk to your car.
• When you walk from your desk to the bathroom.
• When you walk over to talk to a co-worker, and so on.

44. Set up a weight chart and post it up in your bathroom. Every week for the next 14 weeks, keep track of the following:

• Your weight.
• Your percentage of body fat.
• Your waist circumference.

45. For the next 100 days, set your watch to beep once an hour, or set up a computer reminder, to make sure that you drink water on a regular basis throughout the day.

46. For the next 100 days, make it a daily ritual to mediate, breath, or visualize every day in order to calm your mind.

Your Relationship

47.   For the next 100 days, actively look for something positive in your partner every day, and write it down.

48. Create a scrapbook of all the things you and your partner do together during the next 100 days. At the end of the 100 days, give your partner the list you created of positive things you observed about them each day, as well as the scrapbook you created.

49. Identify 3 actions that you’re going to take each day, for the next 100 days, in order to strengthen your relationship. These can include the following:

• Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” to your significant other every morning.
• Hug your significant other as soon as you see each other after work.
• Go for a twenty minute walk together every day after dinner; hold hands.

Social

50. Connect with someone new every day for the next 100 days, whether it’s by greeting a neighbor you’ve never spoken to before, following someone new on Twitter, leaving a comment on a blog you’ve never commented on before, and so on.

51. For the next 100 days, make it a point to associate with people you admire, respect and want to be like.

52. For the next 100 days, when someone does or says something that upsets you, take a minute to think over your response instead of answering right away.

53. For the next 100 days, don’t even think of passing judgment until you’ve heard both sides of the story.

54. For the next 100 days do one kind deed for someone every day, however small, even if it’s just sending a silent blessing their way.

55. For the next 100 days, make it a point to give praise and approval to those who deserve it.

56. For the next 100 days, practice active listening. When someone is talking to you, remain focused on what they’re saying, instead of rehearsing in your head what you’re going to say next. Paraphrase what you think you heard them say to make sure that you haven’t misinterpreted them, and encourage them to elaborate on any points you’re still not clear about.

57. Practice empathy for the next 100 days. If you disagree with someone, try to see the world from their perspective; put yourself in their shoes. Be curious about the other person, about their beliefs and their life experience, and about the thinking process that they followed to reach their conclusions.

58. For the next 100 days, stay in your own life and don’t compare yourself to anyone else.

59. For the next 100 days, place the best possible interpretation on the actions of others.

60. For the next 100 days, keep reminding yourself that everyone is doing the best that they can.

(Sunday Morning Still Life is courtesy of Pen Waggener).

When customers scan QR codes on in-store banners, magnetic chalkboards and posters, they’ll see the first of many clues in the coffee retailer’s seven-round scavenger hunt.

“SRCH by Starbucks featuring Lady Gaga,” as the initiative is called, will start with the in-store QR code scan and take customers through a series of cerebral and digital clues.

Players will be tasked to visit certain blogs and Starbucks digital properties, decode cryptic messages and put their math, logic, reading and pop culture thinking caps on.

The clues, arranged into rounds, have been calibrated to encourage group play. Round one starts Thursday — the first players to solve all the clues will be rewarded with Starbucks- and Lady Gaga-related prizes.

Matthew Guiste, director of global social media for Starbucks, anticipates that it will take players from one to several hours to complete each round. “We hope to encourage group play and sharing,” he says. “We wanted to make it so that there’s things to talk about and share.”

The game, says Guiste, was inspired by three things: Alternate reality games such as I Love Bees, digital scavenger hunts in the vein of Jay-Z’s Decoded book release game and puzzle play.

Rounds two through seven will take place on May 23, 25, 27 and 30, and June 1 and 3.

The May 23 round coincides with the release of Lady Gaga’s third studio album, Born This Way. Starbucks will commemorate the day both in its stores and online. Lady Gaga’s music, for the first time in Starbuck’s history, will be played in Starbucks stores on May 23. Her album will be also be sold in stores.

Gaga will take over Starbucks Digital Network for the day. The digital takeover will invite customers to stream a special edition of the new album for the entirety of the day, receive a free “Edge of Glory” download and watch an exclusive video by Lady Gaga.

For Starbucks, the scavenger hunt is meant to help the company build deeper relationships with its most engaged customers. It also sees the initiative as a way to connect the store — what Starbucks refers to as the “third place” — to Starbucks Digital Network, its content network and “fourth place.”

SRCH is also meant to pump up the volume on the brand’s Frappuccino focus for the summer. In planning, the brand, says Alex Wheeler, director of digital strategy for Starbucks, wanted to experiment with something alternative. “We thought, ‘How can we do something that is a little bit different and break through?’” she says.

The Starbucks-Gaga connection is much less obvious, but Wheeler believes the digitally savvy brand and the edgy superstar have a lot in common. “It’s a natural fit,” she says.

Perhaps by fit she really means hit. Both Gaga and Starbucks will benefit — Gaga in album sales and exposure, and Starbucks in netting the allegiance of Gaga’s almighty Little Monsters.

Let the games begin.

More About: Lady Gaga, MARKETING, QR Codes, SRCH, starbucks, starbucks digital network

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The project brief was to design new packaging of Adriana Mini-Pasta for children. The main characteristics are warm colours on each and illustrations of young animals. Every pack has it's own characters and it is really fun to look at!

Maria Corte is a Spanish illustrator with a flair for bright colors, textural accents, and engaging compositions. This illustration, created for the project “100 Cities for Peace,” demonstrates her knack for communicating essential details in an interesting way. She has a diverse collection of work, ranging from editorial and children illustrations for print to vibrant paintings and moving images.

To see more of her work, visit her website. Be sure to also check out her collection of blogs, where she collects and illustrates cocktail recipes as well as yummy eats.

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I walk down the hallway to my apartment and realize that spring has finally arrived – the landlord is painting the common areas. It’s an annual rite, covering up all the bumps and dings that winter has left behind.

Soon enough the tenants will change over and a new crop of William Mitchell students will move in to begin their law school careers. I knew when I signed my lease that I’d be sharing the building with a high concentration of attorneys-in-the-making. It was one of the things that sold me on my corner apartment in a charming building with hardwood floors and “character” – as a law school dropout, I knew that my neighbors would be quiet. I didn’t realize when I moved in that I, like the students, would be on a 3-year cycle here. That, by this time next year, I’ll (hopefully) be joining the churn. 

In November, my fiancé will be my husband and my apartment will become our apartment just until he is settled here and has found a job. We both know that 650 square feet isn’t big enough for the two of us and that we’ll be looking for somewhere more spacious as soon as possible after the wedding is done and the green card paperwork filed.

As excited as I am, I’m also a tiny bit nostalgic. This apartment – home for 2 years and a handful of months – is the first place that’s just mine. Not shared with roommates or family. Not shared with anybody. Just mine.

They say there’s a season for everything: for endings, for new beginnings and for fresh paint.

_________________________

About the author: Emily Cornell (@ECCornell) works in advertising. At night she comes home to her apt. in Saint Paul, MN and tries to figure out how she’ll ever be able to share her closet.

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Last Friday, the day I woke to was a cloudy one. It was that hazy in-between sort of cloudy — not dark enough for rain and craving a day of reading and snuggling, yet not light enough to have hope that the sun would come out by the afternoon. It was dismal. Bland. Unexciting and, from the looks of it, unrelenting. While I didn’t want to hop directly back into my bed as I do on rainy days, I did have the desire to avoid looking at the sky and its infinite promise of gray. Driving to work, I felt glum. I couldn’t shake the feeling with the sky surrounding me, the colors of everything dulled by the overcast sky.

I thought back to the day before — in fact, less than twelve hours before — when I had been driving home from work. The sky had been filled with those amazing can-you-believe-they’re-real fluffy white clouds. The kind you’d swear you could bounce on if you could only get close enough to them. They were exploding and billowing across a vibrant blue sky and at every traffic light I would whip out my phone and try to take a picture, knowing full well I’d never be able to capture their beauty accurately with my Blackberry’s camera. Still, I couldn’t help but want to store those fluffs of white in my phone, to carry them with me everywhere.

That afternoon I had already heard the forecast and I knew the next day would be gloomy, filled with frown-inducing phrases like “overcast” and “thunderstorm” and “take an umbrella.” I knew I would wake and be disappointed with the sky, which I believed should be reflecting the sunshine and carefree attitude of a day privileged to be leading a three-day weekend. It has always irked me when the weather doesn’t reflect my current life circumstances (which, yes, is a nod to anyone out there who has ever used the term “self-centered” to describe me…), but over the years I’ve come to accept the fact that the weather won’t always suit my mood. Knowing that the next day I would be thrilled for the weekend and knowing the Friday weather would be a letdown, I felt even more compelled to capture the Thursday evening clouds with my camera.

As I was driving along, phone in hand, ready for the next red light and chance to snap an image, I realized the clouds I was so overjoyed to see — those blindingly white puffs of smoke-like wonder — were the very same things I would be dreading the next day. Clouds, it seems, have a power effect on me, both negative and positive. You see, I love nothing more than the sight of white against blue, a cloud coasting across the sky on a sunny day, but I have no patience for the clutter of clouds that crowd the sky on an overcast day. They are of the same make (whatever it is that makes clouds…) and yet they could not be more different in my mind.

How many things can be like that? So positive and amazing if looked at in one circumstance and so negative and depressing if looked at in a different light? Could it be that, given enough thought and time, everything is like that? Everything we experience has the potential to be like the clouds I saw last Thursday and Friday? If pasted sporadically on a bright blue sky, clouds can seem like miracles, inspiring awe and wonder in a girl like me. However, if grouped together so closely that all of their shoulders are touching, leaving no room for even a glimpse of blue, clouds can be ominous and smothering, causing me to feel as if they might someday float so low that they will cover us all with their gloominess. There can be both good and bad when it comes to clouds, and I believe that’s the case with most things. So many things can be negative or positive if looked at in a certain light — and it can be hard to remember the flip side when caught in a particular moment — especially a moment of the extremely good or extremely bad variety.

For example, it was difficult for me to really comprehend, on Thursday evening, how I would feel when those fluffy white clouds I was so fond of would turn grey and menacing on Friday. I knew, deep down, I would view them differently, but I couldn’t really recall exactly how it would feel (though I’d experienced the doom of a gray day many, many times before). Likewise, when I drove into work Friday morning beneath a cloud-cluttered sky, it was hard to recall the sky from the previous evening and how much I had revered the clouds that hung there so perfectly, suspended above me in a way that seemed nothing short of magical. Often, when we are at one end of the spectrum, it’s hard to remember the other end. Positive and negative seem so far from one another yet, in so many ways, they can be derived from the very same things.

Think, for a moment, about your bed. How many wonderful times have you had there? How many nights have you laughed and kissed and loved? And then think of those less-than-stellar moments spent in your bed. How many times have you wished you were anywhere but there? How many nights have you cried or felt lonely or tossed and turned with worry? Your bed — the place you spend hours and hours in every day — can be both a haven and a hell. It can be the place you long for and the place you long to get away from. Many places, experiences, and, perhaps, even people, can be that way. They can be the most amazing and the most heart-breaking. Though I don’t have any of my own, I would imagine children are that way. People claim they are the best thing to happen to them, yet they can hurt their parents so deeply at times. They are the best and the worst, I would imagine.

At this point (if you’re still reading!), you’re probably wondering, “Where is she going with all of this talk of clouds and beds and children?” Well, in essence, what I’m discovering for myself (and sharing the play-by-play here with you) is that the negative and the positive aspects of life are not as disconnected as one might think. In fact, most things that are immensely positive can also be incredibly negative. (As you read about in the example with the clouds). We often tend to believe that negative and positive are opposites, separate from another and, in an abstract way, enemies of one another. But, in reality, negative and positive elements are woven into almost everything. People, places, things, ideas — they all have good and bad, layers of positive and negative. Some may have more of one than the other, but, when it comes to the terms “good” and “bad,” those words are objective and what one might see as the worst thing another might see as the best.

Therefore, we cannot be certain that what we are seeing as positive or negative is necessarily so — or, maybe more importantly, that it will always be that way. When I drove home last Thursday and saw those brilliantly displayed clouds arranged so perfectly on the sky, it was hard for me to imagine me having anything but complete and utter love for clouds. However, I knew deep down that it was much more complex than that. Clouds can be beautiful, yes, but they can also be devastating. (Dramatic? Yes. True? I really think so.) The more I think about it, the more I realize that so much of life can be that way. All of its elements have the ability to be both amazing and awful. So what’s a girl like me, who is striving so hard to focus on the positive in life, to do? Do I focus only on the things that are positive (when they are positive) or do I recognize the complexities of positive and negative in everything and accept things for what they are, when they are that way?

Personally, I don’t see living a positive life as only focusing on the things that are positive. You’ve heard it all before, but it’s really true that there can be no light without dark. If I was unaware of the potential for dark, gray skies, I would never have taken so much delight in seeing those beautiful clouds littering the sky last Thursday night. Without knowing about the negative, I could never fully enjoy the positive. To know what it is like to live a negative-focused life, I now feel like I have the perspective to really appreciate those things that are positive. I’ve learned that living a positive life doesn’t mean ignoring the negative (though, admittedly, I won’t always be happy when I have to deal with negative aspects). Instead, it means recognizing both the good and the bad in everything and understanding that most elements of life are not one dimensional — and that’s what makes them so awesome.

Know this: we are destined to see both the negative and the positive and, while it is certainly nice to focus on the positive, it does no good to ignore the negative. If you take away one thing from this post, let it be this: In everything, there is both light and dark and, to live a truly positive life, you must recognize and accept both the beautiful afternoons in which white clouds float lazily against a blue sky and the overcast mornings in which gray clouds hunch low from the heavy weight of the sky.

About the Author: Dani is the creator of Positively Present, a blog focused on living positively in the present moment. After twenty-five years of living with a negative attitude, Dani decided to turn her life around and start focusing on the positive. Since launching her blog in 2009, her personal development site has grown and continues to touch people around the world. Find Dani on Twitter @PositivePresent!

Dani is taking part in a two-month guest series featuring writers across the blogosphere here on twenty(or)something while I take a brief hiatus to focus on upcoming projects. Want to participate? Email me at twentyorsomething[at]gmail.com or catch me on Twitter!

Pleat-detailed dresses were all over the runway at the Spring/Summer 2011 collections. Designers like Stella McCartney, The Row, J. Mendel and Chloe included pleated pieces in their spring collections. Pleated pieces are feminine, delicate and completely of-the-moment right now!

Small pleats are a big trend for spring, but you don’t need to buy one of these designer pieces to get the look. You can get the same look for a much cheaper price without sacrificing style!

Lulu’s has an adorable pale blue pleated maxi dress that would be perfect for a casual dinner with friends or as part of your beach vacation wardrobe (if you are so lucky as to have a such a trip planned in the near-future). This dress, with its soft accordion pleats, would go well with a pair of flat metallic sandals.

There is also a pretty pink dress with a playful pleated tuxedo-front accented with little black buttons.  And finally, you can buy a romantic pleated dress very similar to a dress Natalie Portman wore last month at ASOS. The Lipsy Pleated Rosette Dress is less than $100 and gives you celebrity style at a fraction of the cost!

So, take inspiration from the runway and add at least one pleat-detailed dress to your wardrobe – you will be glad that you did!

You can get more of Rebecca’s style tips on her blog young-sophisticates.com and don’t forget to look out for her monthly Look for Less column here on CheapChicas!

Jason Fitzpatrick, a writer who has written over 4,500 articles at Lifehacker gave his notice to the internet yesterday that he is leaving Lifehacker. I love his closing words, his advice is a great reminder for us all.

The only commodity we have is time. Somewhere—in your mind, on a notepad, stashed in a virtual notebook—you have a list of things you’d like to be doing with your time before it all slips away. Do what you have to do to take those ideas out of storage and make them happen. You can trade and barter for a lot in life but you can never buy back time. Go live.

What’s your favorite PR and social media infographic? A client recently asked me this question, which got me thinking. Of course, I have a few top-of-mind favorites, but I thought it would be more interesting to see what the Twitter community thought. So, naturally, I threw the question out on Twitter and received some excellent answers. In no particular order, here are a some best-of-the-best PR 2.0 infographics and compilations of infographics.

• 65 Terrific Social Media Infographics, shared by Adam Vincenzi and Deanna Ferrari
• 22 Educational Social Media Diagrams, shared by Michelle Gray
• 9 Charts that Simplify the Social Media Story, compiled by Adam Vincenzi
• If Social Media Were a High School, shared by Sasha Muradali
• The State of the GeoSocial Universe
• The Blog Tree (this is one of my favorites!)
• The Social Marketing Compass
• The Infographic Resume, shared by Stephanie Wonderlin

What did I miss? Feel free to share a link to your favorite infographic in the comments!

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Sometimes you can learn really valuable things—information, examples, and guiding principles, for instance—without knowing it at the time. The importance of those lessons become apparent years later, and you can only chuckle and shake your head at the transparency of hindsight, proving once and for all that life really should come with a built-in rear view mirror.

A Short Life Lessons List
In no particular order, below are just 10 life lessons actually learned long ago but ones that are often remembered much later:

1. Change v Evolution: Changing for the sake of changing doesn’t mean you are getting better. It merely means you’re indecisive and let others make decisions for you. Don’t follow the crowd if the crowd isn’t going where you want to go. Besides, changing all the time just makes the laundry pile up.

2. Excuse v Reason: You have to have a dog in order for your dog to eat your homework. Don’t use an excuse to try to justify actions or beliefs. Have a valid reason for actions or words before issuing them. Know your paradigm and live it without excuses. Reasons withstand the test of time while excuses fade before a suntan does.

3. Leader v Frontrunner: Not all leaders are always in front, but leaders aren’t afraid to take the lead when necessary. Leaders also know when to let someone else take the point position and cut new trail. Leaders can lead quietly. Leaders always lead by example, but they don’t always need the limelight or attention. Bright lights can make mascara run, too!

4. Bumblebees v Pigs: Bumblebees shouldn’t have been able to fly, but they did and do. Pigs, on the other hand, really can’t. Just because someone says you can’t do something, you don’t have to accept someone else’s limitations. Bumblebees kept flying until one day a humble college student, a physics major, proved all those hallowed and revered experts had for decades been using the wrong formula. Bumblebees really could fly, after all!

5. Accuracy v Truth: Your best friend bought a garish, truly ugly blouse engaging in shop therapy to get over the boyfriend that left her last weekend. She asked you what you thought of it. Did you hurt her feelings or did you spare her and still avoid a falsehood? Find accuracy when truth would be cruel or hurtful, but never lie. You might have told her the blouse was…an interesting choice.

6. Economical v Skin-Flint: When you had six days before your next paycheck, no money in your account, and you still had to eat, you didn’t think twice about discounts, coupons, and generic food items. A buck had to stretch farther, but you found a way to make it last. Forego brand names when needed. The Joneses next door don’t have your budget, and you’re a good enough cook to make mac and cheese taste great!

7. Question v Challenge: Debates were always stimulating. Ideas were exchanged, argued, and rebutted. You may not have always agreed in the end, but you probably remained friends. Value effective communications, but use tact when possible. After all, that college freshman you might have otherwise offended could be your boss one day. And they always remember.

8. Rich v Happy: Yes, this is the truism that money doesn’t buy happiness. How many times did you enjoy a soul-deep laugh in college? How many do you have now? Yes, having money may make finding happiness a little easier for some, but having it doesn’t make happiness. You’d probably be happier having more money, but you were happy having little. Remember that the simple things in life count.

9. Look v See: ‘Two blondes strolled down the sidewalk. One ran into a building. You’d think that one of them might have seen it.’ That may be a blonde joke, but you used to know the difference between the verbs. Look where you’re going, but see what’s ahead. Pay attention to where you are in life, but keep your eye on where you’re headed. Impact with buildings usually hurt. At the very least, they’re darned embarrassing!

10. Time Management: Ah…The Good Old Days when you shouldered a full class load, were the captain of the basketball team, volunteered at the hospital two weekends per month, and still wrote poetry in the moonlight before falling asleep. What happened? Wait…That’s right. You’re a parent. You juggle home and work, run a taxi service for the kids and spouse, organize Neighborhood Watch meetings, serve at the soup kitchen, and you still sew your own clothes! Well done!

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JC Ryan is a freelance writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers helps people determine if an online education is right for them and helps them understand which online colleges and online courses they can choose from to reach their goals, including earning an online bachelor’s or master’s degree, or even an online PhD.

Haters love to bash Disney’s culture of beautifully drawn women.

They scorn at the idea of well-proportioned, sparkly feminine figures, saying, “Disney likes to think of the Princesses as role models, but what a sorry bunch of wusses they are. Typically, they spend much of their time in captivity or a coma, waking up only when a prince comes along and kisses them.”

They continue the character bashfest through cartoons like this.

Sheesh.

After reading up on the theories that Disney women are easily sexualized and terrible role models, I almost bought it.

But last time I checked, most of my very smart, successful, female friends and I weren’t brooding in a corner somewhere, hoping someone would come along and rescue us. (Well, on nights that end before 2 a.m.)

Some argue Disney is selling a negative concept of women. I say that the characters who slept in wait for the prince may fit under that umbrella, but we tend to forget about the less sparkly ladies.

Let’s not make playtime so intense.

After all, outsmarting armies, riding carpets and rocking a fin for feet can’t be too easy – but it sure must be fun. Unless you’re one stuck waiting for a prince, in which case, I’m sorry –it may be awhile.

Which is why the hippest princesses of the 90s didn’t, for example, sacrifice life for an apple or wait around for ages for the oh-so-Charming.

Maybe the problem isn’t that the Princesses exist – maybe the problem is that Disney’s truly leading ladies often get overlooked in marketing. Two of my favorites aren’t highlighted in that cartoon, because it’s simply harder to argue against them.

But they’re all here.

Disney may have produced some “wusses” early on, but they certainly changed their ways with the later heroines.

Follow their leads.

Mulan

What does a beautiful young woman from a traditional Chinese family to do when she just doesn’t “fit in?” Cut her hair off with a sword, decide to defend her family’s honor and ride across the tundra with her talking mini dragon, of course.

You get it, girl. She’s courageous, resourceful and can “hang with the guys,” if not outdo them all.

And in the end, she got the guy not for being hopelessly devoted, but for being hopelessly badass.

Lesson learned: If you do what you really want, you will get what you really want. Courage is often rewarded.

Plus, who wouldn’t want a clan of ancestors whispering wisdom into your ear and a mini dragon named Mushu?

Pocahontas

Continuing with the Disney theme of speaking to animals and nature in general, this Native American warrior of the old New World broke the rules to “befriend” an attractive English settler. With an exotic name like John Smith, who could blame her?

Throughout the story, Pocahontas, or “Little Mischief,” teaches John and his crew more about her land than they’d ever know alone.

Lesson learned: Never be afraid to lead. Be yourself, and in the end you’ll find that others are a lot more like you than they might seem.

Belle

She loves learning, hates pretty boys and wants to get out of a town below her ambitions. She also fiercely protects the one she cares about. She made a deal with Beast to save her father.

By getting to know her hairy captor, she shows us how to move beyond appearances. In the end, she falls in love. Sigh.

Lesson learned: Learning is really cool and strong women can always make the choice to have it all.

Honorable mention: Ariel, whose curiosity teaches us to never be afraid to explore beyond the limits. The whole giving her voice to Ursula thing bothers me, though.

These few Princesses stand out as teaching women to be strong, intelligent, graceful and, most importantly fierce.

Maybe its because I used to wear my mom’s “Prom Queen” crown around the house and played Barbies as a kid, but the Disney heroines will always represent fun for me. And a time when we all took it a little less seriously.

Last night (the 23rd), I spent some time pondering what I was going to do for my 40th birthday. Yes, the big "four-oh" is upon me and I have to admit that I am surprised that it's weighing on me at all. Today I'm sore from the 90 minutes I spent sprinting around a football (soccer) field yesterday--not something all 39-year-olds are doing (as my wife likes to point out every time I get injured). On the other hand, at work today, I’m one of the oldest people there--in fact I am one of maybe 2 or 3 people with kids over the age of 10.

But perhaps the people I surround myself with every day explain more about my surprise than my kicking a ball around a field does. When I look around our office (and the marketing/agency world), there aren't a lot of 40-year-olds. For one thing, there's not a lot of room at the top. And for another, the young and enthusiastic may be better able to put up with the ten tons of crap that is agency life. But I choose to be in this kind of environment because, in my mind, I am still the same person I was when I was turning 30. I choose to put myself in an environment where to succeed you need the qualities of a youthful mind: optimism, curiosity, willingness to try (and fail).

At work, the stuff we do is innately tied with these qualities. The challenge is how to keep it in the rest of your life as your life changes (any parent will tell you being curious and experimenting are not words synonymous with young children). So today I’ve decided to use 40 as my excuse. My excuse to learn how to surf (not up here in San Francisco–being 40 is also an excuse to wuss out from the cold). My excuse to hit up some good festivals. My excuse to not have any more excuses.

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About the author: Mark Lewis (@marklewis_sf) enjoys multiple identities: British, American, Belgian, strategist, parent, partner, Liverpool FC fan. He is unsure which one wrote this entry.

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