The Latest Undercover Boss and Coby Brooks, CEO of Hooters .

   This evening  I watched the new reality show, Undercover Boss.  Undercover Boss is a show where the idea is to take the head of a large company and place them in entry level positions within the company. This is supposed to show the corporate big wigs exactly what is going on, and how hard it is to be on the front lines of these businesses.
    When I first tuned into tonights episode I thought that maybe it was possible that Coby Brooks was really trying to find out how to make Hooters a better organization, that maybe he wanted to make the women that work for him have an easier, less degrading position in the company.  After all, in the beginning of the show he talked about expanding his market, and attracting a broader customer base.
     By the end of the show , however, it was fairly clear that Coby Brooks has no interest in changing much of anything.  Even the horrendous manager who made the "girls" line up and be inspected, then eat beans from a plate like dogs, was only mildly reprimanded.  I would have had only two words for that man if Hooters were my company, "your fired".  Coby Brooks made it very clear that he would not want his daughters to work for this man, though he didn't have a problem with them becoming Hooters girls, as long as they worked for someone else.  Im sure that they will never have to do such a degrading job though.
    In conclusion Coby Brooks revealed himself to his employees, gave the female manager of one of his stores a trip with  her two daughters, gave the ex marine that manages his largest store a $50,000 donation to Operation Home Front, made the degrading manager apologize to the "girls", and offered a job in PR to the two young women that handed out hot wings with him on a street corner .  He, however, did not feel the need to modify the outfits that the "girls" have to wear, even though women told him how demeaning and degrading it is for the girls to wear such tight and revealing uniforms.
    It does not seem that Coby Brooks wanted to make any real changes in Hooters, even though Hooters does not seem to be doing nearly as well as it once was.  Maybe, it is time for him to rethink making changes.  I hear they have good food, I wouldn't mind trying it. Maybe, there are others like me who would love to try the food if the degrading uniforms were changed.  Maybe , its time to make money from honestly good food, and service, instead of from a tacky gimmick that alienates a good percetage of the population.  But then again maybe they should stay just they way they are.  I mean everyone knows what Hooters is, obviously someone enjoys eating there.

Is the New Facebook Way Too Confusing?

   Facebook rolled out its new look recently.  The new look sports a "better" navigation system.  Facebook claims that you can now get to the most commonly used features from the top and left menus much easier.   In the top menu, you will now find your new notifications, messages, and requests.  The Home, Profile, and Account info is now up in the right hand corner.  The left side navigation is supposed to make it easier to communicate with your friends on Facebook, and even shows you a partial list of who is online, the complete list is still at the bottom of your screen. Facebook Applications and Games are now shown in the left side menu, and counters appear on your games so that you won't miss an action you need to take.
   Is this new Facebook navigation system better than the old one? Maybe. Maybe not.  The bottom line is that no one (at least no one I have heard from) likes it.  Many of my friends were very upset to find that they couldn't find status updates.  The status updates are in the left menu, but you have to click on friends first.  I don't think that is a very logical place, but that is just me.
   After much fussing and fuming, we all found our status updates.  All was well once again on Facebook, well mostly.  People still don't seem to like it.  Maybe, it is truly a bad design and Facbook will see the error of their ways.  It is also possible that Facebook users, like all other human beings, just don't like change very much.  When we have once again located all the things that are important to us, the grumbling will probably stop, just like it did the last time Facebook made changes.
   How do you feel about the new Facebook?  Do you like it? Or hate it? 

What games are your kids playing? Which games are ok for them to play?

           My kids have things, and have access to things that I never dreamed of.  They have Wii, Playstation, Xbox, not to mention Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter (whatever that is).  It is hard as a parent to keep up with what our kids are doing, watching, and playing every second of the day.

        Raising kids today is hard. Maybe it has always been hard, and now it’s just a different kind of hard.  But no matter how you look at it, raising kids in the world today is incredibly challenging.  A parent has to know not only where your kids are and what they are doing, but understand what they are doing as well.

         If you don’t actually play the games that your kids are playing you don’t have any idea what kind of violence, gore, profanity, or even worse stuff might be involved.  Console games currently come with an ESRB Rating, if they have been rated.  These ratings don’t always tell very much about what is actually in the game.  They are a good place to start though. Check out the ESRB website for more information on their rating system.

www.esrb.org

       As parents we often need someone to tell us exactly what is in these games and let us decide whether to let our children play them.  Check out this next site if you want a more in depth review of the games.

www.whattheyplay.com 

      Whattheyplay.com is a great website, it has great reviews, tells you what games are rated and why. It also shows you which games are hot in the different rating categories.  This is definitely a great free resource for keeping track of what your kids are playing.

      We worry immensely about the effect of all of this technology on our children as they grow into young adults.  www.mediafamily.org does a good job of breaking down the statistics, and addressing the effect that our media saturated culture has on our kids.

      If you are looking for a Christian perspective on family appropriate video games you might want to check out this website.

www.plaingames.com

Plaingames.com has an alternative rating system to the ESRB that is based on Christian values.

         We can’t watch everything our kids do. We don’t always see what we should, and we don’t always do everything right.  All we can do is the best we can do, but these great free websites do give you a heads.  Check them out and see what games your kids are really playing.

iPad vs Kindle- Which one do you think is going to win?

     Today, Apple unveiled its new iPad.  The iPad is designed very much like the iPhone, it is an OS based tablet computer that is capable of running most of  iPhones 140,000 apps.  Not to mention all the new apps made just for the iPad.
     The question of the day is, does this new iPad intend to replace Kindle as the hot new way of downloading and reading books?  I think the answer is, yes.  According to Apple founder Steve Jobs,” Now Amazon has done a great job pioneering this…we are going to stand on their shoulders for this.  Our new app is called iBooks.”
     The new iPad made by Apple and Kindle made by Amazon seem to be similar only in size and their ability to download books. 
•    The new iPad and Kindle DX both boast 9.7 inch screens, but the iPad has a backlit LED touch screen and Kindle does not.
•    The iBooks app on the iPad allows you to download and read books in the ePub open file format.  This option could make it cheaper to get books, because you would not have to get them from Amazon.
•     The Kindle only allows Kindle format books that you have to get from Amazon.
•    The iPad allows you to access iTunes, Safari web browser, email, games, media player, and much more.
•     The Kindle allows you to subscribe to newspapers and magazines, which is pretty cool, has a mediocre web browser, and pdf reader capability.
•     The iPad has Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G in some of its models.
•     The Kindle only has 3G.
•     Both iPad and Kindle provide service through AT&T, but iPad charges $15.00/ month for 250MB and $30.00/month for unlimited data transfer.
•     Kindle includes 3G service for free.
•    The iPad, with WiFi only, costs $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB and $699 for 64GB.
•    The iPad, with WiFi and 3G, cost $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB.
•    The Kindle 2 by comparison is only $259 and the Kindle DX is $489.

Now back to the original question. Is the new Apple iPad or the Amazon Kindle the better product?  The answer is, it totally depends on what you want to use it for.  Some people love the Kindle and others would like a product, like the iPad, that offers a wider range of services.  However, the iPad costs more money, and will continue to cost for data transfer. So if cost is a concern or you really only need an eReader, then the Kindle is probably what you are looking for.  If you don’t care what it costs, and want the most wide ranging applications in a tablet computer, then by all means go for the iPad.
Both iPad and Kindle offer good features. It is going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.  Which one do you think is going to win?  Are they going to do equally well because they appeal to different types of consumers?  Let me know what you think.

Learn A New Language Completely Free!!

Do you ever wish you had paid more attention in your high school or college language class? I do. I took Spanish, French, and even Russian when I was in school. I was never very good at paying attention, and most of what I did learn has long since departed my brain. I have often thought about learning a language again, but it always seemed way to costly and time consuming. Today, in my never ending search for great deals and free products of all kinds, I came across the BBC website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
This website is amazing. It has 12 week courses in French, German, Spanish, and Italian. These classes include audio and video instruction, as well as worksheets and testing. In addition to the 12 week language courses for French, German, Spanish and Italian, the BBC website also offers basic language instruction in 36 languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Greek, Russian, and many others. So when you take that trip to Greece you will be at the very least be able to ask for a bathroom.
I think the BBC website has so many great uses. If you are taking trip, or like me have always wished you learned a language when you were younger. It could also be great for homeschoolers. I know that as a homeschooling mother of 5, I am always looking for a great deal on educational resources. Free is definitely a great deal!

Great Free Stuff for Babies at BabiesOnline.com- including a great free baby website.

When my oldest child was born almost 13 years ago, I recorded his every move. There is more documentation of his first year of life than any other child I have ever seen. I wrote down every little thing he did, took pictures of it all, and mailed those pictures to all our family and friends.
My youngest child, by comparison, is just as adorable and does just as many cute things as my oldest did, but I have not written down one thing about him in his 9 months of life. I do not love him less, I simply do not have the time. Thirteen years and five kids later, putting pen to paper, printing pictures, and mailing them to family and friends seems almost impossible.
Then I found this great website, BabiesOnline.com, where you can create a website for your baby. Its a really great looking site where you can record milestones, add pictures, and even journal about what adorable thing the baby did that day. Then you can email it to all your family and friends with just a few clicks of the mouse. It could not be easier.
While you are there you should sign up for all the other great freebies. You can sign up for diapers, formula, magazines, and more. All of it is completely free. You just cant beat that.
Babies Online.com Create a web page for your baby (or belly) for free!

Alice.com -Shopping Online Has Never Been This Easy !

                Many consumers today shop online, me included.  I enjoy the convenience and often the good deals I can find from the comfort of my own home.   I have shopped for household appliances, gifts, clothes, electronics, and toys.  But up until now I have never really shopped for household supplies like toilet paper.  Today, I discovered Alice.com, and I will never run out of toilet paper again!

                Alice.com is a shopping site, created by the same people who made the popular social shopping site Jellyfish.com. Alice.com sells mostly household items. Items such as toilet paper, laundry soap, toothpaste, and diapers.  Non-perishable items like pop tarts and granola bars are also among the many items available.

                What is different about Alice.com?  Alice.com offers very competitive, if not cheaper, prices than my local Walmart, it provides great tools for managing your budget and planning your purchases, and as if it needs one more great reason to shop there, they offer completely Free Shipping!   They ask that you purchase at least 6 items at one time, but on your first purchase they will let you get away with just one.  No more buying in bulk to save money, and no membership fee either.

                Did I mention that Alice.com clips coupons for you? No more fumbling with an overstuffed envelope at the checkout counter, only to find the coupon you just spent 5 minutes looking for is expired. They do all the work for you and automatically apply the coupons to your total.

Here is a current price comparison of some of the products that I buy:

Pampers size 4 82ct $17.79 after $2.00 coupon= $ .22/diaper @alice.com

Pampers size 4 156ct 38.00 + $.97 shipping = $ .25/ diaper @walmart.com

Theraflu Warming Relief 8.3 oz $6.49 = $.78/oz +shipping @ drugstore.com

Theraflu Warming Relief 8.3 oz $2.85 = $0.34/oz w/coupon @ Alice.com

Theraflu Warming Relief 16.6oz (2pk) $9.97 = $.60/oz with $.97 shipping @ Walmart.com

Dial Body Wash 18oz $5.33= $.30/oz @ alice.com

Dial Body Wash 36oz (2pk) $8.56 + Shipping = $.26/oz @Walmart.com

Quilted Northern Bathroom Tissue, Double Roll, 2ply, 12 rolls $8.95= $.75/roll. @ alice.com

Quilted Northern Bathroom Tissue, Double Roll, 2ply, 12 rolls $ 12.99=$1.08/roll +shipping @ Drugstore.com

                Most of the products that I researched were either the same price or cheaper than the other online stores where I would normally buy them. 

               Overall Alice.com seems to have very good prices.  The added benefits of the budget tools, spending tracking, and reorder reminders make this site pretty great.  Top that off with the free shipping and this is definitely someplace I will order from again.    

                If you sign up with a link on this page you will get $10 off your first order of $50 or more !!