Fortunately I was still good at doing research, and I was able to quickly make a purchase that I felt was great. But here’s my ephiphany: All I wanted was a quick, easy to read guide on some new technology. It really didn’t have to be that technical. I just wanted a good starting point as a buying guide.

So, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated Momelettes.com, so what better than to help out some poor soul whose DVD player has just went to Silicon Heaven? Do you replace your DVD player? Or should you make the leap to Blu-ray?

So let’s start. Here it is, A Busy Person’s Guide to Blu-ray.

First things first. What is blu-ray, and how is it different from DVD? When DVD came out as a new technology, it originally stood for Digital Video Disc, as the movies that were stored on it were all digital versus the analog capabilities of a VHS tape. In layman’s terms, this was when we put a DVD in for the first time and all collectively gasped as the FBI warning appeared on the screen with no, I said NO little white fuzzy dots running along the bottom of the screen.  It was completely digital. Flash forward some years, and now we have blu-ray discs. The disc looks the same, however the storage capabilities are much greater than that of a DVD, and so instead of being boring old digital, now we get actual high-definition (HD) playback and audio. The name “Blu-ray” actually derives from the fact that the laser used to read back the disc is in fact, blue, rather than the traditional red laser from a DVD.

That’s it in a nutshell, folks.  There’s more that I have to say on the subject, though. Keep reading.

The quick and dirty facts. And by facts, of course I mean loosely-collected thoughts based on my own experiences. In fact, this whole article has been put together based on my own knowledge about it. I’m a busy working mom. I love you all, but that’s about all the time I have to research for you. If you want more technical information on it, the best place to start is here.

1. The change is subtle, at first. Many of you, like me, may have watched a Blu-ray disc for the first time and thought, “so that’s what all the hype was about?” with a feeling of a tad disappointment. Well, there’s something that you absolutely MUST know. In order to truly appreciate what Blu-ray technology is doing for you, watch a few Blu-ray discs, and then put a DVD back in and watch it (and yes, you absolutely can watch a DVD in a Blu-ray player). Now all together: “Bllleeeeech!” It’s like going back to VHS.
2. Blu-ray isn’t just about exceptional video playback; it’s also about exceptional audio. We’re talking up to 7.1 surround, DTS, TrueHD, etc. Better storage capabilities on the disc itself means more audio options for us!
3. Blu-ray offers some more goodies that you can’t get on a DVD such as Internet connectivity, interactive menus and interactive movie-watching.
4. Like DVDs, there are some movies that look better in Blu-ray than others. I’ve noticed all animated movies from places like Pixar and Dreamworks are phenomenal. Star Trek is another eye-popper.

One last thing; you may wonder why, when purchasing a movie that uses Blu-ray technology, why is the disc labeled “BD”? It’s because the entire shebang is called a “Blu-ray Disc.”

Do you currently have a Blu-ray player? What are some movies that you’ve noticed are stand-out fantastic?

They were always different attics, and there was always stairs leading up to them, but they were always scary, scary places. Dark, full of cobwebs and junk, and in my dream, I was always going to live up there and was terrified about it.

I did some research, and apparently there is no argument over the fact that dreams of architectural buildings represent the physical body. Attics, and the staircases leading up to them represent the mind. A dark and cluttered attic with bad energy was the current state of my mind. It was in a very dark place, and it was certainly cluttered. Truth be told, I was terrified of it!

My dreams were telling me something. I had to get organized.

Many of my problems stemmed from my inbox, aka the hub of my life. I run a server at home, and all of my four email addresses filter into the same inbox. One major problem that us home office dwellers have is when we use the same computer for our personal lives, and our professional lives. This is why I was a train wreck and master of mental clutter. In the same inbox, at any given time, I would get emails about the following:

1. A lady who saw my ad and wanted home computer coaching.
2. An invitation from a marketing company wanting to advertise on this blog.
3. A lengthy email conversation thread with multiple people from the non-profit I volunteer for about the bowling fund raiser we were putting on later in the month.
4. A corporate client who was having emergency trouble with their servers.
5. A reminder from the vet that my dog was due for her annual rabies shot.
6. An email from a dear old friend from high school that found me on Facebook.
7. My weekly Babycenter.com newsletter about Zoe’s development this week (she’ll be twenty before I get to that).
8. Gazillions of replies to a Craigslist posting about a coffee table I was selling for my mom.

My inbox was my metaphorical attic. Something had to be done. Replies weren’t being made in a timely manner. I was lucky if I even read the mail in a timely manner. As for my dear friend that found me on Facebook, it was months before I was able to reply. And in order not to forget about it, I kept the email in my inbox.

Take it from me, as the queen of “inbox angst”, there is nothing more psychologically damaging than having constant daily reminders of what you’re not getting around to doing every time you visit your inbox.

As an attendee of Lotusphere2009 in Orlando, I was fortunate to be able to see David Allen speak about the GTD methodology and how it can be applied to the application I use for email, Lotus Notes. (David Allen is the creator of the “Getting Things Done” time management method.)

In a pivotal moment in the presentation, David showed a picture of a cluttered kitchen. Spices were pouring out of cabinets, the island was filled with junk, and it was a horrible mess. This was immediately followed by a slide of a gleaming white kitchen. The island was empty. There was nothing on the counters. “Now”, David said with a gleam in his eye. “Which kitchen would YOU prefer to work in?” He then went on to say what I was slowly realizing. The clean kitchen WANTED you to spread out and get your hands dirty. Its very emptiness is what will spark creativity to create new recipes and lay out all your ingredients on the waiting island.

So how do we empty our islands? David then said that the biggest problem with a new system is that in order for it to work fully, you have to trust it 100% in order to let go.

I decided to give it a shot, and was able to get my hands on an evaluation version of “eProductivity for Notes”, GTD software for Lotus Notes to provide beta feedback to the company.

eProductivity for Notes is an actual product, not just an idea. It’s a customized mail template containing a series of folders named as actions in the GTD methodology. When I drag an email to a folder, a new ‘action’ is created. If I’ve put a due date on the action, it shows up in my calendar and will remind me about it on my Today screen in my email. The email then gets automatically deleted from my inbox once I’ve created the action, as it copies all the contents from the email anyway.

The sidebar is categorized into every possible action I could perform on an email. And if the stock ones aren’t good enough, you can add more. For example, when someone emails me an invoice, I have a “Quickbooks” action I can drag the email into (a calendar item is created, the email is deleted). When I’m doing my bookkeeping, I then pop over to “Quickbooks” to see what’s in there that needs processing. I’ll see the invoice email, and will pay it. There’s even a “Waiting for” category for things like Amazon.com shipment notifications that clutter up your inbox. When the shipment arrives, mark it complete.

(me dragging the invoice email over to the left columns…)

It’s possible to create a project. A project is when a series of emails are linked to the same action. In the help documentation, they give the example of an employee being told to order a new printer. The project subject would be “Order a new printer.” If a colleague sent them an email containing several printer models to look into, that email would get filed under “Read/Review”, and would get linked to the “Order a new printer” action.

Here’s my current projects. I created a “SHO Bowling Event” project for the non-profit I mentioned earlier. I created an action to send Charlene a sponsor letter (filed under “At Computer”) and popped Deb off an email asking her to send me the sponsor letter so I could have it for future sponsors. I then got an email back from Deb containing the letter and linked it to the project. Now, when I need the sponsor letter, I know where to find it. You can see it here in the structure. Once the bowling event is over, I can mark my project complete.

All these items have long been removed from my inbox, yet they are in the system so they will get reviewed regularly. I can now let them go from my mind.

There are a few things I’ve learned to truly make it work:

1. You must trust it. Now, I can actually remember things on my own without even needing a calendar reminder! I can tell I am allowing myself to let them go in my head once it’s in eProductivity.
2. You must review your actions regularly. I was pleasantly surprised to find many of them were taken care of through the daily course of action anyway. There is no greater feel-good lift than to be able to use that “Mark complete” button.
3. This is key: use Jott while on the road to easily make sure those to-do’s that clutter your brain get handled. Jott will transcribe your voice message to yourself, and send it to your… drumroll… inbox! To which you can then just process it like a task.
4. Home projects can be handled just like professional projects. Getting your chimney swept is a project in itself when multiple people are emailing you the name of “their guy” like you asked them to at the neighborhood party.
5. My Craigslist post? Yeah, that’s a project all right. Each reply that comes into my Inbox gets linked to the original Craiglist post project.

Here’s my category list. Most of them came with the software, I added a few others, such as “To Sell”. These are reminders of things I need to sell on Craigslist or eBay.

Here’s a sampling of my action list by category. You can see the mesh of personal and professional lives, as I need to review an article on toilet training one day, drop off a monitor to a client the next, and oh yeah, send Charlene that sponsor letter!

I had a dream about an attic last night. It was bright, had beautiful woven walls, and I was looking up the staircase to choose which empty, clean room I wanted to live in. It was a tough decision. They were both great.

eProductivity for Notes – http://www.eproductivity.com

One area that needed vast improvement was always seeing a shopping list on an ugly scrap of paper on the right side of my kitchen counter near the phone. That paper was ALWAYS there – cluttering up the view, reminding me of things I that needed to be done, things I needed to get, and a constant reminder on my counter that there was always more to be done. If I didn’t have a pen on hand, the item couldn’t be added to the grocery list, and it would be forgotten by the time I finally hunted one down from my office.

Then there was the fact that there was only ever one copy of “The List” (as I called it). If I brought The List(tm) with me on errands but didn’t manage to get to grocery shopping, The List(tm) got forgotten until I found it three days later in shreds as I pulled my jeans from the dryer. If I sent my husband to work with The List(tm) but found I had time to shop myself, then he had to text me the contents of The List(tm). Don’t even get me started on what happens when an item on The List(tm) isn’t in stock. Upon return home, The Old List(tm) could be thrown out, but we’d immediately have to create A New List(tm) to add back again the item that we couldn’t get.

Enter, a breath of fresh air – The Smart Shopper grocery list organizer, which attaches to your fridge and acts as a digital list keeper.

The funny thing is, I can’t even say the phrase “Smart Shopper” without feeling like I have to add a number to the end of it, like the Robocop spoof ad ”6000 Sux”, or SNL’s home shopping disaster, the “Bass-o-matic ‘76″. So I think from here on in, even though it’s really just the Smart Shopper, I’m going to call it what it should be called – the Smart Shopper 2000.

The Smart Shopper 2000 is actually a voice activated list – you hit the “Record” button, say your item, such as “Skim milk”, “mac and cheese”, “dishwashing liquid”, etc. and it will add it to the list. BUT WAIT – there’s more! Here’s the best part about this list: it categorizes the items for you, so when you hit the “Print” button, it has your list all neatly categorized into departments such as: Errands, Dairy, Produce, Laundry, Frozen Foods, etc. No more running around from one end of the store to another while crossing items off your list.

Here’s another huge selling point for me – the ability to add custom items, and then give it a category. My bank is in my grocery store, so I always include “Deposit checks” on my shopping list. I custom typed the word in, then spoke it, and then gave it a category of “Errands.” Now, I can simply press Record, say “deposit checks” and it gets added to the list (which I can just print again if I accidentally run it through the dryer).

Finally, I can delete individual items, purge the entire list, or change quantities of items. The Smart Shopper 2000 comes with a thick book of recognized words, including such gems as “rectal cream” and “Depends”. Of course, when testing out voice recognition in your new Smart Shopper 2000, it may be necessary to walk by the fridge at odd hours, press a button, and slowly speak, “rrrrreeeeccctaaaaaaaaal creeeeeeem”.

( For those that currently own a Smart Shopper 2000, here’s one thing I did learn about the voice recognition to make it easier to get your item recognized the first time – while the recognition is still excellent, we used to have trouble on occasion getting it recognize certain items, such as “Half and Half”. Here’s the trick: it’s very reliant on consonants, so focus on making those clear. Press the record button and say “haFF anD haFF” and it’s perfect and quick. )

The Smart Shopper 2000 has made my life immensly easier – getting to look over and see a clean counter with no reminders of what daily tasks await me tomorrow – priceless. Occasionally having odd items appear on the list such as rectal cream and Depends, usually when I’m showing off the device to friends? Totally worth it still. Even with prankster husbands.

I consider myself a pretty technical person. I built my own computer, and have knowledge of hardware and software interactions through drivers right down to their basic binary operations. Yet, once I got my first handheld computer, it came with Windows Mobile, an operating system I had never seen. I was so overwhelmed I wanted to cry. I needed to make sure I could check my email. And I had to put my songs on it to play MP3s in my car. And since I wanted to play them in my car, I had to figure out how to wire an aux port into my car audio system. And, did you know I could hook it up to WIFI to surf the Internet? But where do I tell the handheld what my WPA key is? I know computers inside out and BACKWARDS, and I barely knew how to turn this little machine on.

I wanted to run before I could walk, and from someone who is technical, it was especially frustrating to have a gadget I didn’t know how to use.

So, ladies, if there is anyone who understands what you are going through now, it is me. Wholeheartedly. We’re talking full-on panic, blood-pressure-rising frustration.

I have learned one or two things about overcoming this extreme gadget stress over the years, especially as I tend to acquire new gadgets faster than my milk goes out of date.

Always run the installation CD before hooking up your gadget to your computer.

The chances are pretty good that if your gadget needs a specific piece of software to work, it came on a CD. In most cases, the CD install program needs to run before physically connecting the device to your computer, so save yourself some unnecessary troubleshooting steps by following the install instructions exactly as the install guide says.

A cautionary tale for the bold: Yes, it absolutely could cause things to not work correctly by hooking up the device first – trust me, I used to fix computers for a living. Many times I got called onsite to fix a new gadget that wasn’t working, only to find the user had not read the instructions first and just connected the device to the machine.

Take it one task at a time.

To combat that run-before-you-walk feeling, solve one problem you have, and THEN move onto the next problem. For example, if you have an MP3 player, you know you can load it up with movies and music, and then play them back, and wait a minute, what if I don’t want a song on it anymore? How do I delete it? I can delete it, right? Will it get deleted from my computer, also?

By writing down each problem to master into an itemized list of tasks, you’ll find that you are mastering your gadget without even realizing it, and accomplishing what you need to learn. Here’s an example of how you might write down your tasks for your MP3 player:

1. Connect my MP3 player to my computer
2. Transfer music to my player.
3. Delete a specific song from my player.
4. Finding a specific song to play on my player.
5. etc.

IMHO, RTFM.

Be warned – many device manufacturers know that most folks tend to have Internet access these days. To save on printing costs, many times your gadget may only come with initial setup instructions, and the actual user manual can be downloaded online. Read the initial instructions to find out if this is the case and where to go to download the manual.

This does sound crazy, but I’ve found that many times the user manual is already organized into specific tasks to make it easy to follow, rather than an inside-out read-through. Give it a chance. Manuals are getting better. I promise.

Find out the specific version of your software.

In most cases, your software probably has a menu at the top that says “Help”. Clicking this usually yields a pull-down menu with an option of “About <software name>”.

This option should bring up a window that contains the exact version number of your software. In order to find out how to properly use the software that came with your gadget, it’s important that you know which version you are using. Here’s an example:

This version number will become important in the next step.

Probably the most useful tip I could give anyone with an extreme case of “gadget stress” is this next one.

Phrase what you want to do with your gadget into a logical statement or question, and then turn to Google.

Earlier, I suggested you write down a list of tasks that you’ll need to know how to do with your gadget. If you can’t find the answer in the manual, and you just can’t figure it out on your own, turn to Google. I don’t know how many times Google has saved me from tearing my hair out. Here’s a moment of comfort for you – no matter how crazy your question may be, someone out there on the Interweb has already asked it, and some kind person has thought fit to answer it.

“How do I connect my Dell Axim x50v to my wireless network?”

“How do I use Windows Media Player 11 to download songs onto a Creative Zen player?”

“How do I delete a song from my Creative Zen player?”

“Can I use iTunes with any MP3 player?”

“How do I disable the touchscreen on my Treo 800w while I am on a call?”

Finally, turn to user forums specific to your gadget.

The Internet is full of lively, supportive user communities chock full of people who have the exact same device you have, and are having the exact same problems you are. However, there are also people who have overcome those problems, and are more than happy to help you overcome yours.

By searching Google for user communities with your specific gadget name, you’ll most likely come across some that will make you feel right at home. For example, here’s some user forums that I’ve found based on things that I have:

Panasonic’s Living in HD community offers insight, forums, and how-tos for Blu Ray players, and their flat panel TVs. This is a fairly new site targeting families, and it has good tips including how to mount a flat panel TV to a wall.

WMExperts.com is the place to hang out and learn how to your Windows Mobile device. Whether you’re a newb or a seasoned developer, you can ask a question and someone will help you.

Aximsite.com was crucial to my mastery when I had my Dell Axim handheld. Again, a warm community that welcomes newcomers, I felt totally comfortable asking what I thought were mundane questions that I couldn’t find the answer to anywhere else.

Did you get a gadget over the holidays that you just can’t figure out? Are you stuck? Have you found a great community dedicated to a gadget others may be having trouble with? Feel free to post any questions or useful gadget sites in the comments. Let’s get a lively discussion going!

In the meantime, I’m going to continue my life with my current technological frustrations and hope I come through unscathed, and with a blood-pressure that’s actually in range with my age group. My most recent battle was with the Blu Ray menu for of all things, the movie Cars. I think I was just too old to get to the Chapter selection screen. I finally did it, but not before seriously contemplating waiting until my 16 month-old was old enough to learn it, and then teach me.

The cost is per letter, though they have pre-built quotes already made in many fonts to choose from that are a little cheaper. Obviously if you can find a short quote you like, the better. To inspire you, they have an enormous photo gallery, in which the hardest decision I was facing was whether to risk overspending, or shut the computer off while I was still in the positives in my bank account.

I did end up getting the word “Solace” to stick on my announcement board for my shop. I have since taken it down where it now has permanent residence at Momelettes.com headquarters:

Anyway, one of the reasons I really like WiseDecor.com is that the website is obviously run and maintained by real people. I say this because let’s face it, sometimes online sites tend to lose the personal touch, where I felt it really stands out here. There are pictures of customer’s creations, along with a design of the week.

All you do is press the design firmly against the wall, and peel back the tape. To remove it, you simply put a hair dryer to it. The best thing about these wall decals is that they are not permanent. It’s amazing what that does to my imagination when I know that if I screw up, I can fix it.

They give you a sample word to test it out before you possibly ruin your real decal (another gold star for WiseDecor). I liked my test word so much I kept it. I figured every light switch needs the word “Love” above it.

I couldn’t resist the chance to put my favorite quote up on my bedroom wall. After all, it’s my favorite quote, it’s engraved on my wedding ring, and most importantly for WiseDecor, It’s Really Short.

You saw it at the beginning of the post, here’s how it looks in it’s entirety, so you can get a size idea.

What was your favorite quote from this site? Would you go with a pre-built one they came up with (which are all really nice) or do you have a favorite quote that could go somewhere in your house?

After cleaning out their computer, I’d always end by asking if they minded if the computer didn’t look quite as nice, but ran faster. When they said no, I changed one setting on their computer and out went the fancy Windows XP look and feel, and in came the old Windows 98 look and feel, but with about ten times the speed.

Everything you do on your computer takes up memory, that is to say, the amount of tasks that Windows can handle at once. The more memory your computer has, the more tasks it can accomplish at once with greater speed. If you are holding a conversation with someone, and someone else comes up to you and starts talking, you’d start struggling with trying to keep up with both conversations. Now if you gave yourself a memory upgrade, you’d be able to have multiple simultaneous conversations as well as watch TV, while writing your thesis at the same time! This is why people consider a memory upgrade on a computer a pretty powerful thing. You’ve heard people say that they added more ‘gigs of RAM’ to their computer, right? They’ve just done a memory upgrade.

On a quick aside, this is not to be confused with hard drive storage space, even though both are declared in terms such as “gigs of RAM”. Hard drive space is permanent storage on your computer, such as the digital photos. If we stick to YOU as an analogy, the clothes in your closet would take up permanent space in your house. I see enough confusion between the two terms that I thought it was worth mentioning.

Now, I digress. (I think *I* need a memory upgrade!)

That nice, fancy Windows XP desktop does not come without a price. That pretty green Start button in the lower left-hand corner actually takes up valuable memory to look that nice that could be used elsewhere. The picture of your dog on your desktop wallpaper also takes up memory. If Windows XP no longer needs to use that memory to keep itself looking nice, it can use it instead to help programs open and close faster.

Would you be willing to give those nice looking screens up for a significant overall speed increase to your computer?

Click on Start, then RIGHT-click on My Computer, and select Properties.

From there, go to the Advanced tab and under Performance, choose Settings.

The default for Windows XP visual performance is “Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer.”

Changing it to “Adjust for best performance” will take away all the nice Windows XP-styled screens, and will make your system look like a Windows 98 computer (remember the grey Start button?). However, the speed increase will be noticed instantly by you.

Now, if you really, really, REALLY would like that picture of your dog to stay as your desktop wallpaper, you can just click the Custom button to pick and choose what options you are willing to give up for more speed. Every little bit helps.

It takes such little time to speed up my client’s computers, many times we move on to other things once that’s been done. I’ll never forget the time I walked my client through it on the phone, and then we moved on to a printer problem.

Client: “I’ll pick a random document and print it out. Here, I’ll choose Ted’s resume, he just sent it to me so it’s on my desktop. It’s printing now… well, the first page is completely blank.”

pause.

“But I guess if you know Ted, that sort of makes sense.”

Each month we meet at a different house (the street is about a 1/2 mile long with matching cul-de-sacs on each end, which makes walking home after each night of debauchery that much easier) and take the time to catch up, ask each other questions about parenting, and just laugh at the things we go through every day (”Sorry, Sarah, I know doing the whole ‘breakfast for dinner’ thing is an exciting novelty for the kids, but when you do it four times a week they’ll learn pretty fast that it’s just you not wanting to cook…”).

We’ve been doing this for about four years now.

How is this possible? Every year, the next year’s schedule gets mapped out at November’s girls night. We learned pretty early on that to say “This is fun, we should do this every month” means nothing unless you commit to actually DOING it every month. Here came the hard part. How do you coordinate something like that when not everyone has a PDA, or has their calendar with them?

You use a website called PrintFree.com, which contains massive amounts of free calendar templates that are especially made for printing.

Here’s how I made them work for our monthly girl’s nights.

From the PrintFree.com home page, go into Yearly Calendars. From there, choose Small Calendars, and then the year you want.

The Small Calendars is great because it prints out a block of four tiny year calendars, with enough room on the top and bottom when printed that you can still write on them.

In this case, estimate how many people will be there, divide by four, and print out that many pages. You’ll end up with this:

in which you can cut up each individual yearly calendar to hand out to your participants.

Now, once all your participants have calendars, pens, and you are all fed, loaded with alcohol and ready to plan next year’s girls night schedule, I feel I should warn you that it won’t be pretty.

“I can’t do July, because we always go to Block Island then. I can do June or August.”

“But the only months that Sharon can do is June, and the only one Kelly can do is August.”

“December is the worst month as it’s right before Christmas. Let’s give that one to Beth – she’s not here.”

“I can’t do it on March because our couches are getting cleaned and there will be nowhere to sit.”

“Don’t worry about that, we only stand around the island eating the whole time anyway…”

However, once all is said and done (usually three bottles of wine later), we end up with something like this, ready to go for January. The piece of paper is tiny and all nice and portable, so you can take your calendar home and update your own personal calendar accordingly.

]]> http://momelettes.com/2008/11/use-printfreecom-to-create-portable-printable-calendars/feed/ 2 http://momelettes.com/2008/11/use-printfreecom-to-create-portable-printable-calendars/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/momelettes/~3/2y6Q9aMqYm4/ http://momelettes.com/2008/10/did-you-know-your-car-tells-you-which-side-the-gas-tank-is-on-2/#comments Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:31:37 +0000 Jess Stratton http://momelettes.com/?p=43 So here we were, my husband and I, driving somewhere when he turns to me and says, “Oh, by the way, I heard somewhere that the gas gauge has an arrow on it telling you which side the tank is on.”

I looked. There it was. The WHOLE TIME I’ve owned the car, and that’s been there!

“STOP THE CAR!”, I practically shouted. “This has GOT to be the scoop of the century!”

(OK, so I didn’t make him stop the car. But I really do believe it IS the scoop of the century.)

Let’s examine Figure A:

While it may be a bit blurry (most likely due to my shaking with excitement at this phenomenal piece of information), you can indeed see that the arrow very clearly points to the left. And, if I exit my car, I can very clearly see that the gas tank is indeed, on the left.

My husband’s car has a tank with the arrow pointing to the right. Guess which side the tank is on?

So there you have it, folks. May I never again be red-cheeked by having to make that embarrassing gas-station U-turn while driving rental cars or when I’ve switched with my husband for the day.

Does anyone’s car NOT have this? What year, make, and model is it? Is there an import vs. domestic thing, or is it merely a convenience decided in each particular auto-maker’s boardroom?

]]> http://momelettes.com/2008/10/did-you-know-your-car-tells-you-which-side-the-gas-tank-is-on-2/feed/ 18 http://momelettes.com/2008/10/did-you-know-your-car-tells-you-which-side-the-gas-tank-is-on-2/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/momelettes/~3/M1xp00dyWh4/ http://momelettes.com/2008/10/the-tale-of-prima-princessa-and-the-two-moms-who-created-her/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:29:19 +0000 Jess Stratton http://momelettes.com/?p=41

All tech talk/organization aside, if there’s one OTHER thing I relish, it’s hearing stories of success. Such is the case when I got a copy of a DVD in my hands called “Prima Princessa Presents Swan Lake”.

The DVD is charming, and without even watching a single frame, the mere thought of nostalgia from my childhood days of tutu’s and my parents meeting their six-year old daughter backstage at dance recitals with flowers made me misty-eyed just thinking about it.

The 40-minute DVD starts with an introduction from the animated cartoon fairy, Prima Princessa. She then takes a gaggle of tutu-clad preschoolers through several acts of Swan Lake (performed by the Paris Opera Ballet), narrating the storyline while the dancers perform. Who knew Swan Lake had a more dizzying storyline than Desperate Housewives?

In between acts is the fun part, where obviously talented young students from the School of American Ballet teach basic ballet moves for the kids to try at home while they are watching.

Zoe, my 14-month old loved it, and still continues to love it. As enthralled as a 14-month old can be with a movie, she watched the DVD, pointed at the fairy, and danced. Let me tell you, there is nothing cuter than watching your 14-month old dancing along with Swan Lake on the TV screen!

(Well, I do have something cuter. Sending my husband a text message asking “What’s up?” and getting back as a reply “we are now watching Swan Lake at Zoe’s request”. There’s just something really lovable about a visual of my husband sitting on the couch watching ballet with his daughter. )

Wanting to give the DVD a thorough test, I gave it to my neighbor to see if her 3 and 4 year old daughters liked it. I got it back a few days later with reports of plenty of repeat viewings!

What really struck me about this video, though, was not how much Zoe liked it. What got to me was that here was two women, like me, who had their hands full with kids and a busy life – yet they still had time to work together to visualize, create, produce, and SELL a children’s DVD. And here I am complaining that it’s hard to find time to sit down and reply to a few emails. Yes, ladies, THAT is what struck me.

I had to write to the creators, Mary Kate Mellow and Stephanie Troeller (http://www.primaprincessa.com) to find out the motive and the technicalities of their success.

Taking over one year to complete, Stephanie took her very convenient background as a ballet dancer and a cartoonist (talk about the right skills for the job!), and Mary Kate used her wits as a previously successful small business entrepreneur selling her own jewelry to Neiman Marcus, among others.

Among my curiousness of the creation process, the big question I had asked Mary Kate was how they had gotten the ballet footage. I mean, where you do even start?? Mary Kate was very quick to respond that in addition to about four-months’ work on a comprehensive business plan, they spent many hours researching via Internet and telephone. Apparently, the answer is painfully simple – you need to spend the time it takes to do some clever Google searching, and then you pick up the phone.

My next question was, when did they find the time? It took many dedicated babysitters, and many late nights after the kids were asleep.

If you are of an entrepreneurial spirit, remember that Mary Kate and Stephanie started with a need – there were no decent ballet movies for children. The other strength they had was a partnership. One of the problems I had was that I tried to be an entrepreneur by myself, while Mary Kate and Stephanie have proven that teamwork and positive energy pays off – and they have the Princess to prove it!

My hats are off to Mary Kate and Stephanie. They have proven that no matter who you are, or what you do, if you are willing to work hard, you can dream, envision, and create a product for others to enjoy.

If you want to find out more, you can visit their press page at http://www.primaprincessa.com/press.html.

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