Twitter, the idea incubator. #140MTL

The first thing you notice about Twitter, is all the voices.

People talk about all kinds of things in 140 characters or less.

Some connect with great depth and share their ideas...

Ideas materialize into real life events and often effect actual change.

When you think about it, it's actually pretty amazing.

On May 15th, the #140 Conference will take place in Montreal, at the exquisite Excentris.

Over 30 spectacular speakers will share their thoughts about social media and the great idea incubator that is Twitter. I'm honoured and humbled to be one of them!

Business, entrepreneurs, managers, and those seeking to widen their perspective on social media, this is a "do not miss" event. Register for the #140MTL here.

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Parenting TEENAGERS.

Parenting teenagers is hard. But I was lucky; just before our eldest hit puberty, my friend Shelagh gave me some advice. "They can be horrible," she said, "but don't take any of it personally". This has helped me weather what I thought were some pretty difficult times with our first daughter.

However our second daughter didn't just hit puberty - she beat the living crap out of it, knocked it unconscious, and dragged it into her teen-cave. She owned it. Last week was especially, er... eventful, and The Huz and I were close to cracking. Another friend, Sarah, recommended this book: "Get Out Of My Life, but first could you drive me and Cheryl to the mall?", by Anthony E. Wolf, Ph. D.

 I began to read...

Somewhere in the deep, dark, and dangerous recesses of her teen-cave, the 15 year old girl knows that we love and care for her enough to cry ourselves to sleep. And even buy a book.

And to her baby self, this is AWESOME.

I think that we're gonna make it. It's not easy; we must let our teens go and simultaneously set boundaries for them. However unpleasant, it is probably normal for them to behave badly, call us names and refuse to listen. We stay strong and do our best to follow Shelagh's advice. For as much as our teens complain about the boundaries, they do kind of appreciate them. Even if it only indicates that we love and care.

Oh and the book is great.

Parenting teens nightmares? Please share!

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EPIC #DrawSomething ...with Pickle Weasel.

What's your fave?

I like Vader. Start a game of Draw Something with me, "The Animated Woman", and I will draw something just for you.

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#bewbLUV - A message of love and hope.

The #bewbluv hashtag was started on Twitter by the well loved Brandie McCallum AKA @lttlewys - who bravely underwent surgery for breast cancer this morning. Her story is here on her blog.

But it has become so much more than just a hashtag - it's a message of love, hope and friendship, fueled by the power of social media. You may have noticed some avatars popping up with Venus de Milo in the Twitterverse and a #bewbluv Twibbon as well. Feel free to grab them and use them to tweet the hashtag for breast cancer awareness and support.

These days  it seems that cancer is all around us. One thing is clear - we need each other.

The Internet has got your back Brandie!

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How to #DrawSomething in 10 easy steps.

My strategy with the game is to keep you guessing until the very end, and hopefully make you laugh. So I plan what I'm going to draw and leave out the crucial details until the end. Here's how I play Draw Something in ten easy steps:

Step 1: choose the widest brush and fill in the background, if there is one. In this case, I want black, to set the mood.

Step 2: Add any details to the background using smaller brushes. Note that the new update to the Draw Something app has a single stroke undo, which is really useful if you choose the wrong brush size. I was so glad to see that cuz I'm constantly using the wrong brush and having to repaint over my mistake.

Step 3: I like to put Pickle Weasel in all my drawings. So here's where I block him in. I'm already thinking about his final pose in the drawing, even at this early stage.

Step 4: Block in the colour areas on the character's body. It's important to do this before the outline stage, cuz it's hard to fill in colour in this app. I suck at keeping in the lines, so I like to do it this way.

Step 5: Add the outlines! Not all character's need outlines, but Pickle Weasel does. At this point I also throw in the facial details: eyes, nose, mouth etc. I have to get his expression just right - if you've played with me, you prolly notice I spend more time on this part. Or maybe I just imagine that.

Step 6: Now I paint in the details on his "costume".

Step 7: A few clues begin to creep into the drawing!

Step 8: Adjustments to Pickle Weasel's pose by adding his arms.

Step 9: Lastly I may add some text - this part is a great opportunity to inject humor.

An artist needs to stay in shape. Playing Draw Something is like exercise for me. It forces me to create a funny drawing with limited drawing tools, in a short time. It's like getting really good abs.

I also like the idea of doing a drawing just for someone else, and I enjoy getting others to draw too. Drawing is good for your brain.

Step 10: It's a 3-letter word. And here's your letters below.

What's the answer?

Play Draw Something with "The Animated Woman".

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Death of a child.

Tomorrow I will attend a memorial for the daughter of my friends, lost to leukemia.

The death of one's child is possibly the most profound loss that one might have to endure.
Does it make it any easier if the child is grown up? ...I think not.

I could barely draw this.

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Addicted to #DrawSomething.

I'm pretty sure I have an addictive personality. So when I first got this iPad 3 a couple weeks ago, I was wary of getting addicted to playing Draw Something. A few people (you know who you are) were trying to get me to play with them - but I knew that Draw Something is basically a gateway to harder games, so I said NO!

Then @Void_Liminality suggested I include my Pickle Weasel character in my drawings. Next thing I knew I had to have my daily fix.

Wanna play? Start a game with "The Animated Woman".

Lemmeno which is your fave - mine is "TINTIN".

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