Dear SXSW attendees: I know you’re all excited. You’re going to spend a whole heap of time being all geeky and fun, and drinking and stuff. Talking about startups, design, innovation, music… ooh I’ll bet you’re all tingly. My husband is one of you. He’s kid-at-Christmas excited. He loves Texas and had a ball there last year. As a startup geek guy, he can’t... 

An American woman named Angie Jackson has decided it was a good idea to share her experience of aborting her pregnancy with the world, via YouTube and Twitter. A mother of a four-year-old who goes to the trouble of outlining the reasons why she decided on an abortion with RU486, Angie says her social media posts are her attempt to “demistify” the process, and let everyone know that for... 

When Max leaped across from Sydney to join us for three weeks in January, we took lots of pictures. As mums do. I promised myself I’d get them organised, and create a nice montage. As mums do. Now we’re halfway through February, and the planned montage didn’t happen because other things got in the way. As they do. Max enjoying the view. I decided I was being too much of a perfectionist.... 

While many people align technology adoption and use with age, the facts show it’s not all that easy to stereotype the creators of content in the online media. Today’s Pew Report on Teens and Social Media amplifies a very real issue in the US. Our teens and young adults are engaging in “new” media, but on a very limited level. The majority of them are not creating new content. In... 

Shhh. Don’t talk about it. It’s not polite. But make sure you know what you think about it. And be prepared to fight for it, even if you are really not talking about it because it’s not polite. Try not to judge people for their views (that they’re not talking about because they’re too polite), but whisper about their views and about them… and judge them privately... 

As an official ANZ FebuSave blogger, I’m doing a post each week throughout February on how mums can save a few dollars to help get their budget in check. My first post (yes, I know it’s not February yet, but the Aussies need to get through the last week of school holidays!) is about how to avoid the craziness of the major theatre chains and instead make the most of a home family movie time. You’ve... 

Today, January 26, is the day we celebrate our Aussie-ness. Our family will be celebrating, even though we’re miles away. (Insert song like I Still Call Australia Home or my favourite, Great Southern Land – oh what the heck, I will). I think a game of backyard cricket is in order along with reminiscing about football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holdens. So what does it mean to be Australian? Most... 

Moving to Denver meant we moved to the heart of Speed Stacking. We’d tried it out back in Australia, because you know, it’s freaky to watch so as soon as we saw the ad on tv we just had to give it a go. The sport hasn’t taken off in Australia like it has in other some places. But Denver is where it originated, and so here we are, equipped with cups, timers and mats. This sport is... 

Ah the miracle of medicine, look how much you’ve done for women and babies. Birthing in the Western World is no longer fraught with danger, thanks to your hand. Or is it? Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net The oh-so convenient Christmas miracle story splashed internationally across mass media headlines of a Coloradan woman and her baby dying through childbirth and then “inexplicably”... 

If you’re looking for a great deal for skiing, then a little preparation is in order. Think it out early, and you’ll save lots. Leave it to the last minute, and you’ll be paying for it – literally. As a grad student mum with extremely limited funds, I have got hold of some great deals, and I wanted to share some resources with you. The Colorado Gems Card. For a $10 initial outlay... 

I have four kids. I believe in Santa. This Christmas, we saw yet another moron decide it was a good idea to try and blow up a plane. At Christmas. Christmas is my favourite time of the year and I’ll be blasted (no pun intended) if anyone’s going to take that away from me. So I’ve decided that I’ll let the TSA in on some key things they could be doing to really make a difference... 

Sometimes something in your daily routine can remind you of how connected we can be. This semester I’ve caught the bus to campus on monday afternoons, on my way to my Human Computer Interaction class. When you catch the bus on a regular basis at a regular time, you’re quite often joined by a few others who have the same schedule. And so I was joined on Mondays by a beautiful young girl... 

This week I was happily invited to join some other Colorado-based bloggers for a few adult snacks, refreshments and the opportunity to build a basket of goodies to take home. It was a great evening, put on by Glade’s parent company, S. C. Johnson’s wonderful PR team from Edelman in Chicago, to promote their Sense & Spray product. This event demonstrated Edelman actively identifies good... 

PT Barnum is recognised as being one of the heavyweight players in the history of advertising. He was also the father of personal branding. While you may not agree with his tactics, he has inspired masses of advertising practice and his stamp remains. Any time you see something promoted as “jumbo” size, that word comes from Barnum. The term “white elephant” is also his. The... 

There’s something magical about arriving at the airport with all your luggage and just two of your kids for the upcoming 28 hours of travel between countries, and reaching the check-in counter to find out every bag comes in just under the 23kg weight limit. Score. And there’s something even more special about being handed your boarding passes and passports, turning around and seeing the... 

One primarily for friends and family – and anyone who would love a day of gorging chocolate. Charlie and I went with Marissa to Denver last month to the Colorado Chcolate Festival. We spent the day sampling chocolate, and watching Charlie try to eat more than his body weight in the stuff. It was great fun. There were stacks of samples, lots of things to see and sample, from all sorts of retaillers.... 

What to do about (drum roll) sexting? Approaching the topic of sexting in a way that best meets a receptive outcome from your teenager is paramount. And grabbing their mobile phone to go through every message is not generally going to get a positive response. Unless… Did you originally say to your teen “Hey, I’m gonna go through your phone occasionally to check up on you?” If... 

What’s your vision? Recently there have been discussions over ‘how long is too long’ from developers a little less than happy being part of a startup that is not yet paying them ‘what they’re worth’ or even getting involved in a startup that doesn’t pay them from the outset. Startup widows are also holding their spouses accountable for not having ‘made... 

Yesterday we went along to the World Championships. Of course, if we didn’t live half an hour from the venue, I doubt we’d have gone along. That said, all four of my kids have had fun cup stacking. It’s a bit addictive. I even enjoy it. It’s great for working on hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, teamwork… all that good stuff. Please note *our* focus is not on being... 

I never dreamed I’d live anywhere other than Sydney, Australia. When you’ve got a good job, a house you’re constantly doing ’something’ to, kids, dogs, routine… the last thing you think of is moving. Anywhere. Least of all to a country you’ve never been to before. But then I came home from work one day and Jed told me his start-up dreams weren’t done... 

In Australia I spent a heck of a lot of money on educating my four fantastic children. It won’t surprise many that as an educator, and someone who got her post-secondary education ‘the freaking toughest way you’d ever decide to’, education is my priority. It’s what I do. It’s really my life. As a full-time teacher at Granville TAFE, my favourite times have been at... 

I joined Twitter on my first trip to the US, in 2007 at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. And I remember thinking it sucked. I had no connections other than the conference channel – which was tweeting  basically nothing. That sucked. Segway (does it have a ue?): I’m a tertiary level teacher of marketing and journalism in Oz, and every Christmas break (5 weeks long) I commit myself... 

Taking the family out can be tough when the economy is having a downturn and there’s more month than money. That’s why I’m really excited to give you the chance to win a great prize in my blog’s very first competition! And if you don’t win, I have a code which will give you the opportunity to buy your family of four or more tickets for just $11 each! If you live in Colorado,... 

I’m a grad student. With a family. Married to a man running a start-up. Add that together and you realise why I’m loving living in a country where coupons rule. In Australia we don’t do coupons beyond the basics. One coupon per transaction only. No manufacturer coupons are redeemable in store (they seem to always be mail-in rebates instead). And there are regularly stacks of hoops... 

What a great night we all had at Ignite Boulder! The presenters were all wonderful, well prepared and community vibe was enormous. The ATLAS theatre was packed – you can definitely see why these were some of the hottest tickets in town leading up to the event. This community is incredible. I’m so grateful to have been welcomed into it. It’s so kind of Glenn Letham to have filmed it... 

This week we went indoor rock climbing with a friend of mine who took time out to show us how it’s done (thanks!). While I stupidly forgot about my fear of heights (remembered when I looked down from about 8 feet up), and Charlie decided it hurt his hands and feet too much at just one foot up, Harry proved once again that he’ll give almost anything a go. Here he is having a go at the 30...