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Rachel’s 2011 Trends: Get In The Know Today!

Happy New Year everyone! Using my mystic knowledge and crystal ball (aka the internet and some inklings), these are my predictions for what will shape 2011…

1. ‘F-Commerce’

Forget E-Commerce, 2011 will see the beginnings of ‘F-Commerce’. The F stands for Facebook; brands will start letting you buy their products straight from their Facebook page, rather than having to leave the site. Why is this good? It will make online shopping more sociable, more easy to recommend things. Victoria’s Secret are already in on it, expect other big brands to follow soon.

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2. Children of the revolution

With government cuts deepening, taxes being raised and the cost of fuel climbing, it won’t just be students who will take to the streets. “Protests against specific issues such as student fees or tax avoidance will congeal and combine to create a more general sense of popular anger against “the system” at large. Heads will definitely roll, if only metaphorically, in 2011.” Says Dan Jones, Author.

3. Fashion Forward

Fashion in 2011 will continue the recent trend which sprang up during the recession, for buying less but spending more. That means fewer impulse buys, but more statement pieces. The 60s and 70s are back in full force, with ‘super sheer maxis’, pajama dressing (loose, slouchy) and ladylike features with lower hems and pleats-a-plenty.

4. Future Food

Much like fashion, one trend will follow the 70s vibe; the resurgence of food on sticks. Hurrah! What about all those cupcakes, macaroons, and cute afternoon tea treats? So last year – now it’s all about pie! Again coming over from America – from sweet to savoury, supersized to pocket-sized, pie is the new cupcake. How about miracle fruit that makes sour things taste sweet? Or coconut water as your go-to health drink? The future is right here on your dining table!

5. Speed Listening

‘Jack Sharing’ appeared a few years ago – you approach a stranger (hmmm) and offer to stick your headphones in their ipod and vice versa; in the hope of discovering new music. Speed Listening is the less weird, safer alternative, and is going to be big next year. It follows a speed dating format; plug in for a few minutes, share, switch partners, all in a cosy setting like The Book Club in London.

6. Your Digital Wallet

In 2011, we’ll be starting to use our phones as real-world shopping tools. One use is as a barcode scanner to compare prices in real time- a joy if you hate online shopping, but your other half has to check every shop before buying! Sticky bits is a great tool for nabbing freebies; scan the items you want and the manufacturer probably has a voucher for that. The best however, is an ‘oyster’ style method of payment: swipe your phone at the till to pay for your new clothes!

7. Creative Problem solving using technology

Like the www.employkyle.com website, where a graduate showed off his lateral thinking and ‘outside the box’ mentality by setting up a website to get him employed, the belief that individuals can make a difference will create a flood of DIY solutions to everything from job creation to philanthropy. The technology is here – we just need to make sure we use it.

8. So what do you do?

‘The really successful people in 2011 won’t be the ones at a cocktail party where the answer to ‘what do you do?’ fits into one sentence.’ (www.athinklab.com) Mumpreneurs, hobby careerists (), shifting priorities and the recession culture of part time work means people don’t have single-focus careers anymore. How many of us get home from one job only to get on with our part time business in the evening? Either by choice or necessity, we have found a way to keep the cash coming in, and build our careers the less traditional way.

What do you think will be the next big thing of 2011? And what are you looking forward to this year?

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A Few Tricks on How to Stop the January Rot

I know from being an agony aunt for many years that January, for many feels like the bleakest of months. Horrible grey weather, post Xmas debt, and extra poundage from all those mince pies, all of which means most of us feel blue and lacking in motivation. And of course this year feels especially vile, thanks to the VAT hike, the doom laden stories in the news and the fact that everyone has a cold that seems to have started in November and is still going strong.

Part of the problem is that a New Year makes us all reflect in a negative way, which is why so far this week one friend has decided she needs a facelift, a lottery win and perhaps even a new husband. And another claims she is fat, poor, and stuck in a rut. The list of woes is endless and without sounding like a horrible and selfish friend, it’s somewhat depressing to hear.

I want to shout STOP but I know I am just as guilty. Lose three stone (and my seven bellies). Sign up for a marathon, write a novel, sort my finances out, get rid of all the tat in my house, be nicer to my husband and my kids, be a better friend. My list of what I think is wrong is endless so no wonder if feel so horrible.

So in a quest to stop the January rot, here is how I’m going to cheer up:

+ I will remind myself it’s nearly Spring! Okay it doesn’t feel like it but it’s only 2 months away.

+ I’m going to ignore my Christmas weight gain (plus I am reliably informed it will naturally disappear by month end if I go back to normal portions and throw away the Quality Street).

+ I’m going to celebrate the fact there’s an extra bank holiday this year thanks to the royal wedding.

+ I’m going to sort out my finances by keeping a money diary (depressing but it works)

+ I will ignore all stupid ‘Today is the most depressing/poorest/bleakest day of the year’ stories, based on the fact that the so-called mathematical equations are nonsense.

+ I’m going to be grateful for what I have

+ I’m going to take a note out of my children’s books, enjoy being silly, live for the moment and when I feel angry scream VERY LOUDLY until I feel better!

So how do you stop January from getting you down? Let me know.

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Happy New Year!!! And Welcome To Social Mindbubble

Hi there ladies,

We hope you had a great festive break and an amazing start to the year.

2011 is starting pretty well for Mindbubble as we are now happy to present you a brand new way of connecting with your community.

From today you will notice a new and quicker way to sign in on Mindubble, by simply using your Twitter or Facebook account.

To connect your account, simply sign in as usual with your email address and password, then go to your Profile and use the Connect button in the left bottom corner to link your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Another great update for Mindbubble is that you can now see each other’s profiles when participating in a project!

Don’t worry, only your screename, biography and picture will be visible. We will never display all the personal details you share with us as they are for recruitment purpose only! You can update these details on your Profile at any time.

In the right hand side of your Profile, you can decide to display your Twitter feed and/or Facebook statuses so the other community members can get to know you a bit better.

Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment on this post!

Many thanks

Marion

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Are You Ready for the Greatest Night of the Year?

Ah, New Year’s eve. Start the new you with a bang! Go to a fabulous party, wear something incredible, meet a handsome stranger at the stroke of midnight; reminisce on all the great things you’ve achieved this year, all the wonderful places you’ve been and amazing new friends you’ve made! The Greatest Night of the Year!

Right?

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to dread NYE. Every year is a disappointment in some form or other – House parties getting wrecked, clubs charging extortionate entrance fees, late tubes so you celebrate it 2 miles underground, fireworks not going off.. You name it, it goes wrong.

Justice vs Simian|We are your friends|J.Rozan & M.Schmeltz

It wasn’t always like this; when I was younger I was happy with a secret Bacardi Breezer and lasting til past midnight.

But now – well, the pressure’s on. As soon as I started getting serious about New Year’s eve, and resolutions, that was the downfall.

Because now, New Year’s isn’t just another night, it’s not even JUST celebrating the dawning of a new year; it’s when you dream up a whole new you, promise to lose weight/get a new job/boyfriend/car, whatever. It’s validating everything about who you are and what you’ve achieved. Or not achieved.

How many of us stick to our New Year’s Resolutions? This year, mine was learn to snowboard… this clearly hasn’t happened. Despite all the other things I may have achieved this year, because I actually set this officially, then did next to nothing about it, I feel bad. Never mind the fact I got my first graduate job, and moved to London, no – I never learned to snowboard. I am a failure. Why do we put ourselves under this unrealistic pressure?

It all comes down to superstition; if we have a bad new year’s eve, we’ll have a bad new year, surely. I think this is ingrained in us all, and leads us to the crippling idea that we HAVE to have an amazing night. After speaking to a few of my friends, they agreed; they want to have a good night; but don’t know how to anymore without getting the ‘fear’ of these unrealistic expectations.

Just to prove how silly New Year’s can get, some superstitions include:

1. ‘If you cry on New Year’s Day, for sad reasons, then you set the tone for a year’s worth of sadness and tears.’
Excellent – best try and forget the night before where your crush got off with your best mate then.

2. ‘You should open your doors or windows at midnight in order to let the old year leave and thus let the New Year enter your home and life.‘
You do know New Year happens in January right? As in, one of the coldest months of the year?

3. ‘if you lend someone money on the first day of the New Year, you will be loaning money out to people all year.‘
That’s ok – we’re all broke by New Year’s anyway so we won’t have any money to lend!

4. ‘not kissing your loved one at midnight is sure to set you up for a year lacking in affection.‘
See #1.

5. ‘Forecast your fashion fortune in the coming months and wear a new outfit on New Year’s; double your luck by wearing something in red.‘
Well that’s easy! Phew. We all know THE colour of this winter is red. Better make it a red coat with loads of pockets if you’re going to be opening all those windows and lending all that money!

So how are you spending New Year’s? Frantically trying to find your perfect dress? Or couldn’t care less, and would rather sleep through the whole thing? Do let us know!

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Find The Right Christmas Presents – The Rise of Romance amongst Teens

What are the must-buy Christmas presents for kids this year?

According to the league tables that come out around this time of year, it’s a mix of old standards, slightly revised, and the usual array of electronic pets, games and action toys.

Monopoly has been revamped for its 75th birthday with some added graphics plus music and sound effects.

Barbie is out in various new guises.

Zhu Zhu pets have evolved from simple hamsters into some sort of action hero intergalactic combatant.This is perhaps apt for an animal renowned for its arts. It is also, of course, designed to make the toy more appealing to boys (there are, inevitably, pink Zhu Zhu pets for girls).

In amongst the mix will surely be music-related gifts as pop groups appeal to a younger and younger audience. For pre-teen girls, this year it’s Justin Bieber or boy band Big Time Rush.

They feed on a sense of romance and boy next door approachability. Big Time Rush trill of just wanting to be your b-b-b-boyfriend. Justin Bieber with his carefully windswept look mines a similar vein – hits include Favorite Girl and Love me – has become so omnipresent that Twitter is reported to have changed its trends algorithm to focus on most breaking items rather than most discussed in order to outwit the Bieber fans. The hype around Bieber has made him so annoying, mainly to old people, that he was recently the victim of hackers 4 chan who responded to his plea for fans to tell him which country to tour first by voting to send him to North Korea.

The passion that these boy men inspire in pre-teen girls is scary to behold and, like their passion for most things, tends to last only five minutes before they move to en masse to the next big thing – One Direction?

What is their purpose but to act as a bridge between cuddly electronic dogs and Miley Cyrus, post Hannah? For girls brought up on a froth of pink and told incessantly that they are princesses these boy singers play into the romantic ideal of handsome prince coming to sweep them off their feet. What kind of unrealisable expectations are all these promises of undying love creating?

Then there are their girl singer role models. Taylor Swift, with her soft focus songs about girls waiting for their prince to rescue them from their loneliness, is the embodiment of the Disney princess ideal.
Cheryl Cole is also being turned into a chocolate box version of herself. She is the Princess Diana of her generation, the good girl done wrong. At the same time, however, girls are being exposed at a younger and younger age to highly sexualised versions of “femininity”, Cole’s erstwhile band, Girls Aloud, being a case in point. The conflicting messages, both rammed at them with incredible force via mass marketing, cannot help but confuse both them and everyone else, particularly boys.

There appears to be very little space in between for something different and for role models who actually have something to say. Lady Gaga is one of the few singers who at least appears to play around with her image and attempts to provoke some sort of thinking process, even if she is feeding on years of other women singers who have done similar things. Lily Allen has also shown some attempt to question how she is portrayed and to have some semblance of personality.

Princess and porn star are perhaps easier to sell because they play to very simple stereotypes, but what effect do they have away from the glitz and glam in the real world of children’s relationships with each other? What is their impact on how girls feel about themselves when they grow up and realise that they are not princesses and that the supposed glamour of pornography as typified by Jordan is actually a mask for something that is unlikely to bring them any sense of wellbeing or fulfillment.

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We Went To The London Girl Geek Dinner To Learn How To Speak Out!

As someone who hates and avoids as much as possible any form of public speaking, I decided to attend the ‘Speaking Out!’ talk held by Girl Geek Dinners on 23^rd November.

Girl Geek Dinner is a group of cool chicks working in IT related sectors, aiming at “uniting, supporting, learning and having fun as a female in the tech industry.”

Their most recent event, and the first Girl Geek Dinners event I’ve ever attended, invited 3 great speakers with successful careers in the tech industry who gave us a lecture on public speaking. They covered topics like tips for not only getting over nerves, but also feeling confident making presentations, or pitching business ideas, etc.

Claire Lee, the first speaker, a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft, shared insight as to how she became successful in such a male-dominated industry, among other things.

What I found to be the most useful information she shared with us, however, was that she used to be terrified of public speaking.

Watching her stand confidently before us, it was hard to believe that at any time public speaking was something she really struggled with, but she offered some advice (however obvious it may seem) that explained how she overcame her fear: you just have to put yourself out there and do it.

Literally deciding one day to no longer be a ‘shrinking violet’ and put yourself out there, is much simpler said than done, but sometimes the best advice really is that simple.

Both of the other speakers- Margaret Gold, director at Goldmobile Innovation, and Christian Heilmann, Developer Evangelist at Yahoo, offered equally helpful advice. Just watching the speakers themselves was a lesson in public speaking in itself, because although each one of them had different methods, they were all effective public speakers for different reasons.

Despite the speakers sometimes disagreeing with each other on the most effective public speaking methods, there was one thing which they all agreed upon: the best public speakers aren’t necessarily the most knowledgeable.

Good presentations were good because the speakers were:

a). passionate about what they were talking about and

b). they were just themselves and weren’t trying overly hard to impress.

Because when it comes down to it, likability is often one of the most important factors in how we determine whether we think a speech or lecture was effective or not.

Finding ways to relate the information to a personal story or experience is always key in connecting with your audience.

This is actually good news, because it eliminates the need for hours of over planning and preparation that many sometimes think is necessary for a good presentation (this doesn’t mean you don’t need to do your homework, just that the hours of trying to memorize your presentation isn’t necessary).

The bad news is, listening to presentations about public speaking won’t actually make me a better speaker, only practice will do that…

What do you think makes a good public speaker? Any tips? Let me know your thoughts…

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Men and Xmas Presents: Tips to Pass On To Your Loved Ones…

I have a friend who is excellent at buying gifts, wrapping gifts and somehow making you feel extra special with the way he even writes the gift tag. His Christmas presents are not only beautiful, but well thought out and seeped in obvious time investment and purchase enjoyment.

Getting a present from him is in many ways as exciting as the gift itself, but sadly, he’s not my husband who is known among his friends for once buying an ex-girlfriend an electric razor for Christmas, because he says, ‘She was always moaning about her hairy legs!’

Every year my husband claims to be terrified that I am going to hate what he buys me, and so he either gets me to tear a picture out of a magazine and Google map the shop address or says, ‘Let’s not do gifts this year’.

To my knowledge I have never turned my nose up at any gift he has bought me, or sent one back, but in his mind I am a woman who is hard-to-buy-for.

This, I am reliably informed by another male friend, is because I am, like many women (including his ex-girlfriend) – ‘high maintenance, dressed as low maintenance’.

Meaning I say I’d be happy with anything, but really that’s a bare-faced lie!

A quick straw poll of my friends’ partners seems to point the same way. ‘It’s impossible to know what you women want,’ says one man who begs to remain anonymous, ‘because really what you want is something you would buy yourself’, which I agree would make buying a present somewhat difficult.

So if your partner/husband/boyfriend is stressed out about buying you a present this year, and you don’t want to be stuck with lap dancer lingerie, or a present that you secretly want to re-gift, here are my top tips for buying-women-gifts… Do feel free to pass on to your loved ones before the big day.

> Don’t buy a present for me, that’s really for you

> Don’t buy personal hygiene gifts

> Don’t buy me the same thing as last year

> Avoid any gifts that hint at self improvement

> Do wrap your gifts (extra tip most shops will do it for you)

> Don’t get your mum (or mine) to buy it – I will find out and be VERY peeved

> Do listen to my present hints

Never ever listen to your friends ‘great’ ideas

And it really as easy as that! So how does your man fare on the present buying front? Is he a marvel, or a disaster, I’d love to know.