Failblog Fun!

...is for FAIL Blog, just for fun!

This is one of my kids' favorite websites, and today at noon, the FAIL Blog Community Names Justin Bieber the Prince of FAIL in 2010!

From a failed Segway getaway to a driving test meltdown and a run-in with a revolving door, the FAIL Blog community today ranked Justin Bieber as the Prince of FAIL in 2010. With a landslide win of nearly 50 percent of the votes, Justin Bieber beat out MTV’s train wreck, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, as well as Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson.  

“When you’re the planet’s biggest teen sensation, nominated for a Grammy, and Barbara Walters calls you one of this year’s most fascinating people -- surely someone out there will capture you in FAIL moments,” said Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger Network of humor sites that includes I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, and The Daily What. “Justin Bieber seems to appreciate humor, so hopefully he’ll wear this crown with pride knowing that a few Bieber FAILS gave us a fun opportunity to laugh at someone else’s misfortune.”

Of course it wouldn’t be a complete FAIL list without ranking the FAIL Blog videos submitted by fans from around the world highlighting average people doing dumb things. The winner in the Top 10 FAIL Blog videos for 2010 is the Watermelon Launch FAIL – footage from the reality TV show, The Amazing Race, where a woman takes a watermelon in the face with a giant slingshot. Answering Your Phone in Class FAIL ranks second and Roller Coaster Vomit FAIL follows closely behind.

Here are the Top 10 funniest gaffes and craziest antics that happened around the world in 2010 according to the FAIL Blog community:

Top 10 Most Memorable FAIL People:
1.Justin Bieber 44%
2.Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi 10%
3.Tiger Woods 8%
4.Mel Gibson 7%
5.Lindsay Lohan 5%
6.Bristol Palin 5%
7.Mike Sorrentino (aka “The Situation”) 4%
8.The Kardashians 4%
9.Brett Favre 4%
10.Miley Cyrus 3%

Honorable mentions: Each receiving 2 percent of the votes were Charlie Sheen, Jesse James, and Paris Hilton.

Top 10 Most Memorable FAIL Moments:
1.BP Oil Spill 34%
2.Jessi Slaughter’s Dad Goes Ballistic 8%
3.Lincoln Park Rapist 8%
4.The Farmville Murderess 7%
5.No Snow at the 2010 Winter Olympics 5%
6.The iPhone Hates Left Handed People 5%
7.Katy Perry’s Video Gets Banned on Sesame Street 5%
8.The Sex Line on OchoCinco’s Cereal Box 4%
9.The Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien NBC Debacle 4%
10.Meg Whitman tries to out FAIL Blog 4%

Honorable mentions: Each receiving 3 percent of the votes were “The Woman Who Married Herself in Thailand”, “Tiger Woods’ Sort of Apology”, “Robert Green’s Error at the World Cup”, and “The McNugget Rampage in Toledo”. In at 2 percent were “The Toyota Recall” and “Scientists Call Shenanigans on the Triceratops”.

Top 10 Most Memorable Videos and Photos on FAIL Blog:
1.Watermelon Launch FAIL 34%
2.Answering Your Phone in Class FAIL 13%
3.Roller Coaster Vomit FAIL 9%
4.Stripper FAIL 7%
5.Handwashing FAIL 7%
6.Ghost Ride FAIL 6%
7.Elephant FAIL 5%
8.Orchestra FAIL 5%
9.Rock Band FAIL 5%
10.Tattoo Recipient FAIL 5%

Honorable mention: “Dirty Dancing FAIL” received 4 percent of the votes.

Educational (but still fun!) Books for Christmas!

is for Educational!

Wait, where are you going?! Hey, come back here!

Seriously, educational gifts can be fun, too! You just have to sort through to find the best ones, the ones that align with your spouses, or child's, or friend's, or relative's interests!

Yes, I know, easier said than done.

Which is why I am here to help you! It's okay. I'll talk you through this.

So, when I was a kid, my parents Santa Claus used to leave comic books and paperbacks in our stockings. This was absolutely brilliant, because the rule was that, on Christmas morning, we could all attack our stockings BEFORE waking Mom and Dad (but none of the presents that Santa left under the tree).

So, we'd eat the odd candy or two, unwrap a small toy or pull out a (yay!) dollar bill, and then there'd be something to read. And we'd invariably open that up and at least read a page or two, and sometimes a whole chapter or an entire comic book, before we went in to wake up Mom and Dad.

That's right, they ended up with about another additional extra half hour's sleep with that little trick. Santa's pretty clever, isn't he?

So I like books as presents, and those are often educational as well.

One of my favorites each year is the Ripley's Believe it or Not and Guinness Book of World Records editions. My grandfather, bless his heart, used to always tell us stories about the tallest man in the world, and how he could wear a child's bracelet as a ring on his finger, and how Grandpa met this man at some time in his life. He LOVED the Guinness Book of World Records.

And the kids love Ripley's, because there is always something gross and/or bizarre in each edition.  So I can recommend both of those books, which have editions available at Amazon.com.

This year, I also had two new books that looked promising, Puzzle Baron's Logic Puzzles and World's Best Origami, to review in the Educational category.   

Logic puzzles are really great for keeping your mind active.


You know how these kinds of puzzles work, right? 


You are given a situation (picking one randomly from the book: a group of people running a race) and then a series of clues (all the racers come from different schools, each school has a colored uniform, and the one in red finished behind the racer from this school, etc.). 


I like the way Puzzle Baron's Logic Puzzles puts up charts so you can organize the information, fill in the chart and figure out a solution to each problem. This would have really helped me in school, and I think it would be great at teaching kids to organize their thoughts, eliminate unlikely solutions and come to the correct one through a process of logical deduction. +1 for getting kids to think! Also recommended for adults, especially anyone you know who likes Sudoku or brain puzzles. I'm thinking of putting one of these in the Engineer's stocking! (Puzzle Baron's Logic Puzzles is $10.17 at Amazon.com).

Unfortunately, I really can't wholeheartedly recommend World's Best Origami, though. This is because I feel that some of the directions are confusing. I tried out a few of the origami projects in the book, for instance, (to be fair, there are LOTS of projects in the book), first, a bird, and then a pig. Both of these are "Level 1" difficulty projects. I found the Bird quite easy to do. But with the Pig, I ran into difficulties with just the third step! Not only could I not figure out what I was supposed to do (it called for "sliding" the "right" edge of a basically equilateral triangle into the "left edge" layers), I called in my 17 year-old, and the Owl couldn't figure it out, either!


Okay, so that was frustrating, but that alone was not enough for me to give the whole book a bad review, though I did question the "Level 1" difficulty of the projects. I know I am not always the best at crafts.


No, what really curbed my enthusiasm for the World's Best Origami book was that, in trying to figure out how to complete the Pig origami project, I went online, hoping to see someone fold it in a video--and Every. Single. Video. I found used a different technique from the one in the book,  and they all used the same technique as each other, which makes me wonder why the book went in a completely different direction, one which, in my mind, made it more difficult to do. 


Add on to that the fact that I feel most kids would want to jump around, from project to project, doing the ones they found most interesting. I just can't see many kids sticking through to the more difficult ones if the Level 1 difficulty frustrated them they way it did me. So, no recommendation for me on this book. However, Amazon reviewers had different opinions, and you can check those out here.

I received both of these books to facilitate my review, but no other compensation for their inclusion in this guide, and my opinion is mine and mine alone.

Hickory Farms Giveaway Winner!

Announcing the winner of our Home for the Holidays giftbox from Hickory Farms!

I know you've all been waiting for this one. It was hugely popular, and I only wish I could have kept the giveaway going a little longer because I know some of you didn't get those entries in on time (shame on you! Now go enter the Diary of a Wimpy Kid or DealPop USA giveaways RIGHT NOW!).

So, without further ado, the winner, chosen by Random Integer Generator as usual, is....

Commenter #59!

And boy, did this commenter want that giftbox! She subscribed, she blogged, she did it all and it paid off!

Here's the winning comment, in a series of comments left by this user:

the Crave to Save said...

http://tctsgiveawayroundup.blogspot.com/2010/12/hickory-farms-giveaway.html

blogged 5
gina.m.maddox (at) gmail.com

Congratulations, Crave to Save! I'll be emailing you for your shipping info so the sponsor can get that Hickory Farms Home for the Holidays giftbox right out to you!

DealPop USA Giveaway!

is also for DealPop!

DealPop USA lines up great deals for you, a different one every day, so you don't have to search all over the internet to find the best prices on holiday gifts you want. And DealPop USA will still be around once the holidays are over to help you keep saving year-round.

For example, Here is today’s Deal for DealPop USA:

Thursday, December 9th: Nikki's Cookies only $15 for $40 worth of cookies made from generations-old homemade recipes, and holiday specialties. 

Note: Here's how it works: Go to DealPop USA to get the daily deal, print up your voucher and take it to your local restaurant, club, theater or store to redeem!

Want an even BETTER deal? Use the code DEALPOPHOLIDAY through 12/24 for an additional 15% off!  

DealPop is also offering one lucky Cool Moms Rule! reader $15 in a giveaway just for us! To enter, leave a comment below the post. Ends 12/16/10.

Additional Entries:

• Follow coolmomsrule on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway.
• Tweet about our Hickory Farms Giveaway or our Diary of A Wimpy Kid giveaway or BOTH (3 extra entries EACH!).
• Subscribe to our feed or follow Cool Moms Rule! blog with Google friend connect (check the sidebar).
• Put our Holiday Gift Guide badge (middle sidebar) on your blog sidebar (3 extra entries!).
• Blog about this post (3 extra entries!).

That's a total of FIFTEEN entries you could have to win $15 from DealPop!

Good luck!

DVDs and Decorations for the Holidays!

is for DVDs and Decorations!

I know we've already covered Bluray videos, but I also know that not everyone is married to an Engineer technophile, so how about...

A custom holiday DVD created just for your child?  This site will let you make your own personalized Santa DVD.

Here's a trailer to show you just how easy it is.

Recommended for kids ages 2-8.

Or, if you just want to curl up on the sofa with some hot chocolate, popcorn and a good flick, NBC's Universal Studios store has holiday DVDs on sale, for two days only, 3/$30!  You'll find everything from Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas all the way back in time to the holiday classic, Holiday Inn.

Or you can head over to Barnes and Noble online, where you can find this year's hottest movies for kids: Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After and Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, all on sale. Accept their offer of a free trial membership and you'll also receive Free Express Shipping on every order! I'm a B&N Member myself, since we have a local store, and save up to 40% off new bestsellers, get coupon offers for their in-store cafe, and lots of other benefits, so I personally recommend that option.

Now, on to Decorations!

Michael's has you covered for the holidays, with their Christmas project ideas. I usually opt for the simplest in decorating inside, like some hanging garlands and wreaths and of course the Christmas tree. Outside is the Engineer's piece de resistance, the oak tree, which he COVERS in white Christmas lights, extending up the trunk of the tree and up and out the longest, thickest branches to extend almost to the roof of the house. Every Christmas, it seems like there are more strands lighting up that tree. We even had the power go out one year! He's pretty cagey about it, too, but I can see those new empty light boxes in the trash can. ; P

Anyway, if you are craftier than I am, Michael's has a coupon for 50% off Martha Stewart Craft items through December 24th.

You can also dress up other rooms in the house in simple ways, like this holiday hand towel project from the woman behind the Bowdabra. Have you seen this contraption? They have it at Walmart, and of course online, and it helps klutzy folks like me tie bows that look all pretty.

Full project instructions for the Holiday Hand Towel can be found in this free, downloadable ebook.

Real Simple has decorating ideas that run the gamut from simply tying ribbons around champagne flute stems (because of COURSE we all have champagne flute stems sitting around anyway) to setting up five-foot bamboo plant stakes(!) on either side of your fireplace and, "light up your room with twinkling topiaries." I don't know, that doesn't sound "Real Simple" to me. Trimming the mantle with white votives and flowers is a nice one. Of course, I don't have a fireplace, hence no mantle, so that *could* be a problem, too.

But! There's 30 ideas in all. So what I am getting at here is that there's bound to be at least one that appeals to you. For instance, tying ornaments to napkins with curling ribbon? Yes, that's a good one. Or putting vintage ornaments (read: old silver, red and green balls you don't like any more) on a cake stand with some silk leaves. Easy-peasy.

One decorating craft I like for kids (both to make and to help eat when it is done) is a Candy Christmas Wreath.  There's a great video on YouTube, from Jill Cooper of Living on a Dime, that shows making one from a coat hanger.

I have also seen them made with HALF a hanger for kids (how much candy do you really need, after all?) or a wire craft hoop (as recommended by Martha), or even a wooden embroidery hoop covered with paint or green floral tape to look nicer once the candy is gone.

Now, when Martha Stewart makes one, naturally she color-codes the candy in alternating rings and all of that, but the main thing is to buy candies in wrappers with tied ends, like Sweeties, tootsie rolls, Jolly Ranchers, peppermints or butterscotches, so that you can easily attach them to the wreath.

I also like including scissors, hanging from the wreath by a ribbon (use kids' scissors if you want to be all Safety First about it or, you know, if you actually have kids). Then you can hang the wreath on the front door. If you wait a second after you hear a knock knock knock (Penny? Penny? Penny?*), you can catch your guests with incriminating wrappers in their hands and mouths full of candy when you open the door. ; )

For the dining room, pine cones or pine boughs with candles make for a pretty winter centerpiece.

What I do is buy some green florist's foam and a big round candle, like the kind with 3 wicks. You cut out a small hole from the foam, just slightly smaller than the candle, and then kind of screw the candle into the indentation you've made, so it fits firmly. Then you take evergreens (if you have a real Christmas tree, save the pine branches you trim off when you shape the tree), and stick them around the candle.  You can also lay all the pieces out on a decorative platter or tray (or hey, use that cake stand idea from Real Simple, or you could use a hurricane glass in the center). For a finishing touch, spray the whole centerpiece with artificial snow! The DIY Show Off has some lovely examples of centerpieces, like the one to the left.

*Big Bang fans will get this joke. Why yes, I am a geek.