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How sad I was to wake up this morning to a sleeping Kindle that wouldn't revive, no matter how hard I tried. I called Kindle's support line and was greeted in less than a minute by Susan. Susan showed genuine empathy for my dead Kindle. She walked through me a couple of steps I had already tried, and Harriet Beecher Stowe still wouldn't go away. After a couple of perfunctory questions (did you drop him, apply too much pressure - "sometimes I hug him but I don't think I overdo it"), Susan ordered a new Kindle be sent to my house by overnight delivery, right in time for me to take this new boyfriend on a trip next week. Now that's good business.

Livestrong.com is a website for people serious about improving their health and fitness. I used this to keep track of my eating habits, calories and exercise. It was easy and gave me insight into what I was doing well and not so well (as in, ease up on the avocado smoothies). The best part is that the website doesn´t bombard you with junk email. There are periodic emails that come with information, but the articles are actually engaging, and more importantly, short!

This website seems useful. I have some more months of living outside of the U.S., and where I am, the latest or more independent films aren't available in the theaters or stores. So if I run into reviews of movies that I'd like to see, I generally try to remember (and generally fail) or add it to my Netflix queue right then and there. I guess this website does the work for me, syncing to my Netflix and adding to my queue as I see and click. So... now I'm writing this review to remember to use this website to remember which films I want to watch. Huh.

I'm devoted to last.fm but decided to give songza.fm a try. There's something I like about it but I can't pinpoint just what that is. The interface is super simple and some of the songs come with the appropriate, accompanying Youtube video. There are basically no frills, and if you just want to hear your favorite bands streaming, then songza may be a good resource.

I love TED (stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design but has moved beyond just those perspectives). TED believes in "Ideas Worth Spreading" and presents various talks, all available online, by geniuses and leaders on different topics. Every speaker has an idea, invention or innovation to share, and I find each one utterly fascinating, even if they come from perspectives I've never even considered. If you like Charlie Rose, Democracy Now, NPR, etc you might like TED. An excellent and engaging talk (and one of my favorites) is one by Sir Ken Robinson on how schools kill creativity in children: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Isokineticsinc.com is a place to get products for exercise, rehabilitation, or in my case, for children with special needs. They have great things like therabands, balance boards, hand exercisers, easier to catch slow-motion balls, etc. I bought 6 balance cushions (at an extremely reasonable price) for my school. The company sent me several emails to update me on the status of my order, and the 6 cushions came 3 business days later by FedEx. The cushions are of excellent quality and Isokinetics will be a company I use in the future for procuring equipment for my kids' sensory needs.

I recently ordered from cvs.com a couple of simple things that I needed and couldn't get in Guatemala. It was an easy transaction online and everything came on time and as described.

I have yet to find a website to replace this ill-designed resource for films. It's the first thing that I think to go to when I want to find out who was in what, or what film is that again? There's no easy way to cross-reference actors so winning that Kevin Bacon game takes more work than it should. Additionally, everything about the appearance and organization of IMDB is wrong. There is nothing else that I find useful about it, except that once I almost was able to obtain "MTV's 25 lamest" episode from another user. However that fell through and I continue my life-long search.

I discovered the Improvd line from a MyHabit sale, and it was love at first viewing. Different shades of grays, blacks, and darker hues of colors... soft cotton or jersey fabrics blended with mesh... draping, cowl necks, subtle asymmetry... slightly avant-garde... most importantly patternless and simple. All elements that I value in my clothes. I bought a couple pieces from the MyHabit sale but continue to monitor for deals on their stuff through the flash sale sites and places like Nordstrom and Saks Fifth.

As far I'm concerned, Kottke is probably the only blog I need to follow. I've tried Dooce (too personal) and also follow Swiss Miss (too specific) and Brain Picker (too much noise sometimes). Kottke's clean and pretty eclectic without getting too hipster-on-my-nerves. He gives me the information and interesting factoids that I need, in small, not drawn out doses. Where else would I have discovered Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan doing dueling Michael Caine impressions? http://kottke.org/10/11/dueling-michael-caine-impressions

I use Mint.com for the simplest of reasons - to keep track of my accounts without needing to log into each one. I used Quicken years ago but was never diligent enough to keep up with my budget, etc. With the Mint app, I can more easily stay on track, I think / hope. Surely there are features that I'm missing out on right now, but I'm sure I'll find them with due time. For now, I appreciate how easy it is to use the tools offered on the site!

I use this site to purchase gift certificates for my sister. Nordstrom is one of her favorite places to get shoes, and with a gift certificate, she can get what she pleases. Ordering doesn't call for registration (which is nice, for a change), and delivery is prompt.

I love jewelry but I generally hate to shop. My sister told me about this website, started by Kate Bosworth and one of her 'stylist to the stars' friends (I know, it makes me laugh just to write that term). It's one of those membership sites where you pay $30 a month and can pick one piece of jewelry to be delivered to you. If you don't want something that month, you just say no thanks, and nothing gets charged. If you forget to choose, then the credit rolls over to the next month... there are stipulations that you need to read, of course. There's also a 'style profile' (another term that makes me laugh) that tells the website what you might like in your jewelry showroom. The website is new, worth checking out for the ladies. My sister received hers for the month and loves it.

Update - I tried this for a couple months, and as the other ladies have reported, the jewelry doesn't last long. It's like H&M for jewelry, so I can go to Francesca's Collections for that.

This one's for all the ladies out there who go through hundreds of facial products looking for the one that makes you look japanese. Ahhh, the japanese part got you, right?

Japanese women are known for their beautiful pearl cream skin, and it's no wonder - they seem to use good products. Komenuka bijin is one of those lines that i love. The great thing about the website is that shipping is free if you order over $80 worth of products, and that's not hard to do since products range from $30ish and up, and all are worth getting, from skincare to haircare to bodycare.

Unfortunately i can't seem to obtain shiseido japan products for a reasonable price, and shu uemura is pretty good but not so spectacular. And even if shiseido japan were easily available (the only place i've found them was at the porter square food court in cambridge, in 2003), i think i'd still be loyal to komenuka bijin. Definitely plan on making my whole repertoire that when i return. Komenuka, i've made the mistake of leaving you before, out of parsimony, but never again.

Our school raised funds to donate to the Haiti Children's Relief Fund, and I accidentally made the payment to the Global Fund. Folks told me it was not a big deal, but I wanted the money to go where our students thought it would be directed so I called Save the Children. They fully understood my concern and redirected the funds the next day. As well as that, they sent me an email asking for the school's mailing address to send a certificate of gratitude (which arrived in the mail this week) to our 23 students for the $300 donation. Though it wasn't a large amount, in comparison to other organizations and individuals, Save the Children still made the time to make our students feel special for their contribution.

Find out where to recycle just about anything from paper to plastics to metal clothes hangers. I could even find out where to recycle polysterene (#6 plastic) at a location less than 4 miles from my house.

The speech therapy section of the Minnesota State University website (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster2/sptherapy.html) has a more than extensive list of speech and language therapy ideas. The list is so extensive that it can be overwhelming at times, but it covers every area of speech and language therapy of that you can think of: articulation, fluency, speech sounds, prosody, etc. It provides websites for more information about various speech/language difficulties, activities and interactive websites that can support your interventions. Really nice collection of sites that just could be organized to make it more manageable for teachers and therapists.

I was desperate to find an audio copy of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and didn't want to take the risk of downloading it from one of the many sites that are likely to be scams. So I decided to try Audible.com. With the "free 30-day trial", the $40 book would be free, and that I believe. However, when I discovered I would have to download an Audible manager and that would be the only way to listen to the book on my computer, I decided to bust out of that popsicle stand. To their credit, I was able to cancel my subscription easily. It should also be noted that there are other ways to listen to, on your phone, IPOD, etc., but as well, you have to download special audible software.

Stumbleupon.com is pretty much an overwhelming mess if you haven't gotten in on it at the ground level. I recently joined and, although I love discovering new and interesting websites, I didn't even know where to start. There are so many websites arranged on one page that it feels like clutter. The one thing that I do like is that the genres of music are broken up so that I can find the best rated indie music sites without much work.

Really? Another website with cool images? Is this because we no longer read and just like to look at pretty pictures? There's weheartit.com and imgfave. Now there's piccsy... though i'm not sure who came first. In any case, aren't we filled to the brim with sardonic or melancholic images and texts of cats in uncompromising situations (though i have to say i still like that) and people feeling lonely enough that their very existence makes you want to sleep for days? After a while of looking at this stuff, my brain feels kind of dead.