T N.

A friend of mine passed this site along to me. It's a great resource for beginning bi/multilingual learners and readers as all of the books are translated into a number of different languages. Of course Spanish is represented across the board, but you can also access books translated into Tagalog or Somali, for example. The site could be more intuitive and include more books, but this seems like a good start.

I've yet to encounter a more disorganized company than Verizon. In anticipation of my move, I called Verizon to activate high speed internet. Everything appeared to be fine, but I received a couple calls subsequently with different agents confused about the status of my order (supposedly the guy in the apartment hadn't canceled, though he had a confirmation number and all). Once that was settled, I received my installation package early and was delighted to be able to get hooked up on the first day of the move. However, to my dismay, I could not get connected. I spent that first night waiting 2 hours for representatives who were again confused as to the status of my order. One agent told me I had a business account while the business rep told me that wasn't the case. It was pretty ridiculous. On my fifth phone call with Verizon I finally was able to get a very nice gentleman named Santosh who tried his darndest to get me up and online…but to no avail. Before all that, however, he informed me that the name on the account was not even close to that which I gave him (I have no other name!) and that my account shows up as being a business account (which I thought was cleared up the first night).

In short what should take place without hitches (the DSL jack had already been set up and everything was ready to go) actually is taking hours on the phone and lost time at work. I know everyone gets down on AT&T, but I'd choose AT&T over Verizon in a heartbeat.

I was standing in line at Duane Reade listening to a mother talk to her daughters about older people needing glasses to help them read menus, as an example, when the woman behind me pulled a tiny frame case out and said, "Like these!" She opened this tiny case to reveal a pretty stylish pair of reading spectacles that folded in half. Even the pre-teenage girls commented that the glasses were nice and about the smallest they'd ever seen. They looked pretty stylish to me so I asked the woman where she got them. She said myspex.com --- good to note in case the parents need something like this in the near to distant future...

Scribd.com used to be a great website when you could download books and resources. Enter the New York Times, which called the website out in May in an article about books' being illegally uploaded. Since then, the site has become a dumping ground for college essays and second-rate novels. However, for my educator purposes, I can sometimes find good materials like activity books for the kids or resources about autism for Spanish-speaking parents.

Madewell clothes and shoes are just as the name suggests - made well. The clothes are a sort of cross between JCrew and Anthropologie, with more like Club Monaco or even TopShop sorts of prices. The store itself is way too overwhelming for me to go into -- it's a bit like Urban Outfitters meets Abercrombie (yeah, it can be bad, especially the Soho store). Since I more or less know my sizes here, shopping online is a whole lot more pleasant. Everything's super easy and reliable. There's a flat $5 rate for shipping, no matter how much you get, so that's a perk.

As a serious creature of habit, I've owned the same style of gray New Balance shoes for nearly a decade now. And when it gets worn, I get another pair. Thank GOD New Balance never discontinues that style, so I can keep on keepin' on. I only wish New Balance made better RUNNING shoes. Compared to Asics, NB shoes perform pretty poorly in gravel terrain.

I'm going to have to write my first "hate it" review. Unfortunately I can sympathize with one of the reviewers who had his/her account held for seemingly no reason. This past week the same thing happened to me as I tried to pay my student loan bill before the due date. Paypal apparently thought that the fact that my paying my student loan, which I do every single month, was unusual and put a lock on it, with one requirement being that I send them a utility bill with my address. For what, I have no idea. My living in Guatemala makes this impossible, and the fact that it has now taken me 4 days to try to resolve this is just ridiculous. I think this may be my last transaction with Paypal, if I can help it.

I use Kiehl's lipbalm religiously - it's mild and moisturizes better than Chapstick or any other commercial brands. I keep tubs of it in various hotspots at home and in my car. When I get close to running out, I hop on kiehls.com and order myself a couple more.

When you date a man who plays sports in the dead of winter, you should know about Under Armour. This stuff is heavy duty gear, and it looks good too. It's much better to go into buying Under Armour already knowing the sizes since the stretch factor really plays a part in the fit. It could go either way (the size you normally wear or one size smaller). The Under Armour website is nice, though you could find some things for cheaper in stores (unless you're bent on a certain style, but this stuff goes under clothing). I needed to order from the website out of a hurry, and I got the items just in time to get it back to my then boyfriend.

Not only do I love the name of this "CutePDF" application but I love the function of it. The CutePDF writer turns any of my documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints, pictures into PDF files with just the click of my "print" button. There are a couple of CutePDF products on the website but I use only http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/Writer.asp (which is the only free one; there are trial versions of the other products). After you download the Writer application and converter and install/run it, a CutePDF printer is created on your computer (excuse my technical language inability). So whenever you're done with a document on Word, Excel, Powerpoint, whereever, you go to print it using CutePDF printer. Instead of actually printing the document, it's converted into a PDF file, just like that! The whole process, from downloading to creating PDFs is amazingly simple. I find CutePDF very useful when I have to send letters to parents and professionals via email.

Smashbox is probably my favorite line of cosmetics right now. I use their eye shadows, eyebrow tech (which is something I can't do without), lipsticks and lip liners / pencils. The shadow trios are a great combo and allows me to apply without needing to think about which colors go best together. The products for the lips go on smoothly and provide moisture at the same time. I haven't felt the need to change anything up thus far. I only wish their stuff would last a little longer during the day so that I wouldn't have to retouch. However, that might be expecting for a miracle.

Preferred over pandora - after finding that pandora really wasn't suggesting any particularly fresh or new bands, i turned to last.fm. Last is user-friendly and chock full of good bands and songs, without being repetitive in its suggestions. You can allow it access to your music folder and play songs straight on last.fm. Each new track shows you a couple of other bands you might like that aren't necessarily in your library yet. I've found a handful of new bands in one sitting, everything from chamber pop to folk to shoegazing to rock and on and on. Each piece of feedback that you provide, whether you love a track or ban it, seems to be taken into consideration.

Used this easily. Nice UI. Does a ton of other functions that seem useful. I'll have to remember to come back to this site.

I'm not exactly a hypochondriac but I am a bit of a worrywart. So whenever I feel under the weather, you can bet that I'll be googling the symptoms while contemplating my life with [whatever life-threatening illness you can think of]. WebMD has been okay, but I don't find that it really puts me at ease. If anything, it makes me even more paranoid. Freemd.com is a pretty new website, I *think*, that allows you to interact with it to enter your symptoms and have the program spit out what it thinks might be wrong and what your options are in dealing with it. There are a handful of check-ups, also, that allow you to answer questions and get the doctor's analysis of whether or not you have said condition and what you should do about it (for example, see a doctor or go to an emergency room immediately). The website is really pretty nicely designed, easy to follow and has a multi-sensory element of a corresponding video of the doctor in charge.

I love my Dell laptop as well as how easy it was to find the laptop I needed on dell.com. However, what I didn't love was the fact that the shipping kept getting pushed back to the point where my laptop took over 3 weeks to arrive. However, everything was intact upon arrival. I do have to comment that Dell customer service has been incredible, the last few times I've had to use it with my older laptop. When that laptop had an issue, Dell sent me a new harddrive, no questions asked. That arrived quickly, and shipping to return the old harddrive was completely free.

Woot.com sells one item a day until that item sells out or until the day is over. Usually the former happens first because the things they sell are pretty neat and are sold at very cheap prices. I've had friends buy from here, and things always come as advertised and on time. The woot community is helpful, and the owners seem like honest, likable characters who report that they predict profitability by 2043.

Edited 12/31/14: Since my original post in 2011, I've used AirBnB 5 times easily and successfully in 5 different cities both in the U.S. and abroad. I'd probably use this site before trying to find any hotel. Seems like I just knew how to look for the right places/people.

2011: AirBnB is great in theory - rent from or rent out your apartment to travelers who need a couple days to a couple weeks of housing in a city. The site also looks fantastic, especially as compared to Couchsurfing, which feels like a dirty forum. You find the place you want to book (making sure the host looks like s/he's not going to murder you, selecting the accommodations that are to your liking, etc.) and then you wait for the other person to respond to your request. Your credit card isn't charged until after the fact.

However, what you end up getting is this - the people who are more likely to respond to you are charging up the wazoo for their place. One woman wanted $3400 for the month that I was looking to stay in NYC. Then there are specifications like you have to stay a month or you can't stay longer than 5 days, so it gets tedious dealing with their little conditions. The people that you are interested in won't respond to you at all. Terribly annoying.

My friend Judy introduced me to this website tonight, and it was basically love at first sight. The idea is that you have your own virtual pinboard (or corkboard) and, with the Pinterest application, can pin any picture to your board that you please. The board goes on forever, for as much space as you need. You can have different boards for different interests. Your friends/strangers can repin the image, comment and like whatever you pin. You can peruse strangers' pinboards and find cute new outfits or exciting ideas for hobbies or your home. The site is by invitation only, and apparently it takes time to be invited -- I find that a bit heavy-handed, but it won't stop me from jumping up and down when I get my invite...

I was a Newegg virgin up until a week ago when I placed an order for four cameras for my school. Of course I'd heard that Newegg was unbeatable in terms of its selection of new and refurbished goods as well as in its service. So it was no surprise that I also had an easy shopping experience. The cameras came in tip top condition.

Raz-kids allows teachers to easily create homework and an incentive for reading. Linked to Readingatoz.com (they share some of the same books also), Raz-kids allows you and students to see/hear the book read out loud, to record yourself reading (with vocabulary and pronunciation help), to print some worksheets linked to the book and to take an online quiz. As a teacher, you can see your students' progress charts, quiz scores, etc. When the students complete all their tasks, they get points which can be used to "buy" things for their "raz rocket".

Assigning the work can be tricky, as there's a lot of clicking around to be done (you choose the sequence, which can be time-consuming if you individualize instruction like we do). And at about $80 a year, this is also expensive but worth it if you want to encourage reading and help kids learn that homework can be fun too.