Vote for The Mind Reels

I thought I was done with cliques and popularity contests when I graduated from high school. Silly me. I didn't yet know about the Greek system. Or the corporate world. And just when I thought I had those milieus figured out, the Internet came along.

Please help me find a seat at the online version of the cool kids' table by voting for me in the blogger's choice awards:



Caveat: I'm nominated in the Hottest Mommy Blogger award not because I think I'm hot (I know what I look like when I wake up in the morning, and it's not Angelina Jolie), but because:

1. I didn't think I'd have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Best Parenting Blog, what with Finslippy and all.
2. I write about sex. A lot.
   
3. The cool kids in high school (or college, for that matter) would never in a million years have expected me to become a sex writer.

So here it is, in a nutshell: You can help me overcome years of bowl haircuts, glasses, braces, being the smart girl, having a Farrah Fawcett hairstyle, and being an overweight co-ed with a Dorothy Hamill 'do. And give me something to talk about at the next reunion.

Next up: My nominations for the world's worst parents, and my return to Human Pinchushion status.

Another milestone reached (Silicon Valley edition).

The scene: The curb outside my son's daycare. I was about to start my ignition when my son piped up from the back seat. "Apple! Apple!" he said. I looked in the direction he was pointing. No apple. Only car.

And then I saw it.

The white Apple Computer sticker in the rear window of the car in front of us.

Toddler developmental milestone reached: Logo Recognition.

I didn't know whether to be proud ("My son can recognize corporate logos. Can yours? No? Oh, I'm soorrrrryyyy..."), or deeply frightened. Because other than a single iPod, we don't own a single Apple product.

The happiest robo-tot on the block.

Scientists at Osaka University in Japan have developed a robot that acts like a toddler in order to "better understand child development."

No word on whether the Child-Robot with Biomimetic Body (CB2 for short) will have authentic toddler tantrums, or whether that particular feature will have to wait for Toddler 2.0.

You know, I'm for anything that helps me understand my toddler better. But I dunno...I just find CB2 kind of...well, creepy. And I feel like a big meanie for saying that.

(AP photo by Koji Ueda, courtesy of SiliconValley.com.)