Conan O’Brien Launches TeamCoco.com to Spread the Word of 30-City Tour

Conan O’Brien isn’t just going to take his severance check from NBC and hide behind his Twitter; albeit changing a random girl’s life while basking in the glory of his internet-based fans. Conan has officially announced the next phase of his career and he swears, it’s half-assed.

TeamCoco.com was launched to promote Conan O’Brien’s upcoming 30-city comedy show that is said to be a night of music, comedy, hugging, and the occasional awkward silence. The tour will kick off in Eugene, Oregon and end in Atlanta, Georgia (at the time of writing this post.)

Are you excited about Conan going on tour? Will you be attending one of his shows?

Temptation is Beautiful Sweepstakes: Your Chance to Win Amazing, Tempting Prizes

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of KAO Brands. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have spoken about my slight (okay, maybe a little more than slight) obsession with bath and body products here before; so when I heard about the Temptation is Beautiful sweepstakes, I was more than just a little excited.

The Temptation is Beautiful sweepstakes began March 10th and every day up until May 8th a lucky winner who has successfully registered through the sweepstakes website will receive a gift basket full of tempting, luxurious Kao Brands products with a retail value of approximately $75. Those who successfully register will also be entered to win the grand prize of a 3 day/2night trip to Las Vegas for four; the package includes round trip air transportation, ground transportation, hotel accomodations and $1500 spending money with the approximate retail value of $6,000. That is amazing!

This sweepstakes is so unbelievably simple to enter; all you have to do is register on the official website and this sweepstakes is open to US residents (sorry beauty product fanatics of other countries, this giveaway is open only to US residents,) and you also must be 21 years of age or older to enter. While that is simple enough, you can enter to win the daily sweepstakes once per day and by entering every day, you will automatically be entered to win the grand prize trip to Las Vegas with three friends; so by the end of the sweepstakes period, you can have up to 60 entries for the grand prize sweepstakes! Even better, you can score up to four bonus entries into both sweepstakes prizes by taking a short, sweet and fun quiz, finding your Temptress Temperature (see my score below!) and sharing the results of the quiz with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.

Enter the Temptation is Beautiful sweepstakes daily for a chance to win a gift basket full of fabulous products and to be entered to win a trip to Las Vegas.

Hulu Users aren’t Impressed with the Return of Jay Leno

After Conan O’Brien clearly won the hearts and minds of the Internet when he announced he would be leaving NBC after they decided they had made a huge mistake by putting Jay Leno on prime time. But now that Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show is airing later and pulling in great ratings while Conan O’Brien joined Twitter to be amongst his people, the internet doesn’t seem to be letting up on Jay Leno anytime soon. Example A: Hulu.

Hulu users have added more than 441 tags to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’s page. There are more than 7 pages of adjectives to describe exactly how people feel about Jay Leno and subsequently, how people feel about Conan O’Brien no longer being on the air. Hulu users have tagged The Tonight Show with Jay Leno with terrible, unwatchable, must not see tv, go away jay, depressing, retirement home entertainment, vomit-inducing, and many other, much worse tags.

If anything, what this little demonstration has proven is that late night television audiences are really comprised of a few different generations who all latch onto the late night personality that best relates to their generation. This Hulu debacle really drives home the point that Jay Leno’s audience just really hasn’t caught on to how Hulu works yet and we can now all rest assured knowing that Conan O’Brien is truly with the people who loved him most now–on Twitter.

Conan O’Brien Joins His Fans on Twitter

When news first broke of Jay Leno being pushed back into late night by NBC, the masses began siding with Conan O’Brien, also affectionately known as “Coco.” He became the most popular he had been for what seemed like his entire career, as he faced unemployment from NBC.

While Conan was host of the Tonight Show for a mere 7 months, his popularity has not died down since we all tuned in to see his last show and it was only a matter of time until Coco came to join his fans on the internet–starting his very own twitter account.

@ConanOBrien became active on Twitter a mere 19 hours ago and since then his identity has been verified by Twitter and he has accumulated over 270,000 followers and has been listed over 6,000 times. He has only tweeted once since his account has become active, but that isn’t stopping his fans from flocking to his Twitter account.

Will you follow Conan O’Brien on Twitter? Do you think it’s about time he hopped on the Twitter bandwagon?

Kevin Smith Deemed Too Fat to Fly by Southwest Airlines

Kevin Smith boarded a Southwest Airlines flight last night from Oakland to Burbank. After his bag was up and he was seated (with the arm rests down), he was deemed a “safety risk” and thrown off the flight. While he did end up on another Southwest flight, he turned to Twitter to express his (reasonable and totally justified, in my opinion) anger.

The Kevin Smith vs. Southwest Airlines fire storm began with one Tweet from @ThatKevinSmith:

“Dear @SouthwestAir – I know I’m fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?”

And that was just the beginning. He went on to Tweet, “Dear @SouthwestAir, I flew out in one seat, but right after issuing me a standby ticket, Oakland Southwest attendant Suzanne (wouldn’t give last name) told me Captain Leysath deemed me a “safety risk”. Again: I’m way fat… But I’m not THERE just yet. But if I am, why wait til my bag is up, and I’m seated WITH ARM RESTS DOWN. In front of a packed plane with a bunch of folks who’d already I.d.ed me as “Silent Bob.”"

But that wasn’t all Southwest Airlines would hear from Silent Bob Kevin Smith. He got really, really pissed off and went on to tweet, “So, @SouthwestAir, go fuck yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no “safety risk” (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was wrongly ejected from the flight (even Suzanne eventually agreed). And fuck your apologetic $100 voucher, @SouthwestAir. Thank God I don’t embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don’t sulk off either: so everyday, some new fuck-you Tweets for @SouthwestAir. Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.”

Even though he was deemed a “safety risk,” he did end up boarding another flight with Southwest Airlines, completely disproving that whole “you’re a safety risk” sentiment, Kevin Smith still didn’t stop tweeting about his horrendous experience with Southwest Airlines and even took a picture of himself sitting on his later flight.

“Hey @SouthwestAir! Look how fat I am on your plane! Quick! Throw me off! http://twitpic.com/1340gw”

“The @SouthwestAir Diet. How it works: you’re publicly shamed into a slimmer figure. Crying the weight right off has never been easier!”

“Hey @SouthwestAir! I’ve landed in Burbank. Don’t worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.”

Southwest Airlines did eventually start tweeting back to Kevin Smith apologizing and wanting to make it up to him in some way:

“@ThatKevinSmith hey Kevin! I’m so sorry for your experience tonight! Hopefully we can make things right, please follow so we may DM!”

And here is where my love for Kevin Smith goes much, much, much deeper. In fact, my heart could just about explode from Smith’s next tweet:

“Hey @SouthwestAir? Fuck making it right for me just ’cause I have a platform. I sat next to a big girl who was chastised for not buying an extra ticket because “all passengers deserve their space.” Fucking flight wasn’t even full! Fuck your size-ist policy. Rude…”

Regardless of the jokes Kevin Smith made in the bulk of his tweets, such as saying the plane was opened and he was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised, the real core issue here is a size-ist policy that is enforced not just by Southwest Airlines, but by all airlines. There is also a little thing we like to call fat phobia that exists and is the product of an increasing amount of ignorance, not just by corporations and businesses, but by the people behind them and the people who use them.

Just because a person is big, fat, plus size or any other words commonly used to describe people who do not fit within the body image standards set forth by media and advertising companies directed at all people–women, girls and men alike, does not mean that it is okay to treat them any differently than you would treat someone who does, in fact, mirror corporate beauty. What we saw go down through Twitter between Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines was not a safety risk in the least and it was not a policy being enforced due to him compromising the comfort, safety or well-being of the fellow passengers. It was a series of Southwest Airlines employees demonstrating fat phobia and casting one person on the flight out and embarrassing and fat shaming that person for no reason. This is not a one-time case; stuff like this is happening to bigger people every single day and on all flights from all airlines. If anything, Kevin Smith spoke the truth for every single big person who has ever been singled out on an airline for no reason.

CEO of Sun Microsystems Tweets His Resignation

CEO of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz, has resigned and as only appropriate for a CEO of an IT company, he went out in style, tweeting his resignation. But it wasn’t just any old tweet, it was a full on tweet-haiku. Yeah, pretty awesome.

Schwartz has officially become the first Fortune 200 boss to tweet his resignation, which isn’t too big a surprise, considering he was the first chief executive of a major company to come out with a public blog of his own. He had also pushed the Securities and Exchange Commission to treat blogs the same as press releases and filings in matters of disclosing critical business matters to investors.

The reason behind Schwartz’s resignation is said to be because Sun was recently acquired by Oracle, which acquired the company after I.B.M. had moved to buy them out, but when negotiations came to a standstill, Oracle moved quickly to grab it. In an interview conducted last week with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, he had stated that he fully expects Schwartz to resign, rather than play a role in the new Sun/Oracle company.

While it is not well-known what is next for Jonathan Schwartz, he had stated in an e-mail that “with a few million businesses and a few billion consumers on the Web, rumor has it there are some interesting opportunities to be had.” and he is completely right; you never know what’s going to happen when it comes to an IT professional joining the ranks of the recently unemployed, but I’m sure the right company will snatch him up, perhaps a company with the same innovative ideas and mindset for the internet and blogging world.

Celebrities Giving Back: Helping Haiti

In the wake up the tragic earthquake that has left hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti dead and many more on the streets of Haiti in desperate need of life-saving aid, celebrities have stepped up to the plate in order to help the people of Haiti and also help spread the word about aid relief. If you’re want to know what you can do, we have already compiled a tidy list of worthwhile charities you can check out, all of whom are doing everything in their power to provide the relief that is desperately needed.

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[Images via INF Daily]

Giveaway: GladRags Color Pad Sampler

This giveaway is closed.

GladRags is a phenomenal, woman-owned company in Portland, Oregon. GladRags was started by a mother who was inspired by earth-friendliness and comfort and who expanded her business into what it is today–an awesome and respected business dedicated to giving women an alternative to disposable menstrual products.

Because disposable menstrual products are the norm, most women do not know that they contain harsh chemicals that are bad for your skin and bad for your body. Most women who hear about reusables are very skeptical when it comes to giving them a try; change is not something that is always welcome and why disrupt the way you go about dealing with your period every month? To show you just how comfortable they are and how once you try them, you’ll surely not go back to your disposables, we are giving away a Color Pad Sampler from GladRags! (a $75.99 value!)

To win the GladRags Color Pad Sampler visit GladRags.com and leave a comment telling us what product you would be most interested in trying. [REQUIRED]

For additional entries:
Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry.

• Leave a comment telling us one fact you learned from the GladRags Information Center
• Become a fan of GladRags on Facebook
• Follow @GladRags on Twitter
• Subscribe to Woman Tribune
• Follow @WomanTribune on Twitter
• Become a fan of Woman Tribune on Facebook
• Tweet about this giveaway (once daily)–Feel free to copy and paste the following tweet or make up your own:
  

  Win a @GladRags reusable pad sampler from @WomanTribune http://tinyurl.com/yjg8t5s Ends 1/6 #giveaway

  Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post as well as a link to GladRags.com and leave 5 comments for 5 entries with a link back to your post.

This contest ends Wednesday, January 6th at 11:59PM EST. This giveaway is open to all US residents over the age of 18. The winner will be contacted by email and has 48 hours to respond with their necessary information. If no action is taken, another winner will be picked.

Where the Wild Things Are Giveaway!

Where the Wild Things Are: The IMAX Experience opened Friday, October 16th and on Monday, October 19th, IMAX is launching a promotion just for their Facebook fans! Each day of that week, two lucky fans who put the Where the Wild Things Are crown on their profile picture and comment on the IMAX Wall will be entered to win an exclusive IMAX Where the Wild Things Are poster, book, and a pair of IMAX movie tickers! The crown image and full instructions will be released on the IMAX Fan Page on Monday!

But YOU have two extra opportunities to win now!

1. Enter the Where the Wild Things Are contest brought to you by the Global Influence.

Two readers across all participating Global Influence blogs will win a Where the Wild Things Are Prize Pack that includes:

• An adult Where the Wild Things Are T-shirt (size L or XL)
• A kids Where the Wild Things Are T-shirt (size L)
• A Where the Wild Things Are crown
• An exclusive Where the Wild Things Are IMAX poster
• Where the Wild Things Are book
• A pair of IMAX movie tickets

To Enter:

• Become a fan of IMAX on Facebook
• Fill out this secure document: http://bit.ly/1kjn8H

This contest ends Friday, October 23rd at 11:59pm EST and is open to all legal US residents age 18 years or older. Full official rules for the Facebook contest can be found here.

2. Join us Monday, October 19th from 9:00-10:00pm EST as we sitewarm the IMAX Facebook page with a Twitter party where even more prizes and tickets will be awarded during that event. All you have to do is tweet with the hashtag #IMAXwildthings any time during Monday night!

Add Some Style to the Wordpress Admin Panel

As anyone who uses Wordpress knows, the admin panel is a little rough on the eyes. It’s the same blend of blues and greys, it never changes and if you get sick of looking at the ‘fresh’ design that was released with Wordpress 2.5 the only other option you have is the vintage Wordpress look, which is even worse than the fresh look.

If you’re like me, you know that change is good, especially when it comes to sites you look at every day. We all need to change it up a little bit every now and then, which is why sites like MySpace have so many free template sites and the same goes for Blogger and Wordpress design templates, why sites like Plurk and Twitter allow you to change the look of your profile, and so on. People do not want to be forced to look at the same thing over and over again. This also applies to the Wordpress Admin section. I know that I spend countless hours every week working on my websites; the amount of hours I put in on my websites are the equivalent of two full time jobs, not even factoring in the fact that I also work a full time job from home. With a “job” that you spend up to 80 hours a week on, looking at the Wordpress admin panel while you go about your website work can get a little sore on the eyes and very repetitive.

Pressing Pixels thought the same thing and decided to make a plugin to change the look of your Wordpress admin panel–Wordpress Custom Admin Branding.

The Wordpress Custom Admin Branding plugin is a great plugin and makes logging into your Wordpress panel again and again a little more refreshing than it would be normally. Here’s a look at what Woman Tribune’s Wordpress now looks like:

With this plugin, there are three separate parts of the Wordpress admin panel that may be changed with an image of your choice–The login screen, the header and the footer, as you can see to the left here. The plugin works with all Wordpress installations, I’m currently running Wordpress 2.6.1, which you can also see in the footer image, and the plugin works perfectly without any tweaking.

I definitely recommend this plugin for anyone who is sick of looking at the same old Wordpress admin panel. Download the plugin here.