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OMG, LOL!!! How to Convey Tone In Email Without Seeming Childish

02/14/2013 By 111 Comments

How do you convey tone in email without seeming childish or girlish?  Can you ever use exclamations in emails?  Reader C wonders…

I’m hoping you can address the issue of using !’s in emails at work. As we all know, tone is hard to convey properly via email. However, whenever I am inclined to use an ! to convey a positive tone, I get the sense that it actually reads as childish or immature. I also never seem to notice men using !’s in emails, either…. I’d love to hear yours and others thoughts on this!

Outstanding question, and I can’t wait to hear what readers say.  A lot has been written about overuse of exclamations in emails — with some people even suggesting that one exclamation mark per email is a good rule to follow.  There’s even an app to help you check the tone of your email!  My best general advice is that abbreviations, multiple punctuation marks (!!!), and overly casual phrases (“amazeballs!”) have no place in professional emails.   Beyond that, I think a lot of this depends on why you want to use a positive tone.  For example: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Being Girly, Business Etiquette, CoWorker Problems, Professionalism, Social Media, Tech, Work Styles

Tales from the Wallet: How to Manage Many Financial Accounts

08/29/2012 By 91 Comments

kate spade new york 'signature spade - quilted lacey' zip around walletHow do you manage your money without getting stressed out with a million accounts? When we talked about automatic investments a few weeks ago, some readers noted that having too many accounts was stressful to them. So let’s talk about some easier ways to manage the money, how to get a bird’s eye view of your holdings, and some tips to make your general financial life easier. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Investing, Money, Organization, Stress, Tales from the Wallet, Tech

Tales from the Wallet: On Bad Financial Decisions

06/20/2012 By 119 Comments

Forehead slap, originally uploaded to Flickr by chizoo.So. I recently did something fairly dumb, and I thought I’d share. I normally follow the advice given to novices, and the bulk of what I’ve invested is in index funds or Vanguard lifecycle funds with very low fees. But occasionally, I like to walk on the wild side and put a little extra money in stocks. Now, over the years I’ve always regretted not investing in certain stocks on Day 1 — big stocks, whose products I was extremely familiar with and knew the value of, to me at least. For example: I remember when Google IPO’ed. I’ve heard tell of people who bought Apple on Day 1… and I remember vividly my mother asking my brother if she should buy him stock in Nintendo (he was 11 when it IPO’ed, and said no).

So, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to buy Facebook on the day it IPO’ed? I could even buy some for my son, and tell him that we bought it on the very first day. I know I’m on Facebook several times a day, and as a publisher I know how Facebook is completely changing the way people read and acknowledge news. So what if Facebook hasn’t totally figured out how it’ll make money, I thought. Big deal. (Hint: allow bigger ads bigger than 125×125.) On the flip side, as a consumer, I don’t trust Facebook farther than I can throw it, and I don’t like to post pictures of my kid on it — but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize it as a significant force in the future of publishing, friendships, and life. (Pictured: Forehead slap, originally uploaded to Flickr by chizoo.)

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Filed Under: Investing, Tales from the Wallet, Tech

Addictive, Mindless Fun

03/28/2012 By 108 Comments

Minesweeper, originally uploaded to Flickr by diwong.I was just speaking with someone about how she had an addiction to Tetris and had to wean herself off it. This reminded me of the partner I used to work with who, in the midst of a long discussion, would turn his back to the other people in the room and start playing Minesweeper. Which reminded me of my addiction, in law school, to the game “Spider Solitaire.” (I got really good at it, and somehow did ok in my classes even though I played it obsessively during class.) (Pictured: Minesweeper, originally uploaded to Flickr by diwong.)

So I thought it might be interesting to have an open thread about this — do you view these games as harmless fun? When do you know you need to pull back and stop playing the game? (Does anyone still play games that used to be mindless fun, or have you had to give them up entirely, like I have?) And — I hesitate to ask this! — does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for fun, mindless games?

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Filed Under: Lifestyle, Tech

Sponsored Post: My Week with the New DROID RAZR by Motorola

03/12/2012 By 10 Comments

This post is sponsored by DROID RAZR by Motorola in collaboration with Style Coalition.

One of the perks of being a Style Coalition blogger is that I occasionally get to try new products, such as getting to try out the new DROID RAZR by Motorola in purple for a week or so. For starters (after I squealed about the deep purple color — fashionable without being too girly!), I couldn’t believe how thin it was — my own beloved Android looks incredibly old by comparison! The other thing that immediately jumped out to me was how clear and crisp the screen was, and how easy it was to type. (By comparison: my own phone’s native keyboard inexplicably has the “English to Spanish” key right next to the spacebar, much to my annoyance — I was constantly accidentally switching to Spanish while texting someone. And as much as I want to like the Swype technology, it’s ultimately just way too inaccurate, so I’ve recently started using the SwiftKey X app with my Android.)  The Razr has something much closer to the iPhone keyboard, though — big, clear, easy to tell which letter you’ve hit, etc.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Sponsored Post, Tech

Open Thread: What Latest Tech Do You Love?

02/29/2012 By 115 Comments


We haven’t talked about technology finds for a while, so I thought I’d ask — what have you guys been using and loving? I’ve been thinking about trying some of the many sleep apps that are out there, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.

The latest techie thing that I’ve been using and loving are these Foscam cameras, both to monitor my son as well as to monitor his caregivers, whether it be the babysitter or a family member. (Yes, everyone knows they’re on camera.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Tech