Blog Posts by Brenda, Shine Community Manager

Hi everyone,

This week, I picked posts and comments from Manage Your Life and Parenting that contained strategies for making our lives easier and more fulfilling. My hope is that you'll discover some new and useful tips or at the very least feel encouraged to share one your own. :)

I also have two questions from our male Shine users. One should be a familiar sight as he's been a regular blogger in Love + Sex for some time now. The other has participated in many conversations, but this is his first official blog post on Shine. We love hearing the male perspective so don't believe anyone who tells you that Shine is "not a place for men"!

"User post: Thing guys wonder about in relationships" from Shine user Terry Marsh
"User post: Is she inheriting an "in-law" or am I "marrying" an eternal fight!?!" from Shine user Jason

First up...
"55 Things You Don't Need After All: A five-day challenge to jump-start spring cleaning" from Julie Morgenstern

Julie's "spring cleaning" series is

Every week, we've been featuring more and more fantastic user content on Shine. Identified by the title "user post", these rants, raves, and personal accounts are chosen for demonstrating all the qualities our editors look for in a great post. The fact that these posts were picked from hundreds of other submissions show what a huge accomplishment these users achieved.

We're proud to recognize two great Shine bloggers, along with our other stellar individuals, whose user posts were highlighted this week.

* Shine user firedfornow whose "User post: I confess. I caved. I went to a movie!" was featured in Manage Your Life. Dory, Shine's Manage Your Life editor, loves firedfornow and says that she's "one of my favorite Shine writers. [She] has written some terrific posts about getting laid off this year and how she is coping."

* Shine user Sarah McColl, Pink of Perfection whose "User post: Breaking out of a rut" was featured in Food. Maggie, Shine's Food editor, picked Sarah's post as one

I've been getting the latest scoop on some of our best Love + Sex user posts ever since Annette took over that category (one of the perks of sitting next to Shine's Managing Editor!).

Here are Annette's picks for the past week. The posts are fun to read and offer some unique dating perspectives. I've even seen quite a few "I agree"/"I disagree" discussions - All conversations remained respectful, of course. :) This is the kind of material we love seeing on Shine, so keep it coming!

"User post: Why is your cat in your dating profile picture?" by Shine user LoveHowto

"User post: Can I be your sugar daddy" by Shine user Laura Warrell

"User post: Game on or game off?...Question for the ladies" by Shine user TJ

"User post: How to attract men (when it seems there are no men to attract)" by Terry Hernon MacDonald

"User post: Dreams of Rich Santos..." by Shine user Miss Kenlie

Hi everyone,

It's been exciting to watch Manage Your Life become such a popular category on Shine.

While it's only been 2 weeks, Manage Your Life is already full of great user posts centered on work, money, DIY home projects, and more. Dory has been hard at work personally selecting posts to feature. So congratulations to everyone who has earned featured placement, you've set the bar high for all of us bloggers.

I have one additional item to share. Some of the Manage Your Life posts that were moved from Work + Money and At Home are now displaying HTML code. If this has happened to your post, here is an easy way to fix it:

1. Click on the "Manage" link under your user name to get to your "Manage Your Blog" page.

2. Click the "Edit" link next to the blog post affected.

3. The default view will be the "Visual" view (see tab in top right corner of text field). Make a copy of your post in "Visual" view and paste it into "HTML" view.

4. Click the "Post this Entry" button to save your

Happy Monday everyone,

We all have days when our to-do list stretches so long that it doesn't leave a lot of free time to spend on fun things - like indulging ourselves in Shine! With this in mind, I've come up with my latest list of must-read posts from our Shine community. These fun, discussion lively posts are worth checking out, even if you only have a minute to spare.

So join in the conversation. As always, please abide by our Community Guidelines when posting or commenting and help us keep Shine a healthy, thriving place. Thanks!

1. User post: New Barbie has tattoos
Shine user sunshinelady asks: "Do you think this is a bad move on Mattel's part or do you think it is much ado about nothing?"

Conversation snippets:
"How is this any different from the Band aide tattoos? or the temporary Tattoos that you can buy? Technically don't care bears have tattoos? on their belly and their feet. I think that if people feel the need to get upset about this then maybe they should watch the

Hi everyone,

We have 2 Shine announcements.

First, get ready for the launch of the new Manage Your Life category on Shine! In these tough times, we wanted to bring you a one-stop-shop for time- and money-saving advice that touches both your home and work life. Dory Devlin, our Work + Money editor, will be running Manage Your Life and recently gave me the scoop on this exciting new channel. Here's what she had to say: "We are combining the no-nonsense, real-world advice of Work + Money and At Home's super useful DIY approach to making home life prettier and more organized to create Manage Your Life."

Second, we'll be incorporating entertainment information throughout all of Shine. You'll find posts about celebrity moms in Parenting and the latest celebrity detox/diet in Healthy Living. We think that integrating the Entertainment posts into other categories makes the information more relevant, meaningful, diverse, and different from what you're reading on other celebrity sites. While

I love a good conversation, but if i wasn't on Shine all day what discussions would i join? Luckily, this job allows me a sneak a peek into many dialogues, so here are 3 of my current favorite threads. I included comments from each blog post so you could get an idea of the banter taking place. As always, please respect our Shine Community Guidelines while you here.

Now, click on the title that interests you most and join the fun!

1. The down-and-dirty guide to dating: Jerkiest guy moments

[Brenda's note: Even if you're not up for telling us your jerkiest guy moment, the revealing and hilarious tales from other Shine users will keep you coming back for more. I check this post once a day to read the latest comments because it always makes me laugh.]

"After six months of sleeping together remembered he was still a Jesuit! (oops! my bad! I didn't tell you I was married.... to GOD???!?)"

"While I was dating this jerk he asked my sister out! And I was standing right

Any experienced blogger will tell you that blogging is easy, but writing a consistently good blog can be hard. To be a great blogger you need determination, commitment, and a love for what you're doing. This is why I have the highest amount of respect for our users who are dedicated to Shine and blog here on a regular basis. To be blunt, keeping up a good blog takes work!

There's one blogger who's a stand-out amongst our users and makes blogging look easy. Her name is Brett Blumenthal and she's our pick for Shine's Community Woman of the Year.



Some of you may know Brett; if you frequent Healthy Living you've probably read her many posts there. For those seeing Brett's name for the first time, here are just a few reasons why Brett is so deserving of this title, and why we unanimously admire her here at Shine:

• Did you know that Brett was one of our first users to blog on Shine? Her debut post "Stevia: Finally, a sweetener that isn't bad for you" went up on April 29, 2008. At last