Blog Posts by Oprah.com

Photo: ThinkstockBy Leigh Newman

My toddler has a blue fabric banner that hangs on the wall at home. On the banner is a little bear with a blank face. Below him are little pockets, containing all the different faces you can stick on the blank one: the sad face, the happy face, the silly face, the sick face, the angry face. This is supposed to teach my son about emotions (as if life doesn't do that already). However, one face is missing: the movie-sad face.

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A good movie-sad, as we all know, is totally different than a regular sad-in that you get all that sorrow and grief without having to actually lose or break up with anybody. Movie-sadness will stay with you over time,too, causing you to cry openly, should you remember a certain scene while spacing out a work or should you hear the theme song by accident (The Way We Were? Love Story? Anybody? Everybody?)

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A few weeks ago, Scientific American reported on the film clip most

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Photo: Kelly Johnston, Scholars' Lab, UVA LibraryBy Leigh Newman

Earlier this month, the New York Times profiled a project being run by the Scholar's Lab at the University of Virginia. Kelly Johnston, a geographic information systems specialist, created a series of maps that used Census Data to calculate the Jeffersonian ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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The "life" map was made by color-coding areas of the country according to their life expectancy at birth statistics (the south, unfortunately, faired poorly in this area). The "liberty" map was made by color-coding areas according to their incarceration rates (not so free: Nevada, Texas, the panhandle of Florida and Colorado) The "pursuit of happiness" map, however, was based on "the ratio of arts, entertainment, and recreation establishments to the total population."

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Photo: Robert TractenbergBy Suze Orman

Women have a very bad habit of putting themselves on sale. But tough economic times mean there is little chance your employer will offer a sizable raise-no matter how terrific you are-unless you force the issue a bit. A few negotiating tips:

RELATED: Sign up for Oprah's Lifeclass and get the chance for you and friend to meet Oprah. Plus, the first million students get a copy of Oprah's class journal!

Stand Tall in Your Truth
Be confident when you make your case for a raise. If you're tentative and apologetic, you're signaling ambivalence about your own worth.

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Make Those You Are Dependent on For a Paycheck Dependent on You
Sure, the person writing the check has leverage. But so do you. If you go above and beyond your job description and make yourself as close to indispensable as possible, don't you think that's going to affect how your manager responds when you ask for a raise?

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©Harpo, Inc./Art Streiber By Oprah Winfrey

Since the day the late Gene Siskel asked me, "What do you know for sure?" and I got all flustered and started stuttering and couldn't come up with an answer, I've never stopped asking myself that question. This month marks a big breakthrough for me.

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I've always known that at my core I'm a teacher. I've worked as a news reporter, anchorwoman, and talk show host, but each one of those jobs was only preparation for the real call on my heart. In all the years of The Oprah Show, I was happiest in the midst of aha moments, especially when I could share them. Here are a few of the life-changing lessons I've learned along the way.

• What you put out comes back all the time, no matter what. (This is my creed.)

• The roles we play in each other's lives are only as powerful as the trust and connection between us-the protection, safety and caring we are willing to share.

• Failure is

Photo: Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, BorderGrill.comBy Lynn Andriani

It's not just "quinoa" that trips me up every time, no matter how many times a recipe reminds me it's pronounced "keen-wah." Despite my rusty French and food-centric knowledge of Italian, I still puzzle over how to sound out many dishes from those countries, to say nothing of food words in Quechua (that's where "quinoa" comes from) or Nahuatl (the Aztecan dialect responsible for the word "chipotle"). Hiding behind the unusual words, though, are some delicious ingredients and dishes. Here are three, along with their pronunciations and a convincing argument for why I need to master these foreign words once and for all.

RELATED: Liz Oz's Quinoa with Vegetables and Herbs Recipe

Achiote (ah-chee-OH-tay, Spanish)
This common ingredient in Mexican cooking can actually induce an "achoo," since it's a spicy blend of annatto (a peppery pod from the achiote tree), Mexican oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic and salt. Achiote often comes in

Photo: ThinkstockBy Amber Kallor

If you're taken with wine/book/cheese of the month clubs, you might want to consider becoming a member of one of these style societies, where you can treat yourself to something new and affordable every 30 days. Need a gift for a friend or family member who hates to shop? Sign her up and create a personal profile based on her fashion likes/dislikes so she's guaranteed to receive something that she'll actually want to wear (without having to hit the stores). Check out three of our favorites:

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Jewelmint: Created by actress Kate Bosworth and her stylist Cher Coulter, this jewelry club emails you a personalized selection of earrings, rings, bracelets, and necklaces to choose from--offering a range in styles from dainty to daring. And you're not obligated to buy each month--if you don't see anything you love, skip it. The cost: Membership is free, each piece of jewelry is $29.99.

RELATED: 7 Turquoise Accessories to Rock

Photo: ThinkstockBy Corrie Pikul

Solve Social Problems
You know the saying: Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a man a mouse (or a touch screen), and he'll click to these group-building websites to help develop ways to feed the hungry, improve public health and solve other pressing social issues.

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OpenIDEO: This online platform hosts global brainstorming sessions to address world challenges, like the poor health of people in low-income communities and the need for bone marrow donors. Creative thinkers collaborate on concepts, and the best ones are (ideally) put into practice. Two of the site's partners, Oxfam and Nokia, are currently working to implement the 10 winning ways to answer this conundrum: How might we improve maternal health with mobile technologies for low-income countries? What would you have suggested?

RELATED: Save a Girl, Save the World

Kickstarter: This site, which allows anonymous supporters to offer financial support for