I saw this Meal Snap App over on Mobile Crunch and almost laughed. It is an iphone app that counts the calories for you. Sounds cool huh? But you don’t have to search for your food or type in ingredients, you just snap a pic and the app estimates the calories. This probably would not work for me because I would look at the picture and get hungry again, lol
I have had nothing but bad experiences with car repairs. Continue Reading
This morning I got a chance to speak with Laurie Isop the 2009 Grand Prize Winner of the Cheerios® New Author Contest. She was great, she let me know about her experience as well as information about the contest. This was my first interview, so of course I was nervous, awkward and ran out of questions. Laurie helped me fill in the gaps when I started to awkwardly laugh and stutter (ha!). Laurie told me a bit about the contest, she stated she was the 3rd winner of the contest and that it usually takes about 18 months from winning the contest to having the winning book in the box.
Image by http://www.spoonfulsofstoriescontest.com/
Laurie actually had the book prepared to try and publish herself at a later date when she got the call from Cheerios® letting her know that she had won the contest. Her greatest challenge was to let her vision go into the hands of the selected illustrator Gwen Millward. Laurie was relieved that the communication with the illustrator was great and that her vision was coming alive the way that she wanted. Laurie said she felt like she won the literary lottery. Laurie’s book will be available bookstores nationwide July 26, so be sure to grab a copy.
One of the goals of the contest is to get books to children ages 3 to 8 years old. The contest occurs annually and they are still accepting entries through July 15th. Please go to www.spoonfulsofstoriescontest.com for more information and to enter. In conjunction with the launch of this year’s New Author Contest, Cheerios® plans to donate 100,000 new books through its charitable partner, First Book. As part of its Spoonfuls of Stories® program, Cheerios® works with First Book to get high quality, award winning books in the hands of children in need. Since the program’s inception in 2002, Cheerios® has given away more than 50 million children’s books free inside cereal boxes. Cheerios® has also donated $3.5 million to the nonprofit First Book® to get books to children from low-income families.
Laurie also told me that the books in the Cheerios® box are in English and Spanish. I think this is awesome, growing up I learned to speak both English and Spanish at the same, my mom would have to go hunting for a similar book in Spanish so I can see the differences in the words. I think this will help children who are bilingual, they will be able to look at both English and Spanish words.
