My mother just came to visit and her stay was unexpectedly (but happily) extended by Hurricane Irene. I love having my parents around, so I'm always confused by people who can't believe I get so excited at the thought of hanging out with them. Anyway, this list doesn't really need much explanation. Your mom is in town, do this with her:

5. Put together Ikea furniture. Mothers are calming. Do frustrating tasks while they are around. My mom gives me reassuring cups of tea while I'm dropping eff bombs and vacuums the carpet where the new furniture will be going (I'm fooling no one, I would never do that, but it is so smart). 

4. Go to that art exhibit you've been meaning to see. It's hard to go indoors over the summer, no matter how great the art is. Having a mom visit is the perfect excuse to head inside and check out what's shaking in the land of art. Bonus: moms like to stop for breaks and ignore you when you get the gigles about naked people.

3. Ask all of your baking questions. I've been having a series of baking fails lately and it was really starting to bother me. I take immense pride in how good I am at making tasty treats. While I'm good, my mother is experienced. She figured out relatively quickly what my problem was. psitwasbadbakingpowderwhichislamecauseitwasnotevenold

2. Talk about every detail of your life. Your mom is practically the only person that truly loves you unconditionally (the good ones, at least). She's basically forced to care about everything you care about, or at least pretend to care long enough so that you can get it off your chest. If you've been bottling stuff up, talking to your mother is your chance to get it all out. I talk about everything from my almost daily existential thoughts to how scrubs really gross me out to stuff that I'm really not comfortable sharing with anyone else. She listens. Sometimes she responds. At the end, I feel better.

1. Stock up on hugs. My mom is so huggable! When she is far away, I look at a photo of her hugging someone with a huge smile on her face and it makes me feel better. That's the power of the mom hug. She says that people are fragile and sometimes you just need someone to help you hold all those fragile bits together. When you hug someone, you are physcially holding them all together. I like that analogy. I like mom hugs. 

There's not much to say about this list, other than I really enjoy reading all five of these websites. They aren't breaking news websites, staying up-to-date on what's going on in the world is a separate top 5 list.  These website just produce content that I think makes me smarter...or at least not bored. 

5. The Mark News - Curated, crowdsourced news and opinions. 

4. Grantland.com - I read it for the articles by Chuck Klosterman, even if they are about sports. 

3a. The Awl - Their Twitter profile reads: Be not Bored! It's working 

3b. Mental Floss - You don't dominate at Quiz night just by thinking about it. 

2. GigaOm - Geek + Quality Journalism.

1. Fast Company - Great interviews, great content. 

If you are reading this list and cannot believe I've left out your favorite website, please let me know.

Things are about to get crazy up in here. Ok, not really, but I did manage to put together a video edition of today's Top 5 list. I hope you enjoy it.

For reference, they are:

5. A book of Top 5 lists

4. A compilation of people with interesting jobs

3. A research project on creativity in Chinese education

2. A research project on how to better get advances in technology out to the people who would most find those advances useful

1. The History of me: One embarrassing moment at a time

If you like the video, please let me know (mom?).

I went to BlogHer for the first time this summer and I really had no idea what to expect. I’d heard it compared to Spring Break for Moms and read posts about how BlogHer has changed women’s lives…or at least their careers. While neither of these things endeared the event to me, I do love learning.  When Ford offered up the opportunity to go, I jumped at it. I’m so happy I did. Here are a few things that stayed with me:

5. You should be sponsored. I’ve never been to a conference before where so many people were sponsored to attend. It really has me thinking about the next event I organize. I’d love to connect attendees directly with sponsors to build some long term relationships. I also really need to work harder at getting some stuff like I know smart people sponsored. Alas, there are only so many hours in a day. ps I was sponsored by Ford Canada. Yes, they deserve serious love for their pumped up social media outreach.

4. Working 9 to 5 is so last year. I didn’t meet a single person who answered “what do you do?” by spewing out a job title. BlogHer is an international convention for over-achievers. Everyone seemed to have several projects on the go, at least one book published and an overwhelming amount of adorable photos of their children. I couldn’t help but feel like I should be accomplishing a great deal more as I have zero children and nothing but time on my hands.

3. Don’t assume you know everything. This is a jerk thing to say, but I know you are thinking it too: What can a bunch of mommy bloggers teach *me* about the Internet? Big mistake. I use blogging, community building and social outreach as tools to promote businesses and organizations. For these women, those things are the business. It seems like a small difference, but hearing how they use, present and take advantage of each tool was really valuable.

2. Work harder than the person next to you. So obvious it hurts, right? Don’t just send out a pitch, include research on previous campaigns the company has run to show you know what you are talking about. Don’t just build a community online; get people to come together in real life. Think about next year right now. Write, publish, write, publish, write, publish. Spell check often.

1. You don’t have to be a bitch to make it to the top. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo’s CEO taught us about the 5 Cs of a successful leader: Competency, Courage & Confidence, Communication Skills, Consistency and Compass (integrity is critical). You’ll notice which C word she didn’t list in there. Listening to someone in such a powerful position seamlessly go back and forth between talking about her passion for business and her love for her family was inspiring. It’s a good reminder that you don’t have to choose between the two.

Bonus: Indra Nooyi shared with everyone that she drinks a can of regular Pepsi every day and her favourite snack are Kettle Chips warmed in the microwave for 15 seconds. Snack tips from CEOs (if that isn’t a website already, the Internet is doing something wrong).

I’m really excited to be hanging out in a city that has just unlocked Skillshare. My initial excitement comes from my love of startup parties: no matter how much booze you throw at it, you’re still surrounded by a roomful of social awkward nerds. There’s more to my excitement than just that though, because Skillshare means learning and there’s nothing I love more than learning. As people are putting their brave pants on and signing up to teach classes, I thought I’d put together a quick list of stuff I’d like to learn about.

5. Learning about grapes. I like wine and I’m sort of not quite horrible at picking wine to go along with dinner. I’d love to learn more about the different kinds of grapes that go into making the different kinds of wine. Similarly, I’m all about the history of booze. If you geek out on knowing why porters came into existence, please share your knowledge with the rest of the world. Learning about this sort of stuff makes me appreciate what I’m drinking so much more.

4. Anything involving LED lights. Where they are little light up pins like @wintr is so fond of making, or something more complicated, I love learning about stuff that puts me one step closer to building a robot. I feel like LED light projects fill this requirement.

3. Basic rules of sewing. I have a sewing machine, I’d like to use it more often, but I’m kind of nervous about the whole thing. I’d love to start making my own clothes (I have ideas! Visions! In my mind, I’m totally fashionable!), but I don’t really know how. To start, I’d like to learn a couple of tricks to modify clothes that I own that don’t currently fit.

2. 5 quick tips for posting photos on your blog. I am the world’s worst photographer. That hipster bug never bit me. I don’t want to be a photographer, but I wouldn’t mind some basic tips on posting photos to my blog. If you’re an amazing photographer (and I don’t mean cheesy yearbook photos and bad wedding portraits), I’d love to learn a couple of basics from you so that every picture I post on my blog is slightly more identifiable.

1. Knitting for the non-crafty. Knitting seems like such a cool hobby and not just because old ladies do it. The fruits of your labour keep you warm and stylish (depending on your skills). If you get really good, you can make fancy stuff. I’d be happy with making scarves and leg warmers though. Please help! Winter is coming. 

Its a good list, right? If you could take a class on anything, what would you want to learn about?

I pass this horse trough on the way to the grocery store. I love it.