If you did please be sure to include my snazzy button in your post and remind your friends via Twitter and Facebook to join us each week and play along.
Oh, yes please!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Special Needs Ryan Gosling, Week 4
I am so dang excited to get this Ryan Gosling goodness going. I'm really hoping that more than a few of you are up to the challenge and decided to play along and create your own Special Needs Ryan Gosling posters.
If you did please be sure to include my snazzy button in your post and remind your friends via Twitter and Facebook to join us each week and play along.
Using this week's photo (which will change from week to week!) I came up with two new posters of Ryan showing me some support as only he can. ::swoon::
Especially for all my fellow special needs Mamas who have kids with food aversions based on color!
Now comes the fun part!!
If you have made your very own Special Needs Ryan Gosling poster(s) then enter your name and blog address below and we can visit each other's blogs and have a good laugh.
Be sure to check back often in the days to come because the list may grow as others see our posts and want to join in on the fun. Also, if you share your blog post on Twitter please add the #SNryangosling hashtag so that it will streamline all the posts together.
Stay tuned next Wednesday for the new Ryan Gosling photo and link up with me again next Friday!
If you did please be sure to include my snazzy button in your post and remind your friends via Twitter and Facebook to join us each week and play along.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Join me every Friday for Special Needs Ryan Gosling
I have had so many great suggestions on topics to cover for my Special Needs Ryan Gosling meme that I realized the best way to adequately (and humorously) cover the hundreds of unique types of special needs is to give each of you the ability to make your own and post them on your blog.
To play along all you need to do is visit my blog every Wednesday and get the photo of the week featuring our favorite special needs advocate, Ryan Gosling! Then will right click on the photo and save it to your hard drive and then use it in the editing program of your choice to add your best "Hey Girl" ideas. Currently I use Picnik but as we all know it will be closing it's doors in April. I have heard good things about the website QuickMeme and I know some make them using Photoshop, Gimp, and Picasa.
I'd also love it if you'd include my handy dandy blog button in your post each week to help spread the word and direct your readers to my blog where they can see every else's funny ideas.
Are you ready to play along? Here's this week's photo:
Come back here on Friday morning and link up with me and my best ideas using this photo and then lets have a great day checking out each other's blogs and laughing our collective asses off.
Sounds like a great way to start the weekend if you ask me.
And I think Ryan would agree.
To play along all you need to do is visit my blog every Wednesday and get the photo of the week featuring our favorite special needs advocate, Ryan Gosling! Then will right click on the photo and save it to your hard drive and then use it in the editing program of your choice to add your best "Hey Girl" ideas. Currently I use Picnik but as we all know it will be closing it's doors in April. I have heard good things about the website QuickMeme and I know some make them using Photoshop, Gimp, and Picasa.
I'd also love it if you'd include my handy dandy blog button in your post each week to help spread the word and direct your readers to my blog where they can see every else's funny ideas.
Are you ready to play along? Here's this week's photo:
Come back here on Friday morning and link up with me and my best ideas using this photo and then lets have a great day checking out each other's blogs and laughing our collective asses off.
Sounds like a great way to start the weekend if you ask me.
And I think Ryan would agree.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Instagram and Special Needs: Bridging The Gap
I joined Instagram in February 2011 and in one year I took over 1,500 photos. For those who live under a rock who aren't familiar with Instagram is it is best described as a Photo version of Twitter. Much like Twitter, Instagram has followers, it uses hashtags, and you can easily tag another person by mentioning their IG name in a comment. If you have an iPhone I would strongly suggest you download the free IG app and get to snapping and I'll tell you why you should.
There is an amazing community of special needs parents and individuals on Instagram and we are reaching the broader public with a day to day look into our lives one photo at a time.
Photography is one of our most powerful mediums. A photo of a white sandy beach will inspire us save up our hard earned money for a trip to Mexico. A newborn will have his/her first photos taken within minutes of being born and anyone who sees the pictures can't help but "Ohh and Ahh" over them. When a loved one dies our photos of them may be one of the only things that bring us comfort as we grieve. We see photos of war and starvation in foreign countries and we are motivated to make a donation to help someone we will never meet. This is the power of photography.
I have seen friendships built between individuals who have an amazing number of things in common and between people who have almost nothing in common other than their love of taking pictures and sharing them with others. It is our photos that build that bridge and welcome others to see into our lives and learn about what matters most to us.
For instance, I have made a friend with a lovely lady named Amy (@amysphere on IG) with whom I share a strange love of llamas. I really don't know how to explain our level of excitement over finding a new llama pic on Instagram but suffice it to say we love them and we're not ashamed to admit it. (well, I'm not but maybe Amy is...Cats outta the bag now my friend!). Suffice it to say that if it had not been for a photo of a llama and our mutual squeals of joy over it I may never have connected with Amy.
I would say that over half of my followers on Instagram are not special needs parents like myself. In fact, a good number of them are not parents at all. And yet the photos of my family and our day to day adventures, catastrophes, and combined strange senses of humor has not only caught their eye but piqued their interest.
And I think that is what makes IG awesome.
I have followers from outside the special needs community comment on my photos that they have opened their eyes to what autism is and what it is not. Many have shared my photos on their own feed to bring awareness about autism and to raise money for a skateboarding non-profit, The A.Skate Foundation, (@askaters) which provides lessons and supplies to children on the spectrum. In fact, A.Skate won two $50,000 grants from Pepsi last year which is funding their mission to provide more opportunities for individuals with autism to interact socially with peers through skating and both the #autism and #skating communities of Instagram were a large part of what made that happen.
Instagram has become another medium for social change and education. It is bridging the gap between the "us" and "them" mentality and it is featuring some pretty awesome photos in the process.
I hope that if you have an iPhone you'll download the Instagram app and join us. We're a community of #specialneeds parents, individuals with #autism, #skaters, and even #llama lovers just looking to make a new friend and maybe change a few minds along the way.
There is an amazing community of special needs parents and individuals on Instagram and we are reaching the broader public with a day to day look into our lives one photo at a time.
Photography is one of our most powerful mediums. A photo of a white sandy beach will inspire us save up our hard earned money for a trip to Mexico. A newborn will have his/her first photos taken within minutes of being born and anyone who sees the pictures can't help but "Ohh and Ahh" over them. When a loved one dies our photos of them may be one of the only things that bring us comfort as we grieve. We see photos of war and starvation in foreign countries and we are motivated to make a donation to help someone we will never meet. This is the power of photography.
I have seen friendships built between individuals who have an amazing number of things in common and between people who have almost nothing in common other than their love of taking pictures and sharing them with others. It is our photos that build that bridge and welcome others to see into our lives and learn about what matters most to us.
For instance, I have made a friend with a lovely lady named Amy (@amysphere on IG) with whom I share a strange love of llamas. I really don't know how to explain our level of excitement over finding a new llama pic on Instagram but suffice it to say we love them and we're not ashamed to admit it. (well, I'm not but maybe Amy is...Cats outta the bag now my friend!). Suffice it to say that if it had not been for a photo of a llama and our mutual squeals of joy over it I may never have connected with Amy.
I would say that over half of my followers on Instagram are not special needs parents like myself. In fact, a good number of them are not parents at all. And yet the photos of my family and our day to day adventures, catastrophes, and combined strange senses of humor has not only caught their eye but piqued their interest.
And I think that is what makes IG awesome.
I have followers from outside the special needs community comment on my photos that they have opened their eyes to what autism is and what it is not. Many have shared my photos on their own feed to bring awareness about autism and to raise money for a skateboarding non-profit, The A.Skate Foundation, (@askaters) which provides lessons and supplies to children on the spectrum. In fact, A.Skate won two $50,000 grants from Pepsi last year which is funding their mission to provide more opportunities for individuals with autism to interact socially with peers through skating and both the #autism and #skating communities of Instagram were a large part of what made that happen.
Instagram has become another medium for social change and education. It is bridging the gap between the "us" and "them" mentality and it is featuring some pretty awesome photos in the process.
I hope that if you have an iPhone you'll download the Instagram app and join us. We're a community of #specialneeds parents, individuals with #autism, #skaters, and even #llama lovers just looking to make a new friend and maybe change a few minds along the way.
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