I'm With Stupid

Seven Unwritten Rules for Professional Women

1. Build Successful Relationships.
In a word -- network. It is crucial to understand the importance of developing and maintaining industry contacts you can rely on, whether it's for information about a specific project or the inside scoop on an open position. Attend seminars and professional meetings in your field. Besides learning some good information, these gatherings help you raise your visibility among your peers.


2. Exert Influence and Convert Others to Your Ideas.
Develop the confidence in yourself to get people to see and value your ideas. Knowledge is power. "Do your research," Kopelan advises. "Know what is happening in your industry." The more you know about a particular subject, the more comfortable and confident you will be discussing it and offering your opinions.

3. Take Initiative.
If you are interested in a particular high-profile client at your office, find out how you can be a part of the project team. Or learn the specifics of a particular issue so you can be your office's "resident expert."

4. Manage Difficult Conversations.
Women often tend to shy away from confrontation. But if you learn how to diffuse an awkward situation, you will appear strong and levelheaded under pressure -- two good traits for potential senior managers.

5. Promote Yourself.
Only you really know everything you have achieved. Now just make sure the right people also know what you have accomplished.

6. Know How to Ask for What You Want.
This goes along with managing difficult conversations and promoting yourself. You shouldn't feel hesitant about asking for something you need or have earned.

7. Establish Work/Life Harmony.
This challenging area often gets the misnomer "work/life balance." Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day to balance these two important parts of your life equally. Instead, strive for a harmonious coexistence between the two.

What Kopelan found in talking to the Fortune 500 hiring managers is that these organizations want to see women advance and succeed, but until women understand the important role these unwritten rules play in business, "they're diminishing their chance at achievement," she warns.

Ex-Teacher Goes To Jail For Nude Photos

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A judge ignored a former teacher's sobbing pleas for mercy Friday and sentenced her to seven years in prison on charges that she sent explicit photos to a young teenager while on probation for having sex with him.
When Pamela Rogers, 29, was released after serving 198 days in jail, she was under orders not to contact the student or his family or use the Internet. But authorities say that even after appearing in court on a charge of violating her probation in April, she continued talking with the boy and sending him text messages and sexually explicit photos and video of herself.

"You have done everything except show this court that you wanted to rehabilitate yourself," Warren County Circuit Judge Bart Stanley said. He revoked Rogers' probation and ordered her to serve the rest of a seven-year prison sentence that had been largely suspended.

Officers led Rogers away after she stood before the judge handcuffed and shackled. She cried as she asked for mercy and apologized to her family, the teen's family, her relatives and friends.

"I have humiliated myself. What I did was wrong," Rogers said. "I am willing to do anything to rehabilitate myself."

Rogers, who has been in jail since April, presented evidence in a hearing Friday, including a clinical psychologist who said she was a sex addict. She apologized tearfully and was led away in handcuffs to a women's prison in Nashville.

Former 'American Idol' Contestant Indicted

A former "American Idol" contestant accused of videotaping sexual encounters with two teenage girls has been indicted on child pornography charges.

Daniel James "DJ" Boyd, 27, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to charges of production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

A trial date was set for Sept. 18. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

Boyd, a contestant on the popular TV talent competition two years ago, was arrested last month in West Valley City after a 14-year-old girl contacted police. He has remained in the Salt Lake County Jail since his arrest.

The Salt Lake County district attorney's office has also charged Boyd with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and unlawful supply of alcohol to minors.

He is scheduled to appear in district court July 25 for a preliminary hearing on those charges.

Olympian Shannon Miller Divorces Husband

After a prolonged negotiation, former Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller is divorcing her husband of seven years, Boston eye surgeon Christopher B. Phillips.

Miller, 29, filed for divorce from Phillips, 33, in May 2004, but financial disputes dragged the case out more than two years. The divorce is expected to become official in September, reports the Associated Press.

The two married in a lavish ceremony that featured many of Miller's teammates from the 1996 U.S. squad that won the team gold medal in the Atlanta Games. The couple, who lived in Oklahoma City and a Houston suburb before moving to Boston, have no children.

Phillips alleges that his wife had an affair with a married male athlete and that she threatened to accuse him (Phillips) of abusing prescription drugs if he failed to meet her demands during the divorce proceedings.

"I've been put through the wringer over this," Phillips said. "It's been a very bitter and terrible divorce. ... She has really, really hurt me."

Miller denied the accusations, calling them "lies and innuendo surrounding an emotional divorce. … The worst thing I ever did to my ex-husband was to put unleaded gas in his car and not premium. With gas prices these days, do you blame me?" Miller wrote in an e-mailed response to questions posed by The Oklahoman newspaper.

"We all have choices to make in life. I have chosen to be happy by leaving this painful experience in the past. I hope Chris is able to move on as well," she said.

Miller said she plans to finish law school at Boston College and "continue pursuing my life's passion of working with children."

Phillips said he would like to return to Oklahoma at some point. He now works at a Boston hospital and attends law school at Suffolk University.

A Wedding Can Make A Gal Crazy

There's a show on E! that I'm watching right now, called "Last Bride Standing." I've never heard of it before, so I don't know much about it, but these brides have to stand outside in a circle with one hand on the one-of-a-kind wedding dress they are trying to win. Whoever is the last one touching the dress wins it. The women are allowed 5 minute breaks, but there are hours between the breaks. Every couple hours or so, the "host" offers them special offers they can take (a cake, a 5 night stay at a castle in France), but then they are out of the contest for the dress. So far the women have been standing for 25 hours. One girl gave up and took the 5 nights at the castle, another girl was disqualified because she took her hand off the dress. All of the women look tired, one of them keeps crying, and I think she might give up now and take the cake that they're offering her instead of the dress.

It's one of those shows that you think is kinda dumb, yet you can't stop watching.

Sex And The City

Vegging out watching Sex and the City.

Miranda: Women don't care. We care about nice arms, great eyes, a big dick... I've never once heard a woman say: "He had such a big full scrotum."