You might think of Pinterest as another way to kill time online when you should be doing something more important. Millions of early adopters put the 2-year-old social network on the map doing just that -- sharing pictures of cute outfits, cool home interiors and exotic travel destinations.

Now that 11.7 million people and companies are using it, though, Pinterest is emerging as an online tool that job seekers can use to market themselves and explore potential careers, industries and employers.

"The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size." That wonderful quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes hangs on a wall above my desk. It expresses a lot, I think, about the wonders of learning and the mysteries of creative thought.

Science is still fuzzy on exactly what changes in the human mind as we learn, and why some people seem to be so much more adept at manipulating the information -- thinking creatively -- than others. Malcolm Gladwell's books Blink and Outliers are fascinating examinations of how the mind works, both on a subconscious and conscious level. In the latter, Gladwell makes a case that luck and hard work are often far more important than you'd think to the success of high achievers such as Bill Gates and the Beatles.

My husband brought home an iPad3 this past week -- so let the games begin.

Once we synch the iPad to our email and calendars and upload apps we use for work, it'll be time for a little electronic R&R.

Companies have made great strides toward eliminating racism and sexism in the workplace, but ageism is a different story.

Workplace bias against older employees is everywhere, even as the population ages and people continue to work later in life. Even if it's unintentional, age discrimination can make employees of all ages feel less interested and happy in their jobs.

Somewhere in the annual spending of almost every household and small business today is an item that might not have been there just 10 years ago: software purchases. Along with Google and Wikipedia, buying software has become as inevitable as death and taxes.

For the most part, that's fine. Programming is the sort of eye-glazing, rear-numbing work many of us prefer to avoid, and the people who do it well deserve to be well-compensated. But there are times when buying new software seems a bit much:

• Your child's room parent upgrades to the latest Microsoft Word, and now you have to, too, or you can't read the classroom volunteer schedule.
• The company that makes your home or small-business accounting software cuts off support for your version in an attempt to force everyone to upgrade to the latest edition.
• Your teenager announces her future in design for web and print and requires immediate purchase of Adobe's CS6 Master Collection (list price $2,599, though educational discounts are available).

Family Loyalty: On Memorial Day weekend, it's fitting that we spend a few minutes reading Jessica Pearce Rotondi's deeply moving Huffington Post essay about her uncle, Air Force Gunnery Sgt. Edwin "Jack" Pearce, who went missing in action in Laos in 1972. The story recounts a family's decades-long struggle to accept his fate.

One line from the soldier's epitaph is guaranteed to stick with you: "The son's remains were returned thirty-six years after he was shot down, to be laid to rest with his father, who had never stopped searching for him."

We made it. Summer's nearly here, and it's time to celebrate with a cool, refreshing cocktail. To me, the best warm-weather drinks are easy to make, feature fresh seasonal ingredients and can be served in a pitcher or beverage dispenser for crowd-pleasing entertaining.

One of my favorite ways to enhance the presentation of drinks is to create fruit-filled ice cubes (like strawberry ice from Joy the Baker). Simply chop up fresh fruit, place it in the bottom of an ice cube tray, top with water and throw it in the freezer for several hours. It couldn't be easier.

Jonathan Safran Foer's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, about a boy dealing with his father's death in the Sept. 11 attacks in Manhattan, achieved less than extraordinary attention when first published in 2005. Walter Kirn of The New York Times reviewed the book, and he compared the 9-year-old protagonist, Oskar Schell, to a "hyperactive impersonation of Holden Caulfield," J.D. Salinger's iconic disaffected teenager from The Catcher in the Rye. Oskar ends up piecing together a nagging puzzle in a dispassionately told story that offers "a chilly intellectual thrill but doesn't penetrate the bosom."

Many readers -- and even reviewers -- ignored the book until recently, when it became a movie starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. Foer's novel suddenly grabbed headlines, demonstrating yet again that a film project can catapult a book to new heights -- or thrust an old classic back into the spotlight.

As part of National Small Business Week, the Small Business Administration (SBA) and AARP announced the launch of a new program that will provide counseling and training to entrepreneurs over 50 who want to start or grow a business. Through SBA's online training courses and its nationwide network of business mentors and counselors, the two organizations expect to train 100,000 encore entrepreneurs.

"No matter what your age, if you have an idea or a business that's ready to move to the next level, the SBA wants to make sure you have access to the tools you need to start and grow," says SBA administrator Karen Mills. "For many older entrepreneurs, starting a small business can be an opportunity to transform a lifetime hobby or interest or years of professional experience into a lucrative line of work."

If you've been to the multiplex lately, you've probably suffered sensory overload from the horrific violence, gross-out humor and loud, garish computer-generated special effects -- and that's just from sitting through the coming-attractions trailers.

Summer is the season when studios unleash a fusillade of would-be blockbusters, aimed primarily at adolescent and young adult moviegoers, and that can make the theaters seem like an air-conditioned no-man's land for forty- and fifty-somethings who like their entertainment to be a little less over-the-top and a little more artistically and emotionally satisfying.