Entertainment
Do You Live Near Family?
The faces of family members appear in all my early memories. When I was three and got the chicken pox, it was my tía Mimi who drew me a warm oatmeal bath and gently rubbed Pepto-Bismol-pink calamine lotion over my itchy arms and legs. At eight, I froze in the middle of a bike jump, crashing hard onto the dusty path, and it was my tío Alex who brushed the dirt off my knees. My tío Alex was also the adult who picked me up from afterschool care the day my mother went into labor with my baby brother. As I climbed in the backseat of his black Jeep, for a second I missed my mom. But as my tío turned the keys in the ignition, and the bass-y intro of the Beastie Boys’ Brass Monkey bumped on the stereo, my fears evaporated. I knew I was with one of the safest people in my life.
The reason why all my childhood stories and big and small moments feature a guest appearance of different tías, tíos, grandparents — plus first and second cousins — is because, growing up, we lived in the same city and saw each other all. the. time. For holidays, birthdays, graduations and random family barbecues. For New Years Eve, when we cleared out the living room so we had enough space for all 40 of us to dance to Maná. And when one of us kids had a soccer game, we expected to see the whole fam take over half the lawn with their camping chairs and homemade signs.
As I got older and thought about college and building my own life, I didn’t plan on staying near my family. Yes, I experienced the pros, but also the cons. Like everybody always knowing my business, and feeling like they have the authority to talk to me about it. And as an adult, I’ve also become more aware of my relatives’ faults and struggles. It’s always jarring, and sometimes a hurtful revelation.
For college, I moved to San Francisco. It was only an hour drive away, but still far enough for me to figure out who I was outside of “Jannelley,” the shy but sassy girl that my tías, tíos and cousins doted on. After graduating, I ended up moving back in with my parents so I could pay off my student loans, even though a part of me was curious about exploring new cities and new versions of myself outside of California. Every time I saw a Instagram photo of a childhood friend creating a home in a new state, I felt a strange rush of envy and pride.
The idea of moving far from home felt more real once I became pregnant with my daughter Ella. After months of looking at Zillow listings and seeing what made the most sense with both my husband’s and my careers and finances, we had two options. Try to build a life in a Midwestern state, where we knew absolutely no one. Or settle down in a small, agricultural town that’s an hour drive from our hometown.
Leading up to that moment, I always thought I’d choose the option with the most uncertainty and adventure, which obviously meant out of state. But when it came down to the wire, our decision grew very clear. So, here I am, three years later, typing away from that small, agricultural home, hearing my mother-in-law cooing to my baby, Emiliano, and watching my father-in-law playing with Ella in the backyard. My parents ended up moving here a year after we did, and now live a five-minute drive away. One of my favorite things is bumping into them at our neighborhood coffee shop, and I always look forward to Fridays because that’s our standing dinner date.
This Thanksgiving, we plan on driving the hour to our hometown and attending a Thanksgiving lunch at my grandma’s house, and then Thanksgiving dinner at my husband’s nana’s house. And while I’m excited to eat a thick slice of my favorite pumpkin pie, and watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, I’m really looking forward to seeing all my tías smother both my kids’ cheeks in kisses, and seeing my boisterous tío Nick toss Ella up in the air. These are the people I feel safest with, and I love how living close to them has woven them into the fabric of my everyday life.
Jannelle, her older brother Jordan, and cousin David.
What about you? Do you live near your family? Or would you if you could?
P.S. An easy way to bond with family and where did you grow up?
(Photo by Modern Family.)
Entertainment
Stuff Your Kindle Day is live now — score 150+ free ebooks for 1 day only
FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on April 23. The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, isoffering cozy mystery books for free.
This has been such a huge month for Stuff Your Kindle Day. We’ve already been blessed by a number of free giveaways, and we’re not done yet.
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast, hosted by Cozy Mystery Book Club, is offering participants the chance to download 150+ ebooks without spending anything. Everything that you download is yours to keep forever, so take this as your sign up to stock up ahead of the summer reading season.
Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We’ve lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.
When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast takes place on April 23. This free giveaway only lasts 24 hours, so you will need to act fast to download everything you want to read. Clear your schedule, make a list of priorities, and add to your TBR list with this limited-time promotion.
Which ebooks are free?
The Cozy Mystery Book Blast has a helpful hub page with everything on offer organized by sub-genre:
You can find these free ebooks from the Kindle Store and other popular retailers. There really is something for everyone in this latest book blast.
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Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?
Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there’s no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don’t count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time, so don’t hold back.
The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal
Why we like it
These popular e-readers let you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. Plus, you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase for a limited time.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on April 23
We’re almost at the First Quarter which means the Moon is almost half illuminated. Each night it gets a little brighter, and this will keep happening until the Full Moon when the reverse will then occur and each night it will appear less.
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Thursday, April 23, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. Tonight, 41% of the moon will be lit up, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide.
If you’re looking at the Moon with just your naked eye, you should be able to catch a glimpse of the Mares Serenitatis, Tranquillitatis, and Fecunditatis. If you have binoculars, the Mare Nectaris and Endymion and Posidonius Craters should also come into view, appearing from halfway up the Moon to near the top. And, finally, with a telescope you’ll see all this plus the Apollo 11 and 17 landing spots, and the Rupes Altai.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon is predicted to take place on May 1, the first of two in May.
What are Moon phases?
NASA says that the Moon completes a full orbit around Earth in about 29.5 days, during which it passes through eight stages. Although the same face of the Moon is always turned toward us, the portion illuminated by the Sun shifts as it travels along its path, producing the familiar cycle of full, half, and crescent shapes. These variations are referred to as lunar phases, and there are eight altogether:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
Entertainment
Tinder responds to viral video about tricking facial scan
Earlier this month, journalist Christophe Haubursin published a YouTube video called “Something very weird is happening on Tinder.” In the video, which has over 1.5 million views as of this publication, Haubursin described a way to workaround to Tinder’s Face Check feature — the facial recognition that is now required for all U.S. users as of Oct. 2025.
What Haubursin and his interviewees discovered is a bunch of profiles that appeared normal, but the last photo on each profile was…off. It was usually a digitally-altered image of a different person in a weird scenario, like on a billboard or in a Victorian painting. And if someone matched with this person and asked about the image, they dodged the question. Instead, they asked to move the conversation to WhatsApp, where it became clear they were romance scammers.
But how did they evade Face Check? Haubursin found that Tinder and Hinge, both owned by Match Group, only need one photo for the facial recognition software. So these people may be the actual person in that odd image, and able to pass the face scan. Then, they could grift images of other people from the internet to use for the bulk of their profile.
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Tinder didn’t respond to Haubursin’s request for comment, but it did respond to Mashable’s.
“We’re aware of the concerns raised about our Photo Verification and Face Check features. In recent weeks, we’ve taken action to strengthen our Photo Verification badging logic, including requiring greater consistency across profile photos and additional reviews to achieve higher confidence in cases that warrant extra scrutiny,” a Tinder spokesperson told Mashable. “Face Check, our more recently launched verification system, builds on Photo Verification to help confirm accounts belong to real users. We are committed to continuously improving and investing in our systems to keep Tinder safe and authentic for our users.”
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Mashable also recently spoke with Hinge’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ben Celebicic, about this, as Haubursin also replicated this on Hinge (which began implementing Face Check after Tinder). Celebicic hasn’t seen Haubursin’s video, but he did say that there’s a constant battle between trust and safety teams and policy-violating actors.
“They’ll find new ways,” he said. “We’ll find ways to prevent them from accessing the platform.”
There’s not going to be a single product the team builds that will fully prevent people from bypassing our solution, Celebicic continued. He said they have a big team working on these issues, and they’re in tune with new ways bad actors try to penetrate the platform and work to fix them.
Around one-third of Hinge’s workforce is dedicated to trust and safety, the app told Mashable, and Match Group invests $125 million annually in this area.
Trust and safety is a major concern for dating apps. In Sept. 2025, two senators sent a letter to Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff, urging him to do something about romance scammers on the platforms. In Dec., a class-action lawsuit against Match Group claimed that a serial rapist was allowed on Tinder and Hinge after several women reported him.
Facial recognition scans have boomed recently thanks to the influx of age-verification laws, which require a robust method of proving someone’s age in order to access certain content, usually explicit content. These methods include uploading a government ID to a platform, using a credit card, or in other cases, scanning your face. But, like with Face Check, people have found workarounds to evade the scan and see the content they want to see.
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