technology

Mom Brain Trust

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When we tell Jack he can’t touch something, he listens, about that thing, most of the time.  Take the oven, for instance.  Unless he’s in a really ornery mood, he won’t touch the oven.  He might point at it and shout, “NO!” (to which we reply, “That is exactly right, Jack, good listening” because if we say, “YES, that’s right!” we’re afraid he’ll think that’s “YES, you can touch it”), but he’s not touching it.  Most of the time, he’s good about not touching the TV.  He’s even pretty good about leaving the fridge alone, but I think that’s mostly because we put a lock on it.

The appliance he can’t resist is the dishwasher.  When we latch it closed (which we always do now), he can’t open it, but that doesn’t stop him from pushing the buttons.  He starts the dishwasher over and over, every day.  All our stern nos and we-don’t-do-thats haven’t even slowed him down.

I finally posted to my moms’ group on WhatsApp: “Does anyone know how to keep a toddler from starting the dishwasher 15 times a day?”

The responses:

  • Supportive laughter. Nice, but not helpful.
  • Tape cardboard over the panel.  Could be effective, but ugly and has to be removed before WE can start the dishwasher.  Willing to try it.
  • Unplug the dishwasher.  Not really possible since it’s in the middle of the counter.  Maybe the plug is under the sink?  Still, this one would probably make me think the dishwasher was broken before I remembered it was unplugged.
  • See if there’s some way to rig the door so it’s unlatched, but stuck so Jack can’t slam it open and get in the dishwasher.  Um…no.

Then.  THEN.  One brilliant mom asked me if my dishwasher has a way to lock the controls.  She said one of the buttons on her dishwasher has a lock icon on it, and if she presses it for several seconds, the controls are locked until she does that again.

Whoa.  Dishwashers do that?  I’d like to remind my readers that we spent several years without a dishwasher in the places we were renting, so I’m not exactly up on the latest dishwasher technology.  (If dishwashers have done this for 20 years or something, I don’t want to hear it.)

MY DISHWASHER DOES THAT.  I tried it, it worked, and then I showed John, whose mind was also blown.

Problem solved.  Moms to the rescue!  Also, technology.

Also, also, it’s been 36 hours since I locked the controls, and Jack hasn’t tried to start the dishwasher even once.  How does he know?

Welcome to the 20th century

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Congratulations are in order!  We are the proud owners of a microwave for the first time in nearly two years.  Nearly three, if you’d like to be pedantic about it.  The last time we had a microwave at our disposal was in the Annapolis apartment.  The Oregon house didn’t come with one, and after a few months without it, it became a matter of principle to get by without buying one.  But now, a year and nine months later, we have abandoned principle.  We have a microwave and the first thing we did with it was reheat tea.  Anticlimactic.  The second thing we did with it was soften butter because I had a lot of baking to do and I forgot to leave the butter out, and softening butter in a saucepan is really more like melting butter which is not the same thing!

I don’t think we’ve used it for anything else.  It’s been a week.

We’re not used to having it.

I want

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When we were in California, Erik took us and the kids to the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose.  Cool museum, lots of stuff to play with, good for kids, but I’m mentioning it mostly because I tried a virtual reality painting program and OH MY GOD I WANT IT SO MUCH.  Why I want it has NOTHING to do with the painting part – I am as bad a virtual artist as I am in the real world – although that part was pretty fun.  You can paint AROUND you, like you’re standing in the middle of the room and painting on the air, and then you can move through it or change your perspective and see if from a completely different angle without moving yourself.  Very cool.  I’m not sure of the point of it the 3D aspect of it once it’s finished, though.  It’s not really 3D unless you have a floor or ceiling projector, and there’s no way it looks as cool in 2D.  Anyway, again, the art part is not what I got excited about.

You can choose from a variety of built-in backgrounds or landscapes or environments or whatever.  The one I spent the majority of my time in was the default one, sort of a reddish flat area with mountains in the distance, dark and dusky.  The girl running the demo suggested I try the space environment and how I wish I’d done that sooner.  As soon as I switched over, it was like I was standing on a clear platform in space, stars and blackness above and below and all around me.  I think there was a planet – I can’t tell you for sure now.  I can tell you that I didn’t want to leave it.  It was incredible.  Like, emotionally incredible and I’m getting a little choked up remembering it.  I have no idea if it was remotely realistic, but now I have something I want.  Not necessarily the painting program, although I’ll take it.  I want space.  I want space in virtual reality.  I don’t need the zero gravity part (although I think it would be cool).  I want to sit on the floor and be able to look in any direction and see stars and planets and galaxies and comets and asteroid belts.  I want to be immersed in it, in the comfort of my own home.

In real terms, I can have it.  VR gear is between $600 and $800.  Not easy, but attainable if I really want it.  (I don’t need a new laptop for a while, right?)  That paint program?  $20.  But the gear is necessary.  I googled a bit to see what space VR programs might be out there already, realistic ones, and I found SpaceVR, a company that is about to launch 360-degree cameras into orbit around earth to provide real images of space to anyone who subscribes to their feed.  The subscription is reasonable, but again, you need the gear.

Here’s my quandary: is it good enough now?  Is it too early in the VR technology cycle to be worth it?  I’ve never been an early adopter.  I’m happy to let other people iron out the kinks before I spend a lot of money on something.  VR has been around for a long time, and it used to really suck.  I’m sure it sucks less now, but how much less?  I don’t say “I must have this” about things very often, so this feels odd.  Comforting that I still feel as strongly about it three weeks later, but three weeks isn’t that long.  I’ll probably wait.

But I really want this.

Reading bliss

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I FINALLY bought a Kindle Paperwhite, and I got the BEST case for it, and I am VERY happy.  My poor Samsung tablet was dying and couldn’t make the long plane trips anymore, and every time I got unlucky and got a seat without an outlet (like on 7 out of the last 8 flights I’ve taken), it died on me midflight.  I was packing backup physical books in my carry-on to make sure I wouldn’t be left without reading material, and you know?  That stuff gets heavy.

Now I have a Paperwhite (so does John), and I’m a happy camper.

kindle

Still not good at it

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It’s been six years (SIX YEARS) since my last post like this.  Back in May 2010, I was in Boston for work, and I tried my hand at selfies.  I was using an actual camera, not a phone, and it didn’t have a forward-facing camera, and it was hard.  See attempts here.

Now, six years later, selfies are more of a thing than ever, I have a front-facing camera, and I still can’t do it (god, I’m old).  All I was trying to do last Saturday was take pictures of pretty scenery with my smiling face in front.  (Yes, I could have asked John to take the pictures.  NOT THE POINT.)  How do people do this?

IMG_20160618_091125 IMG_20160618_091129 IMG_20160618_091141 IMG_20160618_091122 IMG_20160618_113629 IMG_20160618_113634 IMG_20160618_182903 IMG_20160618_182905 IMG_20160618_184536 IMG_20160618_184550 IMG_20160618_184556 IMG_20160618_184601 IMG_20160618_202844 IMG_20160618_202850 IMG_20160618_202851 IMG_20160618_202853

Okay, a couple were semi-successful.  Here’s one from today with RAINBOWS.

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And hair in my face.  And no smiling.

Fixed!

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Today, I fixed a website issue I hope you didn’t know was there.  A few weeks back, I noticed that if you try to get here, to www.inanechatter.net, via any search engine, you don’t get here.  By a wide margin.  Instead, you end up on some Russian pr0n site.  I hope this has never happened to any of you (I assume, if it had, that SOMEone would have said something to me) – oh, hold the phone.

(Searching my email.)

Well, crap.  Someone DID say something to me (although not about the pr0n issue, which might be why it didn’t register) back in December.  Hey, Tim and/or Beth – if you’re still out there, can you let me know if you’re still getting that message?

This redirect to pr0n thing didn’t happen to me all the time, and at first, I only noticed it on my phone, so I figured something was going on there, and I let it go.  The other day, I figured out it only happened when using a search engine, and I got it to happen on two different computers, so I knew I’d have to actually do something about it.

Anyway, today was the day I finally decided to try to fix it.  It only took three hours of searching Google and WordPress forums and trying to remember passwords to get into my GoDaddy hosting account and then changing database passwords and then bringing my whole site down because I didn’t put the new database password in a config file, so I had to ftp to my site’s files and fix it there –

I had to re-learn a ton of stuff about my website, and THEN I found two problems in two different files.  Both are fixed, so the weird text (about viagra) should be gone while the page is loading AND the redirect from search engines appears to be gone, and I AM A WIZARD.  I did this almost entirely BY MYSELF.  (I got John’s help when I was deleting a couple of rows out of my .htaccess file because Google was no help and I didn’t want to delete something actually important.)

I DID IT.

Wizard.

Yup, that's me.

Yup, that’s me.

More phone drama

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I just can’t get enough of the phone drama, apparently.  Over the weekend, John did some googling and found that yes, our phones ARE unlocked, and yes, our phones CAN work with any carrier.  The solution (according to online sources) is to go to a Sprint store with a repair center, where they will have to add my phone to the network and possibly find me a new SIM card.  We tested that solution today.

At a different Sprint store, I handed my new phone over to a guy who disappeared into a back room with it.  Ten minutes later, he came out and said sorry, your phone isn’t compatible with the Sprint network.  I tried to get him to explain why.  He didn’t know.  I asked him who might know.  He didn’t know.  I asked him to point me in the direction of someone who might know.  He disappeared into the back again.  A techie (I assume) came out to talk to us.

He was much more personable, but the bottom line appears to be that because my phone isn’t ALREADY on Sprint’s list of approved phones, it cannot be added.  (This is the opposite of what two people told me before I made last week’s trip to the Sprint store, which is why I a) bought a phone from someone other than Sprint, and  b) went to the store in the first place.)  He went so far as to say there’s no reason he’s aware of why it COULDN’T be on the list, but he isn’t capable of adding it.  Who is?  Maybe someone in corporate, he says, but no one he or I could get in touch with.  Not one to give up, I pushed a bit more.

Eventually, he entered a ticket with I-don’t-know-who (hopefully not the same I-don’t-know-who from last week), and he says I should know within 72 hours if THEY approved adding my phone to the network.

Sprint may have lost us as customers (after 13 YEARS) either way*.  If they add my phone to the network, we can be lazier about finding another carrier (I’m considering the Project Fi thing with Google), but I think it’ll happen.  If they don’t add my phone, that’s getting done SOON.

*Yes, I started to play the lost customer card, but it only triggered  sales pitch for other phones.  Missing the point, dude.

Can’t win

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I went to a Sprint store today to switch my number to the new phone.  The guy got on the phone to I-don’t-know-who at Sprint, and I read my book.  Half an hour later, he told me that my new phone uses the wrong frequencies for the Sprint network.  It can’t be used for Sprint.  I didn’t even know that was a thing.  Apparently, Verizon and Sprint use one set of frequencies and AT&T and T-Mobile use another.  This phone can be added to AT&T or T-Mobile’s network, but not Sprint or Verizon.  Phones can work for one, the other, or both, and I just happened to get one that works with the wrong frequency.

So what are my options?

  1. Stick with Sprint and spend the $400 at Best Buy to get the phone I want.  Return my new phone.
  2. Switch to AT&T or T-Mobile with my new phone.  Will John’s phone (which works on Sprint) work on their network?  I’m pretty sure it would cost more to have us on two different carriers.  His phone works fine, and he’s not ready to give it up.
  3. Switch to Verizon and get a new phone that isn’t a Nexus (and return the one I just got).  Not cheaper than spending $400 at Best Buy in the long run.  Also, why would I do that?
  4. Switch to AT&T or T-Mobile and get a new phone that isn’t a Nexus (and return the one I just got).  Same issues with John’s phone, and also still not cheaper than spending $400 at Best Buy in the long run.  And nonsensical for now.

Are there other options?  I’m too close to it at the moment and SO ANNOYED.  I could insist we both leave Sprint, but we have unlimited data with them, and that seems impossible to get anywhere else (without also getting DirectTV or whatever with AT&T – not interested in that).

UGH.

It’s here!

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My new phone came today!

The good:

  • It’s here!
  • It’s a day early!
  • It turns on!
  • It holds a charge!

The bad:

  • It’s not new, as advertised.  It’s refurbished.
  • It’s not 32GB, as advertised.  It’s 16GB (which is what I have now).

The ugly:

  • I called Sprint to swap my service from my old phone to my new phone (which is what the online chat person told me to do the other day), and the Sprint person the phone told me I can’t do it over the phone or online because I didn’t buy it from a Sprint store.  I have to GO to a Sprint store because only the physical stores have the software needed to enter an individual phone into their system.  I can’t use it until I do that.  UGH.

The fantastic customer service (not from Sprint):

Several days ago, Woot emailed me to say that they’d heard that this shipment of phones included some 16GB phones, and it’s possible I might get one of those instead of the 32GB.  If that were to happen, I should email them and they’ll refund me $40 if I want to keep the phone or the whole amount if I want to return the phone since it’s not what I ordered.  All of that before I even got the phone, just in case it wasn’t right when it arrived.

Today, I got two emails from Woot.  The first was to tell me they’ve already refunded me $75.  The second was to tell me why they refunded me $75: the phone is refurbished, not new, and it’s 16GB.  They got the phones from T-Mobile, and apparently, the shipment details were not correct at the time of the sale.  I can still return it for a full refund AND a $40 credit towards another purchase, if I don’t want this phone.

I have not contacted Woot AT ALL yet.  They have done this all preemptively.  Woot is wonderful.  This is how you run a business.

Love/hate relationship with my phone (mostly love)

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I LOVE my phone.  I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again.  It’s a Google Nexus 5: it’s the right size, and it doesn’t have any Samsung or Sprint or Verizon or any other crap on it.  I can be as minimal as I want with apps.  It’s pretty, and I like the way it works.

BUT.

It’s getting old, and it’s not working as well as it used to.  It had that battery problem.  Well, the battery problem is slowly coming back.  It sometimes sends calls straight to voicemail, no ringing.  I only find out I missed a call when I get the voicemail notification.  Sometimes it won’t let me send texts.  Often (like most of the time), when I’m not on wi-fi, I can’t connect to the cellular network for data AT ALL (but I can still make calls).

Well, it’s old, and I should cut it some slack, right?  I wouldn’t (and didn’t) yell at my old dogs when they couldn’t walk as fast as they used to or when I had to carry them outside.

I do love my phone, but when it starts acting up, I treat it badly.  I get so frustrated.  Sometimes I yell.  (I’m so ashamed of myself right now.)  Worst of all, I think about replacing it.  The thing is, I want this phone.  There’s a Google Nexus 6, but it’s bigger.   I don’t want bigger.  There’s a Google Nexus 5x, which is the newer model, but I’m not ready to invest $400 in it yet.  I’ve used the Samsung Galaxy phones for work for years now, and I really don’t like them (although the newest one, the S7, is kind of okay).

Luckily, Woot came to my rescue last week.  There was a day they were selling new (NEW!) Google Nexus 5s for $150.  I bought one, and it should arrive this Thursday.  Replacing my phone with its twin should be okay, right?  It’s not the new model, I’m not giving up on it, I’m just…trading sideways.  I feel a little bad, but I’m also pinning all my hopes on this new phone.  PLEASE ring instead of sending calls to voicemail.  PLEASE let me use my data plan when I’m not on wi-fi.  PLEASE let me send texts normally and receive group texts in real time.  Please?

Phone woes, continued

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The new battery for my phone arrived Tuesday, and John installed it that night.  It was not easy.  I mean, it’s easy when you think about the steps involved (pry off the back of the phone, unscrew the harness, pull out the battery, put the new one in, screw in the harness, pop the back of the phone back on), but prying off the back and pulling out the battery were HARD TO DO.  This phone isn’t meant to come apart, and it really doesn’t want to.  Over the course of about half an hour, we got the back off, and then it took another 10 minutes or so (maybe longer) to get the battery out, worrying the whole time that we were damaging the phone.

Eventually, John put it back together with the new battery, and I plugged it in to charge overnight.  Positive sign: the indicator showed that it was charging.

I turned it on Wednesday morning, and immediately got a couple of texts from the night before (good sign) and sent a reply, but when John tried to call my phone, he got sent straight to voicemail.  I was standing right there.  The phone didn’t ring.  I couldn’t make outgoing calls.  Then I couldn’t send or receive texts, even though I had JUST done both.  I couldn’t get online.  My phone showed that it had service, several bars, but that appeared to be a lie.  Later in the morning, I turned my phone off and back on.  Again, I had a very short burst of connectivity, but that was it.

I switched to my work phone for the day, figuring we would take my phone apart again later and see what we did.  Even if it couldn’t hold a charge for very long, it still worked.

John: I’m sorry I made it worse.

Me: No, you didn’t…oh, wait.  You did.

Wednesday afternoon, John googled the problem and found that my phone has one antenna for 3G and one for LTE inside the back, and sometimes they can get knocked out of place when you muck around in there.  He switched my phone setting to 3G only and IT WORKED.  It was slow as hell, but it worked.

This morning, he took it apart again to try to fix the LTE antenna and IT WORKED AGAIN.  I don’t always have LTE service, and it’s possible that the constant search for LTE is what is killing my battery, but MY PHONE WORKS.

I’ll keep an eye on the battery during normal use and see how it goes.  I may still be in the market for a new phone soon, but it would be REALLY REALLY REALLY NICE if this one lives a while longer.

Phone woes

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I remember what I was going to write about yesterday!  It only took a few hours.  It was about my phone.  Over the last several months, my phone’s battery has gotten worse and worse.  The other day (the day I finally took some action about it), I had to plug the thing in FOUR times in one day.  The battery just won’t hold a charge for very long anymore, and sometimes, even when it’s at 40% or something plenty high, it’ll just shut off.

I’m due for an upgrade, but the phone I want isn’t eligible (won’t save me any money), and the model I have (which I would happily buy again) isn’t available anymore.

Last Saturday, I called Sprint to find out of the insurance I’d been paying on my phone would cover repairs or a replacement because of this battery problem.  The woman I spoke to said I’d have to take it in to a repair center to have them check it out, but if they agree that I didn’t actually cause the problem, then yes, my purchase of the insurance would actually help me out.

Same day, I headed to a Sprint store/repair center and spoke to two SUPER nice people there.  They were sympathetic, agreed that I needed a replacement (since the battery on this model isn’t replaceable), and began the process to get me that replacement.

Problem: The phone I want isn’t available for replacement.  I have the Google Nexus 5, and I want either another Nexus 5 or the Nexus 5X.  I don’t want a Nexus 6 (too big), and I don’t want any other model.  (I love my phone.)  Sprint doesn’t have ANY more of the Nexus 5, and the 5X doesn’t count as a replacement, apparently.

That, unfortunately, is where Sprint can’t help me anymore (the company didn’t actually help me AT ALL).  The two guys I was working with went online and found all the websites I can use to turn in my phone and get a credit towards a new phone (but we’re talking at most $80-ish towards a $400 phone – Best Buy will only give me $40), and they mentioned a place I can go that will mail my phone out to someone who will replace the battery, but they think it’ll cost a ton.

Question: Why can someone out there replace the battery, but Sprint can’t?  I got home, and John and I googled replacement batteries for my phone and hey – someone wrote instructions for how to do it.  You have to have a special tool or two, but John already has them (from replacing the screen on his old smartphone), and the battery costs – are you ready? – around $10.  That’s it!  And it’s eligible for Prime shipping from Amazon, so it’s coming tomorrow or the next day.

If the new battery solves my problem (because everything else about my phone is wonderful), then I will be happy for as long as that battery will let me be.  Or at least until the Nexus 5X comes down in price to something reasonable.  Cross your fingers for me!

My wise little Sansa

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My little Sansa SanDisk mp3 player knows all.  I went to bed in a mood, and I woke up in a mood, and then I didn’t get out of bed and my mood got worse until I basically threatened myself with bodily harm (it’s called being fat and lazy) if I didn’t get up and run, so I did.  And I’m glad I did.  (No surprise there.)  The sky was overcast and the temperature was in the mid-sixties and the humidity was, well, it wasn’t high, and I had just taken two days off (which is why the threats were effective), so my legs were fresh, and it felt good to run.  Even then, it would have been just okay if it weren’t for my cute little purple mp3 player.

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I don’t know what songs played during the first few miles (maybe some Van Halen?), but I know that as I coasted downhill about a mile and a half from home, Dean Martin’s “Good Morning, Life” started, and then with a half-mile to go (and the last incline in front of me), I heard Stevie Wonder’s harmonica heralding Sting’s “Brand New Day”.

I am as certain as I can be that my mp3 player has become sentient.  Maybe it happened after a certain number of hours of use for such a tiny little device, maybe it needed this exact combination of sweat and wind and weather, or maybe all mp3 players become aware (or have always been aware), but I KNOW that mine is now.  There are a LOT of songs on it, and while many of them are upbeat (I do use it for exercise), they aren’t all upbeat and they’re certainly not all that positive and life-affirming.  I mean, really.  What other explanation could there be?

 

 

Out of service

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John and I spent the weekend smack in the middle of Pennsylvania.  We went up for Molly’s graduation from Penn State and we had almost ZERO cell service the whole time.  It was really annoying.  Should we have expected it?  I’m not sure.  On the one hand, we were in the middle of nowhere.  Maybe it’s reasonable to expect limited service.  On the other hand, we were on Penn State’s ENORMOUS campus.  They have LOTS of students – how could they not have LOTS of cell towers?  Back to the first hand, though, we were there with thousands upon thousands of students AND their families.  Maybe we just couldn’t get our share of the network.  It sure seemed like everyone else could. As we left town (later than either of us wanted) Sunday afternoon, all of the texts and emails we’d missed all weekend came pouring in.  We felt so out of touch.

On the plus side, it was a beautiful weekend to find ourselves out in the middle of nowhere.  Lots trees, blue sky, mountains.  It was pretty.  I like pretty.  Also, I got to wear two of my favorite dresses, so I felt pretty, too.

I’m usually not that kind of fan

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I finished reading Sword, by Amy Bai, Sunday afternoon.  Within three minutes of finishing it, I’d sent her an email telling her how much I loved it.  I’m pretty sure I managed to keep the gushing to a minimum, and it wasn’t a long email or anything, but seriously – I really liked this book.  (Also, I love the internet.  I’m not one for sending fanmail under normal circumstances, and if I’d had to write an actual letter and put postage on it and mail it, I NEVER would have done it.  This way is so much easier.)  I’m pretty sure it’s the opener to a series, but it doesn’t have to be.  It IS her first book, which makes me happy for her and sad for me.  She doesn’t have anything else for me to read!  What am I going to do?

Here’s how I heard of her: The Big Idea: Amy Bai, on John Scalzi’s blog.  I bought the book within a day of reading that.  (It’s only $4.99 for Kindle right now, by the way.)

I have no idea what I have to do

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I need a better to-do list for work.  I’ve tried a rolling spreadsheet (I had a macro that would create a new tab with the current date and include all of the items from the previous tab – then I could just delete completed items), I’ve tried random text documents (I lose them or forget about them), and then I moved on to using my Outlook calendar.  That worked for a while. I either add an appointment early in the day with a reminder, or I mark something as an all day task, with or without a reminder.  Every time I look at my calendar (which is a lot – I have a lot of meetings), I’m reminded of the things I have to do.  If I don’t finish a task, I can move those from day to day, or if they have reminders, leave them (as long as I don’t dismiss the reminders) and they’ll continue to appear in front of my face when the reminder thing pops up.

Problems:

  1. I start ignoring the popups.  I get so used to seeing the same tasks (because I have to keep putting off the low priority ones in favor of the crisis of the hour), and the list keeps growing, and it keeps growing with low priority issues…so I just ignore the popup reminder.
  2. If I ignore the popup because I don’t want to look at the long list of tasks I’m being reminded to do (because I don’t have time to do them because crisis of the hour has my attention), I miss ACTUAL reminders of ACTUAL meetings.  Today, for instance, I was 20 minutes late to a meeting because I paid no attention to the Outlook reminder thingy.

So this isn’t working anymore.  Maybe I’ll try the Excel thing again.  I’ve never actually tried Outlook’s task list – maybe I’ll try that first.  I just know that what I have is failing me.  Or I’m failing it.

New toy!

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I’ve been in need of a new laptop for a while now.  I can’t even upgrade my poor pretty pink Dell to the latest Ubuntu version.  My graphics card can’t handle it.  I bought it…6 years ago?  Maybe?  It’s been a while, anyway.  It’s slowing down, and sometimes the fan rattles, and it just can’t do anything anymore.  I’m in need.  In support of The Plan, we both need laptops that can handle work needs (I’ll need Windows, John needs processing power), and sure, we haven’t sold our house yet, but that’ll happen any day now, right?  And in the meantime, I really do need a new laptop.  Really.  So….why not get a cool one?  The coolest one out there?  We decided that new laptops would be our Christmas presents to each other, and once we found the ones we wanted, we didn’t see any reason to wait.  🙂  They arrived last week.  And mine is SO COOL.  I got the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.  Lightweight, touch screen, pretty powerful.  It’s COOL.  And pretty.  I got the silver one.

lenovo-laptop-convertible-yoga-2-pro-orange-front-1

 

Personalizing

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It’s been two weeks (three? no, two) since I got my new phone, and I’m FINALLY setting it up the way I want it.  I’ve been trying out one of the new cases for about a week (they were here when we got back from Mom and Dad’s), and I like it, but it’s a wallet-type case, which means the screen is covered most of the time, and I’m not sure I’m crazy about that.  Today, I finally pulled the protective stickers off and put the clear screen protector on (yes, I’ve been reading my screen THROUGH the text on the sticker that came on it because I didn’t want to get my screen all dirty while I waited for the protectors – irritating, but worth it), and now I’m trying out a regular case (no cover over the screen).  So far, I really like this one.  I might go back and forth between the two, depending on where I’m going.  I have completely rejected the Cruzerlite wallet case because the case part digs in too much at the corners and created bubbles under the screen protector almost immediately.  I might have to add a review.

Screen protectors and cases aside, I finally added my ringtones and music, and my text and voicemail notification sounds are back.  Feels like my phone again.  Hello, phone.

New phone!

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I am now the proud owner of a Google Nexus 5, and it only took about 40 minutes in the store.  It still seems ridiculous that it takes even that long, but at least we didn’t have to wait for someone else to finish up.

From this thread on Reddit come a few websites that are cool.  (That is an awkward sentence.  I’m leaving it, though.  Ssh.)  The Nicest Place on the Internet shows short videos of people smiling at you and giving you hug.  Seriously, they seem like very nice people.  You can mute the music.  Also, The Internet is Useful: descriptions of and links to websites, apps, books, etc., that are actually useful.

You are welcome.  Pardon me while I go watch nice people smile at me.