I love this time of year, truly, but it is exhausting.  Some people have jobs that have stress throughout the year, but mine seems to pile up in the first 4 months of the year.  But that’s where all the fun and joy seems to fall, too, so I wouldn’t change it.

Since I’m tired after working a 11-hour work day (I’m writing this Tuesday evening), I’m going to write about the first thing that comes to mind.  Technology.  Perhaps this comes to mind as in the last month or so I’ve gotten both a Nook and a Windows 7 phone (yes, my 6th cell phone in 9 years).  Plus, I’m currently listening to the chapter on media from Thom Rainer and Jess Rainer’s The Millennials.

(Side note: Jess talks about how his journey with media began with Oregon Trail…didn’t it for most of us older millennials?  I loved that game, especially since it counted as “school!”)

When I got my last new phone a year and a half ago (I had to get another so soon as I’m switching back to AT&T for work…4th company switch!), I talked about how much cell phone technology has changed.  My phone is, of course, not only my only phone and how I primarily communicate (via text), but also my mp3 player, GPS (haven’t used it yet, but will the next time I need directions), and the camera I use more often than not (to film video, too).  If I wanted, I could use it to check email or watch videos, but I haven’t done that, yet, either.

I love the all-in-one-ness of today’s cell phones, and I assume it will continue.

Interesting statistics (sorry, that’s what you get for me writing while listening!): 13% of my generation (born 1980-2000) write blogs.  Millennials like me (with graduate degrees) are most likely to use social media.  Ha, am I just a statistic?

So what are your thoughts on the technology trends?  What are your hopes?  Your concerns?

There wasn’t anything flashy or over the top, but that’s why it was so great.

Tuesday (birthday eve), I worked from home as I had a package coming that required a signature.

What was in the package?

A Nook (thanks, Mom and Dad!).

That’s right, I’m now one of the growing population of readers who is reading electronically.  I haven’t given up paper books, but when I can, I’ll be reading electronically.  I’m a lazy reader, and prefer not to actually have to hold a book open.  I also like that it automatically remember where you were…once again, I’m lazy.

Then Wednesday, my birthday, was just right.  Lots of birthday wishes from friends and a generally pleasant day.  In the evening, a few friends came by and we had some appetizers, played some games, and of course, followed it up with some cake.  Looking back, it’s hard to describe why I enjoyed it so much, but trust me, I did.

I’ll touch anything, assuming a trainer is holding it, blah, blah, blah.  But will I hold any animals? Not really (the occasional small dog or cat, sure).

2.  Would you like to know the precise date of your future death?

Yes, I would.  But as soon as you told me, I wouldn’t.  The building anticipation in the years, months, and weeks before that date would be awful.

3.  What is made for kids but you love it anyway?

Lip Smacker lip gloss.  Hopelessly addicted to them.  Go through a “party pack” every couple of months.

4.  Ever been addicted to a video/computer game? Which one(s)?

Only once.  Sims 2, senior year of college.  After playing it more and more over a couple of months at the end of my first semester, I realized I had to give it up.  Thankfully, it was a friend’s game on her computer, so I didn’t have easy access to it.  I think I really liked it because I got to control a world.  It was basically the techie version of what I did as a child: make up names, ages, traits, etc of my many imaginary children.

5.  __ is life. The rest is just details. Fill in the blank.

Jesus.

First, my headphones that I use to watch House on my laptop (I actually prefer that because it has better sound/picture than my TV) and listen to pump-it-up music on my phone stopped working.  Okay, it was still half working: the left half.  What can I say, left is better!

Then, the biggest issue happened Saturday.  While I was cleaning my room and my laptop was supposed to be minding it’s own business, it decided to get freaky on me.  It’s only 9 months old (a mere baby…okay, child), but for whatever reason no matter how many different fixes I tried, it would not get past a certain point in the start up.  Every type of system restore I attempted wouldn’t work because there was something wrong with the disc (really? hadn’t noticed) and needed to run the Scan Disc thing.  Of course, that would require it to fully start up…

I consider myself decently handy when it comes to computer things, but this was beyond my skill set…at least my old skill set.  I ended up having to reinstall Windows on my lappy and all the rest of the programs.  I’m very thankful that I didn’t really have plans this weekend, so I had time to get it back in working order!

The last technological mishap comes from Facebook.  For whatever reason, all the updates are stuck at Saturday afternoon.  Of course, that means that it’s full of “I’m so excited for the game!” and “Boomer Sooner!”  Like rubbing salt in the wound…

Seriously though, this weekend has been relaxing, with double the alone time and doing pittly things time.  I’m very thankful for these types of weekends, especially when they fall between two very busy weeks!  I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!

Can’t stop playing with my phone!

Though I’m not much of a phone talker, it’s a bit frusterating to have to stand in one place in my apartment to have a conversation, and even then it can cut out on you.  Every time I switch providers, it’s to get better service in my apartment, and then something happens within a few months, and it’s no longer the best provider for my apartment (a cell tower is taken down, a fire happens and we have to move…).

But this switch (and quite the upgrade to a better phone), has me thinking of how much phones have improved in a relatively short amount of time.  I received my first cell phone for my 19th birthday (I actually went a whole semester of college without a cell phone…that would have been weird even a couple of years later!).  That first phone was one of these (because really, what other phone was there to have?):I thought it was so cool, with my 100 minutes/month, in Kansas/Oklahoma/Missouri/Illinois only (yeah, I don’t get why those 4 states were in a  regional plan together, either).

A couple of years later, I upgraded to a flip phone, because of course that was cool.  Then to a color flip phone, and then to a flip phone with camera.

And now, I have the enV Touch, with touch screen, flash camera, and QWERTY keyboard.  (sorry, no picture, but it’s a little difficult to take a picture of a phone when the camera’s IN the phone!) These were three things that would have seemed so crazy back in 2001 when I got that first phone.  Makes me wonder what phones will look like in another 8 years!

What futuristic features would you like to see phones have?

It’s not like I really need another electronic distraction.  I spend my day in front of computers, I certainly don’t want to spend my nights in front of them, too.  But Twitter’s something that intrigued me.  I couldn’t figure out what the benefit was…I had blogging and Facebook, isn’t that enough?

Still, there’s been some days that I’ve wanted to blog something small that happened to me throughout the day.  These little things aren’t important after the fact (which probably means they’re not important at all), and because I usually post my blogs first thing in the day, they don’t get blogged.

So, I’m doing the tweet thing simply to allow you all the chance to see the little day-to-day things.  If you could not care less, I don’t blame ya.

If you’re a tweeter, I’d love your advice…what’s something that I as a novice should know?  Any rookie mistakes to be avoided?  And if you wish, my Twitter feed ID is ronnicaih.

I still occasionally catch 30 Rock, Numb3rs, or a CSI, but these don’t require me to watch every episode.  I make them a treat for when I happen to be home at that time and don’t have anything else pressing.  I also have started watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, because they come on during my typical dinnertime downtime and don’t require close, or regular watching.

There’s really only two exceptions: sports (for obvious reasons, but I only have to watch Big XII football and the NCAA tournament when they’re on) and in the summer, for SYTYCD because it IS the summer, and my friends like to watch it with me.

I don’t feel I need to cut TV watching out of my life completely, but I have limited it.  I don’t have to watch TV everyday, and more often than not, I’d rather read than watch TV anyway.  Since I’ve weaned myself off of must-see TV, I guess you could call me a TV weanie.

What show would you find to be the hardest to give up watching?

However, this apparently is not the norm of the American people, or at least the people that use the same model of phone I use. Only occasionally do I find a word that Blogger doesn’t know, and even less common do I find a word that Microsoft Word spell check doesn’t know (it especially happens when writing seminary papers…clearly Word has never been to seminary), but I find words that my phone doesn’t know (specifically the T9 predictive text function) on almost a daily basis.

Words that I’ve recently discovered were not in my phone’s vocabulary:

Bawl
Yeppers (I said I had an extensive vocabulary, haha)
Roomie (Blogger doesn’t recognize this nor “yeppers,” sigh)
Blog (I know!)

Another question about the T9 function: it’s supposed to give me the words in the order of most frequent use, right? How come when I go to type “jen” (a word I have to use pretty often) does it give me “ken” and “leo” before “jen?” Aren’t there like 40 bazillion Jens out there, many more than Kens or Leos? I mean really, I only “know” one Leo, and that’s only if you can count famous people.

What words have you been surprised is not in your phone/blogger/word processor?

I don’t specifically remember doing grammar, but we did have journals that we had to write in each day. Then a couple students would be called on to read the story they wrote to the class. I remember writing a story about a laundry chute, and that very same day another one of the kids had written a story about a laundry chute. I think I always wanted one (these days I’d prefer a maid).

Another non-traditional thing she did was handle conflict in an unusual way. If you want a glimpse of when I became a chief witness to a jury of classmates, click the “childhood games and railroad ties don’t mix” link below.

Another time a valuable floppy disk (you know, the ones that were actually floppy) went missing when our class was in the computer lab (where we would go and play Oregon Trail…I loved that game!). They really wanted it back so they were willing to offer not to punish the person as long as they brought it back. So we had to sit in our classroom with our eyes closed while one student at a time had to go over to the cubbies and put the missing disk in an envelope if they had it. At some point in the middle of this proceeding (and before it was my turn), a student in another class had admitted to taking the disk, and we were cleared.

The last thing I remember about that class was playing with a dreidel, as my teacher was Jewish. We still did the traditional Christmas things, but she taught us about Hanukkah as well.

Well, it’s time to go watch some football. Enjoy, and may the Sooners win!

Other School Day Memories:

Kindergarten and First Grade: Kisses and Skunks
3rd grade: Childhood Games and Railroad Ties Don’t Mix
4th grade: Watching Whales
7th Grade: Teacher Review
8th Grade: 100 Marble Pick Up
9th Grade: Science Nerd
College Senior Year: Why Procrastination Might Not Be My Thing