Random Spring thought

Husband has a lot of friends in the Orlando area. One of the early events there I went with him to was an art festival in Downtown Disney. I'd like to go back again, but I'd have to either go without them or be prepared to not stay with the group (sorry guys). I felt, and still feel, that while I enjoyed being with the group, I never enjoyed the festival. Why? Because they were all interested in the hand-drawn art and, except for the sidewalk chalk art, I was interested in everything BUT. They stopped at every print, paint, and drawing booth, which I'm sorry to say bored me, and skipped the metal, jewelry, wood, ceramics, and textiles that I wanted to stop at. Oh well. I'll go again.

…and cue the stereotyping!

Mobilitydigest.com is moving a little bit from just mobility and into all tech, so I’m like, hey, I should look at technology aimed at women, since I’m the female writer of the crew. How depressing/hard can it be, right?

*facepalm* I goo Bing “technology aimed at Women” and get mostly crap, but I did get a 2008 article about Yahoo!’s Shine site for women. Okay, cool. So I head out to shine.yahoo.com and look at the categories: Today, Style, Well-being, Love+Sex, Food, Home Design, Parenting, Animals, Horoscope, My Shine.

…

…

I sense a disturbance in the Force. No. Technology. Nada. Nyet. Nein.

THIS should have been expected, I suppose, but I’m very disappointed.

As my grandmother used to say, though: Corn’s not shucked - drive on. Let’s see what I can find.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye 2012!

So it's the end of 2012. A little look back, shall we?

I turned 41, Husband turned 40, Son turned 8.
9 years of marriage. 8 years in this house. ("The average family moves every 7 years." Yeah, who can afford THAT?)
I spent all of 2012 in a part-time, no benefits job. That has its pros & cons, but I'm still hunting for something full-time & permanent. Though, of course, nothing is really permanent, especially in a right-to-work state.
I buried a long-time acquaintance from my RPG playing days. It was nice to see some of the others who also came to the service, and we had a nice time chatting and catching up over dinner.
I buried my best friend of 30 years. The service was small, but it was nice to see her co-workers thought very well of her. It really brought home that I need to lose some weight.
Mom spent her first semester (of three) away from the family, working on Masters #2. I'm so glad that she's enjoying herself.
The Jaguars have sucked. We'll just leave it there.
FSU football hasn't been much better.
The Sharks, however, are doing well. Keep up the good job, chums!
We cut the satellite cord this year, and got Roku boxes. No problems there.
Son brought germs home after Thanksgiving, & he and I are still sick. Kids...
I joined a tech blog, and guest posted a couple of times on another.

So 2012 wasn't great, and it wasn't horrible. Life is, and will probably continue to be, daily.
Here's to 2013. May it not suck, too.

Ads

Well, I'm actually looking at the ads I've let Google insert, and filtering is a pain in the tushie. I haven't made much, so I'm going to see if I can disable the bloody thing completely for a while. I see it's screwing up the formatting of the second post. If G can't get it together, why should I use it?

{Edit: Hmm, okay, removed some categories, found out that Google thought I was a male which is why I was seeing mail-order-bride ads. It seems to be formatting fine now. But Google: why ads in the DASHBOARD??}

Who's your momma now?

(This is a copy of a post from Glance and Go Radio in October 2012)

Women now make up nearly 60% of players of games on mobile devices. BOOYAH!

Now, I’m not advocating for more “Hello, Kitty” or (FSM forbid) PINK in mobility, but I AM pointing this out to say to the developers, “You cannot afford to continue to think that games, particularly mobile games, are for men.” In fact, with social multi-player games, women are even a BIGGER percentage. As a woman, I can give my opinion on why I think that’s an obvious, no-brainer conclusion: as a whole (and there are always exceptions), I have found that we are more cooperative, more social, than men. So, duh! Of COURSE we’re going to be a bigger consumer of social, and even casual, games.

And here’s pro tip number 2: you want to get your claws into the toddlers? Infants? Pre-teens? Teens? Guess who you’re going to have to go through: Mom, not Dad. So not only have women become the majority consumer of mobile games, but they have a huge influence over the rest of the family. According to EEDAR, a California research firm that specializes in researching video games, women are more likely to play these games with family members and send (and I’d assume accept) those annoying Facebook game invitations. (Remember I said there are exceptions? Yeah, my husband is more likely to play on the Playstation 3 with our son. I tend not to be able to stay with console games for long. But then, I didn’t grow up with a console and my husband did.)

Now before you start feeling threatened, according to EEDAR men still are in the majority in PC and console gaming, but that lead has shrunk from 72% in 2002 to only 53% in 2012.

Even stranger still, according to the USA Today article, Big Fish Games (a game publisher on the PC, iOS, and Android platforms) says that their Big Fish Casino game, which you would think would lean male, actually gets 65% of their revenue from women. (Disclaimer: I have been a BFG member since 2009. I generally play hidden object games, although I have some time management style games too. And yes, I have bought games for my son as well.)

I’m sending this out specifically to Windows 8 and Windows Phone developers. Apple’s App Store is too big now to shift quickly, Google Play has so little oversight it’s nuts, but the Windows Store is young, new, and growing. So you developers are in a unique position to grab these game-playing, socially-connected women NOW. Let’s get more Xbox and Windows Phone cross-over. Tie in all of the social networks so we can go from desktop to laptop to tablet to phone effortlessly, easily, and anywhere. Make the cloud seamless and easy to reach, so we can manage our family’s schedule, finances, and leisure time.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a city to QONQR. Level 79 and FINALLY people are playing in the area. Woohoo! Sign up, and use “Panda” as a referral. {Edit: Also available on iPhones. Not available yet on Android, but "comming."}

Source: USA Today

The dark side of being seen as "the best"

(This is a copy of a blog post I did on Mobility Digest in October 2012)

Ever since the first iPhone came out, The Masses have been slavishly lining up to pick up the Next New iThing. Whether iPhones are or are not The Best is debatable, and probably at least somewhat subjective. Other sites and articles have benchmarked mobile devices to death, so I’ll let that go. What I want to discuss is perception.

Yes, I have become largely a Microsoft fangirl. That almost wasn’t the case: I was flashing the ROM on my Fuze/TouchPro every month (occasionally twice a month), the applications didn’t really send me, and I could afford to upgrade when the time came. I could never drink the Apple-flavored kool-aid and I had no desire at all for a Crackberry, so I was just about resigned to go All In with Android and give my digital self over to Google. Then I heard it: Windows Phone 7. It would be clean, beautiful, and it would “just work.” Hmm. Windows, the behemoth, to match my PC, or Android, fractured, ugly, and tied to Google, who was becoming the Evil they swore not to be. Windows it was. And I haven’t regretted a single moment.

Apple, however, is still largely touted as The Best by both media (those tech and non-tech) and The Masses. My sister-in-law and her family are All In with Apple. The sisters-of-my-heart, two of my closest friends, went from Blackberries to iPhones, mostly because they got a massively good deal from the younger’s work.

Where am I going with this? What with Antennagate, Scuffgate, Wifigate, and Purple Haze, Apple seems to be caught up in “we’re on top, we can’t do any wrong” syndrome. Yes, The Masses have still cued up before opening to get their grubby mitts on the new iPhone 5. Yes, pre-orders were massively high. However, the level of anticipation is not as high as it seems to have been for the iPhone 3, the iPhone 4, or even the iPhone 4S. The 4S disappointed because it wasn’t seen to be much more than a slightly incremental improvement – there was no “wow” factor. The iPhone 5 is suffering from the same problem. Sales have been high, but not as high as expected. Are people coming back down to earth after suffering from iThing High?

Here’s what triggered this line of wondering: I was taking the elder of my heart-sisters around on errands today. (She has epilepsy, and cannot legally drive in the State of Florida.) As I said earlier, they have iPhones 4Ses. Last week, iOS6 got pushed to them (and they couldn’t say “No” to it - that’s another beef they’re having with Apple). It has been a stream of cursing at their devices all week! And, being the resident Mobility Person, boy am I getting an ear full.

Maps isn’t a big deal to them. They don’t have the Purple Haze problem because that seems to be a iPhone 5 issue. They’re on Sprint, so hopefully they haven’t been hit with the on-WiFi-but-getting-charged-cell-data issue. No, it’s the battery (which I hope isn’t a symptom of the WiFi problem. We’re going to be checking that when their usage comes in). As we were driving around, my friend told me that before the iOS6 update, she could go a whole day without charging. Now, it can go from 100% to 50% after an hour of just talking on the phone and texting. If she plays some games, the battery can loose 15% in 10-15 minutes!

And she’s an Apple fan! She’s owned Macs in the past, and loves them; prefers them, in fact. But here’s the point: SHE ISN’T LOYAL. She has sworn to NEVER buy a Mac again, because of Apple’s attitude!

It seems that when she bought her last Mac, she bought a warranty. But for some reason, whether it was Apple policy, or a quirk of Florida law, since she was neither an educator nor a student, she could not register her warranty with Apple. (This is long before Apple stores.) Within months of owning the Mac, she saw smoke coming from the power supply, and the thing died. It wasn’t until after that warranty period expired that she learned there had been a recall for that model for exactly the power supply problem she had. No attempt was made from Apple to inform her, as an owner, nor did she ever see any announcement on Apple’s homepage. How did she know the latter fact? Evidently, the Apple homepage was the default when opening Safari, and she NEVER changed it. So she saw that page constantly. I’ve had recalls on my vehicles: the maker and/or the dealerships send me notices when there are recalls. But because Apple displayed Absolutely No Concern over letting consumers know about this problem with their $1500 device, she has sworn to never buy an Apple PC ever again.

THIS is the disaster that Apple is courting by shrugging off antenna problems, camera issues, Maps errors: customers saying, “Screw it!” and going on to Something Else. In contrast, when Nokia’s Lumia 900 had issues at launch, they refunded $100 to anyone who bought one in the first month. So guess who got goodwill from their customers? Sure, Lumia 900 owners complained, but when Nokia said, “You’re right. Here – we’ll try to make it right,” they accepted it. By saying, “Well, YOU’RE holding it wrong,” Apple is not accepting responsibility for its product.

If The Masses begin to think something “just isn’t working,” look out: they WILL move on.

I can agree that we’re all harping a lot on Apple lately, but that’s because it’s their game to loose. Steve held Apple together with the force of his personality, his Vision. And agree with him or not, it was a good and a powerful one. And, with very few exceptions, it worked incredibly well. With him gone, it seems that Apple is becoming just like every other corporation. It remains to be seen if they can keep their perch on top of the heap. It may not be pretty to watch them fall off their pedestal, but maybe that will wake them up, and make them the customer-centric company they once were.

I need a little more discipline

Well, I've really been terrible at updating this sucker. Let's see if I can make myself do at least 1 post a week. I'll start with copies of posts from elsewhere. ;D

On voting

This morning, just as I was literally just sitting down to lunch, the phone rang. The caller ID pegged it as “Democrat.” Uh-huh.  I SHOULD have just let it go, but I decided to answer.  It was not a live person (naturally), and claimed to be from the Clay County (FL) Democrats.  It urged all registered voters in the county to just vote, but to consider mail-in, or absentee, ballots as an alternative.

That kind of struck me as odd. I had been listening to NPR on my way home yesterday, and heard a Duval County representative (on the subject of the shortening of early voting in the state) remark that “thousands” of absentee ballots (in Duval? in the state? Nationally?) were thrown out in the last election (it was unclear whether she was referring to the August primary, the last general election, or the last Presidential election).

First I went to the Clay County Democrats website.  Sure enough, there was a blog post saying pretty much what the phone call said.

I wondered how many absentee ballots from Clay County were rejected.  My hypothesis was that relying on absentee ballots vs. in-person ballots (to save the perceived problem of having to prove your identity) was a Bad Idea.

In the August, 2012 Primary election, Clay County had 129,943 registered voters.  55% are registered as Republicans, 24% as Democrats, and 21 as nonpartisan (yeah, those are pretty much the choices).  32,465 ballots were cast, or 25% of all registered voters: 79% of those who cast their ballot were Republicans, 15% were Democrats, and 6% were nonpartisans.  In overall numbers, 36% of all registered Republicans in the county voted, while 16% and 7% of Democrats and nonpartisans voted, respectively. (By the way, this is all public information. The relevant document is here.)

This says nothing about HOW a vote was cast, so I called the County Elections office.  The lady to whom I was transferred might have been curious, but was polite, friendly, and gave me the answers to all the questions I asked.  In the August, 2012 Primary election, 7,808 absentee ballots were requested from the County.  4,897 were returned, or 63%.  Of those 4,897, 14 were rejected for having no signature (0.3%), 84 were returned as “undeliverable” (2%), 12 were rejected for having a “different signature” than the one on file (yes, your signatures are scanned and kept for comparison) (0.2%), and 1 person responded that they had moved out of the county in the interim. 

On the “undeliverables”: counties are not required to make attempts at locating the individual once the ballot is returned to them; however, Clay County generally does so.  That was nice to hear.

On the signature comparisons: signatures go through two levels of checking: first two clerks in the Supervisor of Elections office check them, then a committee formed of a judge, a County Commissioner, and the Supervisor of Elections check them.  For my part, I know that my signature has “evolved” over the years, and I said as much to this lady.  She said that’s very common, and they’re really looking for lots of differences, or glaring ones, and that they recommend doing the following (and, in fact, recommend this to aging voters A Lot): request your absentee ballot AND get a new registration (for signature update – I’m not sure if that’s separate, or you use the registration form, I didn’t get a chance to ask).  Fill out both, but send in the registration at least two days before mailing your ballot.  Your registration, with a current signature, will then be on file when the ballot arrives, and you’ll be good to go.  I think this is a Very Good suggestion; I’m going to update my signature shortly.

But back to the absentee ballot numbers.  Those numbers are so small, I don’t feel that it’s that big a problem in this county; HOWEVER, it is worth saying that anyone who fills out an absentee ballot FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS TO THE LETTER.  That is, don’t forget to sign the ballot, make sure that you have witnesses (if required – I’m told they are), and don’t forget to sign the envelope.  Cross your ‘t’s and dot your ‘I’s, and your ballot WILL count.

I also don’t care HOW a person votes, as long as they DO, and that they vote their own conscience, not how someone else tells them (either by command or by fear).  READ from multiple sources; THINK about not only the context of what you read, but who is saying it.  Voting may be a right and a privilege, but it is also a duty.  Remember, the popular vote count in 2000 in Florida for President of the United States differed by 537 votes (out of over 6 million)!

Funny kid stories

In 2nd grade, the kids are supposed to be reading 10 “chapter books” every quarter. One of my SILs gave Son some of the Magic Tree House books for Christmas 1?2? years ago, and he’s finally getting into them.  (He’s been playing MTH lately. Floppy Bear, aka Ursus Floppus, has a sweater vest on and is Jack…)

So he reads 1 chapter, Mommy reads 2, then Daddy reads 2. This way we read 1 book in 2 nights.

Son was reading tonight, and had trouble with a word. He was sitting on the couch in front of me, and I couldn’t see the book. 

Son: I don’t know this word.
Me: What is this word? I can’t see.
Son: h – a – v – e
Me:… You know that one!
Son: {silence} {more silence} have?
Me: Yes!
Son: Well, that’s not right! It should be “hAv” {long a}
Me: … Well, yes, you’re right.  But remember: “There are no exceptions to the rule that every rule has its exceptions.”
Son: Well, *I’m* going to write it the right way.
Me: No … you just have to learn that this is an exception, and deal.

I told Mah this later on, and she said, “Wait until he gets to ‘behave.’”  HAHA

--------------------------

As Daddy starts to read his chapters, I had a little epiphany: Annie is Chaotic Good, Jack is Lawful Good, and Morgan is Neutral Good!

Think state employees are “special”? Yeah, so does Rick Scott.

Everyone has heard (or said) the same old thing: State Employees get paid too much. State Employees get special benefits. State Employees blah blah blah.

Well, in Florida, it looks like Rick Scott and his administration thinks that state employees are special, too.  So special, we deserve to be taxed above and beyond all other residents.

That’s right.  In 2011, the Florida State Legislature passed, and Governor Scott signed, a bill that placed a 3% tax on all state employees (although I’m wondering if they were exempted…).  This money was supposed to “offset the state’s investment in the Florida Retirement System.” (Tampa Bay Times)  Did that money go into the FRS?  Noooooo, it went into the GENERAL FUND.  So the state’s budget hole has been filled not by all residents, not by businesses, but by state employees.

Fuck you, Florida.  I’ve been trying to get work back in the state system to continue growing my retirement fund, but I think this may be the last straw. 

And it just occurred to me: as an OPS employee, I have no benefits.  But I wonder if they’ve been taking out for the FRS (shouldn’t, right?).  I should check real quick… Oh yeah, it looks like it.  There’s a line called FICA Alternative 457(b). As far as I can tell with a quick Bing search, that’s a retirement system.  Busted!  I’m not a total fan of the ACLU, but I should see if they want this. {Edit: Ah, it isn’t state – it’s a federal “alternative” to the Social Security (bleah – I forgot that’s what FICA is. Totally my bad.).  I’m not keen on the idea that my SS money has NOT been going into that pot, either. I’d like to have had the CHOICE (or at least some say) in whether or not this money went into my regular SS account or a private account.}