Relationship Survey

I’m at it again – here’s another shout out to a cool idea a couple of friends are working on.  I can’t go into specifics as to what it is but one thing that would help them out is if you could take the fun little survey on relationships (link below).

Basically, these guys are looking for input from real people on nice or special things your significant other does for you, or things you would LIKE them to do for you. If you’re single, here’s your opportunity to share some ideas as to what you’d LIKE your future or potential significant other to do for you.  Who knows – this information could reach the right person at the right time and you might have found the woman/man of your dreams meeting the person who tickles your fancy in an unconventional way only you could appreciate, because they just so happened to come across this information. In that case, there’s no doubt about it — you two were destined!  So don’t waste another second to invest in meeting your future spouse, you single people.  Take the survey!

As for the cool idea, of course when the project has been completed and is public, you can expect a post promoting the hell out of it :-) I will say this – it’s a great idea which you’ll really enjoy.  So take the survey! Please!

Thanks folks,

Tanya

Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/93NZ3Z3

A Little Competition Never Hurt Anybody…

In fact it can force you to clean up your act. 

Here is my delayed gratitude in thanking Facebook for providing us with more robust Privacy Settings once again. I love the settings and you finally listened to us… either that or Google+ pushed you in the direction you should have been a long time ago.

Don’t take them away from us this time, plsthanks.

-Sincerely a Happy Facebooker who just might start posting more again…

Shopping Smartly On The Internet

Does the Internet save you money or do you tend to spend more? That’s the question this inquiring mind wants to know.

At first thought, the answer was clear to me. OF COURSE it saves you money! It can save you lots of money! After all, didn’t you see that Groupon deal for half off on a dozen of Trophy cupcakes? Then I thought a little bit longer about this question and recounted all the various purchases I’ve made as an Internet shopper and my second reaction was, NO WAY – you can spend a lot MORE money if you’re not careful.

These are words from a true Internet Shopper so listen closely…

I’d like to walk you through a few examples of how you can save money by shopping online as well as how you can easily overspend by becoming an Internet shopper if you’re not careful. 

So, it saves you money. That is right.

My iPhone cover/case had seen the last of its days and I was in dire need of a new one. I jumped in my car and used my gasoline which cost me $4.49 a gallon to go to the Apple store where I found several cases for around $30. Unfortunately I sort of care about how cute my phone case is more than I should so I walked out of the store empty handed after seeing boring, uninteresting cases. I got back in my car to use more gasoline which cost me $4.49 a gallon in case you didn’t hear me the first time, and I headed home. Trip unsuccessful! The worst part was I still had no iPhone case replacement.

I got home, hopped on my laptop and started to browse the wonderful worldwide web for a practical yet pretty case and I found one on eBay for $6, and that included shipping and no taxes. Score and it was stylish! Wahoo!

I received my case in the mail a few days later, adored it, used it, and 6 months down the road the process of looking for a case would begin again but this time I would be smarter about where to get a good case. A case I loved.

That’s not so bad, right?

The part of that story you didn’t hear about was how while looking for a new iPhone case, I had checked my email and was told by a mail in my inbox that there was a Michael Kors sale going on. I browsed ideeli to see what this noise was all about and what do you know, yes there indeed was a great sale going on! I saw several items which were originally $135 on sale for $60 and I started racking my brain for my future plans trying to see if there were occasions I needed to buy such a cute dress for. Ahhh, so maybe I couldn’t think of any occasions off hand but I was certain there would come a time where I would need to wear a dress. THAT dress. After 2 seconds of thinking about it and deciding I needed that dress or I might not get through the rest of the day, I was convinced we were destined to meet. The checkout process commenced and a few days later I would be receiving the lovely threads on my doorstep.

It was quite magical actually.

Another thing I was told while cleaning up my inbox was that a nearby spa was offering a massage for $40 instead of their normal $95 price. Hmmm, my neck and back had been a bit stiff lately so I thought this would be a great reason if any, to click on the buy deal button and help treat my physical ailments with some tender love and care. Heaven forbid I pay $95 when I could get such a steal on something I needed so badly anyway… RIGHT?

Yeah, WRONG.

Before you know it my friends, that $24 I had saved from my iPhone case is out the window, having spent $100 in that same sitting on items which I can assure you were by no means must-haves but nice-to-haves instead. Along the way somehow I convinced myself the two unnecessary buys were so much better than spending the original $224 I would have otherwise but the point is, I probably wouldn’t have spent that money.

Note to Hubby, the above scenarios are purely fictional :)

See, I believe the internet causes us to spend more. I mean, yes we have “on sale” items readily available at our fingertips and with a few clicks and a couple of days later can find the goods on our doorstep.  But with constant ads, emails, feeds, tweets, and promotions, being tempted by reduced prices and sales at a constant rate, are we really spending more than we normally would?

Instead of making you guess my opinion on this, I’m just gonna say YES to that one!

But it doesn’t have to be that way. I would say after a year or two of converting to being an Internet shopper primarily, I’ve learned how you can maintain healthy spending habits even when we’re being sent a thousand signals and messages daily so that you don’t end up in a poorhouse hell.

Here are my top 10 pointers to keep in mind so that you don’t overspend and kill your bank account due to the easy world of internet shopping.

1. Remember your buying basics. Just because you’re shopping online does not make every other budgeting or money rule you’ve worked so hard to abide by, suddenly invalid. Ask yourself the following questions when tempted online and see how it goes:

a. How many times will I use this item in the next 6 months?
b. How many things do I already have at home which are fairly similar (i.e. little black dress, nude pumps)?
c. How many hours of work did I have to put my heart and soul into just to pay for this item?
d. How will my life be impacted if I don’t get this item?
e. How badly do I need this item vs. want this item?
f.  How badly do I need this item RIGHT NOW?

2. Avoid subscribing to email notifications when going through the site’s registration process. It’s easy; just force yourself to uncheck that little box which asks you if they can send you email notifications. What they are really asking you is if it’s ok if they send you amazing deal emails and reminders and bleed you of all your money! I recently unsubscribed to several daily deal notifications and outta sight, outta mind, baby! You don’t know what you’re missing and therefore you can’t be in physical pain if you don’t have those BCBG shoes you’ve been eyeing and waiting for which suddenly showed up on Rue La La.

3. When paying for an online purchase, avoid checking the box which reads “save credit card information for future purchases.” Here’s another sneaky little checkbox to avoid. I know this sounds trivial but it’s no joke. If you’re like me and you still don’t have your credit card numbers memorized, having to dig it out and go through the rigmarole of entering my card info each time is annoying and it actually makes me question how badly I need the damn thing. If it’s worth the effort, I probably need it. If you have your credit card numbers memorized, then I’m just sorry – get new cards and quit trying to be so smart already.

4. Shut your window and shut it fast. I would bet you, if you walked away from an online purchase and closed the page and came back to it a few hours later, there’s a pretty good chance you’d realize you really didn’t need it anyway. It’s true! There’s something which goes completely out of whack in our brain when we see a good deal, where we believe life cannot go on unless we buy it right then and there. Truth is, we’ll still live and life really will go on but you need to take a breather allowing time for the wacky thoughts to exit your brain. I promise you, they will!

5. Remove and Replace. Replace all of the deal and shopping sites in your favorites with more useful sites such as NY Times, CNN, Yelp, Tanya Talks, and your other favorite bloggers.

6. Stop with the integration already. Disable all shopping and online deal site apps from your Facebook, your iPhone and quit following these sites on twitter as well. Otherwise the deals will still pop up in your feeds and you’ll still be noticing them and will be tempted. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss or in this case, ignorance is good for the pocketbook.

7. Research. If you are going to have to buy something off the internet make sure you find the best deals with no tax and no to low cost shipping. You’d be surprised with how many sites don’t charge for these things so take the time to check out other sites. Also, make sure you read customer reviews! Finally, triple read the terms such as the return policy, etc.

8. If you’re buying clothes make sure you know yourself well before committing. Women often make this mistake the hard way, I know that I have. Know your body well, know how clothes fit you, know your sizes, and know how Missoni vs. Helmut Lang fits so you have a pretty good idea what size you would be.  This DOES differ quite a bit from designer to designer! Returning is a huge hassle and most people don’t end up doing it so avoid situations where a garment you ordered ends up finding a nice cozy spot in your closet which goes forgotten.

9. Give yourself an online allowance if this is how you do your shopping. If you shop for clothes every three months you can create a budget for your online shopping which matches up to your 3-month clothes allowance. Just make sure you stick to it and manage it properly.

10. Quit justifying and lying.  When the deals are hot there is a natural tendency to justify why you needed that purse, dress or pair of shoes RIGHT NOW. Stop doing that! Be honest with yourself and if you’re buying it simply because you want it, be aware of that and admit that rather than lying to yourself with some made up reason why you needed it.

I think I’ve gone on long enough about the negatives yet realities with how easy it can be to overspend while shopping online. Let me end this post on a more positive note….

The internet really does offer some amazing deals and to date is the best resource I’ve found for finding what I’m looking for at a lower price than in the stores. Just be careful not to overindulge since online transactions can be a little TOO EASY at times (can we say um, “PayPal?”) and it’s easy to think you’re getting a great deal while forgetting about the fact you just bought a lot more than you probably intended to (and more often).

Also remember, there’s a lot more to consider with online shopping such as understanding how returns work, shipping, how it looks in person vs. online, how it will fit, etc than you previously had to deal with by just walking into a store. If you do it right – you can save quite a bit of money and get some great deals to boot! “To boot,” as in to show for of course. Please don’t go out there and buy some boots now.

Oh but wait, did you see the Nordstrom’s anniversary sale online recently? Talk about GORGEOUS boots! Check it out: Nordstrom boot sale.

Oh… sorry :)

-Tanya

What Do YOU Really Think About Google+?

I’m on Google+.

Well, sort of. Yes, I’m technically on it but I admit haven’t spent a lot of time on Google+ just yet.  Terrible, horrible – yes I know.  How do I sleep at night? In all seriousness, I do find this lack of participation surprising, especially for someone like me because I am hearing a lot about Google+ through my various channels and I continue to read a lot of opinions about it.  To be totally honest, most of the comments are in the positive.  Like REALLY positive.

On that note, Congratulations Google!

The tech community seems to have welcomed Google+ with open arms and a proud doting smile.  What I started to wonder was, what do “real people” think about it so far, have they tried it, and do they use it? So I decided to do a little research using um, Google and my search string was something along the lines of, “What do non techies really think about Google+” and surprisingly a flood of results were returned.  I read a few opinions and realized that social media bloggers who coined themselves as non techies were not exactly what I had in mind when thinking of “real people.”  What I was looking for was, what would my mother think of Google+, what would my friends think of Google+ who had 4 kids, 2 dogs and some chickens in the backyard yet spent their only free five minutes of their day updating their Facebook status to let the world know they were on their way to see Harry Potter that night.

What I wanted to understand was, what do *real* people who don’t live and breathe technology but who’ve adopted Facebook very well, think of Google+ and do those people love it as much as the techies out there.  Basically, aside all the buzz I’m reading about it, how is Google+ being received in general?

One of the things Facebook has done well is its reconnected us with different people in our lives. Facebook has become a place for people, all people, requiring no technical capabilities and has made for a fool-proof and easy environment for people to be active and highly engaged on a single site.  I know people who had never used a computer before who learned how just so they could get on Facebook.  That kind of impact is huge folks, there’s no denying that.

So I am very curious to see if this same kind of trend will repeat itself on Google + because I think that’s important to watch, or will Google+ simply be a cool place for all the techies to go and play and then write lots of articles about how it’s better than Facebook and Twitter? If history repeats itself, perhaps the latter part of that question will be the case… for now… until of course more “real people” migrate over to Google+ . But will they do it? Is Google+ compelling and intuitive enough like Facebook was for them to make the switch? Does Google even care if they do it?

After all, part of the market share is still better than none of the market share, right… oh wait this isn’t Microsoft. 

I’m sure if I continued to read the other articles returned in my results I would have found some answers and enlightening insight around this question but I gave up quickly and decided to blog about it being ill-informed and undeveloped on these opinions as well as my own instead.  You know, the logical thing to do when curious about a topic – blog your brains out about something you know little about and hope you don’t sound like a senseless idiot.  Woops!

I also logged back on to Google+ for a few minutes to take a peek again since it had been awhile. Alright, so activity has definitely increased by my friends, yes my techy friends (I think I have one non-techy friend on Google+ currently). I’m kind of disappointed in myself to be honest.  I am usually an early adopter to these sorts of things and a newly released social network site which seems to be popular so quickly — hells to the yeah – that’s SO MY THING.  Yet I still haven’t found my groove with Google+ and in fact started disengaging from Facebook recently when I found twitter much more interesting. I was getting tired of all the privacy bullcrapolata with Facebook and who’s seeing what, should I really say this, how I’d love to say that, who do I want knowing where I am at right now, and then there’s photos and albums which is a whole privacy beast in itself.  It’s just too much to think about and analyze so I’ve found myself in a Facebook funk where I’m just not as involved as I normally would be.

This is exactly why Google+ might be something I could like.

See, if you ask me, Facebook has really pissed on their whole privacy story – way to listen to your users.  Once upon a time, I actually liked Facebook’s privacy settings and found that they used to be fairly decent.  I loved being able to share what I wanted to, with whom I wanted to, when I wanted to such as a status update and being able to control who saw that separately from posts on my wall, etc., But then Facebook got lazy (or something) and now they lump all these fields into a bucket in privacy settings and the loss of granularity just sucks.  At least to me.

They’ve also overcomplicated privacy settings so people don’t even bother. By the way, whoever thought privacy settings should be scattered in different areas of a site should be fired.  I spend more time and more Google searches trying to figure out WHERE to set a privacy setting on Facebook for my employer info vs. my relationship status vs. my wall comments, because some genius decided they should scatter these settings throughout the site instead of having them be in one place. MORONIC.

So now it’s just too late.  With over 600 friends, how the hell am I going to group them all into their respective lists with out taking a few days off from work to do so? Yeah, no. Instead I’ll just censor what I post and post less because you Facebook people didn’t get it right nor did you listen to your users and therefore have made it way too damn difficult for me to change it now. Fail. With a capital F.

For that I give huge kudos to Google+ for coming up with a smart way to handle privacy and in the beginning! Thank you!  My hope is that the importance of privacy sticks with Google+ and that unlike Facebook, we the users don’t go through a privacy rollercoaster which only goes downhill from where it’s started. I also like Google+’s other integration too.  It’s pretty neat that I can now get to my mail, calendar, docs, picasa albums as well as easily access my social stuff all from one dashboard. It really feels like one stop shopping to me.

But with all these great things about Google+ we are all still used to using Facebook aren’t we, which is why my nontechy friends are already complaining about Google+ like it is the worst thing created since Rebecca Black’s “Friday” song.  For me, the biggest reason I have not been as active on Google+ is because I don’t want to manage another social network and profile right now.

Of course when all the cool kids are doing it, I will follow suit (errr, hopefully before that).

Lately I’ve been focusing on other important things like playing twitter trivia with @savorseattle and restyling my blog site (how do you like it by the way?) and a woman only has so much time in her day before I remember all the more important priorities I have in my life vs. being on a laptop and letting life pass me by.

Plus, it’s true – I’m in a social networking lull right now. I’ll be out of it soon, I’m sure.

So, change is tough and for some it’s torture but one thing I have learned when it comes to the world of technology is to never… ever… EVERRRRR make any final judgments too soon.  It’ll bite you in the ass every time because just like Lady Gaga’s latest album, things you couldn’t stomach at first will eventually start to grow on ya!

If you like/dislike Google+ I’d love to hear why and if you’re a techy/non-techy.  Just curious.

-Tanya

(Google+ ID = Tanya Webb Jain)

Love it! Hate it! Love it!

I used to hate Twitter. To me it seemed like a place where people went to provide status updates. Big whoop. That sounds fun… for about a minute. Then I decided I hated Twitter because it seemed to be the place where celebrities updated their status more than normal people. Another disappointment. Why the hell would I care what celebrities are up to. Snoozer. Then I signed up. After signing up due to all the buzz I realized it was well, boring. I followed a few people I knew and nothing seemed to be too interesting there.  But Twitter seemed to sustain itself and I kept hearing about it over and over to the point of nauseam. What was I missing here? About 9 months ago, I was asked to start tweeting about a new company I joined and thought, alright – let’s give this a real shot. I started tweeting every so often and didn’t feel too connected to anything special there… and then I figured it out.  The connection I never made before was that with Twitter, it’s all about who you follow.  I started following several dozens of people who posted very smart information and that is when I saw the value of this twitter tweet tweeting thing come through.  I don’t even need to go to the news anymore, just as long as I’m following all the right sources, everything I care about, am entertained by, or interested in, is at the palm of my… well, twitter. I scan my Twitter wall every morning and every afternoon reading expert opinions, finding links to great resources and blogs about things I truly care about. I admit I feel a little bit smarter at times because of Twitter. I do.

I used to love Foursquare. I had check-in wars with my husband, my manager, and my friends all to gain mayorship of different locations. That was fun…for slightly longer than a minute. Then people started disengaging from Foursquare and my interest in it went down when I no longer had anybody to compete with. It’s no fun being the mayor of every place in town when no one really cares anymore.  There are no gold stars for effort there. Then Facebook released Places, another check-in tool which seemed cooler than Foursquare because now I could tag friends who were with me at places. Facebook’s notification system about check-ins was also less noisy and I liked that a lot. Suddenly I found myself starting to care more about privacy, being a little bit choosier of where I was checking in and who I wanted to know and Facebook supported that. So Foursquare fell off my radar and I even went as far as to remove the app off my iPhone. It seemed dead to me. Then what do ya know? Recently the Foursquare buzz and chatter has started up again and just in the last week I’ve received quite a large number of friend requests. What the….? Perhaps I missed this Foursquare news on Twitter, but I’m wondering if I need to install Foursquare again to take a look at why it’s got so many people interested again.  I’m very curious!

I heard a song a few days ago, “Hear me out” by Frou Frou. Oh how I love this song. And you wanna know what this song reminds me of? It reminds me of my MySpace profile page a million years ago where when you went to my MySpace profile when it once existed and this song would be playing. MySpace - what a blast from the past. So, I started thinking of MySpace and the fact it once had such a huge user base and everyone and anyone was on it. I remember arguing with friends about MySpace vs. Facebook in early 2007 when several friends started encouraging others friends to use Facebook. Facebook was not customizable where MySpace taught 10 year olds how to code in HTML. I quickly snapped to the popularity around Facebook after having some good, healthy debates, realizing uniformity was not necessarily a bad thing, especially when Facebook seemed to offer more than simply listening to people’s favorite songs, seeing some of their pictures and writing on their walls which I usually couldn’t see anyway due to their crazy wallpaper backgrounds. Perhaps uniformity was a nice change? Then Facebook’s privacy settings actually sealed the deal for me and there was no going back.  Now I could choose which of you I wanted seeing what. Score. Actually, the Facebook privacy settings sorta suck now but once upon a time they were much better, more granular and I actually didn’t mind that.  I preferred that. A few months later I deleted my MySpace account and we all know the rest of the story about Facebook…

And then we have Yelp. I actually wrote reviews on other websites and Yelp was not one of them though I knew Yelp was most likely the most popular review site for restaurants and other locations. After some sign-up bullcrap I never bothered to fix,  leaving a partial profile hang out there in cyberspace, I was asked to write a review for a place I frequented. Specifically she asked me to write a YELP review. I realized it was high time to get my Yelping in order once and for all since I seemed to be someone who loved to share my thoughts with others on food in particular. I fixed my login issues and created a complete profile and have been Yelping ever since. I love this site. I love the mobile app as well, possibly just as much as the website experience. The whole experience on Yelp for me has everything I’m looking for. It’s one of those sites where I continue to say, “Oh it would be cool if Yelp had… OH, there it is!” They’ve done a great job in thinking about their users and how we want to use this review channel. I also love the involvement with the community on Yelp. I’m normally not someone who likes to go out and meet strangers from a website but have gone to a few Yelp events now which are an absolute BLAST!  6 months and going strong, Yelp has sucked me in but with the history above and these other flavors of the day, is Yelp here to stay for me? Seems it’s still popular to others but only time will tell.

And those, my friends, are my silly little and simple technology thoughts for the day. My, how things change, evolve, come and go, in a world where options seem abundant. It is becoming very challenging choosing that next thing to try out, stick with and stay on top of with so much out there, but I’m ok with having this problem. I really enjoy it.  There could be worse things… like no options at all.

Remember what that was like? Yeah, me neither…

Quality through Collaboration – BETA

Hi Friends,

I’m sure by now you’ve seen some of my posts on Facebook about IntentHub’s launch recently. I wanted to encourage family and friends to please take a look at the site with the hope you’ll feel compelled to participate and sign up!

Actually, I’m asking you to please sign up and create a profile.

IntentHub is a site focused around scenario-based information so users have the ability to search in a different way. In today’s world of information overload, the ability to find comprehensive and organized information around a scenario is not as straight forward as it should be. Current solutions require the discovery, collection and organization of fragments from several places. IntentHub provides a unique dimension by focusing on content around various intent scenarios useful to people. IntentHub brings forward the best possible content recommended and organized by everyone who uses it.

For the beta, there are 4 starter scenarios including:

-Get a job at Microsoft
-Get into Business School
-Start a Start Up
-Start a Career in Management Consulting

There are additional scenarios in the works which are going through the strict review process in place, and will be added very soon. The fun part about this site is that it’s participatory so real people add content and real people review the content added. There is a points-earning aspect so for those of you who are competitive, you’re wasting valuable time – HURRY and get started :)

On a personal level, IntentHub really resonated with me because more often than not, when I’m searching for a specific scenario, I am required to search for key words then organize the information in my head to formulate the comprehensive experience or answers on my own. IntentHub does a lot of this work for you and gives you scenario-based information in a more straight forward way. Yeay!!

So now I have a few favors to ask of you. Of course.

• Check out the IntentHub website and sign up
• Follow the beta scenarios you care about
• Share the beta scenarios with others who might find them useful
• Like us on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• Don’t forget to let me know with what you think

Thanks everyone, I hope you like it!
Tanya

Those Dogs and Their Tricks.

Is it a sign of old age that I find myself suddenly less flexible and tolerant with technological changes?  If so I think I’m in serious trouble. While it may be a few isolated occurrences, I’m noticing it happening with a couple things and that scares me.  I feel like I might be staying just a little too true to things that I love, not giving other things a fair chance. So what are the changes I’m having a tough time with, you ask? Let me tell you. For the record ladies and gentlemen…

I HATE GMAIL and will never get used to it. I HITE IT. That was me using a British accent.

Yup, I said it. I know all you people out there love and use gmail but why? I am more than happy to cross over to the other side when it comes to exploring products not created by Microsoft but quite honestly, email is not something I am willing to compromise.   I hate gmail. It effing sucks!!! The only way I can tolerate its truly pathetic existence is if I add my gmail account to my outlook. Otherwise, going on the site and using the web version just gets on my last nerves. Here are just a couple pain points:

• I can’t tell when messages are coming and going. The way threads track conversations is pitiful and painful. I realize it takes some time getting used to but I don’t buy that. Sometimes it looks like I have no new messages when I really do. Oh and replying.. haha!  What a joke.  It’s sad I won’t check my gmail unless I can access it via my Outlook.  Pathetic. Truly pathetic.

• I hate gtalk which is part of the gmail web experience. Half the time it has connection issues so it is not able to log me in any way. Oh that’s great. What an unreliable communication mechanism.  That’s something I almost never have issues with using Windows Live IM.

• It’s ugly.

So I rant about hating gmail while most people I know swear by it and use it, Microsofties or not but I hate it. Now one thing I love… (Here come the hate mails from my husband, family and friends now) is GOOGLE search. I admit Bing is doing some super cool things and I’m impressed every time I remember to actually use it, which I admit isn’t often. Today I just discovered the site preview feature in results – that was pretty cool. Google doesn’t have that and I found it very useful. I just haven’t found the confidence to trust that Bing will always deliver the results I am looking for and I still find myself going straight to Google.  For now.  Hopefully that for now bought be a few less hate mails.

I still love my iPhone. Blah, blah, yeah yeah, you already heard all I have to say about the iPhone thanks to my iPhone post. Most of my friends, because they work at Microsoft, have switched over to using the new Microsoft Windows Phone since they all got one for free, however, I’m not yet sold on it though it was better than I expected.  See, the iPhone changed my entire thinking on the role in which a phone now plays in my life.  Never before was a phone so important to me in managing my day-to-day needs as well as being an invaluable resource but Apple taught me this.  So how could Microsoft come up with a beautiful experience yet not nail some of the basics in their V1 like the text message conversation UI?  It’s confusing to tell who’s talking if you look at a text thread between two people.  That was so bloody basic but it’s that typical sloppiness I see from them at times.  If you want to go straight for an easy, mindless user experience, having the phone think for you, I still put my $ on the iPhone.

Recently I was thinking about whether or not my mom would benefit off of a smart phone. I concluded she might but believe an iPhone would be the one and only phone I would trust her enjoying because it’s so straight forward. I realize an argument using a person in their mid-60’s is not necessarily the best example since she’s not the targeted audience for smart phones but I would argue that it’s a great example. It says that whether you’re a teenager or a grandparent, the iPhone is still the easiest to use by a wide range of audiences for their different needs.

I guess it simply comes down to user preferences and people sticking to the things which make the most sense to them. Or that’s me justifying my stubborness to change.  Until I let up and start to give some of these things a better chance, I will continue to check my Gmail using outlook, will continue to do all searches using Google, and plan to upgrade my iPhone this summer.  I realize in a few months I could be writing a very different blog here… after all isn’t that how technology works? Things change quicker than I can post this entry :) I really want to believe I’m open to trying new things… or am I just an old dog that has a tough time learning new tricks? ARGH!  I’d hate to think it’s so…

Photo courtesy http://spikeanddru.com/

My Love, My iPhone.

I realize I’m a bit late in piling on the iPhone love as most everyone has said all there is to say about how great this device is, but I swear, my iPhone does not cease to amaze me. I just love my iPhone. I just really love it. In thinking about all it’s uses, I simply had to track back, a typical day for me.

My morning ritual begins by waking up, searching for my iPhone half asleep eyes closed, finding it, then reading my mail both personal and work. Once that is completed I go directly to my Associated Press and New York Times apps catching up on the morning news. I then move on to checking Facebook at which point my husband wakes up wanting in on all the fun and that is when I hand it off to him and I jump in the shower. He proceeds to use the iPhone to check his favorite stocks, see how the NYSE is doing that particular morning, and finds out the latest cricket scores. He refreshes his favorite sites about 5 more times and that is when I get out of the shower. He gets up, gets out of bed and hands the phone back to me and I’m now in my Calendar, making sure I don’t have any special meetings I have to be at that morning.

We carpool to work and the whole ride there, I am using my phone to make phone calls, I’m setting up my next eyebrow waxing appointment, and I’m even catching up with friends I owe phone calls to, as I prefer to do these things in the mornings now that I don’t have to focus on the traffic which we saw was red before even getting on the road (courtesy the iPhone traffic app). I get to work, sit my phone down in front of me in it’s special spot, then realize the network is down once again.

I pick my phone back up and resort to the handy dandy super speedy AT&T 3G data connection and check mails there instead. The network is back so I set my phone down in it’s special spot again, and continue working. An hour later my screen lights up and I’ve received an update on my phone that a friend just sent me a Facebook message. Minutes later my Windows Live Messenger shows a delayed notification that I have received a new Facebook message in my hotmail.

A few hours pass when a reminder pops up on my phone telling me I have a hair appointment with Tony in two days. That was 1 of 2 reminders configured for that appointment. I get a few more notifications throughout the day on my iPhone, including the latest news in Haiti from my AP alerts and before I know it, it’s time to go home. Around 6:15pm, I receive a text message on my iPhone from my husband which reads “here” and I’m out the door.

I get in the car when he suggests we see a movie. Him taking my phone from me and now in his possession, he opens the Bing app for iPhone then speaks the name of the movie and location and within a few seconds we have our movie time. Since we have some time to kill, we decide we want to stop by Kasala, a nearby furniture store as we’re looking for a new sofa. I’m not quite sure what time Kasala closes yet with my handy dandy iPhone, we have all store information, realizing the store closed at 6pm. Shoot – good thing we didn’t have to go there to find that out.

We watch the movie then head back home and set the alarm on the iPhone before going to bed. We then place the beautiful white device under one of our pillows and off to sleep we go until the sound of guitar strings wakes us up in the morning. This is a very typical day with our baby, the iPhone.

This phone is such a huge part of our lives, for both of us though the husband is a proud Windows Mobile user. But this iPhone is bigger than that – I swear it’s not even a phone. This phone is our child, the Apple of our eye (no pun intended) something we both pay a lot of attention to and take care of. This phone is our friend, always keeping us in touch with those most important to us. This phone is our parent, reminding us where we need to be and never letting us forget things. This phone likes us. We like this phone and the uses of this device go beyond what I thought a phone would ever do for me. This device brings us so much joy.

And it’s so pretty!! It’s so sleek and did I say pretty?

So tonight in discussing my favorite gifts from Vinit in the past year, the iPhone made it to number 1 quite instantly, though my husband reminded me a diamond ring should count for something. LOL.. woops, I forgot about that. Not sure I’m convinced either. :)

So yes, I have much love for my iPhone. It really is my second love.

-Tanya

Social Networking at it’s Finest

I’m a social networker, I admit it.  I enjoy catching up with people within my networks to see what’s going on, who’s doing what, where people are now, and connecting with new and old friends.  But one of the greatest benefits of social networking has been the real time updates I find with my friends via feeds.  I’ll be honest, I was skeptical of feeds.  Publishing stuff I didn’t know I really wanted published felt a little violating and intrusive at first.  But over time, I started seeing how my friends were doing via feeds.  I started seeing what people were up to and the mood of a lot of friends.  I was even updated at times on stocks and the latest political gossip through these channels.  It was such interesting stuff.. and I started to like this aspect of social networking slowly but surely. 

 

Well, this week was a perfect example of feeds and social networking at its finest.

 

So, Tuesday I was planning on going to one of my STA classes.  You should know what STA is so I won’t spell it out for you.  If you don’t know by now, look it up or search for it within my blogs and you’ll get it.  So, Tuesday I was excited to go to STA.  Super excited.  Beyond excited.  And I convinced some friends who’ve not yet attended a STA class to come attend with me.  I’ve hyped up STA for months now since the Madison Park Gym I go to for the STA classes takes STA breaks over the summer.  Well classes are back in session so I had some time to convince some people they should come check out the class.  Anyway, so Tuesday was STA day and I had packed my gym bag early in the morning.  I ping’d the girls who were a little frightened and nervous, pepping them up to come join this class with me, and we were all ready to go!  That evening as it started approaching 6:00pm, I realized I needed to get going.  I started packing up to leave the office when I decided to update my facebook status to read:

 

“Tanya is really excited about going to that ‘work out’ class tonight!! It’s been months!“

 

Whahoo!!!  Yeayy, IT’S OFFICIAL!  There you had it.. it was literally right there updated in facebook therefore that made me going to STA completely official.  As I’m logging out, I see a notification from facebook just minutes after this update.  I sit tight, check my notifications and realize Trish, the instructor was trying to reach me.  Apparently the instructor was online just at the time in which I was updating facebook, saw my status update and created an inline comment in my feeds as well as sent me an email informing me that class was cancelled.  Just minutes later I received a call from her and she informed me she had injured her back and was not doing well.  I was bummed about the cancelled class and wayyyy more bummed she had injured her back poor girl.  But aside all that, I couldn’t help but sit there in my seat, grinning ear to ear thinking just how AWESOME social networking really IS and how incredibly useful it is becoming to everyone around. 

 

My simple status update about being excited to go to STA that night, just saved me over an hour commute, some disappointed friends also trekking all the way out to Seattle who I had to work so hard to pep up in the first place, and allowed me to change plans immediately so I could catch up with my ever so beloved sanaz for some tanyanaz time earlier in the evening vs. after the class. And this allowed for more time with her.  It was time which I really needed.

 

So social networking really does work.  And it really is useful.  And I’m really seeing its value every day as people continue to adopt the concept more and more by keeping active with it.

 

Keep up the good work you social networking feature building people, you!!  You guys are the coolest people out there…I mean that… the COOLEST!!!!  No one is cooler than you people.  You’re the best…and the nicest… and very smart.. and the silliest… and sooo super talented with cooking these days I must say… that eggplant dish you made the other night, WOW!!!  Not to mention the bargain shopping and deals you’ve been getting…now your blogging needs some work but hey, you’re so cool, it’s OK. I’m only teasing.  HAHA!!!

 

Social networking.  It’s the ONLY way to be.  Check it.

 

… now if only I had this on my phone.  Hmmm…there’s an idea!

The field we think twice about…

This blog is going to come off sounding wrong but I don’t care how it sounds. I think McCain is an idiot so whatever… But please know this is not written as a reflection of me thinking I’m just SO cool I can barely see straight, dudes. Basically if you’re a female out there over the age of 16 you’ll understand this for sure.

SOOO… I try and have tried to avoid participating in the group of people out there who feels it is absolutely necessary to identify oneself as being “in a relationship” on Facebook when in a relationship in real life. I have always pride myself in staying away from that whole thing because I really like being Tanya. Not “Tanya” from “Seattle” who’s “In a Relationship.” But I’m finding this becoming harder and harder to avoid. My reasons for leaving this blank have always been the same:

A) I hate labels. I’m so much more than a label.

B) Until I’m married I decided to leave that field empty.

C) I just like to keep my business private.

D) I’ve seen too many updates in the feed where someone is suddenly single, no longer in a relationship or what have you and the chatter begins. If that happens I just don’t want to be bothered, reminded, or questioned.

… HOWEVER…the random strange friend requests… the spark notifications that “so and so is interested in you”… even acquaintances of mine who know me but don’t ever ask me what my status is and instead ask me out, don’t have any clue since I’m not that broadcasting type of girl. But I don’t know if I’m ready to take that “in a relationship” step anytime soon. And I’m not certain I’ll publish who it’s with.

We’ve talked about it before but I don’t know I’m convinced it’s necessary. And he’s just cool beans with whatever so it’s not like he’s saying “hey you little woman here… help me mark my territory!” I mean we are two super chill laid back people about it. But I feel publishing my status before I’m married is so silly for me to do, risking the change in status at any given point. I might as well give out my social security number and weight on Facebook too while I’m at it. It’s just silly. I guess I could always utilize the "It’s Complicated" option but there’s nothing complicated about it at all. I do realize and accept I’m in a relationship!

Shoots… And what does it mean to really be in a relationship? I’m technically in relationships with a lot of people, so why can’t I list out all those people having to only pick ONE on Facebook. Romantic relationship then? Define romantic! I’ll challenge that! And no one ever called it a romantic relationship on Facebook now did they… so why are we so assuming of its intended purpose?!

Honestly, I think I’d rather use my photos as a way to send a message than any relationship status field could offer. I realize that seems very passive/aggressive here but at least when you remove photos, that is not published in a public feed J Ahhh, feeds. Gotta love feeds. Well, I do, I do! But that’s another story. So, maybe I’m making this a bigger deal than it really is. After all, most people use this field very freely and easily… wow. What to do, what to do…

Look, no status! YAY!!

-Tanya Status-LESS.