Who Needs Role Models?

So, Thursday or Friday I got a note from my mail carrier saying that I had a box waiting for me from Amazon.com. Since I have received all of my Amazon orders I was not really sure what it could be. Since it was addressed (on the note) to J. Kyrnin, I was thinking it might actually be a present for Jaryth because his birthday is coming up. So I head to the post office this morning, and after waiting in the long line (of course!) I get my package and open it up and inside is a girl’s size small hockey shorts with “pelvic protector”. Um buh? I checked the box again and yes, it was addressed to me. But on the inside the shipping label was addressed to someone in New York State, both billing and shipping addresses. What I then learned is that Amazon makes it challenging to deal with problems that occur outside of their standard problems. If I wanted to return it, I was told that “returns are easy.” But then I wasn’t sure if the hockey player in New York would get the refund or not. I don’t want the money, it isn’t mine. I then thought I’d return it as a gift, and that wouldn’t work as a) Amazon does gift returns as a gift card to the recipient (ie. me) not the sender and b) this item was apparently not eligible for returns or exchanges. So then I moved on to their customer care form. First I have to indicate that the problem I’m having is not part of their online help. Then I have to choose from a drop-down that, unsurprisingly, has no option for “I received something I didn’t order and is not a gift.” I chose “other non-order related.” But it is kinda order related, but anyhow… So then I get another drop down, and by this time I’m getting ready to give up, except that I don’t want to throw away a perfectly good, brand new item, as that seems like a waste. So I slog on. I fill in the next drop down in the “other” category again, because again they don’t have one that is related to my issue. I then give details and then “more details” and hit the “contact me by email” option. I am now supposed to wait no more than 12 hours for a response. I hope that the hockey player doesn’t start her hockey games for a while. This seems like something that many online form creators should be aware of - namely the goals of the customers using the form. My perception of this customer service form was that they were trying to avoid having to talk to me. There was a lot of focus on getting me to use online help, and I’m sure that’s useful for the majority of requests. But for those that don’t fit into that mold, the form can get annoying very fast. One of the features that this form had that ended up being annoying was that it changed dynamically when I chose various options. Designers and developers love these types of forms because they are interactive, fun to build, and help the customer self-select exactly what they need. But I found it really annoying as there was never any indication that the end was in sight. I would select one option, and another would appear - poof. I would choose from that list, and the form would change again. As I said above I was getting really tired of filling out the form (and you should be aware that this form was the last in a series of things I tried before using it. I tried returning, gift returning, and then just looking for a number I could call before finding that link to customer service. If I had been even slightly busier or on any type of time restraint I would have just given up and dumped the thing in the trash never to worry about it again. I suppose the other reason it was tedious is because all of the choices I had for returns, gift returns, and even customer service were assuming that I had made some type of mistake. For example, when asked why I wanted to return it, I was given options like:

So I have a goal of getting our living room (and bedroom) rug cleaned by the end of March. And in order to accomplish that goal, I have a number of mini goals. These primarily revolve around tidying the bookshelves that I haven’t looked at in a while to make sure the books that are in it are ones that I want, need or haven’t read (so can’t decide). The sad part of this goal is that I discovered that some of the books in that case have not been looked at or touched in so long that there was a fine patina of dust covering them. It’s not helped by the fact that this case is right next to the cat door that the dog forces his muddy self through on a daily basis (hourly when Jaryth is pounding on something). By my estimation there was about two pounds of dog fur, mud, and allergen filled dust just in that corner of the room. And because of this I sneezed approximately 800 times. Proof that I’m allergic to cleaning! Let me tell you that sneezing 800 times is NOT fun. My throat was raw, my eyes were running, my nose was completely clogged, and I was generally miserable. I then took some Benadryl which didn’t seem to do anything but put me to sleep. Granted I got a better night sleep than I’ve gotten in a while, but still, it would be nice to not get the major allergic reaction and be able to complete the cleaning in one swoop rather than in about 5 swoops with the final three bundled up like a mummy with just my eyes showing. Mark threatened to get me a clean-room bunny suit! And what’s really sad is I was considering that as an option. Yes, I know that’s silly. But you would understand if you were biting your tongue while you were sneezing so much that you couldn’t breathe. Next time I am going to wear a painting mask and possibly gloves and goggles. I may look silly, but that might help deal with the dust allergies. I might include ear protection too, not from the loud noise of my sneezes, but because then maybe my ears wouldn’t itch afterwards either. And the bonus is that we have all these things … somewhere.

I think of myself as a rational but open-minded person, but one of the more “woo woo” theories that I strongly believe in is the power of intention. I believe that if you set your intentions clearly and deliberately, you will manifest those results in your life. Whether or not you believe in this as a type of mysticism or just a practical application of goals setting, I have done it in my life many times with great success. Many times without even knowing I’ve done it. (Unintentional intension?) I remember doing it deliberately when I got my job at About.com (then The Mining Co.). During the training/preparation series, I went to bed every night thinking “I’m really sorry for the other people who are applying for the HTML site, because it’s mine.” I also expressed mental gratitude for the person who ran the site (for a few weeks or months) before quitting and letting me have it. But what made me think of this was a post I read on Unclutterer today. She had made a resolution for February to clean out her office. But shortly after she made that resolution, there was a death in the family and she had to leave to deal with that for half the month, and she abandoned the resolution. Then, when she came home, her family decided to move and she ended up clearing out her office anyway. Sure, it mostly happened because she had to move, but that’s part of the mysticism (for me) of intention. If you are good at manifesting your intentions, they happen whether you mean them to or not. And I would bet that by setting and meeting monthly resolutions, she is good at manifesting her intentions.

[caption id=“attachment_303” align=“aligncenter” width=“500” caption=“Some people may have wondered why I stopped talking about the drone.”][/caption] It took six 2000x3008px shots to build this panorama shot. I was standing approximately 50 feet away from the base of the tree when I took the photos.

We got a Parrot A.R. Drone for our birthdays (Mark and I) back in December. And we had a blast with it. Jaryth absolutely loves it. He daily asks to see the drone. And when the weather is bad, he comes indoors and watches our video of our drone as well as other YouTube videos of drones. But then, come January, I stopped talking about it. Why? Well, it got stuck in a tree. [caption id=“attachment_302” align=“aligncenter” width=“497” caption=“This doesn\’t look too high, right? Click to see the full size of the tree”][/caption] Look for the red line towards the bottom of the image to find our fence-line. When it finally fell down from the tree, one of the rotors didn’t turn correctly, so now we are waiting for a repair kit and replacement rotors and shell (which disappeared).

Our current process with our son goes like this:

1. wake up between 7am and 8:30am
2. play hard all morning
3. lie down around noon for around 15 minutes, but don’t fall asleep
4. play hard all afternoon until about 4pm
5. fall asleep hard, and nap for an hour to two hours
6. play hard until mom is exhausted (any time after 10pm) and then lie in bed fighting with her because he’s not tired at all

8 hours of sleep is barely enough for me, and I’m not convinced it’s enough for him. We have determined that if we can get him to stay awake at 4pm he’ll go to bed and sleep around 7:30 or 8pm. But that period from around 4pm until 6pm is killer. We can’t seem to keep him awake. He has fallen asleep while eating, while playing, watching a movie, reading a book, and more. We then shake him (gently), talk to him, carry him around (hard when he weighs nearly 60 pounds), try to get him to play, and nothing wakes him. Yesterday he fell asleep on the couch, and when we told him we were going to feed the animals (a chore he loves to do) he woke up enough to say “I want feed animals” and then he was asleep again, and continuing threats did not wake him again. Any suggestions? How do you keep a toddler awake when he doesn’t want to be so that he will sleep when we want him to be asleep? I’m desperate (and tired).

The most common complaint I see about content farms is that they serve up lousy information written by under-paid (or non-paid) writers. I can join the ranks of people who will tell you of the lousy results they found on eHow (or insert your other favorite content farm to bash) here. Yes, I don’t like doing a search for “how to build a web page” and getting a result that says, essentially: step 1. build a web page, step 2. put it on the internet. step 3. there’s no step 3! But I am equally tired of the writers saying “I make a living writing and they are turning writing into a commodity!” And other such statements. Guess what, Virginia, writing has always been considered something anyone can do - and as such paid as little as possible for. Yes, every writer I know, including myself, recognizes that writing is hard. To get up in the morning, stumble to the computer and stare at that blank screen is a fate all writers share. To know that you may or may not get paid a living wage for whatever pearls make it to that screen puts even more pressure on. And to then go out and read about how some moron was paid 3 cents to write the above “article” on how to build a web page is both depressing and demeaning. Some days, I start thinking that I should just start writing tutorials that are that meaningless (and I’m sure some of my “fans” would argue that I already do…). After all, that “tutorial” took me longer to think up than it did to write. But ultimately I believe in market forces (says the woman who has been known to rant for hours, yes hours, on the evils of laissez faire capitalism). If the content that is created by these under- and non-paid writers is lousy people won’t read them. And if it gets too bad, people won’t visit the sites that generate them. Then the sites won’t make any money and they will either focus on getting more non-paid writers to flood the internet with crap or they will come around to the idea that paying good writers something slightly more than peanuts is a way to get better quality content. Personally, I am hesitant when a search result feeds up an eHow or wikipedia article. Not because the writers are underpaid but because I’ve found the content to be less than stellar. And the other thing to think about: how much are you paying for the content that you read? I have friends who are proud of the fact that they view all websites with ad blockers on. Others that refuse to pay any subscription fees for content. And others who think that buying a book that was “just their blog posts” is tantamount to complete idiocy. I had a discussion with my brother a while ago where he told me he didn’t want to work with a money manager because “they just want more money”. And I thought, “well, sure, who doesn’t?” I mean seriously, how can one complain that writers aren’t being paid enough when you aren’t willing to pay them yourself? I buy and read over 100 (probably closer to 200) books per year. I have donated to websites and blogs that I find valuable, and do so every year. In this case, I think paying it forward means literally paying. And I’m okay with that, because if I like a writer I want them to keep writing so I buy their books. And another thought: what makes Wikipedia so damn popular and “content farms” so not? I have found the content on Wikipedia to be just as questionable as eHow. And the writers there aren’t paid, in fact every year the Wikipedia founder asks them to pay him! But that’s a rant for another day.

My mom sent me instructions for a box that I modified to hold my Firefly ATCs. Here are some pictures.

[caption id=“attachment_289” align=“aligncenter” width=“400” caption=“My First Sushi - Carrot Sushi”][/caption] For those who scoff at the idea of carrot sushi, well, I have nothing to say to you. I didn’t have any daikon or other more traditional veggie-sushi veggies. Maybe next week will bring more “real” sushi foods into the house. But really, carrot sushi was yummy. I debated trying celery sushi too. What about tomato sushi?

that I wanted to buy seeds online again like I did last year. The problem is that I had recycled the last seed catalog I’d received. So I was just going to go online to choose my seeds. Then Mark came in with the mail and what was in it? Besides a packet of LTCs (some very cool ones, by the way) was a seed catalog. Yay! Apparently I need to buy seeds. Of course, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow (maybe). But that doesn’t mean I can’t order seedling trays so that I can start my seeds indoors. Watermelons here I come! And if I’m really lucky they might be ready by July 4th. Are you coming to my Fourth of July party? We’ll be having home grown watermelon. Other seed plans include: