Gadget Love

I love gadgets and I really love getting gadgets for Christmas.  This year Carl got me the BEST gift - this set of 3 high quality, lens for the camera on my iPhone!  Yes, camera lens for my PHONE!  (You can get yours at Photojojo.com .)

They attach with a small magnetic ring that you stick to the outside of the lens on your phone.  There is a wide angle/macro, fisheye, and a telephoto lens included in the set. /They are just so cool.  I've been playing with them all afternoon.  Facetime is interesting with the different effects. Everyone wants to see the family pet through a fisheye lens, right? 

I took this portrait of my new dino friend with the Macro lens.  Pretty crazy cool, huh?

 (Go to Prehistoricparty.photojojo.com if you want to understand the deal with the dinosaurs.  I think it is awesome marketing, a great, FUN way to incorporate social media into a business that actually makes sense.)

Disconnected

I love technology. I am a gadget geek.  I used to have a crackberry, and I loved it.  I have had an iphone for a few years, and I have loved them all.   Between my laptop and my phone, I am pretty much always connected, and always reachable.  I think this desire for constant communication stems from my long-term self employment, but maybe it goes deeper than that.  I want to get an order, or take a call from a client without delay.  I don't want to miss a thing.

Before the days of smart phones, the first thing I did when I walked in the door was check my email.  I was an early adopter of gmail,  because I could check my email from any computer, I didn't have to be at my desk to see what was going on.  As soon as you could get email on a phone - I did.  I used to wish for a way to send short messages without making a voice call via my cell phone.  I was dreaming of texting before texting was.

Going back a little further, to the 80's, when I was a kid, I had my own phone.  It was my phone, with my own number. It was plugged into the wall, with a VERY looooooong cord.  I had call waiting, and that was the coolest thing ever!  I was connected!!  I was reachable.  In the early 90's I was a receptionist for a small company, and I used to day dream about inventing caller id.  If only I could have known the identity of the caller on the other end BEFORE I answered the phone, my job would have been so much easier!

In the early 80's we had an Apple IIe at my Dad's house and TI (as in Texas Instruments) at my Mom's house.  I took programming in high school and learned how to write programs in DOS.  I was so excited when I wrote a program that would do my Algebra homework for me!  Computers are awesome!   When I started at that receptionist job in the early 90's we used WordPerfect for DOS.  It was sort of like HTML, you had to know codes for everything just to create a document.  After a year or so I convinced the boss to buy us all new Apple computers, and laser printer.  We had hit the big time!  Man, that was fun!  I took some classes on how to use desk top publishing and spreadsheet software.  We used a mouse!  Watching the 70 year old nun in my class figure out how to double click is still one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed.

We have had internet access in our home since before Quincie was born.  That was back in the early days, before most businesses had email, and weren't even sure what it was good for.  Who did I email then?  I can't remember.  But it was COOL!
 
I used ICQ, and all the other IM platforms.  Skype was an exciting discovery, and I had to invite all my friends so I had someone to Skype with.  I am a first, or early responder in the technology communications arena.  I guess what I am trying to explain is how I arrived at this point of complete connection to my iphone and laptop.

My iphone is an extension of me.  It is my personal, offsite storage device, my external hard drive.  It is my connection to my work, my friends, my family, my community.  It is my watch, alarm clock, book shelf, radio, calendar, calculator, GPS, scriptures, address book, weather report, camera and notebook.  That is all in addition to the standard communication tasks of phone, email and text.

Last Thursday as I was wrapping up an off-site work meeting, I accidentally left my iphone in a public restroom. When I discovered it was missing, after less than 5 minutes, I ran back and it was GONE!  \(BTW, that is the first time I have sprinted in ages.)  The restroom was empty, and my phone was no where to be seen.  PANIC - RED ALERT  It was a crisis moment so I reached for my best problem solver and source of all information - my phone - but it was GONE - the source of my panic!  I was paralyzed. How do I solve a problem without my phone?  I can't call for help.  I needed to get online to use the FIND MY PHONE ap.  I  needed to contact AT&T to cancel my service before who ever found it started calling Australia or something.  I needed my PHONE, but I had NO PHONE!  Can you get a sense of my panic? 

All that panic happened in a flash while I stood there staring at the spot where I had last seen my phone, in it's brand new, shiny blue case.  Then my brain kicked in, and dug deep.  I rushed to the business office and asked if anyone had turned in a lost phone. Of course not.  I asked the receptionist to make an announcement over the PA.  I called Carl and had him start tracking it with FIND MY PHONE and to all call AT& T.  I went back to the bathroom and searched high and low, all the stalls, trash cans, all of it.  I prayed and begged for it to be returned.  A brilliant, but friendly, employee asked me if had called my service provider - "WITH WHAT????" I asked. - Genius....

Eventually I had to face the fact that it was gone.  I had to leave for a busy evening ahead, and I would have to wait until the next day to resolve my phone problems.

I had to face the busy, social evening ahead without my phone - no texts, no photos, not status updates.  I wanted to go home, get online and start tracking down a replacement asap. What I really wanted was to just go to an Apple store, or AT&T and buy a new one, on the spot.  There were time sensitive commitments that evening, and no time for any of that.  I would have to survive.

I did indeed survive.  I even think I learned a thing or two from the experience.  The drive home in rush hour traffic was hard.  I kept imagining what I would do if I were really late and couldn't call anyone to tell them.  Or, what if I had car trouble and I couldn't call for help?  What if I missed Ryker's performance?  What if I couldn't find Quincie once we got on campus?  What if I couldn't find my friends when we got to the movies and I had to sit by strangers while they were saving me seats in a different theater?  What if a client called for a home inspection and I missed the call?  What if there was a family emergency and I didn't get the call?  What if my friends sent me a text and I never saw it and then when I didn't respond they were mad at me?  or if they needed help and they thought I didn't care?  AGGGHHHHHH - all the crazy what if thinking HAD to stop!! 

I took a few deep breaths and calmed down.  It was only a phone.  It was only a thing.  It could be replaced.  My data was safe on my laptop and in the cloud. (Never mind that I had broken the space key on it earlier that day and now have to plug in a USB keyboard to use it.).  Calm Wendy, calm.  You can go a day or two without constant communication.    I made it home, and had an enjoyable evening.  No one was lost, no car trouble, no scheduling issues, not a single problem.  I was a little worried that I wouldn't wake up on time the next morning.  I don't have a clock near my bed, and only use my phone for an alarm.  I slept like a baby for those few hours, and Quincie woke me up right on time.

I had a long, quiet contemplative drive the next day.  The car radio doesn't get a good signal for a long stretch of that drive and I had to sit there in the silence with myself.  It was therapeutic.  I recommend a large dose of silence and self reflection on occasion.  It's good for the soul.

Thanks to good friends, I am back online and reconnected with my universe, but something has permanently shifted for me.  I think it was time for me to learn a thing or two about the need to disconnect on occassion and let my world go silent.  It's ok, and even good, to let all those external cares and concerns go unanswered and go within.  It's important to let the outside world stay outside, and just tend to the people in my presence.  I can go to sleep without playing a round of Words with Friends.  I can wake up to a human voice rather than a buzzing alarm.  I can drive and not worry about my arrival time  I can miss a call and let someone else be the responsible party.  I can be temporarily disconnected and my world will not fall apart.

Anger is Exhausting

Upon rising this morning I checked my email and thought I might still be dreaming.  The long awaited email from Apple had just hit my inbox.  The iphone 4 's that I reserved 10 days ago had arrived!  I felt like I had won the lottery!  I had to bring my credit card, photo id, and current iphone to the Apple store within 24 hours to claim my right to purchase these phones.  One for me, and one for my daughter for her 17th birthday, which was a week ago.

As soon as humanly possible we took off for the Kahala Mall, on the other side of the island to claim our treasure.  It is Saturday, and traffic was bad.  It took forever to get there.  I was starving and I am not my best with low blood sugar.  I thought that I would get there, get the set up process started, and go fetch food. I wanted my new iPhone 4 more than food.  Parking wasn't any better than the traffic.  It turns out there was some event at the mall today, hula, fashion show, booths, all kinds of stuff and people.  That place was a zoo.

As usual, the Apple store was crowded.  The stage with all the hullabaloo was just outside the door, so it was also loud in there.  After waiting for like a hundred years, well, maybe only 10 minutes, Mike came out to help us.  He went behind those magic silver doors and emerged with 2 perfect brick shaped white boxes.  I think I started to drool at this point.  They were so close, I could have reached out at grabbed them.  Mike struggled to find a signal, ironic how even in their own store they have to struggle for those bars, and brought up my account.  His magic iPod brought up a foul message - "User is a business customer and is blocked from making upgrades at this location.  Please contact a business care representative for assistance."  Or some such nonsense like that

  and then my head exploded .....

Seriously?  Seriously?  An AT&T business customer with multiple lines gets WORSE service than a consumer account?  Because I give them MORE they offer me LESS?   Inconceivable, and that word does mean what I think it does!  In all the racket I dialed a quick 611 on my outdated, slow as molasses, iPhone 3G.

    NOTE:  Before I updated the software on my 3G I was very happy with it's performance.  With the latest software update it is so slow I want to drop kick it while waiting for a text message to send.  It will ring at least 4 times before my blue tooth recognizes it and I nearly miss calls if I want to answer with the ear piece. I think getting 3G users to update their phone with the 4 software was a giant marketing move.  Get people to fall in love with the new features, like folders, and multitasking, then slow their phones down so they can't wait to get the new iPhone 4.  If that software worked well, I would have been content to wait for the frenzy to die down and then upgrade.  That's an A+ for the marketing staff.  I took the bait and swallowed it whole, even with the manipulation plot clear in my mind.

The poor guy at AT&T that answered my call.  Low blood sugar and high expectations shattered does not a happy Wendy make.  While the kids went to fetch some Arby's, I explained, complained, and drained every resource available.  Could I switch my plan from business to consumer?  How would that effect my rate plan?  Was it worth it?  Could I find an AT&T store on the island with any iPhone 4's in stock?  That would be an exercise in futility.  In the end there were two choices - buy the phones at $699 each or order them directly from AT&T and wait, ANOTHER 7 + business days.  By now I had enough food in me to realize that price was ridiculous, even for a gadget freak like me.  So, kicking, screaming, whining, and crying, I succumbed to the rules, and ordered the phones.  All my  expressive anger earned me free Fed Ex shipping, no small thing when you live in Hawaii, and any activation fees, and other such nonsense charges waived. I walked into that mall full of anticipation, and I walked out angry and disappointed.  

I still don't understand why AT&T punishes their best customers by giving them the least service opportunities.  It would have been nice if the Apple employee who took my reservation for the phones would have told me that I couldn't buy them from them if I was a business customer.  It still would have been ridiculous, but at least I wouldn't have waited 10 extra days, and wasted all my time and gas driving across the island today. The nice young man on the phone, who earned his meager pay and then some today, explained that the Apple stores are just not set up to handle the needs of business customers.  No JOKE!@  All I NEEDED was a couple of phones - how hard is that??? 

I'm still angry, and it's exhausting. 

Hidden City

On stressful days I dream of escaping to a hidden city in the mountains of Colorado, as in Atlas Shrugged. The entry requirements would be rigid. The results would be magical. I am not sure if it is possible in today's modern world. Certainly not in the lower 48. Maybe in Alaska. Modern technological wonders such as GPS and satellites make it rather impossible to hide one home, not to mention an entire city. Someone smarter than me, like the brainiacs at Google, might be able to find a way. If they do, I hope I eventually get the invite to join them.

While I wait, I have an idea. I have witnessed this phenomenon and marveled at those that have chosen it. It's radically simple.

I am talking about those brave souls that shrug, and let the world roll off their shoulders. They have tired of carrying the heavy load and have opted out. They have walked into the AT&T store, and said, "I would like to purchase an iPhone, the new one please. Yes, it will be a new account. Yes, a new number. No, I do NOT wish to port my existing number. No, I don't think I will be needed the 10,000 minutes/month plan. I would like the unlimited data package."

They get a new number. Fresh, clean, unsoiled. The old number gets passed on to an assistant, or left in a drawer to ring until the battery is dead. The voice mails left on this old number may or may not be listened to. The missed calls may or may not be returned. Text messages will not be read, at least not for a long time. Emails going to this phone will fill the inbox to capacity and then begin to bounce.

The new number is given only to those of the inner circle. Only to those you would invite to live with you in the hidden city in the mountains. Only to the producers, only those that you WANT to talk to. Only those that make your load lighter. You know the ones, the people that when you see their number on caller ID you smile, and quickly hang up to take their call. The Dagnys, Fransiscos, Hanks, and John Galts of your world. The rest go to cell phone oblivion. They no longer consume your day, fill your inbox, or drive you mad. The unproductive are cut from your life.

It is starting to happen to my friends. Some in my inner circle have already "disappeared". If you are next, I will be waiting for a call from an unknown number. If I am next, that unknown caller might just be me. I never thought I would seek their daring path. I imagined myself fighting until the bitter end, answering every call, replying to every email. Now, I am not so sure. One more ad for the iphone and I might just go.

If you read my blog, you are on my list of keepers. When I shrug I won't let you fall. I am counting on you to help me hold it all together.