Britannica

An end of an era.....

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/encyclopaedia-britannica-ends-print-run-005141357.html

We had a set of these growing up - my mom making the investment when I was around 10, I think. I started with the A's and worked my way through - reading everything I could get my hands on. I'm not claiming I read the entire set cover to cover - but I read a lot of it. Used it often for reference and research. They were proudly stored in the built in book case in our home - and like most things she purchased for us, I'm positive she made monthly payments every month for a very long time -

I still remember how they smelled and how the pages turned...I was so in awe of all that information in one place. I could have never imagined that 40 years later, we'd have the power of having so many amazing resources available at the touch of a keypad. Fascinates me.

And speaking of 'at our fingertips', if you saw 60 Minutes on Sunday, you've probably already checked out the site. If not, please do. www.khanacademy.org

We are working on updating our district's technology standards - and it's amazing to think that Khan Academy may be delivering education in a totally new way that seems so 'right' for this generation. They want things fast and quickly - and they want a way to know where to go back when they need assistance - and there's no teacher around. Or parent. It's amazing what topics the site covers. I could watch it all day - and have been a fair amount today as I enjoy a rainy day at home doing a bunch of stuff - and doing a bunch of nothing - at the same time.

I'm reasonably sure text book publishers will not be printing paper texts much in the future. Our state has frozen new text book adoptions for years as an answer to the budget crisis - so the publishers stopped printing them. They print if you order - so acquiring the products takes forever. And we don't have much available money to purchase new curriculum - or update the existing curriculum. Will we purchase Kindle-like devices for every student? Or iPads? Or laptops? It's a mind-boggling decision to make - because once we go that route, we will be on that path for a very long time - and maintaining those items as a 'standard' will be very expensive. I'm always the money person biting my one sacrificial fingernail down to a nub worrying about 'where will we find the kind of money THAT will take'? It's a tough job and I am losing a fair amount of sleep these days...still, it's exciting. Kids of this generation may not know the joy of holding a huge encyclopedia volume and thumbing through the vast pages to find the topic you are interested in [I remember reading about aardvarks and thinking they were the most interesting animal I'd ever 'encountered' - even though it was just in print] - but they will know about the power of Google - and how information is at your fingertips in an instant. Amazing....

Washer is done - time to move towels into the dryer. Attempting to help The Laundry King - since I went to get a clean bath towel this morning and there weren't any. It's a cold, wet, dreary day but pleasant. We need the rain and it's nice to just be 'home' on a rainy day - puttering and reading. And taking a nap shortly. I need it -

Damn time change.

Feast or Famine

Either plenty to say - and no time.....or nothing to say and plenty of time. Last week I had a Post-it full of post thoughts - but never got around to putting them on paper. Soon, I hope....though like most things that flit in and out of my head, they seem relevant at the time and then are lost in the myriad of daily stuff running through my mind.

Busy days bleed into each other - time passes in a nanosecond seemingly....hard to fathom some weeks where the days went.

The annual time change leaves me groggy and grumpy for a few days while I try to adjust to knowing that I'm getting up at 3 while the clock forces me to pretend it's 4. Or 4 pretending to be 5. I've been getting out of bed so 'late' (for me) the past couple days that it's been a mad rush to get out the door - which is ridiculous for my short commute. Starts my day off hectic instead of calm and purposeful and relaxed - which is why I get up at the crack of dawn. The hour or so 'alone' puttering away on my computer is my quiet for the day and I treasure it. Though sleeping longer is better for me by far.

Tonight, we had a contractor come to the house to give us an estimate on some long-awaited projects. Our corner pantry is likely coming out with a new custom cabinet built in that provides access on both of the oddly angled 'sides'. This combined with some 'sliding' shelves should greatly improve the amount of storage we have available...handy with the boys appetites demanding constant supply. Also getting estimates for three over-the-toilet cabinets as well. And lastly, he is having someone give us an estimate to add spray foam insulation to the garage ceiling. I am not sure what the $ will be - and not sure we can afford to do 'all' right now. But we've been saving for them and planning these projects for awhile so I am hopeful we can get them done soon. I really think that pantry modification will be a 'must-do' and hope we can afford the bathroom cabinets, too. And the insulation is an energy saving thing worth looking into - I'm going to look for PG&E incentives for that expense also. Maybe a rebate or a tax credit or something?

I wish we were more handy. I wish we lived near the family member(s) I know are very handy. I like the contractor and think he will do a good job - but he's using a cabinet company to build the unit, so that's a markup right there. Oh well. We'll see. Hoping we will end up pleasantly surprised like we did for the fence project and the front door project. If we get this latest set of projects done, we will be pretty 'caught up'.

I am taking tomorrow off - totally clear calendar and just felt like I needed a day away. Unclutter my mind. And possibly unclutter my home desk - while my work desk looks like the train wreck it is. I made the decision to take the day off before I learned my boss is off until next Thursday - so that led to an afternoon jammed with 'stuff' we needed to go over before we weren't going to see each other for 8 days. That only further cluttered my mind and made the day off seem futile. But I'm still taking it.

A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.....

Hacked

Hacked.....such a strong word....so many nuances....

I'm majorly hacked off at Zynga at the moment. But within that is a fair amount of just being hacked off at myself... So I'm tamping those feelings down for now and moving on. Lesson learned.

My Facebook account was hacked yesterday around noon our time - something I discovered when I came home for lunch (very rare thing these days - but I need the mid-day break more than I need Starbucks [so that should tell you a little something about how things are going this week]) - and there was an email in my personal email box advising me that Facebook had someone attempt to log in on my account from a place 'you have never logged in from before'. Um....Indonesia! Yes, really - I went to Facebook (not via the email link in case that was a scam) and up popped an alert advising me my account was blocked and a little map confirmed the login attempt was from Indonesia. Yep, correct! Never been there. Wasn't me. That prompted a change of the password I frequently use and have used for over 20 years - it's pretty bullet proof (or was until yesterday).

So I've had to go into bank accounts, credit accounts, etc. and change all those passwords, too....just to be safe. Or less nervous that I'm not safe.

Our household budget feels out of control and I realize periodically that we have someone on our personal payroll - and that's expensive! The tile grout in the family room is looking extraordinary - but paying that young man his hourly wage daily is really tripping us up in the pocket book. Thank goodness there's a limited amount of tile...in that room. Then he can move to the other areas of the house tiled with the same tile and same grout. I might need a bank loan. Ha ha ha....

It is freezing in here - below 60 degrees - but see above paragraph which will explain why I would rather sit here and shiver than turn on the heat! And that sort of hacks me off - personal comfort is too much to give up for clean tile grout, people!

A warm shower and another triple-shot vanilla latte should do the trick. Then it's off to work for a long day of one meeting after another....and board prep as an extra bonus!

OH! And last night, J. reminded me that this is the weekend we lose an hour of sleep - and that hacks me off, too! I despise the 'Spring ahead' weekend with every ounce of my being. It is my least favorite Monday of any other Monday - and we all know how I feel about Mondays! The only good thing about it is I plan to work Sunday ('cuz we have plans with friends on Saturday - hey, we have a life! What's that?) so I will be working one less hour than I would otherwise! One less hour in the day!

The font on this draft mode just turned incredibly small and I can't figure out how to enlarge it - so this post is done. I can't see what I'm writing and we all know that with the title 'Hacked', that won't be a good thing.....

UPDATE: I opened the bag from JC Penney - four new pairs of pants. Only they aren't my pants. It's two pants and two skorts in a size I haven't worn in 15 years! All the paperwork is my order - but the actual merchandise is definitely not. Had to scramble for 'Plan B' since I'm making a presentation today in front of parents....want to look my best. Argh! Another weekend errand - to return. And then do I reorder or just give up?

Zynga!

And another thing! - two posts in one morning.....I'm patting myself on the back! Not really 'cuz I'm older and that kind of motion hurts.

J. and I are looking to 'dabble' in the stock market a little....

When Zynga had their IPO not long ago, we were poised to jump in and buy some stock. Again, not a lot of stock - but some.

I didn't. Their IPO coincided with a point where I was playing their games and getting more and more irritated every day. Things weren't working right - complaints resulted in emails back that they were 'working on it'. Argh! I was so pissed off -

I remind myself daily when I see people posting their frustrations on Facebook that these are just games! Not real life. Nothing earth shattering happening. No lives lost. No reason for angst. It's just games. It is irritating when things don't work right - but oh well, right? It's A GAME, PEOPLE!

But all that heightened angst made me think twice about investing in a company that is looking to increase their income by having people spend money to play. And when people are pissed off at a company, they won't spend money to play.

So our small investment sits in our account waiting to see - we have not invested yet. Not sure if we will.

But this morning, I am declaring publicly that I will no longer participate in any missions/goals/tasks that are timed. I'm done. It is clear and obvious to me that Zynga is structuring those 'adventures' in a way that makes it IMPOSSIBLE to complete without spending money - and while I've done that (yes, I am sad to admit) - I will not do that anymore. I am done with timed stuff. I'm going to play my games for 'fun' and find other ways to amuse myself and those damn tasks bars that show the tasks to accomplish will just stay there and torment me - 'cuz if they are timed, I will not participate.

I don't care what super-duper prize is being offered to entice us to get ourselves 'wrapped up' in completing the goals within the time allowed - I'm not doing it!

And because I'm a Zynga 'customer' and it's really pissing me off to have worked 11 days on something that I see now I have no possible hope of finishing without spending cash, I won't invest in their company. I would happily use game currency here and there to finish tasks I'm having trouble completing....like paying 4 currency to give myself credit for an item that I can't get one more person to send me....but I'm not going to complete missions that would require spending over $100 in REAL CASH to buy enough game currency to finish within the time limit. You can't make 100's of something that takes 24 hours to make in a day. It can't be done. Not with only 59 stoves.

Zynga makes me feel stupid - to have not realized five days ago that I was setting myself up to be majorly disappointed. Who wants to invest in a company that makes their customers feel stupid?

It's close to 5 now - so I really am heading up to get dressed....feeling very sleepy.

Sleep

I have been up for an hour. In five minutes, it will be 4:30 which is when I set the alarm to go off. I was wide awake at 3 and ruminating about a variety of things and getting up just seemed the best approach. I was wrong. What was I thinking? I would give anything to go back upstairs and go back to sleep for four hours - but that can't happen...because it's Monday. Officially the start of another work week. My calendar is relatively clear today and the urge to phone in 'off' and go back to bed is strong - but I won't. I have a lot to do....and one meeting that would be impossible to reschedule. So in I will go -

Working for a living sucks.

I'm hopeful I will leave at 3ish or so today - given that I will be in the office uber-early. Heading upstairs to shower shortly - navigating the trail of 'Two Boys in a Bathroom' that ensued all weekend while I showered in our bathroom. Lord only knows what I will find after two days of a 'mom-free' room.

H. worked diligently all weekend - and in a moment of creativity, re-arranged his entire bedroom. I like it except that he put the bed in the corner where his closet is so now he can only access the closet through one sliding door instead of two. Oh well....he pretty much uses the floor of the closet as a laundry hamper and not much else and that side, he can still access. It looks good - and he even cleaned the baseboards. (He knows his mom is a sucker for immaculate baseboards. The kid can't make himself a sandwich but boy, howdy! does he know how to clean near the floor!).

And he did make himself Ramen noodles on Saturday - the first thing I've ever witnessed him 'cooking' in his 18 3/4 years! He knew where to find a small saucepan to cook the noodles in!

J. has two nights of work commitments this week (Monday and Wednesday) and we are hoping to have the first construction guy come by to give us ideas for the pantry. And an estimate on other stuff we hope to get done.

To Nap....

or not to nap....

That is the question.....

I napped yesterday - but it was a late afternoon nap. Not 'good' by any standard. Just enough to make me feel completely groggy into the evening and up until past 11. Sleep was restless and not really worth it -

Today, it's earlier....and I was up at 6:30 this morning. Just decided to get up....I don't know why....so it's approaching 1PM (prime nap time in my opinion) and I feel soooo sleepy....

It's very pretty outside and my garden could use some attention....

So do I nap? Or garden?

Both!

Ahhh...the joy of weekends!

Musachi

A family dinner last night was a nice treat....we went to Musachi which is like Beni Hanas. They cook at the table and you get a little 'show' for your money. Sure, it's corny....when the chef rolls the egg across the cooking surface and says 'eggroll' - and it's the same routine he did the last time we ate there which was a year ago, at least - it's corny. But it was a nice evening with good food (too much food - stuffed to the brim, I headed to bed shortly after getting home. Enjoyed reading for a bit and when I woke up having fallen asleep, I turned off the light and went to bed. It was just after 8).

The best thing about a Friday night dinner there are their cocktails - they have a wide variety. And for $5 (a bargain!), you get a cocktail that will definitely result in you being more relaxed than when you walked in. I would have loved a second Blue Hawaiian but decided against it.

H. drove us home - we are very careful and do our best to set an example.

It's Saturday! Woot woot!!

I am heading into work for a bit. Retract the woot woot.....

But I will still have some of the day left and it's looking like a pretty day to work outside a bit.