Adios 2012

All right. Last post of 2012. I finished a book, taught for six weeks, got the flu, passed my Life in the UK test, lost *some* weight, and got more accustomed to living here.

So, as I posted the last time, I'm not feeling the whole New Year's resolutions thing. I know what I'd like to get done but I'm not going to devote the year to it - that will make anything last for less than the month of January.

I want to work on a second writing project that I don't plan on talking about much. I expect to be on Twitter less and I don't think I'll be using Instagram anymore (I stopped using it when I was working & didn't miss it.) I do have a few paper notebooks coming for me to write anything that I don't want in the blog. I also have a netbook so I can write when I'm out.

But this is just adjusting the way of life and dealing with situations. There aren't any big goals because what I want to get done will get done...eventually. The next project, my driving test, another job, the blog, books read, etc. That will all just work its way out. Even if I started jogging again - in some way, it will happen.

No New Year’s resolutions

empty space by cronncc

I was thinking that my only New Year’s resolution would be to blog more. (I could get a personal trainer or try doing the Couch to 5K jogging routine since I sucked at working up from walking to jogging on the treadmill.) My resolutions last year were to write something in a journal each day, and take a photo each day. Well, I have to stop and force myself to handwrite anything (as most of us do anymore unless we’re writing a list or personal note to ourselves.) I’m not always out to take a cool photo either and no one wants to see 365 photos of our cat.

Or do they?

So, since I can feasibly sit and write something electronically, maybe the blog posts will stick. Every day though? Not sure.

The problem is that most people write a short update on Twitter or Facebook but, honestly, aren’t we all getting a little (a lot) bored with that? It’s not a secret that I’ve never been a huge fan of Twitter, but after I was working, I really did not miss checking in to see what people had updated at all. The momentum has come to this promote and inspire kind of regurgitation that really doesn’t entertain or benefit anyone. If I could unfollow/follow only the interesting people, I’d be fine, but at this stage the account is so bogged down, I wouldn’t know where to begin (aside from maybe 20 accounts from nice, actual people.)

Facebook I’ll still keep checking because I want to know what people from some point in my real life are up to. However, I’ve turned the automatic updates off for my blog posts to FB because no one there would be interested and I wouldn’t want to harass them with that kind of stuff anyway.

If I do a post a day, it will have to be able to be short some days (a lot of days) and I won’t always be using the PC to upload the post with a fancy photo. I can’t always promote it on Twitter, or cross post it (Blogger is the main site, with Wordpress being secondary.) I can use email and the Blogger/WP apps. I can make a list of what I did for the day. I can write a long, interesting story about my wait at the post office -- it just depends.

While I know there are some obvious problems with this, I’m sort of keen to at least give it a go. If I get another job soon I will thankfully be too busy to bother with the internet that much, but in the mean time, this can be my hobby.

Links found today:

• How to Blog Almost Every Day – while this is geared toward the dreaded online business, the idea is relevant.
• 27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community – again, for the business minded but some good ideas.
• Ann Handley – cool blog with interesting posts

Why Santa brought me a new phone

Nokia Lumia 800 photo taken by mbiebusch

I have had my HTC Sensation since September 2011 and it continued to get worse with each month I used it. After Steve asked me if I’d rather have a phone or a netbook for Christmas, I stopped cursing at my HTC long enough to exclaim, “Phone!” While I patiently awaited Santa to arrive, I used my dreaded HTC each day – to, at, and from work. This was the list of grievances that I wrote on the bus during that time before Christmas break:

• It (dreaded HTC Sensation from O2) tries to update apps all the time. But it won't actually update them unless you have the Google Store "My Apps" screen up. If the screen falls to sleep, no updates.
  I've set up the apps to only update with WiFi as well, buy when I'm out, it will continually try to find a WiFi signal and, therefore, drain the battery.
• The battery runs out if I use any kind of app. I have a full charge each morning and if I try to use the internet or FB, battery will go to yellow immediately. Hence, making the phone (and the data plan I pay for) totally useless.
• Apps don't work. The internet browser, FB, Twitter, etc. Apps will shut down intermittently.
• Typing is a nightmare. Can't tap on the screen and select "paste" easily. Last time I tried this, I had to tap the screen ten times at least to get "paste" option to pop up. Highlighting and copying are equally as difficult.
• Auto correct doesn't work. Trying to move the cursor to change text is maddening as well.
• Most recently, I tried to plug the phone into a travel charger that I had from my old BlackBerry. While it works fine on my husband's HTC Win 7 phone, when I plugged it into the Sensation, it kept pulling up the GPS. Nothing got charged.
• When I get a text, the text thread has to load. Sometimes I cannot type a response, even though the keyboard is displayed. Sometimes it will only say “loading” and I cannot read and/or access the text message threads. I have to first delete the thread, then start over (after rebooting the phone a few times) before I can send a text. The SD card is not full, so there’s no other reason for this to cause a problem.
• Many times I cannot get a signal. One Saturday, Steve and I were sitting on the bus, side-by-side (as married couples do) and he was able to use the GPS to calculate where we were on the bus with the mobile network. I was unable to get any response from the phone at all. I kept getting a “cannot connect to network” error message. No apps. No WiFi. No 3G. Not even the “H” or “E” I get a lot of times.
• For some stupid reason, I can only see a limited number of emails in my folders. There doesn’t seem to be any options for this so if I’m trying to find an email that wasn’t saved very recently, it won’t display.
• I think of a new complaint daily. I can update this more and more as I remember them.

Someone online mentioned that O2 really hasn’t held up their end of the contract bargain either. When a phone is this bad to the point that it can’t be used, then why should I have to keep honouring the contract with the cell provider?

I received my shiny new Nokia Lumia 800 yesterday and the HTC Sensation will be sent away for some amount of cash that can use towards my Zune pass for the Win 7 Phone.