This year has gone buy so fast, it’s difficult to fathom Christmas isn’t that far off. Not only do most stores have Halloween decorations littering the aisles, but I actually saw a few Christmas decorations adorning the shelves at Wal-Mart the other night. We all know what this means, don’t we? It’s the time of year to figure out what we’re going to buy the people in our lives who have everything.
I figured out a system last year. Buy everyone the same gift. No, no, this doesn’t mean Grandpa will end up with the sexy lingerie-I’m talking about practical gifts. For instance, digital frames. Laugh if you will and call me a geek, but some frames even come in Wi-Fi now, which means if you have photos on MySpace, Flickr, etc, you can show these without wires and cables.
You do have to remember, however, if you decide to buy digital picture frames as gifts, you’ll also need to purchase memory sticks, IF the person doesn’t have a compatible flash drive. Personally, I would spend the extra $10-$20, (depending on the amount of memory), just in case.
Has anyone else given thought to holiday gifts yet? If so, are you going high tech, or keeping it simple?
I Can’t Believe The Holidays Are Just Around The Corner.
How To Save Battery Life With An iPod Touch.
Since winning an iPod Touch in a contest a few months back, it has been one gadget I couldn’t live without. Ok, if it was an iPhone, I’d be even happier, but by Jailbreaking version 1.1.2, I did get a few of the missing features the Touch should have had-like mail, weather etc. (If anyone knows of a safe way to Jailbreak 1.1.3, let me know-there seems to be controversy over how well it works, not to mention Steve Jobs’ announcement of charging people $19.99 for upgraded features back in January). Other than my complaint on the lack of features, the major issue has been battery life. Through trial and error, I determined how to conserve battery life-which most would think, “wait until the battery has drained and charge fully, or keep it turned off when not in use.” Wrong. Sure, this works with cell phones, but the Touch is a little different.
One day I turned the Touch on, after not using it for approximately 3 days, and found the battery was in the red. I had charged it 3 days prior, while syncing a few email addresses and songs. I promptly plugged the USB cable into the port, left it alone for 8 hours, and sure enough, fully charged. I listened to a few songs, turned if off and the next day turned it on again. The battery was below half-life. What was causing this? Some USB ports are not powerful enough to handle the charge power the Touch needs, but I knew this wasn’t the case for me. (I do recommend buying a dock if you can-this is on my list of things to buy when I get money-it would be so much easier-be forewarned though, the Touch may need a special doo-hickey-yes a technical term, to fit in some docks because of size differences). This is what I did in order to save battery life-in fact it has lasted 5 days with the battery indicator barely moving.
1. Turn off Wi-Fi. Unless you’re using the email app, or downloading songs from iTunes, the Wi-Fi feature will drain the battery faster. Even though my router is in the same room, the little Touch has to work extra hard for some reason to keep the wireless signal.
2. Charge the battery but keep the Touch on while doing so. When I had charged the battery in the past, I would turn it off, which is what most do- don’t. Trust me on this.
3. Once the battery is fully charged, go to Settings > General > Auto-lock and set it for no more than 3 minutes. I have mine set at 2 minutes. Auto-lock is like sleep mode on a PC-it conserves battery life without turning the device off.
4. Leave the Touch on. Yes, you read that right. Leave it on and let Auto-lock save the battery life. I’ve figured out by turning the Touch off and back on uses more battery power than it should. Try it for yourself. Let the battery go down to the halfway mark, turn it off and leave it off for a few hours. Turn the Touch back on and yes, you’ll see an almost fully charged device. Play a few songs or leave it on for 30 minutes and watch the battery meter go even lower.
I’m waiting for the battery to hit the half-way mark on mine before charging again, before I charge to full capacity. As I said, after 5 days the indicator has barely moved and I listen to music and use Safari quite a bit. If you’ve experienced the constant battery drain on the Touch, try these tips and they should work-they did for me.
Hot Flashes And I Share My Birthday With Superbowl Sunday.
I went to bed early last night, a little before 11pm. I had a long day yesterday, an interview at a company I interviewed with 2 years ago, I haven’t a clue as to why they would hire me now since they didn’t hire me then, (the same woman interviewed me and said, “You look familiar.” I wanted to say, “Really? Yeah you interviewed me 2 years ago and didn’t hire me for some unknown reason. Isn’t that odd?”), my car, yet again, stopped running, so I had to drive my uncle’s pimp-mobile, which my mom has been driving, and I ended up clipping a road closed sign- don’t ask, it didn’t hurt the car but bent the sign. The preceding sentence, I believe is the longest sentence I’ve written-ever. At any rate, I was beat. A couple of Tylenol PM and an hour later, I was looped and ready to call it a day.
I awaken at 4:43am drenched in sweat. As sweaty as a ‘ho on a hot summer’s night. At some point, I had tossed all the covers off my body because they were on the floor. I then think back to something someone, while I was in my 20s told me:
“Your 30s will be so much better.”
Let me get this straight. Sweating at night, tinkling when I cough, or sneeze hard, white hair that I pluck out daily, (this is the reason I’ve decided to go all blonde again), having no sex, therefore not caring if my legs are shaved or not and having to hold things at an angle just to read small print is- better? Then holy hell I can’t wait to reach my 40s- they must be a blast. Which reminds me, on GMA this morning Diane and Chris said 44 is the age where people are the most depressed. No, no, it’s 34. Trust me. Once you pass by the adult diapers section in a store and pause, if ever so briefly, it’s bad.
I also figured out yesterday that I share my birthday with, of all things, Superbowl Sunday. My cousin invited me to his house to watch the game and I told him I wasn’t sure, because it was my birthday and to make it worse, my 35th. He said, “That’s ok, we’ll just get you drunk so you’ll forget it.” Come to think of it, not a bad idea. I’ll pretend everyone is cheering for me as I sip my girlie, fruity drink and contemplate the next 35 years.
I still need 4 people to reach my goal of, what I am now deeming, the mid-life crisis pep talk phone call from Diane Sawyer and it couldn’t come soon enough. Now, I’m off to turn on the makeup mirror to pluck out my white hairs. This is what I feel like today-without the hat:
Buy Your Girlie Gear At GirlMogul.
For all you chick geeks out there, I have found a shop just for us. That’s right- all Girl Moguls and Girl Moguls in the making can now buy their gear at a shop, aptly named, Girl Mogul, an up and coming shop hosted on cafepress.com. Why am I a girl mogul? I’m not sure that I am, but I have the mindset to become one. Okay, sure, technically since I’m 8 days away from becoming a middle-aged woman, I’m not a girl, but “middle-aged woman mogul” doesn’t sound quite as sassy.
As a firm believer that women/girls can do anything a male can do-and just as well, I have embraced my inner girlie geek and basically said, “I don’t need a man’s approval to get the job done.” I am no longer shy about the fact I’m different than my friends and somewhat, well odd. I watch tech shows. I watch the news, I love history, literature and anything dealing with language. Two topics interest me most-computers and writing. I would love to be able to make my living writing about women in the technology world. This is me, who I am and I’m not ashamed. You don’t have to be a geek to visit Girl Mogul-I chose to show the t-shirt I found most appealing to me, but the shop offers mugs, aprons, baby items, bumper stickers- you name it. Show your Girl Mogul power-visit the store and buy something!
