Life's Little Moments...

Love it when you kneel down a second and find something like a pebble, or worse, a thumbtack.

Brittany Murphy Dies

Brittany Murphy Story

This young actress died overnight in LA. I remember watching a few of her movies with my kids. Her films included "Clueless", "Uptown Girls" and "Don't Say A Word.

Another life ended too soon in Hollywood.

It's Boots Season!

Joy

There is something missing in my life at the moment. It is something that no one can give you, nor is it something that someone should give you.
It is joy.
I'm not talking about love, or wedded bliss, or contentment. I'm talking about an abstract. This kind of joy is rarely expressed. It is entirely internal. It's not the kind of joy that you share in and of itself. It's not a mutual feeling. It's the kind of joy that motivates us to do things that bring joy to others. It's a feeling inside that comes back every morning with the opening of your eyes. That feeling of being, that feeling of not only being glad to be alive, but of being grateful for the gift of life. It's something that makes you get through rough times with the same resolve that helps you appreciate the good times.
It's such a simple concept. It's something that should be so easy to hold on to. Life is a gift that we're not always wise enough to appreciate while we are alive. Life is a source of so much regret when that joy is missing. Life is a treasure that we relish every minute of when that joy is with us.
Worry doesn't change things. Yet we worry a lot more than we care to admit. Things don't get better because we worry about them. Life gets better when we act in a strong, positive way. The ability to do as much, I believe, stems from having that joy.
It's so hard to get hold of something that when we have it, we don't know that we do. This joy I'm talking about isn't a tangible. When we look for it, we don't have it. When we have it, we don't do enough to nurture it, and we can lose it without trying.
I want it back. I know that this particular feeling can't be given back. Even by those who would wish it for us. I guess it's a natural process, much like breathing. It's not the only thing in life. But life is so different without it.
Wish me luck.

Back Up!

A few years ago, I discovered a device called the T-Mobile Sidekick. I loved it immediately. It was a phone, PDA and camera. It had the usual features: calendar, address book, photo album, notebook and task list. While those were great features, an additional feature was online backup. Anything I entered into my Sidekick was immediately backed up to an Internet server, which eliminated the need to sync up the device to a computer. I could use a web interface if the device wasn't available; the interface was a mirror of everything on the device.

Another very attractive item was that this device was not Palm OS based, and more importantly, had no Microsoft-related software, functions or features. That meant a 1000% increase in reliability in my eyes.

No Microsoft? No Windows? Count me in!

I grew to heavily rely on the Sidekick. I never missed a birthday, an appointment, I had well over 1000 phone numbers, home addresses and email addy's in that device. The operating system was powered by Danger, Inc. and I loved the platform. I could count on one finger the amount of times I encountered any trouble with the OS. Microsoft Free, that's for me.

Well, unbeknownst to me, about a year ago, Danger Inc. sold out to Microsoft. It was a very quiet merger. And one that I didn't keep abreast of. That was a major mistake.

In the technology world, be it phones, smart phones or computers, the wisest advice is "back up your data!" I do that fairly religiously. And with the Sidekick, I had instant backup of every detail.

However, the largest (not to be confused with the best) software provider in the world, King Microsoft, seemed to not heed its own advice. As I mentioned, it took Danger in as a subsidiary.

Well, last Saturday evening, Danger/Microsoft encountered a major server failure. Suddenly, everyone who had a T-Mobile Sidekick had no data. No emails, address books, calendars. Over the course of the next few days, T-Mobile did its best to offer damage control and information regarding this catastrophic failure. Danger/Microsoft said nothing. There was not a single communication made, there was no mention of the failure on the Danger website. The behavior was quintessential Microsoft Business-As-Usual.

What the biggest mistake turned out to be was, Danger/Microsoft had no backup of its server that failed.

No backup. Imagine that.

Fast forward one week. T-Mobile (not Danger/Microsoft) issued a statement that basically said, what you have now is what you'll get. Most, if not all, of the data that was lost was permanently gone. Danger/Microsoft's failure was our loss.

And never a word from Danger/Microsoft. Not a peep, bit or byte. Why should they issue anything? They don't care about their customers. For every one they lose, there's another one lining up to take his place.

Danger/Microsoft committed an error that was on the same intellectual level as a builder forgetting to put cement in between the bricks.

It was a big problem for me personally. I had foolishly relied on a Microsoft product a lot more than I should have. Anyone with any real technology savvy will tell you that Microsoft is a disaster. That's why people in the know use Mac's, they run Linux systems for serious computer applications. iPods rule the music world, despite Apple's occasional Microsoft-like customer relations. The only reason I haven't gotten an iPhone for myself is that the provider here is AT&T, the only company I can think of that equals Microsoft in ineptitude and total disdain for its customers.

Had I known about the Microsoft involvement, I'd have dumped that Sidekick a year ago and would be writing something silly about me tonight instead of something stupid about Microsoft.

I thought I was smart choosing a product that provided backup, real-time, 24/7. I was dumb relying on a product that was powered by a Microsoft division.

I lose.

If you're thinking of choosing T-Mobile as a provider, consider this experience. It was an event that was exclusively related to the Sidekick devices...this time. There are a lot of products out there running on Windows Mobile. Microsoft has its fingers in a lot of pies these days, and we all know how messy that can become.

Buyer beware.

Although, I have to note, the data service is tied in with Microsoft, so I'm not surprised that an outage could last this ridiculously long.

I'm just curious how a tech company, in this day and age, does not have contingencies to avoid a multi-day outage. TMobile's data service has been down 2 days.

I forgot where this goes, lol. How's your day going, folks?

Can Even Do This

I can even add photos. I'm soooo excited. Ok last silly post, I
promise.

Like this?

I hate not being able to keep a blog on a regular basis. I read when I
can, but writing is getting to be such a problem because of time
constraints. I'd love to do it like this.

Would it be very annoying if I kept my blog going on the fly by using mobile services to post?

Burgery

Ok so I might say something like, "I'll grab a burger at McDonald's. Ya want one?"

Some people don't like McDonald's. Fine.

Normal Response:

"No thanks, don't care for McDonald's."

Psychotic Response:

"McDonald's, are you kidding me? I wouldn't eat that crap with YOUR mouth. Do you know what kind of garbage they put in there? Cow hooves, chicken feet, are you kidding me? That stuff is poison! McDonald's is a Communist company!

Please.

To Ponder or...

I was watching a commercial for an insurance company the other night. The woman said, "We help people save menny."

"Menny?"

She said it again: "I like helping people save menny."

I assume she was saying, "money," unless there is something new on earth to save.

And for that matter, when did "thank you" become "think you". Listen for it. Especially on TV. They say it all the time now.

I think too much.

Amend

I've really been trying so hard to change my life around. A year ago, it wasn't good at all, and today it's better, but not quite the way I want it to be. Too many reasons to not be doing what I want to do, you know what I mean?

so much time has been spent on the whole "self-improvement" theme. I have taken a good hard look once, then twice. The deeper I look, the less I like what I see. I had myself somewhat fooled into believing I was a lot better than I am.

This isn't some self-esteem issue. I am being realistic. I did a lot of things the last couple of years that just don't leave me feeling happy about myself.

So, excluding criminal behavior, which I am not guilty of, is there anything that is truly unforgivable? This doesn't pertain to the romantic domain because that hasn't been a busy enough area of my life to give me the chance to have been hurtful to anyone. I'm talking about life's little quarrels and big hurts. This also doesn't mean that it's only things that I've done to others; it includes things that I took offense at.

See I kidded myself. I figured if I just moved along and excluded someone completely from my life, then I wasn't "holding a grudge. No one wants to think they do that, do they?

But how do you change things? How do you approach people you've parted ways from, especially after a considerable length of time? Do you bring up the past? Do you do something as simple as just saying "hello" and watching where it takes you?

I'd sure like some advice. I want to make amends with some people and don't know how.

It Becomes Clear

I have an almost psychotic aversion to the telephone. The advent of the cell phone didn't do much to assuage me.

But sometimes the answers to life's mysteries aren't deep and they aren't complex. They're just not always obvious.

I settled in for the first real night's sleep I've had in a very long time. I was probably out cold by 10 PM. At 10:30 PM or so, my cell phone rang. Normally, the phone is off at night for idiocy prevention, but I forgot to extinguish it, and an idiot from work made it through.

Now, two things here:

My co-workers are nearly all idiots, of that I'm convinced.

We are not doctors. There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that I can do for anyone in my business at 10:30 PM on a Friday night. Nor will I be doing anything business-wise, at 10:30 PM on a Friday night.

So I didn't answer it.

This morning I approached said Idiot to find out what was so urgent that it couldn't wait 10 hours or so, and he had a question so inane that I had to restrain myself from calling him an imbecile, since I've made it clear that he is an idiot, and two bad names could be too much for his brain.

But see, that's not it, though.

I went through my call list in the phone. I think the list holds 50 or so calls and as I scrolled through, I realized that almost every single time that number rings, it's someone calling about something they want from me or need from me. Favors, money, "gimme-gimme-I-want-I-want".

Program note:Now I know some people are very, very literal. I did say "almost every single time that number rings"

So who could blame me, really? Maybe if one of those people, once in a blue moon, called to just say hello, or offered to do something for me I might not spend so much time ignoring calls or wanting to smash the phone.

Dr. Phil Moment:I've actually smashed a few phones in my life,by the way. Cass can tell ya about that I think.

What do you think? Am I completely nuts? Or would this be justifiable phone-icide?