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No Internet Makes Me Happier

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Okay, that isn’t a for sure statement.  Except, I really think it may be true.  (That wasn’t wishy washy at all, was it?)

I have been living at home since the middle of May.  I haven’t been home this long since leaving at the beginning of August 2006.  The time of my life I wish I could go back to?  The summer I lived in Indianapolis with my boyfriend Kenny and forever roommate Ed.

And I’m beginning to think it was because of my lack of internet.

Evidence A
The first bit of evidence here is in that time in my life I recall being perfectly content with my sleeping habits.  I have years of journals on how awful my sleeping habits are.  For a time in high school, I kept track of the time I would go to sleep and it was just embarrassing.  I still have this problem.  Currently, it is 3:26 AM.

Kenny is a morning person.  When he’s working out on a regular basis, he’s ready to pass out at 9 PM.  When he’s not working out on a regular basis, 11 PM is his latest “awake” time.  Once he’s tired, there’s no bouncing back.  I have given up on talking to him after this point as it’s like talking to a brick wall.  It’s very effective in defusing my energy after I have gotten over the tired hump and am in hyper mode.  Without the internet to keep me occupied, when he went to bed, I went to bed.  Plus there’s that whole cuddle factor, so it’s much more fun to go to sleep at the same time then after he’s passed out.

Evidence B
The other bit of evidence is the amount of free time I had.  I remember having a life outside of work.  In fact, what I remember more about that summer is my time outside of work, despite spending more hours at work.  There was biking (to work, from work, to the grocery, random distances), grilling, making dinner dates once a week with Kenny, time spent window shopping, time doing actual necessary shopping, time at the laundry mat, and occasional weekend visits home.

This summer, I felt like my time was packed and that I didn’t have time to leisurely do things like that outside of a good chunk of weekend lake trips.

Okay, I’ve been sitting on that sentence for a bit, and I believe family had more to do with this difference than internet.  In Indy, Kenny and I had no family; in Fort Wayne, our entire family is around and we were both living with our parents.  The lack of free time was because we were splitting it up between our houses and families.

However, I still feel that when Kenny and I are outside of Fort Wayne, I still would waste much time on the internet as I too often did when Kenny and I were hanging out by ourselves this summer.  I’d waste time and waste time, and then Kenny would be ready to sleep.  Then I would be mad at myself, because what I really wanted to do was hang and converse with him.  Plus, there’s that whole lack of sleep thing again since many times I’d ask him to stay up a bit longer after shutting my laptop.

Evidence C
Finally, I think I was at least a bit more productive having to plan my uses of the internet.  Having to rely on Panera and the library, I used the internet minimally.  Ed and I had some planning times at Panera for WiCS, there was the booking and registering for our first GHC (exciting times!), ordering books, and catching up on email.  Getting lost in my feeds?  Not really an option, since I hate spending a lot of money on minimal amounts of food, so I felt guilt about using Panera internet on the times where Ed just got a drink.

Verdict
So, when Kenny and I move out on our own together (which won’t occur until summer of 2011 at the earliest), I’m thinking about forgoing internet.  The only thing is (1) video chats with my family and (2) whether or not to get a smart phone with a data plan.  If I get a smart phone, I’m going to go all out and get an iPhone, Pre, Droid, or the like.  (Maybe. I did like the internet on my LG Dare.)  However, I can’t decide if that’ll be just as much of a time suck.  Pure lack of internet seems unwise with online bills and emergencies such as me not having my bosses phone number, but knowing her email and me being sick-o and needing to let her know that no way was I coming in.  (Ed’s phone saved me that night.)

Maybe just getting internet on my LG Dare or similar level of phone would do it.  Just a browser; no games or applications to suck up my time/isolate me when in a room with others.

PS – Ed was around these summers.  We spent many a weekend devoted to decompressing and marathon watching movies.  She also went salsa dancing.  A lot.  Which I still haven’t seen her do for real.  Someday.  Someday.

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Donations of Blood, Organs, and Tissue

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

I am finding that in my email conversations of late, I ask people to donate blood and make their loved ones aware if they are willing to be a tissue and organ donor. I always include a link to where people learn more and register their willingness. Donnie Sendelbach, Director of ITAP at DePauw, asked me what she could do, and I asked her to pass on my request to the rest of ITAP which she did. That made me happy.

I think a key thing is letting your loved ones know of your wish.

The legal thing folks need to do is get themselves on their state’s registry. Even if you have a little heart on your driver’s license, it is encouraged that you register.

The Canadian site for organ donations reiterates it is vital to let your family know. Since I know I have at least one Canadian reader, this site has all the details for your country.

If you are willing to be a tissue and organ donor, declare so in the comments!

I admit I am a hypocrite on the blood donation request. Around the time I had mono, I began to pass out for essentially every vaccine or shot I had. It’s not a fear of needles, though at this point it’s a chicken or the egg scenario since I now stress about getting shots.

First Pass Out
The first time it happened, I had driven by myself to the doctor to get two vaccinations required for college. It was the second shot that did me in. Immediately after they administrated it, my stomach felt a bit woozy. I forgot about it as the doctor and I finished our conversation, and the nurse gave me my chart to check out. I walked down the hall, waited as the person in front of me checked out, and handed the receptionist my chart when it was my turn. While at the counter, all I remember is the receptionist asking me, “Are you okay?” All I could do was shake my head as I tried to stay upright. Somehow she got outside where I was with her office chair to catch me.

Worst Pass Out
The worst one ever was the local anesthesia used on my wrist when they drained my ganglion cyst. I was sitting in the chair next to the bed thing in doctor’s offices, because I always feel silly waiting sitting on that while fully clothed. The doctor came in and began setting me up and asked half way through his prep whether I’d prefer to lay down. I said, “I don’t care,” not putting together what this procedure was: lots of (okay, two) needles poking into me. The moment the local went in I told the doc, “I have to lay down. Now.” Poor guy. He had used the bed to lay out all his instruments. In my head he swept everything off the bed; I assume he actually moved them to the counter. It took me a half-hour to be able to sit up. It was not good.

This is why I’m convinced that giving blood is not a good plan on my part. However, with this going on with Rick, I think I want to try. Even if it means I have to lay around for the rest of the day. My mother is, rightly so, making me call and check in with the phone nurse first.

It gives me a little control in the situation. I can willingly do this.

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The Good of Underground@PDC

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

At the beginning of the night we said hello to Lynn Langit who introduced us to Anton Delsink, a Developer Evangelist based out of Dubai.  At the events he presents at in his areas, oftentimes the rooms are completely void of females.  As in not a single one.  However, in Turkey the percentage of females is quite impressive.  He said he once had an event where the entire front row were women, and all were engineers, physicists, and computer scientists.

While on the balcony, Ed and I met up with Barb Dybwad, a Senior Editor at Mashable.  We had some great sarcastic and hilarious conversations.  Ed and her were rapid fire with their comments.  I took a back seat for a good chunk here, as this was when I was yawning and such.  We hung out with her on and off for the rest of the night.  All in all good times there.

While we still owned the table we were at on the balcony, we also met up with Jim Pinkelman of Microsoft.  He has been a huge supporter of diversity efforts.  He explained that there had money put toward such efforts all over the place, and he has been working on focusing the impacts so the funds are used in the most effective manner.  Running into allies is always awesome!

I shot some footage of our journey to the Underground@PDC and it includes a few clips of the event as well.

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Unpleasant Drunk Men at Underground@PDC

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Things were cool until folks got drunk.

I did not have fun tonight.  My evening consisted of dealing with drunk old men.  Pushy drunk old men who did not like that I would not dance with them.

Ed and I attended the Underground@PDC tonight.  During the presentation portion of the evening, we socialized on the balcony and had some fun conversations.  Since we didn’t move from the seats we were able to snag during this portion of the evening, my tiredness was hitting me hard.  Eight o’clock, and I could not stop yawning.  So goes the story of conferences and lack of sleep.

Then we moved inside where the dancing began shortly thereafter.  At first I was excited.  I love to jump around and dance.  Which is nothing like Ed’s dancing as she actually knows what she’s doing.  At the end of the first song, I remembered what’s it’s like to dance outside of Grace Hopper and at DePauw with kids I know.  Absolutely no possibility of dancing by myself without having to fend guys off.  I went back to where Ed was eating.

I am exhausted, so I’m going to try and cleanse myself of what I experienced as quickly as possible.

Ed loves to dance.  She was doing all sorts of salsa moves, and every single guy around her at one point was blatantly staring.  All I could think about was how awkwardly that translates into working together in a professional environment.  Not exactly respect being communicated there.

Then there was the guy who was purposely being an ass.  (He said such himself.)  “You’re in marketing, right?  You’re in sales, right?”  When I first replied, “No way!” I thought then we’d move into what I actually do.  No, he seriously didn’t believe I was legit.  This is the first I have actually had to prove myself.  I won that argument damn quickly to the point where he had nothing left to say.

This same guy (obviously) gets there are few women in tech but had a shrug your shoulders attitude about it.  “There’s a lack, but I have no idea what’s wrong.”  I spouted out the stuff about few girls who think tech is something for them and that mid-level women leave the field in droves while those with mentors and support tend to stay.  He was drunk, so I saved my energy beyond that.

Next up was the guy my dad’s age who harassed both Ed and I.  Ed and I had been hanging near a table, and this guy, after staring at Ed dance, sat down in the chair that was next to us.  Ed left to grab a refill on her drink, and I was arm’s length away from this man.  He put his arm around me and tried to pull me to him.  I stopped that and said, “No.”  His response?  “I see, playing hard to get.”

Later on, after Ed and I moved elsewhere, another guy appeared that was now staring at me while I danced.  I still feel disgusting from that.  Specifically because it went on for such an extended period of time.  Ed and I left for a while, and when we returned he wasn’t around.  At this point, we chilled sitting down.  This guy again appeared, and at first we actually had a conversation.  He was from Illinois, we’re Indiana.  Business, blah.  Then it was on to him being too close, and not getting the hint after we moved away to dance.

Then there was yet another man older than my dad who somehow learned I was from Indiana who would not leave me alone when I said, “No, I am not interested in dancing with you.”  His response?  “Oh, I know how you Indiana girls are.  You dance.”  Okay then.

Finally, there was the guy that a woman shared with me she has never seen sober.  He told me I needed to say yes more often.  Thank you for your unsolicited advice.

Should have left when someone we knew at Geek Fest told us to get over there.  At least there we knew non-creepy people.

So yeah, being a woman in technology is a joy.

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Expo Roaming & Private Parties

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Having the Flip HD is rather nice for shooting short clips.  Unfortunately, it being a simple device, my shaking arm made for obviously non-tripod shot video.  However, no matter! I was able to throw together a really quick clip showing just a couple of the many sites in the Big Room at PDC09, specifically at the Coding4Fun booth. Coding4Fun is demoing five projects and you’ll see shots of three in the video.

In addition to this video, Ed and I were able to get five interviews for Ed & Ashley’s 5 Minute Show, which focuses on women in technology, as well as an interview for Microsoft’s outreach efforts to students.

When Ed and I got in Monday night, our original plan was to head to the tweetup.  Which we did enter, but then immediately headed out to dinner with Microsoft employees we met at the 2009 US Imagine Cup finals.  There we met Lynn Langit who invited us to a private reception that took place tonight.  There we ran into Jennifer Marsman whom we met at GHC09, and it was awesome to see her!  Especially since she introduced us to folks.  (That was really helpful for the introvert in me.  Which I don’t actually have to worry all that much about with Ed around.  No, she’s not an extrovert or anything.)

Once we met a few folks, it became a lot easier to hold conversation.  Had a good chunk of discussion on women in computing.  It’s interesting holding that conversation with men, since I am so used to discussing the topic with a group where the majority is female.  I was pumped when I was able to give folks a head’s up on some of the studies and research I learned about at GHC09 on women and diversity in technology. Next week I’ll be publishing a post where I go through some of that information, since I covered it during my presentation on women in technology to an Introduction to Women’s Studies course.

Besides talking women in tech, skipped from random tech topic to the next.  All in all, a successful night.  Someone even followed me on Twitter right there on the spot.  Then I remembered I could do the same via text.  (He had a fancy iPhone with a nice Twitter app.  Someday, I will have that and my texts can once again solely be used to contact me directly.)

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The Standard (with the Upside Down Sign)

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Arrived at the hotel. This place is surreal.  Ed and I had to laugh when one of the employees asked Ed if she had a separate reservation and she replied, “We’re together.”  His response: “Right on.” lol.

We walked into the hotel room, and Ed was pumped about the huge bathroom.  Then she let out a surprised and greatly amused yelp.  The shower wall?  A window to the bed.  It’s a very good thing we’re forever roommates.

The internet here is impossible.  The wireless is so slow my netbook can’t load anything and Ed hits a link and goes back to her magazine.  I tried the ethernet and that only connects to the local network, not the internet. Will have to ask about that later when I’m not exhausted.

Seriously, this is awkward. I am watching Ed prep for her shower.  So it’s also a really good thing Ed and I love our awkward moments.

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Writing on a Plane

Monday, November 16th, 2009

I’m still adjusting to this keyboard.  Wait, nope.  It’s more I’m still adjusting to the mouse pad.  I keep hitting it while typing, and the cursor jumps around as a result.  The keyboard itself is fairly close to a standard keyboard with both shift keys and the enter key uncompromised.  It’s the home, end, and where the arrow keys are relative to the right shift and right control that are getting me.  I use Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Keys a ton while typing.  Kinda like how I use the backspace all the time.  Rare for me to get things out right the first time.  And my typing speed would be so much quicker if I could.

I set up the magnifier to follow the cursor which is working out really well.  Earlier I didn’t have the feature turned on, and I would be typing and typing and then the text would no longer be on the screen.  I’m still really jolty with moving about the screen when zoomed in.

There is one really inconvenient part about my awful vision.  (Okay, that’s a lie, there’s a lot of inconveniences.)  I am often amused at the thought that people must think I’m looking at what they’re reading or at their computer screen when in reality I’m just zoning out and can’t see a thing from such a distance.  On the flip side, with everything majorly enlarged on my computer screen, anyone with decent vision can read exactly what I’m writing.  Like now.  On the plane.  Folks down the aisle behind me can most likely see this just fine.

Gives me another reason for preferring the window seat.

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Microsoft Student Insider – Imagine Cup

Monday, November 16th, 2009

I guess this is an appropriate first post to be typed on my new netbook.   A week or so ago I was contacted by Microsoft and asked if I would like to be a “Microsoft Student Insider” for the Imagine Cup.  This involves attending conferences and Imagine Cup events and blogging approximately fifteen posts through the Imagine Cup World Finals in July 2010.  This is an unpaid job and in exchange for writing up these posts and spending my time at these events (which I was pumped about alone), Microsoft has sent me an Asus Eee PC 1005HA netbook, a Flip HD video camera, a 4GB flash drive, $100 gift card to cover my expenses at PDC09 (along with travel, hotel, and PDC registration fees), and two Quick Assistance cards for Microsoft Support in the case I run into someone who desperately needs expert assistance.  I figure full disclosure is better than missing anything.

Despite deciding I would not be buying a netbook with my own funds due to my awful vision, I am pleasantly content with this little guy.  This is probably due to the fact it has a very nice battery life compared to the non-existent battery on my Dell.  Stupid thing.  I also opened the box to the surprise Microsoft had already installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it for me!  I love me some Windows 7 if only for the magnificent built-in magnifier.  Like right now, netbook comfortably on my laptop and I’m leaning backward.  Microsoft upgraded the RAM to 2GB so things are running smoothly.  Only confusing hiccup was that I wasn’t informed that I would have to put in the Product Key of the Windows 7 DVD that was in the Eee PC box despite Windows 7 being already installed.  However, figured as much when Windows told me on boot up that I may be using a counterfeit copy of Windows.  I sent out a quick email to ask what was up with the sealed Windows 7 disk, and found out the Windows 7 installed was a trial copy.

While I’m still waiting to touch base with my Microsoft contact (almost 20 minutes late on that phone call), I’m thinking my coverage of PDC09 will be similar to the work I’ve done at GHC in 2008 and 2009.  This will include tweeting (the thing I do most consistently), uploading photos to Flickr, blogging (since that’s my “job” and all), and most importantly to me, video blogging with Ed!  Yup, she’ll be joining me, and we will be shooting episodes of Ed & Ashley’s 5 Minute Show.  Perhaps we can also get our first video chat interview recorded this week as well.  That would be exciting.

Looks like I won’t be connecting with my Microsoft contact before my flight. Now I gotta run and grab some Auntie Anne’s.  I can’t resist.

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Last Week Sucked

Monday, November 16th, 2009

This week must be better.

I would say it’s already off to a significantly better start. I never explained what was up, and since we’re keeping a public blog to provide people updates, I’ll quit being so vague.

My uncle Rick who is only 46 years old suffered a massive heart attack on Sunday, November 8. Sunday my mom woke me to the news. Monday my mom woke me to say he got worse. Tuesday and Wednesday he wasn’t getting better, and Wednesday night they put him on a ventilator. Which the nurse really wanted my family to call a “higher form of oxygen therapy” since TV shows only show ventilators being used as life support. Thursday my mom woke me AGAIN and thus far that was the worst day. The previous two times of being woke up, members of my family took time to shower. This time after simply visiting the bathroom to pee, brush my teeth, and wash my face, everyone in my house was gone.

That day he was transferred from Fort Wayne to Methodist in Indianapolis in the case he needed a heart transplant. HOWEVER, since that day we’ve stopped receiving more bad news than good. On Saturday they removed the balloon pump they had put in his heart the previous Monday. Today they finally took him off the ventilator! Which means he’ll finally be weaned off sedation! Man, he’s in for quite the shock about what’s happened since being put on the vent.

So, please hold for a moment while I do a happy dance.

*Dance Dance Dance*

Alrighty. Today I leave for PDC, which is kinda rough seeing as I missed way too many days of work last week. However, I am determined to enjoy this week as the stress from last week was exhausting. (Meaning, Rick, you best continue on your upswing. Just saying.)

More details to come!

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Choosing Feelings

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

My family can’t keep the days straight right now. I keep thinking it’s Wednesday, my mom keeps thinking it’s Thursday or Friday. Last night I was on the phone with Kenny, and thought I had left him an update voice mail the day before. Nope, left it that morning. The days feel so long.

I can’t figure out how to react. Earlier today I put the ‘good’ of ‘good news’ in quotations. Turns out that was an appropriate decision. The family member in the hospital’s status is very much day-to-day. Parts of the news is good, parts of the news isn’t. It’d be easier if the not so good news would stop.

Twitter friend told me it’s natural to not know how to react. Made me realize this is the first time dealing with this. When it was the elder members of the family, that was acceptable. Was expected. This is not.

I guess it’s day-to-day on the emotions. Suckfest.

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