In March – spurred by a new job in AT&T – I broke down and bought one.

And I’m in love.  iLove.  How did I survive those years with my now constant-companion?!

Bad weather in San Antonio today.  Students at Lois’ high school were herded to the gym, where the power went out.  Think she was hinting to be picked up early?!  I love the iPhone’s qwerty keyboard – so much easier to text back, though I’m fond of one-word response.  My screensaver shot is of Hannah holding the cake she raffled off at our church’s Spring Fling, raising $57 for the women’s ministry.  I uploaded that picture to Facebook immediately.  The kids text me all the time.  And my Facebook posts have increased dramatically with the iPhone.

Since Rachel has an iPhone, too, her texts can contain pictures – like of Julia, whom she took out for breakfast this morning.

When I get on the bus in the morning, I check Facebook first thing.  Well, not really first, because I absolutely must play…….

Words with Friends is the most awesome application ever!  It’s sort of Scrabble-light.  The first of two times Rachel beat me, she sent me this screen shot.  What a snot.   Love, love, love this game.  I play with friends in Chicago, Tyler, Dallas, etc.

You know the CalmCoolConnected blog to which I contribute?  I recently sent them a video – of which this is a still shot -  of my shopping for pajamas for Julia.  She’s terribly picky about her clothes, and she wasn’t with me.  So I was taking pictures of the pajamas and emailing them home to Keith, who would show them to her.  I grabbed a woman, introduced myself and asked her to shoot the video on the Flip I carry in my purse (so I could hold my iPhone – otherwise, my iPhone could have shot it.)  I’m sure she thought I was nuts.  But she did it.    Many would think the videos better if I were 30, blond, slim and perky.  But – as a friend of mine used to say – “Real life ain’t this way.”

I could ramble on and on about my iPhone.  The House app I got last week – Lois and I love that show.  The K-Love app I was so proud of getting until Rachel showed me iheartradio with its hundreds of stations – so I got that one, too.  The Scramble game that Julia races to play.    The Disney Cover Styler that Hannah used to edit pictures – and make me laugh.  And, of course, Weather and Maps,  to which Keith wishes I paid more attention.

The real reason I love my iPhone is because of the people to whom it connects me.  Rachel.  Lois.  Hannah.  Julia.  Keith.  It helps me see them – their texts, their pictures, their attitudes, their strategies  – even when I’m not with them.   That virtual intimacy is worth way more than $30/month.

It’s iLove.

And it’s priceless.

But they loved it.

Rachel, Lois and Hannah offered to “chaperon,”  and actually the extra hands were quite helpful.  Lois also brought a (girl) friend and then amazingly – a male “friend” appeared.  “I just decided I wanted to play Laser Tag today, Mrs. Woodworth.”  Uh-huh.  Righhhhhttt.

What every 10-year-old girl dreams of – a gynormous Nerf gun.

The kids in the ‘hood, after the party.   Watch yourself.

I never feel particularly “old” until I am with a group of mothers from Julia’s class, each of whom look like she’s maybe 18 with perfect hair, hips and teeth – all straight.

Or until I read an article like this, that tells me I’m old because I blog.

So I’m old.  Even if I didn’t blog, my kids tell me I’m old because:

I wear a watch.

I not only use a landline, but also insist they call it before giving up on reaching a family member.

I read books.  I’ve played with a Kindle but don’t yearn to have one.

I sometimes buy CD’s.

I use my p.c. more often than a wireless phone to access the internet.

I seldom Twitter.  What would I Twitter about?  “Great sale on apples at HEB.”  or “New episode of ‘Big Love’ tonight.”

So I’m old.  And yet….I do love Facebook.  And techy blogs.  And user groups.  And texts.  I buy most non-grocery household items online.  Fun apps excite me.  I carry my Flip in my purse.

Maybe I have one foot on Earth, and one foot in cyberspace.

And I guess as long as those feet carry me home to Keith and these four way-smarter-than-their mom girls – I’m okay with with that.

I won an essay content my senior year of high school.  The prize?  A Close-up trip to Washington D.C.    Omigosh.  I hate crying.  But bawled when I saw the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in the National Archives.  Wanted to bawl when I saw Ted Kennedy – though for different reasons.

Lois – age 15 – created an anime video for a convention competition coming to San Antonio next week.  She pulled images off the internet, and combined them with music to create this “Everything You Want.”

Yeah Lois!  Hope you win, too.  Though regardless – you are better than I ever dreamed of being.  You’re everything I want, baby girl.

Texting By Email – Presented on CalmCoolConnected

(another virtual hang out)

Texting by email saves me a ton of time.  Rachel, Lois or Hannah often send me long, multi-part texts while I’m at work or home.  Strains my eyesight just to read the darned things.   Think I’m going to sit there and poke out letters to reply on my teensy cell phone keypad?   Faghetaboutit.  I email them back a text.

You know I live for comments.  Love comments.  Want to marry comments.  So please visit CalmCoolConnected – enjoy the short video – and….

But here’s something even I use (though Rachel’s the one who told me about it) -  Cha-Cha.  242-242, texted on your wireless phone to get answers to questions.  Last’s week’s CalmCoolConnected post about Cha-Cha generated numerous email questions to me, plus (at last count) 16 of the comments that I so desire.  I live for comments.  I love comments.  I want to marry comments.  So please – if you go watch this little video clip – click the “Comments” link, scroll to the bottom, and “Leave A Reply.”  They’re why I get up in the morning.

Here’s the clip:  Learn About Cha-Cha

And here are questions I’ve been asked:

What’s the catch?  They have to charge something.
They do.  But they charge their advertisers, not you (the textor.)

Is it really free?  Or, as Rachel say, “Free 99!?”
As long as you have a texting plan on your phone.

Will they start spamming me with all sorts of ads?
Not according to their privacy policy. We use cha-cha all the time and so far – no weirdness.

Who actually answers the questions?
I suspect folks in a call center far, far away.  I would not pursue “Cha-Cha Specialist” as a career choice.

Are their answers any good?
For us they have been.  I’ve not asked the meaning of life or anything like that.

Guess what?  I asked Cha-Cha what a penguin, boot, train, whale and piano have in common!
Me too.  And I got the same answer you did:  “Black and white.”  Which tells me the puzzle must be really old, because not all boots and trains are black now.  But at least – mystery solved.  Or as solved as it’s likely going to get.  Where’s Nancy Drew and Nero Wolfe when you need them?

Can you call Cha-Cha?
You can call 1-800-2-cha-cha but we don’t.  In fact, I’m not sure my kids would know how – you know, that whole “talking on the phone” thing they used to do.   I’m not sure Rachel, Lois or Hannah actually speak words now, other than, “I need….” and “She took….”

Is Cha-Cha 24 x 7?
They say they are but I can’t verify it because I’m not.

I don’t have AT&T Wireless.  Will Cha-Cha work with my service?
(sigh)  Yes.   But you should get AT&T Wireless.  And you should call or ping me so I can hook you up.  Do it now.  Operators are standing by.

I have another very handy texting trick that I’m saving for another day. You’re going to want to know it.  So…..

I’ve always liked hanging out with people better than myself.  Fortunately, they’re easy people to find.  Smarter - happier - more godly – prettier - quicker - better organized - deeply generous – people.

I marvel at many of my friends who make such differences at food banks, hurricane shelters, free clinics, Sunday Schools, student mentoring, etc.  And now I have friends online who absolutely blow me away.  They work in Russian orphanages, or create crafts to benefit orphans, or raise money to provide clean drinking water in Africa.  These are regular women.  No big red “S” on their camis.  They are not infused with super powers, or great wealth.  They just decided to do something that mattered.

My mother also did much that mattered.  The older I got, the more I marveled at what she’d managed to do.  And when I would question or recount an incident or accomplishment to her, she’d simply say, “You do what you have to do.”

Mom with David – a big part of what she had to do

What we decide we have to do is a choice, of course.  My friends whom I admire so much have defined their choices.   They teach and preach and reach deep into souls and far out to the world because they choose to do so.   If you try to discourage them, or they hit roadblocks, they’ll still find ways to do what they have to do.

I’m not big on new year’s resolutions.  But at this start of 2009, I feel the need to really consider what I have to do.  Because as my mom said, “You do what you have to do.”

And it’s all about how you define that “have.”

Monday, “Irina” – a mom and social worker in St. Petersburg – posted a general “I lurk here” kind of message.  Being polite, I was one of several who posted a “nice to meet you” return message.  My board signature always contains a link to this blog.

I thought no more of it.

Tuesday, I had a Private Message from Irina in my adoption.com inbox.  In a city with 10,000 children living in 100 orphanages, Irina had visited Children’s Home #47 and recognized Julia from the photos of this blog!   Here’s part of her private message:  “I came to them in 47 DD and saw Julia very small! I have its some photos – if want, I can send you them on an e-mail!”

If want….IF WANT???   I picked up my jaw and shared my real email address immediately.  Within hours, pictures popped in my email inbox.

Julia’s the cutie in the orange dress.  I’m guessing she’s age four or five here. The children are standing in a common area between the school/play room and the dorm. We dressed Julia right here before we took her hands and walked out of Children’s Home #47.  In retrospect, I marvel at the courage she displayed. I’ve lived six times as long and have never displayed half as much courage as she showed walking away from everyone and everything she knew.

I’m guessing she’s age four here, which is when she came to Children’s Home #47.  Can you hug a picture?  Can you fold a blanket around it and promise to love it until the day you die?  I long to do so.

Russian Orthodox baptism via kitchen pan at age five.  We knew a priest visited monthly.  Julia remembers our lighting candles in Moscow’s Kazan Cathedral.  I think the priest either brought candles to light, or she had visited a church at some point earlier, because she knew to drip wax on the base, then insert the candle.  (I sure didn’t know it!)

Keith and I are thrilled to have these bits of her past to share in the future.

The web surfer in me says, “Oh, what a wonderful coincidence – that Irina would make the leap from a user board posting to sending us these pictures.”

The business person in me says, “Wow.  Here proves the value of social networking.”

But the real me – the “me” that’s buried way down deep – knows it was what my friend Johnnie calls “a God wink.”

He loves the little children, you know.  All the children of the world.

Me’n'my Flip – Julia took this picture like 5 minutes ago.  She is amazing to watch with anything electronic.  Judy gave me my first camera – a blackn’white Brownie – for Christmas when I was nine.  Times have changed.   This coolcalmconnected blog is going to focus on that change and how to make technology work for the working mom.  Good thing, because little enough else does some days.

Here’s the URL: http://calmcoolconnected.com/

And I need your help.  Now c’mon.  I don’t ask much of you.  Oh, I might try to encourage you to make a box, or leave a holiday shopping comment- but that’s about it.  So please lend me a cyber-hand.

Bookmark this new blog.  Visit it a couple of times a week.  Email the URL to your friends and ask them to visit.  Leave some comments.  And – when you have an idea for a blog post for it, ping me.  Like, next week, I’m going to do a short segment on how to email text messages.   So if there’s something you’ve wanted to do w/your cell phone, or with your computer, or with U-verse, or you just have a good idea for a blog – please share!  I am not above stealing the good ideas of others.

The girls are going to be helping me, and they’re way more creative than I am.  That’s a good thing, because I’ve got to post a blog a week to calmcoolconnected. Oh, the pressure!

So please:

VISIT
BOOKMARK
FORWARD
COMMENT….and share ideas for

CALMCOOLCONNECTED!

]]> http://thisreminds.me/2008/11/21/a-new-blog-to-flip-over/feed/ 0 http://thisreminds.me/2008/10/03/tv-for-me-and-uverse/ http://thisreminds.me/2008/10/03/tv-for-me-and-uverse/#comments Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:59:33 +0000 beckyww http://thisreminds.me/?p=884 My brother David and I were always were fascinated by sci-fi.  Anything odd.  Futuristic.  Will Robinson was our hero, and Rod Serling our mentor.  We always wanted to know what was just down the hall and around the corner….in the Twilight Zone.

Mom dissed Rod as “just plain weird.” which, of course, made the show that much more appealing.

I think that early ingestion of sci-fi inspired us to be forwarding-thinking, at least occasionally.  Well, sometimes.  Okay, rarely.  Anyway…

I worked at Remco TV Rental through my five years at the University of Houston.  I started as a “gofer” but because the company was rapidly expanding, I got to grow with it and try my hand at all sorts of marketing, HR and sales ventures.  After the owner discovered I loved to read, he started flipping pamphlets, magazines and books on my desk with a “give me a one-pager” command.  Oh.  My. Gosh.  Talk about throwing me in the brier patch!  I was thrilled.  I devoured stacks of opinions and studies about the future of television which – interestingly enough – was often tied to the future of telecommunications.

Future Shock was the first non-textbook, non-Bible I’d ever highlighted.

After graduation, I interviewed with several companies, and had offers from a few.  But even though the jobs were what I wanted to do – write, create, organize – I couldn’t get excited about them.  I didn’t care about insurance.  Or personnel recruitment.  Or mining.  My reading convinced me that at some point in my life, there would be one telecommunications device in the home.  TV – with me – would be part of it.

Danger, Will Robinson!  Don’t go to work in an industry you don’t care about.

Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet yet.  I couldn’t have told you “IP” from “Dr. Smith,” but I knew that someone would build it, and we’d come.

I eventually interviewed with Southwestern Bell, and started there in 1979, just hoping to be some part of what I knew would come.  Sometime.  Somewhere in telecomm.  It didn’t come in 25 years of Training, Finance, External Affairs, Marketing, Sales Support, Sports & Events, Advertising or Online.  But darned if it didn’t emerge through a hand-picked team (including me) working on a new product called U-verse, a marriage of TV, internet and voice.  The techies throw up when I say this, but to me, it’s TV over the internet.  And it’s way cooler than anything else out there.  And I know it’s the way TV is going to be in the future.

Keith works on U-verse, too, and this week was happy for both of us as Total Home DVR launched in San Antonio.  We were up early to check it out, with Keith snatching remotes and verifying our ability to record then watch in any room.  The girls shared our excitement, so Rachel made this video.  Yes, it’s goofy.  But so is she.

Be warned.

They made a strange little film about Dairy Queen that I declined to post, instead hoping for Cannes to discover it.  Then tonight – this two-minute marvel about McDonalds in Wal-mart.

I swear – we really do eat meals at home.

Really.