I have Netflix, we watch it a few times a week. Seems like a waste of $10.69 when you aren't using it daily, right? Well, I think it's worth the cost because I don't have a video club membership elsewhere and I don't want to drive to the store every time I want to rent a movie. I have to remember to return it and burn gas driving there and back...twice. We currently have unlimited streaming and 1 DVD at a time per month. This rate was actually increased within the last 12 months but only by about a $1 or so and I didn't really mind too much.
Now, Netflix has announced a new price hike that is around 60% more if you want to keep the same type of plan. Frankly, my last physical DVD sat on the console for over a month and we never did watch it. I returned that yesterday and went online to change my plan to streaming only. At $7.99 a month, I'm actually going to be saving money thanks to their pricing plan change. :)
Even if I left my plan as is and paid the $16 a month it would still be more convenient than renting from a video store in town. The price of gas & potential late fees, as well as the inconvenience of driving there and back twice per rental is enough to keep me with Netflix.
Yes, their selection is not the best and it can take forever for new releases to actually be available on DVD; however, this never really bothered me. If I liked a movie well enough at the theater, I'll just buy it when it's released on DVD for $15 and then I have it. I usually only watch older movies on Netflix anyway. Things I haven't seen in a while but don't like well enough to buy.
At any rate, I will stick with Netflix and downgrade my account. I didn't expect their plans to remain the same forever. It's no different than cable and internet companies. They are in it to make money, if they stop making money, they have to increase the prices. Unfortunately, that is the way of the world...get used to it!
*Might give Redbox a try one of these days. There is one less than a mile from my house so that might be a good option too!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
My Twitter Rules
I'm sure there are "official" rules about how to follow people and get followers on twitter but I haven't read those and don't intend to. I have my own simple set of rules for operating on Twitter and I'll share them below. If you are interested, keep reading. If not, farewell! :)
1. I do NOT auto follow...I check previous tweets and if you aren't interesting or informative you won't make the cut.
2. If I don't know you, don't bother sending me a link. I won't open it...and that will not make me want to follow you. Report Spam & Block!
3. If I follow you and you turn out to be uninteresting, vile or morally reprehensible...you will be gone.
4. I don't follow people that have over 20K tweets in less than a year because they reply to every tweet that shows up in their timeline. If you want to have a conversation, go do so on Facebook or in a chat room. That's not really what Twitter was intended for.
5. I usually block RT's from personal users in my timeline. If I wanted to see what Joe Schmoe tweeted I'd be following him myself. Thanks for not sharing. :)
6. People that tweet every 30 seconds while watching TV or sports drive me crazy and may be un-followed. It clogs up the timeline and I don't like it.
7. I don't follow celebrities just because they are celebrities. I've followed many because I thought they would be interesting only to un-follow them after a week due to one of the other rules above.
You can probably see a theme in these "rules". I like to keep my timeline as clean as possible so I can catch as many tweets as possible. Too much going on and I might miss something important.
People that follow thousands of accounts amaze me. I don't know how you ever get to see half the tweets that they post because they'd be constantly refreshing. If you are working a business account, that's fine. But on a personal level, I want to actually read what people are posting...all of it!
1. I do NOT auto follow...I check previous tweets and if you aren't interesting or informative you won't make the cut.
2. If I don't know you, don't bother sending me a link. I won't open it...and that will not make me want to follow you. Report Spam & Block!
3. If I follow you and you turn out to be uninteresting, vile or morally reprehensible...you will be gone.
4. I don't follow people that have over 20K tweets in less than a year because they reply to every tweet that shows up in their timeline. If you want to have a conversation, go do so on Facebook or in a chat room. That's not really what Twitter was intended for.
5. I usually block RT's from personal users in my timeline. If I wanted to see what Joe Schmoe tweeted I'd be following him myself. Thanks for not sharing. :)
6. People that tweet every 30 seconds while watching TV or sports drive me crazy and may be un-followed. It clogs up the timeline and I don't like it.
7. I don't follow celebrities just because they are celebrities. I've followed many because I thought they would be interesting only to un-follow them after a week due to one of the other rules above.
You can probably see a theme in these "rules". I like to keep my timeline as clean as possible so I can catch as many tweets as possible. Too much going on and I might miss something important.
People that follow thousands of accounts amaze me. I don't know how you ever get to see half the tweets that they post because they'd be constantly refreshing. If you are working a business account, that's fine. But on a personal level, I want to actually read what people are posting...all of it!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Squeezing through 'Da Skinny Gate'
A while back I was singing at a women's conference and the speaker had a bible called Da Jesus Book. It includes several books of the New Testament, all written in Hawaii Pidgin dialect. I immediately went online to find myself a copy because it can be fun to read if you can get the right accent.
By far, the best thing we have found so far is 'Da Skinny Gate' from Matthew 7:13-14. Get your bible and look up the "regular" verbiage if you don't quite get the idea.
Fo go inside God's place, go inside thru da skinny gate. Get one nodda gate dat stay wide an get plenny room. Dass da gate fo da road fo take you to Hell, an get plenny guys going dat way. But da real gate stay skinny and da real road mo smalla. Dass da one fo bring you to God who goin make you live fo real kine, an ony litto bit guys goin pick dat road.
*You know my spell check just blew up on this passage! :)
My first thought was, how in the world am I going to fit my big old butt through 'da skinny gate'? Are they saying all fat people are going to hell? It kinda sounds that way, doesn't it? Guess this could be good motivation for some folks to stick to their diet and lose weight!
At any rate, it's fun to read if you can stumble through the spelling and dialect and add a little accent to it.
By far, the best thing we have found so far is 'Da Skinny Gate' from Matthew 7:13-14. Get your bible and look up the "regular" verbiage if you don't quite get the idea.
Fo go inside God's place, go inside thru da skinny gate. Get one nodda gate dat stay wide an get plenny room. Dass da gate fo da road fo take you to Hell, an get plenny guys going dat way. But da real gate stay skinny and da real road mo smalla. Dass da one fo bring you to God who goin make you live fo real kine, an ony litto bit guys goin pick dat road.
*You know my spell check just blew up on this passage! :)
My first thought was, how in the world am I going to fit my big old butt through 'da skinny gate'? Are they saying all fat people are going to hell? It kinda sounds that way, doesn't it? Guess this could be good motivation for some folks to stick to their diet and lose weight!
At any rate, it's fun to read if you can stumble through the spelling and dialect and add a little accent to it.
The apple doesn't fall...Lord Help Me!
My child has been doomed from the start. With only me as a parental influence, he has picked up all of my crazy habits and more. Anyone that has known me for any length of time knows that I have a strange sense of humor and I often say things without truly thinking.
Josh shares my love of laughter and is working on improving his comedic timing. He never fails to make me laugh but some times he fails to ensure the surroundings and audience are appropriate. He can recite just about every line from any Jim Carey movie and knows the comedy routines of Tim Hawkins and Jeff Dunham verbatim. He's even mastered the voices and facial expressions in many scenarios. It's a bit scary at times. He does this one (Subway), including the moves, perfectly!
Instead, I'm already having talks about sex, girls and body hair. Heck, we were talking about body hair when he was 10.
<----- Thank goodness he hasn't progressed to this point yet. I pray he never does or we will be having the "waxing" conversation as well.
Yesterday, he decided to shave (apparently to impress a girl) and I got the pleasure of watching his reaction the first time he applied aftershave. It.was.hilarious!
There are many times that make me question my sanity and my abilities as a parent but then he throws out a "skit" or impression that makes me laugh so hard I could cry. Although crying is a normal emotion when you are raising teenagers, is it not?
Guess I'll keep plugging along and hope for more of these moments of hilarity! They are much more fun than some of the "other" stuff!
Josh shares my love of laughter and is working on improving his comedic timing. He never fails to make me laugh but some times he fails to ensure the surroundings and audience are appropriate. He can recite just about every line from any Jim Carey movie and knows the comedy routines of Tim Hawkins and Jeff Dunham verbatim. He's even mastered the voices and facial expressions in many scenarios. It's a bit scary at times. He does this one (Subway), including the moves, perfectly!
Of late, he has been more "body concious" and today he asked me if a mani-pedi was something that had to do with a mans private parts. He didn't word it quite that delicately but, you get the point. I'm thankful he feels able to speak freely to me but somethings...I just don't want to know. Frankly, I could have gone my whole life without him ever knowing what other purposes his penis was created for. :)
<----- Thank goodness he hasn't progressed to this point yet. I pray he never does or we will be having the "waxing" conversation as well.
There are many times that make me question my sanity and my abilities as a parent but then he throws out a "skit" or impression that makes me laugh so hard I could cry. Although crying is a normal emotion when you are raising teenagers, is it not?
Guess I'll keep plugging along and hope for more of these moments of hilarity! They are much more fun than some of the "other" stuff!
Could your network be hacked?
Wi-Fi Hacking Neighbor from Hell Sentenced to 18 years
Read this article on Wired today and found it extremely concerning. I believe that I will no longer be storing any passwords on my home PC, just in case I have some disgruntled neighbors that are actually technically inclined.
Wonder what else we should be doing at home to ensure this doesn't happen. It did take some time for him to get into their system but it's scary that things like this can actually happen.
Any tech savvy folks have suggestions for ways to counteract or detect this kind of intrusion?
Read this article on Wired today and found it extremely concerning. I believe that I will no longer be storing any passwords on my home PC, just in case I have some disgruntled neighbors that are actually technically inclined.
Wonder what else we should be doing at home to ensure this doesn't happen. It did take some time for him to get into their system but it's scary that things like this can actually happen.
Any tech savvy folks have suggestions for ways to counteract or detect this kind of intrusion?
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