How Many Email Addresses Do You Have?

I can answer that one! Toooooo Many!

It started out easy enough. In 1994, I got my first email account with my local ISP. They were bought out by another company so I was ported over to the new ISP's domain name. You can still find remnants of those old addresses out on list serves if you search for them. I left that ISP, but not before I signed up for Yahoo! email so that I could do Yahoo chat and build a webpage for my class reunion. I also wanted web access so I could check my email elsewhere and my ISP didn't offer webmail until later on down the road. By then, I also had a Hotmail/MSN account I used for IMing and it became my Junk Mail account. I use it to sign up for stuff and when I need to have an account to download software. Somewhere in there, I went to work for the university and they gave me an email account. The university didn't have webmail either. That didn't happen until 1998 or 1999. After that, I got my first Gmail account (remember you had to be invited) which was really going to be my crafting and business account for Stampin' Up. As many of you know that new career was short lived, but the email address remains. At about the same time I got my Gmail account, we switched ISPs because we were able to get wireless broadband out in the boonies. This led to another email account, but I also lost one because I ended my contract with my old ISP. Last year, I got my DROID which led to another email account. You had to have a Google account which I had, but I didn't want to use the crafting account because no one would know who I was with such an obscure name. Well, most people wouldn't. I also couldn't get my Yahoo mail on my phone at the time because I am cheap and didn't want to pay for the premium Yahoo! account. Why would I when I could just get another Gmail account? So, I did just that and started changing my email over to that account. Because I am cheap and won't pay for the premium account with Yahoo! I still can't forward so I am still getting some mail to that account. In the end, this makes 6 email accounts. Really, who needs 6 email accounts? Because of this, Inbox Zero will never happen for this lady!

Made it Home and through Graduation

Well...
I made it home alive from British Columbia with nothing more than an hour or so wait at the border. I'm sure my friend who was riding with me could tell me the exact number of minutes. Once again it was great to meet up with people in my technology community. I already miss their company and our time together to collaborate and share ideas.

Upon returning home, it was a world wind rush into graduation. My middle daughter graduated from HS. She was one of the valedictorians of her class- one of 23 out of 429 students. I have heard from many that there were too many, but as a mother of one of them, I know how hard my daughter worked to get there. She took AP classes and she has come home almost every night since the 5th grade and studied.

Her study habits were much better than mine or her father's but what I found interesting is that they were not all that different. With major jumps in technological advances and so much technology in our lives, studying has not changed in 25 years. She took notes in a notebook and hightlighted them with her pink highlighter. She went to the coffee shop with her friends and collaborated on projects or studied for tests. She colored in her anatomy packet with colored pencils and made enough notecards to kill at least 3 trees. Finally, she too fell asleep on her books hoping that osmosis would really work and learned that a good night's sleep and a little extra work does pay off!

2008 CCCU Day 2

So I woke up this morning in another country. It is an odd place where they spell words a little differently such a the word center is spelled centre. They also have black squirrels...Weird

I also found that if you wish to watch a television show from the states online that they are blocked. When I came in on Tuesday, I thought I would relax by watching the Big Bang Theory, one of my new favorite shows so I went to hulu and found that it was not available in Canada so then I went to CBS and I just kept getting a lovely voice stating, "This content cannot be found" everytime I tried to watch full episodes. I'll have to check into that later since it is 9 pm and I'm watching "The Tonight Show" right now via satellite. I'll have to check on this a little later when I have more time.

Be that as it may, I am not here to test out the ability to watch television over the internet in Canada although that would be a great gig. I'm up for it if anyone wants an international internet media tester as long as my expenses are paid. Actually, I am at the CCCU Conference on Technology at Trinity Western University. It is a conference for work, but it is actually a great time as I get to hang out with what my kids call my "little technology friends" from all over the U.S. and Canada. It has been a great trip and a great time to interact with technology professionals from institutions just like mine. It is always great to get together and learn from and network with people from schools just like ours. The sessions have been interesting, the fellowship has been wonderful, the food has been good, and the host has been fabulous.

2008 GOALS- NOT resolutions

Well, 2008 is HERE. At my house, it didn't scream in so much as it trickled into our dreams. We all went to bed early. Wow has my life changed! With technology, bringing in the new year has also changed, I could DVR the ball falling and watch it New Year's Day if I had wanted to see it our headed over to YouTube and watched those who did feel the need to record it and were kind enough to share it. My youngest daughter set her cell phone alarm to wake her back up at midnight so that see could welcome in 2008. LOL Life really has changed, but some things haven't. People still feel the need to plan out their New Year Resolutions. Go to the top 10 at About and check them out. You go to work and everyone asks you what your resolution is this year and then we all laugh about how long before you break it. Even the government has a list at http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml You can even go to sites like eHow that tell you how to do it.

So as the new year approached, I begin to ponder a few things like why do we resolve to change things that we probably will not change? Resolve is such a negative word. The root of solve is even more negative like I now have to solve my issues. So this year, I turned it around and thought... Hmmm, what about the word Goal. If I set mini Goals, they will become good habits. They will take on a more positive light. So this year that is want I decided, I have set a few goals for the year. Things I want to do, not things I should do. Things that make me happy. I also decided that I can add to these Goals as I go along, once they do become habits. Everyone knows that Goals much be very precise and measurable and that one should write them down. A couple of great places to do this is at 43Things or Joe's Goals or MyGoals. I prefer Joe's Goals as I get reminders and it is less about social networking although I have a 43Things account. Tasks in Outlook also works great, I just don't want to mix my goals up with tasks as tasks are what I have to do, again making it sound a little negative.

So currently my list of Goals includes:
1. Writing in my blogs twice a month. I have two so it really means a once a week blog entry.
2. Publishing a photo of the week on my scrapbooking blog and then making it into a book called My Life in 52
3. Coming up with a photo of the month for a calendar to give to family next year.

Ski Season has begun--officially

Winter in the NW is unbelieveable. We have so many activities available to us. In our family, we will spend the rest of the winter at 49 Degrees North and other various mountains within our PNSA region, downhill skiing and watching our youngest daughter race with her teammates on F.A.S.T. (Forty-nine Degrees North Alpine Ski Team)

Saturday was the beginning of the long ski season for us. I always anticipate the beginning of the season with mixed emotions. Excitement-There is nothing better than to stand at the top of the mountain with the sun beating down on the beautiful sparkling white snow and to see the most magnificent view I have ever experienced. Hesitation-I always wonder if I can remember how to get on and off the lift and then actually ski down a mountain since I tyically start my pre-season workout the first day of ski season. You see, I am a late bloomer when it comes to skiing and waited until I was 39 to actually take up the sport.

In the end, I experienced both emotions and ended the day with great success!

What did we do without technology Jane???

Wow, I cannot believe that here it is the end of July already. I think I slept through the last two weeks because it has been soooo blasted hot here and the girls were so busy or kept me busy. I came home, cooked dinner or at least would throw something together and we would either lay around the house (with no AC) or head out to the pool which is just my temperature, 86 degrees F.

On top of it all, I had to shuffle kids to the dentist, the oral surgeon, the Harry Potter book premiere at Borders, Sr portraits at Green Gables, and I also had to look for a place for my 10yr old to stay while my other daughter was heading out to a friend's lake place for the week. So where did I turn to for help? Technology! Without it, I would have been running all over the place or living on hold. I could check the weather (I knew it was hot so why did I need the confirmation?), confirm dentist appointments, view my daughter's proofs, pre-order our Harry Potter books, order dinner and enroll my daughter in day camp all via the WWW. I'm not quite Jane Jetson yet, but I know that clothes changer is just around the corner, but then again, Jane did have to go to the mall, I can do it all from my laptop by the pool.

On March 11, 1964, I was born a princess.
On March 12, 1964.... I became an average American girl born in a small agricultural town to two average American parents who gave me an average American name.

Where did it all go wrong??? I was destine for greatness and now I am, not so bad, but destiny definitely took a wrong turn! What was it thinking, did it get sick on March 12th and not show up for work? One of my favorite book covers (I haven't read the book, but I do own it) is "When did I Stop Being Barbie and Became Mrs. Potato Head?" I mean, there is nothing wrong with Mrs. Potato Head, but that wasn't in my plans. She is huggy, plump, dimply, and a bit like what my grandma was like...lovable. But, I should (as encouraged by my grandmother) be a career woman, jet set with all the luggage, freetime, and the body that won't quit. I already have the blonde hair and a decent personality. That is why I know I was born a princess. Maybe my real parents haven't found me or maybe they placed me with a good family so that I would know what it would be like to be common and then later couldn't find me because they moved a couple of times. Even so, life has not been all that bad, I just wonder what it could have been!