Starting the new year

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

Today I walked in with Steve, who went back to work at the office again. It was such a dreary morning, and we woke up at 7AM so that whenever I do go back to work, my 6AM wake up call won’t be as hard to get adjusted to. The morning was just rainy, grey and dreary. I commented that everyone is always excited for the new year but when it comes down to it, it’s depressingly the same. Steve agreed and was bored by the idea of sitting in a quiet office as the rain came down all day.

I decided to start my Couch to 5K podcasts from the NHS. I liked them because the podcast host didn’t count down my 60 second jog and 90 second walk. She just prompted me for each stage and the time went by really quickly. Before, I was trying to do the walk to jog method on my own and staring at that clock on the treadmill makes you want to hurl yourself (and the treadmill) through the gym window.

It also helped that I now have my Nook Simple Touch so I was able to download Along for the Ride from the library and read that during my walking sessions. (I finally got this achieved after spending all yesterday afternoon fighting to get my PC to recognize the Nook until I finally de-registered it and registered it again fresh before it would work.) I also took the new netbook to the library cafe and took some notes on what projects to work on. After knowing how many millions of indie authors there are out there (and how many talented writers who aren’t published yet), I feel so blah going into the effort again. But, hey, I have to keep doing it.

When I got home I played some Skyrim, took my nap to ward off the stupid cough and sinus headache/earache crap that I’m still plagued with. Steve came home with a Christmas box that my parents had sent that was to be delivered on the 24th of Dec but since no one was at reception in his office, it was apparently put into a very wet depot until today. Every article of clothing we received in the presents had to be washed to get the mildew out of them. The magazines and mail was ruined and even the wrapping paper was damp. I’ll be phoning Parcel Force tomorrow to tell them uncalled their treatment of our mail has been.

Steve was ready to move to the US after today. Once we get my driver’s license and Leave to Remain we can do that whenever we want. Of course there are those pesky US Government loops to hop through. Yay.

Tomorrow it’s off to get my hair done (no highlights this time, just all over dark.) And I got my author update that Ali’s Pretty Little Lies is available now. Wee!

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Welcome 2013!

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

So begins another year. Today is windy but sunny so we’ve decided to take a walk to shake off this cabin fever. The moment I got home from school on Friday the 21st, I felt weird. That evening I developed the chills. By Saturday, despite my driving lesson, I knew I had the flu. All over Christmas break I fought off the terrible sickness which Steve didn’t get until Boxing Day or so. Luckily he didn’t get this crud as bad as I did but we’re still feeling the tail end of the junk. I now have a cough and a sinus headache that only pharmacist approved Sudafed can ease. I’m so very grateful to not be as sick as I was but I’m also planning on getting my flu shot the minute they’re available this next winter.

Tomorrow Steve will be back to work, and I’ll be back to the same routine I was before I started teaching last term. I was planning on finishing the second book in the Cupcake Witches series so the first draft could be done by the end of NaNoWriMo. It didn’t happen that way but, oh well, there’s always this year.

I’ll keep on searching for a steady paid job but, honestly, the only availability I’m getting is through the teaching agencies. I’ve thought about going to an office temp agency as well. Again I say, I’m not holding my breath on getting anything permanent but there’s not much else I can do about the situation.

All in all, I’m happy that a new year is upon us. I know things will get done such as my settlement Visa and passing my driver’s test. I know I’ll write more and I’ll keep on keeping on as we all do. At least I have some money in the bank to use for bus money and coffee when I go out to write in public places.

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Adios 2012

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick

All right. Last post of 2012. I finished a book, taught for six weeks, got the flu, passed my Life in the UK test, lost *some* weight, and got more accustomed to living here.

So, as I posted the last time, I’m not feeling the whole New Year’s resolutions thing. I know what I’d like to get done but I’m not going to devote the year to it – that will make anything last for less than the month of January.

I want to work on a second writing project that I don’t plan on talking about much. I expect to be on Twitter less and I don’t think I’ll be using Instagram anymore (I stopped using it when I was working & didn’t miss it.) I do have a few paper notebooks coming for me to write anything that I don’t want in the blog. I also have a netbook so I can write when I’m out.

But this is just adjusting the way of life and dealing with situations. There aren’t any big goals because what I want to get done will get done…eventually. The next project, my driving test, another job, the blog, books read, etc. That will all just work its way out. Even if I started jogging again – in some way, it will happen.

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No New Year’s resolutions

Posted on December 29, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick
empty space by cronncc

I was thinking that my only New Year’s resolution would be to blog more. (I could get a personal trainer or try doing the Couch to 5K jogging routine since I sucked at working up from walking to jogging on the treadmill.) My resolutions last year were to write something in a journal each day, and take a photo each day. Well, I have to stop and force myself to handwrite anything (as most of us do anymore unless we’re writing a list or personal note to ourselves.) I’m not always out to take a cool photo either and no one wants to see 365 photos of our cat.

Or do they?

So, since I can feasibly sit and write something electronically, maybe the blog posts will stick. Every day though? Not sure.

The problem is that most people write a short update on Twitter or Facebook but, honestly, aren’t we all getting a little (a lot) bored with that? It’s not a secret that I’ve never been a huge fan of Twitter, but after I was working, I really did not miss checking in to see what people had updated at all. The momentum has come to this promote and inspire kind of regurgitation that really doesn’t entertain or benefit anyone. If I could unfollow/follow only the interesting people, I’d be fine, but at this stage the account is so bogged down, I wouldn’t know where to begin (aside from maybe 20 accounts from nice, actual people.)

Facebook I’ll still keep checking because I want to know what people from some point in my real life are up to. However, I’ve turned the automatic updates off for my blog posts to FB because no one there would be interested and I wouldn’t want to harass them with that kind of stuff anyway.

If I do a post a day, it will have to be able to be short some days (a lot of days) and I won’t always be using the PC to upload the post with a fancy photo. I can’t always promote it on Twitter, or cross post it (Blogger is the main site, with WordPress being secondary.) I can use email and the Blogger/WP apps. I can make a list of what I did for the day. I can write a long, interesting story about my wait at the post office — it just depends.

While I know there are some obvious problems with this, I’m sort of keen to at least give it a go. If I get another job soon I will thankfully be too busy to bother with the internet that much, but in the mean time, this can be my hobby.

Links found today:

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Why Santa brought me a new phone

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Suzanne Schultz Pick
Nokia Lumia 800 photo taken by mbiebusch

I have had my HTC Sensation since September 2011 and it continued to get worse with each month I used it. After Steve asked me if I’d rather have a phone or a netbook for Christmas, I stopped cursing at my HTC long enough to exclaim, “Phone!” While I patiently awaited Santa to arrive, I used my dreaded HTC each day – to, at, and from work. This was the list of grievances that I wrote on the bus during that time before Christmas break:

  • It (dreaded HTC Sensation from O2) tries to update apps all the time. But it won’t actually update them unless you have the Google Store “My Apps” screen up. If the screen falls to sleep, no updates.
    I’ve set up the apps to only update with WiFi as well, buy when I’m out, it will continually try to find a WiFi signal and, therefore, drain the battery.
  • The battery runs out if I use any kind of app. I have a full charge each morning and if I try to use the internet or FB, battery will go to yellow immediately. Hence, making the phone (and the data plan I pay for) totally useless.
  • Apps don’t work. The internet browser, FB, Twitter, etc. Apps will shut down intermittently.
  • Typing is a nightmare. Can’t tap on the screen and select “paste” easily. Last time I tried this, I had to tap the screen ten times at least to get “paste” option to pop up. Highlighting and copying are equally as difficult.
  • Auto correct doesn’t work. Trying to move the cursor to change text is maddening as well.
  • Most recently, I tried to plug the phone into a travel charger that I had from my old BlackBerry. While it works fine on my husband’s HTC Win 7 phone, when I plugged it into the Sensation, it kept pulling up the GPS. Nothing got charged.
  • When I get a text, the text thread has to load. Sometimes I cannot type a response, even though the keyboard is displayed. Sometimes it will only say “loading” and I cannot read and/or access the text message threads. I have to first delete the thread, then start over (after rebooting the phone a few times) before I can send a text. The SD card is not full, so there’s no other reason for this to cause a problem.
  • Many times I cannot get a signal. One Saturday, Steve and I were sitting on the bus, side-by-side (as married couples do) and he was able to use the GPS to calculate where we were on the bus with the mobile network. I was unable to get any response from the phone at all. I kept getting a “cannot connect to network” error message. No apps. No WiFi. No 3G. Not even the “H” or “E” I get a lot of times.
  • For some stupid reason, I can only see a limited number of emails in my folders. There doesn’t seem to be any options for this so if I’m trying to find an email that wasn’t saved very recently, it won’t display.
  • I think of a new complaint daily. I can update this more and more as I remember them.

Someone online mentioned that O2 really hasn’t held up their end of the contract bargain either. When a phone is this bad to the point that it can’t be used, then why should I have to keep honouring the contract with the cell provider?

I received my shiny new Nokia Lumia 800 yesterday and the HTC Sensation will be sent away for some amount of cash that can use towards my Zune pass for the Win 7 Phone.

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