Yahoo!, Smugmug, and value of loyalty
In my never-ending quest for efficiency and productivity, today I found myself tinkering with Yahoo’s calendar and to-dos. I noticed that Yahoo remembers calendar preferences that I set the first time I used it. I started to get sentimental. I have had my site on Geocities for more than 5 years and my Yahoo e-mail account for more than I can remember (8 years? Did Yahoo! even exist so long ago?). It must be the longest relationship I’ve ever had outside my friends and family.
Yahoo may not be the best or cheaper service provider or the best search engine, but it has served me reliably and loyally for a long time even before I started paying them for Yahoo Mail Plus and Geocities hosting. It still does an outstanding job blocking spam and following me around; old friends can still reach me at the same e-mail address I had when I met them, even if I’ve changed mailing address six times since then. And now I know that remembers my preferences for years and years. I wish I could say the same of my husband or even my mother.
A couple of days ago I tried to upload some pictures to Flickr and I couldn’t because I had reached my upload limit (6 pictures? You must be kidding!). So I went back to my old and trusted Smugmug where I already have an account, and I noticed that Smugmug can do pretty much all that Flickr can do. Sure, it lacks the cool community, the blog-ready features, and their service e-mails are not quite as entertaining; but I have all my pictures there and once the Wow! effect of the new cool features has faded, convenience still wins.
Technorati Tag: metafatigue
Mike in Philadelphia
Mike Posner was in Philadelphia for few days for a conference, so we had the chance to spend a few hours with him. Diego, Brent, Carmen, and I (Scott was flying to Denver that afternoon) gathered in Center City, talked about science, gossiped about our old University of Oregon friends, and ate at the White Dog Cafè. It’s such a treat to be able to spend some time with people like Mike and to rediscover the connection with people we don’t see often and with our past life.
More pictures of Mike in Philly »
Hopelessly uncool
It’s been a little less than 2 months since I’ve bought my domain, found a web host, downloaded WordPress, started a blog. Every day, I read blog feeds on Bloglines, including Boingboing whose 68,000 posts a day I browse religiously. I copywrited my blog with Creative Commons, opened an account with Flickr, and I am thinking of attending BlogHer. I even tried to use upcoming.org. So, I am doing whall all the really cool kids do. And, while I zelig my way through the world of bloggers, I realize how hopelessly uncool I am.
Not sure what it is about me that makes me so utterly uncool. I managed to be moderately successful in my life without having never been cool, but I still wonder every day: What makes people uncool? What makes me uncool?
Ten reasons why I am uncool
- I try too hard. [Well, this is not really true, I just have a natural attitute to blend with the tapestry and learn from what other people are doing. But the fact remains: it looks like I am trying too hard.]
- I’m too lazy. This routine of cool activities to do everyday is hard to keep up with, and I always fall behind, which is uncool. I’m just not committed enough to coolness.
- All these cool things are kind of boring. I do love a few cool things (for example, reading Jory Des Jardins posts on Pause or waiting for the next update of PostSecret), but other things I do out of duty rather than passion (“Wow, 106 new posts at Wired News! Can’t wait to read them all”).
- I am too old. This really does not explain why I wasn’t cool when I was a teenager, but it sounds like a good excuse for my current uncoolness. [My husband took a couple of extremely unflattering pictures of me a couple of days ago. Besides looking like my father when he was 60, I noticed that my neck in certain positions shows bizarre folds in the skin I've never seen before. Very, very, very uncool]
- I hang out mostly with uncool people [Sorry, I didn't mean you. You are actually one of the few cool people I like to hang out with]. As a matter of fact, I have a strong magnetic attraction for uncool people. Cool people make me feel uncomfortable and I rather prefer to admire them from a distance.
- I don’t feel cool, I don’t behave cool, and–most importantly– I don’t believe I am cool. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Although I am not without talent, I’ve always been talented in the wrong things when it comes to cool. For example, when I was in high school in Italy, I was good in math and science, and the cool kids where good in philosophy and literature. They did enjoy copying the answers of the math tests from me, but that was pretty much all the attention I ‘ve ever gotten from them.
- I don’t live in San Francisco.
- Nobody links to me [OK, maybe two people link to me]. Note to self: investigate whether I am not cool because people don’t link to me or people don’t link to me because I am not cool.
- I am always unfashionably late. When I arrive to a new site or discover a new tool, everybody else is ready to leave for the next fashionable new thing.
Fireflies
Summer night. The yard shines with fireflies. It was a relaxing week-end like I haven’t spent in a long time. Guilt over mid-year appraisals yet to finish. Just remember to breathe.
Lightning over West Norriton
Tonight we had a lightning storm and Scott convinced me to get my camera and to take pictures of the storm from the sunroom. He had also set up a tent just in case I wanted to do some sunroom camping. So, I took this picture lying in the tent in the sunroom.
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