Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 20

Bye, Netflix

I said goodbye to Netflix.

I hardly ever watched, although there were a few shows I liked. Not enough time to sit and stare at the screen, and when I did have downtime, Netflix wasn't the first place I went for entertainment.

Basically, I was paying them and not using the service, but at the lowest ad-free tier, it didn't seem outrageous to pay monthly for the convenience of having them there at my fingertips when I felt like watching something.

And then I had an email telling me my rate was going up another $2 a month.

Um, no. My rate is now going to zero dollars because I'm cancelling my service. If I really, really want to watch something, I'll wait until I can rent it online somewhere. I rarely rewatch shows.

It also made me think about economics courses I had in college. I vaguely remember charts showing the cross between customers and cost. Netflix crossed my axis. Heh! Their price point no longer made it an attractive convenience, but an expensive luxury.

It's psychological, I'm sure of that, but hey, I was already waffling about subscribing to something I rarely watched and this pushed me off the ledge. Money Saved.

Bye, Netflix.

Thank You for Playing, Try Again

I had an interesting timing scam come across my phone recently.

Usually, I don't get a lot of spammy texts, and when I do, I report it so that my carrier can learn from it and block the crap. But the timing of this latest scam was very interesting.

On this particular day, I happened to have two packages that the post office was late delivering. One was a race medal, which you know I love, and the other was from Kickstarter. One of my pledges had produced a product. I was anxious to get both of them and impatient with the delivery delay.

And then it happened. I get a text claiming to be from the post office and that I need to click a link to get my package delivered.

It only took a split second to realize it wasn't legit. First of all, I don't give anyone my mobile number and I know I didn't provide it for either package. Second, the URL was wrong. Third, the sender had a email address that wasn't USPS.gov, but from a company that provides temporary emails. I haven't used this particular company when I want to keep my email private, but I've used ones that were similar.

Definitely not from the US Postal Service.

Report. Delete.

It was the timing that was so interesting. I know it was luck. If the scammers send out enough text messages, sooner or later they're going to hit someone like me who has late packages from the post office. If that person didn't read carefully or think about what they were seeing, they might click the link.

Anyway, one of the missing packages showed up a day or two late. The race medal is still missing. I've reported it to the USPS today and am hopeful they'll find it and deliver it.

Sunday Morning Horror

A few Sundays ago, I woke up, turned on the coffee maker, did a couple of things, and then returned to the kitchen to pour a cup and start the day. Something seemed...off about the coffee, but I dismissed it and poured. I added creamer and took a sip.

Tepid.

Tepid, lukewarm coffee. ::shudder::

I had to microwave it. I was hoping that it would heat up as it stayed on the warming plate, but no, it didn't. It was time to buy another coffee maker.

I knew same-day delivery would be too expensive, but I was hoping it was early enough to get next-day delivery. Luckily, it was. I looked at a few coffee makers, but ended up buying the same one that had died.

There were a few reasons. First, I didn't feel like researching coffee makers again. It could be an hours' long ordeal. Second, I was familiar with this coffee maker and knew how to set everything up. Relearning another coffee maker didn't sound fun. And third, I liked all the features this coffee maker had.

Monday morning wasn't much fun. I had to warm up coffee in the microwave again. It boiled over, which meant I had to clean the microwave. Sigh. The new machine couldn't get here quickly enough.

I expected the coffee maker to arrive at the house shortly after I got home from work, but it didn't. The delivery time remained by 10 pm. I needed it earlier than that! I needed to get it setup for Tuesday morning coffee. Thinking of another morning of microwaving my coffee was horrifying. It finally was dropped off at the door just before 7pm. Whew!

Fresh, hot coffee is back!

The Name Game: Variations

I've blogged before about how particular my characters are about their names. I'm not kidding when I tell you that I can't write them until I have their name. Sometimes they're helpful and let me know up front. Other times, they make me work for it.

One thing I haven't mentioned before is that their particularity goes right down to the spelling of their names.

I have a heroine in a future Paladin League story who was insistent on her spelling.

Her name (with her spelling) is Ayla (pronounced Eye-Lah). The more popular spelling at the moment is Isla. (Same pronunciation.)

I pointed this out to her--that most people are spelling Ayla as Isla, but she was all no, I'm Ayla.

I'm not complaining about this. She shared her name quickly, she was clear on the spelling, and it was done. No fuss, no muss.

The heroine in the book following hers made me work a little harder, but once I got in the right ballpark, she was clear, too. Her name is Iona, not Ione. One is an island off Scotland and the other is a Greek sea nymph. She is an island, not a nymph. ;-)

Iona's hero is the one that had me tearing out my hair. You met him in Deck's story with his nickname. Baggs. I even know his surname. It's Baggnell, but finding his first name was an ordeal that lasted weeks. So many false positives. I'd be certain I had the right name, but a few days later, I'd know I was wrong. It wasn't his name.

Things improved on this front when I realized I had the wrong picture. I always find pictures that represent what the characters look like. I just know when I see it. This time I was wrong. When I found the right picture for Baggs, his first name followed shortly thereafter.

He was the one I was complaining about in the earlier blog posts about the name game, but we're set now.

Happy Halloween!!!

For those who celebrate one of my favorite holidays, Happy Halloween!

Ready: Planner One

*** I received no compensation of any kind for this post.***

I'm trying something new for 2024--multiple planners.

I received the first of the planners I ordered a couple of weeks ago--the Sterling Ink 2024 Common Planner in size B6. This is a weekly planner.

This is not my main planner. My primary planner where I keep track of everything and anything is a daily planner which I haven't received as yet.

My idea with the Common Planner is to carry this with me in my tote bag. That way I'll have the appointments with me. I know I have them on my phone, too, but my brain works better with paper when it comes to keeping track of things.

The Common Planner is Tomoe River paper, which is thinner than normal paper. This means I can carry the full year planner (which I prefer) along with all the blank pages that come with it, and not have to worry about the weight or the thickness. I ordered the black cover with the gold edges on the paper because I like that look, especially with the dark cover.

I've begun setting up the planner and I'm hoping it works the way I want it to because I really like this. Not only does this give me a weekly planner to carry along with me, but because it has a ton of blank pages, it also eliminates the need to keep a notebook with me. I never know when inspiration will strike, so I always have an A5 notebook along for the ride. Now I can leave that at home and just take this with me. It's also lighter than the hardcover A5 notebook.

I'm toying with buying a cover for it, but I'm not sure I want to invest money in that until I'm sure this is going to work for me. Two keys will be 1. Remembering to update the calendar when something is added and 2. Using those empty pages for notes so that I don't hit 2025 with 150 blank pages.

I'm using this section upfront as a summary of the quarter's appointments and obligations. I'm not sure it's strictly necessary, but I like the overview it allows.

There's a monthly calendar for one month at a glance. These start with December 2023 and go through January 2025. I appreciate those extra two months. All the monthly calendars are together prior to the weekly pages.

The weekly pages have time slots available. The columns are a little narrow, but that allows the layout to carry one extra column for notes/misc each week. I actually like that touch, too, because sometimes I might need to write something down that doesn't apply to a particular day.

Then there are hundreds of blank pages behind the weeklies. This is what sold me on this planner more than anything else. There's a nice grid layout, which I prefer over the dots. I might even prefer it over plain lines--I vacillate on this. I haven't used the Tomoe River paper before, so I'm not sure what I'll think about writing on such thin paper, but this is what's keeping the weight/bulk down.

To sum up, this is my first time buying from this company and I'm impressed with the product. If the planner portion doesn't work the way I envision, they also sell blank notebooks, and I'd switch to that because I like the lightness of the book overall.

With the caveat that I've only begun to setup the planner for 2024 and haven't actually used it in real life yet, I'll give it a recommendation.

*** I received no compensation of any kind for this post.***

Much Ado About Nothing

It was late on a Saturday. I was watching baseball in the great room and doing some knitting. I finished the row I was working on and checked email from my phone.

And the whole wind down to bed was upended.

I had three emails from Amazon about being careful with my gift card purchases--one from Hotels.com, one from Mastercard, and a third from Google Play.

I didn't buy any gift cards. Cue panic mode.

The thing that was confusing is that Amazon emails me after each purchase and I had no purchase emails, only the email warning me that scammers requested gift cards and to be careful. I get an alert every time my credit card is charged and I had no alerts. I checked my Amazon purchase history and there were no gift cards listed.

I had to boot up the laptop again and address this problem where I had better visibility and more screen real estate. As soon as I got to Amazon, I logged myself out of all locations except the one I was on. I reset my password, and reported the problem through their prompt system. This suggested the emails were spoofed and suggested I send it to their security email address which I did.

But this didn't feel like enough so I got onto chat with a customer service representative who assured me there were no purchases on my account and that the emails were probably spoofed. She said not to click on any links. Which of course I didn't do, but I assured her I wouldn't.

Monday morning, Amazon sent an email. It seemed rather generic so I'm assuming it went out to a large number of people. It said you might have recently received an email about gift cards. It was sent in error.

On the one hand, mystery solved and credit cards/account safe. On the other hand, that was an hour of panic I dealt with on Saturday night. All's well that ends well, and it was much ado about nothing in the long run, but I could have done without the tempest.

Maybe the Fourth Time Will Be the Charm

Along with getting a new phone, I also needed to get a new case to protect it. I found an awesome one in hot pink that was perfect! It even came with a couple of screen protectors, so I'd be set.

The phone case arrived before the phone and the color was as perfect in person as it had been on the screen. I couldn't wait to use it.

When the phone came, I immediately put it in the case and put the screen protector on. I was ready!

As it turned out, there was one small problem with the case. It wouldn't stick to the wireless magnetic charger I had next to the bed. Charge? Yes. As long as it was lying flat on the charger.

One of the reasons why I bought the phone I ultimately chose was to have it on the wireless charger with the clock showing when the phone was on standby. I needed a new case.

Case two didn't look as awesome as its picture. Not by a long shot, but it was okay and it did stick to the bedside charger, so I could use the phone the way I wanted. There was one small problem with case two, though. It was slippery. I felt like I never had a good grip on the phone and I didn't like that.

Case three's colors were very muted compared to the image online--another disappointment--but it did stick to the charger and it had grip, so I didn't feel as if the phone was going to come flying out of my hand at any minute. This is the case I'm currently using, and if the colors were brighter, I'd love it completely. The colors, however, are not bright.

I haven't bought another case yet, but I have a few wishlisted. I'm also inundated with phone case ads on Facebook and Instagram and I've seen some cases there that I like, too. I've liked the posts. We'll see if a fourth case has everything I want.

It was so easy with my other phone. One clear case to showcase the awesome yellow color and I was good to go.

Instant Gratification

I was listening to a writing podcast on my commute home from the Evil Day Job (EDJ) and the guest had some very interesting ideas about how to write. Interesting enough that I wanted to read his book on the subject.

When I got home, I went to my laptop and put in the book title.

I found the book, but the ebook was like $5 more expensive than the paperback! That's a big difference, so even though I prefer to read on my phone, I bought the paperback.

It was disappointing. Not only is ebook my preferred format, but now I couldn't sit down and read the book right now! I consoled myself with the fact that I was able to get next day delivery. At least I'd only have to wait one day and Amazon usually delivers about the same time I get home from the EDJ.

But no, not this time.

This time when they said delivered by 10pm, they really meant delivered by 10pm.

I'm bummed and I know I'm spoiled. I love the instant gratification I get from ebooks. I want to read something? Buy and download. Minutes later, I'm reading my book. The one-day delay getting the physical book as bad enough, but to not come until late?

Seriously. It's too late to even start the book at 10pm.

Habit Tracking Fail

I blogged back in June about these cool habit trackers I found. I wasn't planning to use the immediately, but had a plan for the fall. Well, guess what? It's fall.

I'd already done a test run on the circle habit tracker and knew I didn't care for it, so when the time came to begin, I printed out a 100 Day Habit Tracker with circles that went across the page in rows.

I created categories and color coded each of them with a mid-liner. I was ready to go!

This lasted eight days. Not because I stopped doing the habit I was trying to track. I've been reasonably consistent with that. No, it's the habit tracker itself that became annoying. I had it printed on a single sheet of paper, and each time I wanted to mark off a day, I had to look for it, find the mid-liners, and then color in the circle.

It would be so much better, I thought, if this was in my planner and not loose.

Except I use a daily planner.

Previously, I'd tried putting a monthly habit tracker on the monthly calendar page to track, but I forgot it was there. Out of sight, out of mind.

Habit tracking on a daily page is literally just adding the item to the to-do list section. No mid-liners and fun colors required. And it defeats the purpose of seeing all those circles fabulously filled with colors. And with this sinking in, I abandoned the tracking plan.