So many e-mail addresses, so little time...

                                                               http://www.highlandpolice.com/cid2.htm

I was thinking, while reading Chapter 4, that while I have used e-mail for some time, I never have felt the need to be a slave to it, as so many people seem to be. There was a time, not so long ago, that it would not be unusual for me to go days or even weeks without ever looking at my e-mail. Needless to say, it also wasn't unusual to find a mountain of messages waiting for me when I let too much time pass between log-in's. This never bothered me too much since most of what I found there was what I considered "mental litter'...advertising and coupons from stores I frequented, forwarded jokes or inspirational messages from my contacts, solicitations from political or social groups that I expressed an interest in, newsletters, the occasional Nigerian Sting, and every once in a while, something pertinent. I probably spent as much time hitting the delete button as I did reading all that stuff!

These days, I suddenly found myself juggling multiple e-mail addresses from multiple e-mail services. Between my personal one, my work one, my store one, and most recently, my school one, this had the potential to be a recipe for disaster for a e-mail slacker like me!

I mentioned in a previous post that I had acquired my first smart phone.  I gotta say.. that phone, which I was only mildly interested in, has become a great e-mail management system for me! I am happy to report that my e-mail accounts are being attended to quite regularly these days! There is something almost liberating about the ability to delete the junk almost instantaneously while knowing that I am not missing anything crucial.

                                                                 http://www.getcws.com

How I wish I could manage the rest of my life as easily as I can now manage my e-mail(s)! How do you manage?

Symbaloo-A-Roo!

So I have started adding Tiles for the other businesses in the Merchant Association to which I belong. I have a ways to go, but it's a start...

Surveys!

I am always so encouraged when I get to apply some of what I am learning in school to life in the 'real world'. It is gratifying to realize that this long, sometimes arduous, and rather expensive process has meaningful and valuable application to my here-and-now life. I have recently had two opportunities to do just this.

The Merchant Association that I belong to through my business is undergoing a renaissance of sorts. The group has seen membership decline by more than half over the last 10 years. Those that remain have been members practically from the associations' inception. As a result of new business growth in the area recently, however, interest in reinvigorating the group has soared. The old guard, who have been tirelessly holding it together, has decided that the time has come for some fresh ideas, younger leadership, and some new blood to take up the torch of association development. They are ready for a rest from the necessary chore of keeping a cohesive and eclectic assortment of players moving in the same direction and focused on the same long-range goal, which is the success of the area as a shopping destination. They have earned the right to take a breather. The task has, at times, been likened to trying to heard cats...impossibly difficult.

The group recently expressed a need for a strongly worded cease-and-desist type letter to be written to a rather rouge member who had self-appointed herself to head up an important association-sponsored community event against the wishes of the majority of the membership. While wanting to approach the matter delicately but emphatically, the letter required some level of legal overtones. Asked to pen the letter on behalf of the group, I had my first opportunity to put my paralegal writing skills to real use.  The opportunity preceded my learning of Google Docs. Had it not, I can see how much more efficiently I could have circulated the draft letter amongst the membership in order to make the numerous but necessary revisions. As it was, I used a combination of e-mail, face-to-face, pavement-pounding, and telephone to come up with the final product. Although the end-product came out well, it certainly took a great deal more effort than it could have.

At our last couple of meetings, there has been talk about conducting a  survey amongst all of the merchants in the area, members and non-members, to see how membership could be grown. I had already made up a mock survey for the Google Doc assignment, so this was perfect timing! I volunteered to draft an actual survey on behalf of the group. I plan to use Google Docs for this project and save myself a whole lot of time. I'm excited for the opportunity to put another newly acquired skill to practical use. The only challenge I am facing is trying to muscle e-mail addresses from the old guard...they are privacy loving people of the highest order. They are not giving them up easily. Considering all that I have learned this semester, I think I am just the girl for the job! What do you think?

Baby-Stepping to Mobility!

                                          http://passionped.wordpress.com/

I haven’t exactly made it a secret that I am not the world’s biggest embracer of technology. In my business however, I am miles ahead of my two partners. One partner has a home computer and a basic cell phone with nary a single phone number in her contacts - it's all in her head, she claims. The other one has a smart phone but no home computer. She rejects e-mail, rarely answers her phone, and hardly ever listens to voice-mail. Neither has any idea what social media is. They are artists, full of whimsical and creative ideas. I am the practical one and the de facto realist. The task of dragging us, as a business, into the 21^st century is going, it seems, to fall to me. While I have done my fair share of whining about technology on this blog, I am finding the prospect of introducing some mobile device technology into our business strategy a little less daunting than I might have previously because of what I have learned in that last few months and in my recent research. Actually, I am feeling downright inspired at the moment... kind of!

Feeling so inspired, I dragged the netbook computer I received as a gift last year out from its home under the couch and blew the dust off.  I am now taking it to work with me daily and have started using it to track my inventory and place orders on-line. I have also started updating our Facebook page more frequently, and have used the netbook for some on-line business banking. I have also been using it for product research as well as being more timely with my business correspondence.  While I was performing these tasks already, I was doing them from home after business hours, hoping that I didn’t forget anything between the store and home.  Often times, this was contingent on the stuff-of-life not interfering. Real-time and on-site is making me feel mighty efficient these day and makes my personal time much more pleasant as well. I recently acquired my first smart phone and am still learning how to use it, but my head is starting to swim with ideas and possibilities!

My partner-peeps are even starting to drink the mobile device Kool-Aide a little bit too. This, in and of itself, is HUGE! I knew we were making strides when I was asked to leave the netbook at the store for them to use on their days at the helm. The mere mention of Twitter is no longer being dismissed with a wave of the hand as unnecessary to business growth, and there has been a sudden epiphany that moving money between bank accounts does not always require a special trip to the actual bank. Progress is being made. Admittedly, it’s in baby steps, but at least it’s in a forward direction! 

I love the series of Verizon Wireless commercials about the little girl entrepreneur and the mobile devices she used to build her lemonade business.  This is the first of the series. I want that little credit card swiper for my phone so we can accept credit sales when we are off-site at shows, which has always been an issue.  I’ve already started doing the research! I am a bit concerned about security with this particular mobile device, but so far, the research says it's quite safe.

Oh, and I see a tablet in my near future as well! Anything else I should be looking at?

Jing Video of an Advanced Search

With three unsuccessful attempts under my belt, I am over the moon with joy this morning! I got this little Jing-y thing-y to work! Going to celebrate this small victory by treating myself to a donut or something...

Booyah on Boolean Searching!

                                          http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.asp

In my daily life, I am all about shortcuts. If there is a way to perform a task more efficiently, or more quickly, without sacrificing the end-result, I am totally open to checking it out. My little home library of how-to books contain plenty of suggestions for useful short-cuts that will make life a little bit easier... how to be more organized; how to remove a stubborn stain; how to fix this or fix that; how to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less; how to clean my house from top to bottom in one morning...you get the drill.

With regards to short-cuts, however, one area where I know I fall down miserably is in my computer use. I hold hard and fast to the processes I know well and that I know work for me. Call me mule-headed, but I tend to be one of those who doesn't like to stray too far out of my comfort zone with this technology stuff. (If you have been following my blog posts, you have already figured this out about me!) Accepting that this is just part of my personality, I have been perfectly content to complete 10 steps in a process where 2 different ones might work just as well, simply because I trust that the way I learned it originally will continue to work every time. Understanding that this manifests from my irrational fear that any piece of technology under my control is just a single key-stroke away from certain annihilation, I truly am trying to be less fossil-like and to maybe learn a few things here. It is not always easy, and is certainly humbling.

If I had to pick the most personally useful information from Chapter 3 of Shelly, Napier, and Rivers' Discovering the Internet, I think it would definitely have to be the section on Boolean operators. Besides the fact that learning about them had me humming the theme song from School House Rock's "Conjunction Junction" in my head all day, it made me realize that had I known about them when my earlier classes were  heavily research and writing based, I could have saved myself loads of time and probably netted better results. Going forward, I know that I will be using this short-cut a lot.

As I've said before, I am primarily a visual learner. I am also a big YouTube fan. Check out this funny little explanation of Boolean Searching. It gave me a real chuckle, and made me homesick for my two sweet southern girl friends. I do love their accents! Did any single topic in Chapter Three stand out for you?

Lunchroom Chat

http://youtu.be/cs4py0OB9vk

OK...so I have been beyond frustrated. I couldn't seem to figure out how to get my cute little video to run except through a link as opposed to a video. While it would appear, it wouldn't run from the thumbnail while I was working in draft or in the preview mode. A process that was supposed to be relatively self-explanatory turned into a two day thorn in my side. I tried to get this thing working properly at least three times, from every angle I could think of.

I decided to throw up my hands in defeat and post it anyways. Fully prepared to cry "Uncle" and beg for advice from my readers,  imagine how silly I felt when I hit publish and everything seems to be running properly. Picture who quickly I scrambled to edit my original text, which admittedly bordered on hysterical. Feeling mighty foolish, foolish, foolish!

If I am lucky, my family will eventually forgive me for foisting my little problem on them and ruining what should have been a peaceful weekend! I am suddenly reminded of the line from the movie A League of Their Own", where Tom Hanks states, "There's no crying in baseball!" Well, as far as I am concerned, there shouldn't be any crying on Blogger, either. Unfortunately, that was not the case for me this weekend.  I'm starting to think that this old dog can't be (or shouldn't be) taught any of these new tricks....