Today we met with the teachers at Jacob’s new preschool. He starts in January, with classes twice a week. There will be 11 students in the class. He really likes the school, while Melissa and I were talking with the teachers he came over to ask if after we could come back another time. Of course he didn’t want to leave the school, so I’m thinking we wont have a problem dropping him off come January.
Speaking of school, I thought I should hare what Jacob did the other day. Out of the blue he asked for crayons and how to spell Papa. He wanted to make a card for him. It’s was very sweet. Above is the final product. He had a little trouble with the C in is name, but he kept trying.
Tonight I share with you a video from the web. I was working on a more insightful post but it’s trivia night and I might not be home in time to finish it up and post it. So it will have to wait for tomorrow. For now Enjoy:
It’s been a blah kind of day, I’m feeling the worse I’ve felt all week. My sinuses hurt and my nose wont stop running. Beyond that I’m still feeling pretty good, and though I didn’t do everything that I wanted to do today I do do a lot. What I didn’t do was blog. So I find myself looking at the clock as the day winds down trying to come up with a post. Once again I think I’ll settle for a stump. A short update on my health and that of the families.
Enough about me on to the family, Melissa is on the mend, she seems much better today, and so do the kids. So with a bit of luck we will have a healthy family this week. I have some exciting news about Jacob’s development, but I want to do it justice so I’ll probably come in a post later in the week. In fact It looks like I’m going to have an interesting week of posts, with a bit about family, and a bit on some of my geeky pursuits. So stay tuned.
It seems strange that today’s Random Internet Video is a commercial… But it’s cool and well I have know idea what it’s for and I even tried to use good. so enjoy:
It’s been a long week. The kids have been sick to varying degrees all week and so has Melissa. So far I have managed to get by with just a nagging headache and a stuffy nose. Whether that’s luck of the double dose of Multi-vitamins I’ve been taking I can’t tell you. What I can tell you is that it’s been a long week. With both kids having late nights on more then one occasion over the week and so as the healthy one I find my sleep impacted and so tonight I found myself tire and more interested in vegging in front of a video game then coding or writing. So what you have is this short late post. I hope to do better tomorrow.
When did it become accepted practice to penalize loyalty? It seems that companies are more interested in the people who aren’t there customers then there customers. This trend has been bothering me for years its all around us. Banks offer rewards for moving your account, cell phone companies offer better prices and bonus services to new subscribers.
Where is the reward for loyal customers. I have been with my bank now for over ten years in that time the have raised my rates reduced my service and I never got a reward. Right now my bank has a promotion you can get up to $250 for opening a new account plus sign up some additional services. Of course I’m not able to get it.
The fine Print reads: This offer is available to individuals 19 years of age or older who open a new Personal Canadian Dollar Chequing Account by December 31, 2009. Individuals who have an existing Chequing Account or had one that was closed after August 1, 2009 are not eligible for this offer
So I ask you why should I say loyal to my bank if they have more interest in getting new customers then supporting there existing customers? It’s not just the banks, a couple of years ago when The Wife’s cell phone contract was up we went to her carrier to see what phones they had to offer. The best deal they would give her, with her signing up for a new 3 year contract was $200 off the cost of the phone. They phone she wanted was $300 or $400. So we were looking at at least $100 for her pink phone. A new customer would have been able to get it for either free, or $50. So she changed carriers.
So I ask why do we as consumers let companies do this. Why don’t we stand up and say we the loyal customers deserve to be reward. Or should we just become nomads, jumping from service to service looking for the best rewards.
I first signed up for an account for Evernote last year, at the time I wasn’t impressed. I’m not sure what it was I didn’t like. Maybe it was the interface, have all the notes on a single page didn’t work for me. Maybe it was the limitations in the Windows Mobile Standard addition of the software. So after using it on and off for a couple of weeks I set it aside and went on to other note applications. But with the failure of my Mobile note taking a few weeks ago, I thought why not give it a second try.
It’s been 2 weeks since I reinstalled it on my computers and phone and I’m loving the simple-ness of the interface. To be fair I’m not doing much with the more advanced features, but the simple ability to take a note and have it synced with the web so that I can access it from any web browser or computer, I have the portable Evernote client on my memory stick, is just great. I highly recommend Evernote for anyone looking for a connected notepad.
I have yet to experiment with the Sharing and collaboration options, I’m thinking of seeing if I can get Melissa to use it. Then maybe I’ll be able to give them a try. I’ve also been looking for reasons to try the clipping options, but so far it’s mostly been a connected notepad for my phone. When I’ve sat down with more of the features I hope to revisit this useful app.
2 weeks ago I set out a new personal goal, a goal of writing some software. Today I had hoped to share a version of that software. Unfortunately there are 2 things keeping me from doing that. First the site I plan on distributing my software on is still in development. Second I’m still waiting for the API key my application uses to be approved for users other then me.
Till that time I’m moving onto my second project. I’m still trying to decide if I should revisit the TTC data, do a WPF interface for my unreleased Ping.fm client or go another way and work on software to run software.geekwithkids.com
As always I’d be interested in any suggestions from my readers. If there is an application you’d like to have, I’d be happy to have a go at programming it. Just drop me a comment with any suggestions. If I don’t get to it this week, there is always next time.
