Archives for 2013

Why you shouldn’t simultaneously update Twitter from Facebook

November 10, 2013 by Jen

Twitter and Facebook are two totally different social media platforms yet there’s one thing about people trying to integrate their social media updates on both these platforms that’s really annoying to me.

Facebook has the ability to automatically post your status update to Twitter. That’s great right? You only have to do one update and it’s done on two of your platforms. No, it’s not great, and here’s why.

Facebook will allow longer status updates, and Twitter, as you probably know, only allows 140 characters. Therefore when you automatically send your Facebook update to Twitter, it truncates and adds a web address, like the below.

The clue that if you click on the link and you’ll be sent to Facebook is the fb.me part of the web address.

Many people do automatic posting to Twitter from Facebook for their brand page because the Facebook updates have to be public to allow Twitter users to be able to see them.

The other Twitter statuses I’ve seen have been along the lines of “Like if you …….”. I can’t like your Twitter status. I can maybe favorite it, but ‘Like’ is a Facebook thing. I’m more likely to unfollow than anything.

Because of the difference between how the platforms operate you’re really much better off posting to them separately. You have to monitor both platforms anyway right? Right? I hope you’re doing that. There’s nothing more frustrating for a follower engaging with you to be ignored.

But maybe you don’t know how to disconnect the two. It’s easy.

How to revoke access between Twitter and Facebook

Go to Twitter, select your profile’s Settings. Click on Apps and Revoke access to Facebook. It’s easy. You might want to check out what else is connected to Twitter and do a spring clean while you’re there. Go and check. I’ll wait.

If you want to check what Facebook is posting to Twitter, check it out at www.facebook.com/twitter. You can unlink Twitter from here as well.

Other platforms can work well when posting to Twitter, like FourSquare and Instagram, just not Facebook.

But that’s my opinion. What’s yours?

Gossip

November 7, 2013 by Jen

Gossip Girls

I’ve been watching Big Brother this season (nothing new there) and we watched a recent episode where they did some recaps of what’s happened during the season.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in the Big Brother house when you’ve got no outside distractions to talk about so you become very focused on the people and their actions inside the house.

This is probably why when someone bitches about someone else, another housemate will usually immediately go and report it to the person that was being bitched about. There was one instance where something quite nasty was said about one of the housemates. That was immediately reported to the housemate being gossipped about which (understandably) really upset her.

I wondered why you would tell someone something that makes them upset if they’re your friend. I don’t think it’s because you want to upset them. It’s probably more because you want them to hate the person that said that nasty thing in the first place. Especially when you’re trying to avoid nominations and eviction.

But this happens outside of the house as well. JJ and I were talking about it and he said he’s witnessed similar things at school. He reckons he wouldn’t do it unless he wanted to get revenge on someone by making them upset. He’s seen other people do it though.

I know as I get older I’m making a conscious effort only to pass on news, good or bad, if I’ve not been sworn to secrecy and if I know it’s okay for me to pass on. It’s a common sense thing that I’m sure I didn’t have when I was younger, and let’s face it, most of the housemates are younger and don’t have that filter.

But back to Big Brother. They’re all out of the house now and I’ve got ten hours a week of my life back and I’ll forget who was even in the house within the next week. PS: I’m glad Tim won it though.

photo by: digitalART2

Sometimes you just gotta stick with it

November 6, 2013 by Jen

pitching

Last year my son played baseball. He went from really loving the tryout sessions to not really loving the actual training and games. It wasn’t because of the sport itself, but more the dynamics of the team members. He was the new and inexperienced kid who didn’t know anyone. A lot of the others went to school together and JJ didn’t so was immediately the outcast.

He was also out of his depth playing for a more experienced division – actually so was his whole team so they didn’t win a game all year.

He also got put off because he was afraid the ball would hit him. It had a couple of times which made him hesitant to properly participate and his batting went from pretty good for the first few games to almost non-existent after that.

Don’t ask me how but I managed to convince him to play again this year. He’s gone off cricket because of the length of the game and I’ve always said I’d like him to play a sport. However, I’m not really pushy about it, just suggest strongly.

And this year is completely different so far. He now plays for a minors team and is one of the more experienced members of the team as a lot of t-ball kids have moved up. There are a couple of kids from his team last year but they’ve bonded really well.

The first game he played a couple of weeks ago he got the ‘play of the day’ award for hitting a home run. He also managed another good hit and got a few people home, then eventually himself, and when fielding caught a couple of people out on first base.

It’s really boosted his confidence and he’s staying behind after practise and games t0 do some pitching practise. He’d pitched his first ever innings in the preceding game and did pretty well considering he’s not practised that much. He pitched an innings at his last game and the first 10-20 pitches weren’t that great but he improved and a spectator from the other team commented that he was doing well. I did the mum puff up with pride thing.

I love the turnaround in him and it makes the two nights a week training and the three hours out of my Sundays very worth while.

As a parent who needs to do this running around I used to resent the time it took out of my day and the things I could be doing but I’ve turned that around as well. So much so, that I’m going to start learning how to score. That looks a bit complicated but if enough of us share it, it shouldn’t be too onerous.

The advantages for me are that I get to meet new people. Now that we’ve got a dog again, I get to take the dog out so he can socialise and exercise.

Are you responsive?

November 5, 2013 by Jen

responsive web design for content is

It’s no secret that mobile devices like phones and tablets are used a lot more to view websites and to do tasks like shopping and banking.

At a recent comedy event, Catch of the Day co-founder Leibovich saw some strangers in front of him use the Catch of the Day app on their phones. I’m guessing it was something these people probably wouldn’t have done otherwise, but because they had a bit of time while waiting for the show to start they got onto it.

I’ve installed my bank’s app on my phone so I can pay bills and check my balance using my phone if I wish. It can be very handy and is quicker and easier to use sometimes rather than my desktop computer or laptop where I have to dig out my customer number to login.

Using an app from my iPhone is fine because it’s built for the device but viewing a website that’s not built for a mobile device can be a very frustrating exercise in scrolling and zooming around the place to try and find the information I’m after.

When I created this blog I paid for a premium Studiopress WordPress theme. I’ve been using free themes for years on other websites but I thought I’d pay for one this time.

Unfortunately my knowledge of responsive web design wasn’t at top of mind when I purchased my theme and it wasn’t responsive. Responsive just means that it will look good when viewed on a desktop computer as well as a tablet and as well as a phone. But they’ve recently released an update which I’ve applied here so it is now responsive. The banner is a bit boring but all the content is there and it looks good on my phone and on my computer so I’m happy. And once I’ve got a bit of time I can tweak the banner anyway.

I’ll also do a bit of tweaking with the CSS as I’m not mad keen on the fonts but that’s easy to change.

Here’s a bit more about what responsive design is and techniques for achieving it.

Here’s some lovely examples of responsive web design.

How about your website. Is it responsive?

Where we welcome our newest family member – Phoenix

October 31, 2013 by Jen

Phoenix

We’ve gone and done it. Adopted a dog that is. It’s seven months since I had to get Monty put down and we knew that we wanted to get another dog but didn’t want to rush into it.

I also knew I wanted to get a rescue dog. I will never buy a dog from a pet shop and I’m not a particular breed kind of gal, although I obviously like black dogs with a bit of white.

I enquired about a dog a couple of months ago but I never actually got to meet the dog. Not quite sure what happened there. Anyway, I registered with a couple of dog rescue websites and enquired about one. The reply said that he needed some more time in foster care before he was adopted out and I might like one of these two. One of them was our new dog – Phoenix. We renamed him a few days into the trial. Actually my son came up with the name. I wanted to call him Flynn but that wasn’t approved. I said for him to come up with a name I like so he did.

Phoenix and Jules

When he first arrived at our place we all went out to the backyard and he did a big shit near the back door. JJ sat on the trampoline, his foster mum was nearby and I knelt down and called him to me. He went straight to JJ and sat down near him. Good, they’ve bonded, I thought.

He wouldn’t come to me – he was very timid.

Despite the big poo and the timidness, we agreed to a two week trial. That’s how it works for the few dog rescue organisations I had my name with. If the trial doesn’t work out for whatever reason, the dog goes back into foster care.

Ours didn’t. We love him. One week in, JJ said that he was falling in love. And so was I.

Phoenix is ten months old but he doesn’t act it. He doesn’t chew up things he’s not supposed to. And so far he hasn’t dug any holes. It’s like he’s on his best behaviour so we keep on liking him.

He ended up in dog rescue because the family that originally had him apparently didn’t do anything with him so they surrendered him. So he hasn’t been mistreated at least. He was then in foster care for a few weeks before he was suggested to us.

The only thing is that he gets car sick. The day after we got him JJ started playing baseball. The car trip there was okay apart from the drool (the dog only drools in the car) but I had to head back home to get JJ’s hat. On the way back to baseball Phoenix threw up. I had to leave the vomit in the car covered by a sheet until we got home a couple of hours later.

He’s thrown up again in the car since then. Both times was an hour or two after breakfast so I’m hoping it’s something he will grow out of as he obviously gets anxious in the car. Luckily we haven’t had to do any really long trips yet and all the car rides we’ve had have had good things at the end of them, like walks.

Since we got him I’ve been getting up early to take him for a walk before I head to work. I haven’t really let him off lead at the oval yet because he needs a bit more socialising with other dogs. Although he has met The Surfer’s dog and they play and play and play and wear each other out.

Since we got him I feel happier. I don’t think I was unhappy before but even though having a dog makes my life that bit busier, I love the love he has for us. That makes me happy. And he makes my son happy too.

If you’re considering a rescue dog in Australia, there’s a few organisations where you can find them:

Pet Rescue – lists a number of dogs (and cats) from different rescue organisations
Australian Working Dog Rescue
SA Dog Rescue – also has cats.

Wrecked

October 30, 2013 by Jen

A few weeks ago we went camping and on a near-ish beach there was this washed up fishing boat which provided some great climbing (for the kids), and photo opportunities.

Just to say how small this world is we were walking along the beach and I could hear someone calling out my son’s name. It turned out that one of his after school carers was sitting on the beach. There’s no hiding from anyone I tell ya!

Doing the Wordless Wednesday thing.

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