Should You Post Photos of Your Kids?

This isn't a topic that is particularly relevant to me right now, but I've seen other people discussing it lately so I thought I'd share an article that appeared in our local newspaper:

Who's clicking on your kids?

Just one more thing to be concerned about in today's world, I guess. And, like so many things, something that can be taken to extremes. I feel sorry for the person quoted at the end of the article: If I ever have a child I certainly hope I won't be so paranoid as to not want to bring a camera to take pictures of my child in a school play.

Finished!

Last night I finished my last paper for the semester and turned it in. All 7,000 words of it. 41 minutes before it was due. For a professor whose wife was about to go into labor (if she hadn't already). I am completely wiped out.

Thanks to all of you who commented on my last post about the cell phone dilemma. Even with my small, couldn't-possibly-apply-to-a-larger-population sample size, it's interesting that none of you really do the smartphone thing. I had lunch with a friend this week and asked her about it, too; turns out she lives in the '90's as far as cell phones are concerned, too, just like me. I even made it to a mall this week (first time I've been to one in months, I think), and I went to a Verizon Wireless store and looked at the phones and asked about the whole pricing thing. The salesperson was very helpful and answered my questions without pushing me at all (I was really impressed with that, by the way), but the bottom line is we've decided not to change our cell phone situation at this time. I just can't justify the monthly price and I'm not "plugged into" things enough to really make it worthwhile, I think. So we'll stick to our basic plan and our phones that we use just for calling people (and frankly I hardly even use mine much for that). Maybe we'll revisit the issue again in another year.

I'll try to post more updates over the next few days, but given that Christmas is only a week away and I haven't had time to do much about it yet I'm expecting to be kind of busy for the next week. (When I'm not sleeping, which I may be doing a lot of due to being totally exhausted.) For example, you know that wonderful Christmas tree we got over a week ago? It still isn't decorated. Writing papers took precedent and hubby was out-of-town for a few days so we've just had a pine tree living in our house. It's pretty sad. The plan is to finally get it decorated tonight.

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

To Phone or Not to Phone

Lately I've been thinking about getting a new cell phone. This one looks nice:

Droid Eris

I've never had a smartphone and I keep debating whether it's really worth it. After all, one of the reasons to have a mobile phone is because you're mobile, and I'm definitely not; these days when I'm not in class I'm usually at home (working on homework, of course). We still have a landline (yes, totally 80's or 90's or whatever, I know) so that's another factor: If we start paying for a fancy phone plan (that whole data thing I haven't entirely figured out yet) I wouldn't want to keep paying for a landline, too, especially since we hardly use it, anyway. I know a phone like the iPhone or the Motorola Droid is so much more than just a phone, but having never had more than "just a phone" I'm not really sure what I would do with it. I know whatever I got would have all those cool apps... But do I really need them? It's hard to know if something I've never had will make my life better or just be yet another thing to waste my time and money on (neither of which I have very much of these days as a full-time graduate student, of course).

So the debate in my head (and discussion with my husband) continues. I'd love to hear from those of you who have smartphones and find them useful: What do you use them for? What features do you like the most? Have they simplified your life in some way? How do you justify the cost of the monthly plan?

Maybe someday I'll join the 21st century when it comes to phones. Until then, to phone or not to phone—that is the question. [Yes, that was totally cheesy. My apologies to Shakespeare. I've been writing way too many papers for school lately and I really need a break.]

O Christmas Tree

Last night hubby and I finally got our Christmas tree. Our dog was very interested and wanted to help hubby put it up.

Finally, he got it up (without the dog's help).

The next step will be to actually decorate it... Maybe tonight.

While we were out I also got a small Poinsettia; it was the last one and looked kind of sickly.

I asked if they would give me a discount since it was looking kind of scraggly and they did, then it turned out it was already on sale (since it was the last one, probably), so I ended up getting it for about a quarter of the original price. Definitely worth it. I re-potted it and I'm going to see if I can bring it back to life. I seem to have a special place in my heart for sickly looking plants as this isn't the first time I've gotten a discount on one and brought it home. It's kind of ironic since I've managed to kill some very healthy plants in my time, including cacti and Sago Palms, which make very nice house plants and are theoretically nearly impossible to kill. (Several died in my house in California.) So we'll see how it goes with the Poinsettia. If it ends up doing well I'll try to remember to post another picture in a few weeks of my success.