Recent lessons learned from Overlord Google

First the :-(

Google doesn't like it when several people share an account. Thus, it now categorically refuses to have our profile name on Google+ (yeah, we're giving it a try) be "Sara & Jonathan Jerdan" or the like, and it is now simply "Sara Jerdan" even though I use it too, although I do believe Sara is more active on it than I. Also, they don't like it when people change names too often, so say we decided to pretend, for usability's sake, we were one person with the combined first name Jonathan-Sara for example, or say we wanted to display the first name Sara and middle name Jonathan, well too bad, have to wait 30 days before we can change it away from Sara Jerdan.

Really Google? You made online maps so simple to play around with (anyone remember Mapquest? what a drag), you made email boxes simple to use and customize, document sharing is now a breeze. But you don't have the flexibility to accept the word "and" in a profile name? -1

Then the :-)

The hangout feature in Google+ is very nice. Video-chatting is quick and possible with multiple people at once. And where it exceeded my expectations is that it is possible for one account to join a hangout from two different computers at the same time! They do allow that. So if in spite of all the big G's efforts two people were to share an account, they can video-chat with each other when they're not in the same place. Pretty nifty! +1

Healthy teeth

2) I've been horrible at flossing. I pretty much never remember to do it. Besides, after I finish brushing my teeth, when I normally would floss them, Sara is usually done getting ready for bed and waiting for me so we can do our evening devotions together. So flossing has not been a habit of mine.

2) When the lights go out, I tend not to fall asleep that quickly. I may feel tired while going through the night-time routines, but once we're done reading the Bible and praying, the lights go out, and the restful silence settles in, it seems like my body keeps going into "alright, what to do now?" mode, and my eyelids stop drooping.

Well, I recently had an idea to take care of both of these seemingly unrelated issues. I finally used my math major and put 2 and 2 together (indeed, the first character of this blog is not a typo, just a setup for a lame joke): I placed a roll of dental floss on the chest that serves as my nightstand next to our bed. Thus, when the day's over, and I'm mentally twiddling my thumbs, I simply reach over, grab the twine and floss all my teeth! It's been working great so far.

Mail merging

So tonight's success is not incredibly interesting to write about, however I'm tremendously excited.

I discovered how to use the addresses we had put into Excel to automatically format into address labels via mail merge. This means (((drum roll))) we do not have to hand-write every address! Or re-type them all out into a word document to print out onto labels! We can keep them all nicely organize in excel, and print them out as needed! Any other librarians/information managers out there as excited as I am?! (yah, I thought not :o) )

This will also be helpful for the years to come, when we need to send out lots of mail to lots of family, whenever that time may be. So now all that is left is to order the thank-you cards, write them out, and the addresses will be on their way! (I do need to remember to print our return address labels as well...)

And that is the small success of the evening, in addition to the meal I was able to make (bratwurst, sweet potato fries, and soup), without burning or undercooking anything. Good, good evening.