I Am Not Cool Enough to Hate on the new Girly Legos

I was very excited to start seeing articles about the new Lego Friends in December, as the lack of pink and purple Legos is very annoying to me.  I bought my daughter a Star Wars Advent Calendar for Christmas (which she loved), and though she's mostly still a little young for Legos, she helps her dad build the Lego Architecture sets we give him for Christmas and his birthday.  

In case I wasn't clear in my post about women in tech, I'm all about encouraging little girls to be interested in math and science, having once been a little girl and went to a math and science high school and work in the tech industry today.  And I don't discriminate between "boy" and "girl" toys for my daughter or my son.  My daughter had a Transformers theme birthday party this year.  My son prefers the Disney Princess sippy cups we have.  If they are interested in something, we encourage it.

Immediately after the Lego announcements came out, people who have more time than I began hating on the girly legos, updating their Facebook statuses and writing on the Lego wall talking about how girls don't need these sets.   I'm really wondering who these people are because let me tell you, these Lego Friends sets look like fun, and I can't wait to play with them.  I mean, for my daughter to play with them.

Here's my favorite of all the set, girly Lego scientist:

It's so cool!  See the robot!  And there's a microscope!  

But let's pretend for a second that my feminist nature rejects Lego market research, and instead, I want to buy my 5 year old a "regular" Lego set.  Let's explore the options:

Fire plane:

Comes with trees on fire.  I'm not kidding.  See them above?  The red thing is "flames" according to the description.  Do you know what kind of conversations I'd have to have if I bought this?  "Mommy, what if the fire plane doesn't get to the trees in time?  Is our house going to burn down?"  

Dino Ambush Attack:

According to the website, the goal is to capture the dino with a tranquilizer gun before it escapes and attack the city.  Yes, dinos attacking the city--that will not keep my child up at night.

Toxic Reapa:

I do not know what this is but it looks freaking scary.  

Recycling Truck:

While no offense to people who make an honest living picking up recycling, I hoping my daughter will aim a little higher on the career ladder.  

Sponge Bob Squarepants Bikini Bottom Undersea Adventure:

I'm not kidding.  That's the actual name.  I'm not buying my child any toys named "Bikini Bottom."  

There's also a large assortment of Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, and Cars (the movie) legos available in case you just want to re-enact movies and not use your actual imagination or anything.  

While I'm a girl (I guess) and therefore the target market for the Lego Friends toys, I have to say, I totally want to play with them.  I have zero interest in the Lego Architecture sets my husband gets.  The Advent calendar was an exercise in frustration to me as the diagrams to put the Legos together make no sense to me.  They might as well be instructions from Ikea.  We have Cars and Thomas duplos and I'm really not that interested in them either.  But I'm all about building a lab, a cool pink house, or vet clinic.  (I do totally question this Stephanie's desire to have an outdoor bakery.  Buttercream melts!)  

So Lego Corporation:  I salute you and your marketing research for Lego Friends.  Mission accomplished, as I can't wait to buy them.  May I be as bold to suggest you put similar efforts into your other product research so attacking dinos, fire, and bikini bottoms aren't the other options to choose from?  

Do this: Get Spotify

The tech news media was completely gushing about Spotify a few weeks ago and as I try to be hip with the tech stuff (since that's the industry I'm in) I quizzed a friend who was using it and ended up with an invitation of my own.

While I've never been into Pandora or Rhapsody, for some reason, Spotify has really appealed to me.  Like those other services, Spotify is a streaming music service.  You can stream music from their website, and if you pay for an upgrade, stream from your phone as well.

I believe part of my enjoyment of this service is my horrible taste in music.  My taste is bad.  I love top 40 pop awful awful music.  I want to dance when I hear music and be inspired to run.  The name of this blog is I'm not cool -- and my music taste isn't.

So what's totally awesome is Spotify allows me to indulge my taste in crappy music without guilt.  The other day, Husband and I watched Burlesque.  Stop judging me.  It has CHER and CHRISTINA AGUILERA.  I thought about buying the soundtrack.  But I'm not sure I want to spend $11 on it.  No problem, with Spotify, I can listen to the album for free.  Or any of their 15 million other songs.  Like the Backstreet Boys.  I can't live without this and immediately upgraded to premium service, so I can listen to songs streaming on my iPhone.   With premium, I can even download playlists to my iPhone and listen to them when not connected to the Internet -- even the good music I occasionally listen to, like Otis on the new Kayne / Jay - Z album.

Do this: QR codes

Now that I've discovered QR codes, I must say that I'm extremely disappointed in all written material out in the universe without them.  Because, let me tell you, I'm not writing anything down again.

First of all, in order to write something down, I'd have to find a pen and paper in my purse.  The paper will probably be a kids menu or receipt from a restaurant.  I would never remember that I wrote something on it and throw it away when I went home.

Isn't it cute?

Second, if I did write something down, I can't read my own handwriting.  At all.  I have, on several occasions, asked my coworkers if they can help me read something I, myself, wrote.  This is actually becoming quite a problem for me, because the unwritten culture at my office when meeting members of my boss' level is to not bring your laptop to a meeting, which is my normal plan, using Microsoft OneNote to take notes.   As a result, I have to take notes by writing them down.  I did acquire a really cute notebook to take the notes in.  However, I can't read them.  (This is actually a plus when I'm sitting close enough to someone that they could read it and the note is something like, "Are you freaking kidding me?" because it's practically in code.)  

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about (which seems likely since I've been with several people who recently asked what they were) QR codes are simply bar codes that can be read by a QR scanner.  You can download a scanner for your phone and scan away when you see them.  If you don't have one, go get one.  I'll wait.  And here's a QR code that will bring you to this blog.  (You can get a QR code for yourself by using the Google URL shortener)  


QR codes should be used on any print media I come into contact with that wants me to go to a website.  Posters.  Magazines.  Mail.  Because I'm not writing down your website.  The address is too long and I can't read my handwriting.  You want me to go to your site, make it easier for me to get there.

I recently saw one of the more interesting uses of QR codes at Sephora.  They had codes for some of the products that linked to videos on the products.  Even better, the Sephora iPhone app includes a QR reader!

At JoAnn's Fabrics (where I sometimes get cake supplies), their "how to" project sheets now have QR codes.  I can scan the code and leave the paper--which I would have put in my purse, and completely forgotten about until much later when I was cleaning my purse.

I'm considering getting a QR stamp for my vCard to stamp on my business cards for my company's upcoming conference. Business cards are like grown up trading cards.  I haven't saved a single card since 2003 since now we that have Outlook, we don't need business card holders anymore.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone gave you a business card and you could immediately scan it into your contacts on your phone?  You could give them the card back!  Environmentally friendly!

A Love Letter to: Bindu Reddy

Dear Bindu Reddy,

A friend of mine linked to an article of yours.  We need to talk.  Specifically about this line in your article:

Stepping back, at a more fundamental level, I am not really sure we should worry about the lack of women in tech any more than worrying about why there are not more female truck drivers or more male nurses.  

Oh I worry.  I worry a lot.  I've been in the tech business now for 14 years.  I started out in IT, and regularly attended quarterly briefings by Microsoft in order to get more product information.  For the first few years I went, there was never a line for the women's bathroom.  Now tell me:  when was the last time you went to an event that had hundreds of people and you didn't wait in line for the women's bathroom?

I'm guessing you also haven't read Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap  I'll fill you in.  Girls in middle school, who otherwise out performed boys in math and science until that point, "lose interest" in math and science, and as a result don't become sys admins when they grow up.

Lucky for me, I had wonderful parents who encouraged my interest in science and allowed me to leave home at 16 to attend a math and science magnet school.  I worked at a computer lab in college and with that experience (and not much help from my politics degree) got my first job at a computer help desk.

In my first job out of college, I was the only woman on a team of 10.

In my second job, I was the only woman on a team of 13 with the exception of my boss.

In my third job, I was 1 of 2 women in the company of 12 people.

I don't want to be the only woman in the room in a team meeting.

Happily, things are changing.  I work on a wonderfully diverse team now (and my boss is an amazing woman with tons of experience!)  Lines started forming for the women's bathrooms at those Microsoft briefings.  My daughter takes Gigglebytes computer classes at her preschool.   Even Barbie is a computer engineer now!  And there are wonderful organizations such as GirlStart, which encourage girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math.

But I'm probably not going to stop worrying for a while.

Love,
Cynthia

Okay, Google + could be just as cool as they say it is

Many thanks to my friend Betsy, I did get an invite to Google +!   And I'm lonely.  I have less than 10 friends.  But looking at what this could be, I'm pretty impressed.

First, the Circle concept.  Early on in my Facebook history, I decided that I would accept any friend request that came from actual people I know.  I'm quite the Facebook woman of ill repute -- I'll friend anybody.  That has brought me to a place where I have over 500 friends, and I really can't say anything.  I'm friends with family, coworkers, clients, neighbors, people that were jerks to me in high school -- anyone that asks.  That also means that I really inhibit what I post.  I had a bad day at work -- probably not going to mention that since the CEO is one of my friends.  Annoyed about a system problem at work -- probably not going to mention it since I have clients as friends.  Annoyed at the neighborhood kids because they keep playing in the street and I nearly ran over one again -- probably not going to mention it because the neighbors are my friends.  Having separate circles would give me the freedom to actually share my real thoughts.

And I guess that I could have not friended anyone I wasn't actually besties with, but the fact is that Facebook  and it's social sharing has been extremely helpful.  My company has a D.C. office and being Facebook friends with my coworkers in D.C. (like Betsy) makes me feel closer to them -- I can't see them daily, but I get to see what funny and awesome people they are daily on Facebook.  I know my neighbors better because I can see what they are up to.  I'm a terrible, terrible correspondent -- I hate personal email and so infrequently respond -- but Facebook allows me to but tidbits of my life up and keep people that I don't see as often as I would like close to me.

The second thing is the blending of private and personal, which could be a bad thing.  To me, Google + combines the best things of Facebook (possible exclusivity) and the best things of Twitter (it's all out there, all the time.)

I was a Twitter user about two years ago, and I still have an account  Follow @cbalusek
But I don't do much with it.  I use it some most recently for work and that's about it.  Oh, and I Tweeted to unlock some Angry Birds levels.   A large part of why I don't use it is because I'm so freaking overwhelmed by it.  When I go look at my Twitter feed, I get about 20 updates an hour.  And I've reduced the number of people I follow down from 200 to 123.  Still, these people are chatty!  And I know Twitter has lists now, but since I can't see who isn't in a list, I can't easily sort people.  I think that Google + starting with Circles will make this easier.

However, there is still a main feed that shows everyone.  And this is where I could get back to Twitterville.  I almost starting following an industry expert for the portion of the software industry in which I work.  And I noticed she's posting 5-6 times a day.  If I started Circling her and anyone else I don't have a personal relationship with, this could become Twitter 2.0 for me.

And finally, Google + is just beautiful.  BEAUTIFUL.  I mean, look at my Facebook profile:

STUFF EVERYWHERE!  CHAOS!  DISTRACTION!

And look at my Google + profile:

Minimalist.  Soothing.  A light rain on a summer's day.

I'm assuming some Google ads will appear at some point, but so far the base is so nice.  I'm so relaxed looking at.

So, I guess the question is, will everyone join in?  Will my 500+ friends migrate to Google + even though I can't even get my husband an invite today?  Will I maintain statuses on both until they do?  Will Google + go the way of De Lorean -- beautiful, but doesn't catch on?  

My gut feel is Google + is a De Lorean, but then again, I told my boss in 2001 that I didn't want to attend Mac training because that technology would not be transferable in my career, and here I am typing this on a MacBook Pro I can barely use.  

I Am Not Cool Enough for: a Google + invite

Many of my Facebook friends are talking about Google + and giving their opinions and I'm apparently not cool enough to get one.  I have no Google + invite.  I can't access the super cool social network.

This is not the first time Google has rejected me.  I wasn't picked to be a beta tester of their Chrome netbook.  We've already discussed my iPad indifference.  I was made to be a Chrome netbook beta tester!

Then, Google Music was announced.  Despite the fact that I carry my iPhone with me everywhere, I was temporarily convinced that I Needed Google Music so I could listen to my music anytime anywhere!   I did not get an invite to use it.  Then, Apple announced its iCloud service, and I realized that since all my music is already in iTunes, that makes more sense.  Also, I have a portable music device I carry everywhere anyway, called the iPhone.  Then I got an invite but I no longer cared, even though it did allow me to access a remix of Step by Step by the New Kids on the Block.

Now, here we are, Google +.  I think what's really annoying about this is that I am a serious user of Google products:

• I only use Google Chrome, the world's most superior browser.  It's super lightweight.  I can open up the 15 tabs or so I need open at any one time and it won't crash.  If you aren't using it, you really should.  It's really amazing.  
• My personal email is Gmail.  
• I use Google docs both at home and at work
• I prefer to edit and display my pictures on the web using Picasa, a Google product, which is both amazing and free.  
• This blog is on Blogger, a Google product, and not the cooler of the blog software, WordPress.  
• I even tried to use Google Wave.  However, it turned out that no one actually needed that product, including me.  

It's also annoying that I have no idea if or when I'll get an invite.  When Apple releases a product, I have a general idea when I'm going to get it.  If it's a phone, you can preorder or stand in line.  You may have to wait weeks or take a day off and spend it camped outside the Apple store to get one sooner rather than later, but at least you won't feel like Apple is only picking the cool kids to be on their team to use the iPhone.  

If I had an invite, I would take it seriously and use it.  If it was awesome, I would tell my friends and send them invites too.   But part of me wonders if there's really something there to see.  

The iPad is good for reading magazines

So, I've already told you about my lack of enthusiasm for the iPad. However, I've discovered one good use for it:  reading People Magazine.   Yes, reading People Magazine.

First, I'm embarrassed to admit that I actually subscribe to People Magazine.  It's my one guilty pleasure each week.  It takes less than an hour to read it, and it's fun.   However, it's kind of a pain to read, as every other page is an ad, and there's not a lot of words on each page, so there's a lot of page flipping to do.  On the iPad, I touch the side of the page and BAM, page is flipped.

I also generally read People Magazine with my iPhone close by so I can sample songs I read about in music reviews on iTunes and send book samples that sound interesting to my Kindle.  With the iPad edition, links to song samples and Amazon books are embedded into the magazine, therefore saving me a step.  When reading a movie review, the movie trailer is embedded in the magazine.

Even better is the price:  free.  Since I already subscribe to the magazine, the digital edition is free.  Most magazines have not taken that approach, and it's not cost effective to switch to the digital version.  I would LOVE to get Vanity Fair on the iPad because the magazine is HUGE and every issue seems to weigh 2 lbs.  However, the iPad version of Vanity Fair  costs $4 an issue or $48/year.  A subscription to the paper version is $12, and you get a free bag   Subscribing to the paper version does not include the iPad version.

And as much as I love my Kindle, it's black and white, and while it's great for books, not so much for fashion magazines where I want to see things in color.

I Am Not Cool Enough For: Blogging

I'm really not.  For starters, I don't have a lot of time what with having a full time job, a newborn, and an almost 4 year old.  Which is really what you need if you are going to be serious about blogging.   I'm writing this at 5:30AM.  While watching the newborn.  And if the 4 year old wakes up, then I'll probably get around to finishing this post next week or something. This may be my last post for another three weeks.  Who knows?

I'm pretty confident I'm supposed to randomly say in conversation, "I should blog this" or "Oh, I need to go update my blog."  And I don't.  I hardly talk about this blog at all.  I haven't told many people I have this blog.  And when I do, I tell them, "I'm cool now, I have a blog."

"Oh, what's it called?"

"www.iamsonotcool.com"

Yep.   Not cool enough to blog.

I Am Not Cool Enough For: the iPad

I am a geek.  I love gadgets.  I bought a first generation iPhone, and while I didn't buy it the week or day it came out, I bought it soon and I love it.  Later, Husband got one too and we both upgraded to the 3GS last summer.  Child1 uses one of our old phones for car and restaurant entertainment.

So, when the iPad announcement finally happened, I was intrigued.  I was also very pregnant and looking for a mobile device to read books on.  I'm an extremely fast reader and when I had Child1, I spent a lot of time nursing her and reading.  And she took forever to eat, so I read A Lot.  And there's nothing more annoying than finishing a book at 3am and having nothing else to read.  So, I began looking for a mobile reading device so I could buy books any time I wanted. I evaluated the iPad, the Nook, and the Kindle.

I ruled out the Nook because of reviews that complained about page "turning" speed (though I really liked the Nook loaning books feature.)  I ruled out the iPad almost immediately because of size and weight.  At 10" and 1.5 lbs, it's too heavy to hold with one hand, which is the only number of free hands I have when dealing with a baby.  I chose the Kindle.

(Interestingly, I use other devices to read my Kindle books.  I also have a netbook and using the Kindle software, I read books on it as well as my iPhone.  And it doesn't matter what device I use, they all know what page I'm on.)

Husband really wanted the iPad, reserved one, and stood in line for hours a week after Child2 was born to retrieve it.  He loves it.  He carries it everywhere.

Me?  I'm not impressed and won't get one of my own.  I've tried to like it, but I'm just not that cool.  Here's what's stopping me:

• I already have a netbook.  It runs Flash.  And any other software I want on any browser I want.
• I have a smaller, more portable iPad already:  it's called an iPhone.  There's nothing the iPad can do that I want to do that I can't do on the iPhone.
• I found typing near impossible on it.  I really tried to use it as my computer at home for a week and gave up after trying to write an email for an hour.  The netbook has a tiny keyboard, but it still has real keys.  (And I know that you could plug a keyboard into the iPad, but why?)
• Being able to watch streaming media on it was cool for a day, but I can get Netflix on our Blu-ray player which is hooked up to our 54" television, which is a much better experience.  

One thing I really do like about the iPad is tactile web browsing.  You want to look at something -- touch it.  You want to zoom in on something, you expand it using your hands.  It's much more enjoyable than a mouse. My fantasy future has this technology for all computers.