Barnes & Noble: How to screw customers

I understand that Windows Phone 7 is a new OS. I understand that it’s not nearly as common as an iPhone or Android. I even understand that there are only a few handsets that utilize the platform. They don’t even have CDMA (Sprint, Verizon, etc) models out yet. So maybe B&N just wasn’t looking at WP7 as a viable investment, after all look at what happened to the kin after some interdepartmental bickering.

When your competitor is ahead of you on sales, wouldn’t you want to be ahead if them with innovation? Granted, Amazon has infinitely more money and resources to throw at developing new apps for whatever new device is trending. The fact remains that it was well over a month after OS release that Kindle for WP7 was available on the marketplace. It was also at least 6 months after the development kits had been available from Microsoft. Even with that kind of advanced warning time to prep an app, Nook failed to produce.

Rant: Maternity Clothes (You’ve been warned)

I understand that clothing that you’ll only ever wear for 9 months is a rather specialized category. Thing is, why should I pay 50$ for a pair of jeans that only cost 5 or 6$ more to make than a pair of regular jeans on the $14 rack. The corporations are still making a profit off of those $14 jeans in case you’re concerned on their behalf. So why do I need to spend so much money on clothes that, if it’s your last time through pregnancy, you’ll never wear again?

I found that I was very conservative the last time I was pregnant. I had one wrap-around skirt, one pair of jeans, and a few “longer” t-shirts. The rest of the time I lived in whatever would fit well enough for me to be comfortable at home. This time I ran into a snag, I started needing maternity clothes in the winter time, rather than getting out of them at this time of year. I survived the last few weeks with Kiddo by layering and layering and layering. All the the while with a very cold belly.  This time, I’ve got to survive through Winter and Spring and maintain comfort. Thankfully, some relatives purchased me enough shirts and a pair of pants that I should be set for going out a few times before laundry day. In North Texas, it’s been the mildest I’ve ever seen. Normally we would’ve had snow a few times already and we’ve yet to get even a really bad frost it’s only managed to be snowy for a couple days. I’m so thankful you have no idea.

I’ll be honest, I’m plus-sized. I have been since High School and a nasty knee surgery that still needs correction. Try to find plus-size maternity clothes at a normal box store.  Seriously, go see if Target or Wal-Mart has any at a brick & mortar store. What you end up doing is buying a size 26 and remodeling the whole zipper area to make it fit “okay” for the next few months. In the mean time, you notice that your legs are like broomsticks down the pant, so you end up taking in the side seams as well. At which point it would’ve been easier to just make pants from scratch or just wear some ugly pair of sweatpants the whole time because it’s easier. So that’s what I’ve done. I’m living in sweatpants and looking like a slob whenever I go out because it’s a lot easier than having to pay 50 or 60$ for something I’ll never wear again. No one even bothers to think I’m pregnant because of my size, I just look fat. Lovely.

Falling Behind

Some of you may be wondering what happened with my TARDIS knitting project, the short answer is not much. I’m in the beginning of the first side still. Intarsia/Fair Isle is a long and annoying process. Especially since it has been a few years since I attempted a project with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a vision of the insanity that is the back/inside of the TARDIS plushie.

Kinect Woes

If you think you have just enough room in your living room for a Kinect sensor to work properly, you’re probably wrong. We had it set up in front of where our television used to be, only to find out that 6 feet meant that it would pick up our computer chairs and whomever was seated in them. We didn’t realize that our entertainment stand wasn’t 2 feet off the ground, so we have the sensor resting on top of the Xbox.

I’m not entirely unhappy with this purchase, but I feel like it was way too early for the kiddo. He’s 3 years old, he has the attention span it takes for a short round of peekaboo, unless you’ve got an episode of Caillou playing on Netflix. Setting up the Kinect for him to use, was pretty much impossible. It doesn’t understand people under 4 feet, when we tried to setup the KinectID it displayed his avatar “crumpled” and kneeling. Way too weird, just seeing that made him laugh and act up enough that we tried to restart it 4 times for him. On the fifth try, we just gave up. Too much work. He wants to wave and jump in and play with his “Kitty-Tiger”(Kinectimals) but it’s just not happening. Maybe in a few years.

Thing is, I had problems with it recognizing me. Standing in full light, with no obstructions, it hated me. I understand it’s a new thing; if it doesn’t recognize you when you wave, they should add a tile on the Kinect Hub so that you can try to “wave in” again and get your identity. Rather than having to walk away completely and get it to reset itself, it would be a real time/mind-saver. Watching my child be frustrated wasn’t my idea of fun, and I’m pretty sure he would liked to have avoided that as well. I may just be in a grumpy mood, but that’s still one night that I’m not enjoying my purchase.

2010 in review

Not too surprising, the post about cleaning my keyboard was the most searched for out of the bunch. The interesting thing was that my rinkydinky post about how to cook pinto beans is considered the most popular is amazing. It’s just beans people! lol

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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.