Socal Mom by Donna Schwartz Mills

Blogging, Marketing and Getting Out of the House

Have you noticed that since the first of the year, I've stopped writing about how my life sucks?

Sure, I've been kvetching about the new dog and all the other little annoyances that get in my way, but that's normal. 2009 was the year that that my neatly defined little life turned upside down. In the space of a couple of weeks, I found myself dealing with health issues, family issues, financial issues and the realization that the one place where I felt safe -- my home -- was in danger of getting eaten by a science fiction-worthy giant mushroom that could not be killed.

It's no wonder I was feeling a little depressed. OK, a LOT depressed.

When I have the blues, I tend to hibernate. I'm not any fun to have around when I'm in that state, and I don't have the energy to make the effort. Plus, when I did have the desire (like, when BlogHer rolled around), I didn't have the time (because the work on the house was all-consuming) or the money (ditto). It was a vicious cycle, because the antidote to feeling sad is to get out and DO things with people you like. And so the more I hid, the harder it was to climb out of the hole.

But now we're into a new year, and I feel like I want to connect again. I looked into what it would take to get to last week's Mom 2.0 Summit, but as disposable income is lacking, I had to pass. That's why I was so excited when the gang at Silicon Valley Moms Group announced they were holding a party here in SoCal for the contributors to Los Angeles Moms Blog and the soon-to-be-launched Orange County Moms Blog.

I didn't even really care that one of the purposes of the gathering was to meet marketers who wanted to reach out to mom bloggers. (Well, not all that much.) I was just looking forward to getting out of the house and being part of the world again. And it didn't hurt that the shindig was being held at the gorgeous Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel.

For one thing, how can anyone be depressed when the view from the window looks like this?

Google's Nexus Phone and T-Mobile: Crappy Way to Keep Current Customers Happy

It's no secret that since its debut, I've been pining for an iPhone. I crave the ease of surfing the web from anywhere and the cool apps you can get. And it seems like all the "cool" moms agree.

But so far, the iPhone has only been available on the AT&T network, and there's the rub.

We're T-Mobile customers. We've been with them for years and on balance, have been happy. We have four lines for our three-person family and thanks to our urging, brought them my sister's five-member family and my mom and dad, as well.

While their coverage can be spotty (especially in other parts of the country), it's been fine in most of the places I frequent. But my current phone - a Blackberry Pearl - was shoddily made and started falling apart on me one year into my current two-year contract, which ends this month... and I've been eagerly looking forward to the time I could afford to replace it.

I figured this was an opportunity not just to examine the phones available through T-Mobile, but to take a gander at what the other phone companies are offering. My teenage daughter has long groused that our carrier's lack of an iPhone isn't the only thing wrong with their product line - she much prefers the catalog offered at AT&T and Verizon.

Over the summer, I got to play with a Palm Pre (which is exclusive to Sprint) and loved its ease of use. One of my best friends has a Pre and she is extremely happy with it.

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to play with a Blackberry Curve on the Verizon network (a review is forthcoming). It's a superior phone to the Pearl and I could be very happy with it (if I didn't crave the browsing ease offered by the sexier smartphones). I was also impressed with the coverage and speed provided by Verizon.

But there's one big issue that keeps me from switching to Sprint or Verizon: We have family in the UK and have found that it's nice to have the use of our own phones when we visit them. Most of the world's mobile phone networks (Britain included) are on GSM networks... this means AT&T and T-Mobile are the only companies we feel comfortable using.

The cost of the iPhone has been coming down, and last month, I was all set to switch... and then for a couple of reasons, I changed my mind.

The first was a cover story in Consumer Reports, that named AT&T as one of the most expensive companies with the worst service... and T-Mobile as one of the cheapest and most customer-friendly.

The second was the rumor that T-Mobile was going to get an amazing new phone offering from Google.

That phone made its official debut on Tuesday, at CES. Since then, I've been eagerly reading reviews of the Nexus One, and it sounds like it just might satisfy my iPhone jones. One of the interesting things about it is that you can purchase it unlocked directly from Google, and use it on any compatible network (which, so far, is just AT&T and T-Mobile in the US). The retail price is $529 - which is too rich for my blood.

But if you buy it with a new two-year contract with T-Mobile, the cost goes down to $179. As my current contract expires this month, I was starting to get excited.

Ah, but not so fast: The website specifies that you have to have a new two-year INDIVIDUAL contract.

We're on a family plan and they won't allow me to tack it on to that. I would have to get a new, separate individual plan with a new phone number.

Or else, pay the full $529.

I gotta say, T-Mobile: THIS SUCKS. Is this how you incent your loyal customers to stick around?

Once again, I'm looking at the other phone companies.

A Bevy of Blurbs

Like many of my blogging friends, my IN-BOX is INUNDATED with pitches from PR folks.

I thought you might want to see a sample of what I pulled in today:

SUBJECT: CONDOM SALES ON THE RISE DURING THE RECESSION

Hi. I hope you are well.

I wanted to check in to see if you had seen last week’s USA Today article regarding condom sales in the current economy…

Recession seems to put people in the mood for condoms

In the past few months, it has become increasingly difficult to find an industry that is thriving, but there is one that has proven time and again to be truly recession-proof – the sex industry.

Recent sales analyses by Ansell Healthcare, the makers of LifeStyles Condoms, show a clear inverse relationship between poor economic times and condom sales. As more and more people find extra time on their hands and less money in the bank, we’re seeing a new trend in how consumers are choosing to spend that time.

Interesting, as well as making me grateful once again that I'm so old now that birth control is no longer an issue. But there's a flip side:

20 million American couples in sexless marriages

Dear Donna,

Good Morning America just reported that 20 million American couples are in sexless marriages – meaning these couples are sexually intimate 10 or fewer times in a year. Experts say this is an epidemic. Experience Project (EP –www.experienceproject.com), an online social forum where people connect anonymously through like experiences, is seeing a major increase in users participating in a discussion on this very topic, sharing their own reality of this “epidemic.”

OUCH!

Here's another one trying to appeal to those of us who are feeling the effects of the economy:

ATTENTION ALL "RECESSIONISTAS"

Hi There –

During this economic struggle when spirits are low and money is tight, one can’t help but be a “recessionista.” 

ELSPETH New York , a premier handbag line know for its luxurious materials, vivacious colors and impeccable quality is proud to launch it’s new online store (www.elspethnyc.com).  In honor of this, the designer – Elizabeth Phillips is offering 20% off of all purchases made online.  This offer is for a limited time only. 

The bags on sale are really attractive - but they still cost hundreds of dollars, even after the discount. I hate to break it to these folks, but the only thing I spend that kind of money on is my daughter's monthly gym tuition. I get all my bags at Target, they cost $30 or less -- and I get complimented on them all the time. And guess what? They hold just as much stuff as the designer handbags.

But the prize for the PR Pitch of the Day goes to this one:

SOTRY IDEA: YELLOW IS THE NEW PURPLE!

This caught my eye (and not just because of the misspelling in the headline!) because Megan is looking for a yellow dress for her Saturday morning Bat Mitzvah ceremony (we purchased a purple one for her Friday evening appearance). And First Lady Michelle Obama got a lot of props for wearing vibrant yellow at the Inauguration. So imagine my surprise when I read the rest of the email:

In case you didn’t know – yellow is the new purple!  The 2009 Fashion Week is here and setting the Spring color pallet. The hippest color to watch is bright yellow. If you want to start this yellow trend – not just cloths and fashion then take it to the next level. Yellow is everywhere from nails to hair, to hair down there! Betty Beauty product, Betty “color for the hair down there!” is the perfect item to add that yellow flair. 

I am having a little fun imagining how my husband would react if I suddenly sported um, "color down there"  -- especially since I've started letting the hair "up here" go gray because I can't afford to see my hairdresser as often as I used to. 

 

Contest: Baby, You Can Drive My Car

This month, I'm kicking off a new series of posts here at SoCal Mom and at my review site, SoCal Stuff.

The occasion: The imminent end of the lease on my beloved Volvo C60. I have until the end of June to make a decision to either purchase the Volvo -- or move into another vehicle.

Overall, I've been happy with the Swedish car -- but I'm not certain I want to keep it for another five years (at least)... Not when there are so many new autos on the market, with new features to choose from (like hybrid engines, natural gas powered engines, and more).

A lot of innovations have been brought to the automobile world since I took out my 3-year lease. Toyota and Honda are no longer the only makes offering hybrid engines -- you can find them from just about every one of the major auto makers (notably General Motors, which manufactures hybrid models for eight of its vehicles).

However, the last time I looked, the Prius was still the leader in hybrid gas mileage. But I recently read an article that stated that the Scion xB (with internal combustion engine) was a better choice for the environment, due to a combination of mileage and the kind of materials used to build it Honda makes a version of the Civic that runs on natural gas. And the tiny Smart car gets such good mileage that it doesn't need to be a hybrid (although I hear they've got one coming out, too).

I also want to take another long, hard look at the offerings from American car companies - although I realize that there's a lot of intermingling between auto makers these days. That Toyota you're looking at could have been built right here in the U.S. And that Volvo I've been driving for the last two and one half years was made by a company owned by Ford.

Making a decision is going to be hard. That's why I'm beginning my research at the Los Angeles Auto Show, which opens November 21 at the LA Convention Center.

Our family enjoys going to the show every year: It's a lot of fun to see all the displays and get up close to some of the vehicles that one can only dream of driving some day. But in a year when we actually have to purchase a new car, it's the most convenient way to see EVERYTHING on the market, all in one place.

Sounds like fun, huh? Wanna come? I'm giving away a family FOUR-PACK of tickets and an official LA Auto Show Messenger bag. You can enter my random drawing by leaving a comment on this post, telling me what you'd most like to see at the show. (For inspiration, visit their official website, here.)

The winner will be announced on this blog next Monday, November 17th.

The Very Last Post on the Dread Hard Disk Crash of 2008

How do you rebuild something that's been lost forever?

That's been my quest since I realized that the data that was on my computer is NOT COMING BACK.

The only thing to do is to start over, and -- without the baggage of having to live with bad decisions you made on previous computers (weird file setups, layers and layers of archives, etc.) -- you try to build it all better.

One thing that strikes me is how much quicker my computer is running now. The hard drive was probably already failing when I was at BlogHer, which is why I couldn't live blog LIVE over there and spent two hours after each session just fixing weird involunatry typos.

But I know part of my computer's slowness was due to all kinds of crap that various programs stuck into my startup routine, hogging my computer's memory and causing it to take a loooong time to bootup. I'm nipping that in the bud by going into startup every time I reinstall a program and removing all the extraneous bits I don't want as soon as I see them (because otherwise, I can't tell what they are or if I actually do need them).

And I'm going somewhat analog. Among the ton of BlogHer swag I received was a little black book titled the Internet Password Organizer. It's a simple idea - it resembles an address book with alphabetized pages. But instead of phone numbers, you record websites and passwords. When I saw it in the beautiful bag I received from Silicon Valley Moms Blog, I didn't think I would have a use for it, as I kept every password email I ever received in an Outlook folder and could do a quick search whenever I forgot one.

But I can't do that now. And a hard copy backup is starting to look good. So this book is my new right-hand (so to speak, as I'm a leftie). I'm not sure where I want to keep it -- don't really want to pack it in my laptop bag, so I guess it will stay somewhere in the house. I just hope I don't lose it!

Some of the files that were lost date back seven or eight years -- and if I really wanted THOSE, I do have old backups.

But the stuff that's lost forever is the material that has built up since I purchased this computer in 2007 - oh yes, and from a couple of years before that, because a few months ago the external hard drive I was using for backups had failed and I was TOO CHEAP to spend $100 on a new one.

I've learned that lesson. No more waiting around for help in repairing something as important as that.

Anyway, like I said - I'm focusing on rebuilding. My husband successfully managed to transfer all the media files from my iPod to a newly installed version of iTunes. I am now able to bore all of my friends with Series 4 and 5 of the British TV show Shameless ... and I can't use the "I don't have my iPod" excuse to avoid working out at the gym.

All my Playlists got lost in the transfer, but that's just a minor inconvenience among so many major inconveniences I am facing.

Like what to do about all the financial stuff that had been in Quicken. I need to pay bills today. I can download bank statements from the last few months, but don't know if I can get them dating back to the beginning of the year.

And there is the ever-present nuisance of hunting down email addresses that no longer exist in my contact list. If you sent me an email in the last couple of weeks and I haven't replied - or if I have promised a reply and you haven't received it... please accept my apologies.