Oh happy day! I have been waiting for the iPhone to come to Verizon since it hit the world by storm in June, 2007. But, as much as I wanted to buy it back then, I held out because 1) at the time, it had a hefty price tag and hefty monthly charges 2) The practical side of me usually trumps my impulsive side so I generally wait for at least the second generation of any new technology 3) I wasn’t ready to jump ship quite yet from Verizon. So what did I do? I bought the iPod Touch instead so I could still have those amazing apps and “pretend” I was just as cool as my friends sporting the iPhone. But,  it just wasn’t the same.

So here it is…the day the iPhone is actually available in stores and I still sit here iPhoneless? What’s up with that? I’ll tell you what’s up with that. It’s because practical me has taken over once again and sees iPhone 5 on the horizon and whispers… “Kath, just wait. It’ll be here soon. It’s going to be so AWESOME! You can hold out. You’ve waited this long.” It’s times like this I really hate practical me. Sigh!

So this is why my son won’t “friend” me on Facebook. I understand that he doesn’t want his Mom in his “business,” but these days, technology is pretty much the only way he’ll communicate with me. “Talking is old school,” he tells me. Or should I say, texts me. We haven’t talked in so long, I forget what his voice sounds like.  So…we Tweet, we text, we e-mail & we stare. Ahhhhhh! Good times. Good times.

My husband and I caved and bought our 13 year old a cell phone for Christmas. We agonized over the decision, but for our particular circumstances…two parents working…son with diabetes…we decided it would be OK to “take the plunge.” However, after seeing all the horror stories of kids getting into trouble with these little technological gadgets, we wanted to minimize what features he had access to.

Spranq, a Netherlands based company, has figured out a cool way of saving ink. They developed a new font, aptly named “ecofont,” that uses up to 20% less ink than a traditional font. Essentially, when the letters are viewed at a large font size (like the diagram above), it looks like somebody riddled the letters with holes. But at a normal size type (font size 9 – 10 looks best) you can’t tell the difference AND you get the benefit of saving money and the earth by using less ink when printing. The font is free and can be downloaded for both Windows and Mac platforms directly from Spranq’s Web site.

OK, so I thought I would stretch my comfort zone a little today. I decided to follow a site about diabetes, since my son has Type 1 diabetes, and then the next thing you know, I have six new diabetes organizations following ME. I gotta admit, it felt a little creepy to find out I’m being followed by strangers. And, I’m pretty sure they’re not following me because they think I’m so totally awesome. I think they’re just waiting for me to hit the ol’ “follow” button to start stalking, uh, I mean following them. Ahhhhh, so this is how social marketing works? Now I get it. Not sure if I like it, but I get it.

OK. So I took the plunge. I joined Twitter. I must say it was a very easy process, so that was cool. My new handle is escapethechaos, so if you want to check out my “tweets,” please follow me.

So far I only have one follower, my darling 17-year old nephew. He doesn’t quite fit my target audience of women ages 25 – 55, but I’m happy to have him along. Come join the party. It’s twitterful!

O.K. So, I’m trying to be “cool” and learn about all of this social networking phenomena going on out there. At first, I thought it was just for the youngsters to use and couldn’t really figure out the point of it all.

I have been drooling over the iPhone since it was first launched in 2007. I mean, if I had one, I could literally hold my life in my own hands. OK, maybe that’s a little dramatic. But it would allow me to have access to my calendars, contacts, the Internet, maps, music, and so much more.

Before I launched this blog, I did a lot of research about what the latest blogging tools and technology are. I decided to build the blog using WordPress, and I knew I wanted to add some bells and whistles to make it really “shine.”

I did what I normally do when I want to learn about computer technology, I went and bought a bunch of books. I bought two on blogging, one about SEO, one about DreamWeaver and one about WordPress. That’s a lot of books!