Life, Kids, Technology & that move to another continent
At dinner T asks “daddy you like cake? “. My response “yes”. T asks “Mommy you like cake?” M’s reply “yes I like cake”. T’s response “I like cake too”. I then realize our family is very focused around cake. One might say too much however I am not saying that.
Earlier in the day: A to T “thank you” as she gives Teagan a toy.
Teagan to M “spit it out. No eating off daddy plate” as M was eating salad I would never eat off my plate. Where was T when I needed help defending my cake and not salad?
I have had my Apple Watch for a few days now. It hasn’t been enough time to write an exhaustive review about features, however I am not writing a full technical review. I am writing about my experience with it to date.
Physically the watch face looks ok to me. The band is a nice rubber band but its still not great. I know I bought the cheap band. Some of the other ones look much better however no super awesome band will take away from the fact that this is still a digital watch. The watch itself is pretty thick and boxy. It is well built but not beveled like someone at work pointed out. Ascetically pretty decent. Not fantastic but overall not horrible.
Someone pointed out in a review I read that the main things people will really regularly use a smart watch for is 1, telling time, 2 activity tracking, and 3 notifications. I generally agree with this. The other functions are nice to have’s but not anything that I would use often. The using the watch for example as a viewfinder for the camera is nifty but i am not going to use that very much.
Using those three main functions I wanted to see how the Apple Watch fared for me. First as a watch it wasn’t great. I was just ok. I personally had issue with the watch taking a while to go on when i moved my wrist to look at the time. It isn’t a lot of time but it is very noticible. I also don’t have the best vision so once i am looking at the watch face I have to focus on the hands to know what time it is. Most people may glance much faster at it and then the waiting for it to light up may not be a big deal. For me waiting for it to light up and then having to look at it and get the time was just too long. I know I could possibly solve my issue by just using the digital time however I have been an analog watch person for over a decade now and I don’t want to change now because the Apple Watch doesn’t turn on fast enough.
As for activity tracking I am honestly still confused by the three circles that the watch uses to track me. Move isn’t really a step count I think. I am not sure and if i can’t easily figure that out then it is too complex. Tracking my standing is cool however if the watch knows i am active why does it matter that it knows i am actually standing. My Up band alerted on lack of activity. It just seemed simpler. In any event the activity tracker seems good enough. The main issue with the watch as an activity tracker is that it is built into the watch. On one hand that is great. One less thing to wear. Of course what if I wear another watch? Or as in my case I want to track my sleep habits as well like i have been for a few years with my Jawbone UP. For me if I were to keep the watch it wouldn’t be my only watch so I would need an activity tracker anyway. My Jawbone UP24 broke last week so I just ordered a new Jawbone UP2. I will blog about that hopefully soon. In any event I am not giving up my dedicated tracker so the Apple Watch as an activity tracker is redundant for me. For others it may be great or the best function now that they can get rid of another wrist band. I for one am happy to own a basic activity tracker like the up that doesn’t have a screen on it and just tracks what i do since that is the only reason i own it.
The 3rd main reason to have a smartwatch would be the notifications. This is where my problem lies. The Apple Watch is good at this. Really good. In the few days i have had it i have loved the meeting notifications and the ability to snooze them and not forget to be somewhere. The timer is helpful also however not much easier than just dictating to Siri on my phone. Telling me about a new text was great, however there were a few that I never got on my watch but did get on my phone. Overall I liked the notification features of the watch. That in lies my problem. This watch along with all smart watches are a huge distraction or so I thought. I initially got concerned the first full day I had it when the girls were climbing all over me to play with it. I was concerned about the distraction. I am trying to adhere to be here now when I am home. Because of the distraction I was all set to return the watch. Then I read another blogger who said the notifications on the watch were great because it allowed them to keep the phone in their pocket and actually be less distracted. I was intrigued. That was exactly what I wanted. Because of that the watch got a reprieve and I will keep trying it for a while longer.
Last year I went to some culture training in London for work. I have wanted to write about the experience for a while and I keep putting it off. Much of what I learned I have been actively trying to use every day. That of course was the point of the culture training, to get everyone taking part to think and act differently in their interactions with each other. At at the end of the training we were asked to write down things we learned at the training that we wanted to remember to do every day.We were given an “I will” card to write the items down on and put it in our wallets. I don’t keep the card in my wallet but it sits at the base of my monitor at work so i have it to reference if I ever need to. I keep a picture of it in my Evernote so I always have it with me. On my trip to Minnesota last month I was having dinner with several managers including my manager and his manager and the topic of the cards came up. Out of the 5 of us present everyone remembered what they had on their card or produced it out of their wallet to show they still had it. Some of these people had taken this training 2 years ago. It was interesting to see that everyone was still invested in changing our behaviors with each other, and that I wasn’t the only person actively working to inprove.
I have been mindful of things I want to improve on however that experience got me wanting to renew my efforts at self improvement. The first item on my “I will” card was a reminder that I will apply what i learned at the workshop. To me that was a catch all to just remember to think about what I learned and not forget. That is harder than it seems. There are many days were I don’t remember however thankfully I think the majority of the time I am mindful of things i want to be doing. The first I will that I learned that I wanted to live by is “be here now”.
Be here now is a fascinating concept that can be applied to work life as well as personal life. It simply is to remind me to be in the moment and avoid distractions. At work that means focusing on a meeting or a conversation and not multi-task. It means paying attention and giving what you are doing your undivided attention. At home it means to not be distracted by work. To me it means that I want to leave my phone on my desk or if i have to in my pocket when i get home and not be distracted by it or what it is alerting to me. I get so little time with my kids when I get home and almost no time in the morning during the week. I want to make use of that valuable time and not be distracted by my phone, work or anything else. There are days when I am. I am not perfect but i am getting better. I want to get to a place were i put my devices away in a drawer and not worry about stuff.
Maybe I am concerned about this because I am in the technology field or because i read about how kids react to parents distracted by devices. I also read and see how families and small kids just zone out with devices when together. I worry about that with my family. I know MC and I are role models for them and the girls watch what we do and try to emulate us. That is why be here now is important to me on a personal level as well as a professional one.
The training was a very enlightening experience for me. Seeing how it affected and continues to guide others that I work with is also good to see.
Be here now was one of 4 items on my I will card. I hope to write about the other ones in the near future. One of the points in an upcoming post I think will have a lot to do with be here now so I wanted to write about it first.
Note the photo in this post is from my desk at home. Everyone who went through the training got that placard. I see it around my office here and there. I know people who put up posters in their garage to remind them as they got home to be mindful. I felt the biggest impact for me would be at my desk at home since that is where i put my bag and keys, etc right when i get home.
Today we were going to goto the Zoo. It was pretty nasty out when we got up so we opted for an inside activity instead. We decided to goto the Queens Mall.
We took the subway over and walked around a bit. I got my mom her mothers day gift. We then went to the food court and let the kids play in the indoor play area. They always love running around and playing on the toy car’s.
After that we went to one of the only sit down restaurants in the mall for lunch, Applebee’s. I am not typically a fan of their food however both times we went to the one in the mall it hasn’t been busy for lunch and they are pretty kid friendly. The girls had a good time and the food was decent. We were even able to be home in time for some semblance of a nap for both girls.
We didn’t do anything special in the afternoon after nap time so it was a good rest of the day inside.
Mothers Day this year happened to be MC’s birthday. We spent the weekend at her parents place. We hadn’t seen them since late March when we were in Tanpa.
It was a good weekend. The girls got quality time with some grandparents. I got a ton of really good photos. I took over 900 and was only able to waddle them down to about 170 before I gave up.
Teagan had cake twice and didn’t get sick in the car. All in all a great weekend. The kids had ice cream cake for the first time. It was done right MC’s mom got a carvel cake. Mmm crunch stuff between vanilla and chocolate.
Only down side for me was I had a mild migraine most of Sunday. I am thankful it didn’t blow up into a really debilitating head ache.
I know that it is a huge step down from either of my daily wear watches however that isn’t stopping me from trying the Apple Warch. I am a geek for cool technology after all. So far first thoughts in the few hours I have worn it are nifty and did I really put down an Onega for this?
Going to see how a few days of use changed my opinion for better or worse.
i cannot believe this is the departure area for Delta in Terminal C at LGA. It’s a far cry for the pretty dumpy Terminal A I have been used to.
Friday Teagan went with my mom to my sisters house for the first night of Passover. it was an experience for Teagan since she loves the train and she got to take two of them with her grammy. It was also an expense since she spent the night at my sisters without us or her sister. From all accounts she had a blast even if she didn’t have a nap.
Friday night and Saturday was interesting for MC and I since we got to act like people who only have one kid. Amelia got a lot of extra attention. Saturday Amelia and I went for a nice long walk and then played in the park. After her nap we drove to my brother in law’s sisters house for the 2nd night of Passover. We were reunited with Teagan, my sister and her family and my parents along with a bunch of other family for dinner. It was nice to spend time with the family and let the kids play with the cousins.
Amelia fell asleep pretty quick in the car not he way home. I would like to say the same for Teagan but all I can say is she fell asleep eventually on the car ride home.
