MUFFINS

Alright, so this is monumental if you like muffins and chocolate (and even better if you like chocolate muffins)!  I have discovered this week, that making chocolate muffins really only requires a few things.

• Cocoa
• A box of muffin mix (any kind but corn probably wouldn't taste so good)
• The stuff it says you need on the box

All you have to do is add a couple teaspoons/tablespoons of cocoa to the dry mixture, and then follow the rest of the directions on the box.  You can add as much as you want, but I try to keep it so that I put just enough in to make it look that chocolatey brown color.

Had to share that, and so far it's great with apple cinnamon AND banana mix.  kthxbai

Email, email, more email

Believe it or not; I remember life before the internet.  My parents didn't have a computer for me to even do word processing on before I got to my sophmore year in highschool.  I didn't have a home internet connection until I was 21, married, and living in Vermont with our baby girl.  I had the privilege of skipping right over dial-up for the most part, and diving right into a cable internet connection.  email was easy, Yahoo! was where all my friends from NY were on.  I could chat with them, receive countless stupid joke emails that my husband had already seen from his friends at work.  Then I switched to Gmail, I gave up trying to fight Spam in my inbox.  I didn't care about enhancing the size of anything, I didn't want to help someone steal money from Nigeria, and I managed to push my friends in the right direction over time.

Nowadays, I still get the equivalent of a metric ton of email on a daily basis.  Gmail has not been as effective at helping me keep things neat and tidy the way I like them, even while it keeps Spam out with phenomenal success.    Given an invite to Alto, I thought I would set it up and see how I liked it.  I am open to suggestions of other clients that will try to make my Gmail experience better, so if you know of any, please let me know in the comments here or on Google+, and I'll try and share my thoughts and feelings on all of them (after trying them out of course).  I'd love to have one that also has an Android app available, but it's not a requirement, since I don't do much email "reading" on my phone, as much as just checking to see how important it is at the time.

Time to try and get some homework done for school now, leave your thoughts and suggestions below and try to have a good day!

And the Winner is....

I must admit that several note taking apps have made choosing only one of them a hugely difficult thing to do.
Previously I stated that the app that would win the Tottenmom approval stamp:

• should not have to install multiple apps to make it work
• The learning curve should be minimal for use
• S-pen compatibility
• Multiple notebooks (to keep class notes seperate) 
• File types (what are my export options)
• Efficiency (will I be able to keep up with a professor's lecture)
• Extra stuff

I have found 3 worth talking about with you, and will share them in no particular order.

1. FreeNote; which can do soooo many cool things, like import and take pictures, record voice and video, resizes text to fit on the paper lines; while keeping the text on the line (this means that you can't make text go "superscript" or "subscript", which is both a downfall and a positive, depending on the task at hand.  Outside of that, it's easy to figure out, responsive, and allows organizing of files.
2. AntiPaperNotes; is a bit different when it comes to the way it allows you to enter "written" data.  If you just open it up and start writing away, you will probably run out of room, however there is also a zoom feature, which allows you to place the "zoom" area where you want, and then allows you to navigate across or up and down the page as you need in order to put your notes where you want them.  Files can be exported as .jpg's or .png's which might work for sharing your course notes, but not for re-editing them, and likely not copy/pasting chosen parts either. I found it easy to understand and use, responsive, and easy on my eyes (which face it people, some apps just don't give a flying **** if you can see after you open their app or not).
3. HandRite is pretty awesome too, and is in some ways a blended version of #1 and #2.  Like AntiPaper, your handwritten text is resized and moved to the appropriate line on the paper, however, depending on which part of the "writing" area you use, you can have super and sub script with no real difficulty.  Like both of the others, it's easy to learn and use.  The "writing" area can be moved up or down on the screen here also, which is NOT possible in FreeNote, and to a lesser extent in AntiPaper, where the zoom area can be switched to the top or bottom depending on where you want it.  

I do plan to see about getting some screenshots posted in here in the near future, so keep an eye out for those.In the end, I feel like HandRite and AntiPaper are better options than FreeNote,  I call a TIE.  Please discuss below, and let me know what you think.

Note 2 "note-taking" update

I have taken a close look at two Note-taking apps, and have easily tossed out the third.  Antipaper and Handrite free are still in the game.  However I bid farewell to LectureNotes; which will definitely not meet the needs of someone who doesn't have time to learn a complicated eco-system.

I'd still be thrilled if there were some suggestions for other options that might work; I am finding it neccessary to change Roms tonight in order to get around the latest VZW ota update that wants to brick my phone; I'm not sure how this will affect the apps I'm testing, but we will see, and when I finish getting that done tonight I will try and remember to update this post to include a link to the ROM I'll be using.

Taking Notes on the Note 2

Hi people,

I was looking for a better note taking app for my Note 2, since S Note really wasn't going to help me in a pinch if I actually needed to take notes with it in class.  I came across two (so far) that seemed to meet my needs, and after playing with both of them for a few minutes, I realized that I really should compare a few different ones, and share what I find...  Since I only just decided to do this in the last 5 minutes or so; it might take some time before I post the results.
I am more than happy to take suggestions for any free or trial versions for this little project, so if you have suggestions let me know.  So that there is no confusion, I want to make my basic wishlist for a note taking application clear ahead of time;

• I should not have to install multiple apps to make it work
• The learning curve should be minimal for use
• S-pen compatibility
• Multiple notebooks (to keep class notes seperate) 
• File types (what are my export options)
• Efficiency (will I be able to keep up with a professor's lecture)
• Extra stuff

The two I've started with are Handrite Free and LectureNotes (Trial Version); so let me know if there is another one I should take a look at and I'll check 'em out!

I'm a bit muddled today

Goals

In discussing goals with my husband this morning; I realized that while we have a clear picture of our long-term goals (ie. after the kids are grown up, and my "career" is established)  we haven't really been good at deciding on short term goals.  Sure, we make plans; but something always comes up; that's life right?

Well, in at most 8 years I will have my Bachelors in Computer Science and be headed out of this seemingly black hole that is Western NY.  Before then however; comes the working to fix up our current house, and helping my Father-in-Law fix up "Poppy"s house down in Cuba, NY.

In order to do this, we are going to attempt to put together an exhaustive list of  projects that must be done, and the dates that they will get done.  I am not convinced that things will go exactly as planned; but I know that we need to make them happen. We will need to get rid of the carpets, replacing most with a quality laminate of some sort, we need to fix the holes in the walls from doorknobs.  Then there are the hideous ceiling fans, the power outlets that seem to have randomly decided that some will work, while others will not.  The list is long, but also includes our hideous deck, siding, and our two toned roof.  All we can hope for in the end is that when the time comes to move West we can at least get more than we paid for it.

School is still going well, with straight B's for now, though I am hoping to bring at least my math and programming grades up to A's before the end of the semester.  I have time, and I'm learning from my mistakes which is the point anyway right?  I've been thinking about what to do next semester, and while I'd prefer to not have a ton on my plate while taking a 4 credit math class, I need to get both Calc 1 and 2 done and out of the way, and I need the cash from financial aid in order to cover the gas I'll use driving to and from school.  I am really nervous about a group project in programming, simply because in my portal course, we just finished a group project which saw me putting everything together last minute, most of which was gathered by myself.
I keep forgetting that I have a lot to get done this week, but now that I'm reminded I had better get to it. Especially since the Dentist trip we took yesterday and was only supposed to take an hour instead took nearly 2 hours and more because they changed how they do things.

Mid October 2012

School

In two weeks I need to have a presentation ready that will convince others to choose Computer Science  as a major at FLCC.  Because my group for this assignment is a group of  three, while the Gaming majors were split into two groups of 5, and the IT majors have a group of 5 (I think); and also because our professor has expressed that Computer Science majors are his favorite, I feel a certain amount of pressure to do well.

My thought was that it would be beneficial to our purpose if we could each find job offerings locally which would fit our career goals and that would be available to a new graduate.  It really became somewhat frustrating when I was unable to find jobs in mobile development in the Rochester area, I realized that perhaps I should start talking to the local recruiting agencies that most companies in the area use.  I haven't yet, but on Monday I hope to have gotten things going, and while perhaps there will be no success in finding positions with my criteria for my personal goals, maybe there will be helpful information gleaned for my teammates.  If nothing else; I will have made one or more connections with the people who will potentially be helping me find employment when the time comes.

Kids

My kids continue to amaze me.  My daughter brought her guitar home after a guitar unit in her music class, and I am more convinced than ever that her talents lie in music.  Music and band have been her highest grades in school since she got to middle school.  I'm not sure if this is more to do with her interest level, or her seeming to have been labelled as a problem child.  She's been waiting to show us how well she can play This song; and I can't wait to hear it.  My oldest boy, who just started 5th grade has always had a unique way of solving problems.  He offers solutions that many might not have thought of; and I am thankful that our middle school has a Lego Robotics Club, allowing him to actually use his way of thinking to help find possible solutions to real world problems.  In Elementary school, the two younger boys are thriving also.  At the end of last school year, our now 3rd grader was reading at a 4th grade level.  This year, the 1st grade boy is actually doing his homework without being forced and considering how hard it was to get him to do it last year, I am impressed with him.

Technology

At some point in the near future I will be heading to Staples to buy my new Kindle Fire HD 7 inch.  Having debated internally over which tablet would be best for me, and deciding that given both timing and personal preferences that the 10.1 Galaxy Note would not suit my usage.
In case anyone was curious; our house is "home" to a large number of devices.  Presently we are the owners of:

• 2 HP Touchpads
• 2 Nexus 7 tablets
• 2 Galaxy Nexus phones (I refer to mine as Nexxy)
• 1 Raspberry Pi
• 1 Dell Inspiron 15R laptop (My new "school" computer)
• 1 2009 Macbook (My old "school" computer, now my husbands)
• 1 desktop which dual boots Windows or Ubuntu
• 1 HTC Incredible (not activated presently)
• 1 iPhone 5
• 3 iPods (I no longer use mine, but it's here somewhere)
• 2 different versions of the iPod nano
• 1 iPod touch

I keep thinking that today is Saturday, because everyone is home, but it's not, and I need to get some more things done.