Why Iphones Should Come With A Warning

Has Angry Birds created way too many sleepless nights around here?  Ahem, mmmmmmaybe?  So it's no wonder Poker Chick was most relieved to see this illustration as it validates that she is not alone (or crazy) in this angry birds addiction.

Social Schmocial, What Does Miss Manners Say?

Quick! Can you identify all these logos?

Recently, a friend of ours had a baby and posted the news on Facebook.   Well, technically his wife had the baby but that's besides the point.  What was notable about this announcement was not so much the post itself but rather the conspicuous lack of "announcement" email that went out.  Think about that.  It was so quickly assumed that Facebook would be sufficient, they didn't even send an email.  Their parents, friends, family, almost all got it.

But a couple of friends who aren't on Facebook were out of the loop and had to find out through the cool people on Facebook others. 

So this leads us to ask:  has Facebook become so mainstream that it's socially acceptable to assume people will read what you write on your status?  What would Emily Post say?

Of course, this begs the larger question of what would Miss Manners say about social media in general?  Is it now assumed that we're keeping up with everyone's status on our network?  What if we're friends with hundreds of people?  What about the friend who posts daily on how many tissues they used that day?  Or the coworker who constantly has something stuck in their teeth?*  Do we have to keep up with all of that?  Are we really expected to know what Aunt Ida ate for dessert every day? 

And while we're at it, let's consider social media in the professional realm, shall we?  Before LinkedIn, it would be unthinkable to not reply to new business opportunities from headhunters and potential employers.  But when these people try and "connect" with you, do they really expect you to add the to your profile for the world to see?   If you don't, you're rude, but if you do accept all of these you end up with a profile that's comprised of all sorts of people you've never met (and who knows what you don't know about them) and what does that say about you when others look you up?  That can't be good, right?  It's analogous to logging into Facebook and seeing a friend request from your father.  Nothing good can come of it.

We did find this one video but it's so...you know, 2009.  It's all different now.

The only thing we know for sure about social media etiquette is that it's not polite to read these posts and not pass them along.  We're just saying.  And while you're at it, if you or someone you know or someone in your network or someone in your friend or coworker's network happens to be friends with Emily Post on Facebook, could you give her a little poke and ask her what the etiquette is for this whole social media thing is?  That'd be swell.

*These are all fictitious examples to make a point, peeps. We're not stupid enough to use actual examples from our network.  After all, wouldn't want to risk being a social pariah. 

Study Shows People Don't Give A Crap About How Much They Eat

According to a recent CNN article, we can post the calories in as many eating establishments as we like,  it's not going to make a lick of difference.

"But Poker Chick", you ask? "You can't possibly mean using guilt as a tactic to remind overweight people how much they're really eating isn't going to bring about a positive change in eating habits?  That we can't heal a nation of obesity with a few easy signs?"

That's exactly what we're saying, as a matter of fact.  Too bad these researchers didn't read this post we wrote in June of 2008.  We'd say "told you so", but that would be smug and immature.  We'll just hope that at the very least, those reading this blog are well-informed enough to understand the concept of moderation.

Oh, and we told you so.

Are Phones Becoming Obsolete?

The other day we checked our voicemail and got an urgent request from Big Boy.  Unfortunately, the message was a few days old and the opportunity to help someone out had long since passed.

Without thinking Poker Chick called him, and told him if something was urgent in the future to email if he didn't get her on the phone.  He replied that someone else told them to do that ("the kids are all on email this day, no one uses the phone...") but he couldn't comprehend that there was a more urgent way to reach someone than the phone.

At that moment it dawned on us: are phones becoming obsolete?  After all, we didn't even blink after ignoring our voicemail for days.  Between texts, emails, etc. are phones even necessary anymore?  And before you stop to say that's ridiculous, do you really want us to believe you can't think of one single occasion in the past few months when someone called and you thought to yourself "that's weird, why are they calling me?"

Face it, phones are going the way of face time -- gone.  It won't be long before they're barely used at all - between facebook, foursquare, text, tweets - phones won't be needed anymore.  We're in the midst of a huge cultural shift, peeps.  As big as the one where people finally realized telegrams would become relics.

Pause ranting prediction to insert moment of hypocrisy:

This moment of hypocrisy sponsored by "The Hallelujah Chorus"

Right now, somewhere near the city of Shenzhen, China, is an iPhone with our name on it.  That's right, Poker Chick was one of the first Verizon customers to have purchased an iPhone and now it's on the way.  Is she excited? In a way she is, in a way she embarrassingly is.

Wait, what gives?  We started writing this post a couple of weeks ago, then a few days later found ourselves waking up at 3am to buy - you guessed it - a telephone.

So it might seem a bit strange when we continue to assert our prediction that soon phones will be obsolete.  Except for accepting food deliveries in a doorman building, they no longer serve a real useful purpsose.

Still don't agree?  Look at it this way.  From the day we get our iPhone, we will no longer have a phone.  We will have a mobile device.  And the bill to prove it.

Walking on Eggshells

We realize the posting's been a bit heavy on the topic of food allergies lately but bear with us.  There will be funnier stuff soon.

This is important because we wanted to write about an incident which is a good example of the type of unpredictable scenario kids with food allergies face every day.

A letter went out to all the kindergarten parents.  They've been studying recycling for a while and have now moved on to composting.  It talked about all the fun kids had bringing in things from home to make the compost, including eggshells.  Now mini, the anti-dirt city girl, is not going anywhere near the compost even if they promised her cake every day.  But still, it's raw egg.  In the classroom.

So we emailed the teachers.  Would they mind excluding the egg from the compost, if it wasn't too much too ask?

Here's where it's important to pay attention.

This type of scenario comes up ALL the time, a random non-food time when food allergies are a concern where you'd least expect it.  For non-food allergy parents, you'd be surprised how often stuff like this is an issue.  You can never foresee every possible scenario, which is additional reason why the teachers need to know what to do when this stuff comes up, not if.  And what they need to do in case of emergency.  Because you can minimize the risk of exposure, but as this incident shows, you can never eliminate it.  Random stuff like this will always come up. 

At this point, the teachers had two options.  Lose the egg, or turn it into a whole thing.  And seriously, is there any reason to fight FOR the egg?  Who cares?  Just lose it, the compost will be fine.  And this is exactly what they did.   They apologized profusely for not catching it and said no big deal - it was thrown out and forgotten.

DONE! Was that hard?  NO!

So Poker Chick has to ask - why why WHY is it the case where in so many other schools, the scenario would have played out differently?  What's so important about fighting for the eggs in that compost?  What are we missing?  Seriously, can anyone tell us?

Poker Chick will never understand why parents often get so much pushback in these types of situations.  But if more people followed the example of these teachers, this debate would simply be over. 

NYC schools have used examples like this as rationale for not going nut free.  They're worried about the liability.  They claim that since they can't guarantee all foods are safe they could never guarantee a nut-free environment.  As such, they serve peanut butter and jelly in the cafeteria.  Every day.  Can anyone follow this logic?  We can't.  Of course you can't guarantee a nut free environment.  As this incident shows, despite best intentions, you can never guarantee no exposure.  But if you can significantly reduce exposure, why the hell wouldn't you? 

So a few lessons here:

1) Education.  For those of you who don't deal with food allergies every day, we hope this will further help you understand what life is like when you have to deal with this.  Perhaps if more people will read it they will be more empathetic and open to learning about what to do.

2) A wake-up call.  For those managing food allergies, you can never be complacent.  There will always be some risk of exposure you can never predict.  That's why it's important to always have an emergency plan - in case.  That's much more important than trying to predict every possible hypothetical.

3) A role model.  This little scenario was no big deal.  In fact, it would probably have been forgotten had we not decided to write about it.  The interaction was easy, stress-free for all sides, and the child was protected.  Hopefully this will remind people that when talking with people managing food allergies you have a choice.  You can make it into a big deal or you can take on a minor inconvenience to protect someone and forget about it.

Think about it.  In the meantime, we'll be busy writing thank you letters to our wonderfully supportive school.  And, of course, updating our school allergy plans to specify "no eggshells in compost".