School holidays- what happened to having fun??

I have taken a week off work to hang out with my kids over the school holidays and have some fun, but it seems that technology has captured my children and is holding them hostage, because aside from skyping with their friends and playing games on line they do not want to really do anything!!

We have arranged for some of their friends to come over for a sleepover Monday night and to spend the day with us on Tuesday, and we are catching up with some family friends on Friday but aside from that they really don’t want to do anything else.

I should be happy I guess that they enjoy being home but I can’t help feeling like they are missing out by locking themselves away like this. In a few weeks time school will resume again and the carefree days of the summer holidays will be but a distant memory, surely they must want to do more than this?

So tomorrow I have planned a fun filled day for us, and despite the looks of horror I received and the blatant lack of enthusiasm I am determined that we will have fun!!

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Is it normal to be attached to your phone?

I am very attached to my phone! My whole little world is pretty much stored on it. All my photos, my calendar, my music, notes, my WordPress, my Facebook, pretty much everything is in this hand held device that is never far from my reach.

Today we had the soccer BBQ at Lilydale lake, the weather was beautiful, the company was great, there was food, and sunshine and fun. Normally I would have checked us in on Facebook and taken photos galore, except that one of my friends decided to confiscate my phone for the day!!

His intentions were good, in his mind I am way too connected! He is probably right it has been said before that’s for sure. So I went along with it and you know what? I felt lost! I kept feeling like something was missing.

When I finally got my phone back there were 54 WordPress notifications that I’d missed, along with a text message from my teenager asking me to grab maccas on the way home, and many emails. It felt good to have my phone back I must admit, I do understand that it probably isn’t healthy to be so attached to a phone, but in this day and age that we are living in this is more the norm than the exception, wouldn’t you say?

Snap Chat

I joined up for snap chat at my sons recommendation and boy am I struggling to get my head around it.

For those of you like me who have never really heard of snap chat it is an app whereby you can send your friends photos or videos and they can view them for up to 10 seconds and then the image or video is gone.

I would like to say gone forever but somehow I doubt that is true, I think we all know by now that once anything is out on the net it’s there forever somewhere in cyber space.

Snap chat is an easy way to connect with your friends anywhere around the world and send each other quick up to 10 second messages. At least this is what I am told.

I can’t get my head around that holding down the snap button, I just keep tapping instead. At the moment I have two friends my cheeky teenage son and my gorgeous nephew.

Has anyone else heard of Snap chat? Or has signed up for it?

The Condom Challenge

There is a new craze sweeping across Facebook at the moment which you may or may not have heard of. If you have a teenager as I do, you have probably come across this lunacy. I don’t know about you but I am horrified to say the least.

The Condom Challenge is a dare game that involves inserting a clean condom into one’s nostril and snorting it back through the throat to be coughed out of the mouth.

Apparently this challenge has been gaining momentum since 2013 when it first appeared on YouTube.

Aside from being totally gross the risks for potentially choking to death are so great, that I just can’t get my head around why anyone would ever attempt something like this.

It really it a scary world we are living in, our children have enough to deal with without this kind of rubbish. Honestly who comes up this kind of stuff?

The Condom Chalkenge

I love my iPhone

I love my iPhone 5! My whole life is pretty much stored on that 32GB phone. If I do not have my phone within easy reach I am not at ease. It’s like a part of me is missing. It’s like this phone has become an extension of myself.

My calendar, my notes, all my music, photos, passwords, reminders, videos, interviews, articles, emails are all on this handy hand held device that fits smugly into the palm of my hand.

I cant really remember when I first became so dependant on my phone, I think it must have just crept up on me but my attachment is such that I can no longer bare to be without it.

Don’t get me wrong I know that such dependance is not healthy or normal for that matter, but I do believe that it is the norm, especially with young people today who are forever surfing the net, chatting, texting, Facebook and twittering all at once.

My iPhone lets me post from anywhere. Any information I need is a mere click or two away. It’s my alarm clock in the morning, my personal assistant and my stress release.

When I think back to the time before I first got an iPhone, over 8 years ago and how much my life has changed now as a result of it, I just can’t imagine ever being without one. I can’t wait till the new iPhone 6 comes out, can’t wait to see what it will be able to do next. Rumours are that the new iPhone 6 will be launched in late 2014 and that this phone will be bigger, faster and smarter.

How a pregnancy test can save a mans life

I read the most amazing thing on Facebook today, it was a post that someone else had shared, to alert people, especially men to testicular cancer. After reading the post I couldn’t help thinking that perhaps all men should take a pregnancy test from time to time.

Thank you

Not sure what happened yesterday but somehow I managed to break my all time record for visitors and views to my blog.

Don’t get me wrong I couldn’t be happier, it’s just that I don’t think I posted anything that was that noteworthy.

What I believe has happened today is what people refer to as search engine optimisation. This is the first time I have mentioned Facebook or social media in a post and certainly that first time I have used it as a category, and so this is what I assume to be the reason for the unmissable rise in my stats.

Regardless, I would like to thank everybody who stopped by, it has without a doubt really made my day, night and possibly week.

I am very honoured indeed to be part of the WordPress community.

My Facebook Movie

Facebook today is going crazy with everyone sharing their own personal Facebook Movie. To be honest it has been really lovely reminiscing over old photos and posts, not only my own but everyone else’s too.

Turns out I joined Facebook in 2009 which makes sense, as I was wanting to check it all out and get use to it before my eldest son joined. I know that Facebook gets a bad wrap quite often, but I have really loved being part of the Facebook community. It has allowed me to get in touch with family and friends all over the world.

Life is busy for everyone and we don’t always get a chance to keep in touch as much as we would like to with friends and even family. Facebook is my way of staying connected with people. I get to watch my friends and family grow through the photos they share. I share in the joys of their day to day lives, get to laugh with funny memes and connect with various organisations and sites that are of interest to me.

So Happy 10th Birthday Facebook, thanks for making the world seem smaller by bringing people together.