The Boys & Girls Clubs of America was having their annual chairman dinner the other night and I had the opportunity to attend with the AT&T team. It is so rewarding to hear how BGCA has impacted the lives of so many through various contributions and donations. I was particularly impressed by the use of cell phones and texting to raise additional funds during the dinner.
The moderator asked everyone to take out their cell phone and we all thought we were going to sing “Kum Bay Ya” with our cell phone face panels lit up; but instead on the big screen flashed a phone number with a request for anyone to text in a donation of any amount. Each table was challenged to represent the company they were sitting with. Through those efforts, I am sure several scholarships were funded and youths now have a place to go after school through our donations.
We’re always finding new ways to use technology, so why not text for charity? It makes perfect sense! Congratulations of the BGCA for all they do!
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla Tags: Priscilla, Texting
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Honestly, I think AT&T Navigator is one of the best products we offer our customers at AT&T. I use it all the time, but I had a recent incident that made me appreciate it even more.
My sister was having a dinner at her house to celebrate her only son’s 17th birthday. My teenagers arrived earlier and I arrived around 7:30 p.m. because I was panicked by a strange sound coming from my tires. After careful review of each tire, I saw a big piece of metal sticking out of the passenger front tire. The tire was not flat, but I was skeptical about removing it, which may release the air from the tire.
I asked my sister for the nearest shop that could assist and was told there were two in the area.
Off I went around 8 p.m. to find that both locations closed at 7 p.m. Stressed and frightened that my tire may burst at any time, I needed to locate a service center with little delay. I turned to AT&T Navigator for guidance. I searched by category and found Pep Boys and Wal-Mart in the immediate area. I selected Pep Boys because it was closer. Turn-by-turn the Navigator application told me where to go. I’m not sure what I would have done without it.
It was not life or death, but…you know what I mean.
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla, Safety Tags: GPS, Priscilla, Safety
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Every morning when I come into the office, I start my e-mail (Outlook) session to see what new work or requests I’ve received since I checked my work-provided BlackBerry overnight and just minutes before in the car. I usually receive approx. 100 emails overnight and 300+ daily.
My technique is to scan for specific names and e-mails that were sent directly to me vs. carbon copy. I use personal folders to file project e-mails that I have completed or projects that I want to keep for future reference. E-mails that require my attention, I leave them in my Inbox and flag them as “unread” so they stand out. Sometimes, I put a task reminder to alert me the next day to perform a specific action; therefore my Outlook Inbox becomes my to-do list. I can sort my Inbox by sender, date/time, and size. I usually sort by sender when I am searching for a specific message. When I flag an e-mail as an Outlook Task, the message is placed in an action Task List with due dates. Outlook is very powerful, but I know I am only using 10% of its capability. I want to hear from you – what are some of your MS Outlook productivity tips?
Posted by Priscilla in How To, Priscilla Tags: Priscilla
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When I leave my cell phone on the night stand, I feel out of touch all day. When one of my kids removes the car charger from the car and my battery dies on the way home from work, like today, my anxiety level increases. I feel disconnected.
We are so accustomed to doing things when we want and wherever we want that, when we can’t, it’s jarring.
Have you felt this way before?
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla Tags: Priscilla
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My husband decided to travel with me to San Francisco AFTER my reservations were made and the flight was completely full. So, he had to take a different flight through a different airline. I already knew this would be an adventure!
Because I made his arrangements last minute, he had no boarding pass. We arrived at the airport 1 hour before departure, but he had to go to the desk vs. the check-in kiosk.
We were both running through the airport – he was trying to check in and I was hurrying through security on the other side of the airport. Through all of this, our cell phones kept us in sync as we were calling and texting each other as we boarded and got off our planes.
His flight was delayed, so I went ahead and got the rental car. Again, texting let me tell him what I was doing and where he needed to meet me, keeping us connected even though we were apart.
Once we picked up the rental car, we took off for our hotel. Fortunately, finding our hotel in the San Ramon area wasn’t so bad with one person using the GPS system and the other driving. But it could’ve been so much worse had one of us not had a cell phone. Really, what a night!
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla, Travel Tags: Priscilla, Travel
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While watching the movie “Cars,” my youngest son asked, “Mom, can cars really drive by themselves?”
My initial answer, which was quick and without much thought, was “Cars don’t drive. That’s a movie and isn’t real.” After further thought, I told him that movies have been a roadmap for the future. For example, the GPS system and AT&T Navigator application on my cell phone tells me where to go and what turns to make to get to a preselected destination. Looking ahead, the next generation of navigational systems will likely tell the car what to do and drive it with little or no human engagement. I know we probably have this capability already in a lab environment, but not on the mass market.
The point I was trying to make to him is that maybe things on TV aren’t real now, but the evolution of technology in movies can be a depiction of how technology will be used in the future.
I want my kids to think outside the box and not limit themselves only to what they can see or touch. They need to know that technology can be molded and shaped as far as the mind can dream. That’s the world we live in today.
Posted by Priscilla in How To, Organization, Priscilla Tags: AT&T Navigator, GPS, Priscilla
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I’ve always believed that you can be friendly and loving to your kids, but not necessarily their friend … and that there would always be a fine line between being a parent and a friend with my kids. This maybe an old school way of thinking, I know. But I never expected my teenage kids to decline my offer to be their friend on Facebook.
For some reason they think Facebook is not for parents, and that it is for singles and, specifically, the Generation Y. That isn’t true! I have been able to connect and, in some cases, reconnect with a lot of people I work with, high-school classmates, and other acquaintances that I have not spoken to in years. More importantly, why would my kids not want me to be their friend? What’s on their Facebook pages that my eyes cannot be privy to?
Should I mandate that we must be friends? Or does this fit the principle that I am their parent, not their friend? Thoughts?
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla, Teens & Cell Phones, social networking Tags: Facebook, Priscilla, social networking
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One Friday night, my sister and her husband came into town from South Carolina for the Atlanta Hawks vs. Boston Celtics game. My three siblings who live in the area, along with their kids, me, and my kids, all gathered for dinner and fun.
We ate and laughed late into the night. My sister went to BlockBuster to rent a movie. I tried to explain to her that new releases were available via her cable service. U-verse is not in her area, so she was amazed that she could order a video without leaving home using her current provider.
I take technology for granted because I am exposed to it every day. My sister, on the other hand, works for a bank and technology changes at a slower pace. Our conversation made me think about whether we (AT&T) expose our customers to the technology at a level they can understand, using the media they prefer? That could be face-to-face, online TV, online Web, customer service, etc.
Something as simple as video-on-demand may be a reason a customer leaves one provider to join another, because they are unaware of what their current provider offers.
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla Tags: AT&T U-verse, Priscilla, U-verse
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Think about this – we use our cell phones to wake us up in the morning (alarm), remind us of appointments (calendar), store our memorable moments (file storage), exchange messages (e-mail and texts), create documents (Word), access the Internet (browser), and many other ways throughout our busy days.
So, when my sister punished her son (my nephew) for using his phone to access the Internet instead of waiting to get home to use his computer, I thought about the importance of teaching our kids to embrace technology as we teach them self control. To avoid extra charges, I recommended my sister get him a limited data plan (if you use AT&T, check out AT&T Smart Limits) to allow Internet access on his phone. By getting this plan, he could utilize this cool technology while keeping his usage within the structure of a comfortable payment plan. This way, he’d be armed with a technology tool and my sister’s self-control message would be enforced.
What do you think? Would you have taken a different approach?
Posted by Priscilla in Organization, Priscilla, Teens & Cell Phones Tags: Priscilla, Smart Limits
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I have noticed that my kids are using their cell phones to text more than to talk. I observed my daughter and she will text her friends repeatedly from her room versus picking up her cell phone to call them. It is not just the Y generation. I text a lot as well via my BlackBerry. I use text messaging as a means to get my thoughts out fast without requiring a long, drawn out conversation. I am on conference calls all day, so the last thing I want to do when I leave work is talk on the phone. So I text folks when I’m not at work.
Text messaging has always been informal. You do not have to be accurate and polished in what you say. The main reason I use text messaging is that I want to get the word out quickly without being cordial, and the recipient can respond quickly. I am not advocating that there is no place for effective verbal communication. I just think text messaging has a place as well.
What are your thoughts?
Posted by Priscilla in Priscilla, Teens & Cell Phones Tags: BlackBerry, Priscilla, Texting
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