I don’t generally get excited about purchases of any kind, but this grinder from Fellow had me checking the FedEx website a few times. After seasoning the burrs, I haven’t had a bad cup of coffee. The only issue is that now my caffeine intake is way up.
Back in July 2019, I wrote about what was perhaps the best personification of a healthcare system that worked. I use this example a lot when I mention in conversation about how things should work here, and though it’s a mix of private and public care, I am thankful for it.
Today I get to share the other end of the scale.
Lately, I have noticed that the text on my computer screen is not as crisp as it once was, so I thought I should update my eyeglass prescription. I found it hard to believe that my eyesight could deteriorate in a couple of years, but Sheryl was complaining about the same, and well, middle age.
Being busy, I put off the appointment until today, and it seems Dr. Catherine Arsenault has saved the day again—although perhaps too late.
During my last visit less than two years ago, she mentioned that the pressure in my left eye, where I had trouble before, was rising, and it was best to see Dr. Elaraoud again for care. His office was supposed to call, but they never did. And, being busy and not realizing the importance, I didn’t call Dr. Arsenault back to check on the referral. I guess with a new prescription, feeling well, and not suffering from any effects, I let it slip by.
As a result, there is some irreversible damage to the nerves in my left eye.
I started to get angry and mentioned that I could fly elsewhere for care, including the US, if necessary. She assured me that Dr. Elaraoud’s office would indeed call this time. Quickly, I calmed myself down as I realized that it was on me to take matters of my health more seriously, not a dysfunctional health system.
A quick and short missive; thoughts on the gap that will be present when a valuable resource goes away.
The Startup Zone will cease to exist as an entity by May 31st, largely, I was told, as a result of a study that was commissioned and delivered recently by MRSB. It isn’t a great read, but the report currently can be found here.
The report relies primarily on research done elsewhere and would have been better served by some original research on the needs of those who have chosen to start companies on the Island.
There was a short discussion on the Zone’s Slack about the report, to which I replied:
Whenever I see the word “innovative” in a government-funded study, I get dizzy from the massive eye roll.
It would appear that they are abandoning support for a whole swath of small businesses for a smaller subset of high-profile companies that can give visible evidence of success. A small handful of newsworthy companies does not equal a healthy small-medium business environment and risks overlooking the diverse needs of the broader entrepreneurial community.
We will certainly miss the local support provided by the Startup Zone, which has been pivotal to our success, but we aren’t particularly interested in being a part of the “next level in the startup continuum,” whatever that means.
I deleted it immediately after because at this stage a short rant has little value.
Coming from the environment I worked in in China and Taiwan, I found the StartUp Zone to be a breath of fresh air. It was a valuable if flawed resource, the flaws of which were outlined in the report itself (it comes down to the differences between a startup and a small business).
We were often at odds with their stated mission. In that first year, when we were working on a different product, we were constantly asked what kind of valuation we were seeking, where we would build our headquarters, and how many people were we looking to hire. The whole VC culture that is trying to be created in Atlantic Canada turned me off. I just wanted to build something I enjoyed building and feed my family. I didn’t want to take on Facebook.
Others were the same. There were consultants, small design shops, coffee roasters, and the occasional sass company looking to “change the world.” I have doubts that a small place like PEI should be chasing the next big thing, but that’s the kind of decision politicians make. A dog trainer or a fitness instructor fuels the economy right away, and supporting small businesses like that creates jobs immediately. This isn’t sexy, though, and I suspect most politicians would rather the photo opportunity that those rare successful startups can provide.
The Startup Zone kept us local and introduced us to people who have helped us on our journey to have a viable small business. We have grown from 0 to the ability to hire. We have invested in the community—we bought a house and a car, and our kids will likely return when they are our age.
I have no idea what will replace the StartUp Zone, and I was told the political leadership has no idea, either.
Here are some potential problems with closing the space.
Impact on community and networking: One key benefit of spaces like The Startup Zone is the community and networking opportunities they provide. They foster collaborations, mentorship relationships, and peer learning. Removing this space could diminish these benefits, making it harder for entrepreneurs to connect and support each other. If you have a question, who do you call? The Startup Zone has served as a great first point of contact, a central hub for entrepreneurs.
Disruption of ongoing success stories: The report highlights success stories and positive outcomes experienced by firms associated with The Startup Zone. Closing the facility could disrupt the trajectory of companies currently benefiting from its resources and support.
The challenge in replicating support elsewhere: If the services and support The Startup Zone provides are not adequately replicated elsewhere in the ecosystem, there could be a significant gap in the support available to companies. Creating a new entity or transferring services could involve substantial time and resources and may not fully replicate the ecosystem’s needs. I don’t think they actually know what these needs are. If you haven’t interviewed the community, how would you know?
One of the questions we have been discussing is why our business is located in Prince Edward Island or Canada when all our activity is elsewhere. What are the advantages of being here? The Startup Zone was one; it directed us to local resources, but with that gone, our search for answers will lead us elsewhere. Why not do the same with the whole company? Will others think the same?
In 1986 I was a shitty trumpet player with no business attending a music school dedicated to performance and the business of music. But I did. And I did so with only a student loan and the support of a single parent. I went to school in Toronto, didn’t work during the school year, and had a place of my own to live in. I ate a lot of pizza and drank lots of beer.
Camren, a dedicated competitive athlete with an academic record I could have only dreamed of, has been awarded scholarships and bursaries for 2024, but he still doubts he can attend. The costs have risen exponentially, while the scholarship awards have not, nor have salaries. How many kids will no longer be able to afford the quality of outcomes a higher education provides?
What a world we have left for them.
It’s official. Camren has signed with the Mount A swim team.
I had a coaching session recently in Charlottetown. I’m generally not one for believing in the value of life coaches or other similar services. I prescribe more to the David Goggins approach to life, or at least Mel Robbins.
But it was one of the most valuable 90 minutes I have spent in a long time. I don’t know what it was—the timing or a need to share. Most likely, she was simply really good. I used to consider myself a master of the user interview, but she was far better at establishing a positive connection with a stranger than I ever will be.
I went in there looking for guidance on how to change my mindset, and I left with a number of key questions that need to be answered before any strategy or change might occur.
Sometimes, you need the right person at the right time to give you that push you need to move forward. I look forward to another session in the future.
I recently hired an editor for an early story I wrote, Nibbles The Mouse.
It’s a humbling experience, as the pages are full of red.
I openly state when asked about my writing that I consider each story to be nothing more than a rough draft. It’s true, but it’s a kind of hedge born out of insecurity. I didn’t realize just how true it was until now.
The story will be better for it, but I wish I had caught the mistakes earlier.
At the beginning of our journey, we received a rash of negative reviews of our work. Though it sometimes stung, we made changes over time to address these concerns and haven’t often received this kind of critical feedback since, which is a problem.
We aren’t so big that we get much in the way of online discussion or mentions in the press, so I went looking. With the interest in screen-free ways to access audio, like Yoto player, Tonie, and our sponsor Storybutton, I decided to dive into forums that discuss the experience of listening to audio on these platforms.
It’s important to note that these listeners have far different expectations than those sharing an iPhone or iPad with their kids. They also are not necessarily aware of what a podcast is or the community built around podcasts such as ours.
There were two criticisms I have found stated time and time again.
The first was advertising. It’s an understandable complaint. We have gone a few weeks without an ad, and then boom, there is an advertisement for bed sheets or meal delivery before every story. I don’t like ads much either, but without ads, there wouldn’t be stories like Bernice the Bear, which their kids seem to love. People don’t often realize that others have a mortgage to pay.
The other complaint concerned our birthday shoutouts. “Why the hell are there 100 birthday shoutouts before a story?” was one complaint. Kids love hearing their names on a podcast, and we are often surprised by how popular this part of the show has become. But it hasn’t scaled well. Even after charging $35US per shoutout, we still get inundated with requests.
We haven’t considered creating with these closed platforms in mind, but as I find more of these criticisms and the platforms increase in popularity, we’ll likely make more changes to how we produce our audio.
Whenever I mention to those with more talent and experience in writing that everything I release is essentially a very rough draft, I can see a slight grimace forming at the corner of their mouth. To release a story that is not perfectly formed is not best practice.
Our listeners don’t seem to mind too much, as children tend to possess an interesting combination of open appreciation, criticality, and forgiveness of the less-than-perfect.
This allows us to produce more stories on a tight time schedule. You can’t expect perfection if you only have 3 hours or so to write something new.
Eventually, some investment in time and money must be made in editing so that the stories can be released in different mediums for reading. Without the benefit of Sheryl’s voice and my music, the accuracy of the word becomes more important. With hundreds of stories, it is difficult to know where to start, but that’s where the uniqueness of our model comes into play.
I have access to the listening data, regular communication from listeners, and comments and reviews of all our stories, which tells me which resonates most with kids. So, while I may like the story about a Mermaid visiting Souris, it turns out that the most listened-to story was about a mouse in a barn. In fact, over the course of a year, Nibbles the Mouse has been listened to hundreds of thousands of times. I have no idea why.
In the Montague Community School writing class, we were asked to submit a story to share during the final banquet. The teacher graciously offered to edit each of our stories and then print off copies that others could take home. So I took the opportunity to send her a copy of Nibbles the Mouse, and now I have a far more complete version. I think she was slightly taken aback by my copyright message on the first page. It was a bit heavy-handed (it had a reprinted with permission message), and I hummed and hawed, but in the end, I acquiesced to the instruction I received from lawyers.
With a more polished version, I can find an editor and an illustrator and start creating prototypes to see what format best fits these stories.
I’m about to finally finish a series called The Magical Book of Dreams, which I started for Sleep Tight Stories a year and a half ago. It’s a story about a girl whose father disappears, and she goes off to find and then rescue him. I found it very hard to write, and my writing style changed about five times throughout the time I have been writing it. Though a mess, it’s proven to have a following, and we often get requests for when the next chapter is coming.
I read an excerpt that at the bi-weekly meeting of the Montague Writing Group. I don’t think they came away impressed, and they had some helpful feedback.
Next, I hope to publish it in print and ebook, but because it’s so messy, I think it’s going to cost a fortune to have it edited. Once done, the publishing part should be more straightforward than the other stories I have written, which occupy the space between board and chapter books. They will also require more illustrations.
The other continuing series is The Transfer Student, about a girl who moves to Canada from Mars. I started this series after I was inspired by Patti Larsen’s Cat City, which we published and are re-mastering as time permits. The Transfer Student is far less developed and will take considerable time to complete before it’s finished. The story never explicitly states the location, but I will somehow find a way to weave Charlottetown into the story.
By the time both of these series reach their respective end points, it will be the end of June, and it will be time for a couple of weeks of working outside.
I’ve been collating the remote digital bits to my life of late. Online health checks, Montreal clinics for a doctor, mentors for design and business, online co-working, and Zoom-based social gatherings. These fill holes that I find can’t be filled in our remote summer paradise.
I signed up with the Start-up Zone again last summer in the hopes that I might use the space to fill that need to be around people during the workday. In the dead of winter, I find my Montague office very isolating, and the old men at Home Hardware can only be so accommodating. I never got to the Start-up Zone but made some great connections.
It’s not official, but that resource will cease operations at the end of May. It was always an odd place, but I found my year as a resident company incredibly useful. It was very active and busy, with plenty of opportunities to connect with people and learn new perspectives. It has never recovered from the COVID shutdowns and has received little direction from the board until now. Other organizations have been trying to fill the gap, like PEIBWA, a strangely female-only resource, and Innovation PEI, which has recently published some material to help would-be entrepreneurs. Neither have an environment conducive to the magic of a happenstance connection with a peer.
However, I have found a couple of other local organizations with programs I am starting to enjoy. Creative PEI is running a course I joined, which will follow Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way. I particularly enjoy trying to write my Morning Pages every day. They also have an Artist’s Support group, which I attended. It’s comforting to be around people who live through the same challenges as you, who are not obsessed with leveraging real estate assets as their primary output, and who make things because they feel they need to be made.
I have been a member of the PEI Writers Guild for a couple of years(?), but I have never participated in any of their events. However, they have a monthly writers’ meet-up that I will attend. If I can summon the courage, I plan on reading at their monthly readings at The Gallery.
While so much of what I do seems to be increasingly done off-Island (relying on off-Island health services is an odd one), it’s wonderful that there are still some opportunities to connect here locally.
Answering the question as to why we live in Prince Edward Island requires just two words: it’s home. All the many advantages of living here can surely be found elsewhere. And the many disadvantages, like the lack of social services and health care, high taxation, etc., are negated by simply repeating those two words.
That doesn’t necessarily apply when it comes to running a business. Does it?
I finally received a bill for legal services that we received from McInnis Cooper. I’m glad I have a sense of humour, as it was laughably high considering what service was rendered. A copy of their findings was also going to cost extra, which I declined.
I like working with people across a table and with a whiteboard or paper handy. It’s enjoyable to connect with experts like those at McInnis Cooper. As such, I have been trying to be as local a company as we can be, even when their fees are 2-3x as much as those of a remote competitor.
Recently, as we have placed more attention on the financial side of our business, I’ve realized that all our business is conducted in US dollars. We do nothing in Canada. We have US currency accounts and are also in the process of opening a bank account in the US.
We’ve decided that no matter the size of our tiny shop, we will not hire employees. There are many reasons for this, the most important being that I don’t want to be someone’s boss. The work that we hire for will be done remotely by freelancers or contractors outside of Canada.
So why not move the whole company to another, perhaps more favourable jurisdiction? What advantages are there to be had by being located here (locating elsewhere is surprisingly easy)? Why be local at all?
During my search for an answer to this question, there were many reasons listed: Tax benefits, legal system, access to trade agreements, banking and currency exchange, access to talent, reputation and branding, funding and government support, and healthcare.
The only one of these that interested me was tax benefits, and that will require a conversation with an accountant. I don’t foresee any government support.
We will categorize this as a thought experiment for this year, but if we are lucky enough to continue or even grow, we will look more seriously at it in the new year.
The tech news is often full of articles reporting on Apple’s dominance with its app store and the percentage it charges. There is less talk about how businesses are compelled to spend a significant portion of their budget on digital advertising with Google and Facebook to ensure visibility online.
I’m sure the economics work out well for large companies, but for a really small shop like ours, I’m happy to pay Apple this fee.
We host our premium feed with Supercast, and payments are made through Stripe. The service is completely open, and the fees are relatively low. I can access customers’ emails, listening habits, and other information I shouldn’t be privy to. This would seem ideal from a business/marketing standpoint—low fees and lots of data.
Except it’s not. How many times have I acted as tech support for a $7/month charge? Too many. Hours and hours have been spent. Or all the time, I have had to refund a charge, which costs me the fee that both Supercast and Stripe levy. Not to mention those who are too lazy to email and simply dispute the charge with the credit card company. This not only costs me the fees from Supercast and Stripe, but the bank charges me $15.
For many, this is no big deal, but each hour spent sending emails, offering tech support, or managing payments is time I’m not spending doing other, more important things, like creating something people might want to pay for in the first place.
So, we are going to move from open to closed and move all our offerings to a service that manages those aspects of our business. We’ll also find another way to establish a relationship with our listeners.
I’m working on trying to change my mindset. A mental hack perhaps. I am trying to put certain aspects of my life into mental buckets. When there is time to devote to that “bucket,” I’ll take the cover off and devote whatever cognitive capacity I have at that moment to that bucket. Perhaps this is called mindfulness, or living in the moment? I have yet to really look into the proper labels. In a way, it’s related to not taking your work home with you.
What I have found is that I have a tendency towards workaholism in the sense that I cannot disengage from work-related problems, likely due to some underlying issues like anxiety or perfectionism. I tend towards rumination – I dwell too much on problems, primarily in our business.
I think the underlying anxiety I feel is related to age and the question that Sheryl once asked, “If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?” A question I don’t have an answer to. There is also a tinge of anger towards the source of many of our problems, something I will write about later.
I recently shared with Camren one of the methods I was taught many years ago, related to musical performance. Often, problems creep into your playing as a musician, or perhaps there is a particular music passage that you always play poorly. Sometimes it’s stage fright. These issues become even more acute the more you focus on them, and it can get to the point that you can hardly function at all.
I was taught early to be a systems thinker. What are you doing holistically? What process to being better are you taking? Almost universally, when I focused on the process, the problems went away.
That’s the approach I am going to try to take again. The first step is to stop this incessant focus on the problem and just try to be good (which is good enough) at what I want to do.
Do these real meaning? I have no idea. This is our current rankings for the US in our categories. Our other podcasts don’t rank as high.
Usually I look at these to see who is spending on promotion and to get a sense of what other people are working on. These ranking also illustrate that there are very few independent producers left.
I don’t remember having my future laid out so early, but this seems to be the norm for Camren and his classmates in IB.
We started talking about university in a more serious fashion at the start of the school year. Camren had his schools of interest narrowed down to about five, plus one in the UK, and I suggested a couple in the States.
My opinion was that in Canada, at least, with some exceptions, the undergraduate education you get is going to be of an acceptable standard, no matter the school. As long as the courses he wanted were offered, he should be fine. But, my life experience has been that the farther you venture from home, the greater the discomfort, the greater the potential for wonderful memories, learning and experiences.
He agreed, but in the end, it came down to two choices: Victoria University, which we visited earlier this year, and Mount Allison University. He chose Mount Allison and will continue to swim competitively with the varsity swim team. He is very excited and happy.
Does your hammer lag when you wield it? Your paintbrush stutter across the canvas? Or does your pen simply stop accepting ink?
My Mac is simply a tool I use, and sometimes I believe the online nonsense about planned obsolescence. Then, when I go to Apple.ca, I look at the prices and think that perhaps I should use a different tool, like a typewriter and reel-to-reel tape.
I won’t change. It’s too ingrained; I’ll just suffer through a laggy cursor and a myriad of other issues that creep into my workflow (like increasingly crappy user interfaces) until I break down and enter my credit card number.
I took a few minutes to try Pi.ai by Inflection AI this afternoon. Just a short conversation, the kind you might have with a stranger, though perhaps a bit more honest. I have no deep analysis other than to say I found it unnerving. I had the audio piped through studio monitors and I could hear the breathiness in the playback’s voice, telling me to get more sleep, and if I had trouble sleeping here were a few techniques she recommended. I felt like I shouldn’t be talking to this female Entity alone in my office, so I tried it again with Catriona present, where she gave Catriona detailed advice on why she shouldn’t be drinking so much tea and eating so many carbs.
If the voice didn’t resonate with me, would I be more receptive?
Like ChatGPT, this isn’t intelligence, but 90% of all conversations you have with people you don’t know aren’t that intelligent anyway. I’m curious how this progresses.
It’s nice to be recognized by Apple, but I can’t understand why they couldn’t have thought a little bit more as to where Sleep Tight Science was placed on their list.
At the start of the school year, Camren sat down and mapped out all the universities he was interested in attending to begin the application process. The top of his list has always been Mount Allison because it has excellent coaching on the swim team, and it was a school he was most familiar with.
His list included Carlton University, University of New Brunswick, Mt. Allison, University of Victoria, and Aberdeen in Scotland, and I threw in Brown University and Stanford University for fun.
He applied to all of the schools except for Brown and Stanford. He discounted Aberdeen as too expensive early on.
What is interesting to me, as an observer and advisor, is how his decision is being shaped. All of these schools, except one, have regularly contacted him during this process. UNB and Mt. A reached out with personal emails from students offering help. The coach at Mt. A has checked in as well. There is genuine and sincere interest from these schools in seeing him attend.
He has had zero communication from the University of Victoria, which, after we visited, he was convinced he would attend. But since then, he has lost interest, with emails unanswered and zero effort from the swim team coaches.
A little communication goes a long way to shaping his (or anyone’s) decision.
There is no right or wrong here. His final three choices, U.Vic, UNB, and Mt.A, have sound academic programs.
U.Vic will offer greater personal growth, UNB’s swimming program is superbly funded, and Mt.A has a good mix of sound academics and the chance to compete (it has also offered scholarships).
We are both quite underwhelmed with U.Vic’s recruiting effort, especially after all the work he has put into attending there. Many university programs are highly competitive, but that competition works both ways, and unfortunately only some universities recognize that.
I’m spending a couple of nights in Fredericton. Camren is attending a UNB swim team recruiting event, and it made more sense to stay instead of making two trips. It is also a chance to experience a different environment for a few days, something which feels necessary.
I’m staying at the Carriage House Inn, and the first descriptor that comes to mind would be ‘quirky.’ The innkeeper who lives onsite is extremely friendly, and if my limited interaction with her so far is any indication, the main reason the business continues to exist.
This isn’t a holiday, so today will be spent trying to keep on top of my writing. A local coffee roaster is nearby, so I will visit there to work for the morning, grab a bag or two of beans, and spend the afternoon in the dining room here at the Inn.
Fredericton looks similar to every other Maritime city, with the same architecture and the same dearth of activity downtown. Close your eyes, and UNB could be UPEI or Mt.A.
Hoping for good weather for the drive home. I’m not the winter driver I once was.
There was a brief period before we realized that pursuing a passion 7 days a week required real income, where our work seemed stress-free and full of hope. We were growing, and the reviews from the stories I was writing were positive. I was dumbfounded that I could be so fortunate to pursue full-time something I had no training in or perceived aptitude at this stage of my life.
Then, we tried to make a predictable income.
We have partnered with the audio equivalent of a writer agent to handle ad sales, growth, and, in one case, language rights so that I could focus on creating cool stories and, if lucky, fund other projects that can allow us to escape the vicious world of kids advertising.
Each and every agreement has been a disappointment. Some, if I am in a mood, might be characterized as malicious.
My problem is not just wasted opportunities or not living up to our potential. It’s my inability to block the myriad of problems we face from my mind. I mull the problems over and over again. I lose sleep. And lose mindshare to problems out of my control.
Today, instead of writing stories, I am dealing with the fact that some asshole is using our name on Apple podcasts to try and game Apple’s search engine to get subscribers. He’s violating our trademark, and now I have to spend my time pursuing him.
Looking through Spotify, it’s amazing how rife the market is with people skirting copyright rules, with little to no scruples, in order to gain a couple more listens.
So, this would seem to be some kind of mindfulness hack or technique I don’t have. Blocking out the noise from the misanthropes of the world so that I can put my full attention on creating cool stuff. Is there an app.?
On Monday nights, I join a creative writing class at the high school in Montague. It’s well-attended, and it focuses on getting you to write freely. The other students have wonderful stories to tell.
I use the opportunity to get some work done.
There is something invigorating about being pressured to write to a prompt, complete the work in 40 minutes, and then share with a group of others. The work I completed then was superior to the 4 hours I spent finishing the story the next day.
Community schools are awesome. While I am in this class, Sheryl is learning to knit, Catriona is practicing TaiChi, and Camren is lifeguarding for the Special Olympics at the pool.
We have two cats now, which is a sign that we are committed to staying here in Canada against all odds. I didn’t think too hard before reaching the decision to bring new members into our family. If I had of I likely wouldn’t have, because though not as much responsibility as a dog, the daily litter box cleaning gets tiresome. The waiting outside my bedroom door at 4am, wanting to be fed, annoying. They don’t understand the coffee first rule. They do force a certain sense of calm and patience which is something I need.
Joy is sitting down in the morning writing 600 words without stopping, with the words coming out as fast as I can two finger type. No email. No browser. No procrastination.
Then, stopping to brew a cup of coffee from Myanmar, and experiencing it all over again.
I just want to make things. And have time to dream up new things to make. This is all I really want to do.
We are at a turning point. Most similar products like ours are created by companies with an org chart, or at least by a group of individuals. They might have a CEO, developers, writers, voice over artists, sound engineers, producers etc. We have myself, and Sheryl on the weekends. Our pace is too frenetic and the work we create, from my eyes and ears, is suffering.
The decision we have right now is, do we scale up and hire, or do we find a way to scale back so that we can focus on being better. Or is there a middle ground?
I don’t want to be a manager or a boss, and I don’t want to answer to someone else. I just want to make things.
A fine day.
There is never a dull moment at the Montague PO.
After watching an interview with Chuck Palahniuk, I was struck enough by his narrative style that I had to go out and buy one of his novels.
Unfortunately, while Canada Post said we picked it up from the post office, it was not picked up by us. We often get other people’s delivery slips in our box and hand them back to one of the clerks. I assume the person who got our slip did not and is now enjoying our copy of Choke.
I like going to the Montague PO, but I’ve started sending packages to Stratford for future deliveries. It takes an extra two days to come out here to the wilds of Kings County.
Camren is returning to the Island today after attending a swim meet in Montreal. Camren is everything I wasn’t at his age. He is smart, hard working, driven, and has grit.
When we moved into this old house, I invested in a bunch of low-cost sensors, plugs, and cameras. In part, this was due to being hysterically told, “Crime is rampant in Montague,” and to monitor temperatures and humidity so that when certain thresholds were reached, an action could be performed. It’s also nice to not have to reach around to turn off hard-to-reach power switches for lamps.
I’ve got a mix of HomeKit and Alexa/Blink devices in the home and studio.
Yesterday, for some unknown reason, HomeKit stopped working, and all the lights everywhere were on. I tried some quick fixes, but I refuse to put effort into what is supposed to be a timesaver. That era was supposed to be over a decade or more ago. This morning, it came back, and I discovered the studio was 10˙C.
Also, this morning, the TV turned on itself and started playing Pipi Longstocking Bedtime Stories.
Attempting to turn off the Christmas lights, Alexa said they didn’t exist. I looked on the app, and the name had been changed to 0.
If I attempt to answer the door with our doorbell, the person will likely be back in Charlottetown by the time it connects.
I have each Alexa device we own set to a different voice. The bedroom is Aussie, the living room is British, and the office is indistinct. I am constantly being sold something.
Siri never works, but the American voice I have it set to sounds fun announcing Island place names.
HomeKit routines have a mind of their own. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.
I tried to order a heater through Amazon that would quickly warm up my office in the morning, but it kept arriving in pieces. Homedepot has 4, but their automation doesn’t work either because each time I go there, no one knows where they are.
Instead of writing, I just finished troubleshooting an issue with Supercast, which is supposed to automate paid subscriptions. I spend far too much time acting as their tech support.
I recently subscribed to Spark Email’s Pro plan (or whatever it’s called) to automate email through Ai. They forgot about how important the user interface is, and now I spend more time looking for actions so I can do things with my mail – 2 steps forward, 6 steps back.
Alexa just told me someone is in the driveway; it’s likely a fly or the neighbour’s cat.
