Every Step I Take

I trudged up the stairs, each foot weighing a hundred pounds. What was the point of taking the stairs when no one was keeping track of it, no one was giving me credit for the staircases I climbed or the miles I ran.
No one even knew how many beats per minute my heart pounded for my resting heart rate -- all because my Fitbit broke.

Sigh!
The clip on the back, where the charger plugs in, pulled loose from the band, and the little computer circuit fell out too.
As soon as it happened, at around 9:30 in the morning with 7000 steps under my belt, I wanted to climb back into bed. Walking  anywhere seemed pointless.
Of course, I'm being a bit sarcastic, but people like me, who are competitive and inspired by beating our own records, are motivated by things like a Fitbit. I've always made sure I run or walk in the morning, but I could spend the rest of the day sitting in front of my computer if I'm not careful.
The Fitbit got me moving, a minimum of 250 steps for nine hours a day.
I loved checking on my resting heartrate and seeing it slowly decline to 58 beats per minute -- that's nearly athlete level resting heartrate.
Here's what the Mayoclinic website says:

A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats a minute. Generally, a lower heart rate at rest implies more efficient heart function and better cardiovascular fitness. For example, a well-trained athlete might have a normal resting heart rate closer to 40 beats a minute.

Some "friends" joke that they don't need a computer telling them what to do, but the Fitbit never told me what to do, it kept track of what I did.
For instance, I slept every night, but I never knew exactly how long, or how many times I woke up or became restless, until the Fitbit started keeping track.

The Fitbit might not always get it right. Sometimes it might think I'm sleeping when I'm only lying in bed reading, but I suppose that counts as resting too.

And, of course, it kept track of my daily steps. For anyone who gets a Fitbit, the daily goal of steps is usually set at 10,000, which equals about 5 miles. I could pretty much always reach 10,000 steps a day so felt good about it. Then, in January, Fitbit suggested that I needed to up my game. It wanted me to set my goal at 14,500 steps a day. It said my average steps were already in the 13,000 range, so I increased my goal. If I don't run or walk in the morning, I have very little chance of meeting my goal, but most days I reach 14,500 steps and some days I knock it out of the park.

So, now, what would I do without my Fitbit?
I knew from previous experience that Fitbit had a good warranty. I received my first Fitbit a year ago in February for my birthday. It broke at the charging sight about three months in. Here's where I first blogged about it. I contacted Fitbit and they sent me a new one. Simple enough.
So when my latest Fitbit broke, I emailed the company and sure enough, within a day, they responded that they could replace my current Fitbit.
Does it make sense though? I've already gone through two Fitbits with the same flaw. I was extremely careful when plugging the second Fitbit in and unplugging it. I knew how delicate those pieces could be, and I still broke them.
My neighbor was showing off her Apple Watch. Apparently, it does everything the Fitbit does, plus more. I looked at the cost and choked a little -- between $300 and $400.

"You push a button and it repels all the water from the watch," she bragged. 
Oh, how I wanted one. My Apple Watch envy flared. I imagined swimming laps and having them count!

In class, as I made the students bring papers up to me rather than walking around to them (What's the point if I don't get credit for the steps?) one of my students showed me her Fitbit Blaze. It's like an Apple Watch but not as extensive. 

The whole square of the watchface charges so at least I wouldn't risk breaking it in the same way as the others.
In its email, Fitbit offered me a free replacement of the same Fitbit HR or said I could take 30% off another Fitbit product, like the Fitbit Blaze. They cost $199, so that would still leave me on the hook for $130 after the discount.
Meanwhile, as I weigh the pros and cons, every step I take is wasted because no one is keeping track.
What would you do?

Customer Service - A Thing of the Past for Best Buy

Eight phone calls.
Two hours and 28 minutes total on hold or explaining my problem to a "Customer Service" representative.
That has been my experience with Best Buy in the past 13 days.
And my $32.01 problem has not been solved yet.
I considered myself a loyal Best Buy customer. In the past year alone, I've purchased three laptops from Best Buy. Apparently, I thought the store was reliable because I never had problems with any products.

Woe to ye who must sit on hold waiting for a Best Buy "Customer Service" agent.
Nevermind the fact that the speakers and the hold music on Best Buy are horrendous. If you ever listened to the hold music on Best Buy, cracking and popping its 1960s tunes, you would never buy any stereo equipment or phones at Best Buy. You'd expect a cutting edge technology store to have at least decent technology. Believe me, I've had 148 minutes of mostly hold music, rarely interrupted by a representative, to listen to.
The original problem was complicated. I tried to buy something as a download and I got an error message. It didn't download.
So, I tried to buy it again, and again. Each time it seemingly got turned down. Then I looked on my checking account and saw that I had been charged for it four times. I still didn't have the darn product. That was my first call to Best Buy "Customer Service." When I couldn't get a person, I drove to the bank for help.
Now, all of the mistaken charges have gone away, except for the original charge of $32.01. Because it was a download and I don't have an actual product to return, they can't seem to wrap their head around me getting a refund.
The next day, I went to an actual store -- Target, not Best Buy -- and bought the product I wanted. Now I have the product, but I've paid for it at two places and only have it one.
"Take the product back to the store," one of the Best Buy reps told me on the phone today.
I never went to the store! I have no product to return.
"Well, why'd you leave the store without the product?" she asked.
I wanted to bang my head against the wall over and over.
I thought I was onto something last week. I got a southern accented man who told me the refund would be processed by Wednesday. It wasn't.
Today, I got one hour and six minutes into a call. The woman was helping. She said, "I'll stay on the phone with you while you talk to this department." She walked me through three different departments without success. Then she said she knew the right department and she put me on hold. That's when my call got lost. The loneliness overwhelmed me. She was the only one who understood my problem and she drifted away on the crappy phone system.
I went to the end of the cue again as an operator said, "Please tell me the problem so I can direct your call."
"No, no, no.... Give me back to the woman who was about to solve my problem," I begged. They couldn't. And the system is set up so she can't call me back or even notify a supervisor that the person she has worked with for an hour got dropped.
Sorry. Start over.
And that's why I question whether it's actually customer service. Service would indicate that someone got some sort of help, which I haven't gotten.
The supervisor I insisted on speaking to today was a little surly.
I mean, I wasn't his cheeriest customer, I'm sure.
"What's your last name, Mike?" I asked.
"I can't tell you that," he said.
"What's your supervisor's name, Mike? Even if he or she isn't there, could I have a name?"
"I can't tell you that," Mike said again.
Maybe the CIA should take some tips from Best Buy because they appear to be good at keep information on the QT.
Unhelpful Mike left it by saying he had to send a note to another department. A note? Really? Is he sending it by pneumatic tube? Is he handwriting it and dropping it in interoffice mail? Where's the technology?
I would hear from the mystery department when they had resolved the issue, unhelpful Mike said.
"So, if it isn't resolved, I won't hear anything?" I asked. "I'll just have to use another 148 cell phone minutes on the phone with Best Buy?"
He didn't have an answer.
Neither do I, but I know where I won't be turning for help next time.
Addendum: About a week after I wrote this blog post, which I sent to Best Buy, I got a call from a Best Buy representative. At the beginning, I wasn't hopeful, as she again reiterated that her records showed I had purchased the software at the store.
Trying not to get frustrated, I promised that I had been sitting in my dining room at the time of purchase and that there was nothing I could do other than forward her the email the company sent which showed the day and the price, nothing else.
She suggested she could give me a credit to Best Buy.
I declined, saying I didn't plan to shop there any more.
This customer service rep was apparently allowed to take a little initiative though. She said she couldn't reimburse me for something bought at the store (I didn't scream at her when she said this) but she did credit me the same amount on a computer I bought online the month before. So, after much frustration, I did get my money back.
I'm not sure that's true for most people who get caught in the ring of hell known as "customer service."

Ebooks versus Codex

I spent the day at a Writer's Conference, which usually inspires me to sit down and get some writing done. The keynote speaker, a guy named Lev Grossman who writes for Time Magazine, had some interesting observations on ebooks versus the bound version we use now, which he calls a Codex. He explained how books used to be on scrolls, which wasn't very useful for flipping back to previous sections or marking certain passages. The early Christians started using codex for the Bible, and the bound style caught on. So, for 2000 years we've been using books that have front to back pages, until now.
The eBook threatens to replace the bound version.
Some good things about eBooks, he pointed out, are the compactness and portability. Some bad things are the battery life, since a print book never runs out of battery life; it's always there. And a print book is very "robust." You drop it, you simply pick it up again; whereas, when an eBook reader gets dropped, well, there may be repercussions and cracked screens. EBooks have display/contrast issues unlike print books and eBooks are tricky to take notes on.
Like the scrolls used by the Romans, eBooks are linear. The reader goes from the beginning to the end and returning to favorite sections of the book is difficult.
The best thing about a print book versus an eBook though, according to Grossman, is that physical proof of the fictional experience. The book sits on the shelf as a reminder of the whole world within the cover. He compared it to a magical dream about riding on an eagle, and then finding a feather on the pillow, as proof that something more than a dream has occurred. That's what the paperback or hardback book on the shelf is, the feather that says something more happened here.
Publishers, of course, are concerned about making money, They don't care if the reader has that eagle feather as a talisman, as long as they have the cash in their pockets.
"They aren't realizing the other tangibles from publishing codex," Grossman said. "Keep a close eye on the trade offs."

Family Games in the 21st Century

Last night, my brother Kevin, his wife Dawn and 14-year-old daughter Caroline came to our house to wait for their son in the Navy to land at the Columbus airport. While his flight was delayed and delayed again, we decided to play a fun game we got for Christmas. The thing is, the boys were gone, and we really needed another teenager to make the game more fun for Caroline. That's when we got on the computer and called Grace on Skype. We set the computer in front of a chair with the camera facing the game board so she could play too.

Do you see her on the screen there? Whenever it was Grace's turn, we held up the cards for her to make her choice then answer a question.
It may not have been as much fun for Grace as it was for us. I imagine it was a bit confusing as everyone talked and Kevin took the dog outside and we laughed at things that she couldn't see because the camera was facing the game board.
Still, it was almost like having her there with us.
Earl won by the way.