Honestly, I’ve been avoiding social websites for years.  I’m easily distracted, crazy curious about random things, and have very little filter.  Thank you ADHD.  But when I’m googling questions, I see a lot of results from reddit. 

Reddit is a cross between a news-aggregator, Dear Abby, and a poorly researched Wikipedia.  For all that, it is rather entertaining to see what people are thinking about.  You ask questions of the community, start discussions, or comment on random things.  People then have a chance to respond, read others responses, and generally make fools of everyone and everything. 

It is rather easy to start and intuitive to use.  Click the “Create New Account” button, enter some info, and off you go.  I was able to start answering and commenting immediately and had already done some back-and-forth conversations within 5 minutes. 

I think this is going to be best for either personal interests, like “how do I beat this level in such-and-such a game” or “did this character ACTUALLY die in this show”.  I’m not sure how to use this professionally, aside from research into likes and dislikes or purchasing advertising space.  I’d need to spend more time puttering around and learning about the community before I can come up with something more solid. 

One of the reasons I have avoided social websites is privacy.  I have very little filter, so the least risky option for me is to not even start talking.  I don’t need to reconnect with people from my past, there is a reason they’re in my past.  I don’t need more advertising and junk mail, I get plenty already.  I have a family that doesn’t need to be stalked online.  One of the ways I have protected my privacy online is with my profile pictures.  Generally, I use a picture maker, like from Doll Divine, to make an approximate image of me.  (My favs are Mega Anime Avatar Creator and Chibi-Maker.) Red hair, green eyes, pale skin, glasses.  Easy enough. 

I’ve been more generous with my blog.  I’m not putting it out there for views, just for the people I know and for classes.  I’ve been posting more personal details and more pictures.  My writing sounds more like the way I talk than the way I write formally.  Especially since my classes have been remote, I try to have some of my personality come through. 

Since logging on to Reddit, I have discovered that there are a lot of ways to make pie crust and that I’m not the only one with a collection of vintage Betty Crocker Red Book cookbooks.  I’m still a fan of the 2000s Bridal edition buttermilk pie crust.  It’s softer to work with, but the extra acid make the crust flaky and it bakes up nicely for custard-style pies.  It’s a bit mushy for cream pies, though. 

Hugs and Hi-Fives! –Val

For my second web tool, I looked at the education category.  I chose Quizlet, since there is a flashcard feature.  Really, the primary thing I’ve been looking for in an education app for myself is the ability to create, study, and hopefully print flashcards.  I am a firm believer in the educational philosophy of “learn to look it up”.  There are things that you just need to know by rote: reading, multiplication tables, etc.  That’s what the flash cards are for.  The key to learning anything else is to understand the concept and how to look it up when you need specific info.  You only need to remember the details for the class tests and/or when you work with the info frequently. 

It looks like a tool that kids would use to try to shortcut classwork.  The layout and the user-generated content make it feel like that, but once you start to generate your own materials and use the tools more carefully, it looks like a good way to keep your studying organized.  There is a lot of AI in the condensing and editing features, so you will always need to proofread carefully.  Not a bad habit to be in anyway, though. 

The interface is easy online and I’m just starting to play with the app on my phone.  There is a section that will organize notes into a study guide.  I tried that out and it seemed to work well.  The flashcard creator is smooth, but putzy.  Just about as putzy as making flashcards by hand, so that’s about a wash.  The biggest issue I’m running into is that the paywall is really close to the beginning of the functionality.  I don’t feel like I get a chance to really see whether this is worth a subscription before they try to charge me. 

Personally, I think this is going to be good for me to organize my notes into something that will make sense to study.  Also, I’m kinda a nerd and am trying to use the flashcards to teach myself to read Aurebesh.  (Cue the lightsaber noises and John Williams soundtrack.)  When I was working in International Wire, I made flashcards to learn the currency codes I worked with (all 150 or so of them), so when I have terms and abbreviations I need to memorize in a professional setting, I will definitely make use of the flashcard function. 

Hugs and Hi-Fives! –Val

I chose to look at 2 specific categories: organization and education.  I have both ADHD and Mom-Brain, so anything that helps me coordinate and remember is a bonus.  From the organization category, I chose “Remember the Milk”.  My husband and I currently use the “Out of Milk” app to coordinate our grocery list and I was hoping that we could change over to the RtM app so we can coordinate our to-do lists too.  So far, I’m not impressed. 

As a grocery app, it doesn’t have a few features I need: repeat purchases, categorized products, and visible notes (for things like quantity and variety).  As a to-do list app, I’d like to have sub-tasks as a free feature.  Especially for my husband, having things broken down into small parts makes it easier to work through projects.  For me, having small tasks that I can assign orders and different due dates makes it easier to plan ahead. 

I do like having the ability to edit lists from both the app and online.  That was a feature that used to be in OoM that was removed.  Being able to make shopping lists for things other than groceries will be nice too.  Knowing that I need a particular color of yarn for a project, I can watch for sales and pick things up when I’m in the right area of town. 

For professional uses, I prefer a combination of Outlook, Teams, and OneNote.  I can coordinate between programs, they stay on my work computer (separate from my personal computer), and I can easily share between coworkers.  For personal use, I convinced my husband to try out RtM for a few weeks and see if it is going to be useful for coordinating and organizing at home. 

Hugs and Hi-Fives! –Val