I wrote in yesterday’s blog that we planned to sleep late, and then do absolutely nothing the rest of the day, and I’m a man of my word. That’s exactly what we did! Sometimes we need days like that, where we shut out the rest of the world and just play hooky from life.
I had a very long list of e-mails to reply to, and spent part of the day working my way through them. There were half a dozen invitations to dinner (we’ll see how much we can work in), an inquiry by a reader who is going to be here at the Thousand Trails over the weekend as to whether he could come by and look at our Sea Eagle inflatable kayaks (sure, come on over), two people wanting to know when and where our Eastern Rally will be held next year (September 3-7 in Celina, Ohio), and a request by a lady to read and critique her three historical romance novel manuscripts (sorry, I really don’t have the time, and I don’t read romance novels).
During the afternoon, I knocked out another 3,000 words on my new mystery. It’s moving right along, and I’m optimistic that I will be able to finish it by the end of the year. On the topic of my mysteries, Big Lake has been in the top 700 or so of all paid Kindle books for over a week now, and yesterday it climbed to number 480 for a while, before dropping back to number 511. Last month I sold 545 of the mystery, and 709 e-books all together, and I set a goal to sell a total of 1,000 e-books this month. I looks like I’ll do that with no problem, since as of midnight last night, Big Lake alone had sold 907 copies.
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About 2 p.m., I called Adobe to find out about upgrading the InDesign software I use on the Dell to put the Gypsy Journal together. I had downloaded a sample copy to the iMac, but I knew I could get an upgraded full version for the iMac. I got a recording asking me to leave my phone number, and a message that a sales representative would call me back within 11 to 16 minutes. Nobody did, so I called back at 4 p.m., and the same recorded voice told me that they already had me on the list, and I had moved up to only 4 to 6 minutes for a callback. finally, at 8:30 p.m. I called again, and this time I got a real live person, who took care of processing the order for me, and even knocked $25 off the price because of the hassle. I guess that the squeaky wheel really does get greased.:)
Terry made her delicious anchovy garlic aioli for dinner, and we spent the evening doing pretty much what we did all day, just taking life easy.
We have very fast Verizon 3G internet service here, as well as 4G for the Verizon MiFi. Terry was doing something online yesterday, and told me that she loves the speed she gets with the combination of the 4G MiFi and her new iMac computer. When it has a good 4G signal, and when it works, the MiFi is incredibly fast, and makes getting online a real pleasure. However, three times yesterday the darned thing locked up, and I had to reboot it. We have four days left on our billing cycle, and we have used just a hair over 4 gig of our 5 gig limit so far. And that is just for the two iMacs. I still have my Dell desktop computer in use too, for posting the blogs, and that is running off the older 3G air card, with unlimited service, and so far in this billing cycle, we have used 4.6 gig on it. That amazes me, because in the years we have had it, we have only gone over 5 gig once, with both of our computers online. We haven’t been doing anything different, we don’t watch videos or movies and don’t download stuff from the internet. So why the sudden surge in use?
Thought For The Day – Never confuse education with intelligence.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Hey Nick. Regarding the Gig usage. I just went over our 5 G limit (and I had only 1 day to go!) and I can’t figure out why either. The good news is, if you go over the 5 G limit on Verizon, they will only charge you $10 per extra Gig. I really think their system is off the wall sometimes when tabbing your usage, JMHO
We, too, have gone over our usage and only check our emails and use google to search for stuff…we never had problems when using their old card which attached to the side of the computer !!
When we called, the sales representative told us we were paying $10 a month less now with the MIFI….so when we go over and pay the extra $10, the service now costs the same as the old aircard…HUH????
We will be visiting the store again and speaking with a representative face to face.
We’re noticing the same “surge” in data usage with our new Mifi, and we’re not doing anything different than we normally do–surf the web and do emails. We don’t download movies or watch videos, wonder what gives? It would be interesting to take a poll with your readers!
I can’t help but wonder if you folks have some virus or malware that is using bandwidth for some nefarious purpose? Not likely on the Mac’s but possible on the Dell’s.
I also have a Verizon Mini Hotspot (4510L). I haven’t gone over the 5gb limit yet and I have two laptops connected and use it a lot even an occasional U-Tube video. I also use a program called “Traffic Counter” that runs in the background and keeps track on internet usage. It has been pretty close to the same count as the Verizon Hotspot. One thing to remember if you network through the hotspot, if you also have a wireless printer connected to the hotspot, I believe that uses internet when you print. I don’t connect directly to my hotspot but connect to a smart router (WiFiRanger) which connects to the internet through the hotspot. The WiFiRanger handles the routing of printing.
As to your sudden surge in use, have you joined iCloud on the Mac? We’ve elected not to because we believe it will be a bandwidth hog.
Nothing wrong with having a quiet day at home with the curtains closed. We do that at least once or twice a month. I got the Verizon MiFi 3 months ago and we have been at or just over the 5g limit all 3 months and we never did before with our old air card.
Its your life but why would you want to waste it sleeping away like you do every day? My head hits the pillow at 10 every night and I’m up by 5:30 or 6 every morning and have half my day done by the time you finally roll out of the sack. I’m too busy to waste my life in bed. Maybe you’d get more done if you got up earlier and then didn’t stay awake half the night.
Just finished Big Lake,first book on my new I-pad.i read all the JA Jance books I can get and Nick I have to tell you this is everybit as intriguing. I started about half way through guessing who was killer and was wrong each time. Great book ,can’t wait for the next one.
Bob – The Dell uses the old air card, and the wireless printer is tied to the router of the old air card as well, so thye aren’t runing off the MiFi. We don’t use iCloud or anything that.
Ed – Somebody has to work the night shift. If I go to bed at 2 a.m. and get up at 10, and you go to bed at 10 p.m. and get up at 6 a.m., aren’t we both getting the same amount of sleep? Terry and I have always been night owls, and I get the most writing accomplished betweeen about 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. It’s what works for us.
Hey Ed, who says Nick and Miss T spend all that time sleeping? LOL
I guess getting up so early gives you plenty of time to worry about what other people are up to, huh?
congratulation on the success of your book. Both of us enjoyed it and are waiting for you to finish the next one.
Nick,
If I was seeing those hours I’d be checking my security to be sure no one is stealing my time then I’d be checking what else is on my system that might be checking it to see if there’s anything incoming for it. You know, like an instant on TV is always looking for a command but something in the computer peripherals.
Ed,
The work done between 10 pm and 2 am is the most productive because those hours are without interruptions. Why would you choose to miss those hours?
Linda Sand
another night owl
We got tired of constantly going over our 5GB limit with the Mifi. We bumped it up to 10GB, which is insane, because we do not send any large files, do not stream video, have never downloaded music and are not gamers of any kind. We STILL max out every month!! I have visited Verizon corporate stores in various parts of the country as we travel, asking for help and advice … no one can give me a clue. Some days our usage is next to nothing, others it is busy. We now disconnect from the internet manually, shut down the computers AND shut off the Mifi … a triple redundancy protection program. We continue to visit Verizon stores and we watch our data usage daily. But, sooner or later … SOMEBODY is gonna explain to me just what the blazes is going on. Computers were checked by a pro for any viruses that our own systems might have missed … and I just switched to an Macbook, so it is not a “bug”. I have joined a forum if Mifi users to see if there is an answer there. Crazy!!
We also are able to go thru data much more quickly with our 4G hotspot. I thought it was just because we geeks *are* data hogs – but reading your comments along with our experience does make me wonder what else is going on! Here’s an article I wrote about our experience: My on-the-road Data Diet