PDF to Word Converter

Ever come across a PDF that you need to tweak just a little bit? For me, that PDF came in the form of a cheerleading scoresheet. If you follow my tweets or are friends with me on FB, you know that we are BIG fans of competitive cheerleading. This year, Grace is cheering for the HS competition team, and I have been asked to work on tabulating score for our upcoming annual cheer competition. Our fearless lead mom (dare I say, Cheer Mom President) provided links to the score sheets that I intended to print on our hp960. Yes, we still have an hp960 in the printer rotation. It is a work horse (and I love it), though these days, it is not printing color, only in black and white. I have it "networked" via Google Cloud Print and shared with all family members. Only problem is it does not translate something that in color to print in black and white simply by choosing that setting on the print menu. Of course, rather than sending it to the cloud-ready color printer in another room, I am compelled to figure out a work-around. First thing is to covert the PDF to Word. I used a free, online converter called PDF to Word by a company called Nitro. All you have to do is upload the file, and enter your email, and the converter file will be sent to your inbox.

So, it turns out that all of this was much more trouble than it was worth, and I wound up printing to the color printer.

Gratitude yes, but

I'll never understand people who would rather have someone else do something for them. Never. Really. I don't get it. 

I'm working with a team that works great together. Second year is going to be even better than the first. So the team decided they want an email group set up to email to collaborators. This has to be done on an organizational level- tech support request, wait for the person in charge of doing it to complete the task, then if it needs to be modified, repeat the process of tech request, blah blah blah. You get it.

I suggested creating a group in Contacts.  My logic was, we could take care of it on the spot, and any mods could be done as needed. The collaborators' response was, but then we'll each have to make one. Okay, yes but it will be done, we don't have to wait for the Google admin, and we can change it as needed. Anyway, this stared on Monday. A mass email went out to staff to not ask individual tech team members to do things, but to make all requests via tech support. It's Friday, my group was created on Monday, and the group email is still in limbo.

I've given some thought to why I think this is stupid. Is it because I don't have 100% support and hooray over my idea? Maybe. Maybe my co workers don't get that I'm the most efficient being around. Whatevs.

-#micdrop

Commuting Workflow- AM

I've officially been commuting for a year now, and have had several ideas about how to structure my time to be productive. Problem is, in my mind, I have envisioned the perfect workflow, and well, the vision is stuck in the iterative stages, you guessed it, in my head. I've tried time and time again to adopt the mantra progress over perfection and failed. I've read blog posts that procrastination just means there is lack of intent- that upsets me because I feel such remorse when I can't accomplish everything I hope to. I'm perpetually distracted too (#Squirrel!), which could also be seen as an excuse. :(

I get that sometimes you have to decompress after investing time and energy into something. I've experienced exhaustion/inability for days, even weeks this year after G's Sweet 16, and supervising G's driving her first time on I-78 in rush hour, and submitting intense applications. I don't know if it's age or just having to recover from the stress and/or adrenaline rush.

Proposed morning workflow:

6:30 #BFC530

6:45 Record commuting expenses; map out day in bullet/self/passion journal; schedule calls; take care of easy tasks

7:10 Arrive in Newark; depart for NYC; work on items that do not require internet connection (blog post, reading printouts)

7:40 Arrive at NYP; continue working on items that do not require Internet; brain break while waiting for subway

8:00 Arrive at TDS; breakfast before heading up to 4th floor; record arrival time and delays; complete blog post and upload (already the blog post upload is delayed- I'm getting to this at 10:00 am).

First revision (9:58 am 08/31): Whiteboard plan for the day and record image in an Evernote notebook. Erase items as they are completed. Make it a goal/game to erase everything

Another barrier is money (maybe that should be a separate blog post). 

bubbl.us Brainstorming Tool

Looking for an easy and engaging brainstorming tool? Try bubbl.us! Elegant, fun, and a minimal learning curve. Students can save their work easily with Google Single Sign On. Curious? Check out this how-to video. In the video, I have my kids starting from a link in our Google Classroom class. This is the link we used bubbl.us/mindmap.

Restoring Deleted Calendar Items

It happens to me all the time. When attempting to update my Google Calendar (my FAVORITE app), I delete items from the wrong date, and miss the Undo opportunity that immediately pops up. Usually I just recreate the event. For single events, this is no big whoop, but for recurring events, this recreated event is not part of the original, might be named ever so slightly differently, you get my gist. Well today, Google alerted me that I could restore my deleted Calendar item from the Trash. What?!? Google Calendar has Trash?  If you know me, you know that I was grinning from ear to ear, because this news is just all kind of awesome. I literally did a happy dance.

To restore deleted calendar items,  click the teeny tiny down arrow beside the calendar it was deleted from

Click on View Trash

Check the items you wish to restore

Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Restore selected items

Deleted calendar items remain in your Trash for 30 days, upon which they are permanently deleted (just like other Google Apps).

Woohoo! \m/

When You Don't Have a Network Printer...Google Cloud Print!

I was using my desktop and Chromebook (you can never have too many screens) at my "standing desk" (really just a double wide, horizontal filing cabinet) today, and needed to print (I know, I'm anti-printing, but sometimes...). 

"Standing desk"

I have a black and white printer in my office, but it is not on the network, so usually when I print from the standing desk, I will print to the mailroom, or switch to my laptop and print from there.

Sitting desk

Let's not even talk about the Chromebook. Its installed printers are all on the 4th and 5th floor, and my office is on the 1st floor- NOT! Today, I thought, "Hmmm, maybe I can print to my desk with Google Cloud Print...and I did it!
Google Cloud Print connects your printers (home or work) to the web. Because your printer is connected to the web, you can print to it from anywhere, using any Internet-connected device- your PC, Mac, Chromebook, phone, or tablet. #YES

Here's how you set it up:

Open a browser window and go to chrome://devices

Under Classic Printers, Click Add printers

Choose which printers to add

Click Add Printers

Google will say, "Thanks, you're ready to go!"

Share your printer(s)

Open chrome://devices again

Under My Devices, click the Manage button next to the printer you'd like to share

Choose the printer and click the green Share button at the top center of the page

You can allow anyone to print, or invite selected users by entering their email addresses

Click the Add button when done

Printer users will be listed like users that share a Google Doc

Invited user(s) will receive an email from Google Cloud Print Notifications that you shared the printer

Accept the invitation

Printer will be added to your list of Cloud Print Printers

Woohoo! #FTW

Of course, I had to test it from my phone too :) I tried with a single page Google Slide.
With the slide desk open, press the three dots at the top right (traffic light?)

Select Share & Export

Print

Google Cloud Print

There's your printer!

Choose your print settings and tap Print

You will see a message in the top left that says Print Job Added

#TaDa!

My Day Without a List

My weekend was great. I figured out a few things about myself.

I make lists. I love lists. I make lists just to cross items off the list. I start each day with a list. Well yesterday, I did not make a list. I just did what a felt like doing whenever I felt like doing it. I had the most productive and gratifying day in a long time. I might even go so far as to say I felt free, and did not experience a moment's guilt for doing what I wanted to do.

I think and act in a stream of consciousness. 

My thoughts are not necessarily in any kind of order.

I think in lists

I am a "how to" kind of girl, and love the how way more than the why

Having to write something (complete sentences/paragraphs) completely stops me

Wed, April 6 update:

I think I just figured out why my day without a list was so great.

I was free to do whatever I wanted without the guilt of needing to finish something else first. I'm sitting here at my desk, with ideas flying into my head, but I feel like, because I'm at work, I can't act on them. All the ideas are taking up space in my head, and now I'm stuck because I'm struggling with what I want to do and what I feel I should do.

Inspiration and obligation are battling each other.