A Letter to Microsoft

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Dear Microsoft®,

I just saw your latest commercial for your search engine Bing™. Your tag line was “the decision engine” which I find particularly fitting since you have been making decisions for millions of us every day. Not even giving us a choice. Sometime I don’t even know you have made a decision FOR ME until it’s too late. Like when I need to update my software, or what programs are considered malicious and what needs to be blocked “automatically.” I like making my own decisions thank you.

Now you’ve gone and done it again, Microsoft. Politely telling me I am not smart enough to make my own decisions without your guidance or worse, your total control. Actually, it doesn’t feel polite at all. It feels manipulative and I don’t like it. Microsoft, you have become “the man” or rather, you have been “the man” for quite some time and I want you to know, I choose Firefox. I choose Google. I choose Adobe. And when I can, I choose freeware because it’s a free country.

And you thought your biggest competitor was Apple… Microsoft, I am breaking up with you. 

Respectfully, (despite your utter lack of respect for me.)

Natalie

I LOVE October!

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I love October. I am not entirely sure why but my suspicion is that I have visions of beautiful fall colors, orange pumpkins, apple cider and warm fuzzy scarves. In western Washington though, you are lucky if you get a few fleeting days before the leaves are blown and rained into oblivion, only to clog gutters and get stuck to your shoes. I refuse to admit that it's entirely possible that my affinity for October lies in the fact that it is also my birth month. I'd sooner admit to enjoying dressing up for Halloween. No, I am certain my longing for the autumn is based on the promise of those temporary jewels that disappear as quickly as they arrive.


This year has been totally different. We had a rough start, with a weak showing this summer, but just as I had been dreaming and hoping (for a couple years actually), the month of October has been simply wonderful. Just yesterday, I was staring out the window while forcing myself to jog on the treadmill, (not a happy point in my day), when I noticed something. Outside it was the beginning of sunset but across the parking lot of the gym was a street lined with maples that had turned yellow. At this time of night, they looked almost luminescent. It was a total trick of the eye but it was like the trees were glowing and I was captivated. It’s moments like that where a picture could hardly do it justice but the memory will stick with me.

There is nothing I love more than crisp, sunny mornings where the leaves are starting to turn yellow and you can see your breath!  Defrosting the ice on your windows only takes a few moments because the air really isn’t as cold as it first seems. And I don’t even mind because I know that bright blue cloudless sky will be worth the extra few minutes of warming the car.

There is another reason I love this time of year and it helps me get over the very short window of color October provides me. I must confess, I am a bit of a scarf wh*re, (my family reads this) and I have probably 20-25 different colored scarves, although I haven’t counted in a year or so. And yes, I try to wear them all at least once. Blues, oranges, pinks and greens, you name it. And all these colors cheer me. They give me joy on the grayer days of winter and I’m pretty sure I’m a little addicted to buying them.

So for this October, I’d like to thank Mother Nature, Steve Poole, and my mom, because without her, I might have been born at some other time of the year. I hear the rains are about to start at the end of this week so enjoy these short days.

Now let’s all get ready for one heck of a La Nina this winter. Get ‘cher umbrellas and boats ready!
Thanks!