I try the Invoice Manager Pro App and sort of like it until I discover I have not saved any invoices after using it for a week

I have an iPone 5s. The theory behind getting the iPhone was that I could use it to keep records and take credit cards and get the weather every 90 seconds.
This is a good theory.
Here is the problem.
The iPhone uses apps. Most apps are written by morons who don't use the apps.
An excellent example of this is the invoice manager I actually purchased for $5.99 from the Apple App store.
It had good reviews.
It is called Invoice Manager Pro. I figured that was a pretty descriptive name. I downloaded a free demo. It was easy to use, but the demo didn't save the invoices.

It turns out that the full version, in theory, saves invoices, but I just can't find them.
Here is the deal...
It doesn't matter what wonderful features you have, if you can't figure out how to use the app within four keystrokes then it is pretty much pointless.
I just clicked on the step by step instructions. It is walking me through changing the color of the invoice. In my humble opinion, that is absolutely and completely stupid and useless. How about white with black lettering? A custom logo is just want I want on my so far imaginary invoices.
You don't really need a step by step tutorial, you click on the invoice button, it has a pretty annoying setup but you can input name and phone number and then add products. It wants to set up inventory to let you sell items which is really annoying, that is probably where I went wrong.
I made out several invoices last week, I emailed a couple and printed a couple more. But, they are not on my phone.
Apparently there is a cleverly hidden, "save" button.
Who knows? This app is going in the trash.

I tried the Apple program called "Numbers," but like all free Apple programs it almost does what I want but not really. There are only so many hours in the day I can sit on the toilet and figure out how to use my iPhone with out my butt going to sleep.
How can it be that difficult to write an App that does invoices.
An invoice requires a few basic items.
1. Your name and company name
2. The Customer's name and storage of said customer's name for future reference.
3. Date of invoice
4. Spot for invoice number which should be generated by the program
5. Item, number of items, cost per item, total cost.
6. A database of invoices searchable by item, customer, date, invoice number.
7. The ability to get the info out of the phone, email, text, print, export in quickbooks format.

What would be nice...and what I would pay money for.
Management of the information, as in sales per month, a place to enter payments, a receipt manager, the ability to attach a photo of a check or weight slip to the invoice, buttons to indicate payment, credit card payments, basically the functions of one of those companies that competed with Quicken before Intuit bought them all up so they could continue with a hard to use, non-intuitive, and annoying program.

It really can't be that hard to make this App and it shouldn't be that hard to actually get the info to people who want to use it.
But, here is the other problem. You can no longer use the internet to search for reviews of the best products. (or find people's phone numbers.) All the reviews seem to be scams to make money out of getting paid for clicks on your stupid phony website that does paid reviews or overly positive reviews on products you have never used.
I don't really want to run my business on my iPhone but I might if it were just a little bit more intuitive to use.
On the other hand, I see a lot of smart phones and I see people using them in businesses so perhaps I'm just exceedingly dense...
I wish I had my $5.99 back!

Note:
1. You can see from my photo that I am using the Blogger app. The Blogger app also kind of sucks. You are very limited on adding tags or formatting in anyway. However, you can take photos with your phone and post them without editing them to size. (I think, as no one has complained)
2. Apps mostly are horrible versions of the real program which have all the features you actually use removed. I own an Apple eMate which has limited programs which actually have usable features, (like entering information into an invoice template) I once owned a PowerBook 100 which had a screen you could read and simple but useful programs. I do not believe that usability of computers has improved since OS 7 but speed and useless features have increased dramatically, and Apple has yet to include any useful templates other than mortgage analyzer in any of their potentially useful programs.

UPDATE: (Wednesday Morning) I went through the tutorial last night and made up a new invoice following the instructions exactly. I still have the invoice after shutting down the App and opening up again this morning. We shall see...  I'm not sure what I did that was differing from the first five invoices I made. It could have been the update I downloaded. If so, that is a serious problem on its own. 

Oh fiddlesticks!

New boots and I stab my foot with a hay hook! Didn't mind the blood, top of that foot has a little nerve damage from twenty years ago when I ran it trough the stacker, but new boots don't heal.

This is the trailer we took to visit collieguy

This trailer made stops in Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and a couple other states.
It has been languishing behind a barn in Junction City.

This is what happens when you languish behind a barn in Junction City

It looks a lot better after ten bucks worth of quarters in at the local carwash.

This is what it looked like in 2002, at a park in Verona, Missouri on November 2, 2002.

The first or second or third challenge of my daughter attending the public school

My daughter is reading, "The Outsiders," by S.E. Hinton.
She has been promoted into "PreAp" classes at Middle School.
I immediately thought of a recent blog post by Mr. Selfevident Truths. Click to read.
"The Outsiders" was published in the 1960's and did poorly on the drugstore novel racks until it was discovered by angst ridden English teachers a few years later.
The book is one of those "coming of age" stories where there are kids who are outcasts and have labels forced upon them and then there is a crisis and they decide to put on a show. Generally, all is solved by the show and there is singing involved. However, in an "edgy" novel there is another crisis and an unexpected plot twist at the end which shows "gritty realism."
Lulu really likes the book. It moves quickly and she says she likes the descriptions. She has not gotten to the killing of the rival gang member.
She has been reading the Percy Jackson series, which is a formula type book that rips off takes Greek mythology, removes human sacrifice, incest, nasty sex, and puts it into an adventure format with kids from the 21st century continuing as the "heroes" of old.
She said this morning, "Why couldn't the Percy Jackson series have been written like this (The Outsiders).  Thereby explaining the difference between "literature" and the dime novel.
I'm not really thrilled that she start out with this book. I felt that while the book provides a discussion for the class structure that young teens are constantly upset about, it also reinforces the idea that you can't change your caste. As I remember it, the gang members can't change, even though there is a sin/redemption/sacrifice/resurrection theme.
So I said to her, this book will challenge your thinking. You know what you believe, can you read a book which has themes of drug use, violence, and realize that these are not your ideals? How will you react to the idea that while you have a moral compass that you have built through your Christian faith, other people don't have that conscience and you will be presented with the concept that there is no real meaning in life, other than in the experience of living it?
And then I went off on the concept of Nihilism and Moral Relativism and how listening to Punk Rock and reading, "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner," made me the annoying cynic that I am now.
She seemed amused...
Later, I had to think of the shrill parents at her former school who had a nervous breakdown and gave birth to several cows when the Bible Teacher extended his middle finger during an object lesson in Bible Class.
Of course the children then went home and watched network television in their living rooms, with their parents, and saw really offensive material that really would negatively influence their lives.
But, that is what you get for trying to actually teach the kids...

And now for the real question... Should I call up my friends on the school board and express my nervousness over the subject matter in my daughter's advanced placement English class or should I read the book with her and try and entice her into arguments over the meaninglessness of life?

Update, another book discussion this evening. It has given us something interesting to talk about.

The Clever Folks from Portland know more than us rural nutjobs who cling to God and Guns and Genetically Modified, Pesticide laden, greenish looking corn seed...

This is Oregon...

Legalized Pot, which I don't really care that much about, but it fits the pattern...

A Governor who people the with funny beards, dork glasses and flannel shirts-but are not loggers from the 1970's, think is a regular guy because his conceit is cowboy boots, denim jeans, a sport jacket, and a crazy girl friend. (who takes bribes though her consulting company.)

A conviction that we need to know if we are eating GMO but nobody really knows what GMO means. But really folks, more regulation is good regulation? Right? This is Oregon!

We need a civil rights amendment to the State constitution that probably will give rise to more lawsuits if you decide you don't want to bake a cake for someone, even though the state constitution already has civil rights protections and doesn't need to be changed. 

But, Mexicans can't get driver cards because, well, the folks in Portland really just don't like Mexicans. (They do like their food)

I didn't really pay attention to National News. So I have no good comments... Other than it is pretty funny that the racists Republicans have been electing black people into office. Undoubtedly they (the black people) are Uncle Toms. I do think it is wonderfully ironic to see people of color who are more fiscally responsible and harder working than the mainstream Republican party stuffed suits, thereby proving that us hicks are not really racist, we just hate dislike are annoyed by people who don't know how to work for their living...

The main bright spot is that Chronic is now legal in Oregon. We are going to need it. I'm thinking of starting a nonGMO instant brownie mix company...Or sell Easy Bake Ovens on Craigslist...Instead of coffee break at tea time, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., we are just going to knock off at 4:20. Well, can't really be expected to be at work before 9:30 a.m. either, I've been having that Futurama and Dr. Who marathon on Amazon Prime...

The London Daily Mail online is a better news source than KPTV Fox 12, our local news station

The top news story this morning is a lady throwing her son off the Yaquina Bay Bridge, in Newport, Oregon.
"She said excuse me and thank you," said a rather damp looking man on the TV. The man was also walking on the bridge and the woman and her son politely walked past him on their way to their doom...
But the good info, "Who, what, where, when, and why..." can be found at the London Daily Mail site. It was the lead story when I opened up my web browser.
It is truly a tragic story.
No health insurance, father is in the hospital with MS, the child was Autistic, the local news did not report any of this information. Certainly gives the story a little more depth.

And now to completely change the subject...

1. I don't get the hype about iPhones. Sure they look really cool and are really thin but who cares? Does anyone use them without a bulky case? AND, why are they not waterproof? Why did I even think about buying a case that was not waterproof? I live in Oregon. I cannot use my iPhone in the rain. I think the iPhone has great potential but it needs a little development...

2. Plumbing- I hate plumbing. I also hate Lowe's. But I was not near a regular hardware store, or the local WILCO store. In the last few years there have been sorts of advancements in new plumbing technology, PEX, special plug in connectors, CPVC, PVC, and it can all be mixed and matched in one bathroom.
Sometimes you just want regular pipe fittings. Good luck with that at Lowe's. A wall of shut off valves and not a single one that is standard pipe thread on both ends.
So I had to buy adapters and plastic tubing...

I used the crappy teflon tape that came with the new faucet fixture. China has figured out how to make a roll of Teflon Tape that is actually worse than usual. It could not seal.
So I took the whole thing back apart, got the industrial Teflon in a tube out of my service truck, cranked it all back together.  Five trips outside in the rain and laying down in the yard with my elbow down the manhole cover to shut off the water.

Idiots for measure 92

Oregon is voting on an initiative which will require labeling of "genetically modified foods."

I started out in favor of 92 because I believe you should be able to make choices when you buy food. After seeing all big environmental money promoting 92 and realizing it will increase government regulations I am opposed.

I have also now decided that most people opposed to GMO don't even know what they are opposing and are easily manipulated paranoid idiots...

Here are two of the resolutions which were taken from the "Read the Initiative," website posted by Oregon Right to know.

(15) Requiring that foods produced through genetic engineering be labeled as such will create additional market opportunities for producers who are not certified as organic and whose products are not produced through genetic engineering. Such additional market opportunities will also contribute to vibrant and diversified agricultural communities.

This is a lie. Labeling will require certification which will benefit the sort of farmers who love regulations and have the money to pay for the extra certification. Labeling will also benefit environmental groups which can promote their favorite grant supported farms. If you want to know what is in your food then develop a relationship with your local farmer. I'm not going to certify my chicken/pig feed. It is made of barley, peas, flax, and the occasional filbert. If you want certification buy it somewhere else. I don't like to answer my phone anyway.

(16) The cultivation of genetically engineered crops can have serious effects on the environment. For example, in 2013, 93 percent of all soy grown in the U.S. was engineered to be herbicide resistant. In fact, the vast majority of genetically engineered crops are designed to withstand herbicides, and therefore promote indiscriminate herbicide use. As a result, genetically engineered, herbicide resistant crops have caused 527 million pounds of additional herbicides to be applied to the nation’s farmland. These toxic herbicides damage the vitality and quality of our soil, harm wildlife, contaminate our drinking water, and pose health risks to consumers and farmworkers. Further, because of the consequent massive increase in the use of herbicides, herbicide-resistant weeds have developed and flourished, infesting farm fields and roadsides, complicating weed control for farmers, and causing farmers to resort to more and increasingly toxic herbicides.

This is the big one, the whole point of the genetic modifications was to REDUCE herbicide use. Of course the commercial on TV says, "pesticides," which is a lie to make it sound more scary. I suppose they are talking about insect resistance in corn but again, THAT REDUCES THE use of pesticides. 

It does not promote "indiscriminate herbicide use."  It promotes use of ONE herbicide at the rate suggested on the LABEL. If the weeds become resistant then you go back to the herbicide we used before we had the LESS TOXIC herbicide that every one is now afraid of.

People are idiots. They are incapable of basic reasoning skills, they are purposely uniformed and purposely stupid. AND they are dishonest. 

If you are afraid of "Frankenfood" then argue this issue on the dangers of playing GOd with nature. I'm a little afraid of that myself. I use NON genetically modified seed when ever possible. I don't like paying the technology fee, I don't like Monsanto, and I have many more reasons which I could go on for at least an hour...