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Salon thread 2: Making dealing with the world easier
Welcome to our second salon discussion thread. Wander in, invite a friend along, and chat! (Not sure what's going on? Here, have a brief FAQ.) The first one went swimmingly! People! Talking! About awesome stuff! Feel free to talk about anything: my topic of the day is just to get us started.
Some of the comments in last week's thread got me thinking about the little stuff we do to make dealing with the world easier for us (lifehacks). And then why. Some stuff I do (briefly, on the theory it might encourage conversation)
1) I am very boring about my clothing. (basically, a black skirt and coloured knit top, or a coloured skirt and a black knit top.) Except for special occasion clothing, it is all cotton, it all goes in the wash together, and I basically only have to think about it when I want to. When I want to be fancier, that's what jewelry is for.
2) I do not have glasses in my house. I have pottery mugs. I am less likely to drop them (yay, handles) and if I do, they break into bigger and much less transparent pieces. (I am not as clumsy as I was during the worst of the medical foo, but, y'know. It's still useful.)
3) I have no idea what I did before a smartphone, which for me is less phone, and more "thing that fills at least a dozen other needs, but is only one thing to keep track of, plus more than enough books to keep even *me* occupied for a while, and oh, yeah, occasionally it makes phone calls.")
4) I periodically write up a document called "The care and feeding of Jenetts (or at least this one)" designed to help people navigate spending time with me. I had hoped to have a sample here but a) the week got away from me a bit and there was other stuff that had to take priority and b) some bits of it need to go under access lock. (For those who can see my locked posts, I expect to finish it by the end of the week.)
Anyway, this includes things like methods of communication, privacy notes, basic health stuff, more in-depth health stuff (with a focus on "Here's what you need to know so we can enjoy time together."), things I like as presents, things I'm really bad at doing, foods I eat and don't eat (and a brief "why" so people can figure out which bits really apply in a given setting), and stuff people should know if they want to visit me.
What stuff do you do? I'm especially curious about anything where you do it and other people look at you and blink and then go "Oh, that's an awesome idea!" (I've had that with my mugs, for example.)
(A word on advice: please don't give it in this discussion unless someone asks for it. A bunch of people I know will read this have Complicated Stuff, and I trust that they have found solutions that work for them for reasons that work for them. That said, if you'd like advice, go ahead and ask for it!)
Music in the background: Last week's salon had a lot to say about the topic of music, and it got me thinking about listening to the stuff that connects us to the universe. So, on my playlist for this week's salon are "One Voice" by the Wailin' Jennys, "All Will Be Well" by Meg Barnhouse, "Brave" by Sarah Bareilles, "Allegria" by Cirque du Soleil and "Give us room to roar" from Ruth Mackenzie's Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden.
A quick reminder
As noted, the basic thing here is 'leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse'. The FAQ has more help with your choices for comment (DW account, OpenID account, or anonymously) if you need a hand. Or ask, and someone (likely me, but maybe not) will be along to help. We'll work everything else out as we go.
Some of the comments in last week's thread got me thinking about the little stuff we do to make dealing with the world easier for us (lifehacks). And then why. Some stuff I do (briefly, on the theory it might encourage conversation)
1) I am very boring about my clothing. (basically, a black skirt and coloured knit top, or a coloured skirt and a black knit top.) Except for special occasion clothing, it is all cotton, it all goes in the wash together, and I basically only have to think about it when I want to. When I want to be fancier, that's what jewelry is for.
2) I do not have glasses in my house. I have pottery mugs. I am less likely to drop them (yay, handles) and if I do, they break into bigger and much less transparent pieces. (I am not as clumsy as I was during the worst of the medical foo, but, y'know. It's still useful.)
3) I have no idea what I did before a smartphone, which for me is less phone, and more "thing that fills at least a dozen other needs, but is only one thing to keep track of, plus more than enough books to keep even *me* occupied for a while, and oh, yeah, occasionally it makes phone calls.")
4) I periodically write up a document called "The care and feeding of Jenetts (or at least this one)" designed to help people navigate spending time with me. I had hoped to have a sample here but a) the week got away from me a bit and there was other stuff that had to take priority and b) some bits of it need to go under access lock. (For those who can see my locked posts, I expect to finish it by the end of the week.)
Anyway, this includes things like methods of communication, privacy notes, basic health stuff, more in-depth health stuff (with a focus on "Here's what you need to know so we can enjoy time together."), things I like as presents, things I'm really bad at doing, foods I eat and don't eat (and a brief "why" so people can figure out which bits really apply in a given setting), and stuff people should know if they want to visit me.
What stuff do you do? I'm especially curious about anything where you do it and other people look at you and blink and then go "Oh, that's an awesome idea!" (I've had that with my mugs, for example.)
(A word on advice: please don't give it in this discussion unless someone asks for it. A bunch of people I know will read this have Complicated Stuff, and I trust that they have found solutions that work for them for reasons that work for them. That said, if you'd like advice, go ahead and ask for it!)
Music in the background: Last week's salon had a lot to say about the topic of music, and it got me thinking about listening to the stuff that connects us to the universe. So, on my playlist for this week's salon are "One Voice" by the Wailin' Jennys, "All Will Be Well" by Meg Barnhouse, "Brave" by Sarah Bareilles, "Allegria" by Cirque du Soleil and "Give us room to roar" from Ruth Mackenzie's Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden.
A quick reminder
As noted, the basic thing here is 'leave the conversation better than you found it, or at least not worse'. The FAQ has more help with your choices for comment (DW account, OpenID account, or anonymously) if you need a hand. Or ask, and someone (likely me, but maybe not) will be along to help. We'll work everything else out as we go.
Smartphones and tech gear
warschoiceI live in the DMZ between iOS and Android; I dual-wield both an iPhone and a Nexus (currently a 5 and a 4 respectively), because some things are better suited for (or only available on!) one or the other. I lean iOS for things that are on both, mostly because I have had gear in the Apple ecosystem for many years and it's easier to stay there. Several Google apps are also on iOS anyway (Maps, Search, Voice, etc).
Connectivity on the cheap
T-Mobile has an online-or-WalMart-only $30/month prepaid plan for smartphones: 5GB of high-speed data (and then throttled data instead of overage charges), unlimited texts, 100 minutes of voice (and then 10¢s;/minute). Great for people who own "handheld computers that can sometimes make phone calls".
Must-have iOS apps
Dark Sky gives hyperlocal rain forecasts. (And I really mean hyperlocal, like "at your current location, in 15 minutes there will be heavy rain for 30 minutes followed by light rain for an hour".)
TheTransitApp will show you when the next bus will arrive...at all the nearby stops, for all the relevant routes. If you're in a city where several routes might get you where you want to go, it's nice to be able to see that you can catch the 68 in 9 minutes, or walk half a block and grab the 85 in 3 minutes instead. It's also now fully usable at the free tier, though I'm glad I paid them money when they were still doing the "subscription" model (see more routes, etc if you pay); it's well worth it.
I haven't played with the Google Now functionality on iOS much yet, since I already had it on Android. I suspect it will be slightly less featureful since it won't have all the same OS-level support.
Must-have Android apps
Several of these are built-in on newer versions, but unlike iOS they can be upgraded without a full OS release.
Google Now, if you're willing to make the tradeoff of turning on location reporting, can be amazing: "leave in the next 10 minutes to make it to your appointment, due to traffic". It can also give you some of the functionality of TheTransitApp, showing the next buses at the nearest stop (but not other nearby stops).
Gmail (if you use it), the new Google Keyboard (similar to Swype et al, but free), Maps, etc.
Dashclock, if you're on Jelly Bean but don't like the new lockscreen clock.
Ingress, if you want an incentive to get out and get some exercise. It's basically smartphone capture-the-flag, with a science fiction backstory. It's still an invite-only beta, but I have a few invites if people need them.
Androminion, if you like Dominion and have too much free time.
Re: Smartphones and tech gear
To be precise: it's one of their "service partners", which in this case, looking at the map overlays, I *think* is Sprint, whose service quality in this neck of the woods is not fantastic. I have Verizon, which is pricier, but has been rock solid reliable for service for me, even when I'm driving in random bits of rural New England (and since I use my phone as a GPS, that part is very handy: the only time I've dropped service is the middle of a couple of the state parks. And when there's only one road, anyway, so it's not like you have to turn anywhere.)
That's the second time Dark Sky's come up in a conversation recently, so... (goes downloads)
Re: Smartphones and tech gear
Re: Smartphones and tech gear
My friends with T-Mobile have no reception at my house. Every so often one of their phones will ring but they can't answer it, but mostly, they just get voice mails when they're part way home. I admit that the service not working at home is a barrier to my worrying whether it works anywhere else in the region. :P
Re: Smartphones and tech gear
Re: Smartphones and tech gear
Sliding the route to the right is a shortcut for that as well. (Sliding to the left switches between directions/branches, in case you want the bus to Harvard instead of the bus to Kendall; in map mode, tapping on the route info bar does the same.)
Re: Smartphones and tech gear
All I had is Randominion, which will produce a random card set for the game, based on which expansions you have...but it can also blacklist, so that if you want to play a Curse-free game, you can do it.
So many thanks for the applications.