The Habit Factor

Hannah's finally starting to get on a decent schedule with an easy bedtime (though this week has been an exception - crazy teething plus swim lessons mean that she's fussy and wired up, which is making bedtime tough again) and she's in her own room, which means that I can wake up in the mornings without waking her.  This has been good for several reasons.  First, I get to do my morning meditations, and drink my coffee in peace.  Second, I can actually start to do some of the things that are important to me again.

So I downloaded this app called The Habit Factor, and their thing is that it's the small actions, ie habits, that make up our lives, and help us achieve our goals.  So you use the app to input big goals, like losing weight, or writing a book (mine) and then you associate them with different habits, which you also input.  So I have the following habits already set up:

- spend at least 20 minutes in the morning working on my book

- meditate daily

- exercise daily

- log food in loseit app daily

- write in my various blogs 5x/week

- think about what I'm grateful for each day

- do 50 situps each day

- go to church at least twice a month

... and on it goes.

Each day you get reminders for the habits you wanted to practice that day, and they have all these nifty graphs and such that let you track how well you're doing.  And then when you input big goals, you can then link the habits to them, so you can start to see how the daily activities impact your big goals.

It's a pretty neat app, and it fulfills my great "I wish someone would invent that" need that I've had for years, which is that each day I write a to do list that has 10 of the same things on it, and then I have a few unique things each day.  Every day I write the same things over and over.  What I wanted was a tablet where you could create templates, like online or something, and have the 10 things you do each day on it already printed, and then have half the page blank for the other stuff.  Since I just have those things input as habits, I don't need to write them each day (though I miss physically crossing them off).  Attention somebody who is a graphic designer and has time on their hands: make something like this and sell it through cafepress, or whatever the kids use these days.  I'll buy it.

In the meantime, I'll cultivate the habits using the app.

Simplicity, Apps, and Video Game Randomness

Probably selling for $1 at my local thrift store

So we all know that I'm on a simplicity kick, which started when I got pregnant, because we have a serious disconnect between the amount of space in our home, and the amount of stuff we seem to have.

When we lost Baby T I stayed on the simplicity kick because if I want to live the kind of life I say I want to live, I can't do that with craploads of stuff.  I want to travel, and live in lots of different places, and you can't do that with 33 pairs of shoes.  You just can't.

It all goes back to this time in my life when I could fit all my important stuff into 3-4 suitcases - ok, so they were big suitcases - but still...

I realized that many of the things I'm still holding on to are staying not because I like them, or wear them, but because I have a sentimental attachment to them.  Which, in my view, isn't the right reason for keeping something.  So I've decided to share the stories behind some of the objects that I'm most dreading getting rid of, and then, once posted, I am releasing them as an offering to the Thrift Store Donation Gods.

First off, these sneakers.  The story behind these is that, as those of you who have known me for a long time will remember, I once had a teeny obsession with a completely inappropriate guy.  From February of 2000 until approximately September 2004, I was kind of off-and-on in love with a British choral singer.  He was kind of partly the reason I moved to the UK in the first place - you know, I figured I could make him fall in love with me back.

Ok, so this gentleman - we'll call him Joe (that's not his name.  I've never been in love with a Joe) lived near the Archway station on the Northern Line.  I was also a north-Londoner, living in Barnet, Highgate, Muswell Hill, and finally Finsbury Park.  For three out of four of those places, I passed through the Archway station every day.  I used to check myself in my compact to make sure that my makeup was perfect as the train would leave Highgate, because, well, you never knew when he might wind up in my carriage.

So you kind of have to get the absurdity of that thought.  Northern Line trains have about 12-15 carriages.  Each holds maybe 50 people, closer to 75 at rush hour.  The trains run every 5-7 minutes. The chances of Joe coming on to my carriage on any given day were completely astronomical.  But still, I would pull out my compact and arrange my hair in my reflection on the window.

After a year or so of living in London I started forgetting about Joe.  Not in a conscious "I'm going to get over him" kind of way.  But more in a "man, I'm having fun, and there are such lovely other guys around me...hmmm...would you look at that...I haven't thought about Joe in 2 weeks..." kind of way.

I was taking singing lessons from a Welshman who lived near Crystal Palace, which would have me get off the train at Victoria, get the Victoria Line to Euston, cross over to the platform for the Northern Line, and wait for my train up to NoLo (I just made that up - it's short for North London - I'm going to start using it in conversation - feel free to do the same).

So one afternoon in July, I was hoofing it from Victoria, running like crazy to try to make all the connections in the sweltering summer heat.  By this point I was familiar enough with the route to know which carriage I should get in that would allow me the fastest change.  Incidentally, there are people who study this stuff.  The novel Tunnel Visions is about a guy who makes a bet that he can go to all the stations in one day, which happens to be the day before his wedding.  It's a hilarious story, and I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than the next time you find yourself wondering what the easiest route is from Ealing to Maida Vale, you can probably figure it out using this book.  Incidentally, there's also an iphone app which tells you which carriage to get in based on your route - where the exits are, the changes, etc.

Ok, back to my story.

I was hoofing it, the weather was hot, we're like three hundred feet underground in a subway infrastructure that's a hundred years old, and I'm kind of sweating.  And my hair is a wreck.  And I probably hadn't shaved my legs in eternity.  And my pedicure was bad.

And I ran from the Victoria Line platform to the Northern Line platform in Euston station, hoping I'd timed it just right, and I'm huffing and puffing and get to the platform and realize the train is still a minute away, and I'm giving myself an inner high-five and thinking I can sit down for a minute, when who would be on the bench where I wanted to sit but...you guessed it...Joe.

He didn't notice me at first, and I thought I could get away with passing him by to the other end of the platform, but just as I was tippy-toeing past him, he looked up from his newspaper, and said my name.  I considered pretending that I wasn't me, or I was deaf, or anything to avoid showing my sticky, sweaty face to him, but it didn't work.  I had to sit there and make conversation, and when the train came, I had to ride for like four stops with him.

This relates to my shoes because he happened to be wearing these trainers that looked like bowling shoes (trainer is British for sneaker).  It was mid-2001, and I think it was quite trendy at the time.

On a trip home, I went to Target, and they had these quite-trendy-in-a-knockoff-sort-of-way shoes, and I used some advanced algebra to figure out that if I bought these shoes, Joe would love me.  Example using the transitive property:  Joe likes these types of shoes.  I get these shoes.  Ergo, Joe likes these shoes on me.  Resulting in: Joe is madly in love with me.

It kind of made sense at the time.

Anyway, they're comfortable, and I've worn them loads since, and I never even think about Joe when I wear them now, BUT the damn soles are broken, and the other day I was walking in snow and my feet got soaked.  So, sentimental value or no sentimental value, they are going to the thrift store.  Maybe somebody can repair them with super glue.  My hubby probably could, but I'm too lazy to ask him.

Ok.  The Story of the Bowling Trainers has been told and documented for the ages, and I am now releasing the shoes to the thrift store.

That felt good :)

On a side note, I started playing Oblivion again last night.  I started playing Oblivion in 2008.  I spent much of that spring and early summer obsessed with closing the Oblivion gates.  Then it kind of faded and I picked it up again in 2009 and bought the Shivering Isles expansion pack, which really rocked once I got a powerful invisibility spell.  Then I did all of the quests, finally, except the Daedra ones, which kind of freak me out because they involve clearing out these ancient shrines and there are a lot of vampires and the music is scary.  I hardly played at all in 2010.  But then the PS3 broke and we bought a new one.  Which meant that all the data was lost, and I got to start all over again.  This is a good thing.  Which brings me to my favorite App this week: the Elder Scrolls Discussion Forums.  I can use the app to search for game tips and cheats, walk-throughs, and hints...because sometimes going to the Elder Scrolls Wiki on my laptop is just too much work, you know?   (That was meant to be sarcastic)  There's going to be a new Elder Scrolls game released in November, which has me completely excited.  That gives me just enough time to do Oblivion properly again.

2010 can kiss my @ss. And App Fun.

In the East Coast it's already 2011!  Yay for getting rid of the suckiest year ever.  Man, this year blows.  And not just for me.  A quick google search of "2010 sucks" yields over 426 million hits.  That compares to the 31 million results for "2009 sucks," thus proving that 2010 Really Did Suck.

So I say good riddance.  Only another 2.5 hours of you, you crummy year.  And don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Ok.  I want to stick to my App Fun schedule, and this week I want to say why I am now a big proponent of ebooks.  A year ago I swore up and down that I would never get an ereader, you couldn't make me, I didn't care how big they got, I was sticking to paper, and nanny nanny boo boo to you.  This year?  I have a kindle.  It all started with the kindle app for my droid, which I downloaded sometime over the summer.

See, the big reason why I'm a luddite about paper books isn't the whole "feel" of turning the pages, or anything like that.  It's the fact that my main area to read books is in the bathtub.  And there ain't no way I'm taking my kindle in the bathtub (although I have heard of someone who puts it in a ziploc to read in the hot tub).

But I realized there were a lot of times when I could read books during other times in the day, and there's always Vanity Fair for the bathtub.  Or library books, though I shouldn't admit to that (listen, I'm really careful about it, and those water marks are not from me, I promise).   I spend a lot of time driving, for example, and this being Southern California, you always have to leave more time than you need to get somewhere, so I also spend a lot of time waiting in my car.  I can read then, and it'd be nice to not have to lug my books around with me.

Then the idea of space-saving really came around.  As recently as June, I blogged about why I couldn't get into ebooks.  The point of that blog entry was that, unlike cd's, you can't easily "rip" a book and put it onto your device.  And I still think that Amazon should let me re-buy the kindle version of books that I already own at a discounted rate.

But then I got on this simplicity-kick, and I'm getting rid of stuff left and right.  I own almost 1000 books, and they take up a crap-load of space.  If I could have them all on one device - man, that would simplify my life (and additionally, it would let me gloat to my husband about how much more crap he owns than I do).  So the kindle started to look appealing, at least in terms of buying new books.

Then I spent the weekend at a rock festival in the roasting-hot Fontana Raceway parking lot, almost dying of heat stroke.  The upside was that I spent a lot of time sitting under the cooling tents where they had these mists floating down on you, and it was almost bearable.  During that time, I read ebooks on my phone.  And I realized that it wasn't that bad.  And that was on a phone, without the awesome kindle e-ink screen.

After two full days of rocking out and phone-reading with no apparent lasting negative effects (the headache was as much from Rise Against as it was from reading on my phone) I decided to ask for a kindle for Christmas.  And I officially stopped buying paper books.

I'm still in the predicament of wondering what to do with my current library.  I've been buying copies of the books I already own at the rate of 1 every 2 weeks or so, and it really has made me examine the idea behind owning a book vs having access to it.  I read a saying once to the effect of "try not to own too much because once you possess something, it also possesses you."  

I've been hanging on to these books for so long, and why?  Some of them have been moved 16 times.  That's a crap-load of moving, if you ask me.  And for what purpose?  So I can look at them and feel smug because I read so much?  To remind me how Haruki Murakami is a good replacement for chocolate?  I don't know.  There are some authors that I definitely want to revisit (like Haruki Murakami and Arthur Neresian) and I will probably wind up re-buying the books to have them on my kindle.

But there are so many that I read once, and I'm never going to read again.  I don't know why I'm hanging on to them.  So I have a new policy now of really examining a book, and if it's not worth the $9.99 to re-buy the kindle version, I'm going to just make a log of it, write down what I liked about it, and then donate it to someone else.

And then when we move the next time, I will have all my books on my little kindle, and feel very smug as J packs box after box of astronomy texts.

So the kindle app got me started on ebooks, and I'm glad of it.  If you're into simplifying your life, and are open to the idea that you could radically change the way you feel about ownership vs access, then try it out.

And Happy 2011!

App Fun: Caroling Edition

When I first got my android phone, I think I started blogging about some of my favorite apps.  At least, I think I meant to.

My favorite app this week is the Classic FM app.  When I lived in the UK I didn't have a TV (they have the nerve to tax television sets there, and the money goes to the BBC to provide some of the best quality programming on the planet...Sarah Palin would have a field day with that one, I'm sure) and I was broke, so I spent a lot of time listening to the radio.  Classic FM is the "pop" station for classical music.  They don't play full works (except for an hour or two every evening, they have the Full Works concert hour).  They have commercials.  They have a bright glossy magazine that comes out every month with a sample CD.

They even have the chutzpah to have a personals site.  I can see the first dates with that one.  Me: "You said you like Gombert in your profile, but now that we meet in person, I don't think you know anything about Gombert.  Were you just bulking up your profile?"  Them: "Yes, well, you would say that, wouldn't you?  Anyone who lists the second movement of Beethoven's 7th as her favorite piece of music would be judgmental and moody, wouldn't they?"  Me:  "Lemon Tart?  But you like Chopin?!"

So anyway, they have an app.  It's especially fun to listen while I'm driving to work because, seeing as they are based in London, which is 8 hours ahead of LA, they are doing the traffic reports for the commute home just as I am stuck at the 605.  I can pretend that they're talking in code, and the M25 really means the 210, and I'm actually really in London, but speaking a different language.  And without any Muji stores.  It's also fun to listen in the evening when it's the wee hours of the morning for them, and people working funny shifts are texting in requests for things to keep them awake, just as I'm trying to wind down.

Last night was the most fun I've had with the app.  It's Christmas time, and classical music goes well with Christmas, so they've been having fun playing lots of choral pieces and such.  I was making dinner, puttering around in the kitchen (or, I should say, faffing, seeing as how I'm pretending to be British here) with Classic FM playing in the background, and the rain was pouring down, and I was leaning against the counter drinking my gingerbread herbal tea, and for a moment I was 24 and still in Finsbury Park, and I was interested in the delays on the Northern Line because I would be going to the heath in the morning, and Jan was taking pictures of flowers in the living room, and later on we'd polish off a bottle of cheap red from Odd Bins and I probably wouldn't go to the heath in the morning anyway because I'd have a hangover.

And then a cat walked past and purred and I was back in my kitchen, but the delays on the Northern Line were still interesting because I didn't have to go trudging out to brave the elements.

So the Classic FM app is really a time-travel app, which I think is super cool.  If you're not into classical music, you might also try the Capital FM app, which has similar powers of teleportation, only via pop music.