Monday, February 01, 2010

She's Coming Undone

I like to understand the things I own, to use them to their fullest, to know my options and pick and choose from an educated stance. I'm kind of all-or-nothing that way, and well, life in this technologic age has kind of undone me. I stopped watching television years ago. I remember in the days of old back when we walked barefoot through the snow the eleven miles each way to school when you turned on a television by walking up to it and turning a dial to go from Channel 2 to 5 to 7 to 11 to 13 and that was it. Now it takes 4 remotes to get my TV on (?maybe it's only 3-- there's the TV, the sound, the satellite) and I get 800 channels and can't figure out my choices and by the time I surf the landscape, and figure out what I want to watch (do I watch TV or TiVo?) and what I might like TiVo'd for later, well, it's time to crawl into the coffin.

Clink and Roy love it. They can spend hours comparing their IApps and who's bubblewrap is loudest and the joy that can be found from the Koi Pond application is just amazing. I have an iTouch-- it has on it:
500 some odd songs that I listen to at the gym. A handful of music videos and I'd like more but the iTunes store makes me very dizzy and nauseus. One TV show (an episode of scrubs) and a bunch of Apps, of which I use about 3: the NYTimes, iLose, doodlebuddy, flashlight (which I never use) and a game called Firestarter which I'm addicted to. I just added Pandora in the hopes of more music at the gym. We'll see. I'd like more TV shows, but how to choose? I was watching Wine Spectator video podcasts for a while, but I lost interest in wine.

To make it worse, I have an email addiction, so I limit the places I'll get internet. Home--and it ruins my life. The clinic (it's here, I didn't ask), the gym (so I can read the NYTimes online), but not my office, and not as a portable because oh, a blackberry or iPhone would do me in.

So I'm out with Camel and she's talking about how she loves her Kindle. I never wanted one. Now I want one. Oh, or do I want that iPad thingy....maybe I could take it to the gym and play my music and watch TV shows that I can't seem to negotiate, or UTubes or Podcasts, or Apps or my head, I swear, it's going to explode into a million pieces. Maybe I don't want it, maybe I just think I want it, but Clink says I do want it. Will this end my life without data plans? 1450 daytime minutes and unlimited texting, a windows desktop, an Apple laptop, an iTouch, a palm pilot, podcast mixers and mics, how much more can one shrink take?

Hospital computer won't let me add a graphic. Just as well.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love my Kindle too.

Rach said...

Funny, I've had a blackberry for 5 years.
And while I love it for the keyboard and the contact/day planning/organizing features, I'm finding myself so caught up in my email all the time. I'm thinking about getting rid of data and just having a phone plan with more text messaging.

I like coming home and reading my email on a big screen.

BTW, if i had tivo, I'd never ever EVER leave my house again.

Sasha8988 said...

Oh wow. I sat, planted in front of the ipad keynote lecture for an hour and a half today (goes to show how busy I am as a pre-pre-med student) - that thing is quite impressive. I wonder how technologies like this will continue to change and evolve the practice of medicine.

Mindful said...

Knowing my email addiction, I resisted a blackberry for as long as I could but working out of two physical locations put an end to that. Now that red flashing light beckons me at all hours and sadly, it's the first thing I reach for when I wake up in the morning.

Richard said...

Hi, I couldn't find your email address, so I'm leave you a comment here instead...

Given the popularity and prevalence of twitter, I put together a list of 50 different doctors on Twitter that you can follow to potentially get some insight on their medical lives. If you wouldn’t mind, could you share my list with your readers?

If you know of any other physicians that you follow on twitter, I'd love to add him/her to the list. Just leave a comment on the blog.

Here's the post:

http://blog.onlinecollegeguru.com/health-care/50-doctors-to-follow-on-twitter/

Many thanks!


Richard

Sarebear said...

I read about an app that is just 99 cents, and it turns the thing into a pedometer. It'll count your steps! Even when it's in your bag, purse, whatever, I think it gets to know your gait, stride, whatever. I don't have Apple, i-anything, but I was reading an article either in Consumer Reports or in a Consumer Reports Spinoff, ShopSmart, and it listed some apps. And that was one that I thought was neat! Especially since we have a Wii w/Wii Fit Plus, (don't know if you need the Plus), but it lets you enter changes in waist size, and also steps taken that day for those who try to do the 10k steps per day, or just who like to wear a pedometer, or whatever. It also lets you put in a few other activities too, that are "outside" of the ones within its own system, categorized as Light, Medium, and Hard, it gives you examples of what kind of activities fit those categories, then you can put them in. I give myself credit for the stretches I do for my knee, those go under light, and then the squats and either stepper or bike at physical therapy go under heavy. It gives you a certain number of METs per minute of activity, depending on if it's Light, Med, or Hard.

Anyway, I like that I can give myself credit for this stuff. Whee. As well as see that it IS making a difference, cause when I weigh in every 4-5 days, I see my weight going slowly downwards. Woohoo! (As long as THAT isn't because i'm not eating, which can sometimes be a concern).

Roy said...

Sarebear,
Check out the fitbit (fitbit.com). I got one a week ago, and can already notice my choosing stairs rather than elevator to get my steps up more, and thinking more about calories in. I also like following my sleep patterns. These are accurate enough to be useful.
I've even left some of my fitbit stats open to public, trying to put my health data ownership money (speakflower.org) where my mouth is.

Sarebear said...

But where can we SEE your stats? I went into the fitbit community but I didn't see a Roy or shrinkrap roy but there's just too many to search through, maybe I didn't go to the right place?

That looks like a real nifty thing . . . . quite a cool concept and actualization of said concept.