Now I've done it—or, do I REALLY need an iPad?

One thing I'll say is this—it's much easier to type on an iPad than on my iPhone but then again I won't be placing iFitness on my iPad. I'm find an interesting contrast between my home screens on both devices in that the iPhone functions as the little extension of my Brain that resides in my pocket. My little brain comes to the gym, helps to remind me when my metered car is running out of time using the built-in timer,is a handy little camera, allegedly keeps heed of my appointments and schedules, and serenades me when I need it too. My iPhone both a blessing and a curse, mostly a blessing.

So then what, aside from being an Apple gadget fangirl, drove my urgent need for the iPad? It will not likely accompany me to the gym, nor will it remind me to return to a metered parking space before the meter expires, but I can read the "Helmet for a Pillow" book and create a wireframe for an iPad app concept on my iPad. The productivity factor. And that's precisely what lead me to the Apple store in Santa Rosa last night. I too am chasing the rainbow of mobile and iPad app design and after a day of playing around with a few apps, in particular Drawing Pad, iBook, the Kindle app, and OmniGraffle, I'm appreciating the productivity aspect of it and want to be part of this new world.

Maybe I won't use JoggyCoach on the iPad but I can't wait to read Haruki Murakami's thoughts on running while lounging in in my Puerto Vallarta hotel room. I'll just need to stay away from OmniGraffle while on vacation...

One unexpected bonus is my niece and nephew all of a sudden find auntie to be "sick" :-)

I did it!

While I'm waiting for my work out clothes to dry I'll scribe a brief love letter to my favorite iPhone app ever--FeltTips' C25K.

When you came into my life I was a sedentary 50 year old mouse potato commencing perimenopause with an obsession with visiting the iTunes App Store. You had good looks and our life together had potential. You inspired me to make a New Year's Resolution that I have thus far kept--a new record for me. You inspired me to be consistent, you inspired me to be active, and you inspired me to want to meet the challenge even on the days when I didn't want to. And nine weeks later (actually 10 since I managed to stretch one week into two in March) I am proud to say I completed the program without serious malice done to my being. And you have allowed me to justify a new pair of Athleta Dipper Pants.

Just because I have deleted you from my iPhone to make room for other Apps doesn't mean I won't always love you.

xoxo The slightly more fit Lucija

Where has the time gone? And yeah, I'm trying to run on a treadmill at age 50+

OK, I'm back after neglecting iPhone for the ADD Soul for the past year.

I'm back to say the iPhone has been perfect for my ADD soul preventing numerous parking tickets, helping with soapmaking projects (10 minutes to soap being cooked using the timer! Unmold soap on February 11 using the calendar!), keeping me inspired to get on a treadmill and keep up with my 2010 new year resolution with iFitness and Felttips' C25K. I've kept many appointments thanks to the iPhone. This is all good. I've even designed an iPhone app that desperately needs to be coded by a real engineer.

So why am I writing now? Well, I'm inspired to keep tabs on my fitness goals here on this blog being that my iPhone is a key component to my willingness and desire to get moving. Honestly, there is no way I would have truly decided to participate in C25K without the app I purchased, which is well-designed -and- fun to use, or without being able to listen to music (my current C25K music list --> http://bit.ly/bYuiUW), or without a reminder that pops up telling me to attend "kickboxing class @ 7pm). And there is a certain perverse joy I get from stretching and tweeting simultaneously (I'm @carouselno3 if you ish to follow).

Another thing happened today while working on my hoolakai.com website: after being distracted by an Athleta e-mail I found their wonderful Chi Blog and got inspired by Anne Marie's Goals for the Week blog and all of her visitor's--many of whom seem to be in a discovery phase of running like me. Inspired by Anne Marie, I'm here to cheer up those in my age group (I am the same age as the "State" of Hawaii) whose idea of dangling one's foot over the edge is the sudden urge to pursue running--even if it is on a treadmill. We CAN do it ladies!

Before signing off on this post I have to give a shout out to the Gratitude Journal from Happy Tapper which I have consistently used since purchasing on March 20 last year. Waking up to hubby bringing coffee & the Gratitude Journal is a fab way to start of the day.

Happy Friday,

--Lucija

Procrastination is queen! Hoarding is King!

Yep, it's been close to 9 months, enough time for a new life to gestate, since I've last bothered to scribe a post. The excuse of being busy with other things is valid with a good chunk of 2009 preoccupied by fluctuating situations at work, trying to craft a line of hand creams (http://www.hoolakai.com), and a whole lot of distraction by iPhone apps.

I hoard iPhone apps as I hoard body care ingredients, as I hoard magazines looking for inspiration, as I hoard distractions in general. Basically I am a hoarder and am about to take a baby step to challenge my capacity for hoarding. To put it mildly, I hate this fact about myself and find it a prison hard to break out of. The idea of organizing earthly goods is daunting and equally daunting is facing the reality of have less of them. I threw away a dozen magazines just now, without thumbing through them before tossing, and it took all my might to simply remove the address stickers and toss them in recycling. But I did it. I had to throw away SOMETHING and a dozen magazines were a start.

But back to iPhone apps and their distracting nature... I'm actually glad Montezuma is pokey on OS 3.0 because I play it less these days. I do enjoy the iPhone's timer function--which has been good for timing tea, timing parking meters, and timing my distractions and diversions--often it works in my favor. Using it to time parking meters and trips to the car wash or smog testing centers helps me get outdoors during potential dull waits.

Two apps I just love are the Gratitude Journal, which has been folded into my morning coffee ritual, and TO DO, which reminds me to do something proactive for my business on a daily basis. I take heed on the proactive business task and move forward in baby steps. Now I need a combo of the aforementioned to accompany me in my quest to battle and conquer the evil beast that is hoarding. Perhaps not a killer app, but an app that will kill eventually work on killing a nasty beast shared by many.

My iPhone is justified, yet again, pt. III

My dream, or at least a big dream in life, is to eventually live on The Big Island be it full or part time, and in theory my chosen professsions should enable me to work anywhere. One of my professions being the manufacturer of luggage decals. My iPhone is just a part of the package enabling the mobile lifestyle and imagine my glee, after I finally regained a few ATT bars so close to the Wai Opae pond, upon discovering I could fill an online order placed on carouselno3.com--from my vacation in Hawaii. Cool! Now there is no way in hades I would have ventured into an Internet cafe during a vacation and my order would have sat around, pissing my customer off, for two weeks. But my customer will get his goods and I have the satisfaction of knowing my iPhone is indeed the work/productivity/life-enhancing tool I intended it to be. And in this revelation I'm inching closer to my ultimate dream...

Viccolo pizza, jury summons, and an iPhone

When the Alameda Superior Court called me in for jury duty in October it dawned on me that postponing would be in my employers best interest. But I was hungry, felt a duty to placing a pizza in the toaster oven, and wasn't too keen on firing up my trusty laptop. The solution? Pull out the iPhone and access the e-juror site in the comfort of my kitchen. Did it do the trick? Heck yeah... I was able to defer my servitude for another six months and heat up a delicious chipotle-chicken pizza in a timely manner.

iPhone access to delivery service website saves butt

So, my little toy saved my arse by enabling me to recover my account number while mailing a package to an account today. I had to fill out a form and didn't have my account number readily available. Was the delivery service's website painfully slow on the iPhone? The answer is a definite YES, however driving all the way home to my computer, filling out a form again, and then driving back to deliver the package would have taken even longer. This is the exact situation I had hoped for my iPhone to conquer.

Seven days and counting

Greetings to the 2 or 3 people who will actually bother to check out my blog. As of today, July 28, I've been impatiently waiting for the nice people at ATT to inform me of the arrival of my new toy, a shiny new iPhone slated to become central command of my often scattered brain. It's been seven days now.

And as of today it's been just about 10 working days since my trusty (refurb) Tungsten E2 made a conscious decision to stop syncing my Outlook mail, leaving me feeling insecure without the obnoxious beeps and warnings of meetings, dental appointments, and general reminders. I had briefly flirted with the idea of adapting the Hipster PDA--a DIY solution to time tracking/time management/personal productivity but ultimately realized the beeps wouldn't be available on a home-made paper pad. Writing something down, especially an important work meeting, or weekend dental appointment, is often not enough, and engaging more than one of my 5 senses is probably worth spending a bit of hard-earned cash on. So, after visiting two separate ATT stores, an Apple store, AND consequently seeing a coworker with his lovely 16G iPhone, I decided to make the commitment. But that was seven days ago and the ticking clock seemingly becomes louder and louder.

Addendum:

7/029/08—8 days
7/030/08—9 days as of 5:49pm PST