Daily Prompt – Soulful Machines

Machines, appliances, and gadgets sometimes feel like they have their own personalities — from quirky cars to dignified food processors. What’s the most “human” machine you own?

I would love it if my appliances had actual personalities, but I think we’re a few years away from that.

1 Aug – Staying Organised

What tools do you use to keep organized so things on your to-do list don’t slip through the cracks?

 

There you go again, making assumptions that I’m using apps to stay organised… That would require actually being organised, and well, I’m so not.

28 July – Life Enhancement

Tell us about 10 inventions or pieces of technology that enhance your life.

 

1. Internet banking

Not having to physically go into a bank to withdraw or money or go to the post office to pay bills has made such a massive difference – now there’s apps for mobile banking that allow me to pay bills, transfer money between accounts and even pay people via mobile, email or Facebook!

2. Smartphone

The Smartphone has completely revolutionised telecommunications. Everything changed with the introduction of SMS but now they’re more than just a phone, they have become a gaming device, a camera, they allow us to share information almost instantaneously through social media platforms, and allows us to video call people from all over the globe.

3. Tablets

The introduction of the ‘tablet’ has made a massive impact on the computer industry. No longer being confined to lugging around a laptop anymore, we’re able to use a tablet as a laptop with mobile versions of desktop apps allowing and enhancing productivity and creativity wherever we may be.

4. Bluetooth

The introduction of bluetooth to technological devices meant one thing – no more cables. I have multiple bluetooth devices from headphones, to keyboards / mice, to speakers. There’s something so satisfying about the simple removal of a cable – it just gives you that much more freedom to move devices around. Personally, one of my favourites is my bluetooth keyboard that I use with my iPad. It allows me to keep my blogging up to date when I’m in the city with a couple of hours to pass.

5. Wifi

As soon as the internet went wireless, the internet exploded. I remember a few years ago when I was living in a share house, and we just had a standard router, because a wifi one was far too expensive for a poor student, and my three housemates and I each had 10-20m ethernet cables from the router (in the lounge room) running to each of our bedrooms so we could all be on the internet. The hallway, unfortunately, ended up looking like a mess from all the cables. The day I bought a wireless router, was one of those days that changed my life.

6. Foam roller

Granted, not a technological device, but an invention that has enhanced my life. Working in the fitness industry, I continue to learn more about myofascia, and certain tendons and how they’re interconnected with various parts of the body, and in using the foam roller for myofascial release, it keeps muscles healthy, promoting fresh blood flow and reducing stiffness / soreness and muscle fatigue / DOMS.

7. Digital music / iPod

Remember the good old days of walking around with a Walkman or a Discman?? And then carrying a half-dozen cassettes or CD’s in your bag? I do. Then it was a Mini-Disc… and if you wanted to keep music on your computer, you had to ‘rip it’ so you could then play it all in WinAmp, whilst customising the ‘skin’ of the program. And then came the iPod. Overnight, I was able to suddenly carry my entire music library in my pocket, instead of taking multiple cd’s with me and constantly breaking covers and scratching discs.

8. The cloud

‘The Cloud’ has been one of those creations that has, again, revolutionised how we store / share data. For me, the cloud has allowed me to sync my web-based email and my calendar to my devices, so that I can remain up to date wherever I am, without the need to physically sit down in front of a computer. Since I started using Google Drive for my cloud computing, I’ve been able to centrally store all my important data, and again, be able to locate it from any of my devices wherever I may be. The other bonus to cloud computing is that because it’s not stored on my computer, I don’t run the risk of losing it all should I unfortunately have my computer suddenly die on me.

9. Web forms

Web forms are something that we’ve started using a lot more frequently at work – rather than having to deal with countless pages of individual registrations, and then manually entering all that data into a spreadsheet, a web form allows me to gather all the data centrally, and then download all that info in one spreadsheet, that will also allow me to do specific reporting and data sorting. It’s become a streamlined process that has saved me countless hours of mundane paper handling (not to mention, the amount of actual paper we’ve saved).

10. The Boss blender by Breville

I thought that I’d just throw this one in, because its something that I’ve recently purchased after seeing it at the Good Food and Wine Show. Coincidentally, we were actually in a position to have our blender replaced, but then we saw The Boss, and decided that we wanted to upgrade instead. And it’s been amazing. Even something as simple as making a green smoothie in the morning is now an enjoyable process, because it breaks down all the fibrous ‘greens’ into something smooth and drinkable. There’s no issues with pulp separation, or even the issue of greens not being broken down completely, and remaining somewhat ‘chunky’ – which just made the experience even more unpleasant.

Daily Prompt – Writing Space

Where do you produce your best writing — at your desk, on your phone, at a noisy café? Tell us how the environment affects your creativity.

Well, the bulk of my writing is all done on my phone. On the bus, waiting for a train… It’s always with me and although it’s frustrating because my thumbs constantly hit the wrong keys, it allows me to smash out some posts whilst in transit to and from work which is great – especially when I have soooo many catch up posts to write.

Daily Prompt – Memory on the Menu

Which good memories are better — the recent and vivid ones, or those that time has covered in a sweet haze?

Aren’t all memories better than none at all? Personally, I actually have quite vivid memories from my childhood, and what I experienced growing up…

…as for experiences I had a few months ago, or even twelve or more months ago… not a damn clue.

Day 13 – Plugged In vs. Offline Time

How much of the day are you plugged in? Do you consciously set aside offline time, or does it happen whenever it happens?

I think the only time I’m ever truly offline, is when I’m asleep. 

God, that sounds so bad. But I find myself plugged in constantly.

Checking my phone to see what the weather is like before I get out of bed, and then grabbing my iPad to check my email… then it’s breakfast whilst watching the news, and checking my laptop to see which of my downloads have completed, and which have finished seeding. On my way to work, I’ve got my earphones in either listening to music or watching a tv show. From there, my day is spent in front of a computer screen, where I can do my work, look up info in our database, check out my RSS feeds, monitor my email and facebook, and, when I get a chance, write a blog post – such as this… all at once.

My life revolves around technology and the constant update of information, but that’s how our lives have progressed. We’ve become so reliant on being able to obtain information and live and conduct our lives online, the concept of actually being offline has become somewhat foreign.

Even now as I think about it, if I ever have a bath, I either bring my laptop or my iPad with me, so I can watch a movie whilst I relax.

If I read a book, it’s on my iPad.

If I’m playing a game, or making notes, it’s done on my phone.

And after all that, even during those rare occasion where I actually do have some free time, I play video games on my PS3.

I think that I need to consider taking myself offline more regularly, but being more proactive about it. Actually turning my phone off. Turn my iPad off. Read a real book, made from actual paper! I should try and schedule some time to fit it in.

I wonder if there’s an app for that?

 

Day 3 – My Writing Space

Tell us about your writing space. Where do you write your blog posts?

My writing space varies. It’s not confined to one particular space. Right this moment, I’m sitting at the kitchen table writing this on my iPad and wireless keyboard. Although my MacBook Pro is also right in front of me, she’s currently busy doing some burning and seeding some torrents.

When I first started this blog, I was actually at my desk at work. I had decided that I was done with actually doing work for the afternoon when I started reading about NaBloPoMo and convinced myself to create this blog to take part in the writing challenge. As I also have now installed the WordPress app on both my iPhone and iPad (Sorry, I should have prefaced that with something like **WARNING** Shameless product promotion ahead), it’ll allow me to do any writing whilst I’m out and about, or if I’m sitting in a food court killing time, or if I’m on the train to / from work.

I think I’m more intrigued as to the various places that I’ll be posting from… other than work, the dining table and bed.

Speaking of which, it’s 1:34am. I need to go to bed and get some sleep. Gotta be up @ 6am 😦 Night y’all.