The inPhonite Migration: Tracking the Lard
Posted on | February 5, 2009 at 9:11 pm | 6 Comments
Today’s installment of The inPhonite Migration should rightly be about list managers. However, I’m just going to focus on a subset of the lists that I’ve migrated from the Palm T|X PDA to the iPhone. One thing that you find with iPhone applications is that in addition to general list management, there are also specialized applications for listing any damn thing you want to list, from your pets to your menstrual cycles. This post is about one of them.
The main list manager I used on the Palm was ListPro, which doesn’t yet exist for the iPhone. More on that in a future entry. The three main things I listed in it were my CD collection, my DVD collection, and… my weight log. I’m not sure… it’s one of the obsessive compulsive things, I guess… but every day for nearly five years, I’ve been weighing myself and recording the result. Oh sure, I would miss a day here and there, especially if I was on vacation, but I’d say I’m hitting around 99% of the days. I started out writing the weight down on a piece of paper, and then when I filled up a page, I would transfer the numbers to an Excel spreadsheet. That became tedious, although it was “fun” to chart the data in Excel and see a graphical representation of my (lack of) progress. When I got the PDA and installed the handheld and desktop versions of ListPro, I imported my spreadsheet into it, and then switched to entering the daily weight directly on the computer. The only downfall of that is that I had to remember what the weight was between stepping on the scale and going to the computer.
(Digression: Those of you who obsessively weigh yourselves most likely have a weighing routine like I do. Those of you who don’t may or may not be surprised to learn there is so much to the routine. It has to be done around the same time every morning, and before some activities but after others. I will not bore you or freak you out with the details, but if I remember correctly, the book Thinner by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King) has a wonderful description of just such a routine. So check that out. Oh, and btw, my digital scale says “Thinner” on it, which I find eerie, as it brings back memories of the book. Plus, it’s like a command. “Thinner!” the scale rails at me, “YOU MUST BECOME THINNER! Or I will electrocute your naked toes with my tiny watch battery.”)
So in order to track my daily weight, I decided to have a little fun with it and I bought a recommended iPhone app called Weightbot. Yes, bought. I paid $1.99 (it’s up to $2.99 now) for an application whose sole reason for existence is to record a number up to once a day. But it’s got a cute user interface, and it does have a couple of different graphs of the weight data it can display when you turn the iPhone sideways. Oh, and it estimates your Body Mass Index (BMI). That’s it. It sure don’t do much, but it’s kind of cute, like Kate Hudson. And I can have it with me the bathroom and enter the weight immediately, instead of having to remember it when I get to the computer. The iPhone does not care if you are naked.
The downside is that there’s no way to export the weight data to the computer for manipulating and viewing there. Not to mention there’s no reliable backup (I don’t trust iTunes for backing up data). So… you guessed it… I still also enter the weight into the desktop version of ListPro every day. It’s so nice to have direction in life.
Note: I have not included any screen shots of the app itself, since I don’t want you guys knowing my current weight and comparing it to the weights I listed back in the daily posting days when I was constantly revealing it. That was dumb.
Latre.
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Exercising Since Last Bog Update:
- “Damage Done” (Veruca Salt)
- “Trip To Life” (Circus Guy)
- “I Don’t Agree” (Stranglers)
- “Just A Little” (Frank Black)
- “Length of Love” (Interpol)
- “Why Don’t The Buildings Cry?” (Youth Group)
- “The Cap’m” (They Might Be Giants)
- “Poison In The Wall” (The Go-Betweens)
- “Brainsaw” (Therapy?)
- “Farewell” (Trotsky Icepick)
- “Money On The Dresser” (Local H)
- “No Sympathy – No Violins” (Classix Nouveaux)
- “Comfortable Place on the Couch” (Midnight Oil)
- “Drug Free” (Anton Barbeau)
- “Barrier” (China Drum)
Yes, I went to the gym and worked out and ran on the treadmill yesterday even though my right foot still hurts. And I went to the doctor about it today. Remind me to tell you about that someday.
Pet Peeve of the Day: Damn 70 degree weather in February. What is this, frickin’ Florida?
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “apartment fire alarm constantly beeping cold”. That sounds bad.
Videogame(s) Played Since Last Blog Update: The old same Castlevania: Order of Eccelsia (DS). Hey, I think I’m going to end up actually finishing this one. And fairly soon, too. I’m deep into Dracula’s Castle.
Comments
6 Responses to “The inPhonite Migration: Tracking the Lard”
February 6th, 2009 @ 8:08 pm
Pet Peeve of the Day: People considering 70 degree weather a pet peeve.
February 6th, 2009 @ 10:58 pm
It was 45 here today. Unfortunately, Celsius…
February 7th, 2009 @ 12:19 pm
People who need an app to keep a list of their pets? Could this be an effort to track down crazy old ladies with 87 cats living in their trailer? Something tells me those old women don’t have iPhones.
February 8th, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
I’m just reading The Tao of Pooh, and I’m seeing a whole lot of Rabbit in you….
I can’t even be bothered to put that much effort into tracking my blood glucose, and you could say my life depends on it. Actually, there are numerous iPhone apps for that too, so I should check some of them out.
I recently added ToodleDo for task management. It has an iGoogle widget and it integrates with the Google calendar. Very nice.
February 9th, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
I had rabbit for lunch last week for the first time. It was at a French restaurant.
I’ve been using ToodleDo, but there’s some things I don’t like about. I recently added Google Tasks, which has an iPhone (web) app. It’s simpler, but that’s not necessarily bad. But that’s a subject for a future entry.
February 14th, 2009 @ 4:15 pm
I guess there was some rabbit in you, then.
Sorry, I just couldn’t let you think that such a setup was missed entirely.