Living the Creative Life

via: Runtastic Pedometer According to smart, healthy-type people, it's best to aim for walking 10,000 steps a day. (In other words, 5 miles a day). As a perpetual couch potato myself, that sounds like a tall order! The Walking Site explains that the average sedentary person (sounds like me!) walks about 1000-3000 steps a day, on average. No wonder my metabolism has slowed down post-high-school! I definitely qualify as a sedentary person. So... naturally this information made me curious to see how many steps a day I'm walking. I found an interesting free iPhone app (it's also available for Android phones) that you just turn on and leave in your pocket all day. It tracks not only your steps but also translates that into miles. Yesterday I tried it out and walked about 4000 steps (I went for a 15-20 minute walk in the morning, which I normally don't do). I'm very curious to see over the course of time, how much I walk on average (and whether or not this will m...

I always find it interesting to hear what other people have on their iPhones, so thought you might be interested to hear what's on mine! Here are a few of my favorite apps. Solar This app is pretty fun - it gives you a visual color representation of what the weather for the day will be like. You can scroll up with your thumb to view up to 24 hours of weather data, or pull down with your thumb to view the 3-day forecast. You can have it set to your current location and also store other locations that you like to keep track of. The color of the weather changes based on what the weather is at that time during the day as well as what time of day it is (darker blues for nighttime, etc). (Available on iTunes ) Google Maps If you ever wanted turn-by-turn directions but didn't want to buy a TomTom or other GPS device, then this is the app for you. It's oddly accurate (as I'm sure you would expect if you've ever used Google Maps) and I love that it doesn't yel...

Have you heard of Songza ? I recently discovered this website (they also have an iPhone app) and it's pretty amazing. Basically it knows what day/time it is and recommends playlists for you based on what you might be doing. Monday night? Maybe you need an instrumental playlist with no lyrics to help you study? Friday night? Maybe you need an update dance playlist? You can also search by "popular playlists", artist name, etc. I mainly use it for when I'm studying, for background lyric-less music, but you can also find many Pandora-like playlists on here as well. Anyway, I've been meaning to give a shout-out to this app for awhile, so hope you find it useful! First I picked "Working (No Lyrics)". Next I picked "Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals". Then I started playing the playlist! If the one you first try isn't your cup of tea, they also list similar playlists to choose from, or you can choose any playlist that you may have saved ...

I tried an experiment last night with an iPhone app called Sleep 101. It's supposed to be able to tell you how well you're sleeping based on the movement you make during the night. It also has an alarm clock that can wake you up w/in twenty minutes of your alarm by figuring out when you're in the lightest sleep and waking you then. I'm not entirely sure how well it worked, since it reported that I had 99% efficiency in sleeping last night and I happen to know that I woke up at least 3 times and actually got out of bed once. Not sure how efficient that is. Lol. Still, I thought it was an interesting concept for an app. You put it on the corner of your bed and it uses the gyroscope in the phone to sense movement in the mattress so it can tell how restless you are. It figures if you haven't moved in 5 minutes that you're probably asleep. Tonight I'm going to try the Sleep Cycle app. It promises to be a little more accurate in the monitoring, and also has a ...

Have you visited Pottermore yet? I just got the email this morning that it was open. I'm not entirely clear if it opened today or if they're doing a staggered release, but in any case, today was MY first day there. If you're on there (and you're not a crazy stalker) , send me your user name and I'll add you! If you're an avid Harry Potter fan, this website probably needs no introduction, but for the rest of you, here's the deal: J. K. Rowling created elaborate backstories for every character, place, and situation for the Potter world, many of which did not make it into the books. So... Pottermore was conceived to let fans explore the Potter world and to learn about it more extensively! The site plays out kind of like an exploring game. You enter a scene for each chapter of the books and then you meet characters there, find objects, buy your school textbooks, etc. So far, I think Diagon Alley has been my favorite spot to explore. It's pretty excitin...

For some reason, I've never enjoyed the interface of Google Reader. I love that GR is an easy way to subscribe to all the (what seems like) millions of blogs that I subscribe to, but it's always felt like a clumsy reader to me. It's awkward to sort blogs and you can't comment within the website, which is slightly annoying. Anyway, so I'm constantly on the lookout for Mac/iPhone apps that I read my GR through. A lot of them are just as clunky, if not more clunky, than GR itself, but I think I might've stumbled across one that I actually like! Have you tried NetNewsWire ? One very cool thing about it is that you can create "smart folders", such that you might find in iTunes. I've got several set up based on key words - "graphic design", "movies", "giveaways", etc. I've also got one set up based on blog creator to designate "people I know", which I realize could be done with the regular folder method, but ...

Have you played Sims Social yet? It's the newest version of The Sims and can be found on Facebook. It's a similar format to Farmville or Mafia Wars, in that you can only play a few minutes at a time until your "Energy" re-builds itself. Personally I find that type of gameplay kind of annoying, but... nevertheless, I love, love, love  The Sims, so was very excited to try this version. One thing I really think is cool, and have long wished they had on the PC version, is that you can now visit your IRL friend's Sim houses and hang out with them! You can interact with them and also ask for their help with things. As is the case with other Facebook games, you need your friend's cooperation to pass certain levels. Other than the social aspect, Sims Social is pretty similar to the PC version of The Sims. You still need to eat, shower, have fun, etc, to keep your Sim happy and functioning properly. (I have no idea if you can actually die in this game. I haven...