My new obsession: Wunderlist

Do any of you use Wunderlist? If you don't, you should, and if you do then why haven't you got me on to it before? Do you not know me at all?

Wunderlist is a free online list-making application. You create lists, then each lists has sub lists and those sub list items can have lists in them as well. You can set reminders and make notes, add images and I believe websites if you want. I've only had this app on my phone for three days so I haven't fully explored it but I am already a little co-dependent.

 

I am a compulsive list maker. I have lists for things to do today, this week, this month, shopping lists, life goal lists, places I want to visit lists. I am in an almost constant state of list-writing. Sound obsessive? Maybe. Or perhaps I just like to feel organised. Wunderlist allows me to easily keep and update all of my lists without needing to always be re-writing.

No screen shots of my own account because I don't need you all seeing the compulsive mess inside my head.

As it turns out, my latest discovery could not have come at a better time. I and my shiny new plus one have just started planning a big overseas trip for the end of the year and I am using Wunderlist to keep track of all of the important and minor details you think of when planning adventures. I can keep lists of places to visit and things to see, the details of bookings we've made, also lists of medications that we'll need to take and what I want to pack. All in one simple, easy to access and update place.

It's brilliant.

The only prob I've had is that when I open my lists through the website rather than my phone, it can be a little slow on syncing. But the website is better for seeing the bigger picture of your plans.

If you're a list-maker or making big plans for travel or other big changes, I would heartily recommend Wunderlist. It's free, flexible and easy to use. Just a really nice and well-thought-out application.

Five for Friday

Great Challenges in Global Health is calling for submission to develop the next generation of condom. Because let's face it, there hasn't been a whole lot of technological improvement there for some 400 years. The project is receiving financial support from the Bill Gates Foundation. I just thought this was interesting. Your awareness has been raised this Friday! 

Brisbane Craft Beer has a website.  

Kevin McCloud has a Pinterest page. For any other Grand Design freaks out there. Seriously is a great show to have on while cooking dinner, though. 

Brisbane City Council City Centre MasterPlan Ideas Fiesta. A three-week long program of free public events.  

A website has done a list of their favourite DIY fashion bloggers and posts. The post itself isn't great but you can look through the websites and projects and find some great new blogs and ideas. Personally, I loved this one on ...love Maegan. I wish I'd seen this months ago, I might have tried this to have one 'neon' item in my wardrobe.

 Image courtesy of ...love Maegan.

The modern love letter

It struck me the other day that text messages are the modern day equivalent of love letters. In decades past you waited by the mailbox for a letter. Then it was the phone call. I spent a significant amount of time in my late high school years willing the phone to ring. Now it’s the text message that we eagerly await to send us sweet, flirty messages that make us melt.

We all know that feeling, when you’ve just met someone you like and are waiting to be asked out. You try to pretend you’re not doing it, but you carry your phone with you, waiting for the *beep. Or those first few weeks of a romance when you can’t stop grinning uncontrollably and the object of your fancy seems to be living inside your mind. You wait for those text messages and when they arrive, your heart thumps, your stomach contracts and as you read the flirty words a smile stretches right across your face ‘til your cheeks hurt. 

It’s WONDERFUL!

Those text conversations that are flirty and make you fizz all over have become and integral part of modern relationships. When you’re too scared to call someone or you’re just thinking about them and want to share, you text. Occasionally you call. In fact, I think when you’re asking someone out for the first time, you really should do it in person or in a proper phone call, at least. After that first call though, it tends to be the text messagesthat fire in rapid succession between you.  

Some people will think this is strange I know, but I take the time to write out my favourite text messages onto a doc, print it and save it somewhere.  I’m also one of those people who actually gets photos Printed and in an album. So I’m clearly old fashioned. 

The thing is, reading back over text messages reminds me of the first time I received it and how it made me feel. Scrolling through a conversation I remember not just the warm fuzzies but the boy and the time we spent together, sometimes years ago. It has the same effect as if I could pull a letter out of a drawer and read what was written to me by the boy I loved when I was 18.

"Sooo.. Did you actually start to miss me??..to be honest.. I did..:-) :-* it felt VERY good to have you near!! Hugs and KISSES!!" 
-Holiday romance 

What is that if not a love letter for a digital age?

I think we all of us keep messages on our phones – our favourite messages that we can’t delete. Writing them out, I’m going that one step further to preserving the memories. 

When you change phones or SIM cards, your messages disappear. It doesn’t matter that you kept them for years – they are all of a sudden GONE and they’re not coming back. So I write them out from time to time so that when I can no longer scroll through them, I can dig them out of my box of letters and cards and relive the magic all over again.

So I say that texts are the modern equivalent of love letters. Letter-writing is apparently making a come back, as are many old-fashioned ways in the current backlash against our overly digital world. For most of us though, we’re not going to go out and buy nice paper and envelopes and dedicate our feelings in a loving epistle. We will however make someone’s day with 50 characters and ‘send’:

‘Thinking about you all day. Can’t wait to see you.’

Introducing The Edge, Brisbane

Have you heard of The Edge? A surprising number of people haven't. When I mention it to friends they general say 'What's that?' then 'Where?' and finally 'How did I not know about this?'. They didn't know about it because to be honest, you have to have worked in the Brisbane arts sector sometime in the last 4 years to have heard about it and even though it is a major achievement for the current state government and I believe a delivery on a previous election promise, they have promoted it very poorly.

The Edge is a digital culture centre that is in effect an extension of the State Library of Queensland. Situated in the South Bank Cultural precinct, sandwiched between QAG and SLQ, it is a small but active digital centre and best of all – free to the public. There are computer labs, an auditorium for hire, media laboratories and comfortable bays of cushioned seats, power sockets, free wifi and gorgeous river views that you can book or just wander in to.

Throughout the year, The Edge run an almost non-stop workshops program as well as fantastic one-off projects (Zombie Climate Apocalypse) that are also usually free and only require your enthusiastic and creative participation.

This year The Edge turns 3 and to celebrate they are holding 50 workshops in 5 hours on Saturday 25 February. Sure, Guerilla Gardening may or may not be your thing, but perhaps high speed photography, LED throwies or 'Inflate O Morphia' will be.

I’m SIRI-proof

According to Wikipedia, Siri is an intelligent software assistant. Originally intended for all Blackberry and Android-powered phones, Apple purchased the software and so that was it for all other users. Non-Apple phones / computers / devices have their own equivalent but I’m going to call them all Siri today, for the purposes of simplification.

My Boss has Siri on her beautiful new phone and she loves it. It works so well and it’s fun and it’s just better. Right up until the time she asked it to call me.

My full name is Birgit. You might have met a Birgit before but that’s pretty unlikely. We’re a very rare breed of people, and the oh-so-advanced software that is Siri can’t cope with my name. The closest it could get to the request ‘Call Birgit’ was ‘Call teargard’. Not useful or even logical. It could cope with more common names, just nothing out of the ordinary.

Techies have been working on this software for years, it is presumably available to Apple customers in Scandinavia where the name Birgit originates. Do they have the same problem?

How hard can it be?

So if you want to call Jane, you can use your Siri. If you want to call me I’m afraid you’re just going to have to scroll through your electronic contacts list like ordinary people.