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geojlcToday went much better, even if I am hot and sweaty. At least it didn't hit the triple digit temperatures they had in Portland. It was bad enough on the hot, hot freeway in my little car. I ended up stopping by Michael's work and taking him home cause rush hour in hot conditions = no fun. Afterward I stopped at Costco and Trader Joes (yea, mom, the plans changed... :-).
Things I learned. Costco closes it's main entrance at 8:30. While they will be nice and let you come in before closing the door, they won't give you time to go grab a cart. 10 cans of soup and a dozen cans of tunafish (even they are contained in wrappers) get really heavy without a cart. Trader Joes closes at 9. I squeaked in and got the stuff I was looking for.
And now on to the planner thoughts.
Stampin' Up! recently announced that they will no longer be selling the paper planner I've been using for 3 years. By November I really need whatever I'm going to use as a replacement.
I'm sad about this because I love a paper planner. I tried and failed to plan with the old PDA. I just never used it. But then I got my paper planner. I'm a tactile person, so I think it's something about the whole pen to paper thing that helps me keep using the planner.
However, the problem with a paper planner is that it can't connect to the internet and do things like, oh, see what Jeff has written down on his calendar that he has forgotten to tell me about.
So, I've decided that the next version of my planner needs to be electronic. I don't know much about current PDA's but I know that I really hated using the calendar feature of the old ones I had. I love that on my paper planner, I can flip to the month view and see at a glance my basic schedule. Then I go to the daily pages for more detail. On my PDA, the monthly calendar view would just give me a placeholder dot. I had no clue what the event was until I went to the daily page. I also didn't like the lack of resolution and contrast in the old screens.
Anyway, I don't know if the current round of PDA's change any of these aspects. If they do, I think I might be willing to try one out.
In the mean time, here are the things I've decided I need in a digital planner.
1) It needs to be a reasonable size. I love the size of my paper planner (hardback book size). I could do a bit smaller, but I don't think I want to go much bigger. Regular laptop size is not a reasonable thing to haul around everywhere I go.
2) It needs to either have a battery life that will go for several days without charging (like my cell phone), or have a very fast on/off capability to save battery life. While I like the fact that my laptop can go into hibernation, it takes WAY too long for it to come back up. It would not be practical to wait on something like that when I need to write something in my planner now!
3) It needs wireless internet access. Something that doesn't use minutes and can connect to wireless systems other than my home one.
4) It needs to either have a calendar function on it where I can get a basic idea of my month plans on the month view or have an operating system that can support a calendar function. Right now I'm really liking the Mozilla Sunbird.... Said calendar function needs to either be compatible with a program like Google calendar or be synchronizable so that Jeff and I can sync our calendars when we aren't in the same room... :-)
5) It needs good contrast and resolution.
6) price is a consideration. I'm not swimming in cash...
7) While I'm not against combining my electronic planner with a phone, said phone would need to be compatible with Verizon cause that's what we use and I'm pretty happy with it. Said phone would also need to be big enough for me to easily read the screen...
8) It needs to be easy to input information. I don't do well with really tiny keyboards or using multiple button pushes to type (like on my current cell phone).
Some things that would be nice:
-at least some shock resistance. While I don't try to drop things like planners and cell phones, I still do occasionally cause them to hit the ground with more force than intended.
-I love the thought of writing on the electronic planner. My first dream would be a small tablet or a touch screen type thing. However, I'm fairly realistic about the cost of touch screens... so they are probably out... :-)
Currently, the Asus Eee PC is at the top of my list. Of course, it isn't out yet, so I'd need to hold one and check it out to see if it met my needs. It may be totally unacceptable... :-) But, in our searching, we found some cool things about it. It's supposed to start at $200. Nice price! The flash memory means that it will turn on and off really quickly (15 seconds supposedly). Flash also means that dropping it isn't quite so much of a problem. We think it comes with Linux installed but drivers and compatibility with XP (if I want to add it later). Sunbird is available for Linux, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The camera and integrated mike means that Jeff and I could probably do some video chat when we are apart. Especially if we ended up both getting one... :-) They had a completely functional version out for display in June, so there are a lot of people thinking that the August date will be pretty close.
Anyway, here's your chance to tell me what you love and why you love it!
Things I learned. Costco closes it's main entrance at 8:30. While they will be nice and let you come in before closing the door, they won't give you time to go grab a cart. 10 cans of soup and a dozen cans of tunafish (even they are contained in wrappers) get really heavy without a cart. Trader Joes closes at 9. I squeaked in and got the stuff I was looking for.
And now on to the planner thoughts.
Stampin' Up! recently announced that they will no longer be selling the paper planner I've been using for 3 years. By November I really need whatever I'm going to use as a replacement.
I'm sad about this because I love a paper planner. I tried and failed to plan with the old PDA. I just never used it. But then I got my paper planner. I'm a tactile person, so I think it's something about the whole pen to paper thing that helps me keep using the planner.
However, the problem with a paper planner is that it can't connect to the internet and do things like, oh, see what Jeff has written down on his calendar that he has forgotten to tell me about.
So, I've decided that the next version of my planner needs to be electronic. I don't know much about current PDA's but I know that I really hated using the calendar feature of the old ones I had. I love that on my paper planner, I can flip to the month view and see at a glance my basic schedule. Then I go to the daily pages for more detail. On my PDA, the monthly calendar view would just give me a placeholder dot. I had no clue what the event was until I went to the daily page. I also didn't like the lack of resolution and contrast in the old screens.
Anyway, I don't know if the current round of PDA's change any of these aspects. If they do, I think I might be willing to try one out.
In the mean time, here are the things I've decided I need in a digital planner.
1) It needs to be a reasonable size. I love the size of my paper planner (hardback book size). I could do a bit smaller, but I don't think I want to go much bigger. Regular laptop size is not a reasonable thing to haul around everywhere I go.
2) It needs to either have a battery life that will go for several days without charging (like my cell phone), or have a very fast on/off capability to save battery life. While I like the fact that my laptop can go into hibernation, it takes WAY too long for it to come back up. It would not be practical to wait on something like that when I need to write something in my planner now!
3) It needs wireless internet access. Something that doesn't use minutes and can connect to wireless systems other than my home one.
4) It needs to either have a calendar function on it where I can get a basic idea of my month plans on the month view or have an operating system that can support a calendar function. Right now I'm really liking the Mozilla Sunbird.... Said calendar function needs to either be compatible with a program like Google calendar or be synchronizable so that Jeff and I can sync our calendars when we aren't in the same room... :-)
5) It needs good contrast and resolution.
6) price is a consideration. I'm not swimming in cash...
7) While I'm not against combining my electronic planner with a phone, said phone would need to be compatible with Verizon cause that's what we use and I'm pretty happy with it. Said phone would also need to be big enough for me to easily read the screen...
8) It needs to be easy to input information. I don't do well with really tiny keyboards or using multiple button pushes to type (like on my current cell phone).
Some things that would be nice:
-at least some shock resistance. While I don't try to drop things like planners and cell phones, I still do occasionally cause them to hit the ground with more force than intended.
-I love the thought of writing on the electronic planner. My first dream would be a small tablet or a touch screen type thing. However, I'm fairly realistic about the cost of touch screens... so they are probably out... :-)
Currently, the Asus Eee PC is at the top of my list. Of course, it isn't out yet, so I'd need to hold one and check it out to see if it met my needs. It may be totally unacceptable... :-) But, in our searching, we found some cool things about it. It's supposed to start at $200. Nice price! The flash memory means that it will turn on and off really quickly (15 seconds supposedly). Flash also means that dropping it isn't quite so much of a problem. We think it comes with Linux installed but drivers and compatibility with XP (if I want to add it later). Sunbird is available for Linux, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The camera and integrated mike means that Jeff and I could probably do some video chat when we are apart. Especially if we ended up both getting one... :-) They had a completely functional version out for display in June, so there are a lot of people thinking that the August date will be pretty close.
Anyway, here's your chance to tell me what you love and why you love it!