Thursday, May 19, 2011

Playing my Daily Healthmonth Turn and to Posting to 750words via my Droid

For over the past three months I have been using a few sites that help me to reach my personal goals within a "gamified" process.
 
The first site, healthmonth, is according to its creator Buster Benson, "an online adaptation of a game some friends used to play every year right after New Years."
 
The second, 750words also created by Benson, is a site that encourages the daily writing of...you guessed it, 750 words. The site provides an online, private space to compose an essay, journal, or just write what is on your mind. As you type, the site saves your work, tracks and displays your word count, and lets you know when you've passed the coveted 750 word mark. The fun aspect is in the fact that 750words keeps a score card of points for the days you enteract with the site. 750words also keeps track of the consecutive number of days (or streaks that) you submit completed posts. You can also see how others are doing point and streak-wise to fuel your competitive nature.
 
My wife and I were away from home for a few days and I was not certain if we would have reliable wifi access to play my daily healthmonth turns and to post to 750words to keep my 100 day plus streak alive. So, I wanted to find away to use my Droid to utilize the sites. 
 
I was able to play my turn on the healthmonth site easily with the Droid via the native web browser. However, posting to 750words was a little more tricky. While I could type a 750 word submission with the droid keyboard, I found it more feasible to create the post on my desktop, laptop, or netbook and import them into the Droid via a text app I use, AK Notepad. Then, once in AK Notepad I could copy and paste the text into the 750words site via the web browser. Note that any text editor should work in a similar manner in your Smart Phone. Specifically, here are the steps I took:
 
First you have to import your 750word posting into the AK Notepad. To import text (.txt) files into the Andriod AK Notepad app you will need to do the following:
1) Have a folder that is created during an export. You will need to use this folder as AK Notepad will not see folders created manually. If it is not there, create a directory to use by selecting and holding down a note from the list of notes, then select the "Export to text file" menu option.
2) With the droid connected to a computer via a USB cable place the files that you desire to import into AK Notepad in the directory in step 1 above.
3) Disconnect the USB cable and opened the app on the phone.
4) Select "Menu" and then "Settings"
5) Under Import/Export section select "Import notes" and then browse to the folder in step 1 above. NOTE: each file in the selected folder will be imported.
6) Select and hold the folder and then from the popup menu select "Use this folder." This should import all the files in the folder.
Next, open the note that you want to post on the 750words site and select and hold down the text until the popup menu is displayed and select the "Copy all" option. Now that the text is copied to memory, open the web browser, browse to the 750words site, and paste the text into the site page. The site will auto-save the entry.
 
Now, if I plan to be away from reliabe internet access I can still play my daily healthmonth turn and to post to 750words to keep my streak alive.
 

Posted via email from Mark's Musings

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Not Being the Expert

It is interesting to note as you move throughout your day, we are fearful to appear as not being the expert. Why? Perhaps there is an expectation that you are to be the person who is considered the expert in this or that? Maybe you have a self-image that you are the go-to-person on this subject or that topic?
 
Regardless, why is it OK to not be the expert? Isn't there value in just being the person that is trying to learn as much as he/she can and enjoying the journey? What is more important, being seen as the person that is the expert or being known as the individual that is open to learning, realizes that there is always more to understand, and is known to be gracious to others who lack their level of knowledge? I think the latter.

Posted via email from Mark's Musings