I’m #writingaboutwriting for onMedia

I just got a chance to write about all the different iOS apps out there that make it easier to write. I spent a few hours testing out popular writing apps and learning some markdown (basically the kind of thing I’d be messing around with at home anyway), then the wonderful people at DW Akademie’s OnMedia blog said they’d share my opinions with the world (and cut me a check, to boot). Talk about a good day.

What should you be writing with? Here’s what I think.
Top apps for writing text on iPads and iPhones

Tell the kids about it

I wasn’t exactly endowed by my creators with an abundance of willpower. Generally, reading the endless lists of productivity tips is about as far as I’ll get to actually implementing any of them (those tip links, by the way, were selected at random).

But lack of willpower doesn’t correlate with a shortage of a desire to improve — just the ability to follow through in the morning on the previous night’s good intentions.

• Go for a run
• Read a book (or anything) instead of watching TV
• Call mom
• Learn something new
  • Current options include
    • How to speak some Spanish
    • How to draw

That’s a house, an airplane and a bagel (split in 2 and on a plate), if you’re wondering.

I’ve collected multiple books, how-tos and tips on the best ways to get all those things done. I just haven’t started on any of them. I’ve probably spent enough time reading up on ways to increase willpower that I could give workshops on it — if I were ever motivated enough to get something like that off the ground, that is.

One of the tips I used to believe was “tell your friends about it.” The idea that making a goal public would somehow increase my commitment to an undertaking sounds sensible, but my friends are too forgiving and perfectly willing to accept my always valid reasons not to have followed through on the goal of the week.

This week, however, I’ve come to find that getting Her¹ interested in my plan will result in a relentless degree of nagging that would result in murder if done by anyone other than one’s own children. So I told Her¹ I got a book and was going to try and get better at drawing, which isn’t much of a statement as I currently struggle with stick figures, and her enthusiasm was immediate.

“Where’s the book? Can I do it, too?”

Spheres and light sources – at least, that’s what the book told us to draw

It’s, of course, impossible to deny such wide-eyed excitement and I naturally agreed to a self-taught, father-and-daughter drawing course (the initial results of which are visible with this post). And if Day One’s tenacity is anything to go by tomorrow will certainly feature whatever “You Can Draw in 30 Days” has to offer on Day Two and the day after tomorrow will likely be more of the same.

In all the how-to’s and tips I read, “have a kid” never featured high on the list of productivity-enhancing tips, but as far as I’m concerned it should be place high up there – somewhere just below “get enough sleep.”

My next post, should Her¹ motivate me to write it, will outline exactly how to both get sleep and raise kids.

Here you go have some sugar, honey

You want want one everything? Ask the lady behind us if it is ok.

Hello woman in the line behind me, I don’t get the feeling that you’re about to offer to babysit Her² for the next two hours so I’d appreciate it I you didn’t buy her a candy bar. There was actually a reason I told her no over and over again. Thanksamilliongoodbyenow.

But I have to admit that watching Her² dance around in a chocolate-induced fit of energy yelling “I’m so lucky” was rather cute.

Thanks to bcostin for the CC photo!

They’re still alive, and that’s something

An evening conversation:

Me: How did your day go, honey?

Her⁰: Well, they’re both still alive and that’s something.

Me: That’s something I think we should pat ourselves on the back for every day.

(ching, ching as wine glasses meet)

Fish or pump iron

Will be a loooong time until I’m lifting anything like that

Just a little into the fifth months into the year and I’ve got an average price if a trip to the gym of $28.16. That’s a figure even the muscle heads who look at me with disdain when I take off my shirt in the locker room can calculate to being pathetic.

Apply a little 8th grade algebra and I can figure out that I need to hit the McFit treadmill 20 times in May to bring the price down and total gym-trip frequency to the four-times-a-month New Year’s resolution that didn’t last until February. Even armed with the best of intentions and confronting weight that is climbing in a depressing – but oh so delicious – spiral of chocolate, wine and computer games, willpower seems to have settled down with the coworker across the office training for the Helsinki Marathon later this summer.

And good luck to him.

My bar is lower. And much closer to home.

Thanks to midiman for the CC photo!

Who turned off the babysitter?

Thank god Her² just celebrated her second birthday. I don’t know at I would do without being able to turn on the babysitter.

Seriously people, is there someone out there who really thought that TV was a good way for infants to spend their time? Bring it back to your own life: Do feel good about yourself when you get up from the sofa after watching two hours of the boob tube? Wouldn’t you rather have spent your time doing something more productive?

I’ll admit to being a sinner in this sense just like the next guy (well, maybe a little less than the next guy, but whatevs). I can enjoy an Entourage binge (how could you leave us, Vince?) or a Game of Thrones-a-thon (Spring 2012 is coming, thankfully), but pretty much every time I’m done watching Grey’s Anatomy I get up and curse my weak to non-existent will power and self for not having gone to the gym instead.

If it’s not good for us adults, it’s certainly no good for the kids. Looking for alternatives?

Turn off the TV and…

• Turn on some music for a dance party (eventually there will be a video of me and the Hers^1&2 rocking out in the living room). This one is always a favorite:
  
• Open a new can of Play-Doh. Yeah, I still open the cans. The cream of tartar secret ingredient to the DIY stuff is in the cabinet waiting — which probably qualifies as a second thing so…
• Make your own Play-Doh
  
• Hide-and-go-seek. I love this game. When I’m seeking, I’ll count extremely slowly and enjoy the quiet. Sometimes I’ll even manage to grab a book or write an email in the peace and quiet that is Her¹ hiding mostly silently like a log under her covers. Her², sadly, doesn’t grasp the point of the game, so we play mostly while she’s napping

I’ll be back with more when it occurs to me. Till then, thanks to c.r.avery for the CC photo.

The bilingual brain

Here’s on to file und the “my kids are gonna be smarter” category:

Hearing bilingual: How babies sort out language.

Abstinence ad absurdum

Catholic guilt, you’re hard to leave behind. Not counting weddings and funerals, I go to church a couple of times a year. Over the past 10 or so years, I’ve usually seen the inside of a church (during Mass) more than the average C&E’er but not much more.

Yet Lent doesn’t let go.

Every Ash Wednesday I’ll start thinking about whether there should be a Lenten sacrifice, and it’s not just because my mom finds a way to work it into the Mardi Gras phone call.

In Lents long ago, I’ve stopped with eating sweets or meat or drinking booze – one year even eliminating candy and cocktails. But more recently I’ve taken a more realistic tack and done either nothing or nothing I wasn’t trying to do anyway (less junk food, more exercising, less time in front of a screen, more time sleeping, etc.).

This year I opted for cutting peanut butter out of my diet. Honestly, my pants were getting tight and PB & Nutella sandwiches were at the root of the creamy and delicious problem. So about 40 days ago I threw away the half-full container of Jiff and let the cravings begin.

Now, on Good Friday, with Lent behind us, liturgically speaking, I haven’t touched the stuff – not even in the form of my candy bar addiction Wunderbar (go ahead and try some). I also haven’t had meat for the last seven Fridays and didn’t eat in between meals on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday (fast and abstinence for everyone who forgot Sunday school).

This, I realize, is absurd. There is no logical connection between the idea of Christ being tempted by Satan in the desert for 40 days and nights and me sticking to a diet decision I should have started with months ago.

But like I said, Lent doesn’t let go.

It’s the time of the Christian calendar when after largely neglecting outward displays of religion for roughly 325 days of the year, I feel like I should be doing something in line with the Roman Catholic tenets I was brought up with. And that manifests itself in almost two months of Fridays without meat and two days of no snacking – and, this year, leaving the jar of peanut butter closed.

Somehow I don’t think God’s going to be impressed. I also don’t think next year will be any different.

As far as I know, there isn’t really a traditional Easter desert, so I’m going to start lobbying to make this one a part of the institution of Easter: Peanut butter and Nutella cookies

Thanks to eye2eye for the CC photo.

Life’s little (non-existent) instruction book

Games are squeezing out the parenting section of the MeHerandHer bookshelf. A fact that gives me great gratification.

Read an interesting and thought-provoking post at BlogHer.

I’ll definitely add my voice to those parents thinking, “The kid is full enough, clean enough and rested enough. Now what the hell should we do.” And while I’m eager to hear about tried and successful entertainment ideas for toddlers (Her²) and 3-year-olds (Her¹), I wouldn’t say that there is any shortage of people offering suggestions or that there’s a lack of advice. Ever looked at Amazon’s Parenting & Families section – it can get frightening.

There are so many, in fact, that I find the vast number of options to be more of a challenge than not knowing how to handle the kids. Bookshelves, tv stations and even blog platforms like the one the article I read came from are full of advice (contradictory, more often than not) on how to raise children. Not to mention family members and the people looking on with disgust when a kid has a tantrum – or just has the audacity to cry in public.

There are plenty of options for anyone looking to get parenting degree – and to be clear, I don’t think that was the point of Itorres78’s post – but I don’t think there’s ever going to be a guide raising kids. I can’t think of any other chapter in life that came with a helpful guidebook. Middle school? Definitely not. Dating? Nope. Marriage? Not really. Kids? No. And I don’t expect the upcoming ones (ailing parents, growing kids) to be much different.

It reminds me of the best piece of advice I got before Her¹ was born: If you and Her⁰ agree and are happy with how things go then everything will be fine and you don’t need to listen to anyone else.

Strut it

The construction hat really adds to Her¹‘s backwards pants look:

Kriss Kross she ain’t and with a little luck never will be.