Zombies

Eryn has been interested in running faster, so I agreed to train with her, despite that running on the hip with metal in it makes me extra nervous.  I asked her if she wanted to use an application to track her time and progress and suggested Zombies, Run! which I had heard was fun and had a zombie story as the impetus for running.

She was very excited about trying it out and since getting it, she's been encouraging me to go running frequently.  Unfortunately, I felt the need to understand the application and listen for adult content, so for every 30 minutes of walking and running she and I do together, I'm doing another 30 minutes by myself to understand the app better.

Some things I've learned:

1. It's mostly age appropriate.  Not always, but she took the Scoobs growing marijuana and raising urban chickens in stride and that's been the worst of it except for a bit of swearing.
2. The zombies are fast.  You need to run when they show up and you should start right away so you have as much time as possible to outrun them.
3. Zombies don't stop because you pause the application to go into target.
4. Zombies don't stop because you stop the application because you're home.  In both cases, you need to finish evading the zombies first, or it's considered a failure.
5. Running with 165 ounces of detergent in your hand is not efficient.  If it were a real zombie evasion situation, you'd just whip the heavy bottle of detergent at the zombie to slow her/him down and put on extra speed.  In real life, you're pretty sure no one at home will be happy with an extra week of dirty clothes because you were really "getting into the story."
6. Running two concurrent rounds of Zombies, Run! after not running at all in over a year and a half and not significantly since your runner's toe kicked in ten years ago is asking for a lot of very sore muscles. I have a new appreciation for how much effort is involved in truly eluding zombies.

I was excited to see that the app syncs with RunKeeper by downloading and uploading the run files (it might work more directly as well; I'm trying to figure that out).  And we've add a few cemeteries into our running options (real ones) so that it's spookier.  I learned there are Rahns buried in our neighborhood, which is who the school and roads and parks are named after.

An iPad App Overview

Been a while since I thought about what apps I'm using on a regular basis.  I don't think I even had the iPhone last time, which has some apps I don't use on the iPad, like the flashlight app Kyle got me, and Draw Something, which was fun during recovery, but everyone has fallen off.  Mostly I just remind Klund and Pooteewheet it's their turns, despite not caring if they actually take a turn.  So what am I using on my iPad?

• Kindle - obsessively.  You can't begin to imagine how liberating it feels to be able to just buy a book while you're stuck in a small room and not capable of going to the library or book store.  And I could justify it because I wasn't paying for gas or coffee.  That's a book every other day.
• Zite - the Board games and Doctor Who categories make it worthwhile alone.  Adding in the science blogs is frosting.  I've found myself looking for a comparative app for the PC.  I wish Zite would just let me sync my subscription to a PC version.
• A link to Geek and Sundry - Felicia Day's Flog and Wil Wheaton's Table Top.  I taught Eryn to enjoy Wil's videocast.
• Facebook and Twitter- no surprises there.  Although I like Facebook better on the PC.
• Caring Bridge - I am not the only injured person I know.  I have a friend with cancer and a friend with...cancer.  I keep track of their progress and chemo via Caring Bridge.  Invented by a Minnesotan - cool beans.
• Notes - because I added the Harvard Business Review to my Kindle downloads, and notes lets me summarize what I've learned and I can send it to my email.  Only downside is my first gen iPad can be rather slow to hop back and forth.
• Calorie Counter (Fat Secret) - so I don't blow up while I'm not bicycling.
• Dragon Vale - I help Eryn keep her dragons in check.  Just a click game, but it's impressive that they add new items on a regular basis.
• Scramble and Words With Friends - I find myself using them less and less.  I could respond immediately when I was in bed all the time.
• Dominion - free card game based on the real card game.  Obsessive!  Easy way to learn strategies you don't get to explore playing with a person/s.  Very easy to get 100+ games (or perhaps 177) under your belt in a very short time.
• Tigris and Euphrates - no one will play me the board game.  So this is a true to the original rendition that's a lot of fun.
• Elder Sign - still a favorite.  Recommended on Twitter by Felicia Day. Plays so much like the board game without all the overhead that takes hours to set up and play.
• Ascension - another card game.  Less like Dominion and more like Magic the Gathering, but without the endless variety of cards.  Once I learned the rules and the expansion rules, I play it all the time.  I taught Eryn, who picked it up quickly, and we play over breakfast if we go out.
• Morphology - I play around with it because a friend created it.  It's card packs for the game, which I received as part of their Kickstarter Morphology Jr. campaign.
• Hacienda HD - I can't tell if I really like this or not.  But I've been playing it lately because it's different.
• Not: Minecraft.  I know I can play it on the iPad.  I just haven't chosen to do it, despite Eryn's interest in Minecraft.  I don't want to dissuade her from the PC version which seems much richer.  Topic of conversation over lunch with some of the developers today.

iPad App Review - What I Use

I blogged once before about some of my favorite apps on the iPad, but it's time for a reassessment of what I play with most often:

Kindle - love it.  I read at lunch most days.  I try to find a big book so it lasts a while.  So far I've read A Short History of Nearly Everything, The Gone-Away World, and I'm finishing up Pandemonium.

Zite - I like the news feeds, particularly the programming feed which prevents me from having to pull together my own set of feeds.

Pulse - good for reading the Daily Afternoon Randomness on The Chive.

Facebook - I do most of my Facebooking from the iPad.

Ping.fm/Twitter - I do most of my Twittering from the iPad.

Exoplanet - because you never know when a new planet might show up that you want to emigrate to.

Dropbox - file sharing between all my machines. I use it obsessively.

Netflix - for obvious reasons.

Words with Friends - sometimes I have up to half a dozen games going.  95% of the people on Words with Friends suck.  Kyle is good.  I've met a few people who are challenging.

NS Hex - took me quite a while to figure out this challenging game.

Small World - don't play it as much as I used to, but a solid board game.

Wesnoth - if you like Might and Magic style games, this is pretty much the only one.

Carcassone - good rendition of the board game.

The Game of Life - better than the board game.

Tichu - cards games have better longevity than most games on an iPad.

Kingdoms - my latest obsession.  Incredibly difficult for a game that takes a few minutes to play.

Shredder and iChess Pro - pretty much equivalent for Chess purposes.  I usually lose.

Toontastic - for Eryn.  Teaches story making/structure while allowing her to create her own cartoons.

Food Apps - I like Epicurious (after it got rid of some of its bugs), AllRecipies (not as much depth, but very easy to use), BigOven (GREAT recipies), and Whole Foods.  Pooteewheet can attest I make a wider variety of food owning these apps.

Calorie Counter - down 32 pounds and counting.

Pandora/iPod - music

Star Walk - pretty, and always fun to come back to.  Coupled with the NASA app, these are a nice set.