Useful Tools
Having fibromyalgia leads to some challenges that in some ways overlap with more physical disabilities but in some ways are their own strange thing. The cognitive and memory issues can be very profound, with bad days meaning I have to keep repeating to myself whatever it is that I pried myself out of bed to do -- and if I get distracted on my way there I will still forget it. "Get a cup of tea... get a cup of tea... get a cup of tea.... now why am I standing in the kitchen again?" On bad days, I feel pretty pleased with myself if I remember to take my medicine, drink at least a quart of liquids, and eat at least twice. Not exactly a high bar but it can be challenging.
Projects are hard, too. Because of the fatigue, when I'm having a stretch of low energy (like the one I've been suffering from since late October, after the glorious remission), even trivial projects such as sorting files on a computer become insurmountable. I can manage fifteen or so minute stretches on the desktop, and sometimes can't even manage to do much of this easy work from the laptop. Also the desktop, with its large disk and good graphics, is where my major file storage of interest all resides: my games, my backups, my music repository, etc. etc. etc. On days when I'm too tired even to watch TV (I fondly remember ENJOYING having the flu or strep throat because I could watch daytime TV in a pleasant haze... I'm actually below that bar now!) I sometimes can still get a bit done, but it has to be in little tiny nibbles.
Here are the tools I'm using right now:
* LogMeIn: This is free web-based VPN software, and it's pretty golden. There's a pro version that lets you locally print remote files and locally stream remote sound, which might be nice, but I'm so often too tired to even use this that it doesn't seem like a good value, and free has been perfectly adequate for getting onto my desktop and rummaging around in the files there. I can use this to manage my Steam queue -- I can download games when I'm too tired to sit up and play them, so when I do have the energy to sit up I'm not wasting any time then on the download process. I can manipulate iTunes (annoyingly centralized to its repository) using this as well. When I'm in the mood to tag and rate music, I can listen to the music on my iPod and rate it on the desktop. I still need to install this on the printer system; that way if I need to do a lot of printing I can turn it on, then go lie down and print from bed. I picked this tool over others because it's free and it got good reviews on cnet. I haven't done a really thorough security evaluation because I don't have any brain cells for that and honestly I don't have any truly valuable data: what I want to prevent is data destruction, not theft.
* Laptop caddy: This is a brilliant device for anyone who has trouble spending much time outside of beds or comfy chairs. It can be adjusted for either and is counterbalanced enough that it is pleasantly stable. I am using it right now, have been for many years, and it is worth every penny. We also got a small rolling Mayline computer desk that has proven very handy, though it is not quite as versatile as the laptop caddy as it requires sitting up in a normal desk chair. The thin profile on it meant I could have a desktop in the bedroom, however, which was very nice before we got our larger and more comfortable computer setup.
* Read It Later: Some people use Instapaper; I use Read it Later. Both work on the same theory of storing a list of "one-read wonders" and decluttering a fat stack of firefox tabs. They also will share this list with your other browsers and with your iPod/iPhone. This is brilliant for me because I like to read recipes but mark them for later use. If you find that your ability to read pages is overwhelmed by the number of pages you want to read, this is a pretty good way to queue them up for good days later. Since it's also easy to pick and choose through the queue, it's easy to sort through them if you haven't gotten through them yet but remembered that you'd stored a great recipe for squash or something. The offline reading on the ipod is also pretty sweet; it makes waiting in doctor's office less dead space and more useful. I also use Delicious, but I prefer to use Delicious for permanent storage of reference links rather than one-read wonders, and I'm trying to migrate all of my recipes into Evernote so I can add my own notes and permutations to them, so I've been pulling my recipe links out of Delicious. Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice for the one-read wonders that are streamed in RSS. All of these integrate well with the iPod and are free.
* Speaking of iPods... the iPod Touch itself is an accessibility device, at least some days. There are days when I find a laptop, even on a caddy, to be hideously onerous, and a full screen browser gives me sensory overload. The iPod has a quiet, small, interface, is light, and can be used anywhere in my house as I have wireless. Not a cheap device, but if you're going to have an mp3 player anyhow, having one that talks on wi-fi is pretty darn sweet. The iPhone can of course do anything that an iPod can, so the same theory applies: if you're going to have a cellphone and can afford the data service, it's very very sweet to have a smartphone. Twitter and even web browsing are possible on the iPod on some days when I can't manage a laptop or really much of anything at all. The other nice thing is that I can pop up recipes from Evernote or Read It Later while I'm in the kitchen, which means I can go entirely paperless when cooking.
* Evernote: A web clipping and note taking utility that lets you tag the notes. This is a very clever tool that does some high powered things I don't actually bother with, like reading text inside photos! Being able to search your database of notes in that way is very cool, but I don't use a camera that casually. What I do use it for, very heavily, is recipe clipping. Why use Evernote and not just link to the websites? A few reasons. One is that most websites have just a lot of noisy crud around their actual content, so getting a clean copy that shows up nicely on the iPod or a printout can be a big fat pain. The other is that I modify recipes very heavily, and I like to annotate them when I do. Evernote offers the electronic version of this: I will add my notes in a different color, so it's very obvious where I'm diverging. I also keep attribution back to the original recipe so I can post praise on the blog I found it on if I liked it. Evernote isn't just for recipes, of course, and I use it for all sorts of other reference. Also since it syncs beautifully with the iPod I can do things like keep a current version of books I'm looking for at used book stores that lives on my iPod and in the cloud. Some people manage their todo lists out of Evernote, but I prefer using Toodledo. (Which also syncs to the iPod.) Evernote is free for the moderate kind of use I'm giving it.
* Lose It!: While this is aimed at being weight loss (calorie counting) software, it provides enough macronutrient data that if you're trying to eat a specific balance of macronutrients, or do other dietary goals like control sodium or cholesterol, it will keep you in track. It's also quite simple to use. The only flaw is that it's highly mobile-oriented; I can't do any meal planning from my web browser, but must use my iPod. Normally that isn't the end of the world, but I wouldn't mind being able to do some meal templates on the browser. Anyhow I would recommend this not only to anyone trying to lose weight, but anyone who has specific sugar, cholesterol, protein, or sodium goals, for keeping you honest. It's also quite good at being a food log for an elimination diet or allergen testing; the quick hack there is to make some zero calorie "food" entries that log reactions, so an hour after a meal you can tag whether or not you had a reaction, and then be able to track responses later. It also stores exercises. Another free app.
* Live Mesh: Cloud storage and synchronization, provided by Microsoft. Not as good a choice in a heterogenous household, but we're all on PCs here. They provide 5GB free and the synchronization is very nice, allowing me to sync up to the cloud (which is then web-accessible) and also bypass the cloud and sync PC-to-PC. It's very easy to use: you just stick a folder into the mesh and drop files into it. The downside is there's no version control or rollback; this is not a backup or archive tool but a pure sync tool. I still like it better than SugarSync, which has versioning, because the synchronization is cleaner. I'm still looking at backup solutions but I like Live Mesh pretty well for sync and a bit of cloud archival. The 5GB is very generous as these services go; most others provide only 1-2GB free. This is more useful to me than sharing because my network is segmented by my use of a wireless router, so I can't use native windows file sharing or network mounts to and from my laptop. The mesh oparates through the NAT and lets me get files back and forth from my laptop easily. It's also very very nice to be able to work on D&D characters on my laptop and then have them just be on the printer system for printing out. Active stuff like the current D&D modules we're playing also live in the mesh; back when I played Living Greyhawk I had a similar setup, though I used rsync to keep it in sync, where I replicated my character sheets and all the campaign notes and reference documents between our systems. I'm currently evaluating other cloud-based storage systems as well, but for a beta I'm finding Live Mesh to be both functional and stable and not too crazy at the resources, so I may end up sticking with it.
* Seven-day pillbox. Anyone with cognitive issues who has to take medication regularly needs one of these. I can tell instantly if I forgot to take my medication. I still occasionally manage to forget, but this lets me know exactly how much I have forgotten. Very cheap at any drugstore. Keep out of reach of children and pets!
With cognitive issues it's a good idea to keep really firm track of anything that will fall naturally outside of an alert period. My alert periods can be as low as only fifteen minutes at a stretch, so I often need some kind of visual reminder. For instance I leave my Semagic window open so it's a visual clue that I'm in the middle of an entry. I might type a little, nap a little, type a little, etc. If I'm trying to sort a lot of files I make a list of what I'm planning on doing. My project management skills have actually IMPROVED since I got sick, since I have to break tasks down so much farther now and keep better track of where I am in order to avoid thrashing or repeating effort. I use Evernote for any long-running projects, and text documents or other ambient remembers such as keeping a window open for anything more ephemeral. Remember not to use any tool that will lose you data if your computer gets disconnected. If I'm not using a tool that autosaves (most tools I use nowadays) then I habitually save every few minutes, or if I start doing anything else.
Projects are hard, too. Because of the fatigue, when I'm having a stretch of low energy (like the one I've been suffering from since late October, after the glorious remission), even trivial projects such as sorting files on a computer become insurmountable. I can manage fifteen or so minute stretches on the desktop, and sometimes can't even manage to do much of this easy work from the laptop. Also the desktop, with its large disk and good graphics, is where my major file storage of interest all resides: my games, my backups, my music repository, etc. etc. etc. On days when I'm too tired even to watch TV (I fondly remember ENJOYING having the flu or strep throat because I could watch daytime TV in a pleasant haze... I'm actually below that bar now!) I sometimes can still get a bit done, but it has to be in little tiny nibbles.
Here are the tools I'm using right now:
* LogMeIn: This is free web-based VPN software, and it's pretty golden. There's a pro version that lets you locally print remote files and locally stream remote sound, which might be nice, but I'm so often too tired to even use this that it doesn't seem like a good value, and free has been perfectly adequate for getting onto my desktop and rummaging around in the files there. I can use this to manage my Steam queue -- I can download games when I'm too tired to sit up and play them, so when I do have the energy to sit up I'm not wasting any time then on the download process. I can manipulate iTunes (annoyingly centralized to its repository) using this as well. When I'm in the mood to tag and rate music, I can listen to the music on my iPod and rate it on the desktop. I still need to install this on the printer system; that way if I need to do a lot of printing I can turn it on, then go lie down and print from bed. I picked this tool over others because it's free and it got good reviews on cnet. I haven't done a really thorough security evaluation because I don't have any brain cells for that and honestly I don't have any truly valuable data: what I want to prevent is data destruction, not theft.
* Laptop caddy: This is a brilliant device for anyone who has trouble spending much time outside of beds or comfy chairs. It can be adjusted for either and is counterbalanced enough that it is pleasantly stable. I am using it right now, have been for many years, and it is worth every penny. We also got a small rolling Mayline computer desk that has proven very handy, though it is not quite as versatile as the laptop caddy as it requires sitting up in a normal desk chair. The thin profile on it meant I could have a desktop in the bedroom, however, which was very nice before we got our larger and more comfortable computer setup.
* Read It Later: Some people use Instapaper; I use Read it Later. Both work on the same theory of storing a list of "one-read wonders" and decluttering a fat stack of firefox tabs. They also will share this list with your other browsers and with your iPod/iPhone. This is brilliant for me because I like to read recipes but mark them for later use. If you find that your ability to read pages is overwhelmed by the number of pages you want to read, this is a pretty good way to queue them up for good days later. Since it's also easy to pick and choose through the queue, it's easy to sort through them if you haven't gotten through them yet but remembered that you'd stored a great recipe for squash or something. The offline reading on the ipod is also pretty sweet; it makes waiting in doctor's office less dead space and more useful. I also use Delicious, but I prefer to use Delicious for permanent storage of reference links rather than one-read wonders, and I'm trying to migrate all of my recipes into Evernote so I can add my own notes and permutations to them, so I've been pulling my recipe links out of Delicious. Google Reader is my RSS reader of choice for the one-read wonders that are streamed in RSS. All of these integrate well with the iPod and are free.
* Speaking of iPods... the iPod Touch itself is an accessibility device, at least some days. There are days when I find a laptop, even on a caddy, to be hideously onerous, and a full screen browser gives me sensory overload. The iPod has a quiet, small, interface, is light, and can be used anywhere in my house as I have wireless. Not a cheap device, but if you're going to have an mp3 player anyhow, having one that talks on wi-fi is pretty darn sweet. The iPhone can of course do anything that an iPod can, so the same theory applies: if you're going to have a cellphone and can afford the data service, it's very very sweet to have a smartphone. Twitter and even web browsing are possible on the iPod on some days when I can't manage a laptop or really much of anything at all. The other nice thing is that I can pop up recipes from Evernote or Read It Later while I'm in the kitchen, which means I can go entirely paperless when cooking.
* Evernote: A web clipping and note taking utility that lets you tag the notes. This is a very clever tool that does some high powered things I don't actually bother with, like reading text inside photos! Being able to search your database of notes in that way is very cool, but I don't use a camera that casually. What I do use it for, very heavily, is recipe clipping. Why use Evernote and not just link to the websites? A few reasons. One is that most websites have just a lot of noisy crud around their actual content, so getting a clean copy that shows up nicely on the iPod or a printout can be a big fat pain. The other is that I modify recipes very heavily, and I like to annotate them when I do. Evernote offers the electronic version of this: I will add my notes in a different color, so it's very obvious where I'm diverging. I also keep attribution back to the original recipe so I can post praise on the blog I found it on if I liked it. Evernote isn't just for recipes, of course, and I use it for all sorts of other reference. Also since it syncs beautifully with the iPod I can do things like keep a current version of books I'm looking for at used book stores that lives on my iPod and in the cloud. Some people manage their todo lists out of Evernote, but I prefer using Toodledo. (Which also syncs to the iPod.) Evernote is free for the moderate kind of use I'm giving it.
* Lose It!: While this is aimed at being weight loss (calorie counting) software, it provides enough macronutrient data that if you're trying to eat a specific balance of macronutrients, or do other dietary goals like control sodium or cholesterol, it will keep you in track. It's also quite simple to use. The only flaw is that it's highly mobile-oriented; I can't do any meal planning from my web browser, but must use my iPod. Normally that isn't the end of the world, but I wouldn't mind being able to do some meal templates on the browser. Anyhow I would recommend this not only to anyone trying to lose weight, but anyone who has specific sugar, cholesterol, protein, or sodium goals, for keeping you honest. It's also quite good at being a food log for an elimination diet or allergen testing; the quick hack there is to make some zero calorie "food" entries that log reactions, so an hour after a meal you can tag whether or not you had a reaction, and then be able to track responses later. It also stores exercises. Another free app.
* Live Mesh: Cloud storage and synchronization, provided by Microsoft. Not as good a choice in a heterogenous household, but we're all on PCs here. They provide 5GB free and the synchronization is very nice, allowing me to sync up to the cloud (which is then web-accessible) and also bypass the cloud and sync PC-to-PC. It's very easy to use: you just stick a folder into the mesh and drop files into it. The downside is there's no version control or rollback; this is not a backup or archive tool but a pure sync tool. I still like it better than SugarSync, which has versioning, because the synchronization is cleaner. I'm still looking at backup solutions but I like Live Mesh pretty well for sync and a bit of cloud archival. The 5GB is very generous as these services go; most others provide only 1-2GB free. This is more useful to me than sharing because my network is segmented by my use of a wireless router, so I can't use native windows file sharing or network mounts to and from my laptop. The mesh oparates through the NAT and lets me get files back and forth from my laptop easily. It's also very very nice to be able to work on D&D characters on my laptop and then have them just be on the printer system for printing out. Active stuff like the current D&D modules we're playing also live in the mesh; back when I played Living Greyhawk I had a similar setup, though I used rsync to keep it in sync, where I replicated my character sheets and all the campaign notes and reference documents between our systems. I'm currently evaluating other cloud-based storage systems as well, but for a beta I'm finding Live Mesh to be both functional and stable and not too crazy at the resources, so I may end up sticking with it.
* Seven-day pillbox. Anyone with cognitive issues who has to take medication regularly needs one of these. I can tell instantly if I forgot to take my medication. I still occasionally manage to forget, but this lets me know exactly how much I have forgotten. Very cheap at any drugstore. Keep out of reach of children and pets!
With cognitive issues it's a good idea to keep really firm track of anything that will fall naturally outside of an alert period. My alert periods can be as low as only fifteen minutes at a stretch, so I often need some kind of visual reminder. For instance I leave my Semagic window open so it's a visual clue that I'm in the middle of an entry. I might type a little, nap a little, type a little, etc. If I'm trying to sort a lot of files I make a list of what I'm planning on doing. My project management skills have actually IMPROVED since I got sick, since I have to break tasks down so much farther now and keep better track of where I am in order to avoid thrashing or repeating effort. I use Evernote for any long-running projects, and text documents or other ambient remembers such as keeping a window open for anything more ephemeral. Remember not to use any tool that will lose you data if your computer gets disconnected. If I'm not using a tool that autosaves (most tools I use nowadays) then I habitually save every few minutes, or if I start doing anything else.