Dori Does Life

Confessions of an App Hoarder

I like free stuff. Especially free apps. After not getting my fix from lifehacker.com's Deal Hacker posts I searched for an app that would send me daily updates of apps that go free temporarily. This is when I discovered Apps Gone Free. Although this is a great app, it has caused me to go waaaay overboard on the app downloads. I've downloaded anything and everything from apps to practice stock trading, to guitar apps, to a gazillion productivity apps. I admit I download a lot of apps I may not currently need but I don't feel too bad. A trick I learned a long time ago is that even if you may not find an app useful or functioning at the level of your liking download it anyway. If the developers eventually charge for newer versions, you won't have to pay since you downloaded the app previously (unless they're jerks and release it as a completely new app).

How it works: I get a notification every morning around 11 - which I appreciate because I'm not an early bird. The notification tells me that the list of today's free apps is now available. I open the app and the free apps are listed based on the device you're on. If I'm on my iPhone it shows the free iPhone apps first. If I'm on my iPad it shows me the free iPad apps first. It also specifies whether the apps are universal. The best part is that you can browse through previous days issues and the app shows you which apps are no longer free.

Overall the app is a little rough and a little buggy but it gets the job done. Now I just need to find a similar app for my Macbook. If you know of any, pretty please fill me in!

Apps Gone Free on iTunes

Image from getpocket.com

I first discovered Pocket as an iPhone/iPad app for saving content from around the web. Since then it has expanded to including a Google Chrome extension and web version (they may have had the web version all along). I use Pocket to save articles, website, videos, and other various links that I need to get back to, read later, or share with someone else.

The unfortunate thing about me and storage is my tendency to abuse it. I'll be flipping through Flipboard (the app I use to read blogs) and with one tap I'll save it to Pocket to "read later." Instead of going back soon after to read what I saved, I've slowly amassed quite a collection of web content from all over. Luckily, Pocket allows you to tag and organize everything. I use tags to specify the source of content as well as to specify topic.

Pocket 5.0, released in November includes a Highlights section that's divided into Quick Reads, Long Reads, Trending content, and Best of content that can help you pick something to read, quickly. 5.0 is also supposed to be more intuitive, but clearly I haven't been utilizing it enough to make use of that feature.

The best part is that it syncs your content across devices and the interface is bright, clean, and easy to navigate.

If you don't use it already, head over to getpocket.com and let it change your life.

Note to self: Make a post about Flipboard.

Everything happens for a reason. Right? Well I ended up in an auto repair shop on December 12th for about 45 minutes but didn't even get my truck serviced. Fortunately, as I sat down in the waiting area, I saw Pharrell Williams' face on a magazine and picked it up. The feature article was titled "GET BUSY: PHARRELL'S PRODUCTIVITY SECRETS." My heart almost jumped out of my chest! Pharrell and productivity tips?!

Between getting my wisdom teeth pulled last week (ugh) and being almost completely free of any responsibility, there hasn't been much to blog about...Ok maybe that's a half truth.

I actually have a few posts lined up that I need to beef up and smooth out. Those will be out soon; I promise. I've read that lots of serious bloggers plan and schedule out their posts ahead of time so maybe that's what I was unconsciously doing. I just have to get better at following through.

Anybody have any hacks to help with being thorough? All of the ones I've tried have yet to help, clearly.

Don't throw away the plastic bag that your comforter came in! They're good for storage that you can access quickly and view the contents of at a glance. Most have zippers and a handle on too. 

Seems like I don't know much about what's going on in the world now that I've scaled back on my twitter usage. Sad, right? I didn't find out Nelson Mandela died until hours later when a friend posted a message in GroupMe.
*Enter theSkimm* a daily newsletter sent to my inbox with a summary of all the major news headlines and links to take me to the articles. I previewed today's edition and I already feel all smart and grown up-y!

Now I just have to actually read it everyday instead of letting it just clutter up my email inbox.

So there's a continuous brainstorm going on in the back of my mind right now. It's been going on ever since I decided to start this blog. The storm arises from me trying to figure out the style in which I'll write on this blog. Something that may seem simple to you but to me, it's very important - or at least I subconsciously find it amusing to stress myself out imagining it is.

I'm very much a conversational writer. I really don't do much formatting or follow many rules. I guess I just try not to flagrantly commit too many grammatical sins. However, I also want to use this blog as a vehicle to experiment with different styles of writing and to perfect improve the way in which I craft together my thoughts and feelings. I even want to try to *gasp* research and cite correctly. Not that I'll do it all of the time but just to get comfortable with it and because these are tools that are handy to have. And I also feel the need to eff them up so many times that eventually one day I'll have no choice but to get it right.

I don't want to stress myself out by promising consistency; that would make me stop blogging before I even start. If it's one thing I've learned about myself so far is that too many stipulations around something I enjoy doing will make me run for the hills and I don't want to do that with this. All I can promise is that I'll be inconsistent. I'll be messy. I'll be incorrect. I'll be vague. I'll be too wordy. I'll basically be all over the place but I'm not striving to do anything perfectly; I'm just striving to do - which will hopefully, even with its shortcomings, still be worthy of reading.

I guess this is also good time to talk about the title of this blog. I am aware that, at first, it may appear that this could be a blog about me being incarcerated, "doing life," but I like the title. I think the content will speak for itself. I also figure I'll add some kind of quirky, sarcastic tagline to shortly and sweetly describe the blog and eliminate any confusion. Also, over Christmas break I'll be working on overhauling the design of the blog. It's way too blah for me right now.

I already have some posts drafted. I'm excited and ready to hit the ground running. I have so much stuff saved in my Pocket that I want to read and share! That reminds me: I need to write a post about Pocket...

I think this is the start of something amazingly awesome.