Google Tools

I love Google Tools. I absolutely love them.  As I figure out ways to be organized and stay in contact with those who need to be in contact with me, Google has a tool that fits almost all my needs.

Google search:
Simple quick searches. I tried Bing for a minute, but just realized that I love doing Google searches.

Google Voice:
This is what got the ball rolling with me trying different tools.  My daughter's school would drive me crazy ringing whatever random phone I had on the list. They would call my work number after I left work and my home number when I was at work and never call my cell. My daughter would do phone roulette and call all my numbers one after the other which also drove me crazy.

I also hate voice mail and having three voice mail systems to check was not my thing. I finally put a message on my cell that told callers not to leave a message because I would never, ever check it.

With Google Voice, I have one number that is forwarded to all my phones so that they all ring at once and I can pick up whichever phone I am nearest. I can also check my voicemail or text messages online and the voicemail messages are transcribed- not always accurately, but I get a good idea of what is being said and I can also listen to those messages online or call the Google number to check for new messages. This has been a magical experience for me. And led me to try...

Google Calendar:
The most frustrating part of trying to keep organized is trying to have one and only one system. I have tried a few things, but relied on a hodge podge of things.
I have a Treo and that works fine as long as I keep my phone with me and have the desktop downloaded to whatever computer I am working on. In the last year or so, I found myself sitting at my own desk at work less and less and syncing at home less and less.  
I have a paper calendar that I insert dates pertaining to work in, but again, I don't wanna take that all over either.
We use Outlook at work for our in/out times at the office, but I haven't really made it work for home life.
Then comes Google Calendar....
I finally have a calendar that goes everywhere I go. I don't have to lug my cell phone around (Sometimes, it is nice not to be at the beck and call of the stupid thing). All I need is an internet connection and a computer or wifi equiped phone. I have a calendar for myself and another for my daughter. I can also show other calendars such as my daughter's drill team schedutle or NFL team's game schedule. It is wonderful and I can print out the schedule if I feel the need for a paper schedule.

Gmail:
I have had an Gmail acount for years, but now I use it regularly to check for new voicemail messages or to herd personal messages to. I like the fact that it has different backgrounds that I can use that change thoughout the day (shows a different scene for morning, afternoon and night).

Google Reader:
Instead of putting all these separate blogs in my bookmark list and checking every now and again to see if the author has posted to thier blog, I can suscribe to the blog and check in this one spot for any updates.

Google Notebook:
Like a portable Microsoft Onenote. I LOVE Onenote, (see my previous posting) but I need it installed on every single computer I use for it to work for me the way I would like for it to. Now I have discovered Notebook, which unfortunately is no longer being developed and new accounts can't be made, but if you have it now, you can still use it. I have cut and pasted a few recipes I found, and love that I will be able to bring up my geeknotes at work, in a class, at the library, at home, on my daughter's computer, WHEREVER I want.

Google Wave:
A super duper way to collaborate on a project, event, document or whatever. It is like Microsoft's Sharepoint except once again, portable. You could use Google Groups, for discussion boards, but this is boards on steriods. Right now I have no one to wave with, but hopefully I will be able to convince somebody to try before I propose that the Volunteer Guild I work with use this instead of what we are using now.

Picasa:
I downloaded this program just to see what it could do. I was impressed because it was able to sort my pictures by the people in them. So if I was to look for a picture of my daughter, all I have to do is click on her name and all the pictures with her in them will appear. This is fantastic. It also does some light photo editing which is great, I am not looking to be Annie Lebowitz, just take a picture to record the moment.

Google Maps:
I use Google Maps to get from point A to B. I can get directions by car, by foot, and by public transportation. I can also see what traffic is doing. Very nice to plan those trips where I have no idea where I am going.

Blogger:
Of course I am using Blogger right now and I feel more comfortable using this than other hosting sites.

iGoogle:
This pulls it all together. This my personal Google homepage. I open up my browser and iGoogle appears. I set it up so that my calendar, notebook, gmail, wave, blogger and other items are right there on the front page. Right now, it has the Owlie theme on it and it changes depending on the time of day. Last night, I went to look something up and it showed Owlie in bed, This morning, it showed him getting out of bed and right now, it is almost 8 pm and he is sitting under a tree enjoying the sunset with a few bird friends. Sweet.

Google has a lot to offer at the great price of FREE.

Five Star Flex Hybrid Notebook

Okay, I admit it all the time. I am a geek. As I wrote before, I like to gather information and write my ideas out.

I have the Pulse pen, but the paper was in a spiral bound notebook. It didn't totally work for me because I also liked to keep my little non Pulse paper items with me, so that meant that I had a spiral notebook, a folder with my cheat sheets and whatever other paper I had with me.

Then I found the flex binder. It is called a hybrid notebook, which sounds all science fiction-y, but it is very simple. It offers you the ability to move stuff around in the binder, but you can fold it back like a notebook. Remember those huge classes in college and the little tiny desks?  I do. I had both a binder and notebook for my classes. The notebook to take notes in class and the binder to hold all the paper handed out during the course. I wish this existed waaaaayyyyyy back in the stone ages when I went to school.

The folders are an added bonus since they actually hold stuff in.

I bought the large size- In pink of course, and tore the pages from my Pulse notebook (they have 3 hole punches already) and placed them in the Flex binder, I took my knitting cheat sheets and put them in the binder, I took my knitter's graph paper and put that in the binder, I put my CYCA syllabus in there and added a pencil pouch too. That is a lot of stuff and I love that I can add, move or remove stuff around.

I now have the perfect idea book!

LiveScribe Pulse

I like to write things. I gather bits of information and write them down. I usually don't do anything with them, but it is nice to have my ideas written down. I have found things that I have written and was impressed with my own dang self. But paper gets lost and some things such as sketches of ideas would be nice to save in some other way. I also spent some time as a secretary for an organization. I would write as fast as my little hands would allow me, but always felt I was missing something or that I couldn't participate fully in the meeting because I was taking notes.



I had the Fly Fusion pen, and it was great, but it was really marketed heavily to the teen and tween world. I drew and wrote stuff in it, but felt really goofy with a huge ass pen in my hand. My daughter also has one and it works wonderfully for her. Hers is also black and sleek looking, mine was grey and reminded me of a pen you might see on the Flintstones. I uploaded files and sketches on it and liked it enough. I just needed something a little sleeker.



Then came the Pulse Pen. It is the best thing since.... well, ever.



It records not only your writing, but audio. But wait! It also links your writing with the audio so if your professor says "stinky cheese has great nutritional value" and all you wrote was "stinky cheese" you can tap your pen on "stinky cheese" and hear all he/she said about stinky cheese. Fantastic.



My daughter sang "ABC" and I drew while she sang.

Here it is...

Demo with sound
brought to you by Livescribe

How cool was that?

My child can't sing, I know. But she sounds so sweet.

You can hear my sister in the background being an ass as usual. They were about 5 feet or so away from me, but thier voices were very clear. But it also comes with headphones with built in microphones to pick up audio in autitoriums.

You do need special paper to use the pen, but it is very reasonably priced and you have a few varieties of paper to choose from. They have one subject notebooks, three subject notebooks, moleskin journals, little notepads and Paperblank notepads. You can also print the paper off of the site too.

So I wrap up this post fully excited to write down my DeeDeeRikki ideas. See you later!

Update!

I was watching the Big Bang Theory and one of the characters on the show was using the Pulse pen and I recognized the paper too. I nearly pee'd my pants. The show is about a bunch of geeks (being a geek is a good thing) who work at a university and live together. That is genius product placement.

Microsoft One Note

This is the shiznit.





I like to collect information. When I was in school, I loved research projects and spent hours finding and gathering information. Back in the day, finding information involved digging through card catalogs and microfiche drawers, but I did with glee. I am seriously dating myself. When I was 15, I spent a Saturday afternoon at the Public Library looking at microfische for a project and loved it. My copy card always needed refilling and I had a big folder full of my research topic of the moment. One Note is a info gatherer's dream come true. It replaces my research folder of my school years. If you have a tablet pc, it will make you cream your jeans.





One Note is a way to gather information and put it in 'Notebooks' that you can organize just like your class binders. I have a notebook for my work projects, my life projects, sorority projects and just general research stuff. Within each notebook are subject tabs that have individual 'pages', so my work notebook is divided into sections like: meetings, notes, calendars, to do lists and whatever deserves it's own section. Each section then has pages of thier own.





When I am online, I like to select information that I find and copy it to a One Note page. The info is then put into my notes, along with a hyperlink from the site the info was taken from. You can then type notes anywhere on the screen. I used to bookmark everything on Internet Explorer, but I find this more useful since I can add notes to the link also. Right now I am using it to find a new laptop and a new bean bag cushion. I know I am a nerd, but I don't care. Laugh if you want. Buying the right cushion is a biiiiiiiiig deal.





For project management, it is also good because, I still use Word to make documents to support my project, but I can also put those files in One Note in sections that are easily visible and won't get lost in all the documents that a project can create.





You can also insert audio and video into the pages. My sister was very excited at this prospect. She has a webcam and mic on her laptop and figures that she can record her meetings via One Note and type notes on the same 'page' where she is recording the meeting.
If you have a tablet PC, the world is yours. You can write those notes as opposed to typing. it has handwriting recognition software on it so you can convert those notes into text. The only problem I have with this is that it does not always recognize what I write, and I write pretty clearly, so if you have messy handwriting, this might not work for you. But imagine sitting in a class or a meeting and writing your notes on your tablet pc while recording the it in One Note.

How cool.

Tablet PC

I want a tablet PC.

I have wanted one for a long time and now, the price is low enough that I can afford it! I love the idea of writing my notes on the screen and converting them to text. If this had been around when I was in college, who knows- those 3.o's could have been 4.0's!

I went to Office Depot and played around with one yesterday. I must be big ol nerd, because I had a good time. I can do so much with the tablet, the world will be mine.

But it will never replace my cute stationary! There is still nothing like writing a note on paper covered in little hearts, cupcakes or teddy bears. And if you leave a love note to your boo, you can't just hang that tablet on the bathroom mirror- It is just uneconomical.

Treo

I love my Treo! It keeps me semi organized, I keep my lists and favorite pics on there. I text like crazy until my balance gets too low and I use whole words to text, not 'ttyl' or stuff like that. My phone is old and getting kinda battered, but it still loves me and I love it back.







Here are some of my favorite things about my Treo:

• Color coded calendars- I separate my life in many different categories- work, sorority, goof off stuff, my child's stuff and so on. It is a very easy way for me to figure out what I have too much of in my life. If there is too much red, I have way too much to do at work. Too much pink, I should pull back on my child's schedule a little before I give us both a coronary.
• Handy Shopper- this is a separate program that can be downloaded onto just about any Palm. I make lists for each of the stores I frequent will a recurring list of items that we always seem to need. It has worked out nicely, I have not run out of TP yet. I also use it for lists of things to pack for trips, music to download and books to look for. Yes, I am an anal nerd at times, but I am also forgetful.
• Mirror- My Treo is a cool ass mirror to make sure my lipstick is even.
• Real Player- I like to listen to music. Sometimes I make it my 'ghetto' ghetto blaster and walk down the street with it playing with out headphones. Sometimes I play it in the shower- resting on the sink of course.
• Butler- I use this to set the three alarms I need to talk myself out of bed in the morning. I like that it calls me Madam, 'cause I am a lady.
• Camera- It's not the best camera, but it sure does beat carrying one more thing that you are afraid of breaking to a people packed place. It also captures precious moments like your neighbor's toddler nodding in and out of sleep clutching a balloon.
• Touch screen- I will forever and ever touch every phone screen I come across. The best thing for me is the easy navigation by touch screen. I tried the Sidekick, the Jack piece of crap or whatever it is called and the Blackberry. They suck in my eyes because I love the touch screen of a Palm Treo.

There are many more reasons that I love my Treo. Yes it is big and clunky, but it does so much and I would probably be assed out to the extreme if something should happen to it.