Thursday, January 29, 2015

Evanston: 10,575; the wit of autofill; shoe salesman


        5:25 yesterday afternoon found me pacing around our condo.  I was not anxious.  I was trying to please an app.
        I recently bought a Withings scale which connects to the Internet and provides all sorts of unnecessary, but interesting, at least to me, information.  It has an app that uses your smartphone to chart all this and also keep track of how many steps you take during the day.  Someone has set 10,000 as a desirable number.
        Yesterday was a physical therapy day for me and I learned that the 1.6 miles from our condo to the PT facility is about 3,500 steps.  With that 7,000 and my normal activity, at 5:15 I found myself at 9,300 steps.  So I got up and walked from one end of our condo to the other eight times, varying the route occasionally by making a detour through the spare bedroom, until I reached 10,000.  I ended the day with 10,575.
        The app sent me a congratulatory email and awarded me a badge.  
        It is a fact that the app did cause me to engage in activity I would not have otherwise.
        I won’t even come close to 10,000 today.
        The app is going to be really mad.



———

        Not entirely unrelated to how computers are structuring our lives, you may have noticed a pun in the last post:  ‘Along the way Ginny became pregnant and gave berth to a son in Brazil.’
         I didn’t make it and I didn’t catch it.  Michael did, for which I thank him, pointing out that Ginny gave birth and berth to young George.
        The wit was beloved Autofill’s. 

———

       I have become unknowingly a shoe salesman.

        This ad was seen by the brother of a friend who emailed it to me.  I have never heard of Martin Dingman.  I am told it is a high end shoe store.  At least I’m selling good stuff and not flip-flops.  
        I couldn’t figure out the relevance of the quote until I noticed the soles of the shoes on the ends and conclude these are intended to be boat shoes.
        I’ve written Martin but have not heard back.
        It is good to have a new career in my old age.
        “Yes, madam.  I’m sure we have those in your size.  I’ll go in the back and check.
        “I trust you’ve noticed, Madam:  we’re running a special this week on snow shoes.”