listhings and another map

As you may have guessed from my other OCD leanings, I am a compulsive note taker at heart and have used myriad apps and software to feed my need for electronic note taking.

I hate my handwriting with a passion and feel much more at ease on a keyboard than with even the finest pen in my hand, although my favorite writing instrument of all time is the uni-ball Signo 0.7 in black (which, much to my dismay, is only available in Japan; the Signo 207 is the closest model available in the U.S. and inferior in every way - the Pilot G-2 07 is an acceptable substitute, and I enjoy using it, but it will never meet the standards set forth by my favorite Japanese pen).

I think I hate hand writing so much because my thoughts spill out at such a rapid pace that the mechanics of my hand simply cannot keep up, and so I get frustrated and my writing gets sloppy and illegible. I also do not have good control over my cursive and cannot write fast to begin with, so my Ns end up looking like Ms, the curvature of my S is limp, I always have one two many dots over my lowercase Is, and I end up skipping letters altogether by mistake. It's just ugly. I much prefer writing in uppercase, but then it looks like I'm yelling when I'm really not.

I used to keep an extensive SlickTasks database on my Blackberry, but then we switched to Android phones, and I discovered that ST was not available (I might have actually stayed with RIM had I known that - fortunately, they just came out with an iPhone app and are soon to release an Android app, yesssssssssss).

I used to use Google Notebook religiously, but then they decided to discontinue support for it. Bad Google.

I tried all the mainstream online note taking sites, like EverNote, Springpad, and UberNote, but they were all way too complex for what I wanted. I finally found listhings.com, and although there are a few changes I would not mind seeing (like bulleted text, auto dates, etc), it pretty much works perfectly for me right now. It's post-it note chaos, folks, and I love it! (There are other post-it type note taking sites out there, but I think listhings is the most visually appealing.)

Anyway, anytime I think of something that I might want to remember later or just want to document for all eternity, I note it at listhings. You can create multiple tabs within your database for organizing, and, oh yes, I have many a tab that relates to homestead life. We're looking forward to exploring our new area, so I decided to notate how far away some major attractions/cities are:

Destination  Hours/minutes
Gatlinburg TN  2:10
Asheville NC  2:30
Chattanooga TN  3:30
Lexington KY  3:30
Charleston WV  4:00
Nashville TN  4:30
Atlanta GA  5:10
Charleston SC  6:45
Myrtle Beach SC  7:35
Memphis TN  8:00
Jacksonville NC  8:00
Sandusky OH  8:30
Pensacola FL  10:00
New Orleans LA  11:30
Syracuse NY  12:45
Port O'Connor TX 19:30
California  way the fuck out there

[ larger version here ]

• Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is supposed to be fun, although the first thing I think of is Dolly Parton's big rack.
• Asheville is a hubbub of arts and music (and hippies probably).
• Chattanooga apparently has some fun attractions like caves and an aquarium.
• Lexington is the closest big city to us in Kentucky, and Nashville is music central in middle Tennessee (apparently, people think East, Middle, and West Tennessee should be separate states - like NorCal and SoCal - we definitely understand).
• Atlanta is, well, that's where the nearest IKEA is, and yes, I know I have a problem.
• Charleston is the closest ocean beach, and Memphis is Elvis, of course (not that I'm really an Elvis fan, but I'd like to see all three regions of Tennessee).
• I'm not sure why I listed Jacksonville, NC - maybe because I fear I will miss the ocean a lot so it's another water access point (not that we ever go to the beach anyway).
• Sandusky, OH is the shortest distance to the great lakes, Lake Erie to be exact.
• I've always wanted to see Pensacola and New Orleans.
• My bro-in-law and nephew live in upstate NY, although the BiL recently moved back to the West Coast.
• My parents are retired on the Gulf Coast, and Jay's parents are in Cali, although they are looking at real estate in the Tri-Cities in order to stretch their retirement dollar farther.

So yea, we have a lot of sight-seeing to do, although I don't know how much time we'll have to devote to travel with all the farm projects we have in mind. More than anything, we want to explore Appalachia and are really excited about discovering local parks and natural attractions. More on that later.

bye for now, pussycats,
Mitsy