I am an elementary school media specialist (librarian) and a new mom. My daughters (born 12/27/2010 and 6/27/2013) are teaching me all kinds of new things every day. One thing they have taught me is that sometimes, there just isn't room for much else besides learning. If you're not sleeping, eating, talking, blogging, or whatever, it might just be because you're TOO BUSY LEARNING!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Stuff Someone Should Invent to Make My Life Easier

I have great ideas (I think), but I am no developer. So, here are some freebies for any developers/inventors who might be reading. And if there are things like these out there that you readers know about, please leave me a comment, because I'm in the dark.

1. decent shopping list application: Right now, I have my shopping list in a Google spreadsheet because I can't find an application I like. It just needs to be a simple thing, but I want categories to be allowed. For example, I shop with the categories Produce, Frig/Freezer, Dry/Canned, and Other. So, really, I just need somebody to make me an application where I can make one list with four different headings. And I want a usable print option. And an iPhone app to go with it would be great. (Even though I don't have an iPhone yet, I suffer from acute iPhone envy.)

2. on-line budget tool that works right: At the moment, I am using a tweaked Excel template to keep track of my budget because I just don't like anything I've seen out there other than my custom-built thing. I did try Mint.com, but after messing with the settings for two hours and then discovering a really annoying bug that was messing all my numbers up, I quit. So, my Excel sheet works fine for now, but I can only work on it from home (unless I go try out all the many syncing tools available and get my computers synced up), and it's not available remotely.

3. inexpensive lawn sprinkler that won't break after a month: The $5 WalMart sprinkler that "waves" water back and forth is a great low-cost option, but it becomes less effective when the thing breaks and only waters about a quarter of the vegetable garden when left to its own devices. I've been looking like a moron out in the garden lately, picking up the sprinkler and aiming it where I want it to go. This method works better than leaving the sprinkler to its own devices, but saves no time, as I'm back to manual watering instead of turn-it-on-and-leave-it watering.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Have I overlooked something that would fulfill my requirements for any of these items? What inventions or applications would make you gleeful?

3 comments:

Sonja Foust said...

you might try google docs for your shopping list and finance stuff. Not perfect bit at least it's a web app instead of stuck on your home computer.

supergradstudent said...

My husband got an above-ground sprinkler system at Lowe's for about $30. You buy the tubing system - the start kit is the $30, and you can buy additional sprinkler-type heads if you like. YOu can also get a timer for a bit more and then voila! easy to go. We have ours all over our garden - haven't extended to the full yard, but if you need garden coverage in particular, you might look into it.

Unknown said...

I would love contact lenses that don't cause a halo around all artificial light sources...

a toaster without the "intelligent" heat sensor.

a remote taser for loud dorm-mates.

and so many more things...