Technology – Page 11 – Antony Simpson – Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

The Latest Me Gossip

By AntonyAmazon, Books & Authors, Creativity, Happiness & Joy, Health, Life, Love & Relationships, Shopping, TechnologyNo Comments

Now, as you know, I’m not one to gossip but (looks over both shoulders)…let me tell you the latest me gossip.

I had a flare-up of abdominal pain in mid-April for about three weeks. Not fun. This accompanied by two other infections and a abscess in my wisdom tooth, made me feel exhausted, grumpy and down in the dumps. I saw my GP who sent me for blood tests and referred me onto a Gastroenterologist. I saw my Dentist who prescribed some antibiotics for the abscess. Then I saw a Gastroenterologist who wants a CT scan with dyes done. This has been booked for the day before my birthday. 🙁

During this period of ill health, I realised that when I feel bad, I spend money to make myself feel better. I overspent online buying things I didn’t really need. Then when I was feeling well enough, I went to the Trafford Centre and bought these:

My New Superdry Wallet

French & Saunders Complete 1-6 Series Box Set [DVD]

I did feel guilty for buying these, as I didn’t really need them. But we’re allowed to spend a little money on ourselves from time to time, right?

But that’s not the biggest piece of gossip. That would be that: I’m in a relationship. Boyfriend-A, as I shall name him here, came along completely unexpected. He’s great. Everything I want in a partner. I’m sure you’ll learn more about him as time goes on. But for now, that’s all I want to share.

I just discovered the new SimCity game (which is actually not that new. It came out in November 2013 and I didn’t know about it till now). Boyfriend-A bought me a copy and we play together. It’s completely addictive and fantastic, apart from this disaster that happened today:

Simcity Screenshot: Lizard Disaster

Simcity Screenshot: Lizard Disaster

Oh and anyone who loves anything Sim-related will be pleased to know that The Sims 4 is coming out later this year. Here’s a video:

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Despite being busy I’ve managed to write, edit and submit a dystopian short story. I hope to be able to give you an update on this later on in the year. I’m reading two fantastic books: Above by Isla Morley and Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan. Above is a phoneminal and Theif’s Magic is a must-read for any fantasy fiction fan. Reviews on these titles will be coming soon.

I also have so many wonderful things to look forward to, including:

Going for a weekend away in A Lovely Welsh Cottage with Simon in May and then with Jayne in September.
Seeing McBusted live which will be one of my best birthday present ever. Thank you to a kind man for this.
Attending Lancashire Science Festival with Steve & Jayne. I’ve booked tickets in the moring for Dr Sarita Robinson’s talk ‘How to Power Up your Brain’ and in the afternoon Dr Ian Turner’s talk ‘The Science of Doctor Who.’
More good times with Boyfriend-A.
And celebrating the birthday’s of some of my friends and family.

Despite my health problems, I feel quite alive and happy to be living :). I can’t wait to have all of these good times and to write about them here.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 4 May 2014

My Happiness Report and How To Be Happier

By AntonyHappiness & Joy, Technology, The WebNo Comments

About six months ago I watched the video below and I decided to try Track Your Happiness:

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Track Your Happiness.org is a new scientific research project that aims to use modern technology to help answer this age-old question. Using this site in conjunction with your iPhone, you can systematically track your happiness and find out what factors – for you personally – are associated with greater happiness. Your responses, along with those from other users of trackyourhappiness.org, will also help us learn more about the causes and correlates of happiness.

(From: About – Track Your Happiness, last accessed: Saturday 19th April 2014)

Fifty times I was sent emails with a link to a questionnaire about my current state of happiness. First it collated what day it was (I think collating the time would have also been useful), asked where I was, asked what I was doing and whether I had to do or wanted to do what I was doing. Here were my results:

Happiness Report – Weekday

Happiness Report – Location

Happiness Report – Activity

Happiness Report – Want to or Have to do what I’m doing?

Then I was asked about how focused I was feeling and how productive I was being. Here were my results:

Happiness Report – How Focused am I?

Happiness Report – My Productivity

Then I was asked about the amount of sleep I had got the night before, along with the quality. At the time I wasn’t sleeping well. Here were the results:

Happiness Report – Amount of Sleep

Happiness Report – Quality of Sleep

There are a few human errors in this data. This was because on a few occasions, I checked the wrong box or clicked the wrong ratio button and clicked the next question button, before realising the error (a Back button would have been useful and eliminated these human errors).

In terms of data analysis a flaw is that the data is self-reported. That said, I don’t know how else you could measure something that’s as subjective as happiness is.

I really enjoyed taking part in this study and I found the data interesting. Some of the data I already knew – such as the amount & quality of sleep I was getting, but some of the data surprised me – such as how much time I was doing different activities.

The most surprising realisation for me was that the more I thought about happiness, the happier I became. So if you want to be happier, try thinking about happiness more and consider Tracking Your Happiness.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Saturday 19 April 2014

A Week Without Facebook & Twitter

By AntonyLife, Technology, The Web2 Comments

I banned myself from Facebook and Twitter for a week. I felt like social media was taking up too much of my time and that it was too accessible (being available on my phone, tablet, through the internet, etc.). I used the week to reevaluate my relationship with social media: how I use it, how often I use it and what I use it for. What I learned about myself, Facebook and Twitter was fascinating.

My Relationship with Social Media
The week off social media has caused me to realise a few things:

1. Facebook & Twitter are the main sites I visit on the web.

2. I hate incorrect information on the social media sites along with hateful comments/status’/groups. As an example, my friends were sharing a group called KGT (Kill Gays Today) on Facebook, with good intentions. They were sharing it to encourage people to report it, so that it would get banned. But having seen a few of these hateful groups shared recently, I honestly just don’t want to see another. Ever.

3. I check social media, while doing other things at the same time. This means that social media wasn’t taking up as much time as I thought – and – that giving them up didn’t give me a load of free time back.

4. Checking social media distracts me from activities were I need a high level of concentration, such as writing. So I did benefit for a whole week of not being distracted while writing.

5. I had to stop myself throughout the week from habitually checking Facebook & Twitter, which made me realise that I use them daily.

6. I found myself making excuses to myself to check them and then forcing myself not to, behaviours common with a developing addiction.

7. I found out that I do like seeing what people are up to without having to speak to them.

8. I love unique content people create and share on Facebook & Twitter, but sometimes I just wish there was more of it.

Facebook’s Sneaky Tricks
Facebook used sneaky tricks to try and make me go on it. First in a week it gave me 30+ notifications, all cleverly worded to make me feel like I was missing out. I had posted a status update saying I wouldn’t be on for the week; yet friends continued to message me, tag me, etc. This caused me to question how many of my friend’s actually see my status updates? I realised that I felt more identifiable on Facebook, so was more likely to be cautious about what I post/share on there.

Twitter’s Lack of Appeal
I have to admit that I barely noticed not using Twitter. I only received 3 notifications all week. My pet hates on Twitter are: the 140 character limit, the shameless self promotion by some, the lack of pictures/photos and the bad filtering of my home page feed. I actually realised I could live without Twitter in my life, if it wasn’t for the number of Publisher’s Publicists on there.

Giving up Facebook and Twitter has made me more aware of social media’s limitations and the temptation to overindulge. I love the unique content people make and share; so I shall be the change I want to see. Later on in the year I’ll be sharing/tweeting some of my short stories I’ve been writing, and continue to share my journalism articles with you all.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Saturday 5 April 2014

Eye Candy: The Sexy Russell Tovey

By AntonyTechnology, The WebNo Comments

I’ve had many people visiting my The Independant on Sunday Pink List 2010, my thoughts post, after searching for ‘Russell Tovey,’ ‘sexy Russell Tovey’ or ‘Russell Tovey’s boyfriend.’

Russell Tovey is an actor and my eye candy. He’s sexy, funny and there’s just something about him. So I thought I’d share some photos of him that I found online (click on any image for full size):