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Favorite Things: May 2018 Edition

New series of monthly (my intentions at least) things I'm really enjoying...

Ride Report

Ride Report is an app which uses your phone's location data to automatically keep track of your bike rides.  For each ride it asks you a simple survey "How was your ride."  After collecting enough survey data from rides Ride Report can generate a map showing the worst and best rides for a city.  Some cities are even using this data to make better transportation decisions.  

I'm not sure if this app will work at a smaller scale for a city like The Dalles, but the idea is very cool.  The more people the use it the more helpful it will be.  At this point I've only ever said my rides were great and being the only user in town this is very unscientific. I highly recommend using this app for fun and better city planning or at least better informed fellow cyclists.

Libby

Libby is an app which allows you to borrow ebooks through your local library.  For some reason it is much easier for me to get through a book quickly if I have it as an ebook on my phone.  Libby combines the convenience of ebooks with the price of the public library (AKA free).  The ereader itself has a different interface but is pretty comparable to Google Play Books and Kindle in my opinion.  

 There are a few drawbacks to getting your books this way however.  Popular new books have very long wait times.  If you place a hold on a hot new piece of fiction you might have to wait for six months plus.  Also, the duration of the loan is shorter than a normal book from the library.  Only 2 weeks.  So if you're like me and it takes you a while to work your way through a novel this might not always work for you or you'll have to be interrupted in the middle of your story (this happened to me while reading Carrie).  

 If you use a public library (or at least The Wasco County Library) and have a device to read ebooks Libby is wealth worth trying out.

Good Fruit Grower

This article and video interview of my cousin Nick Anderson reminds me of how blessed I was to grow up on a farm.  Having a family life that requires you to learn how to work and parents who teach you how to have fun doing it is one of the greatest gifts a child can have in my mind.  I can't really take my kids to work with me so this one of those virtues I'll have to pass on to my kids some other way.  



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