Some Minor Consumerism

There are items I need.  Things like dishwashing soap, pants and eggs.  There are things that I kinda need like coffee and seltzer in lieu of wretched soda.  And there are things that I want but really don't need like most of the food my doctor discourages or the link bracelet I often wear on my right wrist.  Another category might be things I really don't need but want until I have them, after which they shift into need.  A cell phone or 55" big screen flat TV would be among these.  And within needs there are gradients of want.  While I need a shirt, its Phillies logo moves it into something that I want.  And most things from freebie tables are probably momentary wants, rarely needs, though I do appreciate some of the totes and logo umbrellas I've acquired that way.

So time to surf amazon.com as a few items that I already possess have shown need for upgrade or replacement.  Could use some semi-casual shoes.  Found suede chukka boots both in my size and on sale, a rare match in any store.  I probably needed a new pair of daily shoes, or really every other day shoes to enhance their longevity.  That hybrid of kinda need and want, though only want at a favorable price.  My cell phone needed urgent replacement.  T-Mobile ripped me off for a screen protector which promptly cracked.  I needed a new screen protector.  And while I was there, since free shipping needs a minimum purchase, I found a suitable case, which incidentally comes with its own screen protector.  Into the cart.

My smartwatch, an iTouch Slim has begun to fail.  I retrieved some more traditional dial watches, two of three in need of new batteries.  Watch batteries a lot less expensive at amazon.com than at Walgreens, so into the cart.  But I really like my iTouch better, though we could quibble about whether it can be worn to shul as it goes on and off electronically with hand motion.  I wear it.  Despite the inconvenience of having to charge it, which I don't with my traditional watches, I liked its slim appearance and greatly appreciate the ability to set a wrist buzz to assign the fixed awake and retire times required for optimal sleep hygiene.  Alas, its charge barely lasts a day.  

As technology improves, that same expenditure gives more features.  I selected a GloryFit model, larger square face, though I found the slim face more unobtrusively stylish.  What sold me were the doodads, the ability to select a hundred or more displays, nearly all in color, compared to my iTouch selection of three monochrome fonts.  This model offers me the weather, a sleep tracker that is probably inaccurate, an oxygen and blood pressure read, also not to depend upon.  Basically, it's part watch, part toy, and at almost the same price as the one it replaces, which makes it somewhat disposable if its use disappoints.

All but the chukka boots and batteries have arrived.  Cell phone in its case.  Cracked screen protector replaced, with four more on standby in anticipation of this protector serving its purpose by eventually sustaining a replaceable injury.  GloryFit watch charged, playing with the settings.  Minor gripes already, the temperature reads as Celsius, though I programmed Imperial units.  I do understand metric units, though.  Indeed, it would be better for Americans to just use them like everyone else.  Choose a different watch face later today.

Not Very Smart Watch

To maintain sleep hygiene, I pretty faithfully arise when my wrist alarm buzzes.  This being clock change, I expected it to adapt as my cell phone does.  However, it links to the cell phone, which I left downstairs on the kitchen table.  The watch buzzed when it said 6:30 just as programmed.  However, it was really 5:30 but I got up anyway and went to the kitchen to begin my day with coffee.  The cell phone had adjusted automatically and the watch then linked, only to go off again in another hour when it read 6:30 a second time.  I can count of the alarm.

Waiting for the Buzz

For $30 I obtained a basic smart watch, an iTouch that coordinates with my smart phone.  Some things it does well, like keep time.  Some things it does poorly, like track sleep times.  And it has features that I've not used, either for lack of importance or not worth the trouble of learning how.  One very useful feature, probably worth the purchase price and the annoyance of fairly frequent recharging, has been the alarms. It offers three, all programmed via the coordinating smart phone.  One has been set to 6:30AM, my desired wake time, one to 9:05PM my daily reminder to count Omer, and the other left as a one time use, generally a prod to turn on Zoom for some event that day.

Now I will never forget, or if I don't arise at the time set by Sleep Hygiene efforts, it will be with some intent, or at least rationalization.  And it has been helpful for Omer.  But can I arise or count Omer before the reminder buzzes?  Perhaps it should get a penalty like beginning a race before the starter's pistol makes its bang.  Jumping the gun with my wake time has not gone well the rest of the days when I've done that.  Fixed times for arising may be the crux of sleep hygiene at both ends, separating sleep time to wake time with the purpose not of sleep but of optimal function the next day.  After my last misadventure arising before the signal, I decided not to try that again for a while.

Counting Omer is a little different.  There is a earliest time on the clock when the daily count may be done.  My reminder goes off well after that largely so I do not have to set it again before Shavuot.  But I know when the next shabbos ends so if I wait until that time, I should be able to count Omer even if before my set alarm.  Again, I opted not to do it early.  I want Omer counting to emerge as a daily habit, something best done with linkage, like Pavlov's Dog.  The vibration on my left wrist after dark means I must head downstairs for the daily Omer count. Computers having the capacity that they do, if I am at a screen with internet, I can get the daily count, blessing, and follow-up benediction from the screen, but going downstairs has set as part of the ritual, so the 9:05PM vibratory reminder is really to go downstairs.

While the iTouch can be used to create habits, and therefore expendable once the habit has established itself, sometimes it ingrains as part of the habit.  That's why I think it best not to act early but to wait for the buzz each morning and each night.

Tracking My Activity

Periodically our regional Department Store Boscov's runs a promotion that gets me spending a little more than I ordinarily would.  They have a partnership with non-profits which enables a designated charity to receive 5% of sales.  On the most recent of these, I bought myself something useful, an iTouch activity tracker watch for $30 which is a whole lot less than the more popular fit-bit costs.  I assume it is not one of those brand fakes that funds terrorism in remote parts of the world.  I trust Boscov's.  Being hi-tech challenged, setting it up meant reading the instructions line by line, but now it functions, if not flawlessly, in a way that gives me useful information.

First step is the watch, three display faces.  It stays visually muted unless I request to see the time.  I can ask it to convey messages from my cell phone to which it coordinates.  FB is really a form of life clutter, so I don't want those notifications tempting me passively.  My text messages never justify interruption.  That module stays off.  It calculates my steps.  I know that is in error, since it resets automatically every midnight.  If I get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, which is most nights, I will often return to bed having taken zero steps.  There are more steps recorded on my treadmill days, but since I hold the handrail while exercising, there's likely a lot of steps that do not record as the watch remains stationary while I walk.  Over the years I've been given a lot of promotional pedometers with organizational advertising.  Those clip to my belt so should be more reliable at counting steps.  Never did a comparison.  While some authorities regard number of steps taken as a marker of physical activity for which goals can be set, I find my current measuring devices inadequate for this, including my new iTouch.  Similarly calories and distance are calculations from that primary activity.  I know how far I've walked on a treadmill session.  The calculation on this sports watch rarely coincides.

What I find most intriguing is my sleep time, reported as total time on my wrist but subdivided into stages of sleep on the synched smart phone.  Typically it will record about eight hours but I don't know how it determines when I am actually asleep.  It could detect darkness as a surrogate, time when I am horizontal though probably not since I often recline during the day without receiving a sleep measurement from the watch.  It cannot measure sleep directly.  Maybe motionless time.  Doubt if something on a wrist will record breathing or eye movement. Most likely not terribly accurate but maybe a way to experiment with my sleep times.  Wake time has been very consistent, bed time very inconsistent but I still get very little variation in the cumulative sleep duration calculated by the device. And I never know from the clock when I actually fall asleep, as I am typically awake after lights out.

It will synch with my smart phone camera but I don't understand how to do this.

P and Oxygen saturation should be easy, but again, my heart rate on the iTouch does not accelerate much at the end of a treadmill session.  Oxygen saturation is supposed to be constant.  Mine has been.  

There are some sports modes and a stop watch.  What seems missing is a count down timer.  A lot of sports, including some pictured on the sports module, have their duration based on counting downward from a starting time.  I have been successful with my treadmill this year by setting a duration, then watching my cell phone count down instead of watching the timer on the treadmill count up.  I would have expected iTouch to include this option.

Worth $30?  Keeps me focused a bit more on my sleep and my relative level of activities on different days.  It's absolute accuracy remains questionable.