Ultimate List Handler

Ultimate Intelligent List Handler for People Who Love Lists

This is a quick outline of the features and organization I think belong in a good list handler. I love lists, and sometimes just assembling a list of things I want can make me feel as though I have received what I wanted. It’s like getting a craving for Mexican food, then collecting pictures of Mexican food items and having the craving satisfied. That’s what lists do for me, and I know there are other people like me out there.

I shall now use this description as my model and go out looking for the perfect list handler to meet my needs. If I can find nothing close enough, I may have to create my own program (which I am capable of doing given enough time). I have found one online wishlist handler which almost does what I want it to do, but it lacks some simple ideas which would make it more useful to me.

So, here is what the perfect list handler should be able to do:

List Groups
An individual list can be a part of one or more list groups. Group specific image and icon options would make these a good basic organizational level. Groups are like categories, in that you can have a “Wishlist” group and several different themed wishlists could belong to that group – “My Christmas WIshlist,” “My Spouse’s Wishlist,” and so on. A wishlist for video production equipment that is in the “Wishlists” group could also be a member of the “Future Purchases” and “Expensive” groups.

Lists
Each list can have a description, representational image and icon, and a list of creators & benefactors. Additionally, the list can be tailored to meet special needs. A list can be started by just adding items to it, or a more complicated list can be begun by outlining item types that would be needed. A more complicated list formed on a frame of “types” could give a variable, flexible budgeting plan with options to help organize what item would do best in what slot in the list. Lists can be ordered or unordered, based on priority, price, alphabet, date added, etc. You can simply put one item above another item because you like it there if you want, or you can assign priority values and have the list grouped by priority. You can even have phases, where the list is grouped into items that need to be purchased first, second, third, etc.

Once a list has been made, it can output HTML, Documents, perhaps even Spreadsheets with the items, costs, descriptions, images/icons, etc. using options made possible with the item types.  These outputs could be tailored to fit in budgets, show a time line of when to purchase what, and so many other possibilities.

Item Types
Inside of a list, several options could be variable. To help organize the variables “types” would become important. For example, if I am creating a list of things I need for video production, I can have requirements (specified at the List level) such as camera(s), light(s), microphone(s), and so forth that would be types. Each item I add to the list would then be grouped into a specific type. Each type can have characteristics associated with it that would specify how many of each item I need. Perhaps I find three different camera models I like, but I only plan on needing two cameras. My “Camera” item type could be programmed to know that only two cameras need purchasing and that any of them could fill the spots. Then, when I am outputting a cost breakdown, a range of camera prices would show based on combinations of the prices of the cameras filling that type position in the list.

Items
Items can be associated with more than just one type or list. Once the program has an item inputted, adding it to another list can be achieved easily by pulling the item up in the new list or from another list and adding it. Items can have more than one image associated with them, one as the main image, and they can update pricing and get new images easily within the program. Links to different vendors and prices could also be retrieved within the program.

Keywords & Tags
Sorting, organizing and browsing items, lists and groups would be handled primarily by tags & keywords. By searching one or more keywords an item could be found easily to be added to a new list.

If you know of anything that does all of this, please let me know in the comments. If you have any other ideas of what a list handler should be able to do, also leave a comment!

Three is a BIG Number

When you’re stressed, tired or just four months old, three can seem like an awfully large number.  We had three events today, all of them sizable, and all of them enjoyable (when taken one at a time, per day).

First, a movie!  I love movies, and I especially love Pixar movies.  Today we saw what may soon be known as my favorite movie – WALL*E.  I generally consider movies either one of my favorites because I don’t want to actually say one good movie was better than another good movie.  In this case, though, you’ve got some great animation, wonderful characters, good story, fun laughs, stunning visuals and strong emotional elements.  Before this movie I loved Stardust, A Knight’s Tale, The Incredibles, and a few others – each as one of my favorites.  Now, though, I may begin saying that WALL*E is my favorite movie (until I find something better).

After the movie my five-year-old had to go to the bathroom and I was left holding Sophie in the lobby.  There was a huge, cardboard model of WALL*E, so I had the baby pose for some pictures in front.  Click on the smaller images to see larger ones:

Baby & Robot

Baby & WALL*E

Closeup!

Next, a birthday party for two little girls each turning one in the same month.  Silly?  Yes.  Excuse for adults to get together and drink?  Also.  We left at the first signs of tipsiness from one of the hostesses.  Not because she was getting drunk, but because we have a four-month-old and we had other things to do.

Before I leave the subject of that little party, I have to mention that it is so funny to watch the four-month-old baby when she gets her little fist wrapped around a Twizzler and starts to suck on it.  She absolutely loved the Twizzlers and the chips (don’t worry, I only let her suck until they got too soft but before they broke apart).  She also enjoyed sucking on ice and baby carrots.  Oh, and Laffy-Taffy.  She enjoyed the Laffy-Taffy for almost fifteen minutes.

Finally we headed over to the home of our friends (D’n’A) and ate dinner.  After dinner we played some games among screaming babies.  It was a good time despite my utter exhaustion and high stress levels.  I get stressed for reasons most people would scoff at, and the stress often gets worse if I begin worrying about whether my stress and social awkwardness are making others uncomfortable with me.  Fortunately for our friends D’n’A, I don’t stress much at their house because I don’t worry about whether they are uncomfortable with me or not.

At last we ended up at home with a very tired baby girl who had too much to do in one day.  I played a few minutes of a Wii game while my wife fed the baby, then I started typing this (which turned into a much longer project than I thought).  I think I hear the baby making some noise now, so I’m off to work.  Soon I’ll begin writing for the sake of writing again.  For now I’ve been using this mainly for family updates.  Before long I’ll get back to work!