Inducing self-loathing

  1. Get free Daily Mail from Waitrose using MyWaitrose card offer.

  2. Rip out free Lego voucher.

  3. Disdainfully dispose of tawdry rag.

  4. Feel a little smug.

  5. Discover local WH Smith is not participating in the offer.

  6. Feel dirty and used for having briefly owned a Daily Mail.


Back on the Fuelband after a terrible experiment with the Jawbone Up.

I’d used a Fuelband for almost a year before deciding it was limited and wanting more. The Up seemed perfect for a geek, a lovely iOS app and an open API that meant it even had an IFTTT channel. Sadly it was let down by flaws in the product and bad support. It never fully worked, and in the eight weeks I waited for a replacement (which was always promised in a ‘few days’) its remaining functionality gave up and died. A very common story on their support forum.

I found myself longing for a return to the Fuelband. Compared to the Up the data created is limited, the measurement proprietary, and the functionality poor.

But it works. Clever target setting changes my behaviour and makes me more active, perhaps because there is limited functionality that concentrates on activity.

And it’s cooler than the Jawbone too.