Zombies, Run! No Shaun of The Dead

How seriously boring is getting fit? In my opinion it really should be fun and there is no way I'm a gym bunny. Now, this is the case for a few reasons and not just pure, unadulterated laziness.

I have asthma, which doesn't bode well for jumping about daft in shorts and a t shirt while using an inhaler, hell, if the proverbial psycho was after me with a machete, I'd have to stand and fight. Super hero I ain't.

The second reason for not being a gym bunny, is time. If I had time and the lungs to run about daft with my inhaler on a string round my neck, you would notice that I'm way to old for those kind of shenanigans anyway. I mean really!

So, in order to try to motivate myself I thought I'd buy 'Zombies, Run' from the App Store for my iPhone.

That means that there must be something about this app that makes me think it'll get me off my arse and do something to keep me fit?

The way i see it is, well, apart from the obvious, like anything bad happening to my loved ones, the idea of zombies scares the crap out of me. Plain and simple, the idea of them scares the bejeezus out of me.

You can negotiate with a person, you can try to reason with them, but not with a zombie. They just want to eat you and nothing short of being a good shot to their head is going to stop that happening. Jeez, you have to read 'Feed' by Mira Grant or 'World War Z' and you'll see exactly where I'm coming from.

So, yeah, this app covers both, who cool is that? Like a computer game you can outrun zombies in a post apocalyptic outpost/camp type place to get supplies to the other survivors but it combines a fitness element too. You see you actually have to run, walk or cycle, depending on your fitness level in order to get the supplies like ammunition, batteries, medicine and spare parts. (By the way, I'll ignore any comments of pink tents and 'carry on' films).

But this app isn't just running and a computer game with no integration, no! All the blurb about the game/fitness app suggests that it will encourage gamers to increase their fitness or provide runners/cyclists a more fun way to train.

You want to know if I bought it don't you? Well I did, after all the proof of the pudding and all that.....

I'll let you know how I go when I'm being chased by zombies and that is the important bit, cause there is no point in spending a fiver if the thing is worse than useless.

How May I Help You? - Yeah, I'm Siri-ous

So, I got the Iphone 4S a week ago now and I will admit that I am still finding my feet a bit with all the technology it has.

I love it; don’t get me wrong I think it’s an awesome bit of kit, although I am very incredibly paranoid about harming it. Not as in considering taking a hammer to it or anything, more along the lines of my normal mobile phone mishaps, you know the sort, the ones that involve spillages, being dropped and being left in pockets along with receipts, sweet wrappers and snotty hankies.

What is confusing me is Siri, Apple’s idea of Jarvis in Iron Man so to speak.


What an amazingly superb idea! Some gadget thing that you tell what to do and it does it. Until you go to use it and you don’t know what to say. In fancy language that will be some voice activation system that can look up stuff on the internet, take notes, set up reminders and calendar dates for you. Siri is like having a mini Dr Reid from Criminal Minds in your pocket, which I think is very cool indeed.

Seriously, though I have sat for 20 minutes not knowing what to say to a mobile phone. Ridiculous isn’t it?

What did freak me out was when I was reading stuff about Siri being a sassy sounding female……. Eh no! My Siri is a guy. So the story goes in the US and Australia Siri is a girly and the UK has a dude.

I am so not sexist at all and quite honestly don’t mind who takes notes, reminders etc as long as they get them right. Jon Briggs who has done all kinds of voice over work from ‘The Weakest Link’ to Porsche’s Sat Nav system is the voice our Siri.

The bad thing is that Siri in the UK sometimes doesn’t quite understand what you’re asking, and gives the response ‘Sorry Lynn, I can only look for businesses in the United States, and when you’re using US English’

The good news is that this is an early form of voice activation and Apple is continuing to develop it.

Personally I can’t wait for one that sounds like Melanie Sykes. Id love her to tell me that I should ‘put a scarf on ‘cause it’ll be cold out’