Thursday Thirteen

I have noticed in posts where I've mentioned things I do with Amazon's Alexa device that the comments frequently indicate people are unaware of what all one can do with an Alexa.

Alexa has "skills" that may be turned on or off. Some of them are pay or have small portions you can utilize unless you pay. I do not pay anything except for Amazon Prime, and you don't even need that to use Alexa.

I have Alexa Echo Dots and an Alexa Echo. They all work the same except the Echo has a better speaker, although frankly the Echo Dots have speakers that I would have envied when was I was 14 years old.

Here are a few things you can do with Alexa:

1. Ask her to dial a number and use her as a speaker phone. She will not answer calls unless you buy a separate device that allows her to do that. You can also make Alexa-device to Alexa-device calls, or use her as an intercom system (when my husband had his ankle surgery, we set an Echo Dot at his bed, and he would "make an announcement" and she'd call for me if I was in the back part of the house.)

2. She will greet you if you say, "Alexa, good morning," and offer up a little factoid about the day. (Today is International Country Music day, she says. And then I asked her to sing a country song and she sang one made up specifically for her called "It's Raining In the Cloud.")

3. She'll tell you the time and the weather.

4. She'll add, subtract, multiply, divide and figure out percentages (thank goodness for that last one!).

5. She will tell you jokes, puns, and riddles.

6. She'll sing you songs. These are made up specifically for Alexa. Some are country, some are rap, some are about S'Mores, some are about love, some are about life in "the cloud." She will also play music stations or music by decades, genre, or artist. Some of the music is not available, but a lot of it is. She also has access to iHeart radio.

7. She will tell you a short story, or recite poetry if you ask for specifics (for example, ask her for "Casey at the Bat," and you'll hear how there is no joy in Muddville). I like to listen to parts of Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

8. She will play games, like Jeopardy!, Song Quiz, 20 Questions (she is amazingly good at guessing these), and the Magic Door, which is an adventure game that requires you to remember specific items and perform certain verbal actions.

9. She will fart. For some reason she can't burp or belch, but she farts very well. This makes my husband laugh a lot.

9. She will play meditations or music for you and turn it off whenever you tell her. For example, I like to fall asleep listening to Bread. So I might say, "Alexa, play Bread." She'll say, "Shuffling songs by Bread," and then I tell her, "Stop playing in 20 minutes," and she'll say, "OK."

10. She will recite lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail if you ask the right questions. (Ask her, "Alexa, what is your quest." or "Alexa, what is the air speed velocity of a swallow.")

11. She will do Star Trek noises. Ask her to beam you up and see what happens. You can also tell her to man the photon torpedoes and to fire them.

12. If you say, "Alexa, let's chat," you will be taken into the Alexa Prize, which is a contest for social bots. You will then be able to talk to one of the social bots that are in the contest, and you can have conversations about various things, mostly music, movies, or books. Some of the social bots are better than others. You can leave feedback at the end so that the developers will know what you liked or didn't like about the program.

13. Lastly, Alexa has a "custom" skill. In this skill, you create the question and answer. For example, if I ask Alexa, "Who's the best husband?" she will say that my husband is the best. Or he's the best farmer out of all the farmers in the world, because I programmed her to say that. The best use I have found for this particular skill is this: I say, "Alexa, I am depressed." I have programmed her to respond with my name, an acknowledgement of how I'm feeling, a reminder that it is temporary, and then a list of activities I can do immediately instead of sitting there feeling sorry for myself. She will suggest that I journal, read a book, take a walk, call a friend, or go to the grocery store, among other things. You could program her to offer suggestions for any situation that leaves you unhinged and have her offer up reminders that would make you feel better. (Example: Alexa, my mother just called. Alexa could say: Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know she makes you feel like you're a bad person. But you are a great person! If you are feeling sad, try reading a book, playing a video game, etc. - whatever would make you feel better.)

Alexa also keeps a to-do list, a shopping list, sets timers, does reminders, offers up recipes, gives health information, acts as my alarm clock, and will attempt to answer almost any question you ask. Sometimes the answer is, "I can't answer that," but at least she tried.

If you have an Alexa tip, leave it in the comments.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 674th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.