Or at least, the very tired cassandra, which is still quite a feat.
Seriously, I hate waking up to alarms, and more generally hate waking up to do things on other people's schedules. The Xtreme Alarm app is solely responsible for my relatively superb punctuality at work these last few months.
You see, I would love to be the type of person who could wake up to gentle breezes and zen chimes. But the reality is I need an alarm with a little more backbone and stick-to-itiveness. (related background information: In college I had to put my alarm as far away from me as possible so I be forced to get up to turn it off, hopefully eliciting a more awake state of being, and lessening my chances of going back to sleep. I also convinced my roommate to set my alarm for me, and to set it anywhere from right on time to one half-hour early.)
I digress.
So this alarm actually wakes me up because one of it's many customizable features allows me to control HOW the alarm turns off, and I have set it to have me do MATH problems! (other options include tapping the screen, puzzle lock, shaking the phone for x amount of seconds, moving at a minimum speed, and more) Yeah that's right, I do math first thing in the morning, and use the hardest of the five levels to assure I get my brain going. I find it is nearly impossible remain asleep while attempting to solve a series (i usually require 5-7) of (relatively) complex equations (ie 18x23-151) in your head ( I suppose you could use paper but where is the fun in that?) all while listening to an annoying alarm. I can set it to add more problems every time I snooze (by shaking for x amount of seconds) which does actually make me reconsider snoozing all together.
OH, and I found out the hard (well mildly embarrassing and publicly obnoxious) way that it will route the alarm to the speakers even if the headphones are in. (Everyone on the bus that morning was a little more awake because of me and my app.
definitely one of my must haves....