yoga, books, movies, tv & too many crime procedurals – not necesarily in that order
Probably the only thing I talk about as much as yoga and TV is gadgets. One of my friends is at a conference and re-tweeted two things that interested me:
1. The iPad is designed to entertain your finger, an e-reader to entertain your eye.
2. The Kindle isn’t a superior reading experience, it’s a superior delivery experience.
These things are tied in my mind because the iPad was billed as a Kindle-killer. Admittedly I am a non-Apple geek (They make nice stuff but it’s wicked expensive. I’m looking for the alternative that fits my budget.) but I wasn’t all that interested in the iPad. I HAVE a Kindle (which I love and will get to in a minute) and a Droid Eris by HTC. From what I’ve seen, my Eris does all the stuff that an iPhone does – at least the stuff that I WANT it to, as I’ve got no interest in watching TV/movies on my phone – and cost a fraction of the price. Not only that, but Verizon never drops my calls. Never. And I live in the Timbuck-3 mountains.
So if I’ve got a touchscreen phone and all the apps I can stand and an mp3 player that holds a ton of music and movies, as well as an e-reader that checks my email and surfs the web – the iPad is obsolete FOR ME. I get that there are people who want everything in the same gadget but I really don’t. I like having a separate mp3 player because it means I’m less likely to break it – my phone has to withstand a lot of abuse. My phone is built for portability and wicked web access, so I don’t need a laptop hardly ever – unless I really want one.
All of this brings me to the Kindle. Yes, it’s a superior delivery system. I can get a book (including a whole mess of FREE books) from pretty much anywhere, anytime. I’d argue about it not being a superior reading experience though, and for a couple of reasons. It’s much a lighter than a regular book. It’s far more portable and allows me to do everything a regular text would do (bookmarks, notes) as well as things it can’t (email, web). Not only that but I can carry up to 1,500 books around all the time. I’ve got 207 on there currently and I love that if my attention wanders, I can just hit the Home button and switch to something else. On a plane or roadtrip, this portability is invaluable. It’s great for waiting rooms, lunch breaks and coffee stops.
As to the experience – I know that Spouse loves the fact that he can increase the text size whenever he wants. It makes reading in low light easier. The auto text-reader is also nice, if a bit robotic.
I don’t miss turning pages. It always surprises me that I really ENJOY reading on the Kindle. I’m an English major. I’ve been reading voraciously since the age of 3. I LOVE books. Yet I find that I don’t miss the feel of paper in my hands or even the smell of the pages – things I would have sworn at one point were integral to my reading experience. In fact, when I HAVE to read a paper text now (for classes) I find I’m annoyed with how cumbersome and unwieldly they are. I don’t like having to lug them around and having to flip back and forth rather than just click a bookmark is irritating. The lack of backlight makes my Kindle page just as easy to read as a printed page, but better for the environment.
So yeah – when people talk to me about how they love books and can’t POSSIBLY like an e-reader, I call bullshit. Read a book on a Kindle and if you’re not converted, I’ll believe you. I just don’t think it’ll happen.
Apple iPad – TERRIBLE name and a surprisingly disappointing device. It’ll prompt Amazon to send out more Kindle updates though, so I’m not complaining.
State of the Union. Yeah, I played WET on my Xbox instead of watching. Frankly, I think the whole point of the internet is to keep me from having to watch the news. I’m largely disappointed that everyone in Washington is too busy trying to keep their jobs to actually DO their jobs. I’m tired of them bitching about something being wrong when THEY ARE THE ONLY ONES WITH THE POWER TO CHANGE IT. That’s not to say that’s what I think Obama was doing but I couldn’t stand to watch all the bi-partisan asshattery.
As an aside, every time I see John Boehner I think “John Boner” and then wonder how someone named “Boner” got elected in Ohio. And then I go OH YEAH.
Listening to MoZella’s album and I LOVE IT. It’s like a cross between Feist and Maroon 5. Also the Glee soundtracks and am continuously creeped out by She’s Having My Baby – to the point where I may need to delete it from my entire collection. P.S. How did we get THAT but not Single Ladies?
Whip It came out in DVD. I was VERY EXCITED. I watched it three times. It will get its own entire post.
Indulged a little today by getting a manicure. I’ve been working with cardboard pretty much nonstop for the last month and have an event Monday and Tuesday. The back room project is over at work (at least this stage) and my hands can (hopefully) return to normal. At the very least, the mani will make me presentable for the event and then I can hopefully maintain.
Sometimes when my husband is looking for something and can’t find it, I want to hit him with a hammer.
Dead writers. I can’t be arsed to care, really.
Haiti. Well, the only time we care about poor countries are when there are natural disasters, not things like DICTATORS AND GENOCIDE. SIGH.
Booked my flight for the Seattle trip. Next up- hotel rooms.
We’re watching Public Enemies right now. I’m currently unimpressed. I did watch I’ve Loved You So Long on Netflix and I thought it was fantastic. The Edge of Love was passable but not great.
Listening to Middlemarch on my afternoon commute. The audiobook is DEFINITELY better than reading the damn thing myself – especially since it’s a practical use of the drive time. Eliot is droll but somewhat heavyhanded in the use of narrator commentary. I am reminded (as with East of Eden) that some topics are just as relevant now as they were in other centuries.
I still love work. I’m enjoying it immensely and have fun with my coworkers. Hard to beat that!
I feel like I actually have three jobs. After work today, I stopped at the grocery on the way home. Once home, I made chili (for dinner tonight), beef tikka masala (for this weekend) and blueberry muffins (for breakfast). Things not to do after cutting up your hands all day working with cardboard: cut jalepenos. Yeah. Awesome. I ALSO managed to get the kitchen cleaned. I am Supergirl.
The muffins allowed me to test my new silicone muffin pans and they are FANTASTIC. I love them. If I could, I’d replace most of my bakeware with silicone. On the current wishlist: those measuring cups/spoons that flatten, as well as a colander.
My Xbox is wending its way to the house as we speak. I’m very excited about it and picked up some used games from GameStop. Fatima promised we could conference and watch bad movies on Netflix, so I’m looking forward to that.
My hands ARE pretty thrashed from work. I’ve been having issues for the last year/year and a half with dry nails that peel (rather than split or break) and recently discovered that a fix seems to include 1. No nail polish and 2. Lots of lotion. I trimmed my nails tonight and there wasn’t a single peeler. The hands ARE hella dry from all the cardboard though. I might actually have to get out my lotion gloves overnight.
New current playlist is an autolist with Lily Allen, Kelly Clarkson, Britney, Gaga and Katy Perry. I’m REALLY enjoying it.
Other random news. Brit Hume- WTF? Because Christians, especially FAMOUS Christians, NEVER have extramarital affairs? WTF *SouthCarolinaGovernor* cough. I think Brit’s a first class idiot. See also: not everyone subscribes to your idea or need for forgiveness. Jackass.
Tomorrow’s post-work excitement will consist of seeing Avatar again and/or cleaning the basement. Piper was mad that we left today and got into the coffee grounds in the laundry room garbage. Mmmm. Coffee grounds. This would likely be less annoying if I 1. drank coffee and 2. thought coffee smelled good. Damn dog.
I might do some more reading before bed tonight- Middlemarch is even more effective than Ambien.
Last week I clocked just over 40 hours at job 1 and almost 20 at job 2. They also requested that I come in a couple of hours early tomorrow and, while I’m happy to comply, I’ll be heartily glad when I’m down to just the one job. On the plus side, my drive time has gotten me caught up on backlogged Talk of the Nation podcasts. Most interesting of the lot: The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs
Speaking of which, I have a day off this week (!) and Spouse has mad noises about a second viewing of Avatar. I’m all for it.
Chuck returns next week! So does Burn Notice!
I finally decided what to spend my h$liday money on – a long-wanted XB0x 360. It was a close battle between that and the entire 5 seasons of The Wire but I opted for multi-user fun. Not only that, Fatima helped sway me with promises of long-distance movie viewing and snark. The 360 marks the last of my ‘frivolous’ purchases for the next 4 months (save for “gift” money)- the only resolution I made this year. No books or music until I’ve read through everything on the kindle and listened to everything on the Zune at least once.
Happy New Year!
For example, I’m not sure I can adequately describe how incredible it is to use a laptop with a FUNCTIONAL BATTERY. The last year-plus has been spent tethered to an outlet because the battery on my Toshiba was croaking its way to annihilation and wouldn’t hold a charge for more than 7 minutes. Every time I wanted to use my laptop, I had to scope out outlet locations which – let me tell you- are at a PREMIUM in places with free wifi. They are also rarely located CONVENIENTLY.
I say this as I am currently reclined on my sofa, dogosai on my feets, and no power cord in sight! It’s delightful! Liberating, even!
One of the great advancements that’s happened since my last computer purchase is an improvement in the touchpad to eliminate right and left clicks with an actual button. I can do both by tapping the touchpad and it’s GREAT. Don’t get me wrong- it’s definitely taking some getting used to but the new laptop is so far and away better than the old one that it makes me feel like I’ve been driving a Ford Model T for three years and just got a Jag.
The internets are all atwitter about Tiger Woods but it turns out I just don’t care. I’m more worried about when Chuck is going to return to Monday night TV.
Tonight I worked my first training shift and it was pretty great. I’m definitely going to enjoy work this holiday season.
In other internet news: troop levels in the Middle East. Here’s the thing. Back when Hils and Barack were just campaigning for the office of President and we were already embroiled in all this shit, I knew it was a bad idea to start promising troop withdrawal. You know why? Because ANYONE could see that there wasn’t a CHANCE we would be getting out SOON. And by ‘anyone’ I mean ‘people who don’t have access to national security information.’ Why did I say that? 1. Korea 2. Germany 3. Afghanistan
You can’t go into a country, dismantle its government, disrupt its infrastructure (such as it is) and then BAIL OUT. That’s not how it works. That’s pretty much NEVER been how it works. Ergo, there was no chance we’d be getting out early. My major bitch with this, by the way, was that in order to GET a job all the candidates LIED about this fact. They all knew there was no chance of it happening – hell, they all started backpedaling on it DURING the campaign. All I want is for people to be HONEST about it. Be STRAIGHT with people about the realities of the world. Maybe then the country would put on its Big Kid Pants and get a grip.
Oh. P.S. Dick Cheney, you can go straight to hell for saying you had nothing to do with the epic clusterfuck that you ACTUALLY STARTED in Afghanistan as a result of all this Iraq nonsense. Asshole. Hell might actually be too good for you.
And since I went on a political rant, here’s a moment of zen:
