Month: April 2010

iPad, therefore iAm

So can you guess how I spent my day off?

If you guessed mailing copies of Kaleidotrope to award judges (and a couple of contributors), finishing a chapter of that art therapy book (which I think is shaping up pretty well, actually), filling the bird feeder in the backyard, walking and playing with the dog, and just pottering around the house…well, you wouldn’t be wrong. But obviously the big news of the day was that my iPad, ordered exactly one month ago in a mad “what the hell” moment, finally arrived.

And I have to say, so far, it’s really quite cool. I didn’t experience the same sort of orgiastic thrill as, say, Stephen Fry at unpacking the box, but it is tough not to be at least a little impressed by it. Apple certainly knows how to make pretty looking things.

I almost missed the FedEx delivery, arriving back home from the post office (and grabbing some lunch) at the exact moment that the deliveryman was walking to our door. I then spent the next hour or so installing the latest version of iTunes — you do need to hook the device up to a computer with iTunes installed, so it’s not exactly “turn it on right out of the box” — and syncing the two systems.

And then I started playing with it. And you know, I really am quite impressed. This is what it looks like after I started downloading (mostly free) apps:

So far I really love the NY Times Crosswords, and the Dragon Dictation is surprisingly good at transcribing voice to text. Netflix’s player was a little unresponsive when I tried it this afternoon, but the video quality was excellent. The same goes for the ABC Player, with which I could easily imagine watching Lost (and, heaven help me, Happy Town). Both Marvel’s reader and iBooks are impressive, in the free samples I’ve tried out, and who doesn’t like a good game of Scrabble? The other apps there I’m still testing out — I downloading Skype, for instance, even though I’ve never actually used the service before, and I still haven’t decided which Twitter client to use, Echofon or TweetDeck. I’m sure, as I continue to use the iPad, I’ll find plenty of compelling evidence to suggest that both sides (pro and con) are right about the device.

Ultimately, is it worth the hefty price tag? I don’t know. The real test will probably be the next time I have a lengthy commute, or how well it handles reading Kaleidotrope slush, or maybe in an app I haven’t yet discovered. I do know I’m not remotely sorry I bought it, and I am finding it incredibly difficult to put it down.

Random 10 4/30

Admittedly a little late today, but I have the day off and have been a little preoccupied. Anyway, last week went like this. How will this week go?

  1. “Happiness Hotel” from The Great Muppet Caper, guessed by Occupant
    Don’t try to order dinner, there’s no kitchen anymore
  2. “Color of Your Blues” by Money Mark, guessed by Kim
    It’s the story of faded glory
  3. “Sunday Afternoon” by Rachael Yamagata
    It’s not about geography or happenstance
  4. “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen, guessed by Occupant
    Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet
  5. “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak, guessed by Eric B.
    The world was on fire, no one could save me but you
  6. “Dead End Street” by the Kinks
    A Sunday joint of bread and honey
  7. “I Shall Be Free” by Bob Dylan, guessed by Kim
    Walk like a duck and smell like a skunk
  8. “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Gus (orig. Blue Oyster Cult), guessed by Eric B.
    The curtains flew and then he appeared
  9. “Time and Time Again” by Counting Crows, guessed by Thud
    I wanted to see you walking backwards
  10. “Song for Myla Goldberg” by the Decemberists
    Pretty hands do pretty things when pretty times arrive

Only time will tell. Good luck!

Thursday is the new Friday

I got an e-mail this morning from Apple telling me that my iPad had finally shipped, was being overnighted, and almost immediately I thought, you know what I really need to do? Take Friday off.

I’ll admit my decision was only partly influenced by a desire to actually be here when FedEx delivers the package. I think I mostly just wanted an excuse to take another three-day weekend. I actually brought home that art therapy textbook I’m working on right now, and I do plan to continue reading it over the next couple of days, but I’ll be much happier doing that here than there — since here I get to sleep in and occasionally goof off by watching television, reading something else, or playing with my shiny new iPad.

This evening, I watched the premiere episode of Happy Town, and then this week’s episode of House. I’ll give the former plenty of credit for trying to do a lot of weird and different things. I just wish it did some of those things well. I’m not quite on board with Todd VanDerWerff’s view of the show as some kind of so-bad-it’s-good guilty pleasure. But if subsequent episodes really are as batshit insane as he’s suggesting, it might be worth sticking with the show until its almost inevitable cancellation. House, meanwhile, just continues to annoy me. I didn’t find this episode as annoying as last week’s (which I watched last night), but I’m growing increasingly bored by the whole thing. There’s still some good acting, particularly from Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard (and particularly in their scenes together), and there’s still some good (if wildly inconsistent) writing, but I can’t help but think the show would have been better ending with its game-changer-in-name-only season premiere. That was some powerful television. This is just going through the motions. As Zach Handlen said of last week’s episode:

I realize House has probably passed its creative peak (ahem), but I’d appreciate it if the plotting of the medical drama wasn’t so by-the-numbers that I can actually see digits forming on screen.

Anyway, that’s about it. Another day without slipping and falling in the street, so I think that was just a one-time thing. Although I should be thankful it wasn’t worse. My sister apparently fell on her stairs the other day and broke her toe. So a bump on the knee and a new pair of trousers really isn’t so bad.

Thursday various

  • Looks like I fall on the “trustworthy” end of this Trustworthiness of Beards scale. How to use that to my advantage? Muhahahaha! [via]

  • When I first read this story, about another Ring movie in the works — this time in 3-D and reinvented for a teen audience, whatever that means — I thought it was about another Lord of the Rings movie. As ridiculous as that remake sounds, I wouldn’t put it past Hollywood. Give in another couple of years.
  • Some stories just to great not to be true: surfer rides shark after it bites his surfboard. [via]

  • You can take Freudian concepts too far.

  • And finally, here’s New York two ways you’ve probably never seen it before. First, made out of staples. And second, pixelated [via]:

Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote…

I made it through the day without ripping a hole in my pants, so I guess I’m already one up on yesterday! My knee still hurts a little where I banged it against the city street yesterday afternoon, but I’ll heal. Other than that, it was a pretty typical Wednesday, spent mostly reading that same old art therapy textbook. Still no sign of my iPad, and still no word from Apple that it has been shipped. They promised by the end of April, but we’re rapidly running out of end-of-April days.