personal

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.

Fall down, go boom

Sometimes, you’re just walking along, minding your own business, when the universe decides to make your day a little more interesting in a slightly unpleasant manner. That’s what happened to me today, on my lunch break, when, across the street from Grand Central, I slipped on a wet patch of asphalt and fell to the ground, skinning my knee and ripping a small hole in my trouser leg in the process.

I considered walking on — my pride was hurt a lot more than my knee, and the hole was neither so big nor in an embarrassing location — but I was right across the street from a couple of clothing stores, so I decided to look for a pair of replacement pants. It took me a while, and a trip over to Fifth Avenue’s Lord & Taylor — where, because of construction inside the store, it took me longer just to find the men’s department — but I eventually bought a new pair of pants, went back to the office with them, and changed in the bathroom.

And then I finally got to eat lunch.

Beyond that, though, my day wasn’t especially exciting.

April showers

Today wasn’t a particularly exciting day. I spent a good part of it reading up on art therapy, editing a manuscript we currently have in development, and doing my best to stay out of the rain. The keyboard dock for my iPad was delivered today, but still no sign of the iPad itself. Apple sent me an e-mail last week, to confirm that it would be shipping in late April as originally planned, but we’re fast approaching the last few days of late April. I’m not hugely worried, but I am eager to start playing with it, no doubt ushering in Cory Doctorow’s worst fears of a nightmarish apocalypse in the bargain.