kaleidotrope

Not Sunday…yet

It feels a lot like Sunday, but I’m happy knowing that it isn’t. iPad or no iPad, I definitely made the right decision taking yesterday off from work.

Today was more of the same, really, spent playing with the iPad and figuring out what I can and can’t do with it. Google Reader, for one, seems a little problematic, at least in either of the main options Google itself seems to be offering. I’ve gotten it to work, but neither option is without its display problems. I’m also not so thrilled with the case Apple sold me, which fits the device, if only barely, but is thin enough so as not to provide much in the way of protection, and moreover which has to come off if I actually want to recharge the device. It’s an okay temporary solution, should I want to tote the device somewhere further than my own backyard, but I don’t think it was worth the forty bucks Apple charged me for it.

Still thoroughly in the honeymoon phase with the iPad itself, though. Sitting out in the backyard, reading Kaleidotrope submissions and listening to music (while Twittering about it), was a really nice way to end my afternoon.

After that, I watched tonight’s episode of Doctor Who, the second half of last week’s Weeping Angels/River Song mashup, and it was actually pretty phenomenal, easily my favorite episode since the premiere. I really do like how Matt Smith’s Doctor is madder and more antic than his immediate predecessors, but also a little more pompous, a little more…well, unlikable. Anyone still not sure why Smith was cast over all the other choices obviously hasn’t been paying attention.

Anyway, that was my Saturday, more or less.

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.

Happy Cuckoo Day

According to my desk calendar, today was traditionally Cuckoo Day in Britain:

In Marsden, West Yorkshire, residents still honor the “Welsh ambassador,” as the cuckoo was known, since its migratory route begins in Wales.

No word on what the celebrations entail. Me, I spent the day mostly just hanging around the house.

I did some much needed cleaning and listened to several of John Cleese’s commentaries on the Fawlty Towers DVDs.

I mailed a few more issues of Kaleidotrope, and learned that a story from issue #6 had been nominated for an award.

I quite liked this week’s episode of Doctor Who, even if it was mostly just a mash-up of two of Steven Moffat’s earlier episodes (“Blink” and “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead”) with some clever bits added on here and there. I can hardly blame him for revisiting the Weeping Angels, which remain genuinely scary, and I’m quite looking forward to the continuation next week.

And then this evening, I watched The Limey, which I think I enjoyed more as a series of expertly composed shots than as an engaging story.

And that was my Cuckoo Day.

Three-day weekend? Don’t mind if I do.

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I fell asleep last night well before ten o’clock. I was watching another episode of Fringe — which doesn’t speak well for the show’s ability to hold my interest, though I do seem to keep watching — and the next thing I knew, it was past two in the morning. I thought briefly about posting an update here anyway, but I opted instead for brushing my teeth, putting on pajamas, and going back to bed.

All day long yesterday, I felt like I was on a relaxed Friday schedule while everybody around me was still in middle-of-the-week, knee-deep-in-Thursday mode. That might have something to do with its still being Thursday, but I knew I would be taking today off as the start of a three-day weekend, so I wasn’t about to let a little thing like reality stand in my way.

Though stand in my way it did, and for some very long hours. It was capped by all sorts of confusion and delays on the railroad coming home. I got to Penn Station, where I was directed to a different track than usual, and then I panicked slightly when the doors closed several minutes before they were supposed to and I thought, “uh oh, maybe I’m on the wrong train.” It didn’t help that you couldn’t understand the conductor’s announcements at all over the train’s PA system, but by time we reached Queens, it was all but certain the train wasn’t going where I wanted to go — either because we’d been sent to the wrong track originally, or because they’d decided to change the plan, unannounced, en route. Whatever the problem — and by then they were calling it “signal failure” — I got off in Jamaica, where after a lot more confusion I managed to get on a train that was stopping at my station. In the end, I wasn’t home a lot later than usual, but I was especially glad I wouldn’t have to get on the train again the next day.

And I didn’t. I spent today not doing a whole lot, though I did mail out most of the current issue of Kaleidotrope — international contributors and subscribers tomorrow — and buy a few new pairs of shoes. My current dress shoes, and even my sneakers, are suddenly falling apart, so it was time to replace them. They gave me a coupon for $10 off (a $50 purchase), which would be great if it wasn’t valid only between May 2 and 22. That’s a pretty narrow window, and there’s almost no chance I’m going to need another pair of shoes any time within it. Or at least I hope not.

Beyond that, I watched a little of The Mighty Boosh (season 3) and finished re-watching season 1 of Slings & Arrows. I’d recommend both shows, though Boosh is definitely the weirder of the two. (And a ghost is a main character in Slings.)

According to my Forgotten English calendar, today is the feast day of St. Benedict Labre, the patron saint of vagabonds. Which isn’t exactly relevant, but a fun historical fact nonetheless.

Thursday and then some

Frankly, I find it a little difficult to believe that today is still Thursday. Every calendar I’ve consulted seems convinced that Friday isn’t until tomorrow, but that seems altogether unlikely to me. The day was significantly long enough that I’m sure it must have rolled over into the next while I was sitting in my cubicle at work. Because honestly, the alternative, that I still have to go to work tomorrow morning too, seems wholly unfair.

I guess I should just be glad today’s desk calendar page didn’t have anything about unbaptized babies doomed to roam the earth in the ominous honking of geese.

It was a pretty average, if somewhat too long, day overall, with not a whole lot to differentiate it from any other day this week. Frankly, I’m just looking forward to the weekend, the first in a couple of weeks I won’t have to spend traveling anywhere. I’ve been hoping this weekend I’d finally get the chance to mail out all the subscriber and contributor issues of Kaleidotrope, but a number of factors have been conspiring against that — mostly all that recent travel — and I don’t think I’ll have everything in hand, plus the time it will take at the post office, until next weekend. Rest assured, though, the issue is done and will be mailed out in April. It’s maybe not hugely impressive that I’ve never missed an issue — and with two more planned for this year, we’ll see if that lasts — but I take a little pride in it. The whole thing has been a learning experience for me, and I like to think that each issue is a little better than the one before it. The current issue is 80 pages long, which doesn’t just border on but actually has a work visa into ridiculous, but it’s good stuff.

And that’s really it. Instead of going to the post office this Saturday, I think I’ll be taking my car in for its yearly inspection. But otherwise, I’m just planning on enjoying a relatively lazy weekend.

Of course, I first need to get through tomorrow. Are we sure today wasn’t Friday?