Copenhagen Flash Mob

So, I had a really long day today, between Ethics service-learning hours, grocery shopping, cooking/baking, and D&D… so I’m just going to leave this here, because it made me smile.

Things I Am Loving, Mid-April 2012 Edition

Felicia Day’s “Flog” or video blog, part of her Geek & Sundry brand/company/collective thing. I have a total girl crush on Felicia Day. I think I have a thing for red heads, cause I love me some Christina Hendricks and Alyson Hannigan, too.

Magical Game Time, a great (video game themed) art and comics blog by Zac Gorman. It’s sweet and has just a little bit of animation to the art, and I totally went through and read the entire back archives after discovering it (coincidentally, through Felicia Day’s video blog mentioned above).

Eavesdropping on conversations in the alley outside my apartment through my open bedroom windows. I mean, it’s not intentional eavesdropping, but my windows are open because LA averages 65 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit and I like the breeze. I can’t help if I overhear things that are discussed! One gem involved someone discussing hacking into e-mail accounts and Facebook, keyloggers, implied infidelity, “purposely not asking any questions,” and a possible FBI investigation. Quite suspicious. In a movie, this would all spiral into an exciting and dangerous adventure along the lines of the Bourne series. Instead, I’m blogging about it. Movies 1, real life 0.

My Coach (New) Willis bag. I know. I’m sick. But I am still so very in love with my new baby. It’s just so bright and peppy for spring!

Titanic in 3D. I very much did not expect to like the movie as much as I did, but it’s been at least 10 years since I saw it, and I never saw it in theaters the first time around because I was like 7 years old. I went out to dinner with some lady friends and we stocked up on popcorn and chocolate and submitted to 3 hours of glorious 3D experience. Leonardo DiCaprio was so freaking young!

Jeremy Renner. He’s Hawkeye in the upcoming Avengers film (Joss Whedon, squee!), and he’s gorgeous in everything else he’s been in. And, you know, just gorgeous in general. Swoon.

The Room Service foursquare badge that is no longer available. I don’t actually use foursquare, but I found it amusing: “That’s three late night check-ins at different hotels. Here’s to hoping you got your room serviced.” Sleazy? Yeah, but oh-so-entertaining.

The Cabin in the Woods. It had to be my Joss Whedon fix until the Avengers movie, plus I’m into pretty much any horror movie in general. Also, Dr. Jackson Avery from Grey’s Anatomy and Topher Brink from Dollhouse and Thor from the Marvel franchise get together in a cabin in the woods with some ladies and chaos ensues. How could that not be awesome? Turns out the movie is even better than the trailer suggests, and is this wonderful mix of horror film, satire/parody, and so much more. If you like horror or Joss Whedon or clever writing or any combination of the above, go see it! The best horror movie I’ve seen in years.

Things I Am Loving, Early February Edition

The Hunger Games trilogy. I don’t know why I bother trying to avoid popular fiction sometimes; I usually end up enjoying it once I give in. I ended up devouring the three books in less than 24 hours. They’re riveting: very action-packed. I kept telling myself, “One more chapter,” and then I just finished the book. Very similar (almost felt a little knock-off-ish?) to the Japanese novel/movie Battle Royale, but I guess the whole contest-for-your-life-in-a-postapocalyptic-setting thing can’t really be copyrighted or trademarked or whatever. They’re both good, you should read both!

Everyday carry. I guess there’s a name for what I’m obsessed with, all those nicely-arranged photos of what is in people’s bags, or what guys carry around in their pockets, or people’s “necessities” or whatever. It’s on Wikipedia, so it must be official. There’s also a Tumblr. I’m more into the mundane stuff (wallets, notebooks, pens, makeup bags, trinkets) than the survival stuff, which some people take really seriously. But I have a real interest in the physical objects that people carry about. Part voyeurism, part curiosity, part I-don’t-even-know. I think you can tell a lot about a person by what objects they place importance on. The image below is my favorite from FY! What’s In Your Bag?, another fantastic Tumblr on a popular theme. How elegant!

Audiobooks. The drive from the Bay Area to Los Angeles is somewhere between 5-6 hours, depending on traffic and how fast you’re going over the speed limit. It’s not that awful, considering the Bay Area to Oregon was closer to 8.5 or 9 hours, but it still drags on, particularly since the majority of the drive is on I-5, which is quite possibly the most boring freeway (highway?) ever. I’m a big fan of audiobooks for the duration, which kind of let me read a book while driving. My favorites are Young Adult fiction from childhood (pretty much anything by Tamora Pierce), which I’ve read enough to know almost by heart. I also have these on in the back a lot while writing papers or cleaning my room. Comforting noise that I don’t have to pay that much attention to.

Strawberry mochi. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this stuff, but I threw it in my cart on a whim when I was at Trader Joe’s, picking up groceries. SO GOOD. I know the whole idea of gelatinous rice cake mixture wrapped around ice cream and then frozen doesn’t really sound so delicious, but it’s really excellent. As long as it’s strawberry. I think the sweetness of the ice cream flavor makes this, cause I don’t actually like the vanilla or chocolate flavors. Anyways: a good little dessert snack, not too rich or anything. I feel so Asian when I eat them.

Fresh Sugar Passion Tinted Lip Treatment. Okay, I know it’s ridiculous to spend $22.50 on a lip gloss. It’s not even lipstick. But this stuff is awesome. One layer is just a great hint of color, but you can pile the stuff on if you want it darker. It’s got a smooth texture, which I love, cause I hate waxy stuff like Chapstick. It even smells great! It comes in more restrained colors, like clear/nude/rose, but I love the Passion color, described as “sheer crimson red.” It’s stupid expensive for a single tube of lip stuff, but since I don’t wear foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow, or… well, any makeup other than nail and lip stuff, I figure I still come out ahead of all my other girlfriends on $ spent on makeup products throughout the year.

Index cards. I think I could write an ode to index cards. They’re just so damn versatile. To-do lists, Latin flashcards, perpetual diary entries, recipe cards, you name it and you can use an index card for it. The rules 3×5 ones are my favorites for everything but flash cards, for which I prefer blank on both sides. Don’t even get me started about color-coding nouns and verbs and other bits of language.

Matchbook. It’s an online magazine, it’s free, and you can download their entire archive (13 issues, including this month’s) for free, if you sign up for a (free) Issuu account. It’s full of lovely design stuff, recipes, fashion, book reviews… pretty much everything I adore in life. Minus, you know, video games and football and all that stuff I inherited from my brothers.

As one of their features, they do a mini-interview with those they feature, and I figured I’d end on that. It’s called the Matchbook Questionnaire:

• Tea or coffee? Chai tea lattes.
• I collect… Notebooks. Office supplies in general. Books.
• Favorite city? San Francisco.
• Spring or fall? Fall.
• Bloom of choice? Sunflowers.
• Style icon? I’m a jeans/skirts/sweaters/flats girl. Not so much with the fashion.
• Fragrance? DKNY Be Delicious.
• Linens? Anything cotton in more than 400 thread count.
• China pattern? Plain white bone china. Elegant enough for fancy occasions, and simple enough for everyday.
• Most prized possession? My baby blanket. Or silver charm bracelet. Or stuffed dog, Macaroni. Or collection of past planners/journals/scrapbooks.
• Girl crush? Kate Beckinsale.
• Boy crush? Norman Reedus.
• On weekends… I start off slow, with buttered toast, orange juice, and fresh fruit.

Things I Am Loving, Early January 2012 Edition

This J. Crew t-shirt, which I would totally buy if it wasn’t only available in a size large and not shipping until mid-February sold out:

The Flipboard app for the iPad (and iPhone, but it looks gorgeous on the bigger screen of the iPad). It basically creates a beautiful, personalized magazine from a number of popular blogs, websites, and social networking sites, and flip through their content at your leisure. Below is the 3×3 grid of my first Flipboard page: cute animals, life tips, trivia, and design, all in one neat and pretty package. It makes lounging on the couch in the morning with my yogurt and fruit a way more enjoyable experience.

This Williams-Sonoma picnic basket set. It is a freaking unbelievable $349.95 – ouch! – but it is also packed with everything but the food you could possibly need for a picnic: silverware, plates, salt and pepper shakers, a blanket, cheeseboard, corkscrew… the list just goes on and on and on. Now that I’m living in Los Angeles, the dreamy idea of year-round picnics is totally on my want-to-do list. Particularly this lovely winter picnic from Design*Sponge.

This photo from one of my newest favorite blogs, The Sweetest Occasion. I love forts and pseudo tents – who doesn’t? – and have started daydreaming about how I can set up something like this or a canopy of some kind with my bed. Which is, you know, not a canopy bed. But I think I could finagle something with thin white fabric, or netting, and a ceiling mount, and the corner posts of my bed… maybe. Also, how sweet are the stars?

This lovely little canvas duffel from J. Crew (I have a J. Crew thing going on right now). I’m not usually into pink–like, ever–but this is just such a fabulous pop of color. (Also available in navy.) It’s super small, just an overnighter (9.0″ high x 16.5″ wide x 9.0″ deep), but I’m really loving it. Also, it’s only $36.50, which is pretty cheap for anything from J. Crew.

Surprise balls! Basically, they are long strips/streamers of crepe paper, wound tightly around miscellaneous little trinkets and toys that can range from expensive and lovely vintage objects to stickers and temporary tattoos and candy. They can be round, lumpy, or if you’re Anandamayi Arnold, exquisite pieces of art that many customers can’t bear to unravel. I love how personal these can be, by picking out individual items for people you know and choosing their favorite colors for the crepe. I might make one of these for my mom for her upcoming birthday!

This tweet, via Dooce (SO TRUE):

This cheerful list, also via The Sweetest Occasion. I’m particularly wanting to work on #4, having fresh flowers around:

Christmas Gift Guide 2011

(via)

This is exactly how all of my Christmas breaks go, forever and ever, always. On the list this year: make two end tables for my bedroom in LA, bake lots of things, get through another stack of books that weren’t assigned for a class, start paring down more of my belongings to work towards my goal of getting rid of 365 366 things by the end of 2012 (leap year, hey!), and doubtless other things I’ve forgotten.

Chances are, the only thing that will happen is the baking, and that’s mostly because I generally do the desserts for the annual Christmas party I throw with my friends from high school.

Anyways! You’ve still got nearly two weeks of shopping time before Christmas gets here and… I have no idea how many days before Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, but I’ve got a few gift suggestions for you, my lovely, lovely readers. Since everyone else is doing it, and I’m nothing if up for jumping on the bandwagon.

• The Design*Sponge book! Because they are awesome and amazing and I’m sure that their book is beautiful, because how could it not be? it’s Design*Sponge!
  
• A subscription to Anthology Magazine. It’s $38 for a year, which is only four issues, because they’re on a seasonal/quarterly schedule. But they are gorgeous works of art in magazine format – seriously, if you are at all into print media, it is totally worth it. The pages are thick and feel great between your fingers, and include great design, photography, and everything else. I make special runs out to Piedmont just to pick these up twice a year. (P.S. They have an all-digital gift guide out you should totally take a look at, too.)
  
• A treegloo iPad cover for the tech aficionado in your life. They’re great, come in tons of colors to mix and match (cover, liner, and wooden frame), and they’re super eco-friendly. Plus, they make your iPad look like a giant Moleskine notebook, and really enhance the whole I’m-reading-a-book experience. (I’m lusting after one in the black cover, dark green liner, and natural wood frame!)
  
• A custom address stamp from Paperwink. Great designs and fonts, and, really, who likes filling in the return address spot every time they mail a letter? No one, that’s who. I’m digging the “Imprint” design, seen below.
  
• I just bought these Urbanears Plattan headphones in raspberry, and I am so freaking in love with them it is insane. They are sold out in that color and the teal on their website (bummer, the raspberry are AWESOME and you should track them down), but they are super comfortable and really good at blocking out excess noise. Plus, they have a cute little extra jack on the bottom of the right ear cup so your friend can plug in and listen to your music, too. (If you’re not into bright purple-pink, they also come in black. And gray. And orange, and yellow, and tomato-red, and… pretty much any color you could want. For real.)
  
• I love the idea behind the Armpocket arm band for running. Or, in my case, taking a leisurely stroll around the reservoir. Whatever, it’s still exercise. Tons of companies make arm bands, but this includes a little zipper compartment, so you can take not only your iPhone, but also an ID, your house or car key, and even throw a $5 in there if you wanna jog for coffee. Brilliant! The model below is their skinniest, because I never really carry more than my ID and keys when I go out for exercise, but they have a model that goes up to 25 cubic inches of storage space, if you need to take more along.
  
• Anything Kate Spade. Seriously, my favorite designer at the moment. Her print stuff (stationary and cards, swoon) is always fabulous, but I think this hedgehog coin purse is in the so-ugly-it-is-kind-of-a-little-bit-cute category. (And I totally ordered a gorgeous gray leather tote bag for school for Christmas. I love my striped fabric Kate Spade bag, but I should have just gone for leather to start with. I’m not a fabric bag girl.)
  

That’s all I got.  I’m too busy lying on the floor, staring up at the Christmas tree lights, eating candy canes. It’s a rough life.

Things I Am Loving, 11 – 22 October 2011 (And A Do-Over)

Trunk Notes, a fabulous iOS personal wiki system. Expect a full post soon on how I’ve been using this to organize pretty much everything.

This, from Merlin Mann at 43 Folders:

The One-Fork Rule - At one point in my third year of college, my housemates and I felt entropy’s hot breath on the back of our necks. As the dishwasher overflowed with week-old plates and the crisper teemed with blue and brown goo, we acknowledged it was time for a radical change. Thus, Richard, Jake, and I made a pact to instantiate what we called “The One-Fork Rule.” Each of us was issued one and only one of each eating tool: cutlery, plate, bowl, glass, etc. We were to bond with our tools like an infantryman with his rifle. If your fork was dirty when it was time to eat, you were to clean it. You were notto breach the sacred seal of the duct-tape-sealed boxes containing all the additional forks and plates. Like all emergency measures “The One-Fork Rule” passed in time, but I can tell you, it really works if you’re ever feeling overwhelmed by the crufty multiples in your kitchen—or elsewhere your life. Consider trying it for a week or so whenever you need to simplify or just get it together.

This desktop image from Things Organized Neatly, a Tumblr blog that should surprise no one that I follow. I can’t really explain why I’m in love with it entirely… something about the pen sketches in the upper right and the position of the earbuds on the drawing and rabbit, I think. The line of Legos on the bottom is just a great pop of color, too.

This style of Diet Coke bottles (glimpsed in the desktop image above) – 8.5 ounces, and made from aluminum, but shaped like the classic glass bottles. Very shiny! I wish I could find these at the grocery store:

I had amazing gelato from Caffè* Bellagio in Santa Monica today, on a nice little day trip with some friends. One scoop of pink grapefruit, which was sweetly tart and very delicious, and one scoop of pink guava, which was just freaking amazing. Seriously, I could have eaten a carton of the guava flavor, it tasted just like Kern’s guava juice, which I can drink a carton of.

Santa Monica was beautiful today, and covered in fog. When we left Westwood, it was something like 70 degrees Fahrenheit and very sunny. Santa Monica was probably 10 degrees cooler, and draped in fog: from Ocean Avenue looking out onto the pier, the top portion of the Ferris wheel was covered in fog. We watched a bit of the trapeze school practice and walked out to the end of the pier. These are my favorite kind of days and beaches: cool and foggy. Hawaii can keep their sunshine and tropical fish, I’ll take mist and seagulls any day.

And finally, last but not least: a do-over. I decided I didn’t like the picture of my grad school bag stuff scattered on my bed, so I took a new (neatly organized) shot on the floor. The two things that are missing from it are my iPhone 4S (which I used to take the picture) and my house/car/apartment keys, which I just forgot since they were tossed on my night stand instead of their usual pocket.

 

Things I Am Loving, ??? – Now

So… yeah. It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these. As it turns out, grad school is kind of a big deal and it takes up a lot of my free time, especially when (for what is essentially the first time in my academic life) I decide it’s probably important to actually do the assigned reading.

Seriously, guys. My classes only meet once a week each, but I have like a trillion pages of reading between each class because of it. And they happen to be Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, so it isn’t even as if I have nicely spaced blank days to get shit done.

The four-day weekends are pretty awesome, though.

In any case – not ALL of my time is taken up by school. Especially when I have papers assigned. I’m still the queen of procrastination, and while I wasn’t writing my paper on associative indexing this weekend, I went out and did stuff and spent a metric fuck-ton of time on the Internet, and here are some things that I enjoyed, in no particular order:

The fact that the La Brea Tar Pits are like RIGHT in the middle of downtown LA. I mean, in my head, I always figured they were on the outskirts or something. Nope. They are right next to/behind the LACMA (LA County Museum of Art), and as I was standing by the fence, watching the pits bubble in this really freaky way, I could also see a bunch of high-rise banking offices and a billboard for the iPad 2. I meant to take a picture but forgot, and this was the best I could find online. You can see the buildings and billboards I mentioned:

I’m an avid fan of wasting time on Tumblr, and have a super-intense love of those “What’s In Your Bag?” features that are pretty much everywhere. I’ve even done one or two or three of them myself. FY! What’s in your bag? is one such blog on Tumblr, and this chick* is awesome for carrying around both peanut butter and a hammer. The rope kind of freaks me out a little, though:

*Okay, could be a dude, but I’m gonna go the asshole-making-assumptions-based-on-stereotypes route and guess that based on the makeup and bright red purse… it’s probably a lady.

So, one of my roommates listens to a lot of country music, and this song comes up on her rotation a lot. It’s a good thing I like country music.* It’s pretty catchy, though, I admit I downloaded it for myself. The song is “Chicken Fried” by the Zac Brown Band, and the song itself doesn’t start until around the 1:00 / 1:10 mark:

*DON’T JUDGE, HATERS.

October is a great month for reading scary/spooky books. I’m fairly certain I linked to this blog post by Neil Gaiman last year, but just in case I didn’t: he came up with an idea called All Hallow’s Read, where people gift others scary books for Halloween. I’m in love with the idea, and I gifted myself with a copy of Ransom Rigg’s* Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. It’s a great read, and the photographs scattered throughout it really make the book.

*Most awesome  name ever, right?!

In any case – time to get back to reading 30 page articles about the mind-numbingly complex-and-yet-boring XML documents used to encode ridiculously detailed scraps of information about archived collections. Yippee.

A Love Letter to the iPad(2)

I guess a disclaimer should be offered up-front: I’m a total Apple fangirl. I’m typing up this blog on a MacBook Pro, I own an iPhone. And while I’m not the only one by any means, I am really and seriously in love with my latest Apple toy.

I bought an iPad 2. I named it Mnemosyne, after the Greek personification of memory and the mother of the Muses. While my laptop is called the “Turing Machine” after one of the fathers of modern computing, all my Apple peripherals are named after Greek mythological figures: my iPod was Apollo, who was the god of music as well as the sun; and my iPhone is Hermes, as it delivers text messages to me regularly.

The purchase was ostensibly for class, to load up readings to carry to class that would be lighter, more convenient, and possibly more eco-friendly* than printing everything out (one of my classes had decided to forego textbooks in favor of a tangled web of PDF files). I did download some helpful academic programs (GoodReader deserves all the praise that it gets), but I also decided to go to the local FedEx Office to print out double-sided copies of my readings for class anyways, so my excuse pretty quickly flew out the window.

What can I say? I just focus better when I read stuff on paper for class. Also, as much as I love my toys, sometimes my eyes need a break from digital screens.

*I’m still not sure if e-books and such readers for them like the Kindle/Nook/iPad are actually more eco-friendly than good ol’ paper, and neither, it seems, are other people.

I also, however, was quick to download games and other entertainment: both Marvel and DC offer applications to download digital comics (and have helpful links to purchase paper editions as well), and there are a lot of gaming options, including new-for-the-iPad advancements/adaptations (such as a new version of Dead Space by EA) and some great board game adaptations (from classics like Monopoly and Scrabble to still-favorites-but-lesser-known gems like Catan and Carcassonne).

Bypassing all the pre-loaded iPad apps for now (things that Mac users will be used to, like Calendar, Notes, YouTube, and Photo Booth), here is a screenshot of my second screen page, with third-party apps gloriously displayed:

The Video folder includes Hulu and Netflix, as I have accounts for both. Here’s an expanded view of my Games folder:

Fun Mac Tip: Holding down the home button at the bottom center of the iPad (or iPhone) and clicking the top power button will take a screenshot of the device.

I’m not going to do a run-through of each and every app, but I did want to cover my favorites pretty quickly:

• Battleheart is a really fun little hack-and-slash game with an amazingly adorable cast of characters. It has a really simple control system, where you drag a character to an enemy to attack, or to another character to use a special ability. You can switch up your team, recruit new members, buy equipment, and play in arenas until your adorable characters are swarmed by equally adorable goblins and bats. Very simplistic but very addicting.
• Dropbox is a must-have. An account up to 2GB is free, and I use it to sync documents between my MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad, as well as back up important papers and such until I’ve turned them in.
• GoodReader is amazing. You can read lovely PDF files, mark them up with highlighting and notes (and save these changes to a second copy, so your original stays pristine), and everything comes through in bright, crisp color – I scoff at your Kindle or black & white Nook.
• Instapaper makes reading long articles and such a pleasure. You sign up for a free account, add a little bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, and save all the reading you don’t want to finish at the moment to your account. Sync it up while you’re on wifi and a simplistic text-and-pictures version is available offline for you to read at your leisure. They also offer editor-picked choices of popular articles, if you’re not sure what you want to read on your commute.
• The New Yorker has a really beautiful iPad app. As a print subscriber, you have access to the digital editions as well. The iPad makes reading magazines a really pleasurable experience, with easy scrolling and links to additional material that a print magazine could never offer: slideshows of additional images, audio clips of poets reading their work, etc. (A one-year print and digital subscription is $69.99, only $10 more than the one-year digital-only subscription at $59.99 – monthly digital subscripts are available for $5.99, and individual issues for $4.99.)

Moving beyond apps and into a general review, the iPad is a genius device. It’s beautifully designed, which is only to be expected for an Apple product. It also just feels nice in your hands: I have a slip case for protection (see below) when I put it in my bag, but I don’t use any permanent case for the front or back. It just feels too glossy between my fingers for me to want to put a case on it.

It’s great for curling up in bed and watching video – it’s very light and comfortable to use, more so than a laptop. The iPad 2 clocks in around 1.35 lbs. The MacBook Pro at 5.6 lbs. Also, the slide button on the top of the right side of the iPad, where the silent/vibrate button is on an iPhone, can be set to either mute/unmute or can be used to lock or unlock the screen rotation – so you can set a video on landscape mode, lock the orientation, and then curl up on the bed in whatever position you want without having the screen get all twisty on you. Which is nice, cause I’m the kind of person that likes to watch video while curled up on my side. Which is awkward, to say the least, with a laptop (damn hinged screen), and just so much cozier with the iPad.

The iPad is also a great little e-reader device. Kindle offers an iPad app, so you have full access to anything from the Kindle store. Apple also has its own app, iBooks, with an integrated bookstore, and a slick digital-bookshelf display:

I’ll be honest: I still love my physical, paper-pages books. They’re heavy, they collect dust, they take up copious amounts of space on shelves. But there’s just something about physical books and turning pages that I’m in love with. Still, I have the iBooks program, and I did download the first book in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, which my friend Mark has been pestering me to read for over a year now. It was only $1.99, which was pretty awesome, and it did allow me to read in the car when my mom and I left at 5:30 AM to get to LA in time for another of my grad school orientations. It was way too dark out still to have been reading a paperback. Sure, you can buy book lights and stuff, but it was nice and convenient. And just like any other e-reader, you can carry hundreds of books at once for only 1.35 lbs.

For my fellow geeks, I would definitely recommend an iPad (or Nook color) over something black and white, like the Kindle. Why? Because a full-color screen means full-color comics: as previously stated, Marvel and DC both offer apps for the iPad, where you can download both free and paid comics. With DC having just rebooted their universe, it’s a great and far more approachable time to start getting into comics, instead of getting scared by the really high issue numbers and being concerned about massive amounts of backstory.

Also, if you were inclined to scan high-resolution copies of your legally purchased comic books (because you would never illegally download them from the internet), they would not show up well on a Kindle. On a beautifully colored iPad screen, however, comics are a joy to read. Occasionally, there are some issues with double-page spreads, but it’s still a very enjoyable experience.

So, would I recommend that you run out and buy an iPad? I guess that depends on what you want to do.

I tend to agree with the viewpoint that the iPad is a great tool for absorbing media – The New Yorker app is one excellent example of such. Watching video, reading articles, and playing games are all fantastic. However, I can’t really picture using it to heavily produce media.* The on-screen keyboard is definitely easier to use than the tiny one on the iPhone, but it still isn’t the best experience, especially for those used to touch-typing on a full keyboard. (For instance, ‘apostrophes’ and “quotation marks” aren’t available on the primary screen, which makes typing out more than a few contractions or lines of dialogue irritating. The purchase of a wireless keyboard (yay for Bluetooth!) might make a difference in this, and Apple actually offers a version of their wireless keyboard with an iPad dock integrated. This, however, raises the point that you’d might as well get a laptop instead if you intend to be carrying around a keyboard frequently. Part of the appeal of the iPad is the portability and sleek design.

(Then again, the most expensive version of the iPad (WiFi + 3G and 64 GB) will currently run you $829. Even with the addition of the $69.99 Apple keyboard, it remains cheaper than even the lowest-priced MacBook Air ($999) or MacBook Pro ($1199), as far as other portable Apple options go.)

*I haven’t yet tried out the iPad versions of the popular Mac apps iMovie and GarageBand yet. (If my friends and I get around to the collaborative vlog we talked about during the summer, I might pick up iMovie and toy around with it.) I’ve heard good things about both, but neither are currently programs that I would have use for. Also, for heavy creative purposes, I still imagine that their Mac computer counterparts would be more useful.

Sure, there are a lot of competitors out there – Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba and more offer versions of tablets. Still, the iPad continues to dominate the market, and I can’t imagine that changing in the next few years, unless something truly revolutionary comes out. (Remember all those so-called “iPhone killers”?) And with their huge share of the market, App availability is something to take into consideration. Developers build for the iPad. Sure, there are a lot of lame things cluttering up the iTunes App Store, but there are a lot of really great programs, too. And while there are some Android-only apps, there continue to be many more that are iPhone/iPad exclusive – and developers often develop Apple versions of apps first, as there’s a bigger market there.

Finally, I have no idea what syncing to a Windows computer* is like, as I use a Mac laptop. I do know that with a MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad, all my toys play together nicely on the same WiFi network, and as far as syncing documents back and forth with programs like Dropbox, that work on all platforms. I have a fair number of apps that are accessible on both my phone and the iPad, which is great. And there are often Mac version of apps for your laptop or desktop Apple computer that will sync or share with portable versions (such as the iWork suite of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers; iHomework; Bento; and many others).

*Apparently, when iOS 5 is released this fall, needing a computer at all to sync will be unnecessary – something you might want to take into consideration if you’ve been hesitant about mixing Windows and Mac products.

So: should you shell out the money for an iPad? If you can afford it, if you love Apple products, if you already own other Apple products – I would say absolutely. While I definitely purchased some new apps the day I got my iPad, I had many I’d already downloaded for the phone that were cross-compatible, which was nice.

If you’re hesitant but you think you want one, head down to your local Apple store (or Best Buy, or whatever other authorized dealer is around) and play with one in-store. I have a feeling that you’ll fall in love just like I did. The Walnut Creek, CA Apple store had a bunch of apps pre-loaded that let you feel out the capabilities of the device. If you’re looking for a more data-entry heavy machine (like for taking notes every day in class) that is still less than a full computer/laptop, it’s possible a netbook would be more your style. Or you might want to try out the iPad/wireless keyboard route.

If you’re an anti-Mac person – well, sorry for the last 2000 or so words, and I doubt I’ll be able to change your mind. Mac haters are just as enthusiast as Mac lovers. (I should know – I used to be a Windows girl, and groaned whenever I had to use a Mac for class.) But you should still head down and play with one. I went through an enlightenment, and maybe you will, too!

Edit (25 September 2011 @ 7:04 PM): Take a look at this clip from McSweeney’s FAQ about their iPhone/iPad app for what I mean about Apple’s majority market share:

Q. Why is there no version for Android?

A. Unfortunately, we have no plans to make an Android version of the app at the moment. Apps written for the iOS and Android operating systems cannot quickly be ported to one another — they have to be re-written from scratch. Developing an app takes a long time and because we are a small company, with an even smaller technical department, we just do not have the resources to support multiple platforms. There is no subterfuge, corporate bias or underhand dealings — Apple’s platform was simply the most mature when we first decided to make an app. We would love to have an Android version, but we’re just too busy right now. Sorry.

Things I Am Loving (11 June 2011 – 24 June 2011)

These are becoming less than weekly, which was the original intention…

Watermelon. My family are big watermelon eaters in the summer; we usually average around two each week while they’re in season and crisp. That’s two big watermelons, mind, not the little personal-size tiny ones. My mom cuts them up when she has the time, but we eat them so fast, she usually just cuts off slabs and plops them onto plates. So freaking good.

I believe it was on Wil Wheaton’s twitter feed that I discovered the link for Scott Haefner’s photography, specifically this exploration of the mothball fleet out in Suisun Bay. I have driven past these ships countless times, but never dreamed of actually exploring them. The photography is beautiful, and it’s a great adventure tale of how they sneaked on and off the ships.

They made a Professor Layton movie! They made a Professor Layton movie! And thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I can watch it from the comfort of my own couch or kitchen table or wherever I am currently using my laptop! It’s amazing, I am so in love with these characters, and I have all three of the games, they’re just wonderful. I can’t wait for the fourth to come out. Luke is adorable.

The Wikipedia definition for tchotchke. I have a ton of these, and this is the perfect description for them.

Also, YouTube’s reaction bar – I’ve never noticed this thing before, as I am not a frequent YouTuber. How long has it been around for?

I recently re-watched 500 Days of Summer with my mom, and I forgot how much I loved the expectations vs. reality scene in that movie. This is the best-quality, least-edited version of it I could find online.

And on that note… I just love Joseph Gordon-Levitt in general. He was great in Brick (fantastic movie, you should all watch it, modern noir), adorable in 500 Days of Summer, and way hot in the suit in Inception. I guess I have a thing for skinny, dark-haired boys. Preferably in argyle or suits with skinny ties.

Finally, last but not least, I’ve already found a replacement for my Post-It Tabs: Book Darts. Beautiful, shiny metal Book Darts serve all the same functions as Post-It Tabs, slide harmlessly on and off the pages, and are totally reusable. I happened to have a multi-color pack of silver-ish, gold-ish, and bronze-ish, but it seems that their big 50-count tins come only in bronze. Nevertheless, these are lovely and amazing, can be halted so that a tiny metal tab sticks out from the book or gently pressed in so that everything is flush and tidy when the pages are closed, and reusable. Did I mention the reusable? I had this tiny twang of guilt whenever I used a sticky tab, because I throw them out when I’m done with the book. Not so with these metal masterpieces. They sit in a pretty little glass bowl on my desk for easy access. I’m in love.

Things I Am Loving (??? – 10 June 2011)

Oh my. I got all involved in the end of school, and editing poetry and fiction portfolios, and studying for a statistics final, and neglected my little corner of the internet for awhile. And it’s been a few weeks since I did one of these round-up posts, so I suppose it is time for a new one.

Anthology magazine is brilliant. I first read about it on either Black*Eiffel or Oh Happy Day!, I’m not entirely sure which, but it was the latter that inspired me to pick up the latest copy (issue 3) while at home over Memorial Day weekend at Issues* in Piedmont/Oakland, since Jordan Ferney had an article in it (and I love her blog!). Anthology is a little pricey (it’s $12.00 an issue), but they are a quarterly publication, putting out only four issues a year (one per season). Issues not only had Vol. 3, they also still had a small amount of Vol. 2, so I’m only missing one right now! It’s a lovely magazine full of fantastic interior design articles, party suggestions, DIY crafts, and shopping suggestions. Take a look at their blog for ideas about their content, and find yourself a copy if they have a seller in your area!

*Actually, let’s add Issues to the list of Things I Am Loving. It’s a really cute, really small store just off Piedmont Avenue with a HUGE collection of magazines, both professional and of the zine-esque indie variety. Not only do they stock the normal stuff you can find at any Safeway magazine rack, they also have a great selection of way less common things – and a Moleskine notebook rack. So, pretty much everything I love ever, especially with Dr. Comics and Mr. Games just down the street. Plus, you’re in Piedmont, so head down the street when you’re done and get an ice cream sundae at Fenton’s!

I love it when my internet interests spiral into each other. It’s like when you find out that your real life friends from different social circles are also friends with each other, but in a nerdy, websites-on-the-internet way. GQ’s 10 Essentials led me to Cool Hunting, which is basically a collection of awesome things I will never be able to afford, and Cool Hunting actually did an article on Anthology Magazine! It made me smile. And is yet further proof that you should pick up a copy.

Sort of similarly, I just bought two new notebooks from Paperthinks, who make brilliantly colored leather notebooks from recycled leather scraps and 50% recycled paper. So, not only are they pretty, they’re also pretty eco-friendly! I chose Turquoise and Lavender, but eventually I hope to have one of each of their rainbow of color options: some 24 colors at the moment.

 

I went with their blank, large size: 12×17 cm (or about 5″ x 6.75″), with a matching satin ribbon, and one of those convenient pockets to slip loose, flat things into the back of the book. 256 pages means one of these should last you for quite awhile. And they’re just so brilliantly colored, how could you not lust after them?

Two of the blogs I read (of many) wrote about them: Notebook Loves Pen and  Black*Eiffel. I just couldn’t resist buying a couple, particularly because Kate’s Paperie (an online vendor) was offering a 20% off coupon for anyone signing up for their newsletter before June 30, 2011.

Max von Laue, a German Nobel prize winner for Physics, was in danger of having his gold medal whisked away during World War II. Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy decided to prevent this. As Wikipedia says,

…George de Hevesy dissolved the gold Nobel Prizes of von Laue and James Franck in aqua regia to prevent the Nazis from stealing them. He placed the resulting solution on a shelf in his laboratory at the Niels Bohr Institute. After the war, he returned to find the solution undisturbed and precipitated the gold out of the acid. The Nobel Society then re-cast the Nobel Prizes using the original gold.

How awesome is that?! Talk about hiding something right under the Nazis’ noses.

Post-It flags. I have been going through stacks of these things lately. I always buy a pack or two at the beginning of the term, vowing to be responsible about assigned reading, but I inevitably fail by the end of the first week, or maybe mid-way through the second, if it’s a really good term.

In any case, since I started keeping my reading journal (in a shiny, 1.5″, purple 3-ring binder), I’ve been loving these things. I use them to bookmark passages that catch my eye, because slips of scrap paper or index cards might mark the page, but not the exact spot on the page, leaving me in a few cases to re-read both facing pages and not remember what I intended to flag in the first place. With these brightly colored sticky flags, I can mark the exact spot on each page that caught my eye. And when I’m reading a really good book, the side ends up looking something like this:

My previous method involved using my iPhone to take photo snaps of the lines on the page, but this was a pain in the ass because of holding the book open and steadying the camera to make sure the words weren’t blurry, and unless the lines were on the top-third or bottom-third of the page, depending on the book, I couldn’t get the page number in the same photo. So, yeah, Post-It Flags. They’re brilliant.

And that’s it for now, folks! Hopefully by Monday night or Tuesday sometime, there’ll be photos from my graduation. Maybe earlier, there’ll be a dramatic account of packing up my apartment, a process I’m not entirely looking forward to. Or perhaps I’ll take notes during the looooooong drive back to California I’ll be making on the 14th. And then, like happened last year, I have a feeling we’ll lapse back into the once-a-week-at-best pace on posts during the summer, because really – who wants to be cooped up at a desk, tapping away at the keyboard when there is sunshine and Otter Pops and watermelon and margaritas by the poolside to think about?