Fetisjobjekt

So the iPad I ordered back in May finally arrived yesterday, and I have been fussing around with it ever since. Yesterday evening I was a little frustrated and disappointed, mainly because of how difficult the on screen keyboard made the interface. But while we were in the US I purchased a Logitech Zaggmate wireless keyboard, which I decided to test out this morning. What a huge difference it makes! Suddenly using the iPad works like a dream. I'm a pretty writing-intensive user, and I really can't imagine using the iPad without it, after only a day.

So far I've purchased two apps: an enhanced ebook (Jack Kerouac's On the Road as it happens) and GoodReader, for PDF annotation. I have also downloaded a couple of free apps, like KindleReader, iBooks, the British Library Collection, StoryKit, and the demo version of a game called Drawn. Didn't find the game very engaging. The verdict is still out on the two ebook libraries. Not sure I'll do much with StoryKit either, but the British Library Collection is a fabulous resource for electronic versions of 19th century British books. For example, there are enough travelogues on Norway in it to make the start of a research project.

Agurknytt

There are few things in life I love so well as cucumber salad:

We're having this tonight along with poached trout, potatoes and sour cream--a classic Nordic summer meal.

I'm not knitting at all. Instead, I am obsessively preparing for a new acquisition: this week my iPad 2, (64gb wi-fi white, for the curious) which I ordered through work, is supposed to arrive. I can't remember the last time I got more wrapped up in a consumer purchase. This beats out buying a digital camera hands down.

Since realizing that the object may be in my hands within only a few days, I've been combing the internet compulsively trying to figure out what (if any) apps and accessories I need for doing the work I need to do, and trying to determine to what extent I will use the iPad for entertainment purposes as well (such as keeping E occupied on our upcoming flight to the US).

After being initially overwhelmed by all the applications available, I've decided that I really don't need very much at all, and that I can probably do 90% of my work through Googledocs. Once I've had a chance to set up my working environment and routines, I'll probably post about what I've come up with as the perfect minimum for a person doing humanities research on an iPad.

There are two rather spendy accessories that I think I'm going to break down and buy. The one is the Zaggmate iPad 2 keyboard case, which looks like this:

I know that there have been reports of problems with one of the ports not being robust, but I've been pouring through reviews of this and other keyboard cases, and keep coming back to this one. The price is $99.00.

The other coveted object is a Tom Bihn messenger bag designed to be appropriate for an iPad:

The model is called Ristretto, and I would be using it to replace the Timbuk2 laptop knapsack that I've been using almost daily since 2005. I should be ashamed as a former Seattleite that I'd not heard of the Tom Bihn company before. Even though the price is pretty high, this is exactly the kind of company and product I don't mind paying a little more for. I wish the padded section for the iPad and the edge of the inside pockets weren't a different color from the lining, but I guess I can cope with that. The price is $110.00. I think that's about what I paid for the Timbuk2 bag, though, and I really do use things like this for years and years. I may actually buy the one sized for the 11" MacBookAir (the price is the same, but the size is 335 x 265 x 120mm versus 305 x 235 x 120mm nix that, for it to be of any use I'd have to go up to the 13" size, which is 370 x 300 x 120mm, which goes for $10 more), since I think it would work better for carrying A4 and US letter documents around, which I imagine I'll still do, even with the wonders of the iPad (paper grading... which I'm supposed to be doing right now as I type...). Here's the Youtube tour of the bag that the company provides. 

So call me a lame, self-absorbed consumer caught up in the Apple cult. I promise I'll try to keep it to a minimum with the apps and the stupid games.

Luksusproblem

As I do every year, I had a "buy nothing" day yesterday as a protest against "Black Friday." It's not like it's that hard, since in our family most days are "buy nothing" days, but I like to make a special point of not participating in the consumerist hysteria that ensues each year after Thanksgiving here in the US. Yesterday a person was even trampled to death in a Walmart and two people were shot in a toy store, according to news reports. Something is very wrong with human nature.

Instead of shopping we went over to my mom's house to help her with a bunch of paperwork. She wants to get all the health care stuff taken care of, including what to do with her body when she dies. She wants to donate her body to medical research, which is what both of her parents did. Kind of a melancholy topic, but always good to air it. I've known for years that this is what she wants, so it was no surprise.

While we were there she pulled out 19 skeins of this yarn from her weaving room to give to me--Donegal Tweed Homespun by Tahki in color 849 (discontinued):


It's a huge amount of single-ply aran weight yarn--over 3000 yards! It's kind of a yucky color actually, with navy blue, burnt orange, and ocher flecks in the brown to make it a tweed. But in a way it's appealing too, in a puky sort of way. When we got home I became totally obsessed with making swatches and trying to figure out the perfect pattern for it. It turns out that this tweedy yarn looks terrible with any kind of stitch pattern, but really good in stockinette (plain knitting). It is such a generous gift, and I felt like dropping all other projects. It would work wonderfully for a Brooklyntweed "Cobblestone" sweater, but KE swears he doesn't want another sweater right now (just skiing socks!) and that kind of sweater wouldn't work well on me. Finally, this morning when I woke up I realized that the only pattern that will really work is the "Hourglass" sweater from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Conveniently, I had photocopied that pattern when I had the book checked out from the library, so at about 6 this morning I started in on it. So this is a totally unexpected turn of events, but I'm excited to see how it turns out--I'm definitely going to do it with a (mock?) turtleneck instead of the wide neck opening in the pattern, but otherwise plan to follow the pattern.