Apple, Decisions and News

I would say that I have spent too much time lately at the Apple Store, located conveniently only eight miles from my home, except that I love the Apple Store and the geniuses who work there. And I think that there is something in the air, as there must be in yarn shops, that makes me w.a.n.t to buy something. That's easier to do at a yarn shop; yarn is way less expensive than any iThing. Even if I buy a lot of yarn. 

However, I needed a new computer. While my old one isn't completely dead, it's been coughing up blood more and more frequently. It freezes; it shuts down, it takes forever to boot up. I went to Apple and looked at computers and then asked the saleswoman if I couldn't replace my laptop with the new iPad. We compared both products and I bought the largest screen iPad with a Logitech case/keypad.The combination is genius and I loved it. Really, really loved it. But over two days I realized that it is still an iPad, not a MacBook. I could not format it so that it was easy to use for what I needed. I had 14 days to return it so I thought and thought and thought.

Do I have trouble making decisions?  Well, yes and no. 

I did finally manage to make a decision and two days after I bought the iPad and genius Logitech case/keyboard, I returned it and bought a laptop. Not as exciting and shiny but it works the way I want it to and it is WAY faster than the old laptop. 

This is the charging cord for the old computer:

It has been repaired with electrical tape, repaired again, shrink wrapped with electrical tape and this is always the eventual result. I had priced a new one and it was in the vicinity of $80. I knew that if I bought a replacement the computer would die the next day. I'm glad I resisted.

Today I go to the store again to have them wipe the old laptop and then I'm done, I think. I hope. My husband seems to think that my new laptop is the last one I'll ever buy---'cause I'm so old, you know.

I hope it lasts years, and I hope I outlast it.

I have only one complaint: when I got the new laptop running, and I checked out the sites I usually read, THE NEWS WAS STILL THE SAME. I expected more from a new computer.

Tomorrow I get to go to the swearing in of my Russian friend when she becomes a US citizen. THAT is good news.

Congratulations, Marina!

Why I, More and More, Really Love eBooks

For some unknown reason, I decided that today is the day to clean out bookshelves, sort through and cull some books, vacuum shelves and wipe them down with a damp cloth.

Do you know how much dust can accumulate on books and bookshelves??? How long has it been, I wondered, since I last did this. I don't know! But I'm old and my memory doesn't always work right, and that's why I can't remember when I last cleaned shelves out. Really, that is why.

iBooks and eBooks and whatever else they are called can't accumulate dust. The eReaders can't accumulate dust, unless you never pick them up to read. I will never have to do all of this work on the books in my reader and on iCloud and wherever else the books are.

And that is why I really love eBooks.  

Pffttt.... to hard copy books.  

OK, iThings,

SHAPE UP!

I was going through my iCalendar this morning, looking for a medical appointment I was certain that I had scheduled.  Nope.  Not there.  

I looked on two of my iThings and still, no luck.

I gave up, called the doctor's office and asked to schedule an appointment. The scheduler asked if I wanted to change the appointment I already had.

iEmbarrassed.  

I explained to her what had happened, that I couldn't find the appointment I had apparently already made, she gave me the date and time and we laughed together.  Hah Hah Hah Hah hah hah hah

I entered---again---the date and time in my iCalendar and it asked if I wanted it in iCloud or in my Mac Calendar. When I chose iCloud, the appointment was already there! I had assumed, incorrectly, that putting something in iCloud meant that iCloud sent it to all Things i. 

Apparently it does not.

So I entered the appointment in my Mac iCalendar, and now it is in all of my iThings.  

I figure that by the time I understand how all iThings work, Apple will change how all iThings work.  

And this will be me: