As some of you may know, I'm an electronics junkie. I love computers, I love new devices, and I also love all things Apple, ever since I got my first blue iPod mini that I had to beg my parents to buy.
I've been following the rumors about the Apple Tablet since they started popping up. I almost considered not getting a nook because of the Apple Tablet rumors. Leading up to this event, I firmly said, no, I don't want one. Why do I need one? I have an iPhone, iMac, and MacBook. What makes this new device so special? What makes it necessary?
As I thought, it does look like an overgrown iPhone/iPod touch. But I love my iPhone! The iPad looks slick and watching videos of it operating, it's fast and nimble. You just want to reach out and touch it. It's got such a wide viewing angle that you can sit on the couch and watch it with a friend. So yeah, the bottom line is, I want one. Why? Because it's shiny, I'm a consumer, and yeah, it's shiny! Also, it's about half the price I thought it would be if I were to get the 16 GB model. Though I'd probably spring for the 3G one, which would add $130 to the final price tag. Everyone was saying that they would be about $1,000, which I thought was way too much, but this price is much more reasonable.
Looking at all the accessories you can get for it, I think it would actually be pretty neat for writing. You can use a bluetooth keyboard or one that connects to the dock and it will stand on its own, or you can use the touchscreen one that's about the size of a laptop keyboard but I don't know about that for touch-typing. I tried to use a netbook for the last NaNo, because I didn't want to carry my laptop to work, and while I don't think the iPad will be small enough to take to work and use on my lunch break, I think it would still be easier to get some writing done on the fly and around the house and also at write-ins. Here's to hoping I can get Scrivener on it! Otherwise, I'll be stuck using Pages, which isn't too awful, but I love Scrivener.
As for ebooks on the iPad. I don't like the idea of reading on this device. I'm not going to take the iPad with me to work and read it on my lunch breaks, and I'm not going to take it into bed with me and read books on it. That's what my nook is for. The purpose of e-ink screens on ereaders is that the screen does not hurt or stress the eyes while you're reading for a long time. I don't want to spend a lot of time reading with this backlit device because it's the same as a computer screen. The battery on my nook will also last longer than that on the iPad, even though the iPad is supposed to last for 10 hours on wi-fi (no numbers for how long it'll last on 3G yet). My nook fits in my purse, while this nearly-10 inch device will not. I will possibly buy books on the iPad (assuming I get one), but only those that I cannot get on my nook. Some publishers do not offer certain books through Barnes & Noble, and they may offer it on the iPad.
Apple's done it again. They've made me crave their newest shiny piece of glass, metal, plastic, and silicone. Now I have two options: read all the scathing reviews that will inevitably come out of this (most of them from Apple haters) and convince myself that I don't need one, or find a way to save up for this thing while I'm also paying bills, paying off the credit card, and paying back my IOU's. Good thing I'm getting a good amount of money back from my income taxes! Or maybe as a birthday present in May. Yeah mom and dad, I'm hinting!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Playing with my Macro Lens
As some of you may know, I received a macro lens for Christmas. I've been able to play with it for about three weeks now and it's been a lot of fun. I'm really excited for spring and summer to come around, because I think I'll be able to get some really great shots of flowers and insects. Here's what we've gotten so far. Most of these pictures were taken back home at the houses of my parents or my in-laws.
A few other things before I go on to the pictures. Click on the pictures to enlarge for full detail. You'll miss it otherwise! Please leave comments about what you think. I know this is all amateur but I'm hoping that with practice, I'll continue to get better. I may even venture into some stock photography or try to sell a few prints here and there. Many of these images are mostly unedited, so if you have any editing suggestions, let me know. I'm only posting a few of the pictures I have uploaded, so if you want to see all of the macro pictures, check out the Flickr Set.
This is a statue outside the house. It's been there for a while, so the paint is eroding nicely.
Here's an second shot I took of the paint, a more in-depth shot of what the weather's been up to.
Here's another statue that Brandon got a nice shot of. After these few statues, I really want to go into a historic cemetery and go to town. I think I could get some really nice shots.
The branches of a yucca plant, I believe. In all its spiny glory.
The keys of an antique typewriter that was given to me for Christmas. I added the sepia effect because the picture color ended up an off-blue and not very attractive.
Water flowing off of the stone waterfall of a swimming pool.
So that's that. There are more on the Flickr Set, but I don't want to make a huge picture post, so if you check them out, let me know what you think!
Labels:
Macro,
Photography
Friday, January 15, 2010
My thoughts: Under the Dome, by Steven King
Last night, I finished Steven King's newest novel, Under the Dome. Under the Dome is a whopping 1074 pages in print and 823 pages on my nook (though when you change the page on your nook, it doesn't always change the page count, so who knows...). For comparison, the thickest Harry Potter book, Order of the Phoenix, was 870 pages.
To preface the rest of this post, I will just say that I'm not some die-hard Steven King fan. I haven't read very many of his books, though I am familiar with his work. I've read Carrie and On Writing, and I think that's about it. Basically, this is not a review coming from someone that's going to compare it to his other writing. Just so you know. I will also say that I'm not doing this to give spoilers. I am going to write this post with general thoughts on the book and try my best not to spoil anything for anyone. If anyone leaves a comment, please do not post a spoiler.
Under the Dome is a great nook book. Considering it's massive size, when people ask me what's so great about an e-reader, I just have to reference this novel. I can't shove this book into my purse. It weighs a ton, and not to mention, it's huge. It isn't something that I could have carried around with me to read on my lunch break at work. It's just huge. Enough about the physical, though, I want to talk about the story itself.
Premise
The idea of Under the Dome is simple in concept: an invisible barrier suddenly appears that separates the town of Chester's Mill from the outside world. Initially, no one knows why it is there or where it came from or how to get rid of it. The book follows several characters throughout the story as events unfold and they try to figure out how and if they can escape from the dome.
Characters
Steven King does a great job of creating a bad guy. What I like about this book is that it's a great example of character profiling. As an aspiring writer, I think this book is a great example to look at as an example of how to create realistic characters that readers can love and hate.
I'm only going to talk about one character here, because he's the one that I thought Steven King did the best job on. This character is named Big Jim. While not a really enjoyable character and definitely not a good guy, is a wonderful creation. He is someone that you can really loathe, but Steven King also makes you wonder, is he pure evil or is he doing what he's doing because he believes it is his duty to do it? Was he a deluded God-freak who thought he was justified and doing God's work or was he cold and calculating? As a writer who struggles with characters the most, it is interesting to see how he creates people that you can imagine seeing and meeting. These characters are real enough to be real people, with back stories and families and their own phrases and speech patterns. The rich characters are probably the main meat and potatoes of the book. They move along the action in the story mainly from how they interact.
Slowness
Yes, the book does move slowly. Would you imagine a 1000+ page book to have action on every page? Though there is a lot that happens in the book, and I would say that it never was dull. And, while I won't be re-reading it anytime soon since it's so long, it is something that I would like to revisit eventually. I think a re-read would be interesting, to catch things that I may have missed before.
One of the main reasons it felt so slow to me was because of all the foreshadowing that Steven King used. Early in the book, he hints at disaster, evil things to come, fire, etc. Halfway through the book, he's still hinting. 3/4 of the way through, still hinting. It's almost agonizing, but it also makes you want to keep reading. You want to know what's going to happen. You want to know if all of the terrible things that he's hinted at will actually come true.
Death
Death in the book seems very abrupt. There is a lot of it, but it's treated with coldness. "[Insert name] died." Alright, let's keep going then.
Time
Time in the book was the strangest part. Since it's so long, it seems like it would take place over a huge amount of time. Considering everything that happens in the book, it's amazing that it only takes place over about a week's span. The characters often mention how long the dome has been there, because it seems like what has taken place would take weeks or months of being trapped under the dome, but everything seems intensely accelerated. If the characters hadn't mentioned the time, I would have completely lost track of it to the point where the days would have turned into weeks in my mind. (And yes, a lot of the death in the book feels that abrupt.)
Final Thoughts
I will say this about the book in relation to the ending. Under the Dome is not a "feel-good" book. But considering Steven King, were you really expecting that? I did enjoy the book, and as I said before, I will probably read it again when I get the chance to sit down and read it. It took me about a two weeks to read. I would recommend it to friends, but probably not to family. My mom wouldn't like it. Neither would my mother-in law or any of my other religious family members. I wouldn't necessarily say that it is explicitly "anti-religious," but from the general feeling you get from the characters and events in the book, a religious person would probably get fed-up with it. It also deals with subjects like murder, rape, and suicide, so it's not warm and fuzzy.
My final word on this book is this: It's entertaining. If the book kept my attention through 1000+ pages, it's got to be entertaining. If I'm bothering to write about it, it had to entertain me. I liked it, and that's all that matters to me. It was worth the $10 I spent on the e-book and if I didn't have an e-reader I probably would have spent the full price on it, though I don't think I would have read it as fast. That would have been a book to sit on my nightstand and read before bed. I wasn't going to cart it around with me. I think now I'm going to read a book that I've long-neglected: Dracula.
Questions? Comments? Tell me what you thought of the post and if you read the book, let me know what you thought of it. Do my thoughts match up with yours or was I just completely off in my own world?
http://arielle-writing.blogspot.com/
Saturday, January 2, 2010
New Year's Resolutions and Goals: What I expect from 2010
It's a new year and an obligatory resolution post. I'm back in Houston from the weekend with more Christmasy goodies from my grandpa and I'm still alive despite playing with explosives, I finished my puzzle, and I'm watching Brandon get headshots with his buddies on the XBox. Here are my resolutions and my goals for 2010.
Resolutions:
1. I will eat healthier and exercise more. Saying I'll exercise more is easy because right now I don't really exercise. I'm going to try to get Brandon out of the house more and take the dogs for walks. I want to take the dogs to the dog park and get a muzzle for Lucky so he won't be able to attack other dogs if they run up to him. I'm going to buy more fruits and vegetables and actually cook and eat them. We will eat more chicken and salad and less junk, find an alternative to sodas and cut back on sugar.
2. I will cook more homemade meals. I have tons of cookbooks that were given to me that I need to actually use. Hamburger Helper is easy, but it's also not very healthy.
3. I will be less forgetful. I left my nook at my parents house in Killeen and realized it once we were half an hour down the road to Houston. I begged Brandon to go back to get it and he did, but it still made him mad and it made our trip longer. I know it upsets him when I forget stuff, which I happen to do often, and I need to get better at it. This goes hand in hand with organization. If I were more organized, I would probably forget less.
4. I will blog more. I always have post ideas, but then I just get lazy.
5. I will clean more often. The house gets too messy mostly because I'm lazy or because we go out of town a lot. I need to keep the house cleaner and more organized.
6. I will procrastinate less. This kind of goes along with my laziness theme.
7. I will take more pictures, and get better at using my macro lens.
8. I will go to bed earlier, so I'm not so tired at work, even if Brandon does call me a wuss.
Goals:
1. To edit one of my novels and self-publish through Createspace. Because I won NaNo, I will get a free copy of my book whenever I do it, I just need to do it. I have several novels that need to be edited, I just have to do it.
2. To win NaNoWriMo again. That's not till November though, so I'm good. I will need to have an idea for it though.
3. To finally get the furniture we need in our house. We still need a real bed for our master bedroom and maybe a dresser or something. We also need a dining room table that seats more than four.
4. To get rid of all the cardboard boxes. Maybe I can get Brandon to get rid of his trash.
5. To fully move out of my parent's house. I still have stuff there that I've never brought to Houston.
6. To lose this belly. That goes with the exercise and healthy diet resolution.
7. To take some pictures that I might actually be able to sell.
8. To build our savings back up, so we have money in case of an emergency.
9. To spend less money on frivolous things, so we can buy the stuff we really need, or just save it so we can pay things off.
10. To wean myself off caffeine and sodas completely. That'll take some time.
So those are my resolutions and my goals. I think they're all pretty reasonable. They're mostly things I've been planning all along, but it's nice to get it all down in a list. That's another thing...I need to make more lists. It would help with the forgetfulness.
http://arielle-writing.blogspot.com/
Resolutions:
1. I will eat healthier and exercise more. Saying I'll exercise more is easy because right now I don't really exercise. I'm going to try to get Brandon out of the house more and take the dogs for walks. I want to take the dogs to the dog park and get a muzzle for Lucky so he won't be able to attack other dogs if they run up to him. I'm going to buy more fruits and vegetables and actually cook and eat them. We will eat more chicken and salad and less junk, find an alternative to sodas and cut back on sugar.
2. I will cook more homemade meals. I have tons of cookbooks that were given to me that I need to actually use. Hamburger Helper is easy, but it's also not very healthy.
3. I will be less forgetful. I left my nook at my parents house in Killeen and realized it once we were half an hour down the road to Houston. I begged Brandon to go back to get it and he did, but it still made him mad and it made our trip longer. I know it upsets him when I forget stuff, which I happen to do often, and I need to get better at it. This goes hand in hand with organization. If I were more organized, I would probably forget less.
4. I will blog more. I always have post ideas, but then I just get lazy.
5. I will clean more often. The house gets too messy mostly because I'm lazy or because we go out of town a lot. I need to keep the house cleaner and more organized.
6. I will procrastinate less. This kind of goes along with my laziness theme.
7. I will take more pictures, and get better at using my macro lens.
8. I will go to bed earlier, so I'm not so tired at work, even if Brandon does call me a wuss.
Goals:
1. To edit one of my novels and self-publish through Createspace. Because I won NaNo, I will get a free copy of my book whenever I do it, I just need to do it. I have several novels that need to be edited, I just have to do it.
2. To win NaNoWriMo again. That's not till November though, so I'm good. I will need to have an idea for it though.
3. To finally get the furniture we need in our house. We still need a real bed for our master bedroom and maybe a dresser or something. We also need a dining room table that seats more than four.
4. To get rid of all the cardboard boxes. Maybe I can get Brandon to get rid of his trash.
5. To fully move out of my parent's house. I still have stuff there that I've never brought to Houston.
6. To lose this belly. That goes with the exercise and healthy diet resolution.
7. To take some pictures that I might actually be able to sell.
8. To build our savings back up, so we have money in case of an emergency.
9. To spend less money on frivolous things, so we can buy the stuff we really need, or just save it so we can pay things off.
10. To wean myself off caffeine and sodas completely. That'll take some time.
So those are my resolutions and my goals. I think they're all pretty reasonable. They're mostly things I've been planning all along, but it's nice to get it all down in a list. That's another thing...I need to make more lists. It would help with the forgetfulness.
http://arielle-writing.blogspot.com/
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