Mute Witness > iBlog365

So obviously this blog a day thing failed. It went off the rails as bad as my IPhone 365 did.

I guess putting the pressure on yourself to do something daily comes along with the guilt of missing a day. Maybe it’s just me but as the days pile up, I can never seem to get the damn thing back on track, and then, I’m just embarrassed and ignore it. That’s exactly what happened last time and that’s what happened again.

I’m getting past it. However it would be ridiculous to keep up the whole iBlog 365 thing so I’ll just say I’ll do my best to try and blog often.

If there was a reason other than just sheer laziness and guilt that this went off the rails so badly I’d have to blame it on my podcast which went from once a week to daily. My best mate Chuti and I have started doing a second part of Oh My Pod!, a daily show where I get a chance to vent daily about news. If you don’t listen, go ahead and give it a listen.

Today, one of my favorite writers, David E Davis Jr. died.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/david-e-davis-jr-1930–2011/

He was automotive journalism to me.

I remember being at my great Uncle John’s house and finding his stash of car magazines, I poured over them, both Road and Track and Car and Driver. I liked them both very much, but I was drawn to the Car and Drivers. It was not until I grew up a little more that I understood it was the tone and writing of Car and Drive that got me hooked.

David E Davis Jr’s articles were always may favorite. It might even say that it was his writing that got me interested in writing. His editorial style is what made Car and Driver so great and what made Automobile Magazine, the magazine that quickly became my favorite after it’s creation by Mr. Davis.

You will be missed sir.

Just hooked up the iPad to the HDTV via the Video cable. Holy moly this changes things. It looks great. Games, surfing, MOVIES! It’s awesome how it just fills the screen. That cable will be permanently in my bag so that anywhere there is an HDTV… I can watch my content. Sweet.

As I’m beginning to write this post, I’ve only played with the iPad for a few hours… but I wanted to talk about some first impressions.

First up, it does feel lighter. I don’t think it’s as much as other people have commented, but I didn’t have an iPad 1 and an iPad 2 side by side to compare. It is seriously thinner.

I’m not all that crazy about the thinner, because with the thinner, comes the curvier, I does fit in your hand better but as there is no edge, the buttons are all on the curve… and the the dock connector is on the curve and the headphone jack is… well you get the message.

It is fast. Apps launch faster, magazines in Zinio download quicker (I think it’s the processing of the data that has sped up) and App switching is much smoother.

I have some thoughts about the Smart Cover but I’ll do them in another post.

I happy as a clam… I finally got my iPad. The third time was indeed the charm. On Tuesday morning, I had a dental appointment and had planned to work at home before the appointment and a I just figured, I can work remotely from the floor in front of the Apple store just as easily as my home so I got up at the crack of dawn and headed out.

I met up with my friend Gordon who also was on the hunt for an iPad around 630am. We were about 20 people back in the line , but they let us in the mall quite early so it wasn’t so bad. I won’t lie that I felt it was pretty hopeless. After standing in line twice and coming away pretty much empty handed, I actually almost said “Fuck it” and walked away. However on Saturday, I had a conversation with my boyfriend who told me that I really should consider being more Optimistic, and less Pessimistic. I decided to give that a shot.

So there we sat working and chatting, hanging out and waiting. I realized that even if I went away empty handed, it wasn’t a bad way to pass the time. The staff came out a few times to tell us that at 9am and not before they’d sell the stock they had and that they would not know what kind of stock they had until 9am. For what it’s worth I still CAN’T believe that. I would rather them say we WON’T tell you than say they don’t know, but I digress. Closer to 9 they came out to tell us what they didn’t have. Pretty much NO AT&T models, few Verizon models but they had a good amount of WiFi models in all colors and sizes and they would probably have enough for everyone in line. See… Optimism paid off.

I had hopes to pick up 3 iPads, one for me, one for Pinoyboy and one for Chuti. With the two per person limit, I was going to have Gordon for a big favor but, it turned out that they did not have what Pinoyboy was looking for so I was just patiently waiting for two black Wifi iPad 2s.

I got them, with little fan fare and not much drama. A total of almost 8 hours in line and I finally had almost all the iPads I was looking for.
Thank goodness it’s over, now to play.

Friday morning, I decided to start my work day a little late and take a chance. I had heard that the Apple store was putting iPads on sale at 9am every morning if they had them in stock. I headed up to the Park City store at 630am. I got there right after 7am and was the 8th person in line. I waited patiently for my two hours, checking email and doing some coding on my MacBook Air. At about 8:50AM, they came out to tell us that there were absolutely no AT&T iPads but they had a few others in stock, first come first serve.

It was my plan to get two iPads, one for me and one for my hubby. Two 16 GB WiFi iPads, one black one white. Simple enough. I felt very confident that I was going to score iPads! But of course the iPad gods cursed me again. First with the Smart Cover arriving three weeks before the iPad, and then…

I got into the store, asked for my two 16GB iPads and was told there were no more 16GB Black WiFi models, no worries I said… I’ll take a 32GB instead. They handed me the two boxes… and then I noticed… the 32GB model was White. And of course, there were no Black 32GB. So I figured at least he got his. And at least there was one in the house.

Saturday morning, my hubby suggested we take a chance and head over to the store again to see if we could score an iPad for me. We figured as it was a weekend morning, we’d leave an hour before I did on Friday. Of course we were right. We got to the mall and there were easily twice as many people there that day as there was the day before. We waited in line for about an hour until at 8am, they came out and told us they had no iPads.

I’m not sure if I’ll try again or wait it out. According to the website, my iPad is scheduled to ship on April 1st. I’ll keep u posted.

One of the reasons I’ve been behind this past week has been that we’ve had a little scare with our kitty, Willow.

Willow has been with us for 10 years this April. She was my 5th Anniversary gift from my boyfriend Shawn. She’s been a constant companion to us both and I’m not sure what I’d do without her. And this week we got a little scare.

She had developed a small lump on her tail and recently, it’s grown quite rapidly and it even started to get a little sore on it. We took her to the vet figuring that it might be a cyst or something they could drain or remove. Willow is quite a “scaredy cat”. She is afraid of strangers, of women and of being outside the house, so we don’t take her to the vet unless she has to go.

She did really well at this vet, the woman was very gentle and sweet with her but she pulled no punches. The lump was large, and pretty intertwined into the bones of her tail and they’d have to have amputate it. That came as quite a shock to us and I was quite worried. I’m happy to say that she came thru the surgery very well. Right now she still has a pain patch on her neck and her tail is wrapped in a big red bandage, but over the past two days she’s slowly returning to her normal self, although she is a bit more clingy than usual. I’m sure being alone at the vets overnight was a lot for her.

We’re still waiting for the biopsy of the tail but it certainly looks like she’s on the mend.

Hi.

It’s me.

I’m still here… but I certainly have fucked up at this blog-a-day thing.

I’m actually so far behind that i’m not even sure how many posts I need to catch up. Let me do the math.

I’m back. Still here? I’m 9 behind. That’s actually not as bad as I thought. I could double up and get back on track.

But… don’t hold your breath

I’m terribly behind in my daily blogging. I’m going to my best to catch up and I’m going to refrain from talking about Japan at this point.

So Friday was iPad 2 day and I did not end up with one. It’s not that I couldn’t have, I think if I had wanted to wait in line I could have gotten one, but the memory of the iPhone 4 line was still fresh in my memory.

I arrived at the Apple store at Park City and saw a huge line. I’d guess several hundred people. I just did not have it in me to wait. We shuffled off to the nearby Best Buy, where we found they only had 10. Off to the Wal-mart where they had 2. Next Target, where there was 5, and no one in line. Only trouble they were all Black 64GB WiFi models. Last but not least we went to the King of Prussia store, where there was in fact quite a line but again I just couldn’t stand in line for 4 hours, so I didn’t get an iPad.

I’m shockingly not that upset about not getting one. I ordered online and it will be here the first week of April. Of course ironically, my Smart Cover will be delivered tomorrow! LOL.

It’s been days since I blogged. I have to be honest, I can’t find the desire to write. I’m heartbroken over the drama unfolding in Northern Japan.

I don’t know what to say about it. I feel terrible. I feel like I have a connection to Japan and to see the people in that country suffering is tearing me apart. I’ve wanted to talk and say something about it but I can’t think of how to put it into words. Every day I started to write, and every day I could not find the words.

I need to get over this and get back to blogging daily, so I’ve decided that I’m not going to try anymore. It’s just done at this point.

The one thing I’d like to do is to encourage my readers to do whatever they can to help out the Red Cross. So much is needed to help and with the whole possible meltdown(s), they’re going to need even more.