iPad Apps Need Not Apply

Dear websites that I otherwise willingly sign up for email updates: I do not have an iPad or an iPhone.  I do not, therefore, need an email a week advertising that you now have an app for them.  Please cease and desist.  And even if I did, I don't necessarily see why you need to advertise that you have one.  Either, a) you are somewhere to par with Twitter and would be remiss for not having an app, or b) have an app that seems to do nothing but repackage the website information that I already otherwise enjoy in a more convenient manor.

Your efforts are noted, please move on.

As for why I do not have an iPhone or iPad?  Well, I just can't justify the out of pocket expense.  I much prefer getting a laptop for about half the price with the same shelf life as a Macbook.  I've heard many a friend lament at the two-year lifespan of their laptops, and with one exception of a faulty motherboard, my PC's have lasted me just as well.  I have one faithful little Dell that is seven years old this year, and still works as good as it did then.  The same can be said, therefore, for iPhones.  I don't have $500+ to drop on a new phone every time it comes out.  My phones typically cost me $100 with contract renewal, and that's about the best I can do.  I personally don't feel the phones' superiority to my Android phones.  And I do not have a tablet whatsoever, as I still can't justify shelling out all those clams one my tight budget.  But if I did, I would spend the money on one that supported flash...as in NOT the iPad.  Perhaps that's why everyone has an iPad app--because their websites which are 70% reliant on flash do not work on iPads.  And Apple has managed to convince us that their product is superior, and it is simply our fault that we cannot adapt.

All of this is not to say that Steve Jobs/Apple-fiends/hipsters/artists out there are bad/evil/unlikable.  You're just wired different than me, and if Apple is what you value, that's great for you.  It's just not what I value.

I'm a PC.

So, I am a PC, and yes, I'm even operating from Vista.  It doesn't upset me.  I know it's garbage, but I'm okay with that.  I got it at a great deal, and so far, it isn't inhibiting my life.  I know that both Windows 7 and Windows XP are better than Vista.  I'm not arguing that.  I also know that the newest Mac is also supposed to be better than all of them.  I've never cared for Mac.  Yes, they are wonderfully stable, but when you've been compatible with almost nothing, that works out well for you.  They are immune to most viruses, but in the past that may have had to do with the relatively low number of Mac users (yes, I am well aware that it is on the rise).  Wonderful for Mac users, that's fine.  Wonderful.  I am glad for you.  I have two distinct problems with Macs: 1) they have dumbed down computers, and 2) they're way too expensive.  Come on Mac users, even you have to agree on that.  I don't want to pay the extra just for mine to have a piece of fruit on the outside.  But you know what?  I'm not even griping about that today.

I was listening in on two girls in class today.  One of them was coaxing her MacBook to life, and it was makign a horrendous noise.  I, being a PC, was snickering inwardly, but didn't say anything.  Fellow-MacBook-girl was giving dying-MacBook-girl her condolences over her ailing machine.  Dying-MacBook-girl said that she was concerned because it was nearly three-and-a-half years old.  Fellow-MacBook-girl commented that her last MacBook hadn't lasted that long.

I have a six-and-a-half-year-old Dell running Windows XP that works just as well as well as it did day 1.  Granted, my needs have exceeded its original capabilities, but it still does what it always did quite well.  I reset it once, after a nasty virus, but it works great.  It has an non-wide-screen shape, and it's kinda thick, but it's a brick.  Honestly, though, other than size (and logically, and not untimely outdated design), it's perfectly fine.  In fact, I use it for a TV right now (to stream my media).

The Macbook has only been available since 2006, and apparently, people are wearing them out.  These all might, all powerful, Macbooks sound like they have three-year shelf life.  Why?  They're ultra-stable, unlike my Dell.  They're impervious to viruses, unlike my Dell.  They're apparently sent to earth by God on high for the soul purpose of giving us temporary happiness, unlike my Dell.  And yet, they break that easy?  I can't afford anything that expensive every three years.  This Vista has lasted me a whole year, and if I have to replace it in two years, then I will not have wasted that much money, or really that much heartache.  Maybe the newer ones are more awesome.  Maybe they'll last longer.  But honestly, I'm not impressed.  If and when my HP running Vista goes out, I will be filling the gap between computers using the green brick that is my Dell.  I'm hoping by that point, we'll have Google laptops, and I'll ditch Windows for something that's actually, you know, better and cheaper.

"Good bargains are pick-pockets." --Thomas Fuller

I love the $2.50 movie bin at Wal-Mart.  I bought sixteen movies and thirteen episodes for $5.  Granted, these movies are worthy of MST3K (no, literally--one of them is Hercules Against the Moon Men is an episode), but the entire first season "21 Jump Street" are worth at least $2.50.  As a lover of terrible movies, though, I think I will enjoy this collection.  The collection itself is entitled "Clash of the Olympians."  Mostly, they're Hercules movies and a few giant movies, all released between 1959-1964.  The packaging is as cheap as used tissues, though.  Each box is about as thick as two standard DVD cases, but contained within is each disc in a paper sleeve with a plastic window.  That's the difference between a $5 movie and $2.50 movie.

I really do love terrible movies, though.  Troy, for instance, is a terrible movie, but I can watch it thirty times in a row, though, I usually do watch it in French.  Achilles is less whiny that way.  I also happen to love Devon's Ghost, which you've never heard of, but is plain awful.  And I love it.

Hopefully, the Clash of the Olympians collection will be equally terrible and enjoyable.

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn." --C.S. Lewis

So, I fancy myself a moderately experienced adult, who is capable of doing many things and making many different decisions with an acceptable amount of success.  Nothing to brag about, but certainly capable.  I have learned, though, several things today.

• The best way to carry one's new cranberry colored tweed knee length jacket to one's second floor apartment is to wear it.
• The best way to carry one's new blanket to one's second floor apartment is to strap it to one's duffel bag.
• The best way to carry one's 17" x 32" framed print to one's second floor apartment is not to carry it wrapped up in one's favorite pink bedspread, but sometimes you just have to.

Being born in the mid-eighties, I have absolutely no adult experience with paper grocery sacks.  By the time that I had any purchasing power, the choice was not "paper or plastic" but "plastic or cloth bags you brought with you."  As such, I've made interesting discoveries after visiting the Aldi in Trussville, Alabama.

• Double bagging is a good thing.
• Carrying paper bags full of cans up to one's second floor apartment is neither easy nor pleasurable.
• Carrying paper bags full of cans up to one's second floor apartment is hazardous as there is nothing by which to grab on to said bags except for paper sides.
• Regardless of how sturdy of a grip one feels one has when one starts to carry paper bags up to one's second floor apartment, the bags will always slide down one's new cranberry colored tweed knee length jacket towards the ground.
• Sequined zebra ballet flats do not protect one's toes from 30 oz cans of pinto beans.

Aldi is one of those places with great prices, but you have to pay for bags.  As I had no more empty cloth bags, I thought that I would be both more economic AND greener if I used paper bags (which were four cents cheaper than plastic).  I now have a greater appreciation of both plastic bags and cloth bags--both for their strength, and one for it's ecological impact.

However, my pantry is now stocked, and cheaply so.

Oh, and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving.