The fact is that Apple users like me are the uncoolest people on earth: we salivate, dribble, coo, sigh, grin and bubble with delight. - Stephen Fry

Start with an Apple IIe, add a Performa 405, a PowerMac, and the lovely G4, Sven, still alive & kicking. Add smatterings of the G1, G2, G4 iPods and the still-amazing-me iPhone. Stir in occasional Apple Store visits that last for hours wandering from gadget to gadget. As the glorious Stephen Fry says in yesterday's blog post, I worship at the Church of Apple. I am a shameless evangelist for their beautiful, life-altering products.

I'm so predictable. Nope, won't get a Kindle, won't even consider it, but Apple's device? Two, please. Watching the iPad video last night, I got chills when I saw the iBooks app. This could be the savior for publishers, a colorful, easily navigable, secure place for people to buy e-books. I love the look of the bookshelf and the potential functionality. The idea of having all my books, magazines, and newspapers on one device - plus my own books, photos, research, etc - without the cumbersome nature of a laptop is thrilling.

(As an aside, I wonder when e-book will become ebook, like email. Or if we'll start using iBook because Apple uses it. These are the things that keep editors awake at night.)

old skool

Finally invested in a new iPod. I bought my first one in 2003, which is ancient history for iPod people - it's not only black and white, it uses the old Mac font from the IIE days. Yikes. First song? Nightswimming. It seemed suitable for some reason. The kids at school used to make fun of me for my 'brick' iPod. Now i can be competitive. Rock on. Why is it that I think this sounds better than my old one? It doesn't sound any different. The question is, would I have bought one if I wasn't working at a boarding school with young punks who think they know more about music than I do? things to ponder...

the zen of the iPod

Happy mother's day, mom.

It's old news to the rest of the world, but shiny new iPods have landed in our social circle. I have iPod envy, though I do love Thor and would never cheat on him. And it got me thinking again about how life-changing this small white hard drive can be. I have been embarrassingly stopped on the street by randoms telling me I have a great voice. (Yes, Slovenes understand sarcasm.) I've also had people stopping me on the street to say 'prosim?' which essentially means 'what the hell did you say to me, you crazy foreigner?'. (That's me rapping.) But I can't help it; Thor is in a groove with me. On any given day I will be walking to work/pilates class/the pub/aimlessly and get in a mood, then Thor psychically (is that a word?) pops on a song that fits seamlessly into my head. Does this happen to other iPodders? Do other people walk a few blocks out of their way just to hear a song finish up, only to hear the starting bars of the next tune and find yet another route to their destination? Does ownership automatically turn a person into a geek who checks the number of times a song has been played, changes the five-star system on a monthly basis, creates new playlists just for Monday mornings or holiday weekends or random afternoons in a car?

And in the spirt of the ridiculous U2 iPod, here's some others:
http://www.liebography.com/ipod.htm

So now there's a new 60G, a new shuffle, and two 20Gs in L-jub. And my dad is still loving his mini. And I still have a strange email relationship with random iPod owners in the greater Chicago area thanks to Kevin.

It's a bit out of date, but the jist of it is all there:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1114925,00.html

Right, on to other things. Another shortened week was made even shorter thanks to a Friday in Nova Gorica for my boss' leaving do (one of two). Slovenes love their barbecues, and we spent hours eating and drinking wine and nasty homemade liquor and I was knackered when I came home, just in time to change for a friend's birthday dinner. Which evolved into hanging out at a bar, then closing bars dance-a-thons until (get this) SEVEN in the morning. Carys, the birthday girl, her boyfriend Greg, and me. All of us over 30, weathered, and should know better. Who cares. Sometimes you just gotta dance.

Wigan is in the Premiership now. This is interesting as my buddy Jason took Wigan to the European Championship in Championship Manager while we were flatmates in Lisbon and we thought this quite funny as Wigan wouldn't ever be in the Premiership. This is likely irrelevant to anyone other than myself and a few others.

What am I going to do with a full work week? How depressing.