Self-Portrait?

Thursday I spent a lovely few hours delivering flyers with my son.  No, he's not ten, but a long-time adult.  We took the time together in the car to drive around our county, visiting all the schools but 5.  He is president of the badminton club here and they are offering a logo contest.

Well, we had a grand time.  Most of the schools I could find but some we needed to use his iPhone GPS to look up.  No problem.  We had a lunch at a place in Tillsonburg which I remembered from my teaching days there--Ambrosia, it's called--and managed to circle about 90 % of the county where I grew up.

That night, I did my regular getting-ready-for-bed routine, taking off my jewelry and leaving it on my dresser till the morning.  And then I slept.  Not too newsworthy, eh?

The next morning I took a look at the jewelry on my dresser and noticed, for the first time, that I had worn two completely mismatched earrings the day before.  And I had gone all those places, done all those things, seen dozens of people.  And never noticed.  Obviously I don't look in the mirror too often.  I could never do a self portrait like Picasso and Van Gogh did.  I just don't look at myself.

Catching Up On My IPad

So here is a first. Tonight I am writing my blog post from my new iPad2 and I'm pumped. This is multiple-tasking at my best. (Of course I'm watching Dancing With the Stars so might miss a comma or two.)

What have I learned since I bought this entry into the Mac world? Scrabble is a team sport! Who knew?

Seriously, though, I have learned a lot of keyboard stuff which is different in this format. To correct a mistake I have to hold my finger over the screen until a circle appears. I place it to the right of the error and backspace it out. This is the only way I've found, unlike the PC format which gives delete or backspace. There are many little things like that which are gradually becoming easier for me.

My first test for the iPad as a word processor was at a writing conference at the end of April. Being a touch typist who needs a standard keyboard, I went right out and bought the add-on keyboard. It is excellent. As long as I had a table I used the keyboard but when I didn't I used the pop-up screen one. It is fine but slow. I had to watch the keyboard and not the speaker. Nevertheless, I managed quite well.

In the airport I had a lot of time to kill so tried out the Internet with mixed results. None of the problems were the fault of the iPad, just the airport connectivity.

Aps are the way to go, I've found, and kids' aps for the grand babies are fun. They don't cost much and are pretty creative. I found a drawing one that 2-year-old Ben loves. I like that it challenges him intellectually and is colorful and artistic. His favorite is the animals and the loaders he can paste into the pages. This kid can sit and create for 25 minutes at a time. Pretty good for a two-year-old.

All in all, I'm happy with the iPad and the aps I've got so far, as well as the how-to book I had to have. I like to hold that old-fashioned paper thing in my hand sometimes just to remember how we used to learn.

Time Just Fritters Away

So, this morning I had lots of things on my list: remove nail polish (it's a mess.), tidy kitchen (ditto), make salad for dinner, read Ruth's thingey for my critique group in London tonight, edit 25 more pages of my manuscript (getting close to the end!!!!), Twitter a bit, Facebook some, and write a personal blog about social networking. I did the first two and then got caught up on Facebook.

People really do respond when you ask them to be friends. I was totally enthralled with everyone's story and engaged in some twitter-type banter with friends and relatives. Fun.

And now there is only one more hour to be called morning; I have so much to do in that hour. First, I'll stop responding to Facebook notices. Then I'll get this post done. Finally, I'll finish my reading for tonight. That should take me up to lunch and all of those things are a pleasure.

Another task that took me away from my list was making picture CDs for Chelsea and Ben, my two grandchildren. I had to fawn over each picture, of course. They are the sweetest kids in the world, don't you know?

And the phone keeps ringing. Ron is not here today so I get to answer all the calls. Not that I mind. Being at home all day necessitates connections with the world and even though the phone is one of the older ways of being social, it's still my favorite. Nothing like hearing the voice.

Videoconferencing via one of the many methods is great, too, especially when it all works. This makes distances just shrink right up. My granddaughter and I have even developed a way to hug when signing off. It's not nearly so good as feeling her in my arms, but it's a great substitute. Would that she were living here. When is that time travel thing coming anyway? Beam me up, Scottie!

BTW, what better way to fritter time than watching this beautiful sunset on Vancouver's harbour when I was out there for my conference.