Gadgets

For someone who has more than once decried the waste and materialism of technological consumerism, I've been getting a LOT of electronic gadgets in the past month.

But I can explain:

The new computer was necessary for studio. My laptop graphics card (fused to the motherboard) was flaking out and I was losing a lot of time and work when my workstation came to a crashing halt, often several times an hour. Plus, with this 23" monitor, I can look at two program windows side by side and work across the desktop.

I was giddy when I started opening boxes.

Apple, Inc., actually, bought me a new ipod nano. There was a class action lawsuit against them since their original ipod nano battery kept overheating when it was being charged. Guess they turned the "obsolescence" dial a little bit too far to the right. Anyway, I guess Apple figured that nobody would keep an Apple product more than two years (after which, it's probably broken anyway), so they offered to replace all the original ipod nano's out there. 

Actually, my old nano worked fine and even outlasted the first generation touch which came out years later, and it was only when Saori had it in Buenos Aires that it stopped working. Anyway, I enrolled in the replacement program and they mailed me an "ipod transport package" which was "specially designed to secure ipods for transit." It turned out to be a padded mailer with a plastic baggie. So they should be sending  me a new nano any day now, although I'm hopeful that old nano was recycled and not by barefoot children in an Indian landfill. 

Which brings me to... my new Kindle. Dad actually gave me some money for Christmas and asked me if I wanted a kindle or new glasses, and so I used some of the money for a kindle and I'll use some of the money for new glasses. The kindle I picked up because of my landscape class. 

The landscape class has a required textbook that we're apparently using which is $60 at the cheapest. They have a Kindle version, which is $50 and isn't the same size and weight as a textbook. But which kindle? I was debating between the basic $80 version or the $100 touch version, and I ended up getting the basic. It was $20 cheaper, and a read in numerous places that the touch was terrible at rendering PDFs, which is a lot of how I read classroom material.

I'm actually kind of surprised at how much I use it, although the novelty of a new thing also helps. There's literally thousands of free books out there and nearly ten you might actually want to read. Found a good one on traditional Japanese fairy tales. ProPublica also published a free book on the Financial Crisis (SPOILER: it's Wall Street's fault). I also downloaded a book by Haruki Murakami that I've been desperately waiting for in paperback. The hardback version is $40, so I was happy to pick up the kindle version for $14. So its nice to bring to bed to read a bit at night, and then when I wake up in the morning, I can use the browser and check email. The thing uses very little battery power, especially when you turn off the wi-fi. Supposedly it can last for weeks on a single charge. We'll see.