(A)Musings by Heather: I Write Because I Can

I got into a habit of web searching and browsing on my iPhone, simply because of convenience (Getting gas and want to know the name of the actor you can't place upon seeing him in thatt show last night? Pull out the iPhone and look it up! Curious as to how to use endives as you shop in the veggie section? Pull out the iPhone and look it up!) and it just felt better than my old laptop.

But now with my new schnazzley-dazzley laptop, it's cool to use the more usual way. So now I find myself looking for reasons to use it...like writing another blog entry.

Speaking of writing, my copy of iWork came today, and I loaded it up. It's pretty slick -- hands over fist better than MS Office, especially with the features for writing documents in Pages. And my guess is the dictionary is way better than the one in Open Office, the word processing program I used on my old laptop(s). I constantly had to add things, often first causing me to pause with a "Huh?" and the need to double-check through www.dictionary.com, only to find that yes, I was correct -- "afterwards" is, indeed, a real word.

I think this weekend I will spend some time writing. Oddly, now that I have the ability to really do some work, my story children have calmed down in my head, apparently appeased by the fact they have an exit strategy, and I'm not feeling as much of a push. Perhaps I will mosey down to McMenamins, or even to something across the river in Andrew's neck of the woods. Or just stay home.

Wherever it is, it'll be indoors, given it's been crappy and chilly at best recently -- and right now it's thickly-spitting rain splattering around, driven by some really blustery wind. But that can make for a really cozy atmosphere. While at Oregon State, I loved studying in my room on stormy, rainy, soggy days as tea, Earl Grey -- HOT! (as ordered by Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: Next Generation) from the replicator) brewed in my coffee pot and classical music wound its way out from my speakers.

I guess right now, I'm just looking for an excuse to use my new laptop. I have a martini next to me that's asking for some dinner to go with it -- I think it's going to be smoked salmon, black beans, salsa and Spanish-style rice wrapped in a flour tortilla. I'm not all that hungry at the moment, but I have a "playdate" with my best friend around six, when we will log on through our respective PlayStations and "wham" creatures together in a game we both have and has the ability to play in a team mode online.

Then, at eight, Andrew will join us.

I have to say, that's pretty damn cool. And we can communicate via bluetooth devices. Quite the technological advancement from the Atari 2500 we used to use (and which my dad still has). Graphics back then were large squares clumped together to give the general idea of a circle, or a tank or a little man leaping over crocodiles either on foot or by swinging on a vine. Now the graphics are so, well, slick, to reuse my earlier word, they seem real.

From this:

Good Ol' Combat

And this:

And Pitfall. I can still hear the sound as he swings over the crocodiles. That old, very 80s, very computerized version of the Tarzan yell.

Oh -- and can't forget the next phase -- Mario Bros.!

To (in this same order) -- Borderlands (the game Andrew, Jane and I are playing), Gods of War II (I don't own this, but the graphics are amazing), and a game called Diablo III, the sequel to a game Andrew and I loved. They're taking their own damnably sweet time in releasing it.