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Thoughts, musings, and a question
Mar. 16th, 2011 05:38 amI've come to realize that while it's cute to occasionally indulge in a Belgian waffle shaped like a smiley face, it's awkward spreading butter on it. I feel like I'm contributing to some sort of culinary bukkake.
As an aside, if you live near an Eat 'n Park, I recommend trying the Pistachio Creme Pie if you get the opportunity.
So, planning to run Pathfinder, I've been considering more and more the issues regarding the game's current makeup. The guy I mentioned in my previous post regarding conflicting schedules, whom I'll continue to call Flakey McFlakerson for the sake of argument, was at one point planning on attending Sean's Saturday tabletop game (a Geist/Changeling crossover). However, it's pretty clear that the guy wasn't actually planning on committing himself to the game or anything and just keeping it as a backup plan in case he's bored. Apparently he spends his Saturdays with his girlfriend and never bothered to tell Sean that he'd only really attend the game when he feels like it.
So as a result, he won't be attending Sean's game. And I'm seriously considering rescinding my invitation to mine (which was really one of those "I haven't established the group yet but I don't want to talk about a game you're not invited to in front of you" sorts of invitations anyhow). Part of it's the fact that this guy's pretty notoriously unreliable and part of it's the fact that I don't want to run the game for someone who'd just blow off Sean like that. He was planning on playing the group's Cleric (and thus primary healer), but I've already had two other players offer to play something different to take up the spot (and both of them had characters whose concepts would convert over to Clerics pretty nicely -- most of the changes would be mechanical instead of flavor). And I really think that's a sign that the group would be better off without Mr. McFlakerson.
In other news, I've recently acquired an iPad. And please spare me the 'requisite' kvetching about Apple products; I honestly don't care what people think of my gadget habits, and I used to spend years deliberately sticking to lesser-known brands and such out of a need to Reject The Popular and I've learned that not only is it rarely worth the effort (try finding advice/support when the company's website is unhelpful and nobody's heard of your device) but it's also nice being able to acquire peripherals without having to have them shipped from Europe (as I had to do at least once back when I had a minidisc player). I got one of the originals, as opposed to the iPad 2 -- I'd been meaning to get one with my tax return anyways, and I already had a case for the original because I was led to believe I was going to get one for Christmas (and thus bought the case pre-emptively), and with the release of the new one the old ones had a predictable drop in price. I got it for a couple of reasons0, and I'm not quite replacing my Palm with it yet. Now, that said, I've got a question I'd like to put to the more tech-savvy of you out there.
While I prefer my handheld for sheer portability, there are times if I'm using the iPad for something and need to take down some notes. One of the things I like about my mostly-trusty old Tungsten T5 is that I can punch some text into Memo, sync it with my desktop and have a copy there I can screw with easy as you please. The iPad has an app called Notes that ostensibly does the same thing, but it only syncs with Outlook. However, to say I'm really not fond of Outlook is an understatement.
Now my question: Can anyone suggest a replacement (free, if possible, but I'm flexible there) that simply allows me to type things on the device and copy it to my computer without having to sign up for (or pay a monthly fee for) a service to upload it to the internet1?
I don't need the things I type to be accessible from a dozen different computers by connecting to the company's server or anything like that. If I want to move my shopping list from my desktop to my iPad2, I shouldn't have to connect it to my wi-fi router when the desktop is within kicking distance of said iPad. I'd just like to type it in one place and have it available for typing in another (or hell, a simple backup) with a minimum of steps. The Palm's nice for that generally, but at times for one reason or another it's simply more convenient to switch on the keyboard built into my iPad case than spend 5-10 minutes jabbing at a Palm screen with a stylus or digging out my folding keyboard (which is only really feasible on flat surfaces and not, say, a lap or the arm of a couch).
0-- Basically, sometimes I need something more than my Palm but not a laptop or netbook and portable PDF readers are becoming more useful from a gaming standpoint.
1-- I specifically got a wi-fi model as opposed to a 3G one because half the point of me leaving the house and doing things is so I can peel myself away from the internet for more than five minutes.
2-- Stuff like that would be on my Palm anyhow, but you get the idea.
As an aside, if you live near an Eat 'n Park, I recommend trying the Pistachio Creme Pie if you get the opportunity.
So, planning to run Pathfinder, I've been considering more and more the issues regarding the game's current makeup. The guy I mentioned in my previous post regarding conflicting schedules, whom I'll continue to call Flakey McFlakerson for the sake of argument, was at one point planning on attending Sean's Saturday tabletop game (a Geist/Changeling crossover). However, it's pretty clear that the guy wasn't actually planning on committing himself to the game or anything and just keeping it as a backup plan in case he's bored. Apparently he spends his Saturdays with his girlfriend and never bothered to tell Sean that he'd only really attend the game when he feels like it.
So as a result, he won't be attending Sean's game. And I'm seriously considering rescinding my invitation to mine (which was really one of those "I haven't established the group yet but I don't want to talk about a game you're not invited to in front of you" sorts of invitations anyhow). Part of it's the fact that this guy's pretty notoriously unreliable and part of it's the fact that I don't want to run the game for someone who'd just blow off Sean like that. He was planning on playing the group's Cleric (and thus primary healer), but I've already had two other players offer to play something different to take up the spot (and both of them had characters whose concepts would convert over to Clerics pretty nicely -- most of the changes would be mechanical instead of flavor). And I really think that's a sign that the group would be better off without Mr. McFlakerson.
In other news, I've recently acquired an iPad. And please spare me the 'requisite' kvetching about Apple products; I honestly don't care what people think of my gadget habits, and I used to spend years deliberately sticking to lesser-known brands and such out of a need to Reject The Popular and I've learned that not only is it rarely worth the effort (try finding advice/support when the company's website is unhelpful and nobody's heard of your device) but it's also nice being able to acquire peripherals without having to have them shipped from Europe (as I had to do at least once back when I had a minidisc player). I got one of the originals, as opposed to the iPad 2 -- I'd been meaning to get one with my tax return anyways, and I already had a case for the original because I was led to believe I was going to get one for Christmas (and thus bought the case pre-emptively), and with the release of the new one the old ones had a predictable drop in price. I got it for a couple of reasons0, and I'm not quite replacing my Palm with it yet. Now, that said, I've got a question I'd like to put to the more tech-savvy of you out there.
While I prefer my handheld for sheer portability, there are times if I'm using the iPad for something and need to take down some notes. One of the things I like about my mostly-trusty old Tungsten T5 is that I can punch some text into Memo, sync it with my desktop and have a copy there I can screw with easy as you please. The iPad has an app called Notes that ostensibly does the same thing, but it only syncs with Outlook. However, to say I'm really not fond of Outlook is an understatement.
Now my question: Can anyone suggest a replacement (free, if possible, but I'm flexible there) that simply allows me to type things on the device and copy it to my computer without having to sign up for (or pay a monthly fee for) a service to upload it to the internet1?
I don't need the things I type to be accessible from a dozen different computers by connecting to the company's server or anything like that. If I want to move my shopping list from my desktop to my iPad2, I shouldn't have to connect it to my wi-fi router when the desktop is within kicking distance of said iPad. I'd just like to type it in one place and have it available for typing in another (or hell, a simple backup) with a minimum of steps. The Palm's nice for that generally, but at times for one reason or another it's simply more convenient to switch on the keyboard built into my iPad case than spend 5-10 minutes jabbing at a Palm screen with a stylus or digging out my folding keyboard (which is only really feasible on flat surfaces and not, say, a lap or the arm of a couch).
0-- Basically, sometimes I need something more than my Palm but not a laptop or netbook and portable PDF readers are becoming more useful from a gaming standpoint.
1-- I specifically got a wi-fi model as opposed to a 3G one because half the point of me leaving the house and doing things is so I can peel myself away from the internet for more than five minutes.
2-- Stuff like that would be on my Palm anyhow, but you get the idea.
