First and foremost, it makes web browsing a dream. I can do it from the comfort of my recliner,
and every page is plenty big, and I have found few pages that do not render correctly in Safari.

Secondly, apps like Flipboard make reading blogs super I easy. Google reader, twitter, facebook, and others are all conveniently restructured into a newspaper format, making tons of information available at a glance. But that’s just one app. CNN has a fantastic app, as do The Weather Channel, Reuters, and many others.

Third, it makes me feel like I’m finally living in the future. Capacitive touch–the same technology in the ipod and iPhone–is just incredibly responsive. It’s accurate and fast, and that makes the idevices feel so much better than the touch screens of the past. No more tapping around a button hoping to hit the sweet spot. No more tapping and waiting for it to register. I have been extremely impressed by the touch in the iPhones, and after playing with the iPad more, I’m just even more impressed. All that, and I know this is a year-old device.

Fourth, the screen is just beautiful. It’s plenty large enough for watching video, and the video if gives is clear and bright. It doesn’t have much trouble with blacks, either, which is nice. Even with the brightness set at its lowest setting, the colors aren’t muted, and they don’t succumb to the grey blurring that many screens do when the brightness is lowered.

Not to sound like too much of a fanboy, the device definite has its issues. The onscreen keyboard is pretty unwieldy. If you are doing any significant typing, it gets cumbersome very quickly. The touch keyboard that works so well on the iPhone sort of falls apart on the iPad. I’m currently writing this post on the iPad, but I have a bluetooth keyboard attached, which really makes the experience quite enjoyable, but I would never try to write this much on the iPad itself. So, here’s how I have my stuff setup for heavy typing:

Also, the lack of flash is definitely a downer, but I must say that many sites out there are starting to adopt html5 and non-flashed based video playback. So, as that trend continues to roll forward, the lack of flash will ultimately be moot, but I have found on a couple of occasions, I would like to have it so I could watch that neat video of kittens wrestling or something.

The battery life is impressive, but by no means earth-shattering. Under normal use, I can get about 8 hours from it, which is pretty standard fare for netbooks, so I shouldn’t be too surprised But a quick charge while I’m sleeping, and it’s ready to go for another couple of days. So no real complaints about that, yet.

All in all, if you are at all considering the purchase, I don’t think you will be disappointed. Bear in mind, a new one will likely be coming out in the next 4-5 months, so you may want to wait for that, but even if you buy now, it will be a device you will be able to get your money’s worth from. I know I will.

Searching the web requires that either you know the name of what you’re looking for, or someone looked for it the same way you created your narrative, it using the same words. This is problematic for a number of different use cases. Say you saw a movie, but you have no idea what it was called. Or who was in it. This often happens with old movies, at least for me. So I want to find out more about it, but, uh oh. I’d have to go to Reddit or Yahoo Answers or something similar and give my narrative of the film, hoping someone else has seen it.

Crowdsourcing answers is kind of a fad these days, but it seems to me like with the vast analysis Google has done on the web, and with the massive databases it has amassed with its keyword searches over the years, I have to imagine that they should be able to cross-reference this information to allow for narrative search.

I expect it would work something like this: the user types their narrative. Using keywords in the narrative, a script categorizes the narrative based on hundreds of thousands of tags generated by users. With some noise reduction and some false positive refinement, this could create an extremely accurate categorization with relatively little resources. The categorization tags could then be hashed. That hash could then search the current “keyword” web, and as the results come back, they could be indexed like the original narrative was. The results are then ordered by how close the result hashes are to the hash of the original narrative.

People use natural language to find information. It’s easier, and it makes more sense. If we want to open up the web more than ever, we need to let people find information the same way they think it. And that’s in narrative format.

I’m not a programmer. I’m not a database expert. And I’m certainly not a web search expert. But given how willing people are to freely tag and give information, the database could be easily built, and constantly optimized as people report on the accuracy of their searches and add more tags, resulting in more accurate hashes.

Please post any questions, or if you have any suggestions on how to make this a reality, please hit up the comments. I’d love to see it happen.

I think I’m going to have to try this one out.

December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

Party. “a social gathering, as of invited guests at a private home, for conversation, refreshments, entertainment, etc.: a cocktail party.” (dictionary.com) Not pictured: Me.

I’m not a big social butterfly. I’m more comfortable with my laptop and a blanket than I am in trendy clothes with a bunch of people and loud music. It’s not that I don’t enjoy some company from time to time, but parties are so very often so impersonal and shallow. They get dominated by the most flamboyant, leaving the wallflowers like me to stand around awkwardly, wondering how long I need to stay before I can leave without being rude.

So, I can’t think of a single party I attended in 2010. And that’s just fine. I went, on several occassions out to dinner with a couple friends. I had a few friends over to the house and made them dinner. We had a beer or two, watched some movies. Had a good time. But no loud music. No rambunctious people. Just good times. Good friends.

Maybe my problem is I’ve never been to the right kind of party. But at nearly every one I’ve ever been to, I always just end up feeling awkward and left out. So, down with the parties, I say. Up with the smaller get-togethers. One or two people. Some good food, good beer, and even better conversation.

~~

The brakes hissed as the bus came to a stop in front of the casino. The weary faces of the elderly and the bored stared longingly through the front glass at the flashing slots inside. Today’s the day. Machines have been tight. They’ve got to give today.

Another day. More overdraft fees. But I’ll hit it today. I’ve got to. Just another $20. Pull. Click. Nothing. Pull. Click. Nothing. Pull. Click. WINNER! Over and over again. Transfixed. Hypnotized. Possessed.

The people on the bus groan as they stand up and exit the bus, blinking back the oppressive summer sun. As they shuffle into the casino, they wince as the squeal of the machines assaults them. The wince is short-lived though, as a smile begins to play on the face of each of today’s big winners. This is home. I’m home. And today, I’m going to win.

None of them head straight to the slots, no. They’ve got breakfast first. On the house. Sure, those pancakes and eggs may be the biggest thing any of them have ever won, but they’re free. On the house. Gratis. Fools. Giving all this food away. I’m going to clean this joint out today. Then where will they be? Shuffling back past the table games, the sounds of the slots behind them grow faint.

Shuffling into the next room, their food awaits them. Cigarettes and syrup. Bacon and coffee. The players shuffle through the buffet. Shuffle to their chairs. No one saying anything to anyone else, just the clinking of plates. The occasional siren from a jackpot winner. Those affect the group the most. Disgust flashing across their faces. That should have been me. Whatever. It was probably a small payout anyway. The lights go out.

A crash. Another. The lights come on. Go out. Screams fill the air. Laughter. But from everywhere, as if every chair and plant were a speaker, laughter pierces the air. Pierces the soul. A child’s laughter, shrill and innocent. It would normally make your heart melt, but now. Now, it was a chill blast, freezing the blood. The screams continued, drowned out by that infernal laughing. What the hell is this? Some sort of joke? Early Halloween? Not funny.

The lights come on. No screaming. No laughing. Just the faint sound of slot machines in the other room. WHAT. THE. HELL. Cigarettes. Syrup. Urine. One of the others must have wet themselves. Several of the older women begin whimpering. Several more have hit the floor, on their knees wailing to God to deliver them from evil.

“Stay here. I’m going to find out what’s going on. These bastards just messed up my day. I was gonna win today.” Terrorists? Practical joke? Robbery?

He opened the door. Cigarettes. Syrup. Urine. Burnt hair. The poker and blackjack tables were all upturned, chips scattered everywhere Oh my god! I should get some.. No. Keep focused. What is going on here? Where is everyone? Carefully picking his way though the debris, he reaches the door to the slot machine floor.

He slowly pushed the door open, and on first glimpse of the casino floor and the acrid stench of burnt hair and flesh reached his nose, he vomited. Cigarettes. Syrup. Death. Vomit.

~~

That’s part 1. I would say that I’m stopping here because I’m out of things to write, but the truth is, the dream is still so vivid in my mind’s eye, that I’m succumbing to my anxiety, and I’ve got to stop for now. I’ll write out more of it tomorrow. Maybe if I can work my way through the whole thing, I’ll be able to let it go. And maybe I can sleep again.

Day 05 → Something you hope to do in your life.

Since this wouldn’t be so helpful if I just said “everything,” I wrote about this a little the other day, and my biggest dream is to get a PhD. I’m a big fan of academia, and I want to pursue that love to its logical end, and that’s a PhD. I want to write that dissertation. Become a world expert in that highly specific topic.

Also, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think it would be cool to be referred to as “Doctor Fontaine.” But, hey, doesn’t that just sound good? Admit it. You’re jealous.

But in a different vein, a single experience I would like to have in this life is space travel. I don’t mean inter-space travel, from our solar system to another. I would settle for the moon. I want to see the earth from above, to look out and see the earth rising on the horizon, to be able to stand for a few hours and watch as Europe passes by, melting into Asia. As Asia fades away into vast ocean.

I want to be separated from certain terrible death by just a bit of steel. A few inches of fabric, and a plastic face shield. The very idea of leaving the atmosphere is just mind-boggling to me. It’s pretty much the coolest thing I can imagine.

“Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors). (Author: Ali Edwards)”

While on vacation at Disney World in Florida, the wife and I decided to go see the Cirque Du Soleil show. We walked in, paid $97 for two bottles of water, and took our seats. The show began, a grand parade of chiseled bodies and extremely limber people, and it was magical. The music, the acrobatics, diabolo girls. It was absolutely incredible.

But then something else happened. As we walked out of the LaNouba theater into the busy Downtown Disney, we noticed the House of Blues had its ticket counter open. We made our way over, to see who was playing. It was only one of my favorite bands ever. The Flaming Lips.

We worked our way into the crowded room, already bumping shoulders with the other concert-goers, as we got as close to the stage as we could. The excitement in the room was palpable. People were all chatting, laughing, the din in the room was loud before anything even began.

As the opening act came out, the crowd only got louder, singing and swaying along with the sound, everyone pressing in on each other, always trying to be a little closer to the action. Every so often, the guys from Flaming Lips would show up on the wings of the stage, causing the crowed to erupt in cheers. The lights were bright, the crowd was loud and hot. The opening act finished, and the roadies came out to begin setting up the stage for The Flaming Lips.

Tension continued to mount, and more people kept streaming through the nearly bursting door. Pressing closer, hotter and hotter, louder and louder. It took probably 35 minutes for the crew to set the stage, but it felt like an eternity. I couldn’t wait. I had always heard about how amazing their shows were, but this would be my first experience at one of them. The whole experience was just a little surreal. I mean, how do you top Cirque du Soleil? But Cirque AND TFL in one night? And all on my birthday? It was incredible, to say the least.

The show began with Wayne Coyne in that giant bubble, rolling out over the crowd, music blaring and strobe lights flashing. He made his way back over to the stage, and off they went, just completely rocking the house for the next 2 hours. I have never been to a concert at which the crowd was so incredibly into the show. Costumes, and interaction, and screaming so loud I thought my ear drums were going to burst.

By the end of the night, I was tired, sweaty, and I wasn’t able to speak. But I was on top of the world. I just finished one of the most awesome nights of my life, and there was nothing that could bring me down.

In my overactive brain, I rarely find myself lost in the moment. But this night, I was able to let go. Let the music and the emotion of the crowd just wash over me, and I was there. I was alive. I was in the moment, and I was the moment. What an incredible feeling.

When you are 15: When I grow up, I want to be a teacher. A soldier. A college student. An executive. A doctor. A Lawyer. Rich.

When you are 25: When I grow up, I want to be happy. Successful. Rich. A mother. A father. A business owner. My own boss.

It’s funny how dreams and goals change as we get older. They become less fanciful, more practical. And I guess that makes sense. As we get older, we have a better grasp on how things work, on how the world really plays out, and it’s less a matter of being jaded, more a matter of being realistic. Pragmatic. And that’s a good thing, for sure. I mean, not everyone can be an astronaut or a fairy princess.

I guess I’ve just found myself thinking a lot lately about dreams and goals, and how to make them happen. It struck me as funny today how drastically different they are today than they were 5 years ago. 10 years ago. 20 years ago. Today, it’s graduate school, and a PhD, some day teaching as a professor. At some future date, I would also like to open a restaurant, or at least have a giant kitchen where I can cook lots of food for friends and family.

I once had dreams of being an engineer. Of developing weapons. Making things that protect some people and kill others. I don’t now know why I was so interested in that field, but that’s what I wanted to do. R&D development for GE. Now, I can’t even imagine doing that job. I realized that engineering would drive me nuts, and as for the weapons part, I cannot imagine myself building machines made to kill people. But that was the plan. The goal. The dream.

Now, I’d prefer to trade the lab coat for tweed, the calipers for a pen, and a lathe for a poem. And I’m okay with that.

What were some of your old dreams or goals that have now changed to better fit who you’ve become?

1. Bob Dylan

Way back when I was but a budding teenager, my youth pastor at the time introduced me to the music of Bob Dylan. It was whiny and nasally and weird and I hated it. But he kept playing it, much to our chagrin. In particular, he kept playing “Highway 61 Revisited.” The lyrics were bizarre, but after listening to the song 15 times in a row, it began to grow on me. I had to have more! So I started listening, and as I grew older, the songs became that much more amazing. The lyricism of Dylan is just incredible. And when you think about how much he wrote, the mind just boggles.

2. The Green Lantern

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Green Lantern. A superhero limited only by willpower and imagination? That’s amazing. It’s who I want to be. And while it’s a bit melodramatic, his mantra inspires me every time I see it.

“In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!”

3. Jon Stewart

This one is probably the greatest outlier in the series. I really like Jon Stewart, and I think he has a more grounded view of our country and politics than most of the pundits on TV. I would like to think that he gives ideas and issues a fair cop, but I also understand that he has a television show to run. But, all the same, I would rather listen to his views.

4. Peter Griffin

Don’t judge me. You know you have an idiot manchild hiding somewhere in your brain, too. He’s inappropriate, self-centered, and idiotic. But he’s a lot of fun to watch. He’s the monologue that lets you laugh at the world, because if you can’t laugh, then it all gets overbearing.

5. Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman wrote a lot of poetry. Most of it not any good (in my estimation). He also was a man of great self-conviction. He was strong, proud. He knew who he was, and he wasn’t afraid of anyone telling him otherwise. One of my favorite quotes comes from his “Song of Myself.”

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

6. Alton Brown

This man is like some sort of crazy food wizard. He knows all kinds of crazy food lore. He seems to know what every ingredient is, and how those ingredients can go together, no matter what culture the food is coming from. What’s more, he explains all that vast knowledge to the laity like us, and he does so while making it fun and interesting. He’s goofy and that’s just fine, because in the end, he gets results. Forget the Iron Chefs. I want to be a chef like him some day.

Like any 20-year-old, a young Clark Kent is lost, wondering what to do with his life. Does he pursue money? Fame? Sports? Or does he reveal his powers to the world, becoming its champion? Truly, the plight of any recent high school graduate is difficult, but add to that the ability to fly, shoot lasers from your eyes, and otherwise just be a badass? Well, that escalates the problem.

In addition, the young boy is concerned about his adopted mother, he wants to make sure she is well taken care of, and for once, it occurs to me that maybe Superman isn’t so different from us after all. This is the magic of Earth One. Straczynski takes a step back, and forces the reader to also take a step back and rethink everything that the movies and comics have told us about Superman. While he may be impervious to bullets and can shot put a tank from Metropolis to Smallville, he’s got problems. He has to make decisions that, because of his power, can affect thousands or millions of other people.

And that’s just the narrative. Earth One’s art is simply stunning. Rather than the usual super hero bright colors, the Metropolis of Earth One is muted and dark. The dingy scene casts a more realistic bent Metropolis, and is, honestly, how I always envisioned the city anyway. The whole book is muted in sepia, granting both nostalgia and reinforcing the dingy feel to the early days of a Superman just coming into his own.

Most people who aren’t that into comic books are still fans of Superman. For these people, Earth One is an excellent starter book. It doesn’t go too deep into comic book lore, and it doesn’t take any prior knowledge to get into or understand. Plus, the writing and the art are both incredible. So if you’re looking to cut your teeth, or if you’re already a comic book enthusiast, Earth One is an excellent book.

If you want to check out a little preview, go check out Earth One over at the DC site.

I would post a link to amazon or something, but I would rather that you go find your local comic shop and purchase the book there. These shops are usually great places, staffed by people who really care about comics, and will often help you find something you’re interested in. These businesses are hard to keep running, so any business they can get is better than nothing. So go support your local comic shop.

*Superman and Earth One cover image are all copyright DC Comics.