The Last Day

I'm just sending myself a postcard to remind myself about the last two weeks.
I like looking back through my blog and this year, now that I have a decent app, I plan to add to it more regularly than last year.
As the postcard says it's back to work tomorrow which means plenty of time to think while I drive the truck around. I then plan to use every bit of spare time in the evenings and weekends to work on my own projects.
Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope it's productive for all of us.

What Do I Know

This is my last full day in Berlin.
I'm glad I took some time to visit this city. It's certainly not my favourite place in the world. What I do love it for is its history. This place holds a lot of secrets about the past and has many to give up in the future. Not until long after I'm dead and gone will anyone know the full extent of what has happened here and at that point the full extent will still be riddled with holes like a Swiss cheese.
Berlin has made me think about people more. About how we perceive and treat each other. In my old age I've become more cynical about how those in power abuse their position. I've come to learn that anyone at any level with any kind of control over anyone can and probably will, at some stage, abuse that power.
And for what? Are we genetically trying to become the alpha male or female. Is it built into our DNA that we should be on the highest branch looking down. I don't know the answer to that question.
What I do know is that when you are a victim of those in authority you generally have no easy way to reply or seek justice.
There are so many victims in this world that it would be impossible to count them all. The majority will never even be recognised as victims because the perpetrators of the injustices will have covered their tracks too well.
It seems to me that to be successful and to gain and attain power then one is going to have to break a few bones while climbing over those that will be less successful in their journey to the top of the ladder.
If that's the case then I'm happy being an abject failure.

The Right Tools

I probably spend too much time in the app store looking for tools that will do the job I want.
For the most part I find something that will do half the job and then buy another app that will finish the process. One thing I've been looking for is a really good vector drawing app. One that works like the tools in Photoshop but looks like the results one gets with Illustrator. I've never quite got on with Illustrator, probably because I haven't used it much but I like using the pen tools in Photoshop for outlining and stuff.
Today I found that app, it's called iDraw and it's very very good. It's really simple to use and I can get the results I want. I does a lot of vector stuff like intersections etc so is perfect for what I need it for.
This morning I'm a happy chap and I can get on with some drawing knowing that I won't be spending the next three days reading a manual that I struggle to understand.

My New Read

This is the book that I'm going to start tonight.
I had been reading Luke Rhinehart's "The Dice Man" but I found it incredibly dull. I can't for a moment think how it ever became a cult classic. Maybe you're supposed to read it while you're stoned or something. Personally I'd have better things to do if I was stoned. The idea is good and it starts out by trying to shock but from there on in I just felt that the ideas were running out.

So here I am. Back with Robert Harris. In my opinion every book of his that I've read has been fantastic. I read a couple of reviews of this book on Amazon which said that this wasn't up to scratch and a few more that said it was. Even if it's only half as good as the others it'll still be better than The Dice Man.

I'm sure ill let you know in due course.

The Tea Tray


I suppose it had to happen at some point.
While I like my iPhone a lot it starts becoming less useful for apps such as music apps. Over the years music apps have become more powerful and have much greater depth. Within the confines of the iPhone screen this can become a problem and off putting when all you want to do is get a quick tune started.
I decided to bite the bullet and get myself an iPad. I got myself the latest model with the retina screen and faster processor. I also got the 64GB model just so that it's as future proof as I can make it considering how much I've just spent on it.
My first impressions are very good. It's fast and the retina screen makes everything very clear. It's a lot different from the ageing 3GS.
Just about every music app that I'd just about abandoned has a renewed life thanks to the size of the screen. There's also the added bonus of a whole load of new apps to discover thanks to them being iPad only.
One question remains. Should I have invested before now? I think the answer is no. This iPad is fast enough and good enough to do everything I need where as previous models might have run out of steam a bit sooner.
Late adoption has its benefits.