confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

A new post - whoop whoop! Been far too busy of late to update posts. Or maybe just been too lazy and, generally, unmotivated. Last post I stated that I would be gettin' back on track and, with that in mind, am starting in right at #2 on my list:

#2 - anything of interest - and yes I do mean anything (books, music, people whatever)

S0 here I sit on the laptop (yay wireless - one thing my time in the States taught me was wireless is a god - or perhaps the internet is a god and wireless is a demigod) and am plugged in and listening to Chester 'Howlin' Wolf' Burnett wailing for me to, '...come back home some day...' If you're a member of Manukau Libraries I highly recommend the cd The Rough Guide to the Blues Well worth the listen.

I have an iPod Touch. Is it good? Does a one legged duck swim in a circle? Does the Pope wear a funny hat? Does Pinocchio have wooden balls? Does a bear shit in the woods? Yes. To all. But is it great? Depends on what you bought it for, really, doesn't it. It's got wireless although you try pushing on the stupid teeny tiny keypad made for a 2 yr-old *rolls eyes* On a very good day my typing speed is 143 words p/min and the hunt & peck method (with & without stylus) drives me up the wall. What can it do? Magic. Almost LOL

The desktop icons (do you call it a desktop? what the heck do you call it?) include: YouTube, Safari, Calendar, Email, Stocks, Contacts, Maps, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, App Store. Of these 12 programmes or applications I use Email and, sometimes, Safari. That's it. Why don't I use the email more often? Wireless network, really. If I could guarantee a wireless network (that didn't have passwords up the wazoo) everywhere other than home, I'd be able to access email anywhere but since I only use it at home I may as well boot up the laptop for that - although nephew Markhiem and I did configure my 3 email accounts (Orcon, hotmail and gmail) so that if we wished we could play with it. Since receiving Monsieur Le Touch I have added three new apps (applications) and they are eReader, Skype and Stanza. I don't use Skype on it for the same reason I don't use email. As for eReader...

eReader - on the Mac laptop (which I killed and let's not talk about that 'cause I'm still kinda sensitive about it, have killed umpteen pcs when playing and always managed to restore and fix them but the mac is beyond me I hate to admit) was not that friendly. It didn't have quite the sophistication that Mobipocket did. From memory, I don't believe that it could take half as many formats as Mobipocket could, either. I have some 3000+ ebook files in prc format...none of which can be chucked through eReader. ARGH! Am currently looking into programmes that will convert without a hassle. The html tags don't appear to enjoy the experience. To put it lightly. Am still just playing at this stage but there's really only two things I want to know...

Can I read prc files on Monsieur Le Touch? If not is it easy to convert? The answers are: No and relatively so - as long as you have the html file AND then upload the successful converted file to your personal fictionwise bookshelf. Blah blah blah blah blah. Say what? Yeah, my thoughts exactly. So I hunted around online and found The Ja(y)nes had posted about this topic with very easy to follow instructions (my kinda people!) YAY THEM! So I'm following their guide. YAY ME! But the stupid conversion has stalled at 22% BOO HISS! The hardest part of this whole job is trying to find a stupid html file of the actual prc file of the...yeah, blah blah blah blah blah. If I have a prc file of the ebook then there's no way I'd keep an html copy of it, too. That's just daft. So for now I'll leave the conversion running in the background and check on it later. Geez. It has since popped up with an error message LOL Ack. Great instructions and easy to follow but I want hassle free and eReader isn't, quite, that. So have moved on to Stanza...

Stanza - oohh now this is idiot proof and I know this because I was able to 1) download it via iTunes and then 2) install it and 3) convert a few books 10 mins or less. The shitkicker (and isn't there always one) is that I can't convert ALL of the books I have - or at least not the ones in .prc format ARGH *cue tear* I can only convert the ones I have in every other format but (.lit, .pdf, .doc, .txt blah blah blah). Still, it's better than nothing and it's giving me a chance to test whether or not I want to continue this way. Although I think I'd have to get one with space. More is more in this instance, not less is more. My last iPod was 30gb and I had movies and music on there. This one great if I'm not going to max out on music, movies, videos or ebooks :) But it damn sure suits me fine for now. And yes, I have kept all of Tracy's music on there ;0)

So would I chuck my Blackberry Pearl in for the iPod Touch totally? HELL NO. I'd switch between 'em :)