snapshots

Last night Raymond and I had our first "date" in a long while. We couldn't even remember the last time we went out for dinner and a show. The event was attending a talk given by cartoonist Seth, and author Douglas Coupland, for the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. I was less familiar with Seth, but Raymond and I had just started reading Coupland's novels this year. I've become a big (albeit late - bad vancouverite!) fan and was eager to get an autograph on one of the 6 print books I have (I also have 1 e-book). I could've brought the whole collection. Other people did, in big shopping bags!

The talk was very entertaining. Seth told stories of his history and development as a cartoonist. Coupland acted as moderator and interviewer. The whole thing was very relaxed and intimate. Fantastic.

In the end was book signing time. Raymond bought one several books by Seth and stood in the Seth line-up while I stood in the Coupland line-up. "Ah! The new edition!" remarked Coupland as I handed him my new copy of City of Glass. He shook my hand and asked for my name as he wrote on the title page. I was nervous but I asked him a question I had thought of beforehand: "Mr. Coupland, why are your novels not more available electronically?". He seemed intrigued and said it was mainly a publisher thing, that they hadn't moved forward to electronic publication. He asked if I used Kindle? No, Palm based eReader. Did I like it? I love it. In fact, the City of Glass was the first time I've had to buy a print book in a while. He laughed and said he was honoured. I mumbled a thanks in my star-struck groupiness. No Mr. Coupland, I'm honoured!

I like gadgets and go through them like shoes. However, I have used the same pda, the Palm LifeDrive, for just over 3 years. Every single day for just over 3 years. It's my calendar, address book, notebook, drawing book, mp3 player, voice recorder, wifi browser, and ebook reader. I've read 1000 page books on it. I can also create and edit Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents with it. I also have a few games on it. If it had a phone, I would throw away my phone, but instead I can go through phones like shoes.

Risa has even become quite adept at the drawing program and quite happily occupies herself with it when we're at restaurants. I have a growing file of her artwork in my LifeDrive.

I used a Blackberry last year and it was disappointing. It didn't handle documents well (read only) and webpages didn't display half as well in the browser. Not enough to make me give up my LifeDrive.

Unfortunately, the LifeDrive is dying. The product is long discontinued and it's losing some functionality (wifi) because there are no longer updates for it. It can be updated, Palm just doesn't want to. After 3 years, it's still a trusted work horse for me and I haven't seen anything else I would consider an adequate replacement, a rare thing in consumer technology these days. From some of the forums I've read, it seems there are a few others who feel the same.