melannen | (no subject)

1. I bought a smartphone yesterday. I feel like I've gone over to the enemy.

(It's a super-cheap no-contract one. I think I'm going to get the "0 data" plan in hopes of staying untethered as much as possible. The reviews said it "lacks most high-end features but would be good for someone who mostly wants to tramp around in the woods" and it was half-off. Also it supposedly has FM radio and GPS that doesn't depend on data. It's called "Hydro Vibe" and it's waterproof. I probably should have spent the $60 on, you know, the thing a "waterproof Hydro Vibe" sounds like it should be.)

Everybody says I'll get addicted but considering so far my thoughts have been "ugh, now I will have to do stuff with it" I'm hoping maybe not. (Probably I will mostly use it as a camera.)

2. I got one tile away from 131072 on 2048 and decided this was ridiculous and quit cold turkey. So I have started playing Eterna again, which is approximately the same level of addictively frustrating, but also comes with achievements to chase, so it's harder to stop.

Also, it's one thing to say "Ugh, I wasted all day yesterday playing a stupid browser game and watching QI", but it somehow sounds entirely different to whine "I wasted all day taking part in a multinational collaboration to design molucular-scale nanomachines based on RNA proteins in order to help cure cancer." You just sound stuck-up when you complain that that's all that you accomplished yesterday, even if you should have been doing laundry.

(I'm not actually helping cure cancer yet, I'm compulsively working through all 500+ of the tutorial puzzles first. It is super-addictive if you like twiddly puzzle games, though. Plus, you know, living in the future and all that.)

3. I feel like I'm posting mostly lists lately, but eh, I will post my last two December meme entries Soon, I Swear. In the meantime, lists! I got my currently-reading list down to 23! (And then, of course, started two more. But you win some you lose some.) Then I went through all my e-books and gathered together all of those that I've started in the past couple years with the intent to finish someday, and there were... well there were 14. But four of them are already in Goodreads! So that only brings the list up to 35!

This "get the list below 20" thing is never going to happen, is it.

Anyway, since I did want to catch up on some stuff that doesn't go in Goodreads, too, under the cut will be my year's tracking of "media consumed that do not belong on goodreads".

Magazines

***-- Popular Science 2013 October
***-- Analog SF&F 2014 March
****- Discover 2014 January/February
****- Discover 2014 March
**--- Military Spouse 2013 February
****- Smithsonian 2013 August
**--- Boys' Life 2013
****- Smithsonian 2014 February
***-- EDF newsletter

Comics Not in Trades

***** Lumberjanes 1-6
****- Midas Flesh 1-8

Movies (on DVD or in theater)

***** Big Hero Six
*****Jupiter Ascending

TV & radio (entire series)

****- QI Series L
***** AtLA Book 2: Earth
***** The Librarians Series 1
***-- Only Connect Series 1
***** Steven Universe Series 1

Entire Webpages/Blogs Read Through

Games with win conditions finished

Webcomics

By Crom!
Check Please!

Live Shows

****- Fiddler on the Roof - Maryland Live!/PAAL
Rumors, Heritage Players

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2. I got one tile away from 131072 on 2048 and decided this was ridiculous and quit cold turkey.

Holy shit. *so impressed*

I think the "quitting" is the impressive part there, tbh. (It was on the undo version! I'm not *that* bad.)

Dang, $60 for a smart phone is super cheap. And it totally does sound like it should be something else. Lol

I'm sure it was made in an environmentally awful sweatshop somewhere and I did have to spend another $20 on a microSD card in order for it to have any memory storage at all, but eh, it sends texts, gets FM radio, takes pictures and lets me play silly puzzle games, what else does a person need really?

Ha. I also got a smartphone just now. I have gone over to the enemy. But I really have: I actually use the data plan and stuff :) I very much think you are doing the right thing by going with the 0 data plan.

I will probably regret it the first time I am lost on a highway at night with no maps, but so far I am not really feeling the lack with no data. Especially since there's so much free wifi around these days anyway. (Actually I am enjoying it because I don't have to worry about whether something is accidentally tricking me into using up data.)