Birthday achieved

[owlmoose]

In contract to last years multi-week extravaganza, I had a nice low-key birthday today: vet appointment in the morning, quiet afternoon at home, dinner out with a few friends. The vet trip was Tori's regular check-up, which now happens every couple of months or so. The news was extremely good -- all of her blood tests came back in the normal range for the first time ever, so we can keep tapering down her meds. Best birthday present I could have gotten.

I did get another gift, for myself: an iPad Mini, dark gray with a bright red cover. Finally, a multi-purpose tablet that's exactly the right size for me to use as an eReader! Is this the moment that I being to shift away from paper books? Perhaps, although I don't expect I'll ever ditch them entirely.

Tomorrow will be another quiet day, and then Friday is the first day of FogCon. Yay, FogCon! If you'll be there, let me know and we can find a time to meet up.

Comments

[wordweaverlynn]

Happy birthday! Looking forward to seeing you at FOGcon.

[owlmoose]

Thanks! Me too. :)

[pete_thomas]

Happy birthday! Thank you for sharing your journal with me. Here's to many more months of sharing antics, yes? :)

Enjoy the iPad Mini. They are such fun little gadgets.

What is FogCon?

[owlmoose]

Thanks! :)

FogCon is a local (SF Bay Area) SF/F convention with a focus on literature (as opposed to TV/movies/comics). http://www.fogcon.org It's a relatively new con, in its fourth year, and I've gone every year so far. It's a lot of fun.

[phdfan]

Happy Birthday! I'm glad that Tori is getting better!

I've been using a Kindle for years now, and love it to little bits.

[owlmoose]

Thank you! :)

As I mention in my comment below, I personally don't like buying ebooks with DRM, so I've stayed away from the Kindle, but there are starting to be more options, which is great. Certainly the thought of better portability, and fewer storage issues, is more tempting all the time!

[lassarina]

Happy birthday! And hurrah for Tori!

One of my favourite things about owning an e-reader (in my case the Kindle, though I do also have a huge iPad 2 that's really too heavy to use as a main e-reader) is downloading fic from AO3. :D (The other is "I can go on vacation with ALL THE BOOKS and my bag doesn't crush my shoulders!!!")

[owlmoose]

Thank you! Kitty thanks you as well. :)

I've been using my old iPad 2 to download fic for ages. :) But yeah, it's too heavy and (more importantly, to me) too large to cart around as an ereader. The Mini is much closer in size to a trade paperback, and it fits in every purse I own except for one. I've avoided getting a Kindle or other dedicated e-reader because of DRM issues, and although that's still a thing, there are more sources for DRM-free ebooks all the time, and I figure it's time I started exploring them.

[lassarina]

Yeah. I don't exclusively buy ebooks (authors I really like are still bought in dead-tree) and your comment about DRM made me realize that I mostly buy things that I'm going to go through quickly (YA, romance) and don't necessarily want/need them on my shelves after I'm done. I think I was mostly doing that because of my reading speed + shelf space + my local library is sadly not very SF/F friendly, but I wonder if I was also somewhat thinking of DRM. WHO KNOWS.

[elainegrey]

Happy Birthday!

[owlmoose]

Thanks! :)

[zen_monk]

Yay! Healthy Kitty! Also, iPad mini is perfect size for giant Ace Attorney playing. 8)

ohhhh fogcon is that literary convention in SF, right? Can you get tickets by the door?

[owlmoose]

I have already discovered this use for the iPad, believe you me. :D

And yes! Registration is available at the door! The con is actually in Walnut Creek, in the East Bay. If you can get over there, it would be great to meet you. :) Let me know!

[zen_monk]

If there's a reasonable possibility for me to pop on over for a SF adventure, it'd probably be on Saturday. Looking at the con schedule makes me start yearning for me to be there, so I'll look into how to get there ^^

[owlmoose]

Drop me an email if it looks like you're going to make it -- owlmoose at gmail. I hope you can! It's reachable by public transit (BART), though a bit of a haul from Santa Cruz.

[sathari]

A belated Happy Birthday to you!