On Sev's week with an iPhone

So last week, as my blackberry continued to let me know just how old and cranky and about to die it truly was, I gave in and got an iPhone 4s for a trial. I have 14 days to decide whether I want to keep it, or if I want to exchange it for another new phone, or whether I want to go back to the old phone.

Ive been trying to use it as much as possible because, well, 14 day trial. So I've been testing everything - getting maps to places I know how to get to, using Siri to text everyone I can think of, trying to do all kinds of things. I even went to Facebook on it which should let you all now how serious I am about this trial, since Facebook bothers me a lot.

My first reaction, however - I'm afraid it isn't necessarily a reaction to how good the iPhone is, but a reaction to how fucking old my OTHER phone was. I mean, the BB I had was old and obsolete when I got it and I've worn it down by constant daily emailing about cocks for over two years. So while it's good to know that the new phone is amazeballs in comparison, I'm thus trying to separate my own feelings of HOLY SHIT IT'S A PHONE THAT ACTUALLY LOADS HE INTERNET IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUES, IT'S A PHONE I CAN REPLY TO LJ/DW COMMENTS FROM MY INBOX AND BECOME EVERYONE'S LEAST FAVORITE SPAMMER AGAIN from my *actual* feelings about the iPhone specifically.

One of the things selling me on it as a trial is the 8MP camera. I don't have a good pocket-size, point-and-shoot camera that I like. I've tried a whole bunch of different brands and hated them all. At this point I either drag out my D80 or say eff it. However, having a decent camera on my phone - which I'll always have with me - sounded like a pretty good idea. A decent compromise. So far I've taken a lot of photos of cats.

I was pretty worried about the lack of keyboard. However, learning to type on the touchscreen hasn't been as bad as expected. I can't type as fast as i could on the Blackberry -- when I try, it misses letters, and my words all autocorrect from "clusterfuck" to "ask Vicki" or something and that, while hilarious, is frustrating. But I think it's an issue of practice, and also of slowing down a bit. And of teaching my phone words like clusterfuck.

I mean, I've typed this whole entry on it. As a test.

Anyway, I'm not sold yet, but so far I'm very pleased. And that is how exciting my life is!

Can We Talk About: my Gundam Wing Rewatch, Episodes 01-05

So safety_caesars got me to watch Gundam Wing with her, when we first moved in together. I need to talk about this a little bit because it will sort of set the stage for all of the future flailing that's going to happen here. She and I rewatched Evangelion back in May/June-ish while I was caring for the Weasley Kittens, and it was really fun and interesting to just rewatch old animes and flail and talk about them. (For a mental image that should basically cover all of "us rewatching Eva", please picture the two of us drunk as fuck, buried under blankets (yes it was May), clinging to each other in a state of terrified and desperate cathartic mindfuck as we scream at the creepified disgustingness that is all of the Evas -- and then, three seconds later, engage in hilarious debate about how we hate every character a little, and breasts. The end.)

Anyway. We had rewatched all of Avatar: The Last Airbender, we had watched some other stuff, and Becky says to me, do you want to watch Gundam Wing? Sure, I said. I was just a tiny bit too old to catch it at the time it was out on Toonami -- and this will become very important: I missed the entire first incarnation of the fandom as a whole. I didn't really know a lot about it except that there were boys and robots and it was back from the 90s. Becky said she had liked it a lot and was interested in seeing how it stacked up now; I said, hey, it was popular and even if I don't get into it, I'll be glad that I watched it. So we started watching eps during dinner (and often after dinner, into the second bottle of wine, because we make really good life choices).

Here's how that rewatch went.

• First ~1/3 of the show: huh, this is alright… it's kind of confusing and complicated for a kids' show and I'm having trouble keeping track of who is where and what is which, but I like these cutefaced characters a lot. It's fun! More wine please.


• Second ~1/3 of the show: Okay, these characters are actually really awesome; I'm still not sure how much of the story I'm picking up here, and every time I think I have it under control somebody switches sides or changes positions or otherwise mindfucks me, but I'll keep watching for PRETTY, AMAZING BOYS IN ROBOTS. I can see why people liked this, I get it.


• Final 1/3 of the show: JESUS IN A BARREL OF FUCKS WHEN THE HELL DID THIS SHOW GET SO AWESOME AND HOW DID IT CREEP UP ON ME AND WHY DO I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED. WHAT IS HAPPENING. I AM NOT EVEN PREPARED. WHEN DID ALL OF THE CHARACTERS BECOME MASSIVE BAMFS AND WHY AM I GAY FOR ALL OF THEM OH MY GOD MY HEART, IT'S EVERYWHERE JESUS CHRIST PLEASE TELL ME THERE IS MORE


• after the last episode: *Becky and I just staring at each other and repeating, "Oh my fucking god," for about twenty minutes*

So of course I wanted to dive right into the fandom – never mind that it hasn't existed for like 10 years, jerks – but I realized the very first time I sat down to write shameporn anything that I definitely hadn't caught enough of the details of the backstories to really feel great writing anything more than, I don't know, clown blowjobs really dumb stuff. And I was finding other people who were all about a tiny little fandom revival – not just safety_caesars but katmillia, and then I met notraffic and it all went downhill towards the SHAME TRAIN – but I was like, oh god oh god what the fuck happened in Luxembourg? Where the fuck was that in the show. I don't even know. And I knew that Becky didn't want to rewatch it again, right away (and duh, she knows what happened), which was cool, so originally I thought maybe I'd just read up on stuff online, get episode recaps or read the GW wiki or something like that.

Then I remembered that

1. I run a lot every week, and it's on a treadmill now because it's cold
2. I have an iPad
3. Running is boring
4. Running to Gundam Wing would be less boring
5. I could watch the episodes with the English voices and learn something about the dub, too

So I now have the series on my iPad, and I watch 1-2 episodes every time I run, depending on the length of the run. :D The English dub is pretty different than what's in my head, and it's also easier to run with headphones and English – it can be hard to read subtitles when I'm doing sprint intervals – and I don't really give any fucks that I'm watching a kid's cartoon in a public gym, whooooops.

So anyway, let's talk about my feelings on episodes 01-05.

( GW Rewatch 01-05: Go! )

I'm running tomorrow and probably Friday, so I'll share my thoughts as I go.

ALSO: need to obtain some GD Gundam Wing icons omg