Now I’ve decided it’s iPad time, though I was originally awaiting the iPad 3G. However, after a lot of thought on the matter, I’ve decided not to get the 3G. I have an iPhone, with a full data plan my employer foots the bill for. If I need 3G, I will have my iPhone (and will have the NEW iPhone when that comes out later this year). The new iPhone OS will have Bluetooth keyboard capability, so if I need to get some doc or post writing done, I can do it that way if I really need to. For everything else, I can wait to find a wifi hotspot somewhere.

Something else regarding 3G: it’s more AT&T than I’d rather have. I really, really love the idea of $15 whenever I happen to need it in a pinch, since the portable wifi hotspots do not currently offer a-la-carte pricing like that. However, I’m pretty convinced we will see a-la-carte pricing for these devices in the near future, and when that happens I’d be really sorry I spent the money on the 3G iPad.

I’m also going with the 16GB iPad over the higher capacities. My current iPhone is 16GB and it’s full of apps, many which I use sparingly and some which are only really good for carrying on a phone (Foursquare, for example). With all of that and music and photos, I’ve still got 5GB free. I won’t put music in the iPad. By the time I’d fill an iPad’s 16GB, I’d be ready for an upgrade to their newer version anyway.

So, with the lowest model iPad, I save hundreds of dollars I’m putting toward the new iPhone (which should only be a couple hundred for the upgrade, since I’m due for the discounted upgrade through AT&T).

Now, Facebook.

Seems a lot of people are dumping out of Facebook. Deb wisely never joined Facebook and is laughing at the news of people leaving the service. To be honest, I wouldn’t bat an eye at leaving Facebook if I didn’t use it to help promote CliqueClack. Many old friends I’d want to keep in touch with there barely update as it is. We have a fan page there for CliqueClack, and I need an account to maintain it, so dumping out of Facebook isn’t an option at the moment. That doesn’t mean I won’t update my status on Facebook, but I never really shared much personal stuff there as it is.

I never really understood why people felt so comfortable revealing personal information there so regularly. Telling everyone you’re going on vacation and the house is empty? Or you’re alone in the house all week? Or that you’re playing FarmVille or some other wacky game during working hours or right after you told someone on your friend list you were too busy to do something else for them, yet there you are, playing this game? Y’know, we can see you. Everyone can.

This bums me out, because I’d really love to read books on a portable device like the iPad or the Kindle, rather than dealing with book lights and pesky pages. Somehow, though, I have an easier time swallowing the >$500 price tag of an iPad than paying for a book, one that I’ll read once and likely never read again, nor can I share the damn thing or donate it.

I can get any book I want from my local library and even have it sent from another library if they don’t have it in stock. Audiobooks are even better — I can get the CDs, digitize them into iTunes, and then listen on my iPod/iPhone, complete with bookmarking (I do delete them when I’m done because, as I said, I will probably never ever read/listen to these books again).

So why are people so quick to buy digital books? Is it because they have a lot of disposable income? Don’t have friends they’d like to share the book with later? Are neurotic and don’t like touching old books? Too lazy to walk/drive to the library? Or is the convenience of using an iPad or Kindle to read the book worth the inflated price of it alone?

Plus, using the library helps support it. “You mean I read books for free and it supports the library with no money out of me?” I know: crazy! But it’s true. Don’t you want to help support that worthy cause? Or are you all like “screw everyone — get a better job and buy your books!”

Please, convince me I need to read all future books on an iPad — I need another reason to justify it.

The other thing I didn’t want to do was repeat anything that was happening on TV Squad, the place I left. We initially started up CliqueClack TV to have a place for people to read episode reviews of shows that were no longer covered on TV Squad, so it wasn’t repeating anything being done over there.

I understand there are a lot of websites that simply can’t afford to not re-post news items, because it’s what the bulk of their readership expect. They’ve already dug that hole, so simply stopping that practice would only serve to hurt traffic, at least in the short-to-medium term. And hey, it’s an easy buck for the writers because they don’t need to come up with anything original — the material is right there, so put a personal wrapper around it and it’s $25 in the bank.

I have a confession to make: I never liked episode reviews. We are not experts in the field of television here. Fans of TV — and, in some cases, die-hard ones — yes. But experts tootled in the art of television and journalism? Not at most places, at least. So why are episode reviews so popular? Shouldn’t a post about something specific in the episode itself fare better?

There are often times I will watch an episode of a show I love and, dammit, I have nothing to say. But because readers expect to see a review for every episode of the show we’re covering, I’ve got to man up and figure out something to say. Is that a good thing? Isn’t it OK that an episode isn’t remarkable and we can just skip it without having to say it’s unremarkable?

I’m not sure how many CliqueClack readers read this site, because I don’t update it often as it is. But would it really be a bad thing if traditional episode reviews went away and were replaced by something discussing specific aspects of the show, if we really have something to say about it?

By the way, we will most likely never provide recaps of episodes, which are, by definition, a retelling of what happened on the show, not simply one’s own thoughts.

I tend to get my reading material these days via the local library, which is a plus because a) it’s free and b) it’s not contributing to another dead tree (do I sound like a smelly hippy yet?) The Kindle books cost money, but once you read the book there, that’s it — you can’t really share it or donate it to a library. However, you are saving trees.

That’s what I’m wondering here: is it better to not contribute to more paper products by using eBooks, or buying paper books so you have something to share with others, including libraries? This is sort-of the same issue I have with downloadable movies to own. If I have it on my hard drive in a format that’s not legal to burn to a DVD, I can’t share it with others or sell it later if I’m strapped for cash. Now that I think about it, it could mean the end of book/DVD/CD collectibles as we know it.

When the Kindle can allow renting or borrowing books for a limited time from libraries, then I’ll look into it a lot more seriously. Until then, I just won’t read — it’s overrated anyway.

Gizmodo has more on the Amazon Kindle issue with intellectual property that’s an interesting read and food for thought, if you’re considering purchasing a Kindle.

Anyway, a year or so later, a sequel to this book came out, called Secrets of the Alchemist Dar. This book was much more complex and was supposed to supply 100 valuable rings, hidden in a similar manner to the ATT book. I got this book as soon as it was released, and man was it complex.

The thing about these books is that it’s so easy to spend an unhealthy amount of time trying to decipher them. I found myself absorbed by Secrets for a month or so before I just had to take a break. That break wount up lasting over a year.

A few weeks ago, I was curious to know if anyone had found any of the 100 rings, but according to Wikipedia, the official website for the book shut down and it seems financial troubles hit, and the contest is terminated.

Part of me is very glad that I didn’t waste any more time trying to figure out the clues in the book; I mean, if I’d spent all this time trying to work them out, only to find out it would be canceled, I’d be pretty pissed off and probably slip into some sorta sad depression. But the other part of me is sad to see that it is no longer, that we may never truly understand the puzzles or how to decipher them. To think there are clues to the whereabouts of 100 valuable treasures within the pages of this book, and no one has been able to solve it yet, is astounding. It’s worth buying the book just to see the detail put into it to grasp what I’m talking about.

If you’re reading this and have more information on the Secrets book and its status and whether or not anyone’s found any of the treasures (or if they are even findable), leave a comment and let me know.

I had an oil change appointment with Wellesley Mazda later in the morning. I’ve gone there every time for my oil change, for the past five years — it’s where I bought my car, the RX-8. I know I pay more for my oil change there than … well, anywhere else, but I know they knew how to treat my car. Plus, I got a “free” hand car washing afterward. Sure, it takes an hour to get my oil changed, but they have WiFi so I’m OK.

Yesterday I waited the hour for my car, paid the bill (which is almost double what I’d pay at Jiffy Lube), and head out to my car. It’s fucking filthy. I swear it looked worse than when I drove it in. So, I head into the office and ask why it wasn’t washed. They told me it’s a “new policy” to not wash the cars any more, that I could have them wash it or ten bucks more. I told him I’d gotten it washed for years, but he just shrugged it off. Jiffy Lube from now on for me.

Then, I forgot to take lunch to work. So I figure I’ll grab some trail mix from our little snack area. Yeah, it’s free, but I’ve got a gripe with the packaging. Check out the photo on the right.

See that microscopic tear in the top-right corner? That’s where we’re supposed to open he bag from. So you’re forced to tear down on the package and you have fricken seeds, nuts and raisins spilling all over your desk, keyboard, lap and floor. I wanted to punch the Planter’s Peanut in the groin.

From what I understand of the festival, I don’t really get how bloggers are able to attend this thing on their employer’s dime. What are you really getting out of it other than debauchery and networking — not necessarily bad things, I might add, but do they really add to your employer’s investment?

Part of me writes out of jealousy for not having the time, resources or my once youthful desire to attend SxSW, but the other makes me really wonder what I missed in the first place. Would I be a better writer for having attended this thing? Would anyone paying my way to SxSW get their money’s worth? My bet is that most people attending by way of their employer’s checkbook somehow talked them into the value of the event, when they were really hiding their true goal: meeting people to party with while listening to new music.

That money they spent flying your ass to a multi-day party could have been used to, I dunno, send someone to cover a real event. Honestly, have you read any worthwhile posts that came out of SxSW that were newsworthy?

Something else I wanted to get off my chest about SxSW, though not exactly just about SxSW, is the Twittering thing. I can’t get over how many people Twittered from the event, and part of that just makes me sad. You’re attending this event to network with people, in person, and you’ve got your nose buried in your iPhone more than half the time. People are Twittering who they’re sitting with at dinner and at bars, so what the hell are they doing fumbling around with a fucking gadget when they should be enjoying the people they are with!

And… AND! That gets me to one last thing. If you own a blog and find that you have to apologize to readers for not updating, guess what? You’re doing something right! It means you’re actually busy with real shit and not bored to tears such that you have time to write in a blog. So, as my bud Joel at TV Squad said to me about this, stop being sorry for having a life — if you’re not updating your blog, we won’t hold it out on you.

On that note, back to my life.

I’d really love to be able to annotate Time Machine backups so I can better refer back to when I made a certain change to my system that I’d like to restore from. For example, I upgraded an application yesterday at noon. Let’s say it starts acting up on me now. Unless I remember I made the change around noon yesterday, I have to hunt around for it. Instead, it would be great if a user can manually add a note to certain backups for restore points. Like “installed new such-and-such application”. Then you know to restore from the backup just previous to that one.

This seems like such an easy and handy feature. Where the hell is it?

Maybe this announcement will be a step in that direction.

• I thought I remembered hearing that Guitar Hero III would have a new guitar with buttons for tapping, closer to the guitar body. I noticed that at least with the wireless 360 guitar, the neck is a separate piece from the body. Hopefully in future games, if they support finger tapping, you can just buy a new neck for your existing guitar.
• The next Guitar Hero better have Molly Hatchet’s “Flirtin’ With Disaster”. And something — anything — by Joe Satriani. If you know GH, go listen to that song and you’ll understand why it’d be fun to play.
• The folks at Infinity Ward are geniuses. They put the crack-like addiction of leveling up into an incredible FPS, Call of Duty 4, and made matchmaking a pure pleasure on XBL. Thank God the game itself doesn’t require a monthly fee to keep your skills and leveling intact.