thing that are life affirming

Finishing beta on fic that was due like, Monday. I hate work so much this week.

So, four things that are good in life; I need this list.

1.) I have a new phone! Due to the pretty much universality of phones at his school--and because he's thirteen and has shown responsibility--and because I cannot imagine anything more fun than me and my kid having matching Android phones so we can competitively text each other--I added a line for him, gave him Arthur the G1, and got myTouch G3 Slide in black. It's basically a streamlined G1, but neater, with five screens for icons, a slightly larger screen, a swype onscreen keyboard as well as the physical keyboard, and blah blah blah.

It does not yet have a name. I'm thinking!

2.) Child came in to point out there are no gay couples with children in cartoons or kid's shows. I want to say this came with like, some sort of catalyst, but no; apparently a week out of school with my niece and forced to watch a lot of shows about preteen girls and cartoons suitable for an eight year old have had an effect. One, he wants more books, like, now; two, there is not equal representation in television for the non-white.

To point out, this makes more sense if you know his class (and school) is minority white with a higher than average skew of kids of Turkish and Arabic descent who are also practicing Muslims. He's not exactly the most observant person on earth (thirteen year old boy; he barely remembers to wear pants sometimes), but it's hard not to notice when television life is so radically different from real life. Equally likely is that one of his friends mentioned it and he's been thinking about it for a while. Or both.

He's currently trying to create a facebook group to protest the Arizona immigration act; apparently--I am only going from what he told me--this is a very hot topic in his class among his friends.

I am not saying this is not possible; I am saying, I am trying desperately to visualize a bunch of twelve and thirteen year old kids debating this in the halls between class and failing. Did it come up in class discussion? I've been leery on those since The Day I Had to Explain Zionism and the Palestine Situation (ask me if I'm kidding; I'm not. I emailed amireal incoherently) after his school had a speaker and my extempore speeches work a lot better if they aren't about like, a hideously complex situation with a few thousand years of history and segue that into the creation of the state of Israel after World War II and that's just the goddamn background. And if I know what the hell I'm talking about.

That was fun, by the way.

3.) I made delicious hamburger steak tonight with mashed potatoes and butter. Delicious.

4.) Loretta Chase is the first romance author I have ever read who has not only non-virgin heroines, but ones that if they were married, may have even had a good first husband, and if they weren't married, it's not a source of angst to the hero not to be the one to get her special hymen magic. One even had an illegitimate child she gave away as a child herself.

( i like her novels )

one day with myTouch G3 Slide; the layman review

I come at this from two perspectives, but the big one is as a fangirl and netizen; will this be useful as phone, internet connection, chat supplement, way to read fic online, and continue to support open source languages as well as de-monopolize Apple in any possible way and restrict its closed garden approach to programming.

For anyone in the market for an Android phone, the myTouch G3 Slide is a very good beginner phone, like the G1 I had before. It's intuitive to use, it's got all the bells and whistles of a smartphone, it's attractive, it's multitouch, and it has a full pull-out qwerty keyboard if you like to burst into fanfic writing at a moment's notice. It comes with all your basics and some of your intermediates pre-installed, it's google-enabled from the get-go; setup lets you put in your gmail and google username and password so you have instant access to mobile versions--and well made, customized mobile versions--of all google things.

(I know, I know, google hegemony, but a.) hey, still fighting Apple down and b.) I own stock in them now, so I am now like, personally invested in it and everything. Google is still releasing open-source and the Android market is unrestricted; I'll take that.)

( more specific )

So that's my review for the phone. Now why I am reviewing my still-unnamed phone, not that it is not awesome. Because it is. I need a name, dammit.

( because apple no longer makes me nervous; it makes me afraid )