Tablet PCs – what’s the point?

Aside from providing yet another dumb, er, unique way to propose to your girlfriend, what is the point of a tablet?  Everyone makes them now, you’ve got the iPad, and Blackberry makes one, and QVC sells cheap looking tablet/eReader hybrids, they’re everywhere and everyone and their sister wants one.  Except ME, because I just don’t get it!

Pretty much anything you can do on your iPad these days you can do on your phone.  My DroidX does so much that it keeps me up at night – I’m throwing cartoon birds and cartoon pigs for a good portion of the night when I should be sleeping so I can get up early and look for a real job.

Cell phones: they have evolved and what is a tablet?  It’s the app function of your cell phone with a bigger screen.  Here’s my prediction – and this is important because it’s the whole point of my post – someday tablet computers are going to get smaller and tout their new ease of portability.  “You can now fit your iPad in your pocket!”  Then they’ll had a phone function to make it that much more cool and what have you got?  The cell phone you already own.

Or, they’ll make the screen a little bigger so you can do more detailed work on it, and they’ll add the worlds slimmest pull out keyboard and advertise it as the next diverse tablet PC.  You can even hook a small mouse into the USB port on the side and you’ve got… the laptop you already own.

“But,” you might be thinking, “There’s an app from my cable company that lets me control the TV!”  Now it’s a $600 version of the remote control you already own.

I mean really.  What’s the point?

Hmmm…

I need to rename this blog The Neglected Blog.  My new book blog is much more fun to update and since I read so much I don’t have to search for material to write about.

Anyway, here’s what’s been going on in my life since my last update: started a new job (actually that more than a few weeks ago, but I don’t think I ever mentioned it).  It doesn’t have enough hours and I’m waiting to see if there’s room for moving up.  If not, it might be back to the drawing board because husband’s rotation’s are expensive.

I can’t figure out why this semester seems to be more expensive than semesters past.  Part of it is gas.  One of Chris’s Best Buy shifts paid for his one fill up of his truck the other day.  It’s a bad ratio that’s only going to get worse.  Here’s what gets my goat about rotations: he’s doing a lot of work in these doctor’s office.  He’s seeing, diagnosing, treating, and operating on (!) patients and he’s not getting a dime for his hard work.  Instead, he has to pay the school.  For the next two years.  He won’t see a paycheck until he starts a residency and even that is going to be comparatively small.  Still, that day cannot get here soon enough.

So when people bitch and groan about how doctors are overpaid for doing such little work and I want to smack them.  Someone, I forget who, told me once that doctors shouldn’t be paid so much because really the nurses do all the work.  That’s so not true.  Nurses do great work and I know they work very hard and they deserved to be paid appropriately, but doctors deserve their pay, too.  And with the price of malpractice insurance these days, their take home pay isn’t what you might think it is.  Unless you’re a plastic surgeon in LA you don’t own a fancy vacation home on a private island, know what I mean?

Wow, not where I thought I was heading with this post, but there it is.  Sometimes you just gotta vent to the two people who read your blog.

The Secret of the Masons

They’re everywhere.  I mean, people like Dan Brown and Brad Meltzer like to talk about them… a lot.  There are theories abounding about the Masons’ secrets.  I’m watching National Treasure 2 with my husband right now and the Masons have hidden a secret map on the Statue of Liberty!

Here’s my theory:  The Masons have made up all this bunk about themselves to hide their true secret… there’s nothing remarkable about them at all.

RAVE: Philadelphia Cooking Creme

I swear, even dumbest cook can make something good with new Philadelphia Cooking Creme, which I just used for the first time tonight and got amazing results.  I highly, highly recommend, hence this blog post.

I found a coupon in this past Sunday’s paper for $1.50 so I got the creme for more than half off the Publix price.  I analyzed the recipes on each different flavor and settled on Savory Garlic, deciding to try the recipe for Chicken Pot Pie.

You only need four simple ingredients for this dish, which is what makes it so easy.  One pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces (it took no time to cut up using my Joyce Chen shears, love those!), 2 cups frozen vegetable mix (you know the standard carrots, corn, green bean, pea mix) thawed/drained, 1 tub of the Philadelphia Savory Garlic Cooking Creme, and 1 refrigerated pie crust.

1.  Preheat oven to 400.  Meanwhile, cook chicken pieces in a large skillet until browned/cooked through.  About six minutes.

2.  Add veggies, cook an additional two minutes.

3.  Stir in cooking creme.  Spoon into a 9 inch pie plate.

4.  Cover with pie crust, seal and cut a few slits to vent.

5.  Bake 25 minutes.

It tasted amazing and even Chris who has never really been a fan of pot pie really, really liked it.  I’m a bit ashamed to admit that it’s supposed to make six servings and between the two of us we ate the whole thing.  It’s so easy and this will definitely join our dinner repertoire.  I can’t wait to try the other flavors/recipes.  Maybe I’ll try the Santa Fe flavor/enchiladas next week.

Sometime’s I’m Glad I Moved… Sometime’s I’m Not

New York State wants to make all bicyclists over the age of eighteen register their bikes, get license plates and insurance for their bikes, as well as have them inspected like cars.  http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/politics/Anger-over-proposed-bike-license-plates?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d6d909d6b2fccf9%2C0#viewSingle112289409

Um, NO.  This kind of stupid sh*t is one reason why I’m glad I’m not living in New York State anymore.  With gas prices predicted to hit five dollars a gallon by memorial day, more people should be looking to their bikes to save money, but this bill will only discourage people from using their bikes.  Not to mention the fact that biking is excellent exercise and in America we need exercise.  We’re all fat tubs of lard, and charging us to exercise is only going to make us fatter.

I’ll tell you something though, I haven’t ridden my bike in over ten years I think.  It’s in my parents garage still.   I don’t even know if it’s the right size for me still, but I’ll tell you – if I still lived in New York I’d be dusting that thing off, filling the deflated tires, and riding back and forth in front of the courthouse/police station/legislature’s office, whatever it took, just to make a point.  I’d be setting up some sort of bicycling protest!

So for that I’m glad I’m currently living in Georgia where they have sane laws… oh wait.  Sunday alcohol.  You can buy it during the week, you can drink it on Sundays, you can go to a restaurant or bar on Sunday and buy a glass of something for yourself, but you can’t buy it at the store?  That’s dumb.  Most Georgians are in favor of Sunday alcohol sales and yet it’s suddenly off the table, with state republicans claiming they have bigger issues to tackle.  Nevermind the fact that putting this to vote would favor these republican’s constituents and help them get reelected.  This kind of conservative crap I hate to listen to.  Think of the tax revenue they could have by selling alcohol every day of the week.

Honestly, sometimes I look at politicians and I wonder what they’re on.  It makes me think that Democracy looks good on paper and it works to an extent but is it really working?  Maybe The Hunger Games was right…