we're getting reacquainted, visual journal no. 12 and i. bonding. making playdates and keeping them.
do you have an ipad 2? have you blogged with it? traveled with it? please share. since i have a laptop i've resisted the urge to plunk down the cash for an ipad, but it's getting harder to resist. my sensible half doesn't think it's justified. my senseless half is in a trance.
my inner child is having a party with the pink washi tape. she can't help it. no really. she can't.
i saw this really neato video on one of your blogs a couple of weeks ago, but the old cogs in my memory wheel seem to be stuck and i can't remember where!
anyway i'd never heard of a murmuration before. incredible.
That is amazing! And a coincidence, as my daughter and I witnessed a murmuration on Sunday evening here in Southern England. We had the utmost joy when they formed into the shape of a heart. Neither of us had a camera to hand but to tell the truth, I just wanted to watch the incredible shapes that were being formed over our heads. Thank you so much Mary Ann for sharing the video.
Magical! That video made me feel amazed by the wonders in this world. Thank you.
I love my ipad2. I have one with 3G because I wanted to be able to use it anywhere. I got the AT&T version (not cause I like them) but because you can use it overseas. I also still like my kindle better for reading books. I love what besottment.com did with hers… ummmm off to get some new apps! 😀
Get the iPad. You will love it.
Oh- also – have you seen David Hockney’s ipad art? Definitely worth a go if (when) you get one…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11666162
The video reminds me of a song by Elbow, a group from my home town of Bury in England. The song is ‘Starlings’ – it captures the movement of a flock of birds brilliantly.
Mary Ann I love my iPad 2! I take it everywhere. There are so many cool apps and with a Bamboo stylus pen you can even do some drawing and virtual journaling. Also, I’m getting one of these polaroid Zink printers. I thought of you when I saw this. Too cool!! http://www.polaroid.com/en/products/polaroid-pogo/polaroid-pogo-instant-digital-printer
Angela
I, too, have been wondering about acquiring an Ipad, and everyone’s comments are very useful. Very tempting, I admit. But as a writer and photographer, I’m not convinced yet that an Ipad will do the trick for me. I’m also looking at a Macbook Air, which is an even bigger chunk of change. If I ever emerge from the Valley of Financial Anxiety, I’m going to set off for my local Apple store, where I’m sure the bright sparks who work there can do some side-by-side demonstrations and give me the lowdown on both gadgets.
Saw the wonderful murmuration video on Wimp (great video site). Where I live, when migrating starlings come through, you can stand underneath the thick clouds of birds when they pass over and feel the rush of wind coming off their flapping wings and smell them!
I love the video – done so well with the great music. Is that an example of global swarming? And after reading all the comments about which laptops,etc. to go with I’m ready to make a decision – maybe, could be… Playdates – such an apt term!
Oh, Mary Ann. You should treat yourself to an iPad 2. I am a Mac person, for sure, but I resisted iPad the original all year long. Already had iPod touch, a laptop and a desktop. But I, like you, could hold out only so long when there was the whiff if iPad2. I even opted this time for the 3G version, which I don’t have on any other – just wifi. I can’t tell you how many times THAT ability to access the internet (and GPS) has already saved the day. I am now at the place where I only bring the iPad and iPod with me and leave the laptop at home. I only wish that at least half of the things I have bought in my lifetime turned out to be as worth the money Is pent for it as the iPad has been.
Excuse if this turned out to be double post. Coulda been!
Very cool video…I can’t afford an ipad but I am seriously considering a Blackberry Playbook–especially since I have a Blackberry phone AND they’ve dropped to $199 in price. Do I need it? Not likely. I have a laptop but it sounds like such fun to bring with me to Mexico later this week and to blog in etc. soooooo….I might go buy one in the next day or so! (Anyone know how playbooks are?)
What an amazing video…kind of took my breath away on video; I can’t IMAGINE what it would have been like to be in the boat with those girls. Thank you for reminding me once again of the tremendous power and wonder in nature!
I totally love my I Pad! Had the first one when it came out, then my husband surprised me with I Pad 2. Both are wonderful! The first thing I grab every morning. I have the Wi Fi only, but take it everywhere with me. The I Pad 2 takes photos, then you can play with them with cool photo apps. Holds all my music, and all my Kindle books. I could go on and on all night! If I could wear it around my neck I would!
Janey
my trance deepens! thank you for all of these wonderful endorsements and thoughts. so fabulous!
My iPad 2 was a gift. I use it all the time, but only wireless (it doesn’t have 3G). But I have a wireless network at home. When I’m out there’s Starbucks, libraries, just to name two places with wireless. Sometimes I get on a network in a store where I least expect it. It’s great to travel with; much better than a laptop or a notebook. Plus all my Kindle books are on it. I have a big, expensive Kindle DX that I bought shortly before the iPad 1 came out, and I never use it anymore. And all my iPod music is on it, too. With all the traveling you do, if you think you will have wireless in the places you stay, I’d definitely get an iPad. If you want 3G, the iPad is more expensive to begin with and then you’d have to pay for internet. But you can pay-as-you go monthly, if you are traveling, say, but don’t need it when you are home. I gave my husband an iPad 2 last May and he didn’t even know what it was. Now he is on it hours every day, reading news mostly, surfing the web, watching TV series and movies. He also has a Mac with a big monitor so it’s not like he has nowhere to watch these things….he doesn’t buy any apps at all. I have just a few.
Hope that helps.
Laurie
I have a MacBook Pro and I treated myself to an ipad2 for my birthday back in July…I use it everyday…it is much quicker to use…my app for my email is instantaneous…quicker getting online (to read your blog…haha)..I love it for traveling..much lighter…just can’t print from it…but don’t usually need that when I’m traveling. My husband usually hijacks it in the morning to read the New York Times…I have thousands of pictures on it too…lots of fun apps
Love Visual Journal # 12.
Love nature, and that video woke the roaming nomad in me, cannot wait to travel.
I was raised to go sensible. If your laptop is working I say stick with it, better off to use funds for traveling or retirement. Please do not be persuaded by the argument all the other artists have one, that’s silly. Of course I am the only one at my school who doesn’t want/need a cell, so you may not want to go by me.
I didn’t want an iPad until I saw this post: http://besottment.com/besottment/2011/11/ipad-journaling-spread.html Now of course I do 🙂
I do not have an ipad because I have a Macbook and an iphone. So far, I cannot justify the expense but, I am working on it. Everyone I know who has one, loves it and as the comments above state……..many are artists.
Apple had a black Friday special where the ipad2 was $40 off……..maybe they will have something for cyber Monday!!
I know ALL YOUR FOLLOWERS would agree, you deserve one!! Cheers!!!
I have an iPad 2. We bought it for doing email and Internet while on a trip to New England and NYC. Worked great, so much easier than packing along a laptop computer. I don’t have a blog yet but it seems like you should be able to post from anywhere, as long as you have an Internet connection (via phone or hard wired or wi-fi). Really great for email (I have an iPhone too and the keyboard is so small on that). We also bought tickets for things online while on our trip.
Aloha, Kate
Hot pink tape?! I’m in!! Enough neutral, vintage, natural – I NEED me some hot pink. Etsy here I come……….
I-Pad review: Only had mine for a month – got as a gift. At first thought it was just a toy as I got totally addicted to Angry Birds (a game that you propel birds and chickens via a slingshot into a pile of pigs that laugh at you when you can’t get them) and Scrabble. Slowly though I am learning that it is much more than a toy. Built in camera and video. Safari – Email – an I-Cloud App that you can go right to your desktop and act as if you are in front of it. Sophisticated painting and drawing apps. I know there is an app to post to Typepad, not sure about Blogger or others. Have not done so, but if you have a wireless printer you can print from it. I have the Kindle app and the list of all the latest recommendations from you and your readers that I am putting on it from Amazon. Also have a GPS app but I need a cellular account for on the road guidance. It reads perfect in sunshine. I read your blog on it through Flipboard out by the pool most mornings. I think you need one. Early Christmas present. Um humm. p.s. murmuration. love that word.
Murmuration vid was AMAZING!! I’d never seen or heard of such a thing before so thank you once again for introducing me to something new. IPAD2–sorry can’t help you with that–I function with a laptop and a Nook Color E-reader. I love reading books on my Nook and if you can get a Wi-Fi network, you can order books on-line, read e-mail and that’s as far as I have explored it. I was in the hospital for 4 days B4 Thanksgiving and could not access the hospital Wi-Fi network so that was disappointing. Anyways, I’m going to continue catching up with your earlier blog posts!! Hope your T-day was great and I LOVE your visual journal pages—LOVE!!!
Awesome video! Do you happen to have a pinterest account?:) Love all your pictures.
I have the first generation iPad and love it!! It’s a must have. Go for it, you’ll never be sorry, and you’ll wonder how you did without it!!
Greetings Moss Cottage, How was your Mr. Turkey day? The i pad would really love to have one but monthly budget well it cant even fight the non sensible part that wants one. But my dear Black friday’s here and look in to the nook also good prices and alot of good do dad’s that there saying more for the money on news report And since you have gotten us to France and all over the world it seems, would love to here stories on your ipad adventures when your sitting on the pourch all bundled up you can keep warm with the small profile:):) and would love to know how they work. Books Im running out of space so I could add books on mine well yours that is:) Look at the prices this week and after the holidays. Hope this helps!!!!!
Have a great day,
Linda
That was cool.
Have seen this amazing video recently and LOVED it (and I have it bookmarked)! Have seen similar, but smaller, murmurations of (I’ll assume) starlings in real life and was mesmerized. The biggest and most fabulous congregations of birds we annually travel to see are during the fall migration at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge in SE Nebraska (half-million to a million geese, swans, ducks, pelicans, bald eagles, etc.). It’s a religious experience. And the migrations of sandhill cranes and whooping cranes at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area and Quivira NWR in central Kansas are beyond belief also. Sorry, kinda went overboard on this comment, but we’re birders here in KC. 🙂
Forgot to say — that Murmuration. WOW. I watch it every time I see the link somewhere. It never gets old………..
Mary Ann- A thousand thank yous, I was feeling down in the dumps last night as Saturday nights some times go and felt so inspired about art and life in general while reading through your blog. I’m making up a mantra: What would Mary Ann do? Well maybe not but I should. I just love your photos and journals and colors and flowers… Okay enough gushy business. xxoo
I, too, have been wondering over an ipad. My friends have them; it seems that “everyone” artistic has one.
I love what people are doing, drawing on their ipads. And they can hold books, and music, as well as letting you draw on them….
I think having something one could use to hold books, for travel, would be so much more sensible than carrying guidebooks, novels, etc…. And having one’s music, too, seems lovely.
So I am leaning, but have not acted.
As a ps — I had a netbook with me in France. I blogged text, only, and then did longer, photo-filled, posts after I got home. It was LOVELY to have the netbook. It was small enough that I could carry it without trouble (though too heavy, with charger, to carry everywhere; it stayed in hotel rooms when I was sight-seeing). Having access to the web is just critical to the sort of traveling we were doing — moving from place to place every few days; hotels not booked before we left, etc…………
I have not tried typing on an ipad. I suppose I should try that before I seriously think of getting one………
The initial cost is high but if you want to use it on WI FI it is going to add $100 a month to you expense budget. if yo can write this off on taxes, lucky you. I think there are many cheaprer versions that work as well.
Doesn’t nature put on the best art shows EVER!!! Thanks for the new word to add to my vocabulary.
I remember that timbre royal – I have one too! And that gorgeous writing. I imagine something like a scene from Dickens: a little man on a high stool weilding a goose quill pen.
There’s so much temptation on the market these days. I was given a vimeo camera for my birthday (thanks to you for the recommendation) and now my beloved wants to get me a kindle. An ipad would be fun, so would an iphone and an ipod. Got ‘i’s in front of my eyes all the time!
Oh that starling film, how beautiful is that? And I LOVE hearing those English voices to remind me of home. I used to think that starlings doing that over Trafalgar Square in the evening looked like tea leaves swirling around.
I thought that little Sophie was going to cry at the end – and who could blame her?
I have an iPad 1 and love it for blogging on the go. I blog with the blogpress app and have a hard time with links, but I hear that the typepad app is WAY better. I bought the camera connector too. It comes with a card reader connection AND a cord connector, so I gave the card reader to my BF and I use the cord. I whined about it a lot on my blog when I fist got it, but the iPad and I are now friends 😉 Love the 3G feature too.
I still like my KOBO for book reading though ( like a kindle) – the iPad has too much glare.
Wow.!!!!!!! WOW!!!!! I don’t know what to say really except WOW!!! Never seen anything like that. My jaw was hanging W I D E open just now…seriously…. entranced I was…YES. YES!!!! You really know how to amaze and delight. Far as the Ipad question, can’t help ya, anchored to a tower and my desk top. If I could afford one, I’d buy one in a heart beat but that is just me, right now I am trying to figure out how to pay mucho dollars to fix our old van so DH can get to work…one car family, not in my dreams but could just be my nightmare but overall life is good. Now I have to watch that video again and again…and maybe again just because…….thanks for sharing this!!!!!
love your visual journal, makes me want to play too! i loved the video, thanks so much for sharing!
i too wanted a ipad before i went on a trip, i didn’t want to luge my heavy laptop/fan/charger with me and dreamed about the light weight, thin ipad, i went into walmart just to see them (the price was way too much for me) but i ended up looking at small laptops and got the cutest one for only $248.00! it is an Acer Aspire One, 10 inch and i LOVE it!!! it never over heats, is lightweight (according to my regular laptop) the battery lasts a long, long time and is super fast on the net! it even came with a built in web cam which i always wanted. it has USB ports and takes my camera card too (which the ipad does not) it was great to take along on my vacation and i use it around the house and out on the porch all the time! for me it was a great alternative and i really like having a keyboard instead of the touch screen for typing. hope that wasn’t too long!
Yup, I have an iPad2 – bought in April for a big trip I was taking. I’ve taken it on 3 trips since then – I also bought the camera attachment so I can transfer pictures from my camera to my iPad. I blog from it with the Typepad app – just got back from Peru and blogged the whole trip from the road. I’m addicted to it – I carry it with me everywhere, at home or on the road. It’s a big chunk of change, but it’s so nice to not haul a laptop on my trips and it’s much easier than a laptop for browsing blogs or Pinterest from the couch during commercial breaks 🙂 Good luck deciding!
Oh I got so excited about the murmuration I forgot about the Ipad 2 question. I have one, but haven’t really gotten to know it well enough to do very coolio stuff with it. They don’t have Flash so it is hard to watch some videos. I can watch Ustream only when it is live, not after it has been recorded. Check it out really good before you decide. I think I would have been happier with an Android Tablet.
OMG! What a trip! On my way to check it is on Google!! Wow!! Thanx for sharing, Mary Ann.