iPad mad

    My wonderful sister Anne gave or lent me (we haven't decided yet) her new iPad when she was down for Father's Day, and I have been going fairly kookoo downloading free apps for it. She started me out on this evil trail by pointing me to Tiny Piano. Since then, I downloaded a lot of games that I don't play anymore (including the text-based ones I've mentioned already and which were briefly an obsession), and one that I do. It's called 7 Little Words, and is nefarious. It's a simple word game, with a new one every day. Worse than crack.
    The other week, somebody was telling me the great future in store for us where everybody can work at home, due to the advent of the iPad. I said, "I just use mine to play Air Hockey." And indeed, one of my very best free apps is the Air Hockey one. It makes me crazy that a lot of these things seem to have disappeared from the App Store, particularly this one. But keep looking; maybe it'll be back.
    I also got a xylophone, a drum kit, congas, hand drums, a harmonium, an autoharp and marimba, a harp (Echo String) and Cat Piano Jr. which alas doesn't amuse or interest Amelia particularly. I also have numerous synthesizers. One, Synth!, allows you to record five second samples and use them on the keyboard. So far, creepy stuff like "Get out!" or "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" don't come off as very creepy. The creepiest is "To be or not to be." Go figure. My favorite, though, is "We can dance if we want to."
    Other synths include SoundPrism, minicomposer (by a guy from Kraftwerk), Mugician (which I recommend to EVERYbody), RGBSound and Soundrop. And I got a sound studio setup called Hokusai. Never have I felt more William Gibson!