"Christmas napping" and the integration of technology into daily life

Christmas napping
Originally uploaded by tsmyther

One of the most interesting things I have found with the iPhone is that, since it's always pretty close at hand, it leads to recording things that I see but would ordinarily not be able to record. Like my daughter's dog curled up by her on the couch while she's lying with her head on my shoulder. With a normal camera, I'd have had to move to get it, turn it on, etc., which surely would have disturbed one of them. The iPhone was in my shirt pocket, I pulled it out, turned it on and shot with just my right hand. Boom-done. Posted it directly to flickr in the same minute.

I have seen the future and I am there. Now, about that flying car....

Paring Down

Something happened when I started carrying my iPhone. I'm not sure if there's a causal relationship or not, but it happened as soon as I stopped needing my Palm and the previous phone I had been carrying. I have been slowly shedding gadgets and things I carry around. I no longer wear a belt pack, my key ring has gone from about 15 keys to four (car, house, wife's car, office), and I am considering an even smaller daily bag. I have quit carrying store discount cards altogether, and either get a "courtesy card" or let them look my discount up at checkout. The car insurance (mandatory), AAA, and office door key cards, and a few other scraps of needed paper have been moved to a front pocket wallet, where I've also started carrying note cards. (OK, it's not really a wallet, but it serves that purpose for me.) I purchased a slightly larger money clip that holds my credit cards. (Yes, I bought from Levenger. The pieces are of fantastic quality, and are exactly what I was wanting them to be. I've not seen the same things elsewhere. That's reason enough for me to splurge a bit.)

It used to be a mark of geekiness how prepared one was for events of the technical kind, so batteries, screwdrivers, flashlights and the like were necessary and obsessed over. I still have a small cable bag with a travel mouse, penlight LED, USB travel light, travel iPhone and earphone charger. There's a pocket on the side of my bag with checkbooks, and various headphones/earbuds and splitters in another pocket, but a laptop, power adapter and umbrella is pretty much the entire contents of the large section of my bag. (Given North Carolina's current drought conditions, the umbrella is more a talisman than a useful tool. Still, when we get rain, it really pours.)

So, over the holidays, I intend to move to a smaller bag, except when traveling. Now, if I could only pare down the body weight as easily.....