App solutely Hillarious

A list of some of the most outrageous Apps I could find in the App store

1. Funeral advice a quick guide to planning a funeral- free

2. Divorce negotiator -.99 $

3. How to fold napkins-free

4.A guide to north American trees- $9.99

5.The moron test HD- $ .99

6.Confessions a roman catholic app 1.99 (includes custom examination of conscience based on age sex, and vocation)

7. ipoo- bored while you poo? .99$ (under the category of social networking app)

8. Water! $ 2.99 ( an app that displays images of water)

9. Cat Physics $ 2.99

10. Toothbrush Motivator-$2.99

ipad...ipaid... part 2

So as promised I am posting here my views on the value of digital content at least as I think other people may see it.... I'm just saying this is perhaps one opinion

The General Idea

I'm not sure what it is maybe its just the fact that the internet itself wasn't monetised straight away, maybe we can just blame it all on the Napster kid (sounds good!)
But for some reason or another I get the feeling that perhaps a fair few of the current generation of young adults who grew up with the internet as a given (18-28 lets say) take it as equally given that what they consume on the internet for the most part should be free!


The Maths

It goes something like this....

I paid $1,100 for this macbook and I think of all the films that I will watch on it.
Or for instance once I shell out $ 100-150 for a basic ipod, and think of all the 3,000 + songs it will hold
Flash forward to 2012 I paid $ 450 for this ipad and think of how I'm going to be able to carry around an entire library with me everywhere I go!

I am more than likely will spend 10+ hours a day on the thing doing whatever it might be, watching, listening, e-reading or otherwise consuming massive amounts of digital media
However...
I cannot very likely afford to pay $ 14.99 for a digital copy of each of the 8-12 films that I might easily watch in a months time , that adds up to anywhere between $ 120-180 a month

Or imagine trying to pay for the US TV shows that I could enjoy free of charge in the US but because of the Internet's apparent assumption of territories and regions (because people can't possibly enjoy entertainment/media from a country other than the one that they live in right?!)
I could be looking at a bill of nearly $65 a month just for my US TV shows alone!

I am much less likely to be able to afford what my music habits could very soon put me into even more debt considering I'm likely to get bored of 1 in 4 songs that I listen to after an average of maybe 7 days... So at one song a day 7 days a week around 30 songs a month that's $30

Now I've got an ipad and whist I haven't used it for e-reading as much as I thought I might lets say I decided to go completely digital, give up my beloved paper and ink books (they smell so good) and read all the titles I do in an average month on my ipad. At an average of $ 9.99 per trade paperback. If I read one or two of those a month and spread out the costs of my text books which in digital format coming to around $120 in e-book format (for those that are available in e book format) so I'd probably be spending another $30 or so a month on e-books or e-reading, even more if I paid for a guardian subscription rather than just viewing their tweets in my flipboard app

Soooo then I could go onto the cost of apps but I won't because to be perfectly honest I've not paid for a single app yet and it's going to have to be a really good one that comes out before I'm willing to go for anything other than the free ones and the lite version of some very good apps.

So if I add that all up it comes to around $ 300 dollars give or take every month for me to purchase the average amount of digital content that I would easy consume on any one of these three devices that I now own.

I couldn't help but do the maths and find that that for $300 a month 12 months in a year ($ 3,6000 a year spent on digital content) I could in buy nearly 4 macbooks, or 8 ipads, or 20 something individual ipods for the same amount of money.

So how does this figure? Does the digital content industry really expect me to pay $ 3,600 a year? Surely they'd be happy with at least half of that looking at the current situation they are in.... so I thought about the solution that everyone seems to be pointing to now....

The Solution ?

Spotify! Or maybe more generally the subscription model for digital content. I thought about the number of cumbersome Ads I am willing to put up with to get something for free and the cost of a subscription to not only spotify ($9.99 a month)... for music, but also maybe a net flix or lovefilms.com subscription at 7.99 a month, and spotify for books (currently only in beta) another $10-12 a month 9 lets say)
And under a subscription model I would pay around $28 dollars a month or $ 336 a year! That I can manage as its less than 10 % of what I would pay buying up all of that content bit, by bit, by bit..

Now I'm sure I'm not the first person to add up the costs for themselves but lets just use me as a case study of the maybe slightly more than average digital consumer aged 18-28

I'm really curious, and this is just me... but what do you think (does it work?!) Is the subscription model really sustainable ? Does it get the digital content industry a higher than they are currently getting ( in my case.. YES!) In every case maybe... no and sure their will still be those who revert to piracy but with an unlimited consumption level of premium digital content with no Ads I'm thinking more than a few of us would be tempted to go cold turkey and drop the piracy...
Am I right?

Comments? Conflicting opinions? Violent reactions?

ipad... ipaid .... right? !

ipad.... ipaid....

Soooo for those of you who don't know I got an ipad for Christmas. Yes... with a bit of help from Santa 2012 is the year that I have finally invested in my first E-reader. Wait a minute, what is that... I heard you say, the ipad is also an e-reader?
The long and short answer to this questions is of course yes and no, really. E-reading is of course only one of the very many things that my new magical 9.7 inch glass screen can do. Their are in fact many things other than reading that you can do with an ipad. In fact and though I'm ashamed to admit it e-reading is perhaps very low on the list of reasons why I bought an ipad in the first place. For the sake of brevity I will bullet point below the top 5 reasons why I now own an ipad.

1. It's lighter and fits better in the front of a bike basket than my Macbook pro. (see picture....note that is not my ipad or my bike... or my picture actually...not going to go into copyright here I've been on that topic all week!)

2. I saw another girl on my MA course using her ipad to take notes and became instantly envious... that's right envy the root of all smart decision making

3. I was going to purchase inDesign for $450 any ways and thought that perhaps instead I would get a lot more out of the ipad

4. As a publishing student it is disgraceful I do not already own an e-reader... Right?

Also just before heading home for the holidays I had a rather bad crash on my bike, thanks to the grace of a metal wire basket my macbook pro was somehow spared damage. However the idea of loosing my school notes, not to mention novels I have written teriffied me. And thus the ipad for me is in short not just an e-reader, not just a lighter version of my macbook, but first and foremost the coolest way to invest four years of laptop insurance into of a piece of techonology that will lets face it probably be out of date in less than 6 month's anyway.

Stay tuned for the next part of this post when I talk about my views on how I think people view the value of digital content on these very expensive devices.... hence the whole name of this post... ipad.... i paid... part two coming soon !

Tales from the Thames

Saturday September 10th at 3pm...
I am sitting in my new back garden which is literally just on the river in the peace and sunshine of a brilliant day. Its 25 degrees (77 Fahrenheit) and I reading a book under a tree thinking how life literally could not get any better..........


This weekend's Thames Festival put on by the Major of London provided plenty of fun and excitement and for those lucky enough to live riverside the free entertainment came delivered!

I got a video of drummers on a boat but their were also bagpipers and a parade of different boats all along the Thames on Saturday and Sunday.


Then on Monday a man did a charity swim down the River Thames with people on every bridge cheering him along the way. He raised over a million pounds for Charity.
So between bagpipers on a boat and a charity race down the river the Thames is officially Brilliant! but then again with a view like this who would beg to differ!


This is my view every morning of the Thames under Putney Bridge.




Absolutely Breathtaking!

My bank account is so secure even I can't access it !

Dear Natwest,
For the past two weeks and counting that I have been trying to sort out an issue with a locked pin for my debit card held on my personal account at your fine banking establishment. Having been a customer at Natwest for the past 6 years now I have yet to encounter quite such difficulty ever accessing my own personal account. Having been away from the country for the past 2 years I feel justified in having forgotten my pin number having not used it once in 24mths time.
On August the 22nd I had ordered from a local branch of your fine banking establishment a copy of my own pin number to be sent to me and was told that it would take 2 to 3 working days.
Let me know count for you what exactly three working days are : Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
I then returned to your fine banking establishment on Friday only to be told that my pin had not yet arrived.
I then attempted to change my address to my new and current address in the UK. I also requested that my pin number be sent to that address to of course save me the added hassle of returning to the bank once more. I waited for another 6 working days until the next Thursday when I returned to your FINE BANKING ESTABLISHMENT! only to find that my pin had still not arrived and that my address had also not been changed. I apparently had not been clever enough to realized that the bank teller assisting me had actually done nothing to my account since apparently he was set down to be fired the very next day.
I then asking for assuring form the person serving me that they were in fact actually going remain working for Natwest at least within the next week requested that my pin be sent once more to the branch. I was assured that it would arrive this very morning Monday September the 5th and on arrival at the local branch of your fine banking establishment was told that my pin has YET TO ARRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been told that it will arrive tomorrow although I do have to be quite honest in expressing my lack of assurance and trust in the word of anyone sitting behind the counter of your fine banking establishment. IT HAS BEEN 14 DAYS I would like MY MONEY back.

Many Thanks,

Your most terribly unsatisfied customer

Okay so really that was just a bit of my venting but I thought it to funny not to post. Just for all my American readers to know this is the way things are traditionally done in the UK no one screams in a loud and angry Yankee accent over the phone about how stupid the company policy is they just write rather controlled angry letters. It's actually quite humorous how much you have to run around in circles to get anything done in this country sometimes. You think this story about my bank is bad try talking on the phone with BT (British Telecom) or British Gas or Transport for London..... the list could go on!
All in all I have learned from this experience one thing that I can use to turn into a positive and that is... My bank is an impenetrable fortress so secure that even I myself cannot access it!

I feel much better now :)

600 Days of Summer

I said goodbye to the Sun when I left Texas. Today for the first time in perhaps all my years of living in London I found myself wishing I'd brought shorts with me. 26 Degrees Celsius is apparently only 79 Fahrenheit which is probably colder than it ever gets in the Philippines, but today I was honestly HOT!
The funniest thing was watching people. I do this a lot but today I noticed more than I usually do what every one was wearing. It was like some people had not gotten the memo. I saw a girl about my age wearing a VERY thick wool Jumper and long black leggings with a denim skirt over them. Just looking at her made me boil! Then again a select few of the British population seemed to have taken the cue and used the opportunity of a sunny day to walk around half naked whilst still managing to look like they were sweating up a storm.
The title of this post I should perhaps explain...

the thing is that I spent 18 months living in a Topical country (Philippines) only to come home to a record breaking heat wave of a summer in Texas. I've sort of forgot what the sensation of being cold feels like. I'm more than certain though that with the London winter coming up I'll soon be dreaming of the days that I used to sweat out liters of water walking through rice fields!

Sooooo ya I think I can Blog? ! I've never really tried. My mother kept a blog about my mission but this is my first real attempt. I'm thinking this will mainly be full of my ramblings about school and publishing.. Perhaps random things I see in the Park... I think this is mainly a cry for attention from my journal I think, little did it know its was on a suicide mission as it beckoned to me earlier saying' You've not written in me more than three times all summer!'
Assumed contents of the blog:
A lot about Publishing
Dogs (I am a live in dog walker that's right I walk a persons walk dogs in exchange for rent!)
London: The love of my live! sorry chocolate
Religion ( I am a Return Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints)
The Philippines (where I served as a missionary!)
Books I am reading at the moment
And any of the other things I've listed in on my profile basically