Bubbles

We all live in bubbles. My main bubble has always been IBM. Everyone there, and therefore most of the people I know are all of a type. The plain truth is that all IBMers of my age are middle class, well educated, and have, or had good incomes. All have comfortable lives, most like and understand technology, and are worldly wise. This is reflected in my personal life too, where, because of the things I do, I tend to meet and have friends that are also of the very same type. One thing that is common to just about everyone I know is that they are what they are and are very happy with their lot. Nobody is trying to prove anything to anyone. Some more or less so, but still within limits.

This all leads me to have a tendency to think that everyone even outside the bubble is also the same and of course nothing could be further from the truth. I now know that my bubble is probably not at all reflective of the typical person, or even of a typical middle-class person. This week I had an encounter with a person who projected an image of needing to prove a great deal. His whole demeanour was completely different; impressions were everything to him, he wore a different style of clothes and acted and spoke on a very different level. Everything seemed calculated to impress, but the odd thing was that he seemed totally unaware of how those around them perceived these things or their receptiveness to his stance. Basically, this person was missing the target altogether and was coming across as annoying and patronising through no fault of his own. I can imagine that all his friends and colleagues were just like him, but the problem was that his bubble worked differently to mine and we were incompatible.

Similarly, through what I do a couple of day each week, I come into contact with people in lots of other bubbles where their lives are dominated by confusion, uncertainty, violence, or acceptance, or not, that they have very little control over.

If you like the bubble you find yourself in, just make the most of it while you can.

iPad Vs Android tablet

I've had my iPad now for almost 2 1/2 years and I can't say I like it any more than I did when I first got it for all the same reasons. Trouble is that if I want to use guitar processing apps then I have to use an iPad because the Android spec has too much latency for music processing and is therefore not up to the job of real time signal processing without noticeable lag. As a result nobody bothers to port the guitar apps to Android.

So, I'm left with two choices. Get rid of the iPad and lose my guitar apps, or just get an additional Android tablet and be able to do all the things the iPad can't do, or do very well. The second option is clearly the way to go, especially as I've just got an 8 inch tablet for Sheila and its terrific. It's a much better size than the Apple device for carrying around, and lighter too, plus expandable storage, and a more flexible operating system. It also compliments my Gopro well because after I've filmed something I can watch the footage immediately on the Android tablet. I feel a purchase coming on!

Update: I got an Asus Memo 7. It is an amazing little thing. It does everything the iPad does and hell of a lot more too, and for only £99. Well worth having as it's much more usable on the move than the iPad is. Now I need to get rid of the iPad and get a Sony Xperia tablet.

Two years!

Blimey, I've just realised that it's been two years since I last added anything to my blog. Lots of things have been going on, in fact lots of mostly really good things, so I guess I've just been a bit too preoccupied to stick bits of it all in here from time to time. We've been on lots of brilliant trips, done lots of interesting new things, and I'm now into a whole new set of new ways to spend my time so I really must start adding the gist of it all in here.

Looking back at what I've added in the past acts as a really good memory jogger so I'm going to aim to do at least one new post a week starting right NOW!