I like ...

There's a neat application for iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone called Soundrop. It's elegant in its simplicity, and so very pleasurable to play with. Its developer did a nice job.

To use Soundrop, one taps and drags to draw lines on one's screen. The lines are then struck by a series of balls, thus generating sound. The pitch of the sound is determined by the speed of the ball when it hits a line.

As of this writing, Soundrop is free. I predict that won't be the case forever; evidently more features are in the offing.

Here's a little video I made, showing Soundrop in use on my iPad. Please excuse the reflections, the birds chirping in the background, and my hairy arms.



I also very much like the Canon T2i with 18-135 mm lens which my husband gave me for our anniversary a few days ago.



You see, there are the public vows people exchange at weddings and the private, unstated ones. I think one of his private vows was to shower me with all the consumer electronics items a person could possibly desire.

I always question our good fortune, but for as long as it lasts, I intend to enjoy it.




The camera takes beautiful snapshots in low light. This one was clicked off at night, with my somewhat startled son lit by a single table lamp. No flash. The light on his right cheek may be from the boob tube.




With the addition of my extension tube, the T2i takes nice macro shots. It also takes high definition video. I can already tell I'm going to have a great deal of fun with this camera.




However, I don't like this pile of photography equipment I've accumulated over the past 25 years. It's such a waste having this stuff moldering in the closet. I hope we can find new homes for it all, with people who'll get some pleasure from it.


Addendum: I was out on Amazon looking at lenses. I suddenly became curious as to which lens might be most expensive and ran across this monster. ($29,000! You could buy two Dagobert throne toilets for that price! Oh, but Amazon offers free Super Saver Shipping for this lens. That's nice of them.) Check out the fourth product image, which clearly shows how big this darned thing is compared to a camera or, indeed, a human being. Some of the product reviews are also amusing.