Sorry about the lack of updates - last week was a wash-out where hobbies were concerned, though I did get loads of other stuff done. This week has been better, if still a bit busy. I have almost finished my next batch of figures - Aventine Miniatures' Roman generals, and the two command packs of officers (RR40 and RR40a, and RR50 and RR51). After that, I'm supposed to be painting a unit of Etruscan cavalry, but I'm not sure I can face doing more horses just yet.
My family have been struggling to think what to give me for my birthday and Christmas this year. I have to confess, I'm not hugely inspired myself - unless it was 'phalanx vouchers' to buy myself a load of Successor pikemen once Aventine Miniatures bring some out - but as they haven't even sculpted any yet, it doesn't seem like a very exciting present. And then my lad had an idea...
Why don't they all club together to buy me an iPad? To begin with, I wasn't keen. I couldn't see the use for it - I have this old PowerMac, a new MacBook Pro, and an iPod Touch - that about covers most of the bases. But the more I've thought about it (and particularly after playing with one), the more the idea has grown on me - particularly if I got the 3G version, with its internal GPS. Amongst other things, it'd be handy for having easily searchable wargames rules (as PDF or ePub) on the table top. The MBP works okay-ish for that, but the upright screen tends to act as a sort of 'view-block', which doesn't help the feel of the game - and it's a bit of a big beastie as well! An iPad would lay flat on the table. So who knows, AVGVSTVS to AVRELIAN may appear as an ePub before anything else. A MacBook Air might be nice, but it doesn't have the GPS, and is just like a baby MBP in its form factor. The iPod Touch is fine for listening to Podcasts, and music, and for reading some things - like the bible - in fact I hardly use my paper bible any more, the iPod is so much more convenient, and it's so easy to search and to flick back and forth between different passages when looking something up. That sort of functionality in a set of wargames rules would be amazing.
I wondered whether the 3G version would work out expensive in terms of running costs, but it turns out that 3G 'data plans' are only a month long (at the most), so I could just buy one when I needed it (like when we go away), and use it on WiFi most of the time when we're in our usual haunts.