My Experience With... iPad Pro!

Oh, hey.

Um.... just push the play button below. It'll add dramatic effect.

Alright, for those of you who may not know, I fully enjoy technology, and I really love Apple products.

Even the Apple watch, as useless as it looks, is still a pretty sweet toy. Sure, it's not the most helpful gadget, but people used to fantasize about this kind of thing!!!!

I've played Blimey Cow and Say Goodnight Kevin on Best Buy's Apple TV. I've widened my eyes with the Photobooth app! (No, literally, I used a Fish Eye Lens filter.) I've found how ridiculously stellar the OS system is with graphics and sound. Dude, I've even almost composed Grammy-worthy pieces testing out the iPad family!

Sadly I own none of these. Yet. (Have you tried saving for one of those bad boys when you've got bills to pay? iPod.... or rent?)

But, anyway, I'm always looking at the beautiful new sleek models on Best Buy, reminiscing of those candy-coloured iMacs of the 00s, and wondering why in the hizzy they haven't made all their computers touch-screen yet. One day, lo and behold, I found out about the most amazing iPad model yet. And today I got to experience (easy, chica)... firsthand... (don't blow a gask-)

THE ALL-NEW IPAD PRO!!!!!!!!

And let me tell you, it truly is AMAZING!!!!!!!!! Firstly, the sound. Honest-to-goodness, the sound quality is better than some DESKTOPS. No speakers necessary! And it all sounds so crisp! Uhm.... cha! I'm impressed!

The graphics.... yes, yes, top-notch, HD, whaddaya expect?

But what I REALLY loved most of all was that stinkin' PEN!!! The sales rep who helped me out showed me the almost limitless bounds (oxymoronic, I know) of that piece of plastic! It makes realistic-looking marks, and responds to pressure!

Of course, I ended up drawing a Trogdor. Unfortunately, I have no photo available.

But can you imagine the power you have with that thing?! This could put some drawing pad brands out of business!

Now, as amazing as it sounds, there are a few drawbacks.

Ironically enough, the pen is the first one. Firstly, it's not compatible with any other member of the iPad family. Ugh! Secondly, that thing is pretty stinking huge, considering it's a "pencil." It resembles those novelty pencils you can get at a dollar store or arcade. That was a bit of a nitpick, especially since I hardly noticed after indulging in my skills of an artist, but hey, full-on review here.

The second thing I need to address is the size of the iPad Pro. Uhm.... I think it's bigger than the MacBooks. This is NOT something you would buy for convenience's sake. I don't think weight would be that much of an issue -- I never picked it up, but I would imagine it would weigh about 75% of the weight of an early laptop. Plus, this is not exactly what you could carry in a decent Coach bag.... unless they made some backpacks. Wait, do they? Anybody who knows, comment below!

Lastly, and most importantly... SO important that the store rep said it from the get-go... the blinking PRICE. Apple, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??!!! Are you trying to market to business executives and departmental directors?! You made the closest thing to an All-in-One Touchscreen Desktop / Touchscreen Convertible Laptop and you price it as though it were a MacBook! No way! Honestly, I think it might've been like $1000 or something crazy like that for 128 GB of memory! Really?! At this moment, I could get that much memory on an iPad mini 4 for HALF the price!!!!!! I'll forego the pencil, which, by the way, is sold SEPARATELY. Again.... WHAT???!!!!! *frustrated grumbling, trying to find the right words to say despite a highly expanded vocabulary* ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!???!!!! It only works with an iPad Pro, so SELL it with the iPad Pro! Forgive me if I offend, but I think it's safe to say that Steve Jobs's coffin just jumped a couple of inches!!!! This isn't good marketing, you're just exploiting the Christmas Crowd!!! 

*sigh* I just KNOW that there's gonna be a slew of YouTube viral vids showing 5- to 10-year-old chilren receiving 2 iPad Pros and a Mac Pro for Christmas, along with the pen, and the little brats darlings will still be crying because of a lack of the Apple TV that they asked for as well.

The pricing aside.... waaaaaaaaaaaaay aside..... the device itself is really nice. It's not completely revolutionary, although that pen is pretty cool, though, but it still is probably a right step in the technological path. I hope that one day... one day... someone decides (s)he has about, oh, $2000 or so extra in cash (s)he wants to give as a gift to me, so I could buy it at its current price. That's about the only way I would buy this piece of machinery at this time.

What's the greatest piece of technology you've come across. And seriously, does Coach sell backpacks? I've never really checked.

My Experience With... Alice in Wonderland (Rachael Peatross edition)

Let me start off by saying that I am not an acclaimed / renowned critic or reviewer. However, I'm going to do a play review anyway.

So there. ^_^

Sometimes you don't need to look too far to get some good entertainment. Sometimes it's right around your neighborhood. For me, it was a small Christian school in North Carolina.


My friend Rachel is pretty good with drama (the theatrical kind, you internet smart alecks), and she's had her fair share of directing plays. She recently directed Alice in Wonderland, a version she wrote herself, combining elements of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Saw There. I was personally excited to see it, and went with some friends this past weekend. I was not disappointed in the least.


Firstly, I walked in, and the "stage" was more of the middle of the floor, with the chairs set  like it was the Globe Theatre. I personally like this kind of setting, as it connects the audience to the characters, and vise versa. Secondly, this was a play with most of the characters played by middle schoolers.

And.

They.

ROCKED IT.


I don't know what Rachel did with this bunch, but they were all really great in their roles, and their improv had me in stitches. I wish I could say something about every last one of these characters, but I'll put down which ones I remember the most.

Alice - The actress was pretty good in this role, as a young girl who pretty much was ready to roll with the punches that was Wonderland.

Mad Hatter - The only thing that stood out more than his great acting ability would probably be his height. His matter-of-factness about his madness made him a really memorable character.

March Hare - Okay, I will admit that she was my favorite character. She was just a bundle of energy, and I loved it! I can only imagine that she took her madness to the same extreme that a trombone player would take fortissimo.

Humpty Dumpty - Loved her air of arrogance throughout her performance! Nice change from cravat to scarf, by the way. :)

Reciter - I was floored by how well she had all of those lines memorized!

The Tweedles - Those two were amazingly hilarious... kinda had a Laurel/Hardy / Abbot/Costello thing going on.


Like I said, too many to actually write down here, but overall, this cast did an excellent job in their character roles.


The story itself contains its special mixtures of the original stories' structures, bits of comedy pertaining to contemporary life, dancing, puns, improv, even it's own sort of Pyramus and Thisbe! I would find this suitable for children at least 5 and above, making it a perfect family play.

Now, since last week was the *ahem* premiere of this play, I'm not sure that you will find a theatre near you that's hosting this play. You may need to contact Rachel herself about it. She'll talk to you about it further.


Well, hope you liked my first theatrical review! I hope to do more soon.


Now the question:

Have you seen a play written by a local? Have you written a play or your own version of a play? Please let me know your experience in the comments below! Ciao!

My Experience With... Signing an Autograph!

Wow! I hadn't even realized that I hadn't posted for the month of October! :( I try to crank out at least one or two per month.


Life can so get in the way of blogging if you let it... ;)


Anyway, I've mentioned (quite a few times) that I've been in the movie War Room, and I can be clearly seen. Here are the links, so I don't have to hyperlink them mid-sentence.

• War Room
• Meeting Pricilla Shirer

Since the movie came out, for almost a month people in my church have looked at me and either said, "Hey, I saw you in War Room!" or "Were you in that movie War, Room?" And of course, I said yes. It's still making my head spin that God gave me the opportunity to be on a feature film. Forever. That's the part that's really hard to grasp. Honest-to-goodness, I cannot thank God enough for the amazing experience.

That being said, I was in the library the other day, and a man who frequents it saw me at a computer. He asked me if I was in the movie. I told him yes. I'm pretty sure he was excited about it. He said he'd seen me several times before in the library, and just wanted to make sure it was the same woman. So yes, I did give out my first official autograph:

To my good friend, Stephen.
Jessie Berrie.

Y'know... I should've taken a picture of it. Oh, well. Just the thought of giving someone an autograph is cool in and of itself, let alone actually doing it. ^_^

Thanks, Stephen!