ios 7 Review

This review is for ios 7 on the iPhone 4.

Everything has a new design: most things that used to look similar to real objects: calculator, notes, are now plain white and helvetica (along with most everything else), perfect for slipping an albino alpaca into a hipster's hands unnoticed.

 

The calendar has decided it's not important that days be separated by lines, since we all knew the week runs together between weekends anyway. It's simply reflecting the state of america's soul.

Many things that were once shiny and modern are now flat and only vaguely metallic if you squint. Messages bubbles. Icons. We go from a shiny tech loving society to a hipster-minimalist pseudo representation of our culture.

The lock screen has a completely new look. And by completely I mean the basic elements are still there, but now the text shows up on the picture instead of black bars, once again making it hipster friendly and more customizeable.

Additionally, if music is playing, the controls show up on the lock screen without a double-click. However the album art is small with a strange amount of space around it, reminding us of emptiness in our souls. This is apparent in the music app itself, as well.

Music most notably has itunes radio, which is pretty much pandora without the ads, because apple can afford to do that and because they love putting other companies out of business.

Safari has now combined the search and address bars so that we can finally stop feeling stupid when our query about salmon saliva returns no results. Also the tab switcher looks like a card index now instead of a flat preview of each page, in a desperate throwback to old library systems, trying to draw in the grannies and granddads to the newest mass technology. Can't forget the old people when you take over the world.

The clock/timer app has the same functionality with a newish design, of course, but its real shining feature is that the clock on the icon now shows the correct time. It's sort of addicting to watch that tiny second hand move around and around, ignoring the fact that there are other obligations to attend to. Now if only the weather app would display the correct number of degrees right on the icon... At least it doesn't lie to us that it's always a sunny 72 anymore.

The weather app underwent a redesign, and while it's tempting to say it is much improved, it really does the exact same things the old one did and the interior does not match the new feel of ios7.
It just feels too detailed, like effort was actually put into the backgrounds and stuff.

Additionally, the average citizen's negligence to assign pictures to their contacts (or the crummy phone-camera quality of said photos) must have influenced the decision to make callers' photos tiny and contained, rather than full screen and friendly. It is depressing and uncalled for.

When dismissing apps, one can preview them fullscreen and flick them away. Perfect for getting distracted again while trying to conserve battery power.

Oh look! Twitter!

All in all ios7 is beautiful, simple, practical, and drains my battery a bit faster.

Yesterday was interesting

Yesterday I had casual conversation with a stranger at the same table, and it wasn't awkward. Yesterday, I talked to a lot of strangers. Yesterday I was in a hydroplaning car for the first time. I didn't think I was going to die, but I was not exceedingly reassured either with a teenage boy behind the wheel. If it was my dad, for example, I would have felt more secure. Yesterday, I saw the bus that goes to and from Elgin and the driver still recognised me. He waved. I gave him a thumbs up. Yesterday, I helped make spinach pizza. Yesterday, I watched Gravity Falls. Yesterday, I had to play DDR on the bus home just to keep me awake so I wouldn't miss my stop. Yesterday, i went to bed at 2 AM anyway. Yesterday, I got manga in Japanese from the library. Yesterday, it rained while it was sunny. I got a sunburn. It's still wondrously, beautifully raining today. I'm pretty sure there was something else about yesterday, but it doesn't come to mind. 

Walking the drag

Long story short, I did a lot of walking yesterday. From ACC to the Faulk Library , then up the drag all the way to Buffalo Exchange and back to 20th to catch the bus. And then to church from a different bus stop. I just did the math and I walked 4.2 miles. About. So I was tired yesterday. I got to sleep in though, which was great. It was also great that yesterday the high was only 95, so I didn't get heatstroke walking around downtown. 

I bought a shirt from Urban Outfitters (one of those psuedo hipster stores--it's mostly for the style and not for true rejection of pop culture) because it was orange and stripey and 5 dollars (and urban outfitters sells 8-18 dollar SOCKS so this was a pretty good price... Also it's a good thing I didn't fall in love with any of their socks).

It's a mens t shirt but whatever. 

I also photographed some urban art. 

So there was my day.

Thrift Finds

On Friday night, I realized that Saturday was my last chance to go back to Subway and get a Gravity Falls themed kids meal (again). The kids meals are pretty nifty because they come with bags themed around cool kids TV shows and movies, and also they come with apple slices and milk instead of soda and chips. It's a small sandwich (for subway) but it's not shabby. And even with tax that's all under 5 dollars!
Anyway, I'd already been to subway and gotten a bag with Mabel on it, which I put art supplies into later (just like my vanellope von shweetz bag). They aren't actually too handy for lunches because they look like little purses (but I won't get into gender stereotypes here). But upon further internet research I discovered that the 'boy' bags, at least for the Gravity Falls theme, were legit lunch bags that folded over on top to close and had one handle and all that. Sooo I hoped that there were some left.
This is turning into a long story so long story short, I worried they might be out, then it looked like they were, but I asked if there were more, and the only gravity falls ones they had left were the very one I wanted. So without further ado, my new lunchbag:

I also discovered that there's a little goodwill hidden back there in the area and I had lots of free time before work, so I thought I'd look around.
Turns out that this particular goodwill had more things I like than any other goodwill I've gone to. I went into the trying-clothes-on-stall (I want to call it a dressing room but I feel like I'm forgetting the proper name?????) with at least seven things on my arm and saw another amazing skirt on the way.
So I tried 'em on and as expected most of them didn't really work but about five did.
I decided I didn't need a plain brown cardigan and eventually decided I didn't need a stripey one either. However, I did get these three items:

I was really happy to find patterned shorts since all of mine are plain. They're also very thin and cool for hot texas weather. and I like the ties on them, since that means they can be as loose or conservative as I need them to be.

I tried on this shirt and felt like this: YESSSSS. It's large and thin but not see through, plus it's stripey. It felt so good to wear it.

This is the skirt that I saw on the rack near the changing rooms. It's also pretty thin, but long and I love the color scheme. When I saw it I knew there was no way I was going to leave without it, unless it somehow didn't fit (which isn't usually a problem with skirts as they are very forgiving)

So those are the things I got Saturday.

Sunday Morning Introspection

You might think that for an introvert like myself, such a withdrawn and quiet person, hearing God would be easy. After all, being quiet and listening are among my special talents!

Not so. 

When you get inside my head, it's a flurry of information, speculations, bunny trails, ideas, narratives, and whatever else. On the rare occasions that I'm thinking of one category of things and nothing else, it's usually not a matter of my own choosing. It's so hard to wake up on Sunday morning, for example, and go "gee i have church soon so I should go ahead and focus my thoughts on God so I can be ready to hear from Him." (Ideally this should be every day but as you can see it's hard even once a week) 

Because of this, I'm rarely "in the mood" for worship and even if I try to pray and focus, it's really difficult. 

I don't know how to deal with this.

My most prominent idea is to have all my thoughts be prayers, like Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof. This is where I'd like to be someday, but for someone so self centered as me, the process is pretty hard. 

(Art by audrey lopata)

My little brother had communion today. Taking advantage of the fact that Mom and Dad weren't sitting near us, he jumped at his chance. I remember that feeling.

Our family's policy has usually been that children don't take communion until they are old enough to understand and make the commitment to follow Christ, and after they've demonstrated this in baptism. 

But I remember being young, too young, and still really wanting to participate. Sure, the in-church snackage seemed like an awesome privilege, but there was something more than that. That feeling of wanting to be a part of something bigger or to belong. I remember ripping pieces off my kids' bulletin to represent bread and rolling the rest up to be a cup, and acting out communion with everyone else even though I wasn't allowed to do the 'real' thing yet. 

But isn't the remembrance the important part? People can debate for days about the procedure and technical details of communion, about whether it's symbolic or not, if transubstantiation is a thing, etc etc. But according to Luke , the intention was remembrance... It is the one that records the instruction to DO THIS—in remembrance of Him.

Anyway, I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I guess the idea is... I remember how it feels.  To want to participate even without completely understanding. And I think that's alright.