Anjasaurus

My darlings

A few days ago, I read on Deep Edition about his favourite gadgets, and I got inspired to write my own gadget list :) Just like him, I generally care more about buying new gadgets than travelling or buying clothes. I love design and usability, and the possibilities that come with new tools :)

MacBook My main gadget right now has to be my Macbook, which I bought sometime in August or September. It’s a 13” white MacBook, and the old non-unibody version too. It’s shiny and reliable, and follows me everywhere now, more or less. I has made my love keyboard shortcuts for some reason, maybe they’re just more convenient and consistent in OS X. I’m also using Snow Leopard now, upgraded just a few days ago.

It’s my main chat computer, since it has Tweetie and Adium, wonderful applications, but I also write a lot on it, mainly essays for uni. It has a nice keyboard and the screen is ok, almost too small but it works fine. I use it since I prefer to write away from home, it makes it a lot easier to focus :)

iPhone My second favourite, although I’m not sure I dare to say second because it’s so close to being a favourite, is my iPhone. (I have a feeling I sound more and more like a Mac nerd..) It contains my life, more or less. Calendar, contacts, notes, to-do-list etc, it has all the things I need in my everyday life. Plus, it’s a dream to use, most of the time. Before I got my Macbook, I used it a lot more for Twitter and email, but now I carry my Macbook almost everywhere so I don’t need it. I have to admit it’s a lot more convenient to use a real keyboard, even though the iPhone keyboard is ok :P

Although I don’t give this baby as much love as it deserves (no screen protector and I forget to polish it all the time..), it is a key to keep my life going. Going to uni and working in a uni environment doesn’t really mean you’re away from computers that often, so my iPhone isn’t used for mobile browsing a lot. And I don’t know why, but iPhone games never caught me. I know some of my friends play vampire games and other multiplayer games, but I just can’t be bothered. My iPhone is my quick information channel, not a relaxation toy :)

PC Thirdly, of course I have to include my PC. It’s not hip, it’s not cool, it’s not awesome, but it lets me play games, which I love. I recently reformatted it and upgraded to Windows 7, and it’s working better. It’s still very noticeable it’s not a very new computer, especially compared to the Macbook (it’s making me spoiled already), but it gets the job done and that’s the main thing.

Of course I have a lot of other gadgets and stuff, but these are the ones I use every day. I used to play with an Asus Eee 900, but since I got my Mac I don’t have any need for another laptop, and the Eee is so slow in comparison I dread doing anything on it at all. I think it’s mainly because the OS is a resource hog, but I can’t be bothered to experiment with it. Poor thing. :)

This post got really long, maybe you can tell I love my computers and gadgets :D

Gaming and reading

My interest for stories, reading and gaming has been renewed, I think partly due to discussing it more with friends. I also had a bit of a dip in my Aion experience, feeling left out of my guild. I gathered up some courage and posted on the forum about it, and voila!, everything is fine, more or less.

Aion is grindy, there’s no point in denying it, but I’m trying to find my place in the grind and enjoying it in my own way. I enjoy the social parts way too much to drop the game, the community and chat is 50% of my gaming. Hopefully I’ll find good friends in this guild, and find a wiki-like community to join in with.

I’ve also tried Dragon Age recently, and it has a play style I’m not really used to from any other game (I know I’m a bad geek for not having played Baldur’s Gate or NWN). The first tutorial is including a lot of information and I got confused and tired quite fast. It will get another chance though, once I can convince myself to take time off studying and Aion.

One of my friends just bought the New Super Mario for Wii, and it sounds great! Every now and then I really wish I had a Wii. But on the other hand, I am a social gamer and I would never play it without friends.. I’m frustrated, there are so many games I want to play and so little time!

Another day in Aion

I’ve run into my first Aion block today, which is mainly about my legion (guild) and my own play style. They are around-the-clock players who spend a lot of time grinding and leveling, and I’m not.

Maybe this legion isn’t for me. I really enjoy going around looking at the scenery or collecting flowers and ignoring the mobs, and I don’t look forward to reaching lvl 50 that much. Sounds too much like the end to me, I like leveling and finding new areas.

I realised maybe Aion won’t be that game that sticks, like Guild Wars did, but I need to give it a chance at least. The questing is enjoyable, even more I’ve found if you really take the time to read the quest logs (they are insanely long sometimes though, I hardly ever bother..), and the scenery is nice. You can find the odd nice group for the group quests even, so maybe joining a legion isn’t that important yet :)

I’m still running around Eltnen, the level 20-40 area, which is mostly a desert. It has it’s beautiful spots though, and I tried to capture some of them:
Ania, my Chanter Night in Eiron Desert Beautiful desert landscape Beautiful desert landscape

I’ve just found the PvPvE area, so now I’m slowly getting to know the Abyss and how frustrating it can be to be low lvl in PvP areas ;) I hope to have the chance to play there some more on off-peak times to get to know the area better.