Brain Damage

[elfs]

My Palm broke.

If you're not a PDA user, this is probably meaningless to you. If you are, you know what this means: you've had the equivalent of a small stroke. There is a subset of humanity that can keep its life organized, and there is a subset which cannot. I'm in the latter. My Palm kept everything that was essential, but boring, to me: phone numbers, dates, my schedule, to-do lists, priorities, novels I was reading, my English/Kanji dictionary and drills, bus schedules, birthday and anniversary notices, items of research, notes about what to write about next.

All of that... gone. Most of it was backed up onto the laptop, so I can get at it, but not just by holding something in my hand. Who I know, what to do next-- it's all a horrible jumble. I know today's Wednesday only because Bob Edwards told me so in his usual stentorian tones. Wednesday... I know I'm supposed to pick up my kid today after work, but I have no idea what's for dinner. Without the event clock and alerts, I'm likely to forget when, though. I forgot breakfast and lunch today because I didn't have what was available, accessible.

It relieved me of all the duties for which my organic brain is poorly aligned and would rather not have to do. I'm afraid I'm going to be a ditz until it gets back from the repair center.

Comments

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I purchased my first one around '97. I've broken several. The last time, I just admited defeat and immediately went to buy the next higher mode.

Some people jokingly refer to it as my stunt brain. Others realize it is.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

I love my PDA; I don't know what I would do without it. Well, yes I do know--"run in circles, scream and shout ..." I've been using a PDA (first a Palm V, now an iPaq) for the last 2 or 3 years to keep track of my social schedule, which tends to get booked for 2 months in advance. Around the beginning of December, I didn't charge it up over the weekend and it wiped itself completely. I spent several hours just trying to recreate my calendar, and I never did get it set up for wireless again, dangit.

Of course, if it didn't hold e-books (including a full set of Honor Harrington books!) plus a very cool map program with a detailed map of the entire Seattle area, I might be tempted to just use the calendar function on my cell phone. I love geeky toys, but I hate carrying a bag to tote them around.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Of course, if it didn't hold e-books (including a full set of Honor Harrington books!)

Great books! I'm so happy that the latest Harrington hard back had a CD in it. LOTS of good books on it.

plus a very cool map program with a detailed map of the entire Seattle area, I might be tempted to just use the calendar function on my cell phone. I love geeky toys, but I hate carrying a bag to tote them around.
Which map program is that? I haven't found a good one, myself.

Ebooks!

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Let's see... what do I have on my ebooks that I now cannot read?

• Honor Harrington 6 and 7, "Honor Among Enemies" and "In Enemy Hands."
  
• Vorkosigan, "The Warrior's Apprentice."
  
• Clarke, "Childhood's End."
  
• Egan, "Permutation City" and "Border Guards" (the latter is a short story.)
  
• Lovecraft, "The Mountains of Madness and other stories."
  
• Mirovich, "Cerulean Dreams" (a Pokemon slash novel)
  
• The entire "Sapphic Writer's Festival" from alt.sex.stories.moderated-- mostly short stories.
  

There's nothing like being able to carry a whole library with you.

[damiana-swan.livejournal.com]

Pocket Streets, the PDA version of Streets & Trips. (Yes, it's Evil Empire, and yes that means it won't run on a Palm.) It's in color, the maps include all sorts of useful information like where restaurants and public buildings and landmarks are, it has a "find address" function, and you can easily add your own "pushpins" to mark places that are uniquely valuable information for you.

omfg ouch :(

[kyriani.livejournal.com]

*HUGS* :( Thats evil. :( *shudder*
I only get by without a Palm because I write everything down on paper (I have a little paper notebook with my vital notes and some doodles, pretty sad for a programmer and techie). I have a handheld that I used to use at home until it broke just enough for it to become unusable and I miss it dearly. I keep a backup of all my numbers and apointments in my cellphone luckily (though I remember numbers like nothing else, but never names). Fortunately (or unfortunately for me) I don't have to keep track of all that much at the moment, I have no friends here besides Matt so no social situations to keep track of, only general reminders. That reminds me, a coworker has a Palm for sale... Must find out which one it is...
Best of luck while your brain recovers!

[patcat.livejournal.com]

My Palm broke.
Y'know, they told you something like that'd happen if you kept playing with it.
(Thank you; thank you. I'll be here all week. Make sure to tip your server.)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Hah! I've often been tempted to buy an old wig from some second-hand store, cut it up and glue it to the outside of my PDA's case. Given how much porn I keep in the ebook reader, having a hairy Palm makes sense.

I'm apparently not the only one to think of this:

Dr Fun: The Horrid Price of Looking at Porn on your Palm (http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200108/df20010813.jpg)