In Absentia – Day Five (the quest for Absentia)

Beach, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.

Don’t you just hate that when it happens?  Well, don’t you? C’mon, don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about.. it must have happened to you before?  No?  Well, I find that very difficult to comprehend, Dear Reader, and I would hate for something as trivial as this to spoil our friendship! Oh, what’s that.. “perhaps if I told you then you might be able to answer”.. oh, I guess that might help.  I missed the delivery I’d been waiting for all day by five minutes – figuring it would be okay to pop out for ten minutes (and having not been given a specific delivery time).  You see, it’s not just me – you hate it when that happens too, don’t you.  Good, glad we’re agreed on that.

The something was a new tool I’ve purchased to help me write right here,right there and write everywhere when I feel so inspired or when I just want to waffle as you’re probably more accustomed to!  I first realised I need something somewhere between my android mobile phone and my windows netbook when on a plane between Mombasa and the Masai Mara (there’s still plenty of mileage to be had out of my trip – you’ll be clubbing together to send me somewhere new you’ll be so sick of it soon) when I felt the urge to document the journey, the feelings, the passengers actions etc.  It was particularly difficult trying to record your thoughts on a rather crude notepad application via an onscreen keyboard of the 3.25” screen of my phone – oh the number of typo’s I made (no more than normal!).  I felt similarly inspired on the drive from the Masai Mara to Lake Nakuru, a 7 hour journey through a wide variety of Kenya’s varied habitats.  Again it was incredibly difficult, especially when the mini van was bouncing all over the road, as I was inside the van.

I decided there and then I wanted to get a tablet (I keep taking mine but the Voices just won’t go away – though I do feel they’re now there to Rubberneck rather than as companions) and more specifically, as I love my Android Phone so much, I wanted toget an Android Tablet as opposed to Apple’s iPad.  Now there’s no denying the iPad is a lovely bit of kit but I feel that Android has so much more going for it (I won’t bore you with the details… today) and so after much research, testing and pining the tail on the tablet, I plumped for the Asus EEE Transformer.  I know there’s the likelihood of another one being released soon but this tablet has all the functions I need for my purpose which to me is all that matters.  One huge plus is that there is an application in beta that allows you to connect a number of SLR cameras including the 1D4 to the device via USB, and then remote control all aspects, including focusing on specific points.  Awesome.  I’ll let you know how I’ve got on post vacation.

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