That new iPhone

I preordered that new iPhone. It was sitting on my front porch waiting for me while I watched students with theirs on Friday. Little did I know, it would take me three days to get it operational, and I'm still double-phoning...

Friday: Backup and upgrade iPhone 4. Realize computer OS will not support requisite iTunes version for activating new computer. Worry.

Saturday: Backup iPhone 4 to iCloud. Not having a physical backup makes me queasy. This takes about two hours as computer must be 1. plugged in 2. locked and 3. connected to wifi.

Sunday: Restore iPhone 5 from iCloud backup. Find number in AT&T support forums to call and complete activation. Had lots of fun "finding my iPhone." It is gorgeous, faster, and feather-weight.

Note: When I got my iPhone 4, my original iPhone looked like it had been through the wars, and the display was beginning to deteriorate. More than two years later, my iPhone 4 looks mint.

I like all the new wrinkles, especially Passbook. It does look like this version of iOS is really dependent on Location Services for proper functioning. Like the iCloud backup, not something I'm crazy about, but I worry I won't be really using the device to its fullest without it.

In related news, my kitten seems to have broken my first-gen iPad. I think it took an especially vicious knock when he pushed it off the dining room table, and now the display is all mottled, so I will be using my backup, a Motorola Xoom, while I travel about and think about what I need in a tablet.

Discovery and voice

I just finished Rebecca Harrington's Penelope and want to tell everyone I know about it. The story of a Harvard freshman, it's pitch-perfect and laugh-out-loud funny. It instantly transports you back to the strange sociological splinter and stilted conversations of college.

I couldn't remember reading about the novel before I saw a copy, pink with a sweet H-crested waffle, in an airport bookstore Labor Day weekend. Which is unusual, considering the number of book reviews I scan. It was in PW, turns out...And then I discovered ex post facto Goodreads crowd-rates it at 3 stars. (And the reviews make me worry for humanity! Authors, stay away from there.) But I would argue it's a potential Alex title. I might suggest it.

All this goes to say that books remain highly individuated. I occasionally worry we are all whirling towards one Harry Potter and Game of Thrones fantastical vortex, but then something as quirky and charming as Penelope reminds me that realistic, deadpan voice still exists, even if not completely appreciated. And where were the recommender systems (or even standard review mechanisms) on this one?

A very busy fall

This morning I'm taking about Cataloging with my colleagues from Madison County. But in addition to still settling in at my new job, I have many things scribbled on the calendar for this fall.

Early in October, I'll be in Georgia speaking at COMO about Teens and Technology.

I will be presenting a preconference workshop and two concurrent sessions at TASL, the Tennessee Association of School Librarians.

Then in November, my work done, I'll get to enjoy my two favorite literature events, the third YALSA Literature Symposium in St. Louis...

.... and ALAN in Las Vegas.

Like Cathy Jo Nelson, I wish I could make it to the AASL Fall Forum in Greenville, SC, but the drive is epic, and I'm already planning to drive to Macon (5 1/2 hours) and St. Louis (6 hours).  I also wish I could make the School Library Journal Summit in Philadelphia, but I have been hearing great things about TASL for years, and they overlap this year in a most un-fortuitous way. And more and more emails are arriving referencing Midwinter...