I've Got a Golden iPad!

I'm finally getting hip and jumping off the bridge with everyone else.

Namely, I'm getting an iPad. It's not gold, but that's the most creative title I could come up with.

The biggest problem with spending the money on one (even if it's not gold) is that your wife needs to be convinced that it's a worthwhile purchase. To be fair, I originally never had much of a need beyond "bigger Angry Birds," but as I've seen friends use them I am continually coming around to how versatile they are. Audio, video, games, apps for every day life, books and other PDFs out the wazoo .. it seems impossible that I'm just now getting on board with this.

With two kids turning 3 and 5 soon, they too can appreciate the fun of a tablet. Granted their appreciation won't extend far beyond "bigger Angry Birds," but it's still something! On top of that, they can also watch Netflix without hogging the TV the Xbox is connected to. Granted I haven't used it for anything but Netflix for the past two months, but the theory of having time to play is pretty exciting.

Personally, I can't wait to supplement all my hobbies with a single device. Warmachine has an app that has been atrocious to use on my iPhone, but our Cygnar player seemed to use it to good effect. Plus when their digital media finally releases I'll be able to carry it all with me.

As a Dungeon Master at heart, I can only see the benefits of having everything at my fingertips. Initiative tracking, campaign notes, monster stats with functioning health bars (if I can talk our programmer in to figuring that one out for me). The possibilities seem endless, and I haven't even received the darn thing.

But with all of that, how did my wife get sold on an iPad? I think it was a combination of two things. The seeds were sown when we had dinner at our pastor's house and she saw how great it was for entertaining kids. The idea seemed to be locked in when she realized she could watch her girly dramas anywhere.

I hope to report back in a few weeks about some amazing way the iPad has somehow made my plethora of geeky hobbies even better. Is it possible? I hear there's a comic book reader, so it just may happen.

See you tomorrow!