<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/6053333742/" target="_blank"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-9220" title="6053333742_cfea2607cc" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/6053333742_cfea2607cc-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>I am not a gadget person.  Romeo Mio is a gadget person.  Therefore, I am now learning how to play nicely with gadgets.

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<span style="font-size: medium; color: #800000;"><strong>Gadget du Jour:  The iPad 2.</strong></span>

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Would I ever buy an iPad 2?  Heck, no.  <a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/2011/01/21/day-113-i-joined-a-cult-please-dont-tell-my-mother/" target="_blank"><strong>I may be drinking the Magic Kool-Aid,</strong></a> but there's still a trace amount left at the bottom of my dixie cup.

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I have a MacBook Pro which is beyond A-W-E-S-O-M-E.  It does everything that I want it to do and oh so much more.  Why <em>on earth</em> would I complicate my life with yet another gadget that isn't as functional as my most cherished treasure (next to Romeo Mio, my family, my friends, and Little Miss B, of course)?

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I won the iPad 2 at work for a sales contest.  Woo hoo!

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It sat in the box unopened for about 3 weeks until Romeo Mio arrived for his <a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/2011/11/15/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner/" target="_blank"><strong>Thanksgiving visit</strong></a>.

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<span style="color: #800000;"><strong><span style="font-size: medium;">Romeo Mio and I actually had our one and only spat over that bloody iPad 2.  </span></strong></span>

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It started with me whining about emails.  Something to the effect of . . . . I am under a steady email stream at work, at home, on my Crackberry (See? I told you there was some Kool-Aid leftover!), and now I am expected to manage emails on my iPad 2?!?!  ARGH!!!!

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My temper tantrum annoyed Romeo Mio to no end.  Romeo Mio, who consumed every last drop of his Kool-Aid years ago, reprimanded for me behaving like a selfish wench.  If I wasn't grateful for my FREE iPad 2, then he would gladly take it off my hands.

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<span style="font-size: medium; color: #800000;"><strong>Hmph.</strong></span>

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I realized that it was a tad silly for me to get ornery over a gadget that so much of the world coveted.  There must be something to all this fuss.  Why not play with it and see for myself what all this fuss was about?  After all, I could disable the email deluge from my iPad.  I sweetly asked Romeo Mio to help me with that task.

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I then journeyed into App World.  Ooooo.  Ahhhhh.

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You could easily become lost in App World because there's an app for everything.  At the grocery store and need a dinner recipe accompanied by the shopping list of ingredients?  There's an app for that?  Want to turn your photos into pop art so you can look cool on facebook?  There's an app or two or more for that.

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<span style="font-size: medium; color: #800000;"><strong>I just heard this one on the radio this morning and couldn't believe it:  Need to know why he hasn't called you back?  There's an app for that.</strong></span>

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As a former teacher, I'm always a fan of play that is educational in nature.  Last week, I gravitated towards the "I'm leaving for France in 10 days and I barely remember any of the French that I studied for a year in college" app.  Other people, including the app's creators, call this app "MindSnacks French".

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Oo la la!  J'adore snacks!  I couldn't wait to feed my brain with all things French!  For FREE!

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<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=9195" rel="attachment wp-att-9195"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-9195" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/P1170007-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a><a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=9196" rel="attachment wp-att-9196"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-9196" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/P1170009-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>

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What describes my current French?  We've already been over that.  "I'm leaving for France in 10 days and I barely remember any of the French that I studied for a year in college" wasn't an option.  I chose the closest thing:  "Jumbled up words without any structure".

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<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=9197" rel="attachment wp-att-9197"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-9197" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/P1170010-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>

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Neat?  Did you seriously just say that?  Well, gosh oh golly, aren't you swell!  Wait a minute.  Am I talking to a computer?

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And hold on a sec.  Shouldn't I review my numbers first?  Kindly take me back to Level 1, per favore.  (I could only remember "please" in Italian at the time.  At the time of this writing, I've just remembered that "please" in French is "si vous plait".  I'm quite pleased with myself.)

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<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AbDh25_T_Yk" frameborder="0" width="640" height="480"></iframe>

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That's right.  I filmed my MindSnack lesson demo with my low-tech Olympus camera.  Sideways.  (Unintentionally.)

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I thought about staging a "Take Two" until I realized how this mishap would prove my non-gadgetness and make you laugh at the same time.  I'm always willing to take a hit to entertain my troops.  :-D

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I mastered Level 1 -- Numbers in no time flat!  Woo hoo!

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<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=9198" rel="attachment wp-att-9198"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-9198" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/P1170013-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>

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Wait a minute.  Are you kidding me?  I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.  Now you're telling me that there's no such thing as a free MindSnack???

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Hmph.

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Maird.

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Oh, well.  Imaginative people deserve to be paid for their creations.  I dished out the more than reasonable $4.99 for more educational fun and games.   I am now reacquainted with my colors in French.

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Thank goodness I have a built-in translator aka Romeo Mio when I descend on the French Alps in 4 days.

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