Paprika

On Sunday I saw Paprika at a local theater. I hadn't even heard of it before a friend asked me if I wanted to go, but I knew it was meant to be once I read the cinema's description: "In this psychedelic sci-fi adventure anime, it will take the skills of Dr. Atsuko Chiba -- a genius scientist by day, and a brawling dream warrior named Paprika by night -- to save the world when a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen."

The beginning was a little odd, but it definitely turned out to be the perfect place to start. The characters were all interesting and relatively deep for a few hours of animated film. There were great twists, wonderful artwork, and fun surprises. I really feel like it was anime at its finest, telling a compelling story that would have been much harder to accomplish in live action. One of my housemates has since been searching for the other 3 films that the director has made (all of which are advertised in Paprika), and I believe he's found at least one. I will definitely have to make time to watch it.

New Technology Craving

I'm currently on the market for a new cell phone, and the iPhone started catching my eye this past week when I wasn't thrilled about any of the phones Verizon had to offer. It's definitely a hot piece of technology, has a nice interface, is pretty, and would make my lab mates oh so jealous. The only problem is that I've heard it's not as fast as it could be, and that AT&T's plan is not that great. I have also heard that AT&T's network is not as good as Verizon's in my area. So why would I want a phone that may only marginally function?

Well, it IS the hottest phone. And by hot I mean sexy. I haven't had a new phone in over 2 years, which for people in general I say is a great way to do it. But I do love technology, so it's kin to torture for me! Although I love my Treo, the Palm interface is getting a little old in many ways.

Unfortunately, I don't really want to be a beta tester to the iPhone and the AT&T network right now. Well, truthfully the tester in me would kill to be a tester of the iPhone, but I don't particularly have time to find and report kinks in other people's work at the moment. I do feel like for the next year or so, any owner/user of the iPhone is essentially fulfilling that role, as is usually the case with something new in the technology sphere. Although I am still happy to have been an early adopter of Windows Vista...

Wow, iPhone and Vista in the same post.

For now I think I will hold off on the iPhone, but I'm planning to visit the Apple store nearby in the next week or two so who knows what will happen then. I will definitely have more to say on the interface, size, etc. after that visit though. I wonder if it will be good or bad?