It’s been too long since the last blog, and for that I apologize, and bring forth my excuse: NaNoWriMo. 1667 or more words every single day of the month are more than enough words for me, and by the time I finish that, my homework, and my YouTube procrastination, I either have no time, or I’m too sick of typing to blog. I’m nearly finished, though! There are nine days left, and I’ve just passed 40,000 out of the 50,000 required words. Eeep!

I saw something that prompted me to blog today. Currently, our house is host to a plague (I overdramatize – they aren’t that bad!) of relatives, who, as far as I’ve gathered, are here for the collective celebration of several people’s soon-to-arrive birthdays, among other things. I don’t have anything against most of my relatives – although some annoy me more than I can put into words without the abuse of the shift key. However, one of my relatives did something today that annoyed me so much that I was moved to make the excuse of NaNoWriMo and retreat to my laptop in order to do some serious ranting.

The crime in question? It begins with an i, (yes, uncapitalized), and then proceeds with the most ridiculous and often joked about name that Apple has branded one of their products with to date. In other words, iPad. One of my relatives (whose name and relation to me I’ll withhold) whipped out their brand-spanking-new iPad early in the social gathering, and began to show it off to anyone close enough to his chair. This alone was a fairly low move, in my opinion, as he was sitting among the elderly portion of my relatives, who had no choice but to remain in the chairs they had staked early on and make appreciative noises at the appropriate breaks in the iPad wielder’s monologue.

There are a few reasons that I have a problem with this. Firstly, I just don’t like iPads. I’ve yet to meet anyone who uses their iPad for anything remotely significant, or anything that their previously favoured pieces of technology couldn’t do. In my eyes, and as I don’t own an iPad, feel free to attack me for this, the iPad is nothing more than an oversized iPod touch, and while it is undeniably sexy, it doesn’t seem to address any of the areas that Steve Jobs marketed it as in the (in)famous iPad release. Essentially, the iPad is a shiny toy, and one that people like this particular relative of mine seem to enjoy flaunting.

Which leads to my second problem with his random iPad use. The gathering at my place was intended to be a social event. Now, the definition of social seems to change every week, what with the introduction of social media and the growing trend of socializing via the internet. And internet socialization is often a good thing – however, this particular social event was clearly meant to take place at someone’s house, with all participants in the act of socializing physically present. Given this, I feel like whipping out the iPad is a pathetic excuse for small talk. The relative was using it to show people photos and videos, which is somewhat acceptible – after all, before this piece of technology appeared in the stores, we were bringing our photo albums to show people pictures. So fair enough, go ahead.

This particular relative was also using it to give everyone a tour of the product’s features, given that the rest of the family either didn’t have the money to indulge in such an expensive toy, or were simply ignorant of its capabilities. This is borderline acceptible – a quick tour, sure. A twenty minute long sales pitch on the virtues of an iPad (and believe me, he sounded as if he was convincing himself as much as he was convincing them!) is too far, especially for a gathering where many of the others were only showing polite interest.

Clearly, they were aware of what is and isn’t polite in a social setting. Apparently, this particular relative wasn’t, and ignored the warning signs of disinterest. He then came to me asking for the wireless internet password for our house. I was a little taken aback, considering that he didn’t bother asking if we minded if he was using our internet. He didn’t even really ‘ask’. He just came up to me, and said, rather brusquely, “What’s your WiFi password?”, brandishing his shiny tablet as if I was too stupid to comprehend why he might need it. Maybe I’m being too critical here, but I can’t help but remember how guarded he is with his own house’s internet, and how he makes sure that none of us are wasting it.

So I told him the truth, which is that we lost our WiFi password. And, being the kind person I am, I offered to type in the insanely long HEX key for him (I’m probably getting the technical details wrong) which is saved on my laptop. He looked disappointed that it would take so long, and rejected my help. Apparently, he was going to use the internet to check his emails, or Facebook, or to update his twitter account. Antisocial.

I found him later, inside at the salad bowl, his plate discarded at the side, absorbed in his iPhone 4 (funny, two months ago, he had another iPhone. I guarantee it’s in perfect condition – shunned only because he wanted the newest, shiniest version. After all, this is the man who, when his son’s Nintendo DS got chipped on the corner, made him throw the whole thing out. Even though it worked.) Anyhow, what was he doing with his iPhone 4? He was on Facebook. Now, I could be condemning him for something fair enough, like checking something for work – and I’ll apologize in advance if that’s what he was actually doing. However, bear in mind that it’s midday on Sunday, he was cowering by the salad bowl, where no-one else was, and that he guiltily hid his iPhone as I walked past.

I don’t know – perhaps I’m overreacting? But I really think it’s rude to whip out your iPad for useless reasons, because you’re too boring to make small talk. Likewise, I think it’s rude to demand that someone hand over their WiFi password, especially when you have an iPhone 4, equipped with 3G, sitting in your pants pocket. Next time, dear relative, keep your toys in your pants. Take that as you will.

On a final note, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, the night before last, and while I plan on writing an in-depth blog about it at some point, the short version is that I thought it was fantastic. Definitely the best movie so far, and while I was upset about some cut scenes, it was mostly faithful to the books. Finally, someone has made a movie for book fans. If you haven’t seen it yet, go and do so. And if you’ve seen it, let me know what you thought in the Chamber of Secrets (comments).