Jim Pace

So… If you are a master of context clues, you have probably gathered that I do have an ipad.

(pause)

(pause)

(pause)

I have learned to provide that extra long pause so that anyone that hears that I have an ipad can make whatever joke they feel they would like to make about the fact that I have an ipad.  They are inevitable.  So, now I just give time to let them happen.

Which leads to this equally inevitable posting about why I have one.  So, without further ado…

Why Jim Pace Has An Ipad

First and foremost, (Tracy) my wife bought it for me.  She set aside money, and for Father’s Day, she wanted to get me something very special.  She nailed it. The past five or six months prior to Father’s Day had been incredibly intense, and Tracy said she just wanted to do something really nice for me.  So, when we recieved some unexpected money, she put it some aside and we got it with that.

She will tell you that I almost hyperventilated when she first told me that was what she was doing.  Mostly because of the cost.  She will also tell you that I initially said no, but I was told it wasn’t up to me,  and so that was that.

Second, yes, I am an apple fan.

Yes, I like that their products look cool, but I know something about myself.  It applies to apple products and couch material patterns.

I get used to anything after about two weeks.  Truly.  Anything.

While I like the look of Apple products, what I like most about them is that they work.  So, I am a committed Apple guy, but only after trying an HP, two Dells, and a Viao and having them all crash repeatedly on me. Now,I have an Apple laptop that has made it longer than any other one I have ever had.  It has been stolen and then mailed back to me. Dropped by an unknown dropper, leaving a big dent in the back, but it kept on ticking.  But, now its age is starting to show and it really isn’t working very well.  So, I need to replace it, and the ipad (with the exception of two things) does what I need a computer to do.  With only those two things left, I only use my laptop sparingly and I suspect I will get more time out of it.

Third, and this one is the kicker…  I do use my ipad when I am teaching, but NEVER when I am on my Segway, I’m too afriad it will fall off and break.  If that makes no sense, take a look here…

I have been a wandering teacher for as long as I have been teaching. I go up around the stage, up the aisles sometimes… wherever I can.  One of my questions whenever I guest speak is “How far can I go?”  The lighting team at one of our venues has a wide setting just for me.

One of the hardest parts about moving is that I have preferred for years to carry my notes with me. Not a big notebook, but a small piece of paper.   I also like to make changes right up to the time I get up to speak, so I would often have arrows and lines, things scratched out and things added in…  What made that especially  hard was that when I would wander up the aisles, it would get dark.  So I would be reading my chicken scratched, marked up outline in the dark.  Not easy to do.

So, I could either wander and try to close the gap of space in some of the big rooms I speak in and have a hard time reading what I had written, or I could stay up front in the light.

Heh… until now.

Now, I can arrange my notes, on the fly, underline, make bold, whatever I need, right up until the start of my teaching.  I love that!  It is easy to carry and is very simple to use in that environment.  It has a light so I can read it… ahhh… perfection.

The only thought I have ever given using it in public is that I am going to get razzed for it.

Ready for another?  Fourth, I cannot count how many times I have been running around the room looking for my notes, asking people if they have seen that little piece of paper, asking from the front when I walk up if people can look around…  I have even had to give talks without my notes on at least five separate occasions.  Not lying.  Five.

Let me just say that I will not lose the ipad.  Won’t happen.   And if it does, then I just about guarantee you that Tracy will kill me. Doubt me?  Those of you who know her say she won’t?  Just ask Seth how mad she gets when he can’t find his soccer shin guards. I’m just saying, if I happen to disappear unexpectedly after losing the ipad, or my brakes freakishly don’t work…. Check her minivan for a pair of pliers…

Fifth… Here is the last reason.  For me, one of the toughest things I do is manage my time so that I can live a life of balance.  Beyond my other talk preparation times during the week, on the Sundays I teach, I get up at 4.15am to do my final prayer, reflection and preparation.  So, anything that lets me save a few minutes of time, that helps me avoid recopying notes that I will just mark up again, is great in my book.

So, I use it, I like it, and will continue to use it.  Unless someone will volunteer to get up at 4.30 on the Sundays I teach to re-write my notes for me and follow me around with a flashlight.

Take that… you haters…