Parker County Today August 2015 | Page 114

The Last our opinion: COLUMN By Mark Brown Word Obsessions morph into Raisinets AUGUST 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY I 112 ’m amazed by the remarkable obsessions, crazes and fads I stumble on as I deal with life. I’ve mentioned Apple products in this magazine before, and to be clear, I sincerely like most of them.  But it’s the Apple store itself that’s another matter. I avoid going to them as much as possible. Why? Because I just don’t enjoy the atmosphere, the culture, the language, the contrived air of “trendy” that permeates, the arrogant “hipster” herd that flocks to the stores like cattle modern-day hippies, Starbucks cup in every hand, etc. Unfortunately, sometimes I simply have to go to an Apple store.  So, here’s how I feel about it. If you want to discover what life is like on other planets, simply visit the Apple store nearest to you. This brings me to the Apple Watch. Against my better judgment, I bought one. I knew I would. Told you I would. So, I’ve had it now for about three months and I have to say it’s the first Apple product that I have purchased that I just simply don’t like.  It’s not that it has a problem working or doing what Apple says it will do. That’s not it. It does exactly what they said it would do. Which is, in my opinion, the challenge.  I see no need for it. It tells time, has multiple watch faces that you can choose from, but only when you move your wrist significantly does the watch face show, and it goes off quickly. So, I found I am spinning my wrist like a maniac just to see the time. Hey, there may be ways to make it stay on longer, but Apple is obviously worried about battery life. You can get text and email messages on it just like your phone, only they’re postagestamp size. Also, there is an app face you can get to, but go ahead and call me old – I can’t see them well enough to use them.  It will work for Apple pay, which I don’t use. It will implement the map feature – can’t see that either. It will track activity, which is good. It also plays music and answers phone calls. But who cares? It’s inconvenient. So I’m calling it the iEdsel. There is just no reason for it. Have you ever spent the night at a friend’s home and slept on the sleeper sofa or futon? If you put a definition to those things it would be “sore back.” So, when somebody says we have a sofa bed you can sleep on, it’s got to be another way to say, “Don’t stay.” So take the hint! And yes, the Weatherford movie theatre still hates Raisinets! I don’t know why. We do know that, even in a recent movie, Raisinets played a large role – you would think, maybe? One last thing. Parades – any real reason for a parade?  Let’s discuss this next month. I have ideas.