Machine v. a lot of other things

This is my iPad "pocket yoga" lady. She lives in my iPad. I call her Shirley. Shirley the yogi. Please excuse Shirley; she's in child's pose.

She looks funny and her voice does this thing:

Now that... you are in down...ward dog. Be sure to feel the... breath as it mo...ves through your chest and. Whole body. Attack space... invaders... (ok, maybe not that last part)
There is tinkly music in the background. It's not so bad.

But dude - it's yoga whenever and wherever I want.

I feel like this is a lot like the e-reader v. book debate. I like the feel of real books, too, but my iPad is small and flat and carries a million books and applications and stuff. It's like a compendium of books that also guides me through a yoga practice and lets me play Tetris. It's a super robot of entertainment.

Also I like that now I don't feel weird about buying more books because they're not taking up any more space. And just recently I'm feeling like spcae is at a premium for me.I like the look and feel and awesomeness of real books, but I don't need a million of them in my home and I don't need to display them so that people know what I'm reading. And I know I could go to the library but do you know how many times I've been to the library since I've lived in the Boston area? I think five. All in the first few months I lived here.

So if I want to read book and do yoga and all that other stuff, this is the best thing for me. Crazy cyborg yoga lady with the stilted speech and all.