Tuesday, 31 August 2004
Turn, Turn, Turn
As I would have already written (had I actually gotten around to writing about the Tour de France), there are certain events that I go to every year. These serve as markers of a sort, representing how long I've spent living in Paris as well as how I've used that time. Like a birthday, these are little, staggered "New Years" that are scattered throughout the calendar.
Today marked the fourth time that I went to the Apple Expo keynote (it would've been the fifth, had the event in 2001 not been canceled after the 11 September bombings). Usually, this is hosted by Steve Jobs, who - along with his reality distortion field - is the main draw for me. Sure, it's cool to see what nifty new toys Apple has come up with, but Paris almost always takes the back seat to the U.S. and so they're almost always a repeat from some prior event. No, this is much more about seeing the computer industry's one true rock star.
This year, Steve didn't attend because he's resting after a successful operation on a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. Which was apparently successful, and his type of pancreatic cancer is curable by surgical removal. He's very fortunate; I hope he might bring some of his considerable resources (not necessarily monetary) to helping others who are less fortunate, and have incurable forms of cancer.
Anyway, this wasn't meant to be a morality play. It's interesting to use these sorts of event to see how I've evolved, as well as for what they offer. On tap today: a the new third-generation iMac. For once in a long while, Paris was the chosen launch pad for a whole new product. Pretty nifty, though no digital snaps because my phone is still in for repairs.
Not much evolution for me: I found that I still don't like standing in the massed crowd, waiting an hour to get into the auditorium.