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The iPad Mini was launched a couple of weeks ago, to the usual fanfare and speculation, and I was curious just how sales would turn out not only for the mini, but for the updated full-sized tablet also. Here’s a quick update of the current state of iPad world. 

Lines of shoppers in Apple stores to purchase the mini were short. If sales were strong, however, it suggests that many consumers bought their minis online, and the strength of pre-orders supports this. Another possibility is that some consumers may have bought multiple units, though the analysts did not mention this.  

Some analysts feared that sales of the mini would affect sales of the full-sized iPad, but this did not seem to occur. The mini, which still commands a premium price, may be making inroads against competitors’ less expensive products, because a substantial number of iPad mini buyers owned a competitors’ device. 

Apple didn’t break out sales of minis separate from other iPad sales, so it is a bit difficult to know exactly how much was sold of each product. 

It does appear that the less expensive iPads sold more briskly then the higher priced ones, but naturally, there are more buyers who can afford a less expensive product. 

Have any of you purchases either a mini or the latest generation of iPad? If so, did you own a tablet before, or is this your first one? Is it meeting your expectations and are you happy with your purchase? Please share your experiences with other Klat readers. 

Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory is back for a new season, kicking off with an episode about the Reptilian conspiracy. The first episode of the third season brings in two new investigators: Jesse Ventura's son, and Oliver Stone's son. (At least they still have one female investigator, so it's not completely a bunch of white dudes. Not completely.)

The recent Oatmeal comic is a surprisingly raw and insightful look into what it really is like, and what it really takes, to make your living from your art. I have learned so much in the process of going from an office drone to a professional writer who is fully self-sustained by the craft.

I grew up in a much different world than we live in today. My parents grew up in a world so different from that I grew up in that I cannot even relate to it, much less judge it. We lived in Dallas, TX. In 1930 my parents and my older brother—a baby at the time—lived in a home in the Trinity River Bottoms—a non-affluent area of the city.

Our neighbors who were located catacorner across the street from us had a pack of cats living under their house. The cats ran wild all over the neighborhood. During the day they were using our yard as their toilet and were caterwauling at the top of their vocal cords all night long.

My parents had talked to the cat-owners on several occasions to no avail. My dad worked 48 hours on and 24 hours off with the fire department. One day he came home from a 48 hour shift to find my mother in tears because two cats had jumped into an open window and knocked over the pedestal bird cage before being driven out.

After righting the bird cage my mother was devastated to discover that her parakeet was dead. She truly enjoyed that bird and was upset not only at its death but also by brazenness of the cats invading her home. My dad had just come home after 48 hours at work to find his wife justifiably upset over a problem they had repeatedly tried to get the neighbors to correct.

Dad lost his temper, got his pistol and a handful of ammo and went hunting for cats. As fortune would have it the two cats that had entered the house were doing their business out beside the house. Dad shot one cat and chased the other one to the neighbors where it immediately used a small access door to disappear under the house.

Dad reloaded and crawled through the access door. There was enough light coming through cracks in the foundation siding to make out a pack of cats in one corner.  Dad emptied his pistol and reloaded by feel before he started blasting away again. The cats that he hadn’t already drilled took off through the access door into the open garage.

Dad was walking to the garage while reloading his pistol when the woman of the house burst out the back door screaming that she was going to call husband to come home from work. Dad told her he was ready to whip someone’s butt so send him on over. He walked up to the garage door and closed it before opening the regular door on the side of the garage. He stepped inside closed the door and took down every one of the trapped cats before he left.

That solved the cat problems and the people up and down the block expressed their thanks to dad: he was the neighborhood hero for a good while. Incidentally, the husband from across the street never showed up to talk to dad. I can’t blame him. After all, who would want to confront a pistol packing guy who said he was ready to whip someone’s butt! The police were never contacted and the neighborhood returned to a better “normal” than before.