Well, the deal for me to get a Touch Pro fell through, so I’m still using my Treo 800w. And while I’m thankful to my friends for their gracious offer to subsidize a Touch Pro purchase for me, I’m also a little relieved. I had a chance to play with one for about half an hour before going over to Best Buy to try to purchase one, and some things I really liked, others not so much.

Putting aside hardware issues like a really annoying and inaccurate d-pad, the user interface on the Touch Pro is maddeningly inconsistent. It looks and feels like exactly what it is, a pretty shell bolted on to the more pedestrian Windows Mobile underpinnings. TouchFlo3D looks great, but as soon as you tap on that little message sticking out of the envelope, you’re back in Microsoft’s Inbox application, with the flat, haven’t-changed-since-2000 scrollbars. It’s a far more jarring transition than I expected. You can also change some settings through TouchFlo3D itself, but for other things you have to go to the Windows Mobile Settings window, again going from sleek, black and finger oriented to flat, white and stylus oriented.

My Treo may look old and busted, but it’s consistent about it. And that consistency directly equates to speed. I know where everything is, and can predict where things will be. One of the things my friend who accompanied me on my failed quest today bragged about regarding the Touch Pro was that it had no fewer than eight separate input methods. That’s great, but it’s really not what I’m looking for. My Treo has one input method, the thumbboard. Well technically it has two, since I haven’t disabled the on-screen keyboard, but I only use it for characters or chords I can’t type with the keyboard (like control-c and control-v for rare input fields that don’t support context menu copy and paste). I’ve disabled Block Recognizer and Letter Recognizer, and haven’t installed anything else. So when it comes time to type something, I don’t waste time thinking how I’m going to type it, I just type it.

I’ve heard the same complaint from early adopters of Android on the T-Mobile G1. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to where you’re going to find a command. It could be invoked by the menu button, a context menu, etc. Every app does things differently, even the ones provided by Google. This is one of the few things that the iPhone does really, really well. Just about every iPhone app looks and works the same. Once you know how to use Mail, you’ll have no problems with Calendar, or Safari, or iTunes. They all work basically the same (okay, you don’t have coverflow in your email, but stick with me here). This ease of learning (not really the same as ease of use) is a big part of why the iPhone has been so successful. Even people who aren’t geeky enough to use Windows Mobile can pick up an iPhone and start using it. Now that do most of my writing on my netbook, I’d consider an iPhone myself if it would allow connection tethering and not force me to use the truly abysmal iTunes (a rare example of where Apple really flubbed a user interface).

So I’ll stick with my Treo for another year at least, and I’ll stick with the dated Windows Mobile user interface. Not because Windows Mobile can’t do better, but because I’d rather be consistent and productive than flashy and lost.

So here we are, day one of NaNoWriMo, and I’m already having motivation problems. I know I need to buckle down and start writing, but frankly I’m scared out of my mind. Well, technically, I’ve written 28 words so far today, so I have started. But the fear to really dive into it and start pounding out the words is daunting to say the least.

So, I’m going to have to get disciplined, and fast. In the process of writing this blog post, I’ve switched my blog-writing software from Windows Live Writer to OneNote/Word, researched how to use OneNote for blogging, switched my primary web browser from Firefox to IE8, verified that IE7pro will work with IE8…

It’s time to start writing. Writing fiction. Writing my book.

So here’s the deal. I’ve been blogging every day since relaunching JeffKirvin.net, haven’t missed one yet. I intend to keep that streak going, but for the month of November I’m going to make a little deal with myself. I will still post to the blog every day, but only after I write something for NaNoWriMo. I’m not going to hold myself to specific minimum word count, at least not yet. Just something. Even one sentence if I’m really blocked. As we get into the final two weeks, I might have to impose a word count minimum to keep me on pace to finish.

But for now, just write. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t even have to be good. But I have to write something before I post again.

Yikes.

And I’m already well behind the other wrimos out there who started promptly at midnight. The official story is that because a back muscle I pulled on Tuesday was seizing up, I skipped a friend’s Halloween party, took some muscle relaxants and went to bed early. Which is all completely true, but doesn’t quite explain why I’m writing this instread of my book.

The plan for today is to grab a shower and then head for a Village Inn halfway across town, and then write there until it’s time to go buy a Touch Pro at the adjacent Best Buy. Then probably more writing at my friendly neighborhood Chipotle while I wait for the Touch Pro to complete the initial charge.

(and yes, I’ll explain later)