Hello again, and welcome to a new issue of Aphelion!

As usual, everyone has been hard at work getting this new issue ready for your reading pleasure. Once again, you'll find new stories, features, poetry, and maybe even a few surprises. Spread the word among your friends; free fiction, no adverts, no membership fees. Just the best from writers from across the globe, learning their craft, and letting readers comment so we can learn more, faster. If you do the Facebook thing, feel free to join us on the Aphelion page there. The link is Aphelion Webzine.

As an experiment I am writing this editorial on the iPad that I got as a 35th Service Anniversary gift from the factory. It is quite a different way to type than I'm used to, that's certain. It takes some getting used to doing. But I can tell my typing speed is picking back up to something approaching normal as I keep plodding onward.

I suppose that's one part of growing used to seeing the rapid pace that technology keeps on showing. I'm not an "early adopter" by any means. I don't rush to embrace whatever new gizmo comes down the pike. Some things I never take to at all, in fact. Blue Ray DVD players have yet to interest me, for instance.

But that's the thing, you see. New tech needn't be avoided just out of some Luddite urge to keep the past from rushing headlong into the future. The future is got to get here soon enough, no matter what anyone tries to do to stop it. It's inevitable. Time marches on, hurtling ever faster into one of the great unknowns. Nothing to worry about here, move along...

Well, this is going rather well. I'm beginning to feel almost normal typing on a touch-screen device not far removed from something off of some TV or movie science-fiction spectacular from my youth. Wasn't there something that operated like these iPads being used by the astronauts in "2001 A Space Odyssey" ? I believe Bowman and Poole used something larger that worked a lot like one of these toys. My mind is attempting to supply me with the "feel" of my normal keyboard as I continue to type away. My fingertips are giving me a totally false impression of concave surfaces on keys beneath my touch. It's amazing how your mind can fool you once it decides to give in and try something you'd been avoiding.

I don't think that I'd want to write a book on this thing, but I bet someone has. Or will soon, if no one has done it yet.

But that's the thing. Something you wouldn't dream of doing, someone else is already doing it as if that's the way they've always done it. Things change, there is resistance at first, and then suddenly the new way seems as if that's the way things have always been. It happens every time. New tech, new tools, new lifestyles...

Everything changes. One day, this too shall pass. Some other thing, as yet unknown, will arise to sweep this away. Then another, and another, and yet another. That's progress for you!

Dan

Sent from my iPad

BOILERPLATE:

Here are some links to pages I have up promoting the music. Rob Wynne is working on one that will better fit into Aphelion's page format, so that our readers will have a far prettier promo page to read. There are links on that page to the Create Space Preview songs, the Create Space page for each album, the Amazon.com listings, and the link to the digital downloads page.

Dan's Music Page This is my promo page here at Aphelion. All the links below, and more information about the albums, are located here.

The Never Bank On A Learning Curve CD on the Create Space website. My first album, with a wide range of styles and genres, covering the past three years of my working with the MAGIX Music Maker programs.

The Second Helping CD on the Create Space website. My second album, with just as wide a range of different musical styles, showing just how much I've learned in the past three years.

Dan's Studio-D Page on the Bandcamp website. Digital downloads of the albums, or each individual song if you prefer it that way. Just click on the album cover thumbnails and you'll see a list of each song on the album. Next to the song titles are links to read the liner notes, or to download the individual song. You can listen to each song for free. There is also a link to download each entire album at one go. I cannot say enough about Bandcamp! This is an amazing website. I have Rob, and many other friends, to thank for finally talking me into checking it out.

And here's a link to my Sound Cloud page:

Dan's Sound Cloud Page where all my music has been stored for your free listening pleasure. These are not as high a quality recordings as the ones on the CDs or on Bandcamp. But SoundCloud does have the virtue of having everything collected together in one place.

Check those links out, buy a CD or download if you like what you hear. And once again, thank you for your time,

Dan