I have had my iPad for a couple of months now, and the device is never far from me. It really is the ultimate casual media consumption device for me, and nicely fills a niche that was previously being fulfilled by my iPhone: ubiquitous and instant access to information. I have even on a few occasions brought the device to work with me, and it has proved extremely useful to access information on my internal work network when in meetings or a coworkers office (tightvnc running on my main machine allows me to quickly and easily remote in to get at other information).

I am going absolutely nuts trying to find a good term to describe something I am tentatively describing as “Selective Suspension of Disbelief”.

Now, I understand the concept of “Suspension of Disbelief”, and how it applies to fictional narratives, but my problem is distinctly different, though related.

Specifically, I am looking for a term to describe when one has suspended their disbelief for a story to a large extent, but then balks at some other smaller stretch that pales in comparison to the overall suspension.

There are certain rules of etiquette that often requires one to behave in a manner consistent with the mores of the people around them. This applies to social situations to help facilitate the ability to interact with other people in a meaningful fashion, as opposed to earlier men who, not having evolved much at the time, decided a better means of communicating would be swinging from the trees they were camped in, and flinging feces at each other.

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Hi! I’m Pat David.
Husband, Father, and Engineer.
Minor photographer, major nerd.

I dabble in different things.

I enjoy taking photographs and processing them using Free Software. You can see my photographs on Flickr or 500px.

I’m a member of the GIMP team and recently built a new website for the project (which you should totally go check out). I’ve written about using GIMP for photo processing (along with other software and techniques). Along the way I’ve been lucky enough to make a bunch of new friends.