Apple

And I Was Doing So Well

I had 3 posts in the first week of the year, then I crapped out. Oh well.

I talked to mom and we moved in with my Grandma in May 1986, just before Chris’s first birthday. This leaves both options as possible first memories, likely just a few months apart. I kind of think the Johnny Carson memory was first, just because I can’t recall Chris being around at the time.

You probably noticed theme change. It was just some color switching, nothing major yet. I want something more at the top, as it is too bleh. Just seems like one giant blog of sameness up there. Maybe some pinstipes or an image. Will work on over time.

MacWorld 2008 begins tomorrow. The keynote presentation with new product announcements will be Tuesday at noon eastern, 9 AM pacific. It should be available about 4 PM to view online. If everything works out, I will be getting a new computer shortly after. My Mom and dad are putting in, and I making up the difference. this was actually offered to be around December 10th or so, but I held off knowing the possibilities MacWorld brings. We will see.

Yesterday Jenn and I were bored so we went shopping in Grand Rapids. We didn’t but much but had fun. I drooled at the Apple Store, especially knowing I could be back within a week.

Today we are supposed to do laundry, and make french onion soup, but are lacking in energy. Knowing I have school tomorrow is making me want to go to sleep.

Will have details of first day of school tomorrow maybe, if not they will be thrown in with MacWorld details Tuesday night.

Nick

Almost

Sorry about the hiatus, has been a little busy with the semester coming to an end. All the projects are done now, just exams next week.

Last night, I saw 4 doe walk out of the treeline, come about 50 ft from me, finally notice me, and run off. Was pretty cool.

Thursday of Friday I am coming to Bay City, after exams. Planning on something with guys from the library on Saturday, and Todd wants to go see Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Futurama movie was pretty good, despite what Scott told me. I am on a mission now to find a Futurama episode that was less good than the movie. Adult Swim is supposed to have a marathon, I will find something then. Maybe the musical episode, where Fry gets the Robot Devil’s hands?

On Wednesday, the 5th, my iBook turned 5 years old. It kind of looks like I might even see it turn 6. It has held up quite well.

I was thinking, and you know the old guys who yell about the young kids and that they need to stay off his lawn? Yeah, that will be me. I am only 25, and I already dislike high-schoolers, as they are too damn young and just seem more annoying than we were in high school. With another 30 or 40 years of dwelling on it, and a bigger gap, by the time I am 60 or so i will be bitching about the damn young’n 50 year olds.

Scott is in Bay City, and I will not be able to see him. As I said, I will be in town Thursday of Friday, and he leaves Thursday morning. I missed him the last time he was in town too.

I saw Ocean’s 13 too, that was decent. The first one was pretty good, second a little less, third a little more less.

Tomorrow Jenn and I are going Christmas shopping in Grand Rapids. Hopefully we can get everything done.

Speaking of Christmas, her family Christmas will be held in Ann Arbor, as her dad will be getting a pacemaker on the 22nd.

I think that is it for right now.

ttyl,

nick

Of Rodeos and Dress Clothes

Alot to cover this time.

Wednesday, Jenn and I went to Grand Rapids for the SME show. Show wasn’t really bad, but not good. Nobody hiring like I was told, but we got some cool swag. Afterward, we went car shopping up and down 28th street. There were a few cars that maybe had some small chance of possibility, but not much. We had lunch at Red Robin, which was pretty good. We did some quick shopping through Woodland Mall, including checking out the new iPods which have grown on me.

After enough of not finding cars, we went to Centerpointe Mall where Jenn bought a new work uniform and I bought a suit and dress shoes. It was originally marked $550 and I got it for $145, not bad. I need to have the pants tailored, but it should be good. After all that, we headed home.

Thursday, Jenn’s parents arrived around 9 am, and after chatting for a while they left with Jenn to GR for their own shopping (Jenn and I avoided shopping because we knew she would be back the next day). So they shopped around most of the day while I enjoyed a day off because my professors were all at the SME expo. Jenn stayed at the hotel that night, rather than driving home, as she worked the next morning.

Friday, I had my class and lab, then sat around for a little while before driving Jenn’s vehicle down to GR. On the way, a semi blew out a tire in front of me, and I accidentally took the wrong exit, but got there OK. Once at the hospital parking garage, I tried to call Jenn and tell her I was there, but had no signal, so I decided to go into the hospital to check if I had some there. Once in, I figured I could try and find her, not realizing the size of the hospital. I actually managed to find the right building, and take the right elevator, but for some reason thought she was on the 4th floor, when she is actually on 5th. Having signal, I gave her a call and found her quickly.

When she was done, we left and headed over to Van Andel Arena for the Built Ford Tough Series Presented by Wrangler Professional Bull Riders Tour (Yes, that is actually the official name) rodeo. So, we found parking, made our way in, and found our seats. It was actually pretty good, we all enjoyed it. The actual bull riding was not bad, but the show between was really good. When you think that 45 people compete to stay on a bull for 8 seconds, thats only about seven and a half minutes of the 120 minute show. From the rodeo clowns to contests and pyrotechnics and all kinds of other things, they fill the time. They even shot bratwurst from a t-shirt cannon (note: spellcheck doesn’t like the word bratwurst).

After the rodeo was over, we tried to find our way back to the hotel, where we spent some time in the hot tub, then went to Steak n’ Shake for a Caramel Apple Shake, which was awesome.

Jenn left for work before I was up, around 6. Her parents woke me up around 9 for free breakfast, then we drove back here where they left me, and continued to Traverse City, then home. Jenn called me around 6:30 (actual, 4:30, but I was asleep, and she didn’t mention it in the message) to tell me that she accepted OT, and wouldn’t be home until 12 – 12:30. Last night, she was complaining she wanted to call in, and then she took a 16 hour shift? Well, she gets out early tomorrow at 3, 4 hours early, so that’s something.

So, I went to KFC for dinner, and was sitting outside after ward since it was nice out. As I sat, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, jumped startled, and it was a deer. As I stare at it, it just stood there and stared back, then her 3 kids walked up one by one and did the same. After a minute of “Whoa! Look, there’s a dude there. Why is he in our yard?” They decided to walk off into the tree line.

So, right now, I am watching the rodeo again and it is really sucking. If I wasn’t mostly blogging I would have turned a long time ago. All the cool between the rides stuff, is not of TV. No t-shirt guns, no pyro, no Enterprise rent-a-tank, nothing. Oh well.

Fish are doing better, ich is nearly gone. Will keep treating for another week to make sure though.

My dad might be by tomorrow, he is going fishing in Baldwin, which isn’t far away.

I think that’s all.

later,
nick

New iPods

About an hour ago, Apple updated their entire iPod line.

The new iPod shuffle is available in different colors, with no other changes.

The new nano is smaller, and again different colors. Capacity is up to 4 and 8GB from 2 and 4, and the screen is slightly larger and brighter.

The iPod is now renamed iPod classic, and also has a redesigned case, greater capacity (up to 160GB), and is now in an all metal case.

New to the line is the iPod touch, essentially a phone-less iPhone. It features wi-fi, calendar and address book, Safari web browser, multi-touch interface, and direct access to the iTunes store, without needing to download media to a computer first.

All in all, good updates for most. I am unimpressed with the look of the new cases though. I will wait until I can see them in person, but my current opinion is if I were in the market for a new iPod, I would purchase a now “previous model” (especially with the price drops often seen on previous models).

No real news otherwise. Mostly waiting for the weekend for Todd’s wedding.

nick

Book Review

So, I finished up my book last night (World War Z). To anyone considering reading it but on the fence, go get it. It wasn’t what I thought, not that that is bad. I had expected a history book like recount, with highlights and a story. Instead, it was a narrator interviewing some of the prime players in the Human – Zombie War. If you do undertake the book, be prepared to want to re-read it. The narrator re-interviews a few people and it can make you want to go back and check who a certain person is. I figure I will wait until about Christmas to try my reread, just so it is at least a little out of my head.

Something I wanted to mention last time: As I had mentioned, the iMac is now aluminum. This makes the MacBook the last polycarbonate Mac remaining. Now, as the low end portable this may last for a while, but I think it is just one step closer to my prediction now about 18 months old, that the MacBooks will eventually go to anodized aluminum enclosures, similar to that or the ipod nanos. Maybe not, maybe just regular aluminum, but there is a chance. Either way, by the mid-2008 update, it will be very hard to resist buying a new computer. Between new iLife just out, OS X 10.5 in October, Office 2008 in January, big upgrades due to the MacBook line, and my iBook turning 5 on December 5th, it will certainly be hard to resist.

OK, that’s all I have. As I said last time, we will be in Alpena for the weekend. Probably leaving in the next 18 hours or so at some point. Will update when we return, whenever that happens. Hopefully no dead fish to report on.

nick

Less Than Three Weeks

So, I am down to under 3 weeks of summer remaining. I could probably go to some site and find the exact number of seconds or something, but don’t feel like it. At least I finally got my SMART Grant figured out: I don’t get it. It seems that you are ineligible for the grant after you reach 96 credits, and I am at 113 right now. Another reason to not be undecided for 4 years. So, I accepted my loans and am waiting for verification of my MPNs from Ferris.

Jenn and I went to see The Simpsons Movie on Sunday night. It was quite good. Too often a TV show will eventually make a movie and then the show dies (see the X-Files). This won’t be the case here though, as The Simpsons are lucky enough to be in an unchanging world, and the movies don’t need to necessarily have anything to do with the TV show, and vice versa, everything that happened is conveniently reset when the show ends. Besides, name something more popular?

Apple held a press conference this morning and introduced new versions of all their consumer apps, iMacs, keyboards, and .Mac. The iLife apps all have really nice upgrades, except they changes iMovie’s icon to some gay “walk-of-fame star” looking thing. iWork also got some nice upgrades, including a spreadsheet app finally, but I still probably wont use it. The new iMac is nice, and now aluminum. They dropped the 17″ model in favor of now two 20″ and one 24″ model, all with faster processors, more RAM, and bigger HDs with better graphics. Interestingly, you can now get a 1 TB HD in your iMac, but not in your Mac Pro. And, finally .Mac now has 10GB of space for the same $99, up from 1GB. That is a nice upgrade, and actually makes it possible for me to back up everything on my HD to the .Mac server, but still isn’t worth rejoining. Besides, there is still no scripting or database support, though some of the new galleries and pages for iPhoto, iMovie, and iWeb certainly hint to scripting existing somewhere.

Jenn worked last night, tonight, and tomorrow, following which we are going up to Alpena for the weekend, and possibly Mackinaw. We will be camping at some point in that trip, either in her parents back yard or one of the campgrounds around Alpena. On a sad note though a family friend of theirs passed away last night so there will be a funeral to attend probably Friday.

Dirty Jobs on the bridge was on at 9, and is replaying either as I type, or at 1. I am sure there will be another replay come weekend.

I think that might be it. Maybe another post before we leave, if not right after.

nick

Vacation Weekend

So, we took a vacation for the weekend, as Jenn had Friday through tomorrow off. Tomorrow isn’t really off, as she goes in to work at 7:30, but kind of. Anyway, we went down to Grand Rapids and got a hotel in Kentwood, and shopped around the two malls for the evening. Dinner was at Carrabba’s, Jenn got the Pasta Weesie (similar to scampi over linguini alfredo) and I had the Linguine Pescatore (shrimp scallops and muscles in a spicy marinara, over linguini). I also had soup, a spicy sausage and lentil, and we split calamari. After dinner we went across to Grandville for a little more shopping, then back to the hotel for bed.

Saturday we went to Holland, to visit the New Holland Brewing Company. We planned to tour their brewery, but we didn’t see any other potential tourers when we arrived, so we went to their pub. We tried the sampler, consisting of their Zoomer, Lucid, Red Tulip, Sundog, Poet, and Mad Hatter brews. We preferred the first three the most, as well as the pint of (hard) Apple Cider we tried. Jenn tried a chocotini, but it was rather bad. We ate as well, I had a phili steak and Jenn a stromboli, both of which were quite good. If you are ever in Holland, we highly recommend it. We walked around a few shops downtown afterward, as we were not in condition to drive, then went to the outlet mall which was rather dead. The mall was next, but also dead, so we said goodbye to Holland.

After a nap, we had some Thai food from a place Jenn heard of from work. Mine had red curry in it, and I regretted it until the next morning, as did anyone within about 25 ft of me. After eating was a little more shopping, a soak in the hot tub, a trip to Steak and Shake, then bed.

Sunday we checked out, and went up to Comstock Park. We had some IHOP, decided we were shopped out, and headed home. About 20 minutes away, we got a call from Jenn’s parents, who were in Clare and wanted to come visit. So, we did a quick cleanup at home, then visited with them for a while. Thery had been up in Soo St. Marie for the weekend, and were on their way down to Mt. Pleasant. We wnet out to eat with them for lunch, and they headed off on their way.

After some sitting and enjoying being home, we had a Meijer run, then more sitting, and that was our weekend.

At Meijer, we got our 5th fish. We have Chi-chi, our Electric Blue Cichlid (sick-lid), Rosy and Barb, our Rosy Barbs, Kitty our Pleco (like a cat-fish), and now Sunny our Electric Yellow Cichlid. Though not the biggest, she is the first, and Chi-chi obviously is dominant over all the other fish, almost to the point I want to remove her. Not forever, just for a week for her to loose her instinct of it being her territory. Maybe adding some more caves and tunnels will help, will try that first.

Part of shopping on Friday was of course a stop at the Apple Store. While there, I eventually got a chance with an iPhone. We were playing with them, and they are quite cool. Jenn decided to try calling and believe it or not, they all have service. I called home from one, but nobody was home. They are cool, but I don’t see the need for one for me.

So, that’s what I have for now.

Scott, you are not supposed to vote “by July 4th” on the 15th, as you obviously will not be here by 11 days ago.

That’s all.

nick

WWDC 2007

So, once again, WWDC seemed like not that much, but the video made it better. The three topics were Leopard, Safari, and the iPhone. Leopard now sports a new interface, that looks much better than anything else available. It’s nice to see that Apple is changing things up and trying to keep it looking new. Some features that were hoped for didn’t make it, and some that did make it were rather so-so. Overall though, it does look good. You can look at it here.

The Safari update was also rather mediocre, as a 3.0 beta goes, but did have the surprise of now being available for Windows. If you are looking for an alternative to FireFox (I know none of you are using IE, right?) here is one to try.

The iPhone stuff, well, I actually skipped over. I really don’t care, as I can’t afford one, or service for one, or need one.

Tonight Jenn and I decided to try the sushi kit. It came out pretty good, but the rice wasn’t right, too glutinous. I’m not sure if I made it wrong, or if I just got the wrong rice, probably both.
Homemade sushi


Close-up of sushi

Freaking Finally

I just finished the re-categorizing of all old posts. I could have been done with it a year ago, or more, but I am slow at such things and it become tiresome. Still, it gives a chance to read old posts. I will update the To-do list after this post.

Yesterday, I was sitting here online, and the cable box made the “power off” click. As I sat wondering why it went off for about a second, I heard a very loud buzz from behind me. Something like when you are connecting speakers while your stereo is on, but WAY louder. Then, after another second, another buzz. Next, I started to smell smoke. My first thought was the speakers next to the couch were acting up, but quickly remembered they aren’t hooked up yet. Next, was something was wrong with the wiring here and there was a fire in the wall. I looked around, quickly unplugged both laptops as they are the only things not on a surge strip (that will be fixed very soon), and stood in befuddlement (thats a real word, the spellcheck says so) for a moment. I went outside to see if there was anything going on, and holy crap. In the 20+ mph winds, a power line snapped and fell. Not the nice 220 line, but the 11200 volt lines, all three were on the ground arcing and starting the grass on fire. In the other direction, more lines were down, but no power was going to them as the other side was down. Next, I see even more some about a 1/4 mile away, what looked like a transformer fire or the like.

So, fire departments and Consumers Energy were all out here in a few minutes, and traffic on the road seemed oblivious to it all. After about an hour all the fires were out and the lines were back up, but no power for another hour or 2. Jenn was at work and missed most of the excitement, but we drove around a bit later to no avail, as I couldn’t find what the big smoke producer was toward the airport.

Next week, Monday morning, is Apple’s WWDC. It is well known that 10.5 Leopard will be shown in more detail (it was originally supposed to be released for sale about now), and the iPhone is supposed to be released near it as well (announced by Apple and AT&T as the 29th). Other than that, few rumors have circulated. Some said MacBook or MacBook Pro, but those were both out over the last few weeks. Finally, yesterday, the first decent rumor: Metal cased iMacs (brushed aluminum) and the discontinuation of the 17″ model (with price drops on the 20 and 24″). Also, minor upgrades to the Cinema Displays including the replacement of the 23″ with a 24″. There is also some small hope of a MacBook Thin, but that has been rather hushed recently, and may not happen. For the most part though, the keynote will be the “secret” features of 10.5.

Also next week, is the first episode of Man vs. Wild season 2, on Friday. Survivorman season 2 should come as MvsW ends in the fall.

One of the grants I got from Ferris was the Transfer Academic Excellence Scholarship, for transfer students with a 3.7 or higher GPA. I’m not sure how they figured me to have a 3.7, but I’m not going to complain or ask questions. I also received my letter from Delta letting me know I made Vice President’s list again for last semester.

Jenn mentioned maybe camping next weekend, that would be nice. Then again, living here is kind of like camping, with the weird bugs and abundant critters in the woods. I swear I only recognize 1 in 10 insects I see around here. Must be because Bay City sprays for mosquitos and kills off everything else in the process. I also noticed a near complete lack of squirrels around here, though have seen a few in town.

Ok, thats enough for now. More early next week probably.

Nick

You’re Not Reading This

Nobody has read this in, well, a while. Scott is on a leave from the Navy and hasn’t had internet, Sarah is in Bay City or Traverse City with no internet, and Jenn isn’t being counted. That leaves googlers and spiders, and nobody else. I just wanted to point that out to nobody.

So, we have the new sofa, love-seat, and mattress, and they are all very nice. We ended up needing a new bed frame too, as the old one was apparently partially to blame for jenn’s old mattress dying.

Scott is supposed to arrive in Bay City today, until Friday morning. He was supposed to spend a day coming to see me, then going on to see his sister in Wyoming, but she has moved back to Bay City. So, somehow, I am supposed to go see him, but I am not sure enough about my car to be willing to drive there and back. I could take Jenn’s vehicle tomorrow, but I don’t know if Scott has tomorrow free or not, and that is the only day this week Jenn has off and I would be able to take her vehicle.

Apple released new MacBook Pros today, as well as restarting the free iPod with computer purchase promotion. Sadly, the MacBooks are just not up to what I would be willing to buy, and the ones I want will probably not be out until November. The WWDC begins next week, and there have been rumors of another MacBook coming out then (MacBook Thin) that may fit what I want, so there is a chance with that. Either way, I don’t have the money to buy a computer anyway, and if I did it would need to go toward a new car, not a laptop.

I installed Windows XP on Jenn’s MacBook yesterday, since I will need it for school in the fall. I had installed it under Parallels, in emulation, but it was rather slow. I have it installed with BootCamp now, running fully native. You just need to hold the option key while starting up, and you get your choice of OS X or XP. It runs much faster than emulated, and is actually one of the fastest Windows computers I have used.

My present to Jenn for our anniversary (which was actually last month, but was the day before we moved, so we postponed) came in today. I still need to get her a birthday present by the 19th though.

I haven’t started reading either of my books yet. Not for any particular reason, I just haven’t. I think I feel bad sitting here reading while Jenn is working, but I really haven’t cleaned and organized as much as I did earlier last week. I think I was better off without cable or internet, it gave me no other choice but to be productive.

During this post, I am passing 130,000 words. That’s kind of fun.

If you haven’t noticed, the gallery has been totally pulled from my site, and is now only on Picassa. I think I mentioned that before, but just wanted to re-highlight. I posted some pictures of our apartment, and the various views outside. Once inside is neatened up some, I will post some pics of that too.

OK, I suppose that is all.

Enjoy your week.

nick