![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7Practice this morning was a sort of fine line between terrible and great. Terrible, because I'm missing part of my toenail and that sucks. Great, because everyone was in a good mood and skating well, and half a dozen new people showed up, three in full practice gear so they could participate. Two of the new people were obviously experienced skaters, though some of their moves betrayed that they were hardcore rollerbladers (there's a kind of waggle to their stride when they notice that their wheels aren't all one behind the other, and the dead giveaway is when they go to use the heel brakes that ohshit aren't there AAGH)-- one of them was supremely fast and impressively nimble.
Yesterday after work I got home and showered and Z said, "[cousin] Craig called and there's some kind of shindig at his house for one of his offspring." "When?" "Today." "When today?" "I don't know."
I proceeded to delete some important files while drying my hair, and so grumpily insisted that Z find out when this shindig was, because I am exceedingly fond of that segment of his family in particular (his father's sister's kids and kids' kids etc) and I never get to go to their shindigs and so hadn't seen any of them since, like, Christmas or earlier. I don't remember.
So Z called, and Craig said, "Um, now." So we went merrily off into the wilds of Tonawanda-ish, whereupon we drank beer and ate cake and also some meatballs marinated in a mixture of ketchup and grape jelly (you would be amazed how good that was, despite the description sounding like everything that has ever been wrong with American cuisine). It was Craig's daughter's 14th birthday, and I lied and said that was a good age to be. Actually being 14 totally sucked, but being 15 ruled. Still and all, she's way cooler than I was at that age, so she'll probably be fine. (For the curious, 16 sucked again, and things didn't get better until 18. But 15 was a minor bright spot in the hell that was adolescence.)
I had never met [cousin] Kevin's youngest, who is I believe 5 months now. She was adorable and bright-eyed, and spent a great deal of time being passed around to the large number of willing and excited people. I am not even sure I had met their middle one, who is 2 1/2 and absolutely precious-- blond curls, charming mannerisms-- but also Difficult. The poor thing has acid reflux problems so she doesn't eat, and possible sleep apnea so she doesn't sleep, and is also two so she is very active and very busy and very determined. So each parent mentioned that should I want a child, she was for sale.
Z and I concluded that kids should come with warranties. If things break before they're 3 or so, they should be repaired for free. The not-sleeping thing? Definitely should be an under-warranty repair. That shouldn't be allowed to happen.
Their oldest child, who I remember being maybe three and hyper, is a very mature six now, very solemn and serious and observant, and also polite and obedient. Which is good, as her warranty's probably expired.
Hi, Kevin! (I know he reads this. I think Craig does too, as he's left a comment or two.) Your kids are adorable but I'm not buying any of them off you. But we should all hang out more often. I have been meaning to throw a party since I moved into this house and have not yet. Which is sort of par for the course, as far as my life goes.
This afternoon Z is locked in the attic working very hard-- for the geeky, he was making a binding to use a Postgres (sp?) database with Objective C. He came down a couple minutes ago and did a little dance because he'd discovered that Cocoa has already got a user interface widget thing for calendars, so he doesn't have to code one, which will save him a day or two. This is all kind of a nice change for him, because his training and experience are in desktop applications programming, but he's been doing so much web-based programming lately. He's kind of at home now, and not just because he's telecommuting.
Meanwhile I'm importing my iTunes library into my new computer. I'm making things extra difficult because I decided that I was going to import my record collection in the order in which I acquired it, a la the dude from High Fidelity. (HF is a movie and book that both Z and I love. If only I could write like that, maybe Z wouldn't ridicule me so much. But my attempts at contemporaries, particularly witty and blithe but incisive contemporaries, have fallen so ridiculously flat...)
Of course, I don't really remember the order in which I got things. So it's pretty darn approximate. I've just separated my life into major time periods: High School, Early College [my first network connection! the first wave of piracy], middle college [dating a boy who liked techno, also Audiogalaxy], late college [stealing music from my roommate Darius], post-college [moving in with Z and stealing his entire record collection], and Recent. Within those categories I'm not being real stringent, mostly because I really have no idea. I wish I could remember exactly what was in the book of 24 CDs I brought with me to Scotland, but I don't recall. Indigo Girls, Hole, Green Day, Offspring, and probably others too embarrassing to mention. (Garbage? Lit? I don't remember. Oh, Matchbox 20 was on a cassette tape...)
Oh, one more thing I should blog. Anyone considering a Macbook but feeling undecided, I would advise you to wait a little bit. Obviously there are some bugs still left in them, and in the operating system. Z is having very bad problems with the power management on his book-- the thing will just shut down for no reason, and then he'll push the power button to tell it to start up, and it will make the noise of the drive spinning up-- "GzzshhZZHHzooweeoot" and then, weirdly, will emit a strange high-pitched sort of sigh-- "Eehh." and fail to start up. It did this last night while I was sitting next to him. Meanwhile I had put my Macbook to sleep, and while he was trying to boot his, I opened mine up to wake it up, and it brought up the screen, but was frozen. Nothing would respond, not the mouse or the keyboard. When I pushed the power button to restart it, it turned the monitor's light off, but I could dimly see that the monitor itself was still on, and there was a dialogue box on it. But I couldn't actually interact with the thing at all. Putting it to sleep and waking it did not help. I finally held the button down until it restarted. Which it did-- "GzzshhZZZHHzooweeoot" and then actually did start up, proving that the noise is normal. Whereupon it was fine, but still. Why do I have such bad juju with monitors?
We have extended warranties. (Even without the extended warranty, this is covered by the original, automatic 1-year one.) Apple will fix it. But this is a new architecture (they're both the Intel chips) with a new OS, so, we're not horribly surprised. OK, I am, but I am horribly surprised on a daily basis by things like gravity, so this is hardly an indicator. I'll keep watching mine to see how it does. Z really does need to get his repaired, though. Once he's done with this crazy week, and has some time, he'll be getting it sent out for warranty repair.
So to you all I say, give it a few more months and wait for the next major OS upgrade, and the kinks should be out by then. Because it's a sweet machine, but there are most definitely kinks in it.
Yesterday after work I got home and showered and Z said, "[cousin] Craig called and there's some kind of shindig at his house for one of his offspring." "When?" "Today." "When today?" "I don't know."
I proceeded to delete some important files while drying my hair, and so grumpily insisted that Z find out when this shindig was, because I am exceedingly fond of that segment of his family in particular (his father's sister's kids and kids' kids etc) and I never get to go to their shindigs and so hadn't seen any of them since, like, Christmas or earlier. I don't remember.
So Z called, and Craig said, "Um, now." So we went merrily off into the wilds of Tonawanda-ish, whereupon we drank beer and ate cake and also some meatballs marinated in a mixture of ketchup and grape jelly (you would be amazed how good that was, despite the description sounding like everything that has ever been wrong with American cuisine). It was Craig's daughter's 14th birthday, and I lied and said that was a good age to be. Actually being 14 totally sucked, but being 15 ruled. Still and all, she's way cooler than I was at that age, so she'll probably be fine. (For the curious, 16 sucked again, and things didn't get better until 18. But 15 was a minor bright spot in the hell that was adolescence.)
I had never met [cousin] Kevin's youngest, who is I believe 5 months now. She was adorable and bright-eyed, and spent a great deal of time being passed around to the large number of willing and excited people. I am not even sure I had met their middle one, who is 2 1/2 and absolutely precious-- blond curls, charming mannerisms-- but also Difficult. The poor thing has acid reflux problems so she doesn't eat, and possible sleep apnea so she doesn't sleep, and is also two so she is very active and very busy and very determined. So each parent mentioned that should I want a child, she was for sale.
Z and I concluded that kids should come with warranties. If things break before they're 3 or so, they should be repaired for free. The not-sleeping thing? Definitely should be an under-warranty repair. That shouldn't be allowed to happen.
Their oldest child, who I remember being maybe three and hyper, is a very mature six now, very solemn and serious and observant, and also polite and obedient. Which is good, as her warranty's probably expired.
Hi, Kevin! (I know he reads this. I think Craig does too, as he's left a comment or two.) Your kids are adorable but I'm not buying any of them off you. But we should all hang out more often. I have been meaning to throw a party since I moved into this house and have not yet. Which is sort of par for the course, as far as my life goes.
This afternoon Z is locked in the attic working very hard-- for the geeky, he was making a binding to use a Postgres (sp?) database with Objective C. He came down a couple minutes ago and did a little dance because he'd discovered that Cocoa has already got a user interface widget thing for calendars, so he doesn't have to code one, which will save him a day or two. This is all kind of a nice change for him, because his training and experience are in desktop applications programming, but he's been doing so much web-based programming lately. He's kind of at home now, and not just because he's telecommuting.
Meanwhile I'm importing my iTunes library into my new computer. I'm making things extra difficult because I decided that I was going to import my record collection in the order in which I acquired it, a la the dude from High Fidelity. (HF is a movie and book that both Z and I love. If only I could write like that, maybe Z wouldn't ridicule me so much. But my attempts at contemporaries, particularly witty and blithe but incisive contemporaries, have fallen so ridiculously flat...)
Of course, I don't really remember the order in which I got things. So it's pretty darn approximate. I've just separated my life into major time periods: High School, Early College [my first network connection! the first wave of piracy], middle college [dating a boy who liked techno, also Audiogalaxy], late college [stealing music from my roommate Darius], post-college [moving in with Z and stealing his entire record collection], and Recent. Within those categories I'm not being real stringent, mostly because I really have no idea. I wish I could remember exactly what was in the book of 24 CDs I brought with me to Scotland, but I don't recall. Indigo Girls, Hole, Green Day, Offspring, and probably others too embarrassing to mention. (Garbage? Lit? I don't remember. Oh, Matchbox 20 was on a cassette tape...)
Oh, one more thing I should blog. Anyone considering a Macbook but feeling undecided, I would advise you to wait a little bit. Obviously there are some bugs still left in them, and in the operating system. Z is having very bad problems with the power management on his book-- the thing will just shut down for no reason, and then he'll push the power button to tell it to start up, and it will make the noise of the drive spinning up-- "GzzshhZZHHzooweeoot" and then, weirdly, will emit a strange high-pitched sort of sigh-- "Eehh." and fail to start up. It did this last night while I was sitting next to him. Meanwhile I had put my Macbook to sleep, and while he was trying to boot his, I opened mine up to wake it up, and it brought up the screen, but was frozen. Nothing would respond, not the mouse or the keyboard. When I pushed the power button to restart it, it turned the monitor's light off, but I could dimly see that the monitor itself was still on, and there was a dialogue box on it. But I couldn't actually interact with the thing at all. Putting it to sleep and waking it did not help. I finally held the button down until it restarted. Which it did-- "GzzshhZZZHHzooweeoot" and then actually did start up, proving that the noise is normal. Whereupon it was fine, but still. Why do I have such bad juju with monitors?
We have extended warranties. (Even without the extended warranty, this is covered by the original, automatic 1-year one.) Apple will fix it. But this is a new architecture (they're both the Intel chips) with a new OS, so, we're not horribly surprised. OK, I am, but I am horribly surprised on a daily basis by things like gravity, so this is hardly an indicator. I'll keep watching mine to see how it does. Z really does need to get his repaired, though. Once he's done with this crazy week, and has some time, he'll be getting it sent out for warranty repair.
So to you all I say, give it a few more months and wait for the next major OS upgrade, and the kinks should be out by then. Because it's a sweet machine, but there are most definitely kinks in it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-09-24 09:18 pm (UTC)When I got to be editor of the college paper, I made sure we got three awesome macs. That was so cool....but I am stuck with the same computer my dad bought me when I was a junior in college. It has an 8 GB hard drive. Among other sucky stats.
no subject
Date: 2006-09-25 12:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, every time I mention my new computer someone else tells me about the freakishly long time they've had their old one. And I nod: "I am a consumer whore!" "And how!"
[sorry, a friend (http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=claudi007) has an icon (halfway down, right column, black and white with stick figures) that says that and I think it's the funniest thing.]
120 GB hard drive, and I bet you I fill it up entirely in 3 years.
You're right
Date: 2006-09-25 12:30 pm (UTC)Part of Kristina's sleeping is also due to the acid reflux, which I think I have a solution to, ICE CREAM! Saturday night she had a bunch of ice cream, slept really good, only woke up briefly @ 2:45am, went back to sleep, last night, ice cream before bed, slept good again. She will now get ice cream before bed EVERY night until her sleep pattern changes again. Still going to the doctors to fix the problem, but for now - ICE CREAM!!
Re: You're right
Date: 2006-09-25 01:26 pm (UTC)Ice cream!! That's brilliant!! I'm glad that helps! I saw her, she ate a ton of the stuff.
Hopefully the doctors can find something they can help. Poor tyke. Hope the ice cream trick keeps working, at least.
I think my parents would've gotten their money back on me for sure-- I had bad asthma when I was little. And nothing they could do helped much. I just spontaneously outgrew it when I was about 5 or so, and it hasn't been back since, thank heavens. But it was bad enough that I think if the manufacturer warranty said "repair or replace at our option" they'd probably just have replaced me...
Well, now that I have a regular schedule that gives me Saturday evenings, all Sundays, and Mondays off, maybe I can be around more during everyone's parties. I always missed them because of work.