BFF

Here's me and my date for this exciting Friday night: my new beau Mac. He has a certain . . . glow about him, doesn't he?

who's your Mac daddy?

a;lsidjf;alksdfj!!!! ;alskdjfalskjdf!! z,xmcnv;aoieujrldkxn!!

MacBook Pro!!!

zx;ocivuj;aeklqnr!!!111!!!

qpoeiuz.k!!! aseaksjhfaalksjhdfiz.kvn!!!!!!! Srsly!! I mean it!!!

FAST!!! SLICK!!! SHINY!!!

Yeah, I bought it. And yeah, it's hotter than the surface of Mercury in the summer.

I got the 15-inch, 2.5-GHz, 2-GB model. True Love! I also picked up a copy of Office 2008 while I was there, as I need it for a particular client's project. And I'm going to pick up some speech-to-text software, too, so I can dictate my notes straight into Word.

Setup was a breeze. I hooked up the firewire cable and went out to lunch, and when I got home, the Pro had assimilated all of the iBook's files and apps. Resistance was futile. All the iBook's info took up less than 40% of the Pro's memory, which means I've got plenty of room to maneuver, and my fat apps have some wiggle room. (InDesign, Photoshop, I'm talking to you.) The Pro also played nice with my extra monitor and my printer on the first try.

Nerdvana.

Enough! Gotta go play.

Gygax gone

D&D creator Gary Gygax has died. Gamers everywhere roll to save vs. sadness.

I played D&D in high school, partly to pass the time, partly to hang out with the cute smart boys, and partly to consume my weight in Doritos and Mountain Dew. I was never a terribly serious player, but I clearly remember passing evenings in fun and camaraderie. There were more than a few people in my hometown who believed D&D was devil worship, but the only influence it had on me was to expand my imagination and my social circle.

Now the game's creator has gone on the ultimate adventure. We thank him and wish him well.

memory lane

Today I upgraded my computer's memory — all by myself! I popped the keyboard off, removed approximately 8 pounds of cat hair, removed a small metal plate, inserted the new chip, and put the plate and keyboard back on. Now the computer is quicker at doing several things at once, like letting me edit a Word document while the scanner scans something. It boots up a little faster than before, too. Sweet!

I know normal geeks do stuff like this all the time, but being mechanically disinclined, I've avoided doing physical repairs to my computer until now. So here's where I give a big shout-out to the nice folks at the Apple store. When I told them what I wanted to do, they:

• looked up my model of computer to see how big a chip it could swallow
  
• showed me how to remove the keyboard and metal plate and insert the chip by demonstrating on my actual machine — so I wouldn't have to pay them to do it
  
• told me slyly where to buy the memory chip at half the price their store charges: crucial.com

See why I like Apple?

what a big geek am I

What's cool: Finally getting my second computer monitor hooked up and working. Now I can put the article I'm copyediting on one screen and the Google search for fact-checking information on the other. Woot!

What's cooler: Watching a downloaded episode of The Colbert Report where his guest eats a bug on the big monitor while surfing the 'net on the smaller one. Oh yeah. Thanks, Mom!

Step 1: Admit you have a problem

Last weekend, the words "I don't need a boyfriend, I have an iPhone" actually passed my lips.

That's bad, right?

touching reminder

I've been watching a shipload of Star Trek: The Next Generation lately. One of the things that really jumps out at me is how iPhone-esque the touchscreens on the Enterprise-D are. They're exactly the same thing.

Sometimes I wonder why I like this series so much when I dislike so many of its regular characters:

• smirktastic space Boy Scout Wesley "Know-it-all" Crusher (though I really admire actor Wil Wheaton's grown-up endeavors)
  
• Dr. Beverly "Dammit, Jim, I'm a puppeteer, not an actor" Crusher (but actress Gates McFadden was a hoot at Dragon*Con)
  
• blessedly short-lived Dr. Pulaski (trivia: actress Diana Muldaur also appeared in two eps of the original series)
  
• Commander "Let me show you my throbbing dilithium crystal" Riker, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and should be heard from no more
  
• and particularly Counselor "I'm sensing something with a low neckline" Troi, a truly obnoxious character created as a shortcut for writers, who used her whimpered empathic divinations as a cheap substitute for actually showing showing character development
  

I liked Tasha Yar. I'm indifferent to Geordi. And I really, really dig Captain Picard, Commander Data, and Lt. Worf. So it must be the stories, and especially the Trek universe, I love.

Anyway. Touchscreens. Cool.

SQUEEEEE!!!!

OMG OMG OMG

iPhone

OMG!!!!!111!!!

Can't blog now. Busy touching shiny icons.

P.S. COOLEST TOY EVER!!

journey to babble

Gotta love late-night Star Trek reruns. Specifically, "Journey to Babel," one of my favorite episodes. It's got everything: action, intrigue, wit, love, logic, gratuitous shirtless Kirk — and Ambassador Sarek repelling Gav the Tellarite with what looks to me like Upward Split & Push, a T'ai Chi technique I was practicing myself earlier this wee. And let's not forget Jane Wyatt swanning about beneath an Anne Boleyn hair sculpture.

Call me crazy, but I like this ep even better than the much-lauded "City on the Edge of Forever." Sarek is crazy hot. Kirk's laughable martial arts skills nearly get him killed. McCoy is extra doctory, Checkov extra Russian. ("Keptin! Eet's en ellien wessel!") Spock carries the show, and he was always my favorite.

Next time you see "Babel," watch the bandage around Kirk's torso creep steadily northward. He gets stabbed in the lower back, yet the wrap starts around mid-chest and ends up as a tube top. Then toward the end, Kirk is clutching himself in pain, but he's clutching his left upper arm, while he was stabbed above his right hip. And then he marches into the turbolift and keeps on going, apparently right off the set, even though he should have stopped in the small elevator space.

God, I love this show. And did you know it's now available on iTunes?

iWant!

Apple just unveiled the new iPhone. Holy geeklust, Batman! I WANT ONE!

geekery deekery doc

This morning I decided to get better acquainted with my online Google calendar. (I’m already in love with my Google e-mail service, and I spent Friday evening romancing my online Google photo album. I heart Google!) Turns out I can use my Treo/cell phone to text message my Google calendar, and the calendar will reply immediately with my next event, the day’s events, or the next day’s events, depending on what I asked for. Fabulous!

This solves another non-problem I was having. I’ve been wanting to sync my Treo up with my work computer so I could download my meeting schedule and carry it with me. But the sync software on my hard drive is incompatible with my Treo, and the IT department seems disinterested in helping me with this. Not a big deal, since I have so few meetings to keep track of. I just thought it would be cool.

BUT! I realized I could export the calendar from my work computer to a CVS file, then import that into my Google calendar, and voila! It’s all right there, visible online and available for retrieval via text message whenever I choose. Portability problem solved!

Plus, I’ve set my Google calendar to automatically text my Treo every morning with the day’s agenda. How shiny is that? Huh? Huh?

Now all I have to do is (A) consistently export/import my work calendar and (B) remember to carry the Treo, which I normally leave in my purse. Don’t worry, I’ve set myself electronic reminders to do both.

iGeek

I spent unnecessary time and money at Best Buy today acquiring gadgets that will (A) play music and podcasts from my laptop computer on my home stereo and (B) play music and podcasts from my iPod on my car stereo. Shiny!

I'll use B a lot more than A, especially with a roadtrip to SD in the near future, but A is still nice to have. Maybe I should also get C, a connector that will play music and video from the computer on my TV. Just cuz.

Drum class is this afternoon. I'm looking forward to it.

follow-up

Follow-up. Nothing but follow-up

those keys I found
No word yet. I might, after all, post a sign near where I found them.

Sister-san’s stolen Harley
No word on that, either.

this morning’s fire drill at work
False alarm.

acaTunes
Yesterday I took my first stab at downloading songs from acaTunes. First, I had to feed 10 acabucks into my account. Prepayment is acarequired — and acannoying. And because of “administrative fees,” which is BS for “we have you over a barrel,” you can only prepay in multiples of 10. I wanted to download just three songs, but I had to bank 10 acabucks. Not cool, acaTunes. Not unless you’re paying me interest on my acabucks.

Next, only two of my three chosen songs were actually available for download. The site is fairly new and not yet firing on all cylinders. So one of the songs is still on my wish list, and eight of the acabucks are still in my account.

The downloads were slow and did not bring the album art with them like iTunes does.

Feature I like: I can subscribe to RSS feeds for new acquisitions and featured music. If acaTunes lays hands on Primer, I will be among the first to know. And I will taunt you with that knowledge.

Overall impression: underwhelmed at the moment, but willing to indulge the site’s growing pains. For a little while.

SSQ concert next week
One of my friends can’t go after all. His wife is going to try to roust one of her friends to go in his place.

T’ai Chi retreat
Definitely on. I’m going, and I’m not carpooling with anyone, so stop asking! I’m rooming with Lisa.

Dragon*Con
Programming tracks I hope to hit include American sci-fi and fantasy TV, sci-fi lit, Buffy, podcasting, Trekkage, Wheel of Time, X-track.

Not featured, to my surprise, but likely to spawn spontaneous mini-tracks in the halls: Harry Potter, Lost, Xena. And you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be belly dancing. The more belly, the better.

favorite vidcasts
Ask a Ninja, Dane Cook’s Tourgasm, Comedy Central’s super-shorts, Blue Man Group

iAm a Pod Person

Oh my god, my new iPod is SO UNBEARABLY COOL! I'm about to wet my pants. Seriously.

I seem to drive the clickwheel left-thumbed.

30 GB
video
black
teh shizznit

I did not realize it could also function as a read-only contact/calendar/to-do list organizer. And it has a clock. Multiple clocks, actually; one is now set to Sister-san's time zone. And games! Ooh, the geekery!

this is news

I can now download The Daily Show, Comedy Central's satiric news program starring Jon Stewart, via iTunes.

I love this century.

hearts & flowers

First of all, happy VD to all those celebrating it, and thanks to Mother Media for the loveliness pictured above.

Second, this business of Vice President Cheney accidentally shooting a hunting buddy in the face: Guns, even in the hands of trained handlers, freak me out a little. Dick Cheney, even in the hands of trained handlers, freaks me out 10x. Media sitting on the story for 24+ hours frosts my peaches in ways I cannot adequately express. What other monumental screwups are we not being told about because it might tarnish some politician's image? Oooooh, I HATE that!

Third, the Twin Cities are beset with freezing rain this morning, making me once again cherish and give thanks for my 2-mile, freeway-free commute.

Fourth, I just learned from my coworker, Evil Josh, that one can download Season 2 of Lost from iTunes video for near-instant gratification. $2/episode.

I did not need to know that!