Pauls Rants & Revelations

I went to the dentist today to get a couple of cavities filled. I thought it would be a simple ‘drill and fill’ but it was more like a ‘gouge and paste’ kind of affair. Evidently the tooth was so bad that they had to remove about 80% of it before plastering in the new tooth.

For my trouble, I got slapped with an $80 bill. Evidently the insurance I use doesn’t really cover what they call ‘restorative fillings’ so I’m left to pay the difference.

You know, when you use to loose a tooth, the Tooth Fairy gave you a quarter at the least. Now, when you get older, you have to pay someone else to do the same function. And if you don’t thing 80% loss of a tooth doesn’t count, you try sitting in the chair and have it done After the Novocaine wears off a bit.

All I know is that when my kids loose a tooth, I’m thinking of leaving a 10 spot or something. That way if they ever need it taken out they’ll be covered.

-Cheers

The more I use this machine, the more I wonder what took me so long to start using one.

I installed XP on a Parallels share and it runs much better than it did on a native machine. It takes about 20 seconds to start up and I have not had a problem with it even after installing all the CS suite programs and other fun things (it even plays Peggle rather nicely).

Apart from the work standpoint, I also am amazed (and relieved) about all of the communications programs I use and that I won’t be having to kill off any accounts. Using Adium for IM and Skype for calling I am still connected to the world and for email, plain old Mail works just fine.

I am a bit lacking in games but really the only games I play are Half Life, TFC (soon to be TF2), and a few other mods for same and I can run those off of my XP share. So really I’m not giving up anything. Hell, I’m even thinking about adding a Linux share so I can start really playing with that too (Boss, please let me know what flavor you run as I forgot already).

The point of this rather long winded diatribe is not so much to tell you how cool my Mac is, but rather to let those folks wanting to switch but fearing loss of data or ability to know that there is really nothing to fear.

Leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.

-Cheers

Well, what can I say about this weekends festivities? Only that they were a lot of fun and am really sore from it all.

For those of you without dirty minds, I was at an archery festival in Vulcanfelt (Union Gap, WA) and was shooting archery all weekend. Aside from the fun and games I got burned in the day and smashed at night (I blame the fellow who brought the rum). As for the competitions go, I got second place in the Clout shoot which is shooting at a stick 180 yards away, sucked at the royal round, and did an abysmal job in the York. But at least I had a great time doing it.

And now, Monday has come again and it is back to the grind.  But at least now I get to use a pimped out new Macbook Pro.

-Cheers

Yes friends and enemies, I have myself a brand new top-o-the-line Mac Book Pro, courtesy of my super fabulous boss and super-rific boss’s boss.

Its a strange feeling though. It took about 5 minutes to set up everything and I was off and running soon after installing apps (Firefox is a must as well as Skype and Paralells) and the whole while I am thinking “this is so easy and it works”. I am even still amazed since I got it home and started copying over info (ok, its mostly music) as I can still do tasks like write posts and not have any problems. No slow downs or lag (sweet).

Im still getting used to all of the new functions and such but its becoming easier the more I use it. Ill post pictures of my new uber mac as soon as I find the USB cable to my camera (not the built in one, my camera camera).

Oh, and to those people who contributed funds to the “get Paul a Macbook Pro” fund, I will be issuing you a refund soon.

You ever have those days where its not exactly like you are depressed all day, but you just don’t have the will to do anything at all? You get up and do your stuff, of course, but your heart just isn’t in it?

Its been like that all day today. Maybe it was the rain but its just been a mopey kind of day for me. I hope it clears up with some sleep though as I can’t face work like this.

Perhaps some food. Yea, some chili sounds good. That’ll perk me up ( as well as drive my wife out of the room; she hates chili).

-Cheers

We just got a 3 disc set from Target of the Duck Tales cartoon. It was just in a random place on the shelf and my wife and I were almost racing to grab it once we saw it.

From our youths, and the youths of most late-20 somethings, Duck Tales was quite an enjoyable show what with the antics Scrooge and the gang get into. That and Tailspin I think did more to keep me sane through elementary school than the child shrinks I sometimes made nervous.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it in your local general purpose mega store, you can check it out on Amazon. Also while I was searching, I found DVDs for Tailspin, Chip n Dales Rescue Rangers, and Darkwing Duck. Now all I need is a couple hundred buck to buy them all and I’ll be reliving my childhood till doomsday.

Besides, watching these is infinitely better than watching most of the stuff on Cartoon Network or Disney nowadays. With the exception of Foster Home for Imaginary Friends, both those creative companies have gone to shit in the last few years. I mean, come on, who would watch a show called “My Gym Partners A Monkey”? Who would name a show that?

Do yourself a favor if you are fan of the great brand of animation we grew up with; go out, get the DVDs, and kill the cable. Don’t let you kids be exposed to such poor quality.

Oh, and you can get Fosters through iTunes. That one is good for anyone of any age to watch.

-Cheers

No, I’m not referring to the recent posts on data recovery I’ve written. This is more towards workload. It seems I have reached my limit as I have absolutely no more room in my brain to keep track of all the projects I have to do. Its a bit more stressful as my boss is out for a few days, but what the heck? Every trapeze flier likes going without a net now and again.

At least things are not behind (terribly) and I will pretty much have everything back on track by the time the boss gets back. I just felt like venting about it a bit.

And boss? If you are reading this everything is A OK!

-Cheers

I never realized how difficult it is to actually move a server without anyone complaining.

Sure, some would complain about down time but that can’t really be helped. And still others would complain about their email not being their or having to change some setting. That one I think is the most annoying.

My favorite complaint is from a hosting client. She called me on the phone (which is a shock) and wondered why her website is down. I told her that I’m moving the server (standard response at that point) and she said that this outage is intolerable. At the word ‘intolerable’ a wheel click and I remember who it was. A former hosting client who, at the time of her call, has had her site turned off for the better part of a year. Sigh. People this stupid should not be allowed computers.

Oh well. At least everything is mostly moved over. Just waiting for a few tid bits and its done. At least I learned a few things; such as I never want to deal with another windows box again. Ever. Its a small bit of wisdom but a valuable one I think.

-Cheers

Here is the next tid bit of wisdom for all of you trying to kick the habit.

One of the things about quiting smoking (that is actually true) is that you will most likely gain weight. This is not a side effect of quitting, but you are trying to replace the oral fixation with something else  and eating is the most readily available and easiest thing to replace it.

Tip 3: Eat and Move

Eating more is not, on the whole a bad thing. In fact, I encourage it. Eat what you wish when you wish. But also, move a bit more than you used to. Since you will be on a semi-rampage (nic-fits) searching for something to do, you might as well do something your body could use.

I started running more and working out. This is something anyone can do. If at the most you just start by taking long walks and working into running/jogging, then that is great also. Running is free (you can run anywhere on the streets) and one of the best workouts you can get.

So in short, eat what you want, go out for a walk or a run, and I promise you will feel better for it .Unless you run past a group of smokers. Then you have every right to roll your eyes and give them the disgusted looks you yourself used to get.

Then just keep on running.

-Cheers

Just for laughs, and to see how much I will need to save for, I went and priced a Mac Book Pro and the new iMacs in case I can’t somehow get the Mac Book. I was a little shocked at the prices but I wasn’t really expecing anything less than paying $4 grand for a Mac Book or $3 grand for a new iMac. At least that was what I expected. Here was the final tallies of what I priced out at apple.com:

Mac Book Pro 17″ Widescreen Glossy – $4,177

* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 4GB 667 DDR2 – 2x2GB SO-DIMMs
* 250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* MacBook Pro 17-inch High-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
* Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS – U.S. English
* iWork ’08 preinstalled
* AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro (w/or w/o Display) – Auto-enroll

iMac 24″ Glossy – $3,747

* 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
* 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM – 2x2GB
* 1TB Serial ATA Drive
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
* Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
* iWork ’08 preinstalled
* AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac – Auto-enroll
* Accessory kit
* ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
* 24-inch glossy widescreen LCD
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

While the comparable iMac is a few hundred cheaper, I can’t take it anywhere with me (at least not conveniently). So I think I’ll do the Mac Book route as soon as I get the $4k to buy it. Although I am not really site I need iLife ’08 preinstalled… What the heck is that anyway? Is it like Office or something?

Oh well. I’ll ponder how to come up with the scratch later. Back to work with me.

-Cheers