Sunday, September 28, 2008

Oh so exciting discovery - seems they got rid of AppleWorks. I have TextEdit and that's all. I refuse to buy Word, because I don't like it, and it costs too much for how little I actually use it. Looks like I'm going to be downloading OpenOffice.
Erg. In my efforts to try to transfer my iCal stuff from my iPod to the new MacBook, I ended up erasing the stuff on the iPod instead. So if I ever jotted down a note about when your birthday is? Yeah, it's probably gone now. Sorry.
My iBook died last night. It froze up and the trackpad stopped responding. I restarted. It made all the right noises, but the screen didn't light up. I turned it off, tried again. No good. Today I took it to a repair place. The verdict? The logic board, the brain of the computer, had died. My hard drive is fine and can be salvaged, which I'll look into soonish. But the computer is unusable without the logic board. Replacing it would cost somewhere around $700 - not worth it since the computer was 4 or so years old. So I went to the Apple store and picked up a shiny new MacBook. It's lovely, but it doesn't feel like mine yet. Right now I'm transferring music and some other stuff from my external hard drive, trying to get the settings just so, etc. And the computer is similar to what I had, but it's different enough that not all the shortcuts and habits that I had will work. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but for right now, I miss Athena.

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Tonight was a TV night. Some Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on in the background while doing dishes and eating dinner, and then the 2 hour premiere of American's Next Top Model. This season features Isis, a MtF transgendered woman, and she's amazing. She was sought out by Tyra and co. after being one of the background models in the homeless shoot last season. Homeless woman becomes model? Good TV fodder. Transgendered homeless woman becomes model? Wow. But Tyra and the show's judges and producers are dealing with the issue in a pretty respectful and cool way, as are many of the contestants. Some of the other contestants? Not so much. Grr. But Isis took great photos and wowed the judges (2 of whom didn't know she was trans until the panel discussion) and got called second, so she she'll be sticking around for a bit, yay!

And then we switched over to the Republican National Convention. Why? I don't know. First up: Rudy Giuliani, with one of the most mean-spirited and condescending political speeches I have ever heard. Seriously, my jaw dropped at the way he said "community organizer." The level of cruel mockery in that speech was appalling. It was followed up with Sarah Palin's speech, a horribly bland thing that spent way too much time talking about her family. Yes, family is important. Yes, you are a mother. (Side note: Piper Palin is frigging adorable, and the camera caught her licking her hand and then slicking down her baby brother's hair. Hilarious.) But come on. When people are questioning your experience and ability, is it really a good plan to spend about half the speech focusing on your family? Mention them and move on. Of course, while I was bored with the family talk, I got grumpy when she talked about politics, so maybe I'm just hard to please. Or just too liberal to listen to that crap without my blood pressure rising significantly.

Oh, and one last political note: I am now registered to vote in the state of New York. Twice. That's right, the state of New York essentially committed voter fraud for me and sent me two different voter registration cards. Exact same info on both except the serial number. I tried to call them and straighten it out today, but I couldn't get through to a an actual person. I guess I'll have to go to their office next week. Fun times!