Category Archives: Uncategorized

Entry Into the MAC ZONE

Posted on by

Today is my wife’s birthday.  And I write this from a small table adjacent a huge picture window allowing a wondrous view of the Pacific Ocean, on the second floor of a nice motel no more than a hundred yards from pounding ten-to-fifteen foot waves.  

Furthermore, it is written on my new MacBook Pro laptop.

I swore for the past year that I was fit-to-be-tied with the PC world.  I was tired of receiving the continuous Microsoft Message Of Doom, replete with the You’ll Never Get Your Shit Back error box, to include the sparks issuing from my HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop with its marvelous 17″ screen — when its very dry keyboard and processor met my very wet glass of Steinlager Classic.
I’d had a Mac IIcx many years ago with its concomitant ImageWriter (which, literally, took about 20 minutes to complete a full page of simple text), purchased in 1987 for $6,000 in Cuptertino, the early home of Apple Computers.  
I was then dragged kicking and screaming out of the Mac world when I received a PC whilst engaged in the Robbery Bureau.  My first PC ever, which utilized the — dare I admit this? — dreaded DOS prompt.  Even further back, when I worked for my association as newspaper Editor, that fossilized computer used actual 5″ floppy disks which, then, were truly floppy.  Anyone remember those?
Enough of the walk down Memory Lane. 
Now it’s time to come to grips with an entirely new operating system, purchased by my wonderful wife and gifted to me on her birthday, if you can possibly feature that!  What an incredible surprise!
I’m not quite sure what year this laptop was manufactured, but I discovered it is the MacBook Pro with the older and coveted 15″ matte screen, with the Firewire port.  It came loaded with OS X Leopard 10.5.1.  It also came with iLife, iWork, Aperture, the Aperture 2 upgrade and — zowee! — Final Cut Express HD.
I was able to figure out that Safari is the Mac equivalent of Internet Explorer, hence my ability to write this now, also due in part to the motel WiFi connection being recognized immediately upon startup.  
This is huge.  This is astounding.  This is amazing.  My wife never ceases to amaze me.
Boy, am I gonna need help and advice in the Mac Realm.
Anybody else out there use Macs?
BZ
P.S.
Got, of course, some great photos so far, but can’t figure out how to get them from the side USB port, into the computer, and then into the posts.  I’m just a Baby Mac User.
 Share

Off to the Ocean

Posted on by

It’s off to the coast of Fornicalia with BZ, in honor of my wife’s 39th birthday.

I’ve got some posts set up already to “cover my absence,” and I hope to post photos when I get to my final destination. She doesn’t know, but I’ve set a suite with an in-room Jacuzzu tub and fireplace, on the top floor, with a direct ocean view. I’ve also scheduled a 90-minute professional massage.

By the time this post is up, we’ll be on the road.

Take care, dear readers, and never forget to tell the ones you love how you feel about them. Life is too damned short.

BZ

Psst: click on the post title.
 Share

Silver Lining

Posted on by

The Demorats are picking themselves apart already, less than 14 days from Barack Hussein Obama’s inauguration on January 20th (Wish to go? Bring cash.) as 44th President of the United States. Things are not quite going, ahem, as planned. To wit:

-New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrew his consideration for commerce secretary, as a federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Mr. Richardson’s political activities somehow managed to “win” a lucrative New Mexico state contract.

-Demorats are not quite behind seating idiot Al Franken.

-Diane Feinstein is not quite pleased that Obama has picked Leon Panetta as CIA director and, as she was not consulted (Feinstein now will chair the Senate Intelligence Committee), she may oppose this selection.

-Obama has not quite weighed in on the Gaza Strip situation (I conclude it’s simply because he has little true idea what firm position to take).

-Demorat Caroline Kennedy is not quite taking the New York area by storm with regard to Clinton’s Senate seat.

-Demorats are not quite as cohesive as many seem to portray them.

And all of this despite the Demorats now owning both houses of Congress.

It’s a funny thing about “being in power.” When you have it, you actually have to make decisions and in a timely fashion. You also have to be unified and coalesced. You have to make a plan, sell the plan and execute the plan. Demorats are finding, even before the inauguration, that all is not joy in Mudville.

What a ride.

BZ
 Share