I stopped by MacWorld after work today. It was a little underwhelming, but I did get to fondle the demo of the MacBook Air. Yes, it’s as tiny as all that. Otherwise, the best part of the experience was a demo of the newest versions of Adobe’s many programs.

Did I mention that I’m getting a spiffy new Mac at work? We bought the new Mac Pro yesterday and I can pick it up (4GB Ram, 320 GB drive + 1 Terabyte drive) either tomorrow or this weekend. If I hadn’t spent the last year and a half trying to coax decent print and web design out of a computer with about 1/10th the power of my new machine, I’d feel bad about our nonprofit dropping the big bucks like this. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

Yesterday, when we got back from placing the order, we had an office visitor. During the introductions, my supervisor commented, “This is Jere, he just got a new toy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile like that.” To which I replied, “I’m personally unpleasant most of the time.” It’s only partially true.

Posted: January 17th, 2008 under macworld, work.
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Despite another rather lazy weekend, I’ve actually accomplished quite a bit.

• For one thing, I’m meeting one of my new year resolutions. I said that this year “I will take advantage of my fancy new health benefits in 2008 by visiting the dentist and getting routine medical check-ups.” Well, I still have to make the dentist appointment, but the physical is scheduled for Friday morning. Maybe she can help me with some of the other goals (e.g. quitting the smoking).
   
• Since my job involves occasional bouts of graphic design, sound editing, video editing and the like, I’ve been agitating for over a year to get a Mac. Also, my work computer is so fraking slow that it takes 30 minutes to boot up (I’m not exaggerating). Well, the budget got approved this year and our Fin/Ops director asked me to tell her the specs I wanted. After turning in my request (it’s going to be a sweet machine), she came up to me last week and asked if I’d heard about this thing called “MacWorld.”
   
  “Yeah,” I replied innocently, “what about it?”
   
  “I just thought that before we ordered your computer, you might want to go down there and see if there’s something better coming out.”
   
  So, I just registered to attend next week’s MacWorld Expo. It’s for work. Honest. Even though I will still probably order the same computer anyway.
   
• Aside from those activities, I also managed to go book shopping today rather than sitting at home watching TV all day. After hitting the Valencia corridor, I sat in Mission Dolores Park and ate some lunch in the mild weather we’ve been missing for the past few weekends.
   
• I’m totally ODing on two albums this week. The original Broadway cast recording of Xanadu and the soundtrack to the movie Juno. Xanadu is fun for the cheese and the hunky Cheyenne Jackson. Juno is filled with quirky songs played on the acoustic guitar using 3-or-fewer chords and indie chicks.
   
  My favorite part of Xanadu is the bits of dialogue that make it onto the recording. “Huzzah!” - “I will wear legwarmers and roller skates” “You shall be as current as today’s headlines.” - ”I know what let’s do.” “What let’s?” “What let’s use our muse powers…” It’s a bad habit of mine that little things set me off and make me want to wander around speaking in declaratory statements a la Greek gods.

Therefore, I shall end this blog, and it shall be done forthwith!

Posted: January 14th, 2008 under macworld, music, resolutions, theatregeekery.
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