When It Rains, It Pours

I had put my MacBook Pro on that counter before, a thousand times before. I had no reason to think last night was any different.

No reason until it came tumbling down, open, about 10pm last night. And that's when today's nightmare began.

I thought it was fine at first: Everything was working properly, no readily visible damage, at least not in the piss-poor lighting of my apartment.

I always work with my laptop on my lap, so the first, "Oh fuck" didn't cross my mind until I put the laptop on the coffee table so I could get up and start doing my foot stretches. I noticed it wasn't quite sitting level.

Okay, that's not too bad, I thought. Then I tried to eject the DVD I'd been watching, and it bonked against the case in a futile fashion. Crap, that's bad.

I decided to call and get some estimates in the morning. Taking it in to a reseller (who I thought might get me a better price than Apple directly, since Apple's warranty doesn't cover butterfingers), I noticed that when I closed it, the lid was obviously bent at a weird curve.

That was when I knew this was going to be REALLY expensive.

On any laptop, if you seriously damage something related to the casing around the screen, nine times out of ten you have to replace the whole screen, even if you've been lucky enough not to have the screen itself break on you.

Since the screen is one of the single most expensive parts of any laptop, and particularly expensive-ass MBP's, this was going to cost me.

The reseller gave me an estimate in the mid $1300's, but advised I go to the Apple store since they'd have to send it in to Apple for a repair that serious anyway, and perhaps I could throw myself upon their mercy and get something at least a little cheaper.

And a little cheaper it was: If I wanted to have all the damage repaired, rather than just the more egregiously fucked bottom part of the case (and the full repair is necessary to keep the warranty in force), it was $1240.

The good news is, the $1240 figure covers ANYTHING else they find wrong with it. If I fucked up the disk drive too, then that's covered. If they have to just send me a whole new computer, it will still be $1240.

I would also be without my computer for anywhere from 5-10 business days, necessitating renting a temporary computer, since the only work I have right now is freelance tech consulting, for which you need a computer.

The only place they could find that would rent to individuals (as opposed to buisnesses) gave the fairly reasonable-for-these-things rate of $170 for two weeks.

So immediately, I would be out $1460. Considering the computer itself cost $2800, this was a fairly substantial sum. It is also, I'd like to note, more than my incredibly steep rent for one month.

And in case you're thinking it, nope, renter's insurance won't cover it since it was a very obvious drop. If it'd been stolen or lost in a fire, maybe. Not dropped.

I briefly considered just bagging it and getting a new computer for the same money, but the problem is that I didn't get the cheaper MacBook for a reason: I do audio recording which strongly benefits from more advanced ports (firewire 800 vs. 400), as well as web design and photo stuff that really needs the extra boost of the bigger screen and better graphics card.

Plus, the glossy screen drives me batshit to absolutely no end. I'd been helping a friend set up her new MacBook and had been ever more convinced I'd done the right thing springing for the Pro.

I probably could have sold the busted Pro for parts, but I had no idea if it'd bring in enough money (around $1000-1200) to pay for the difference between the cost to fix it and a new Pro. Without that knowledge, I was kind of up a creek.

So I sucked it up and decided to get it fixed. I'm now typing on the rented MacBook (which, by the way, is good for basic stuff but is heavily reaffirming my decision to just get the damn Pro fixed).

Now I will admit, I'm EXTREMELY fortunate that I have some deep-freeze funding that I'm being allowed to access (which I normally would not have access to, but the parental units who control it deemed this a worthy exception) to pay for this debacle.

I'd be super-duper-mega-extra fucked without that, and I'm REALLY not happy I had to access that in the first place, especially since this was due to my own carelessness.

Lord knows when the busted computer comes back from the shop, I'll be velcroing the fucker to my desk/coffee table any time it's not on my lap.

Dork Dilemmas

Being unemployed in January is probably a good thing for the average gadget geek like myself, since the twin peaks of lust for shiny things both take place during the first couple of weeks of January.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is taking place in Las Vegas this week, where almost every electronics company is unveiling its product lineup for 2008.

Next week brings the annual MacWorld Expo, where Apple faithful come to drool over whatever lickably shiny object Steve Jobs deigns to unveil during his keynote address.

Both of these events lead to an absolute orgy of gadget blog coverage (Google Reader is buckling under the weight of the feeds just of Engadget and Gizmodo), and to try and keep up even without having a job to do on top of it is a bloody nightmare.

I mean, it is fun to read about crazy shit like the leopard-print Taser with mp3 playing holster, the LCD you install on your car bumper so other people can watch what you're watching, or the 150 inch plasma TV that is over five times the size of my Gigantic Damn TV.

What would have been even better is to have seen these ridiculous items in person. Alas, it is not to be.

The thing that really sucks is that theoretically, if I had the money, I could have gone to both CES and MacWorld and at least gotten on the exhibit floors. This is also one of the very few times I would actually be able to attend either conference.

The problem is, between rent and COBRA, I'm burning through my unemployment checks completely before the first of the month is even over, and every other expense I have comes straight out of savings.

So burning $40-50 on admissions fees per conference plus approximately one billion dollars per tank on gas (just over two tanks to Vegas and back, more like three to SF) is not really in the cards.

I tell you, it is going to kill me next week to be sitting here, knowing that I could have been in San Francisco groping the goofy gadgets I'm simply staring at pictures of, but my stupid fiscal responsibility is winning out.

Mmmm, Pointlessly Translucent

If you can read this, Leopard has been successfully installed on my computer.

I'll be spending my saturday night enjoying all the hilariously pointless translucence I can handle, because I am the most easily amused person on earth.

Shiny!

Unspotted

So as my fellow Mac nerds know, it's Leopard Day, and no, I am not in line with the rest of the fanboys.

Sadly, this is not just because I really needed to save the $45 the $20 off and $25 rewards certificate I had at Amazon bought me.

No, this is because I'm so busy from work overflowing into the weekend and three (three!) parties I have to attend to go installing a new operating system on my computer.

I rarely even have two things I absolutely have to do on the weekend, but I can think of at least twelve I have to do this weekend.

The fact that this week at work was insane on a level I've never seen before didn't help, as it's pushed several work things from the week to the weekend.

The bigger problem for my inner geek is that I don't think I'm going to have time to install until not next weekend, but the weekend after. The disc, which is arriving Monday, will just sit there and taunt me for two weeks.

Next weekend I'm dragging my ass to San Diego, to visit my mother who will be there attending a conference. And weekdays? Fuhgeddaboutit, I'm up to my eyeballs and then some with work.

Even if the writers' strike armageddon comes to pass (god forbid), I'm still not going to be out on my ass immediately enough to have the small consolation of being able to install a new OS, since we'll be filming for a week or two on scripts that would already be written.

So I guess I'm just going to be a sad Mac for a couple weeks while I go out and try to have a life.

Because I Have Already Been Asked Several Times

No, I am not getting an iPhone.

I had a very bad experience with Cingular in college, and even though it's now AT&T, you still couldn't pay me to deal with those assholes again, I don't give a shit if the iPhone turns lead into gold or whatnot.

At least I'm saving myself $600!

Happy Nerd Alert!

This is why you should not give nerds like me a new computer like the one that showed up on my doorstep two days early today. Because we will do shit like this:


The good news is, by running a benchmark test that compares the same stuff on both computers, the new one is 5x faster (got a score of 107 on the new one vs. 22 on the old).

Now, to finish reinstalling nine tons of software...

Shanghaied

Why is my new computer still bouncing around Shanghai tonight? Why is it not in my hot little bored little hands?

Oh well. At least it's in FedEx's hands now. I guess I'll distract myself by continuing my Shield marathon.

Edit: Yay, now it's in Anchorage! I'm going to drive myself crazy with this.

Indecision

I want to buy a new computer. I'd been planning to buy a new computer around now, until Apple pushed back the release of its new operating system, Leopard, from WWDC (which was last week) to October.

Common sense says I should wait the four and a half months it'll take for Leopard/iLife to come out, thus saving myself about $200 (129 for the OS, 70ish for iLife), and probably getting a slightly faster computer in October.

The extra 40 seconds it took that sentence to appear after I started typing it are making me think, "Fuck common sense."

The computer I have works great...on occasion. Other times it's so painfully slow I want to throw the fucking thing out the window, with one simple task sending it spinning into 20 minutes of total uselessness.

I can't add any more RAM (lower slot's blown), so that's not an option. And I still have several gigs free on my hard drive, so that's not the problem. The computer's 3.5 years old, so I think it's just simply old and tired.

Money at hand is not the issue. Again, I thought I was going to be buying a new computer now, so I saved and I have the money for a new computer now.

The inconsistency is what makes it hard to pull the trigger. If it were always awful, the decision would be made. But sometimes it'll work just fine, even for several hours.

The other reason it's hard to justify: Part of the reason I'm noticing all this is that I've been working from home because of my ongoing foot troubles.

Even if I were to order right now, I'll likely be back at work, where I have a much faster computer (than this one, the new one would be even faster than my work one), before I get much of a chance to use the new one.

Maybe I'm just being a cheapskate, though. The question is: Is $200 enough money to suffer through until October with my current computer?

After trying to write this post and having the computer seize up on me three times between writing and proofreading, I think the answer is no.

Edited to add: Yeah, I officially cracked. It'll be here either Friday or sometime next week. Yay!

A Minor Dilemma

I have a bunch of TiVo rewards points, since I'm such a TiVo-hugger that I've influenced several others to purchase TiVos. Crappily, however, these points expire after 24 months, and a bunch of mine are about to expire.

And so we come to my dilemma, what to do with my TiVo rewards points. Here are my options:

1. Drop all my points on an iPod shuffle, which I will then either sell on eBay (currently going for about $50-60) or find some random use for.

2. Use the portion of my points that are expiring on hilariously goofy TiVo branded slippers and save the rest (the rest will not expire for another 18 months, and I can put them towards things like...more TiVos).

3. Use the portion of my points that are expiring on a new remote with orange flames to match one of my guitars and save the rest.

4. Just let the points expire and stop filling my house with useless crap.

Being the horrifically indecisive person that I am, I keep waffling on which option to choose.

To put this to an end, I fling open the comment box and request your input: What useless crap shall enter my house next?

You Kids Get Off My Videogame System!

Now I know why I can't find a damn Wii: They're being snapped up by retirement communities.

Well, and everyone else and their brother, mother, sister, and now grandparents. The video that's on that story is pretty cute though, especially the 89 year old woman who hasn't bowled since 1945.

And It's SPECTACULAR

Well, it took four guys from the cable company standing around my apartment for an hour to get the two CableCards properly installed in my HD TiVo, but good lord, SPECTACULAR HD (™ Laz) is pretty fucking cool.

I'm watching the Lakers-Wizards game right now (ironic, since a) I hate basketball and b) I hate DC even more), and the picture is absolutely unreal. You can see the individual beads of sweat on Gilbert Arenas as he comes up to the free throw line.

Nate came over earlier and The Empire Strikes Back was on HBO HD, and...wow. Darth Vader's helmet was so very, very shiny. You could count the individual hairs on Chewbacca.

I moved the new-old TiVo that had been in the living room to the bedroom and disconnected the old-old TiVo. I'm in the process of trying to find a home in L.A. for the old-old one (since I'd prefer not to ship it), but if I can't, you kids will get first dibs before I put it on eBay.

I also changed my TiVo naming scheme, since the old one was a bit too practical ("living room" and "bedroom" were the old names). Fixed that problem: The new-old TiVo is now Pinky, and the HD TiVo is The Brain.

Between this and my new Netflix subscription (Snakes on a Motherfuckin' Plane arrived today) I think there's a very real danger that I'm never going to leave my apartment again.

The 'Pod is Dead, Long Live the 'Pod

My trusty old iPod, which I bought about two and a half years ago, finally started succumbing to the daily drudgery of being carried in my pocket without a case about a month ago.

I waited patiently for MacWorld as it deteriorated further and further, but when no new standalone iPod* was introduced, I could justify waiting no longer.

And so it was, I walked into the shiny shiny Apple store yesterday and walked out significantly lighter of wallet with a shiny shiny new black 80gb 5.5gen iPod.

Yes, I know I'm a trendy schmuck for going with the black, but there's some trick of the eye that makes video look better on it, so I went for it. Plus: Shiny!

The best news that comes from doubling my music capacity is that I can now carry my entire music collection around with me again, something I haven't been able to do since I filled the my old iPod up three months after I got it.

I also now have a little free space to try these things the kids are calling "podcasts," so if anyone has any to recommend (I'm already subscribed to the NPR All Songs Considered one), please do.

Hooray electronics!

*- On the iPhone, I only have two words: Fuck Cingular.

Duly Noted

Sewing christmas lights onto a tie: Much harder than I thought.

The Anti-Crap Cam

I bought a Nikon D50 about a month and a half ago because really, I need some of the most advanced photographic technology available to take a picture this cute:


More photo phun is available at my flickr site. Chaplin's going to hate my guts very, very soon. Especially once I get a macro lens and start in with the extreme closeups.