Archive for August, 2003

Quote

Sunday, August 17th, 2003

I don’t think you will be able to get out, Nehemiah. Jamie, in her first (of many) mis-rendering of my name
I’m very oblivious about my boobs. Shawn, after she “poked [my] eyes out” (according to Jamie) as Jesse helped her stretch

Florida 2003 Highlights

Sunday, August 17th, 2003

Driving back to Lynchburg was more stressful than driving to Tampa. I started after lunch so that Mark could rest. And by rest, I mean so that he could talk on his cell phone for over two-hundred miles. Between two cell phone charges, I was able to obtain information on the next exit moments before needing to change lanes. Driving blindly was only second to driving Interstate 85 North with a large vehicle during rush hour and road construction.

Without Ryan, the trip to Tampa lost purpose. Ryan was the antagonist of this story and without him, the road trip was a Shakespearian tragedy where everyone lived. Sure, there were comical moments and moments that entertained, but this audience member left the show indifferent. I appreciate Jamie, Jesse, Jessica, and Shawn for the good times and hilarity. Their company made Florida worth visiting again and I am genuinely grateful for the smiles they caused when I was so bummed about Ryan’s no show.

Microsoft Office for Mac

Saturday, August 16th, 2003

Microsoft recently reduced the price of Office:mac, making it reasonably priced. I will probably take advantage of the Office:mac / VirtualPC upgrade package. This advertisement appeared on my Yahoo! mail and I thought it clever enough to share.

Mac Eye for the Wintel Guy

Friday, August 15th, 2003

For all the Apple and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fans, SmallDog.com has the best advertisement campaign… ever.

Brandon Meyer for School Board

Thursday, August 7th, 2003

I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Brandon Meyer at Jazz Street Grill. The guy is going places. Launching JFSucks.com in Spring 2002 propelled the guy to instant popularity and generated an unprecedented buzz among students and teachers about Bedford County’s education deficiencies. Now he is taking action to resolve these complaints by running for the Bedford County School Board. I do not agree with his entire platform, but he has a passion and a lack of conflicting interests that his opponents (and the rest of the school board) severely lack.

Rachie-riffic

Sunday, August 3rd, 2003

Melanie and Rachel joined Ryan and me for the Friday Night Usual. In response to my upset tummy, Rachel brought me crackers and ginger-ale. What a sweet sista! She even provided everyone Breyers natural fruit bars for consumption during the feature presentation of O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

I first viewed O Brother, Where Art Thou? in San Diego. The fusion of humor and music to Homer’s Odyssey makes this one of my favorite movies. Being a plot junkie and literature nerd, the allusions and clever modern twists kept me awed with intrigue.

Ryan took a few shots of the gathering. Check out the sequence of me running behind Melanie where I was a blur in every shot while she remained mostly clear. I feel like The Twins in The Matrix Reloaded.


One Reader’s Response to my Defense of Switch

Friday, August 1st, 2003

I could not create e-mails better than the one below. Enjoy the hilarity!

Speaking about the unexpected, the Switch thing is starting to really become overboard, with the comments of your diary in mind. Some people may not even care, either. Sorry to say that, but honestly, it’s more likely that it’s now getting more disgusting than it is becoming interesting.

How does a campaign “get disgusting” when it has not changed since debut?

Okay, people are buying Macs. But now I’m starting to disagree on your commercial about the things that "don’t crash or freeze." They do. Try operating some popular expensive carbon-based and classic applications on a Titanium G4 (1Ghz/60GB/Super/10.2.6) or a Cube (450/120GB/Super/10.2.6), and without a doubt, when using stuff continuously around a routine, I am certain that you will revise what you said.

<sarcasm> Yes, I should revise what I said in an advertising campaign that is essentially finished because you use Quark or Corel or some other expensive, crappy software. </sarcasm>

Personally, Mac OS X has not crashed or frozen once since I installed Jaguar. Who the heck are you to demand that I revise my Switch testimony? ROTFLMAO

There is absolutely nothing wrong my hardware or software – I have an AppleCare certification to guarantee that, and I always keep my possessions in tip-top shape.

So you admit that nothing is wrong with your hardware and software, yet complain that things do not “just work”. This only leaves one explanation: user incompetence.

<sarcasm> Not knowing how to use your expensive software is the epitome of justification for suing Apple for false advertising! </sarcasm>

And don’t hold your breath for Panther, especially for the reasons which 10.3.1, 10.3.2, 10.3.3 will result. Not to add insult to injury or anything, but printing is much worse in any version of Mac OS X than it was in 9.2.2 when it comes to using my custom designed templates, fonts and designs to print stationary products. Most essentials that were stable in 9.2.2 don’t work at all in Jaguar.

Printing locally and via a Windows-based network is flawless on my end.

Please do not say "it just works",… anymore. :-/

IT JUST WORKS! IT JUST WORKS! IT JUST WORKS!

Let me assure you… you do not want to gain a less-than-desirable reputation throughout your academic career, hopefully not by this example, by being the geek who says EVERYTHING works when, in fact, they do not.

Actually, my statement was, “It just works,” (see above). I have yet to encounter a scenario where my Mac has not performed as expected. IT JUST WORKS!

Yes, you were on TV.

So?

And, so was I.

I object Your Honor! This information is irrelevant to the accused.

Consider a new, and fresh, worthwhile hobby that will last and stick out in your portfolio. People will like you more for it.

A hobby of being on television? that looks good in my portfolio? because you believe that I lied in my Switch testimony? Yes, you really should plead insanity.

Part 2: After my reply…

Items on your Power Mac G4 may continue to function because you most likely have not used it long enough to be using several applications processing at the same time.

Ah-ha! You have been spying on me, STALKER!

I would love to see your Dock. When developing a website (my profession), my Dock indicates the following are running: Mail, NetNewsWire, iChat, iTunes, Palm Desktop, Safari, Opera, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, OmniWeb, Virtual PC (Windows 2000 with IE 6 open), Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Calculator.

<sarcasm> But no, I am not multitasking. </sarcasm>

Once you start working on essays, presentations, and elaborate projects when you set foot in school, stability will be an issue in juggling several classes.

Tell me, how is your mental stability?

Also, don’t be surprised if your professors or administrators send you email file attachments day-in and day-out that you are unable to use, causing you to use a Windows machine at the public computer lab.

I receive hundreds of e-mails a week and have never encountered an attachment that I was not able to open. No, strike that. I was unable to execute those Outlook.vb macro viruses that were so popular last year in the Windows world.

I have seen more beachballs than stars, that it’s not even a day at the beach. These programs stop functioning, resulting in little to no productivity.

I have never seen stars on my Mac. I’m jealous. But why would stars be out during the daytime at a beach… on your Mac? ::confused::

Consumers, like yourself,

I know you didn’t…

use inkjets. Professionals, including my colleagues and I, use LaserWriters

Mini Me, stop humping the "laser". Why don’t you and the "laser" go get a frickin’ room? –Dr. Evil

for proofing and poster printers for elaborate design where the slightest color difference or font imperfection becomes a costly problem – this is the result from a transition in using the same carbon-based programs, contrasting 9.2.2 and 10.2.6.

I have worked on several spot and full-CMYK print projects in the past year. I was also the Editor-in-Chief for my school’s trophy-class yearbook that featured several of my elaborate layouts. Not too shabby for a consumer, like myself, who uses an inkjet printer at home to print grocery lists.

<sarcasm> And I agree that native Adobe PDF graphics technology and Quartz are such a step-backwards when compared to OS 9′s amazing graphics system from 1984. The sequels are never as good as the original. </sarcasm>

Print Center is slow, stability could be better, and is limited in the administration of preference settings in Mac OS X.

Have you ever pointed your browser to the CUPS admin at http://localhost:631/ in Mac OS X?

<sarcasm> I mean, Apple had to be crazy to use an open-source, highly documented, and widely supported printing infrastructure in Mac OS X. </sarcasm>

I never switched. I possess more computer experience than you do. I have started early at the age of two with an Apple //c. You are welcome to see Apple’s web page from MacWorld Expo New York 2001 for a brief clip about this. I never owned PC hardware or Windows operating system software. Therefore, I have nothing to switch back to. Since I was a toddler, I have owned and tinkered with a wide variety of Apple products.

ALL BOW DOWN TO THE MIGHTY MAC USER WHO WAS TOO BLIND TO REALIZE THAT MACS SUCKED UNTIL MAC OS X WAS RELEASED.

Sure, you may have a number of random people from France and Japan who are unfamiliar with the stuff you are promoting;

Uh, random? The only thing I offer to France is the backside of my… never mind.

it may not be effective to own a server and operate Mac OS X Server for hosting a few html and jpeg files.

Oh, you are referring to my switch from Linux to Mac OS X on my web server and my worldwide audience. I get it now. What you do not know is that I am also developing and hosting Java, PHP, WebObjects, and MySQL projects, in addition to my few HTML and JPEG files.

My studios are in New Jersey, and my storage agency is out in the middle of Silicon Valley. Likewise, your website was recently inaccessible for some quite amount of time.

You see, little Johnny, when the hard drive in your Sun Cobalt Linux Raq fails, all the web sites that were on that web server are no longer accessible to the world. And when you do not make money by hosting your blog and your friends’ blogs, you must justify spending thousands of dollars to obtain a new web server.

I decided to move to Mac OS X. Mac OS X Server is not yet ideal for a virtual hosting environment, so I tested supplementary server software. Tenon iTools accepted the challenge. The moral of the story is that taking time to do something right is better than rushing a half-assed job.

That is just sad if you agree the traffic being referred to was positive in June.

<sarcasm> Serving 20,000+ unique visitors in the past two weeks is practically nothing when compared to your website’s traffic. </sarcasm>

There’s more to life than to just write in your journal about the writing of your journal.

Such profound wisdom escapes you.

Although you have a right to your personal statements (I will not mention specifically), it may be wise to keep the public complaints clean;

Complaints?

a prospective employer or agency may question you, should they notice.

And we all know how questioning by prospective employers scares me…

Better yet, “if you don’t have something nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”

Yes, because the world is a better place when ignorant people do not speak. Good advice.

This email needs to stop now…

Good call.

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