Entries from January 2006 ↓

Friday night I visited my friendly neighborhood Apple Store to check out the new iMac Core Duo. That’s the new Intel powered iMac, just so we’re on the same page. Yes yes, I know, Friday night at the Apple Store. That’s my exciting life. As soon as I walked in, off to my left was a table full of new iMacs. I stepped up to the one on the end and started playing.

First I quit out of all of the open applications and checked out the specs. I really wanted to get a sense of how the new iMac compared to my current PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8 GHz machine with 2.5 GB of RAM, so had to get a sense of how they measured up. My chosen iMac featured a 2.0 GHz Core Duo processor and 2 GB of RAM.

I spent about 45 minutes at the store just doing different things with the iMac. My experience consisted mostly of opening different applications (both Universal Binary and apps that had to run under Rosetta) and doing different basic tasks that I do during my day. The Universal Binary apps ran beautifully and fast. They launched fast and completed tasks much faster than my PowerMac. The old Rosetta apps, such as Photoshop and Office, were a little slower, but not unusable. The only problem I had was that Photoshop crashed the first time I opened it. Besides that it behaved quite nicely and ran fast and smoothly.

My initial experience with the new iMac makes me very excited for whatever other Intel awesomeness Apple has in store. It also makes me even more excited for when my MacBook Pro gets here in the middle of February. If you get a chance, I would highly recommend you visit your local Apple Store and check out the new iMac.

I am happy to report that I have just received an offer on the second article that I wrote for Associated Content. My wife and I bought an iHome iPod alarm clock, and I wrote a review of it. Even though it took a week, I just ten minutes ago received a whopping ten dollars for my wonderful review.

So, this is obviously not going to make me a millionnaire at this point, but it does feel good to have made $18 from just writing. Awesome.

Six and a half years after receiving my BA degree in Creative Writing, I have finally received my first paycheck for my writing efforts. Yes yes, exciting I know. Of course, seeing as how I have spent my first six and almost a half years since receiving my BA degree in Creative Writing not writing at all, I’d say that’s a pretty good record.

Sure it’s only eight bucks. But it’s eight bucks that I didn’t have before. And it actually proves that someone somewhere will pay me for my writing, and that feels good. In reality I probably should have received more for my efforts, but I am plenty pleased with my eight dollars. It will buy a delightful In N’ Out lunch one day.

I am quite glad that I have finally embraced my money-motivated nature. So far it seems to be working out just fne. And as sad as it is, if that is what it takes for me to write again then I’m alright with that.

I also want to thank the kind WritingUp member who mentioned AssociatedContent, as they are the reason for my first writing related PayPal deposit. Many sincere thanks.

Last week my best friend Mark and I decided that we haven’t been to enough rock shows lately, and started browsing the Ticketbastard…ahem…Ticketmaster web site for upcoming shows in our area. There were some shows that sounded somewhat interesting, but by far the most interesting and affordable was the Zebrahead/Goldfinger/Reel Big Fish show at the Avalon. This is my review.

The night started out with my lovely wife dropping us off at the Metro station around 5:30. Mark and I thought it wise to take the train so as to allow ourselves as much alcohol consumption as possible, and Meghan agreed and decided to play along, offering to drop us off and pick us up at the train station.

So off we went on the Metro Gold Line. After transferring to the Red Line, we ended up at the Hollywood and Vine station around 6:40, just in time for the show. We found a hot dog stand (a real American hot dog stand, the nice hot dog stand man told us) outside the station, and decided to have a kraut dog to soak up some of the booze.

Once we got inside the Avalon, Zebrahead had just started. We went straight for the bar and immediately our dreams of a drunken night were dashed. Six bucks for a can of Bud Light and nine bucks for a seven and seven. Ouch. At those prices there was no way either of us were going to get even buzzed. Bummer.

We took our seventeen dollars of drinks (that’s fifteen plus a two dollar tip) up into the balcony and watched Zebrahead for a while. They were pretty good, but seemed a bit off for some reason. Part of it could have been that they played mostly new songs and very few off of the two first albums. They sounded pretty good overall, but seemed somewhat uncomfortable with being onstage. Not like they had stage fright, just that they kind of bumped into each other a lot unintentionally and were a little awkward with the rock talk. That’s OK though, I still like their first two albums.

Eventually we decided to brave the bar again. We walked downstairs and bought another seventeen dollar round of drinks and walked back up to the balcony. On the way back up we walked by some guys that looked like Ted Nugent fans, and both mentioned that we noticed many older people up in the balcony (yes, we were some of them, but not the oldest of the crowd).

We ended up standing next to some of the folks in the older demographic (not too old, maybe ten years older than us) and eventually started conversing with them. Turns out one of their sisters was the manager for Zebrahead, so they had gotten in free and had backstage wristbands. They were very nice, and we talked for a while.

Then Goldfinger went on stage. They were simply amazing. The energy, rock talk, and stage presence were all right on. They really made me feel like I had missed some good Goldfinger music since the only album I own is the first one. Seriously, they were excellent. Blew Reel Big Fish off the stage, but that comes later in the story.

During Goldfinger’s set a few of our friends on the balcony had to leave to meet some friends for dinner. Since they were leaving anyway they gave Mark and me their backstage wristbands. They basically said “don’t make asses of yourself” in a nice way, and off they went.

After our second round of drinks and our awesome wristband luck we decided upon another round of drinks. Mark went off to grab the drinks and came back with the drinks and two tequila shots. Then we went backstage. To protect the innocent, and since this is getting obnoxiously long, our experience backstage was awesome, and went something like this:

Blah blah blah, drank Goldfinger’s beer, blah blah blah, friends with the security guard, blah blah watched Reel Big Fish from the side of the stage, blah blah blah, got super loaded on free booze, blah blah blah, high fived Reel Big Fish as they left the stage, blah blah blah, someone gave Mark a really nice poker set, blah blah blah, some random chick showing one boob, blah blah blah, had a GREAT TIME!!

The only problem with the night was that the last train left Union Station at 11:52PM. When we got there it was 12:15AM. So my awesome amazing understanding super cool wonderful wife came and picked our useless drunk asses up from downtown LA in the middle of the night. I told you she was awesome.

All in all, the rock show experience was excellent. I now remember why I love the rock show, and now must find more great shows to go to. I suggest you do too.

Well here we are, on the night of Mac Christmas. Santa Steve has delivered his exciting announcements, and now we Mac faithful are left to our thoughts. I am currently in the process of watching the keynote address from this morning, but have already read the news and articles about the new stuff. First a recap of my predictions, then an analysis:

Prediction 1: Intel-powered consumer-level laptops (iBooks)

My prediction: Yes
Actual outcome: No
My score: 0/5

Prediction 2: Intel-powered pro-level laptops (PowerBooks)

My prediction: No
Actual outcome: Yes
My score: 0/5

Prediction 3: Apple Plasma TV

My prediction: Maybe
Actual outcome: No
My score .5/5

Prediction 4: New Intel-powered Mac minis

My prediction: Yes
Actual outcome: No
My score: .5/5

Prediction 5: New iPods

My prediction: No
Actual outcome: No
My score: 1.5/5

Analysis

Yesterday I thought I was a Mac fan. I honestly thought that I understood how Steve Jobs does business. I thought I would be five for five on my predictions. Today I hold my head in shame over my one and a half measly point out of five. Oh well, a little bit of humiliation is a small price to pay for some amazing new products.

I had not even considered that Apple would decide to keep their current PowerBook line AND announce a new pro-level laptop, let alone rename their whole pro laptop line. What a great idea. Put a high quality, fast as hell pro laptop out for your early adopters, and keep the old standby available until confidence in the new product spreads and people dependant upon their technology are ready to make the switch (haha…I said “switch”). I really think the MacBook Pro will be a great product, and is certainly a historical step for Apple.

I am also really glad that Apple announced the new Intel-powered iMac. I figured they would stay away from the iMac since the new one is so new…but what a great idea to use the same box and put different guts in it? And all at the same price as the old G5 powered iMac. Excellent move.

I completely neglected the software aspect of the new announcements, which honestly are what make Apple, Apple. Podcasting updates for GarageBand (my personal favorite iApp), and PhotoCasting in iPhoto (beats the crap out of most photo sharing services out there in terms of usability for both the producer and end-user) are to me the most exciting new software announcements.

Steve has indeed done it again. Now that the Intel transition has begun, it will be extremely exciting to see what else shows up this year. I’m hoping for a Mini very soon, and a pro desktop possibly in the middle of the year.

Thanks for reading. Now go to apple.com and check out the new toys!

Liam

Good evening, and welcome to my new WritingUp blog. I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Liam. I am married to a wonderful woman. I am a card-carrying (OK, really creative writing B.A. degree carrying) wannabe writer. I hope that WritingUp will motivate me to write more, something I have sadly neglected since graduating in 1999. Holy crap, 1999. Geez, that’s a while ago.

I don’t want to tell you too much about myself to start out with as that would ruin the mystery, wouldn’t it? Yes, it would. You’ll learn more about me as I write, so let’s move on to the topic at hand. Sexy lifestyle choices.

What exactly is a sexy lifestyle choice, you may ask. I’m honestly not exactly sure. I came up with it in a drunken New Year’s Eve stupor. I spent the entire evening telling friends and other partygoers that making sexy lifestyle choices in 2006 is imperative. Fuck working out 8 times a week. Screw that idea of only breaking the speed limit by 15 MPH in 2006. And whatever other new year’s resolutions you may have, you should seriously consider abanoning them in favor of vowing to make sexy lifestyle choices.

Not knowing exactly what a sexy lifestyle choice is, I have put it to my friends to come up with some ideas:

1. Partying every Friday night at Popstarz. Thanks Jessica. And hell yes, that is a sexy lifestyle choice.
2. Being a better time and money manager. Hells yes, Meghan, that is a sexy lifestyle choice. And I love you for it.
3. Taking as many pictures with friends as possible. And sharing them. Thank you Mark, that sure is a sexy lifestyle choice.

You see, it can be anything from the crazy to the necessary. Whatever makes you feel sexy is a sexy lifestyle choice. If you like to party, the more you party the sexier you feel. But you also need to address the necessities. The better you take care of the things you need to take care of, the less stressed you are, and the more time and money you have to spend doing the things that make you feel sexy. And it is absolutely essential to photographically document your sexy lifestyle choices.

So go forth, my friends, and make sexy lifestyle choices for yourself! Best wishes for a sexy 2006!