Trying out and switching to Mac, ‘1000 Journals’, ‘Wonderfalls’
(posted from home)
(This post covers 1-8 August, 2009)
--------------------------------------------
Saturday, 8 August-
Today we set up the MacBook in Mocha Joe so Labashi could work with it as she will on our trip. She was concerned about the keyboard angle and we needed to test out our movie-viewing setup.
It was fine as is. The Windows laptop is an unwieldy thing which doesn’t fit well on our little fold-out table. But the Mac fits just fine and Labashi says the angle of the keyboard is no problem.
We also made some small improvements to Mocha Joe. My pill-box, for instance, has always been too small so I made another. I also found some straps to help retain the rolled-up window curtains. I’m not sure that’s a long-term solution but we’ll give it a try. Part of the fun of traveling in the van is having little ‘eureka moments’ about small things like finding just the right fastener or box to solve a problem.
I spent an hour or so on email to bring my brothers up to date on my meeting yesterday, then did my six mile walk.
That evening we watched ‘MI-5’ 1.3.1.
--------------------------------------------
Friday, 7 August-
Today I drove the Miata to Chambersburg to (hopefully) meet with the lawyer for Mom’s estate and work on some tax stuff.
I made it back home in time for my six miler and then we watched ‘Wonderfalls’ 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 (that’s season, disk, and episode).
-------------------------------------------
Thursday, 6 August-
I was on the web for most of the day today, mostly just doing everything I could think of to determine what else I may need for the MacBook to become a good laptop for Labashi. I still need to transfer her contacts list from her desktop, for instance, so I needed to research how you transfer from Outlook to the Mac mail system. I also spent some time prepping for a meeting with my lawyer tomorrow for my executor duties.
After I walked my regular six mile loop, we watched the first episode of a new series for us—‘Wonderfalls’. It’s about a young slacker woman who works in a gift shop at Niagara Falls. It’s a bit quirky but so far we like the feel of it. Will the writing hold up?
-------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 5 August-
I continued working with the MacBook Pro this morning, then drove the Miata to town to find a case. I found just what I was looking for in terms of functionality, a very well made Samsonite zip-sleeve, at Staples but they only had it two ugly colors. But I then found one in black at the nearby Office Max. And while in that area I dropped in at the Panera to see what the display would look like on battery power. My Windows laptop is so dim on battery that I have to find an outlet near a table and that’s not always possible, particularly if there are several other laptop users around. Also, my old display is highly reflective, so the bright windows of a Panera reflect back at me.
I was very happy to find the MacBook display is terrific. There’s no need to plug in, the webcam is built right in and needs no assembly or setup, and the display doesn’t reflect the windows back at me. Alrighty then!
Late in the day I walked my six mile loop, then we watched ‘1000 Journals’. This one is a documentary about a gentleman in San Francisco (he calls himself ‘someguy’) who, in 2000, created 1000 blank-journal books and gave them out, hoping to have them returned when full. The idea caught on and people lined up to be next in line to help fill up the journals. At the time of initial filming, only one of the 1000 had been returned.
--------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 4 August-
I spent most of today on the MacBook Pro. I installed and configured Skype, the Neo Office suite, and email. After some research on the web, I was able to get wireless printing to work to the printer attached to Labashi’s Windows desktop. Now THAT I didn’t expect. I also viewed video clips from the SD card from my little Xacti video camera.
Late in the day I walked my six mile loop. No TV today.
---------------------------------------------
Monday, 3 August-
Today I drove to the Mechanicsburg Best Buy to look at MacBook laptops. I spent a good two hours playing with several models, even using one to look for a better price than I could get at the Best Buy. I ended up deciding I’d go ahead and buy it now rather than deal with possible ordering and shipping delays, not to mention the hassle of filling out the rebate paperwork and hoping the site would honor it. Since the difference would have only been $60, I walked out with a MacBook Pro 13 in hand rather than wait for the one in the bush.
Back home I was pleasantly surprised to find I could start working right away. There’s no need to charge up the battery before starting to use it. I soon had it working on my wireless network and I installed all the latest software updates, then just explored.
That evening my exercise consisted of walking behind my mower for two hours, then we watched ‘The Closer’ 3.2.6 and ‘MI-5’ 1.2.2.
---------------------------------------------
Sunday, 2 August-
Today I took the laptop apart to re-seat the display plug. I have five vertical lines on the display, each only about a pixel wide. I don’t notice them when working in Word or my browser (currently Google Chrome) but they’re very noticeable when I try to watch a movie. Dells says the problem could be the plug or could be the display. It turns out they had a vertical-line problem with these displays. Last year they offered to send a new display to anyone who had the problem within the first three years of ownership. But of course my problem didn’t show up until the fourth year.
The instructions online were actually pretty good and I only have a brief moment of panic when it seemed I wouldn’t be able to get the hinge bezel off without breaking it. I did make it through the entire process of getting to the plug, pulling it, cleaning it, and re-installing. But I wasn’t all that surprised afterwards that the lines didn’t go away.
But I did have to complete that check in order to decide what to do next. Later that afternoon I had a nice, long video chat with Orat then walked my six mile loop.
That evening we watched ‘The Colony’, episode 1 and ‘MI-5’ 1.2.1.
---------------------------------------------
Saturday, 1 August-
I spent the morning updating and posting the blog to finish out July, then rode the Concours to the Best Buy in Harrisburg to see what they had in the way of netbook computers. I wasn’t impressed. Too small, too slow, too much of a pain to load software from a CD.
I was also hoping to see Apple Macintosh products but they only had one lonely little beat-up last-one-left MacBook. It seems the Mechanicsburg store has a selection of Apple products, not the Harrisburg store. But I did enjoy talking to Gino, a sales guy into Macs.
That afternoon I walked my six-mile loop.
That evening we watched ‘Weeds’ 4.2.6 and ‘The Closer’ 3.2.5.
********** END OF POST ********
(posted from home)
(This post covers 1-8 August, 2009)
--------------------------------------------
Saturday, 8 August-
Today we set up the MacBook in Mocha Joe so Labashi could work with it as she will on our trip. She was concerned about the keyboard angle and we needed to test out our movie-viewing setup.
It was fine as is. The Windows laptop is an unwieldy thing which doesn’t fit well on our little fold-out table. But the Mac fits just fine and Labashi says the angle of the keyboard is no problem.
We also made some small improvements to Mocha Joe. My pill-box, for instance, has always been too small so I made another. I also found some straps to help retain the rolled-up window curtains. I’m not sure that’s a long-term solution but we’ll give it a try. Part of the fun of traveling in the van is having little ‘eureka moments’ about small things like finding just the right fastener or box to solve a problem.
I spent an hour or so on email to bring my brothers up to date on my meeting yesterday, then did my six mile walk.
That evening we watched ‘MI-5’ 1.3.1.
--------------------------------------------
Friday, 7 August-
Today I drove the Miata to Chambersburg to (hopefully) meet with the lawyer for Mom’s estate and work on some tax stuff.
I made it back home in time for my six miler and then we watched ‘Wonderfalls’ 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 (that’s season, disk, and episode).
-------------------------------------------
Thursday, 6 August-
I was on the web for most of the day today, mostly just doing everything I could think of to determine what else I may need for the MacBook to become a good laptop for Labashi. I still need to transfer her contacts list from her desktop, for instance, so I needed to research how you transfer from Outlook to the Mac mail system. I also spent some time prepping for a meeting with my lawyer tomorrow for my executor duties.
After I walked my regular six mile loop, we watched the first episode of a new series for us—‘Wonderfalls’. It’s about a young slacker woman who works in a gift shop at Niagara Falls. It’s a bit quirky but so far we like the feel of it. Will the writing hold up?
-------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 5 August-
I continued working with the MacBook Pro this morning, then drove the Miata to town to find a case. I found just what I was looking for in terms of functionality, a very well made Samsonite zip-sleeve, at Staples but they only had it two ugly colors. But I then found one in black at the nearby Office Max. And while in that area I dropped in at the Panera to see what the display would look like on battery power. My Windows laptop is so dim on battery that I have to find an outlet near a table and that’s not always possible, particularly if there are several other laptop users around. Also, my old display is highly reflective, so the bright windows of a Panera reflect back at me.
I was very happy to find the MacBook display is terrific. There’s no need to plug in, the webcam is built right in and needs no assembly or setup, and the display doesn’t reflect the windows back at me. Alrighty then!
Late in the day I walked my six mile loop, then we watched ‘1000 Journals’. This one is a documentary about a gentleman in San Francisco (he calls himself ‘someguy’) who, in 2000, created 1000 blank-journal books and gave them out, hoping to have them returned when full. The idea caught on and people lined up to be next in line to help fill up the journals. At the time of initial filming, only one of the 1000 had been returned.
--------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 4 August-
I spent most of today on the MacBook Pro. I installed and configured Skype, the Neo Office suite, and email. After some research on the web, I was able to get wireless printing to work to the printer attached to Labashi’s Windows desktop. Now THAT I didn’t expect. I also viewed video clips from the SD card from my little Xacti video camera.
Late in the day I walked my six mile loop. No TV today.
---------------------------------------------
Monday, 3 August-
Today I drove to the Mechanicsburg Best Buy to look at MacBook laptops. I spent a good two hours playing with several models, even using one to look for a better price than I could get at the Best Buy. I ended up deciding I’d go ahead and buy it now rather than deal with possible ordering and shipping delays, not to mention the hassle of filling out the rebate paperwork and hoping the site would honor it. Since the difference would have only been $60, I walked out with a MacBook Pro 13 in hand rather than wait for the one in the bush.
Back home I was pleasantly surprised to find I could start working right away. There’s no need to charge up the battery before starting to use it. I soon had it working on my wireless network and I installed all the latest software updates, then just explored.
That evening my exercise consisted of walking behind my mower for two hours, then we watched ‘The Closer’ 3.2.6 and ‘MI-5’ 1.2.2.
---------------------------------------------
Sunday, 2 August-
Today I took the laptop apart to re-seat the display plug. I have five vertical lines on the display, each only about a pixel wide. I don’t notice them when working in Word or my browser (currently Google Chrome) but they’re very noticeable when I try to watch a movie. Dells says the problem could be the plug or could be the display. It turns out they had a vertical-line problem with these displays. Last year they offered to send a new display to anyone who had the problem within the first three years of ownership. But of course my problem didn’t show up until the fourth year.
The instructions online were actually pretty good and I only have a brief moment of panic when it seemed I wouldn’t be able to get the hinge bezel off without breaking it. I did make it through the entire process of getting to the plug, pulling it, cleaning it, and re-installing. But I wasn’t all that surprised afterwards that the lines didn’t go away.
But I did have to complete that check in order to decide what to do next. Later that afternoon I had a nice, long video chat with Orat then walked my six mile loop.
That evening we watched ‘The Colony’, episode 1 and ‘MI-5’ 1.2.1.
---------------------------------------------
Saturday, 1 August-
I spent the morning updating and posting the blog to finish out July, then rode the Concours to the Best Buy in Harrisburg to see what they had in the way of netbook computers. I wasn’t impressed. Too small, too slow, too much of a pain to load software from a CD.
I was also hoping to see Apple Macintosh products but they only had one lonely little beat-up last-one-left MacBook. It seems the Mechanicsburg store has a selection of Apple products, not the Harrisburg store. But I did enjoy talking to Gino, a sales guy into Macs.
That afternoon I walked my six-mile loop.
That evening we watched ‘Weeds’ 4.2.6 and ‘The Closer’ 3.2.5.
********** END OF POST ********
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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