My Love Affair With Apple Is Over

Awesomely, my less-than-a-year-old MacBook had hard drive failure last week. I took it into the Apple store on Monday to see if they could rescue any of my files from the hard drive and they were mildly sucessful, if mildly sucessful means they were at least able to rescue my major documents and news clips (all of which I backed up because I knew they were important), but were unable to get any of my music or photos off the bad drive (none of which were backed up yet because I didn’t think my GD computer would die after less than a year).

Now, I realize I’m an idiot for not backing up EVERYTHING on my computer. But seriously? A year and my computer dies on me? What the hell did I pay $1,200 for?! Anyway, because I replaced my computer recently (less than a year ago, in case you needed a reminder), most of my older pictures have already been saved to CDs and stored on an external hard drive. The only new photos I had that aren’t backed up are ALL of the photos Tony and I took while we were living in Paris. I hadn’t backed them up yet because there weren’t a ton of other folders in there screaming to be backed up. And so I have only the photos I uploaded to myspace to remind me of that trip. Yeah, that’s pretty sucky.

Also, I have NO music. Me being the type who loves to throw stuff out and give things away, thought it would be a brilliant idea to put all my music on my computer and then proceed to get rid of all the hard copies. Awesome. Oh, but they WERE kind enough to let me know that I could take the bad drive to a data recovery place and pay $1,000 to have them TRY to recover some other files. Because, you know, money grows on trees.

Needless to say, I’m super stressed out at the moment, and only have two stories due today on deadline, while I’ve been running back and forth to the Apple store so they can replace my hard drive and install the operating system, which awesomely (again) doesn’t include the fucking Office Suite. Writing two articles without Word is pretty much the best thing EVER.

I’m off to slit my wrists now.

UPDATE: Just before slitting my wrists, I checked my email and found out that my editor has an extra license for her copy of the Office Suite and is willing to give it to me. Yay for that! Boo for looking like an irresponsible idiot though. Also, one positive is that the new Apple operating system I installed has the awesome Time Machine feature, which (unsarcastically) awesomely backs up my hard drive EVERY HOUR if I want it to. All I have to do is keep my external hard drive plugged in whenever I’m at my desk. So, Apple, even though I’m SO over you, I’m coming back around.

 

Keeping Busy on the Internets

Everyone has their favorite time-wasters on the internet. I know I do, but sometimes I still manage to get bored. I feel like I’ve read it all, seen it all. I thought some of you might feel the same way, so I thought I’d share a couple of things that have been keeping my interest lately.

First, Diggnation. I’m so in love with Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose. Tony got me started on their show when I was in Paris and now I’m totally hooked. This is not something you can do at work though, since it’s a TV show. Sorry. I still think everyone should check it out though. You can download the latest episodes here.

Next we have Dooce, introduced to me by Leslie and Steph. I’ve been reading her blogs from the beginning (starting in 2001). I’m still not up to present day, but I’ll get there soon (I hope). I definitely recommend going back through the archives if you have extra time.

For those of you who miss having all the great shows on iTunes, you can now go to Hulu and watch them for free. And you don’t have to take up space on your hard drive. Downside, you are forced to watch commercials, but they are only about 30 seconds each. I think they know we internet people have a short attention span/ patience level with these things.

Another funny blog is Stuff White People Like. I’ve quite enjoyed it over the past few weeks.

And then there’s the usual standbys of StumbleUpon and Digg.

Oh, and of course you can check out my newest posts on The Nervous Breakdown or The Inside Cover. Heh.

Hope this keeps you all busy for awhile.

 

I can’t hide in the Internets anymore

Oh, man. I just got a myspace friend request from my youngest sister. I’ve been telling Tony lately that I really need to censor myself since more and more of my family is finding this blog or my TNB posts (My grandma wrote me the other day to say she’d found my TNB posts and I immediately started going through my brain file to decide whether there was anything grandma would be offended by. I decided no, but still). Anyway, with Kati on here I really have to be less belligerent. It’s just not OK.

Also, what is a 13-year-old doing on myspace? It says she’s 18 on her page and it’s open to the public?! I wrote her as soon as I saw the friend request and told her to IMMEDIATELY change her age and make her page private. I think I’m also going to have to call my parents and get her in trouble if she doesn’t do it. Myspace is no joke for young kids, but of course they think they’re completely invincible.

 

My Internet is broken!

I’m at the library right now between torture (aka being at my French family’s house) and picking up one of the kids from school. I hate it because I only have about five minutes of free time during the time when the library is open, but my Internet is broken, thus the no new blogs in the past two days. I’m super sad because my new blog will look untended if I leave it for too many days. I don’t know what happened to the internet, it just disappeared. We were actually stealing it from a neighbor, so maybe they cancelled their service? I don’t know.

Anyway, I’m super excited because I only have 15 more days of work before the French family goes on vacation! Woohoo! Then Tony’s cousin from Germany is visiting with her British fiance. We’re going to be SO international at our apartment. Heh.

Um, and is anyone else freaked out that the presidential campaign may be between Hillary and McCain? I don’t think I’ll be able to stand four more years of republicans, but if these are our options I’m afraid that’s what it’s going to be. By the way, I found this really great blog about why people should vote for Barack. Actually he wrote two. I highly recommend checking them out because he’s way better at expressing himself about the election than I have been lately.

Hope you’re all doing well. I’m so looking forward to hanging out with you all. Maybe we can get some Mexican food together when I get back?

P.S. Why is it always food that people miss most about a place?

 

Just got this and thought I’d share…

Seriously, junk mail today is so much more fun to read. Only, I wish people would learn to spell or use the correct homonym in a sentence. Just saying.

Here you go:

“It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. It is often difficult to paint a picture of someone with words, yet I believe that sometimes you can often perceive things about someone when you really pay attention. Can you remember a person from your past who caused you to feel absolutely wonderful, who could make you melt, just with a certain look. Perhaps they could just say something in such a way that caused you to notice incredible sensations through your whole being. Mabey you can even remember fun times and exciting experiences. Now, I don’t know weather or not I will totally remind you of those things, yet you may notice many of those characteristics in me. Now, I find that when you open up completely to that special place, deep inside, where all those incredible feelings and experiences just begin to happen, it’s just like when you realize that sometimes you can feel totally connected to a person naturally, as if destiny has created this opportunity for you now. Now, as you ponder on these things through out today, I don’t want you to write to me any faster than you can realize that when a person opens up to new, exciting and wonderful experiences, that is how meaningful experiences naturally occur. If you would like to know more about me, please write.”

Gotta love myspazz.

 

Someone up there hates me

Seriously, every time I get an extra dollar something expensive in my life has to break. I thought that was all over when I got rid of my car, but no. Someone up there really hates me because now that the car is gone, they’ve resorted to destroying my poor little laptop. Yesterday when I tried to close the lid on my laptop it made all kinds of cracking and popping noises. Turns out the hinge is broken and when I tried to close it the keyboard part started popping up to compensate.

I totally thought this was made out of metal for some reason (maybe because it’s silver), but it’s all plastic. It all just broke off in the back. So much for the screws, they’re still in there but the plastic broke and the screws aren’t holding anything together anymore. Cost to repair: at least $150. Fuckers. Whoever you are up there, I shake my fist at you! Do you hear me?!?!

P.S. I have a new Nervous Breakdown in case you didn’t see it already. Go check it out.

 

Do I Get a Cut? And Ego-Deflating Google Searches

I can’t help but notice that google ads have suddenly shown up on my blog.

For the record, I did not put them there.

MySpace, which apparently isn’t making enough money from their regular bombardment of ads, is now using google ads on blogs.

I realize MySpace is a free service, but seriously? You have to use AdSense in addition to the flashing, twirling, seizure-inducing ads already all over this site?

I’m a bit irked by this, especially because it tends to look like I’m the one with my hand out hoping you all will click on the links on this page.

And I don’t even get a cut.

Another MySpace mystery, and a bit of an ego-deflation for me, was found yesterday when I did a Google search.

I’ve been known to do a bit of Ego Surfing here and there.

Every once in awhile I’ll type in my name just to see if the real me pops up.

Usually the real me doesn’t pop up until about the third page of search results.

And even then it’s the college opinion articles I wrote, not my current news articles.

But yesterday I searched for an author event here in Sacramento.

I typed in “Sophie Kinsella Sacramento” and my MySpace page was the third search result!?!

So, I may not be famous, but the fact that I enjoy reading books by fairly well-known authors has given my MySpace more glory than all the sweat and tears (not really) I put into actual work.

Ha.

 

iLingo makes me sad

A few months ago I wrote about the iAccessory must-haves, and I finally bought one of them — iLingo. Only thing is it doesn’t work. First, it wouldn’t install. And, no, this was not me being a girl and not knowing how to install something. It gets stuck halfway through the process. It’s a common flaw with the software. Common enough that it’s the number one question on their support page. Worst of all: There’s no customer service number. Only a “contact us” link.

So I emailed them for my new installation package and it took four days and three threatening emails before they finally sent me the links. Got the links last night and did the install. Woohoo!

Nope, not really. Sure the program installed and the cute little words show up on my iPod nano, but no sound comes out! Grrrrr! I want to return it but I bought it off Amazon and it seems like too much of a pain to send it back. My recommendation: don’t buy iLingo.

 

The Video Game Dilemma

It’s been nearly two months since Tony moved in, but this week we have a newcomer to the equation: The XBox 360. Will the relationship limits be tested? I think yes.

I hate to be the cliche girlfriend and get pissed about video games, but Tony bought it Sunday and we’ve already gotten in an argument about it. I know the girls will feel me on this one and the boys will probably think I’m being typical. But the things is I’m not your mom and the XBox makes me feel like I am.

Asking if it’s okay for you to play video games while your friend is online already waiting for you puts me in a bad position. It’s like when I used to bring my friend home with me from school AND THEN ask my mom if it was okay. Hello?!?!!? What is she supposed to say?

Men, if you don’t want the video games to be a problem then don’t treat us like your mom and don’t marginalize us for a damn machine. If you make plan with us and you blow them off to get to the next level OF COURSE we’re going to be pissed. Don’t expect any different and we’ll be fine.

 

Bored at work?

If you haven’t noticed, I have a new button on my front page. It’s a link to my stumbles at www.stumbleupon.com. You can add this feature from firefox and whenever you find yourself bored (and have already checked your myspace fifteen times today) you can just click the stumble button and it will take you to a random website. From there, you can give it a thumbs up or thumbs down AND you can review it. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and thought I’d fill you all in on the greatness that is stumbleupon.

I bid you go forth and stumble.