sundries

[rm]

- The historical ball gender thingy transpired without incident. Various people saw me and said "George Sand," and I smiled and nodded as this makes my existence historically acceptable.

I was glad that we could attend the event and also feel, at this point at least, that we could against next year. I remain internally deeply ambivalent about the gender/queer thing situation for reasons that are alternately too complicated and too boring to get into.

- In fact, being away this weekend was an absolute godsend and something we both totally needed.

- Too bad the return home has involved a clogged toilet, the previously posted about leak, and a good deal of cat puke. All of thise situations seem to have subsided for the moment. Real life is hard, and it has made me innordinately stressed out.

- To update on the leak sitaution, the boiler has cycled on again, but no more leaking for several hours. It just started again, now as the boiler is cycling off it seems.

- OMG, why does iTunes have none of hte music I want right now?

- Firefly! So that thing where Mal gets a wife? wow, that could have gone in a lot of different directions. Probably the most satisfying episode so far, and with a lot of odd character reveals. This goes on my list of "watch this show to learn how to structure/characterize."

- So I am thinking of buying a laptop sometime between now and mid-January. I need your input.

I am trying to decide between getting a Mac (anyone with info on timing because of impending new releases, let me know), a random PC netbook, and an actual proper PC laptop. There are pros and cons to all for me. My main needs are the Internet and word processing. Secondary needs are Excel, possibly Access. I use photoshop a lot, but realize that's a problem on Macs and will probably just continue with that on my old desktop. Ideally my budget is 1K or less. Obviously if I go with a net book type thing I want to spend a lot less, and I might conceivably push my budget for $1,400 for a Mac.

Thoughts?

Comments

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

Re: Computers: I personally have a Mac, but I use a PC daily at work. Although I'm a Mac loyalist, I've been toying with the idea of, when I have the money, getting a PC again (my first and only was my freshman year of college before it got destroyed by a dreaded worm), because as much as I hate it, I do realize the practicality of it. I'm not sure how using Photoshop is a problem on Macs, since that's what I have and that's what I use, but then I'm not familiar with the Windows versions of that program, nor do I know what you do with it. You can get Microsoft Office for Mac, and it does include Excel and Word, but there is currently no version of Access for Mac (which is the sole reason I'm really considering getting a PC, in the event that I might one day be able to do some work at home and not have to drag myself into the office on cold winter days). As for releases, a new notebook was just released, possibly a desktop as well, and it seems that Apple releases new computers every year or so, so no matter what kind of Mac you get or when you get it, it won't be too long before something newer and shinier comes along. Also, as much as I love the brand, I will acknowledge that with the notebooks at least (those are what I'm familiar with in recent years), there have been some problems. My last one, the iBook, had a logic board problem and I had to take it in three times. I've now given up on it. The current one (a MacBook I bought in early 2007), as far as performance goes, I haven't had any problems with, but there is a defect where the plastic gets breaks in it. This is covered under the warranty, however the 3 year extended warranty has to be purchased separately, and you have to call to activate it, and since I'm inherently lazy, even though I bought it, I have not done this step, as we found out was necessary last time, at which point I let my step-mother handle it by yelling at the phone operators at the help line.

Of course the upside of a Mac, that everyone mentions, there aren't nearly as many viruses as there are for PCs, and Macs are preferred for people doing graphics and music over PCs.

Re: Firefly: Are you just now becoming familiar with it? Christina Hendricks was great in that episode, and if you don't watch it already, I recommend Mad Men for more from her.