My First Month on Mac
I’m currently typing this on my Linux-based netbook, but my home desktop experience is now mostly a Mac affair. I’ve really enjoyed it so far, so I thought I would talk about what programs have really made me happy with the whole experience.
First off, the entire setup process was super easy. With Windows and Linux, I’m used to at least two days of interface and program installation and tweaking. I simply plugged my mini in, turned it on, did my “mac dance” ritual during the opening video, went through the initial setup, and I was done in no more than ten minutes.
It also goes without saying how cool it is that they give you gobs of software for free with iLife. Even though the programs are not anything really special, they’re very useful and fun to use. I can’t wait to play with Garageband to eventually make a podcast.
With the money I saved by buying the mini on sale, I also purchased iWork. I haven’t really played with Numbers, but Keynote and Pages are great. It take a while to get used to the interface, but once you do it’s a pretty powerful office suite. Still no comparison to Microsoft Office, but still pretty darn good. It’s also nice that Helvetica is the default font is Pages. Now every paper I write looks like a Target ad.
I’ve also added some freeware I’ve always heard about to my Mac. Some good, and some not-so-great. First, I’ve always heard folks raving about Quicksilver, a application launcher that you use via the keyboard. This was almost my first freeware download on the Mac, and I found it fairly disappointing. I just find it quicker to get to my frequently used programs via the dock. I guess I just think more visually. I’ve never been really into keyboard shortcuts.
For NaNoWriMo, which I’m currently failing miseribly at, I tried several different programs. I finally settled on WriteRoom, since it has zero distractions from my writing. All it is is a black screen with green text. You simply type. Really cool. Only thing is that it’s a 30-day demo, with the full program costing $24.95. I understand paying for software that’s as good as this, but $24.95? For a black screen with green text? Give me a break. I probably won’t be purchasing this after the demo is over.
As for music players, it’s been kind of difficult. I’ve always hated iTunes, for either Windows or Mac, because of the almost communist nature of how it wants to control every aspect of your library and music player. So, I decided on trying Songbird. Songbird was pretty good for an open source program based off of Firefox, but it’s tragically lacking in podcasting support, and it also grabbed my entire music library and renamed every last file. Turns out automatic library management is turned on by default. Awesome idea, Songbird team! Good thing I had a backup! I have now switched back to iTunes for the moment, but I hope for something better to come along soon that allows for adding my music library that resides on my Linux server without fucking it up.
Other than those programs, I’ve also installed Celtx for future screenwriting, and the obligatory Firefox install.
Overall, my experience so far has been great. I feel that once I put more memory in this guy, it’ll be even better.
Movin’ Along
The television portion of my RTVF class ended this week. It had to have been the most fun I’ve had at college so far. I learned so much and met a lot of interesting people. Hopefully I’ll get my copy of the projects next week so I can post mine up on here.
Went to Frisco last night to pick up a copy of Snow Leopard. Sure, I could have bought it at Best Buy, but I also didn’t know that there wasn’t a student discount on OS X. Even without a discount, the new OS still only costs $29. I’m still hesitating on taking the plunge today, though, since I’ve seen some pretty obvious, even hilarious, bugs on some Macs at work that shouldn’t have even made the RTM release.
For example, we received two brand-new 13″ MacBook Pros to prepare for use at work. They came with Snow Leopard, of course, and they all had one strange bug in common. In Spotlight, whenever you searched for a particular program, in this case Terminal, the results would show up in Chinese. Chinese. The default language is English out of the box. However, when we changed the default language from English to Standard, the problem was solved. Weird…
There are also some very frustrating changes to the interface, as well. Most notably the Macintosh HD desktop icon, a mainstay of Mac OS systems since at least the early 90’s, is gone by default. They’ve added a shortcut to the applications folder onto the Dock, but it still doesn’t replace that friendly little icon that gave me quick access to Finder. I know that there is a way to turn it back on, but I wasn’t there when my co-workers figured it out, so it is still a mystery to me.
Another thing we do frequently at work is add Macs to our Windows domain. Before, this was a easy as going to Applications > Utilities > Directory Utility. Not anymore. They’ve hidden Directory Utility deep in the bowels of the User Accounts configuration menus in System Preferences. They took something that would normally be simple and proceeded to bungle it up. I don’t think they even changed the program at all; they just made it harder to get to.
Given all of the problems I have with Snow Leopard even before installing it on my own machine, I have to day that my Apple Store experience in Frisco was very pleasant. I had never actually bought anything at the Apple Store before hand; I just browsed and looked in awe at the shiny new machines sitting on their birch veneer tables. I’ve always been pleased at the no-pressure shopping environment. I can do anything I want to those machines because they know that it will eventually lead to a sale. For me, it did, just at a Campus Apple Store, instead. I was really happy that I could just pick up the software, go to the nearest dude wearing the pretentious and uncomfortable-looking nametag, and he could check me out on the spot with his handheld point-of-sale system. Pretty painless. The only negative thing about my visit was realizing that they still charge $60 for the mac version of Sim City 4. Fucking nuts for a game made in 2003.
I’m way behind in the NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve got just a bit over 4,000 words. I should be near 15K. Oh boy, wish me luck.
Commemorative Swiffers
I have written the script for my TV spot for RTVF class last night. It took all of twenty minutes to create an ad for the Special Golden Special Commemorative Edition Barack Obama Swiffer Sweeper. It’s mostly just silliness, but the technical aspects required are all there, so it serves the purpose.
I also bought my first mac this week. No, it’s not one of the new ones, but I got the previous-gen mac mini at the UNT Bookstore for a steal. The sale discount plus my Apple student discount made the final price of the entry-level machine $459. With the money I saved, I bought iWork and a new printer. Everything worked perfectly out of the box, and I’ve been pretty satisfied so far, but it could definitely use some more memory, since the base model only came with 1GB.
I’m also gonna give NaNoWriMo another shot this year. I hardly even got started last year, but now I’m trying to build on a completely new story, kind of like a Kinky Friedman novel, so hopefully it works out. They’ve also raised the word requirement to 50,000 words. It’s gonna be a hell of a challenge.
Classics
I don’t think I’ve made this confession before on teh interwebz. I like old music. If it was made before the 90’s, there’s a good chance I’ve heard of it and enjoyed it. Anything after ‘99? Fuggedaboudit. I either don’t know what you’re talking about or I’ve heard them and think they’re untalented hacks. Seeing as though I’m 19, this doesn’t make any fucking sense. But, I’m proud of my more “classical” tastes.
I own a turntable that regularly plays the great albums of classic rock. The only other tuntables I’ve seen anyone my age own play shitty hipster/screamo albums made on shitty vinyl by six-year-old children in Korea. I regularly go to my local used bookstore and almost always buy a used vinyl. My purchase could range from Little Feat, to Robert Palmer, to Billy Idol, to Sade. Yes, fucking Sade. My MP3 player can shuffle from Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden to Smooth Operator just as easily as it can shuffle from Eric Clapton to Hall & Oates. That brings me to another thing.
I have almost every Hall & Oates album in either digital or analog form. I even have their piece of disco excrement X-Static. I don’t know why I like them so much. Steely Dan is the same. Almost every album. Fleetwood Mac, too. In my defense, I prefer the pre-Stevie Nicks era Mac. Bare Trees was a much better album without Nicks’ sheep-like vocals. But I digress.
I always wonder how I got this way, and I think it was because of my Mom. From birth, I only listened to classic rock. On the way to elementary school, the radio was tuned to Q102, later, KZPS, and for an incredibly short time, Country station KSCS. That’s how I became somewhat acquainted with the Country genre, but it also helped me learn to hate Country music. My mom still quizzes me to this day on who did certain songs. And I always answer.
I shocked some of my high school’s football coaches when I brought up Huey Lewis. He loved Huey Lewis. We proceeded to listen to Huey Lewis in the equipment van on the way to a game. He asked me a question he thought I couldn’t answer.
“What was the band Chicago called before they were called Chicago?” he asked.
I replied, almost without thinking “Chicago Transit Authority.”
His mouth was agape.
But all this still doesn’t explain why I enjoy 80’s pop. I guess I’ll never know. I do know that I’ll leave you with this:
That’s A Wrap
Filming of our RTVF project went very well last weekend, and editing went smoothly too. It’s officially a finished product. My partner and I were really happy with how it came out. After we show it in class, expect a YouTube link here pretty soon.
I’ve also noticed that I’ve fallen into a blogging rut. It seems that Sundays have turned out to be a pretty good day to do this. A day that I can just sit at my local coffee shop and take a big brain dump, for lack of a better term, on the interwebz. This is a rut I think I can stick to.
I’ve been contemplating purchasing a mac mini fairly soon, since my classes later in my RTVF career will most likely require expertise in Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and the other media-type goodies exclusive to the mac. I’m not really looking to use such programs on this mac, but I just want to get myself more familiar with the OS X interface and such so I don’t look like a retard when I go into the editing labs. It would also help me greatly in my computer support job, as well, since it seems like we’re getting more and more macs. I’ve been thinking that the base model mini with a 4GB memory upgrade will be plenty. For big-time storage, I can just dump crap on my Linux box over the network.
This afternoon should be busy, since I have to finish many different activities to finish my Spanish “portfolio” due tomorrow. I need to watch one movie, read three Spanish articles, write brief summaries about the movie and the articles, and rewrite a past Spanish composition. I hate this stuff, but thankfully it’s not too bad. For the next portfolio due, I want to find the Spanish movie where the dude jumps off a boat and directly into a shark’s mouth. Anyone have the title of that film?
And now, on with the rest of the day.
Here Comes the Sun
Sunny this Sunday outside the Jupiter House window. Everything is looking good for the week ahead. I have collected buckets for my RTVF project, so with a little pre-production this week we should be ready for filming next weekend, with all of the following week to edit. We’re in a pretty good position now.
I also nabbed a copy of the new remaster of The Beatles catalog. One word…awesome. The technicians definitely knew what they were doing with this master. I also played the new Beatles Rock Band game earlier this week, and I was equally impressed. Not only was it a great way to experience the history of The Beatles, but it was also a great improvement of the Rock Band user experience. I especially liked the new way to switch from right to left hand settings. No longer do you have to press start as soon as the song starts or scrolling through all of the settings and wasting time. You simply just press back before a song, and you’re there. As a lefty, I have to say that not only I’m happy, but so are all of my right-handed friends.
Continuing my bank switching saga, I can now announce that everything has been started, activated, transferred and configured with my new Bank of America account. I have to say that it’s been pretty good so far. I especially like the fact that the ATMs aren’t stuck in the ’90s. Never before have I had a bank that allows me to never step into a branch. THE ATM CAN DEPOSIT CHECKS! I know many of you may take this feature for granted, but my mouth was agape at that first ATM visit.
Now I will continue my day most likely by watching episodes of Little Britain on Netflix and playing some Tiger Woods.
Rainy Reflection
The reunion was fun this year, with most of the same stuff happening as every year, only with the most perfect weather imaginable. The only solemn part of it was when we visited my grandmother’s grave in Stamford. I still miss her, and it’s hard to believe that it’s already been more than a year.
It’s a cool, rainy day here in Denton this morning; same as yesterday. I had a very productive meeting with my RTVF partner yesterday about the film we are assigned to make in the next three weeks, and I think we have a pretty good thing going. Basic, easy, a neat story, and exceptionally low budget. I think all we need is a bucket…
I’ve also reached a milestone in my life away from home. I have just racked up my first library fine. I now owe the City fifty cents. Can this keep me from having to do jury duty? Let’s hope so.
I’ve been running pretty tight on cash the past few days, since my last paycheck was just a little over $100 and the beginning of school means a lot of extra expenses. I’ve also opened a new bank account at Bank of America, since my credit union removed their ATM from the UNT student union. I e-mailed them asking why this happened, and they said that the University had made their yearly renewal process longer and harder, and that they didn’t get enough business with that ATM. The woman who responded to me, who turned out to the the Senior VP of Marketing and Customer Relations, then asked me to recommend anything the Denton Area Teachers Credit Union could do to better serve members on campus…
Gee, I dunno, maybe PUT AN ATM ON CAMPUS?!! Seriously, you should have enough balls to fill out a little extra paperwork. Because of their laziness, I have now switched to a bank that has around 18,000 ATMs and branches, instead of 5 ATMs and four branches spread across the county. I’ll still keep my account open at DATCU, just in case I need a lower-interest loan, but that’s it.
Now that I’ve let myself vent for awhile, I guess I need to head home and tidy up.
The Start
Started my third semester here at UNT this past Thursday. My classes so far don’t seem too bad, apart from Physics, which I suck at already and the fast-talking professor and the open lab format (you go on your own time) won’t help either. Other than that, I should be fine. Our Spanish teacher is really nice, and Government should be a breeze.
The only class I have yet to go to is my last Radio, TV & Film pre-major course. I’m not too worried, but I do hope I get a good partner in the film production portion of the course. I’m really excited about the audio production portion of it, though, since I had so much fun helping a friend get his radio spot made.
I filled out a volunteer form at our campus radio station, KNTU 88.1, but they have yet to call me. Maybe I’ll ask them about it this next week. I would definitely love that.
Coming up this next weekend is my family reunion in Lueders, TX. Well, it’s more of a distant family reunion, since the majority of the family is that of my great-grandmother on my mother’s side. It’s usually pretty fun; watching hillbillies drink and shoot guns while our section of the family just drinks and laughs. It should make for quite a bit of fun. It’s also in the middle of nowhere, so don’t expect one of my sunday writings next week.
The Best Memorial Tattoo Ever
This tattoo seems to be making quite the voyage around the internet this Monday. This rendition of a Super Nintendo controller is in memory of the recipient’s grandmother. A very touching memorial, indeed. Click the pic for a more detailed description from Fuck Yeah, Tattoos! (WARNING: preceding link contains sporadic NSFW photos. Linked picture above SFW.)
The Lazy Week
It’s been a good vacation this week with golf, bike riding, shopping, dining, and generally vegging out for a week. I feel like I’m ready to take on work and the upcoming semester with renewed vigor.
Only one thing stood out this week as a harrowing experience. I went to bed Friday night at around midnight to the beeping of what I thought was a clock radio going off in another apartment. One hour later, I awoke to scuffling on the balcony and red lights coming through my window. I shot out of my bed, put on my flannel pants, and went outside. Turns out that the person living in the apartment directly above me had left something on the stove, causing it to smoke and smell awful. After talking with my neighbors about it, the firemen left and I went to bed.
The next evening, a friend and I were going to play video games at my apartment. We pulled into the parking lot, got out, and I immediately heard the smoke alarm that I thought was a clock radio the night before. We immediately went up to the third floor to investigate. The sound was originating from the same apartment as last night, and we could smell something burning. We tried to peek in through the windows, trying to see if anyone was inside. All I could see was smoke. We started knocking on the doors of the surrounding apartments to warn them of the impending doom that was about to commence on our humble little roach motel. The man I warned was quite friendly, and we started knocking on the smoking apartment’s door. My friend, on the other hand, was being chewed out by an Asian college student who was quite annoyed by being interrupted from her Calculus studies.
Finally, after knocking and banging on the door, a man fumbled with the lock and opened the door. Smoke poured out of the 425 square foot rathole, and the man reset his alarm and turned off his stove. He was obviously under the influence of weed and/or speed, and he said he had slept through the whole thing. After asking if he was alright and warning him not to do it again, we went back to my apartment and went on with our business.
Hopefully that doesn’t happen again, and the methhead just buys a microwave to cook his Dinty-Moore stew.
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