One PowerBook to Rule Them All

Man! That is a cheesy title, but I couldn't think of anything else.

Liz and I decided that we would split up the PBooks. She will be taking the 17" PowerBook 1.67 GHz because she spends most of her time at home. I will be taking the 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz because of all the travel I do. Essentially, I'll be taking everything of the 17" and deleting my profile for the sake of saving HD space - we're almost full!

I think this is pretty cool. I'm the one that lobbied hard for the 12" anyways. And I love to be able to walk around the house and throw it in the trunk of my car - it's pretty rugged. And when I save up for my new iPod (Nano or 5th Gen) I'll just sync it with my own iTunes.

I thought about putting a sticker on my PowerBook because of all the cool pictures on Flickr showing Apple hardware covered in stickers of all colors, kinds and ideologies. But when all is said and done I'm a huge fan of Apple styling so I'll be keeping it where it's at.

Sunday Night

It's Sunday night and the Spurs are playing (down by 5 last time I heard). I didn't do much today. I cleaned out the inside of my Accord and went to service at Ephrain's hall.

Next week marks the start of May 2006. I will be turning 30 this year. And even thought I'm hitting the big 'three oh', I'm still working on my birthday present list to give out to my friends and family. Why get presents that you don't want/need?

What's on my list? Surprisingly a lot of stuff for my car. I'd really like to take my care to Ming Auto Detail Center and get the inside of my care totally detailed. I would also like to do the exterior detail as well, but the inside needs it more. The poor leather on my backseats have been through hell and back since I've bought that car.

I'd also like to get one of those low-profile deck spoilers to put on my trunk. I think that makes the Hondas look real sleek.

I'd also like to look into getting a new phone. My contract with Cingular is up a week after my birthday so I'd like to look into either upgrading my phone or going with a new carrier. Right now I'm looking at Sprint/Next (both sides too) and Verizon. I've heard that Verizon customer service is bad and I've heard that Sprint coverage in SoTex leaves room for improvement, but Cingular has given me a hard time in the past so I realize no carrier is going to be 100% perfect 100% of the time.

*yawn*

I've had training in Austin for the past three days. E decided he didn't want to get a hotel room and stay in Austin for a couple of nights so we commuted back and forth every day. Fortunately the raging monsoon didn't come as predicted. I've always thought Austin is a cool town but I've heard that I wouldn't want to work there - especially as a 'BBS'. I thought it was cool and the other bankers I met were also very nice and seemed very knowledgeable and competent. I learned a lot and I think having attended these classes will help me in the future.

I watched The Collective the other night and thought was very cool.

I also watched Faster, narrated by Ewan McGregor - also very cool.

I think I'm going to switch out the clipless pedals on my Trek 2100 until I can re-learn the coordination needed to navigate busy streets with my feet "clicked" into the pedal.

I took both bikes out yesterday to decide which one I preferred - the road bike one out markedly. Maybe it was because I wasn't on a trail with my mountain bike, but I think I just like the speed and efficiency of the road bike.

Specialized Sirrus

Liz and I had dinner at the Jason's Deli in Exchange Plaza. After eating we stopped at Planet Bike to check out the Specialized Allez and Specizlied Dolce. Liz really liked the Dolce.

I noticed a hybrid Specialized Sirrus on a kinetic trainer. I started talking to Rudy about it and now I want one. I also want to put clipless pedals on my Cannondale F400 (All Mountain). I was thinking abou riding at Schnabel this weekend, but I doubt I'll get a chance. I have to take the Element to the dealeshiop first thing in the morning for an oil change.

Surfin' USA

I've watched both Riding Giants and Step Into Liquid (Liquid was better, no disrespect to Peralta) and I want to learn how to surf. Living in the middle of SoTex (South Texas) is not the most ideal circumstances to becoming a pro surfer, but now I'm willing to travel to fulfill this childhood dream of riding waves. I think when Liz and I finally do our honeymoon it will someplace where we can both learn how to surf.

DSC_3299
Originally uploaded by brrm.

Yeah, I want a MacBook Pro. But I'd also really like to have a TiBook. I've always had an affinity for the older, vintage Macs. Now that Macs are moving towards the Intel side and natively running Windows, I'm craving the original Mac OS 9. I want a machine that allows me to go super hardcore Mac.

Also, like a beat up Fender Telecaster or a dirty Harley Davidson, a well worn TiBook wears it's character the same way a broken in bomber jacket does. It has a certain personality of it's own. Because the pain on the top and sides could be so easily worn off from the constant rubbing of forearms on the surface of the computer every TiBook has it's own unique appearance.

Plus, you can't beat the fact that they are hella' cheap when it comes to computes. I guess because by todays standards they are hella' dated. But I think if I picked up a TiBook and carried that around it would be to celebrate the fact that it's not as fast as a McIntel or that the ports on the back wouldn't get through a single day in most people's offices.

Walking around with a TiBook is like driving a vintage MG convertbile. Yeah, it still gets you there, maybe not as fast and maybe not as comfortable, but with a whole lot of style.

Boot Camp

Windows XP on my macbook pro with Boot Camp
Originally uploaded by alienx.

Was John Dvorak right? Is Apple moving towards being the coolest Windows platform in the market place?

Or is this a big "Up Yours!" to Bill Gates from Steve Jobs? Is this a way of telling your competitor that you can do their product better than anybody else can?

I don't know.

I am wondering if this will bring more of the Windows people to the Mac side, but who wants them. Mac has always been "the other white meat" and Mac people like that about it. Sure, we're interested in all things techie and we want to play City of Villains too, but there is just something taboo about seing the Window's logo on the beautiful MacBook screen. It's almost like seeing pornography for the first time, you know what you're looking at is wrong and you want to look away, but the fact that it's wrong is also what's making it cool? If you know what I'm getting at?

Bottom line for me...I think it's very cool. I like the fact that I can keep my desk a Mac-space only and still be able to enjoy the few programs that Aspyr hasn't brought over to Windows just quite yet.

Since the daylight savings time switch my days have been dragging. Usually when we "leap forward" an hour, the days seem to go by much quicker - at least for the first week. Not this year! Quite the opposite. My work days have felt super long. It could be because this is a slow time of year?

Savaira sent me pictures of her friend's bridal shower - very nice! It's so odd to work with such attractive people. I hate to sound shallow, but I don't think I work with an "ugly" person. I've always kidded Ephrain that he and his friends standing in a group could pass for a Docker's ad. Anyway, best of luck to Sujata and her husband-to-be.

I caught a couple of segments of NBC's inventor show. That's interesting. It's like American Idol for adults with no obvious talent for performance. I don't think it will work, but it did keep my attention for more than a few minutes.

Ahh, I finally went into my storage shed and pulled out my two old bicycles - a Trek 2100 road bike and a Cannondale M300 mountain bike. The Cannondale is pretty much retired and I don't think I'll be doing anything with that one; I'm considering giving the frame to Ephrain for Jackie to use. Tomorrow I'm going to take the Trek to Planet Bike and have them give me an idea of who much it would be to get it in "like new" condition. I hope to be able to ride it this summer and I'll buy Liz the Specialized Allez one the guy showed me last time.

Today is my grandfather's 80th birthday. This year I'll be turning 30. He was 50 when I was born. My grandmother made fajitas. After dinner I watched part of Wife Swap and than I asked Liz to go on a walk with me.

Liz and I walked around the block. I pushed the stroller with Roman in it. I opened it up so he could look straight up into the sky. It was about 8pm when we started out but it was still light thanks to day light savings time.

I've spent most of this evening looking on eBay for vintage navy coffee mugs.