On Top of the World

I got a very pleasant surprise at work on Thursday when my iMac arrived! The estimated delivery date had been October 3rd, so I was very happy to have it early. I spent all day wanting to go home to play with it, and I also debated skipping the course I had that night. In the end I was good and went to my course, because it was the last lesson of term and I thought I should turn up.

I got home at 10 past 9, but had to wait until 9:30 to do anything because M wanted to be there when I set it up and he was watching something on TV. After the show had finished, we took the iMac upstairs and I disconnected my computer and cleaned off my desk to make room. I must say that it looked quite impressive sitting on my desk, and the power cable that plugs into the monitor even had a little round bit around it so that it sits flush with the back of the screen. Classy. A little while later it was all set up, and it was time for the big moment.

Me: “Are you ready yet?”
M: “No.” <mutes the tv and stands beside me again>
Me: “Are you ready now?”
M: <pause> “No.” <turns off the light so we’re standing in darkness>
Me: “Now are you ready?”
M: “Yes.”

I reached behind the screen and turned it on. Ooooh. Aaaaah. A beautiful, illuminated screen and a nice startup sound greeted us. And it even has a cool glowing light that shows up through the front casing when it turns on. I went through the setup process, and just when I was debating the level of personal information to put on the registration screen, it happened.

M: “If I had some bad news, would you want me to tell you?”
Me: “I guess.”
M: “You won’t blame me for ruining your night?”
Me: “No… what’s it about?”
M: “The computer.”

Uh oh. I tried to guess what the problem was.

Me: “They didn’t do the modifications?” (I upgraded the memory from the standard amount provided)
M: “Umm… I don’t know.”
Me: “Is there a dead pixel?”
M: “Yes.”
Me:

He showed me where it was, and sure enough there’s a bright green pixel there, and not in an inconspicuous place either. Bummer. I didn’t go any further with the setup as I didn’t think there’d be much point if I had to take it back. M said that turning the computer off and on a couple of times might fix it up, and we tried it although I wasn’t expecting anything to come of it. Nothing did - the pixel was still there. So that put a dampener on things.

We left it for the rest of the night, and M said he’d call Apple the next day to try to get it sorted out. When he called them, he ended up speaking to 5 different people, and the outcome was that it was Apple’s policy that they wouldn’t replace it for a single dead pixel. M said that for the price we paid, we have the right to expect that it’s going to be perfect straight out of the box, and that their policy wasn’t particularly good for their word-of-mouth reputation, but the person he was talking to didn’t care.

So that didn’t go very well, but it’s not over yet; we still have a couple of avenues to explore. It was pretty disappointing though, because it does look pretty cool, but now I know that pixel is there I can’t help but look at it. And for the money I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect everything to be perfect. I turned it on one more time when we got home after work yesterday just in case the bright pixel had magically disappeared, but it hadn’t, so we packed it back up and there it has stayed. So instead of being able to say that this is my first post from my shiny new Mac, I’m still using my old computer. Hopefully something good will happen next week and we’ll be able to get a replacement, but until then it’s just sitting in its box, teasing me with its coolness.

Aaaahhhhh, it’s a tough life being a cat!

Back again.

We had quite a busy weekend. On Saturday we went to see 49 Up. For those of you who might not know, this started as 7 Up in 1964, where a group of 7-year-old children were interviewed about their lives and what they hoped to do, and then every 7 years they were interviewed again to see what they were doing. So now they’re all 49, and since I’ve enjoyed the previous instalments I’ve seen, when I saw it on the cinema’s website I thought it might be good. I can’t remember the last time M and I went to the movies, so that was good as well.

So we drove into the city, got the tickets first and then went into Rundle Mall to look at a few things before the movie started. The ‘few things’ being the Apple store, as M wanted to see how stable the Macs are, running Windows. We didn’t think the new range of Macs would be there yet, but they were! I was pretty pleased because I ordered a 24″ iMac last week (it’s not due to arrive until October 3rd :(), and seeing the one they had in the shop confirmed that I had made a very good decision indeed. Mmmm. I also saw the new Nanos and iPods. Even though I already have a DAP, I’m sure I could find something to do with an 8 Gb Nano. I’ve been getting a lot of podcasts recently to put on my iriver in preparation for the trip to NYC. If I get 6 hours’ worth of podcasts, I only have to listen to it right through 4 times and I’ll be there. Gawd… I think putting it like that it makes it sound worse, not better. Why can’t Australia be a bit closer to stuff? Well, we are close to New Zealand, which is where we’re thinking of going for our next holiday, so that will be a much shorter flight.

Anyway, after we finished looking at Macs we walked back to the cinema. I enjoyed the movie, although I didn’t remember any of the people in it. When I told my mum later that night that I’d seen it, she asked several specific questions about what they were all doing - I have no idea how she remembered who was who! She couldn’t remember the names, but she could remember what some of them had wanted to do and asked me if they were doing it. Same with a woman at TAFE. I think my memory must be really bad.

There are a few movies on at that cinema that I wouldn’t mind seeing. They play a lot of movies I’ve never heard of before; it’s not one of the mainstream cinemas. Since I joined the movie club they have, for the next year I get 2 discounted movie tickets to any session, so that’s a good incentive to go a bit more often. Going on Saturday has almost paid for the membership already. No I’m not a tight arse, it just seemed like a good deal!

*****

On Sunday we went to a BBQ with some people that M knows and who I’d never met before. I quite enjoyed myself - there were 4 women there, and the wife of the guy who organised the get-together wanted all the women to go into another room to chat and leave the guys to talk about their ‘guy stuff’. I would have been happy staying as one group but didn’t feel I could say no. It was nice, but I’m not really much for girly chat. I suppose that’s a result of being in male-dominated environments since my second year at university. But it was a great afternoon.

I’d forgotten I’d taken this picture, and I was so happy to find it when I was trying to decide what to post this week. It’s the eyes from the entrance to Luna Park in Sydney (click for the full image).

When I looked up and saw this plane making its way across the sky, I thought I’d take a picture of it.

I couldn’t resist posting this photo - the best pancakes I’ve ever had (until we discovered this recipe), which I had in Galway, Ireland. I had them both mornings I was there, and they were so good that when we checked out of the hotel, I asked the guy at the reception desk to give our compliments to the chef!

By the way, the recipe in the link makes pancakes very similar to the Irish ones, so if you like pancakes, give it a try!

The last 5 days have been excellent. I really think that M and/or I should come up with an idea to make us squillions of dollars so we can retire, and I can spend every beautiful day sitting outside on the deck with a cup of coffee in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Working until you’re 60 is a load of bollocks. I could quite happily spend my days sitting outside listening to cars travelling to and from their destinations, and the sound of children outside at the school near us. Then I could go inside and potter around on the program I’m trying to write (which is pissing me off because the documentation for the IDE is rubbish), and sit outside again for a while to calm myself back down. Aaaahhh.

Unfortunately that bubble has burst and I’m back at work tomorrow. Boo. And I’ve got an assessment at tafe tomorrow night. Double boo. And one on Wednesday night! Triple boo.

The next thing to look forward to is the trip to NYC in November. The flights were booked a few weeks ago and today M registered to have my flight upgraded to business class from NYC to Sydney. We don’t find out until 24 hours beforehand whether the upgrade was awarded, so there’s a possibility I’ll be stuck in economy again while he boozes and snoozes it up in business. Quadruple boo.

I had no idea which photo to pick for this week’s theme, since I’ve taken so many photos from the car, but I eventually decided on this one, which I took on the way to JFK airport. We were getting pretty stressed because we’d been told at the last minute that our shuttle bus wasn’t coming for us, so we’d had to get a taxi and it didn’t look like we were going to get there in time. We did end up missing the plane, but fortunately got seats on the next one.