In Smithereens, The Search For Affinity

Amanda here, reporting live from the Apple Store in University Village (U Village) . . .

I JUST BOUGHT SNOW LEOPARD!

woo hoo! I'm soooo stoked! A more efficient operating system for my beloved beauty of a laptop? Don't mind if I do! :D I've heard mixed reviews about it today so after I do all the install stuff, I'll let ya know how it all goes.

Wow!

So many things to report as of late.

1. I bought a plaid shirt!


I know what you're thinking, "don't they wear plaid in Texas?" Yes. yes they do. They also wear huge belt buckles, but that doesn't appeal to me either. And most of the time when they're wearing plaid, it's tucked into jeans so as not to defer the attention away from said belt buckle. It's so different wearing plaid up here in Seattle. There's such a hip vibe from the various stylings of the plaid top combo here. I've been wanting one for a while, and now i have one! And I REALLY like it! I've been on a yellow shirt kick as of late, so it's grand :D


2. Reading Rainbow is no more. :(


And my world slowly crumbles, as I can no longer roll over in my bed on Saturday mornings, turn on the TV and hope to stumble across a new episode that encourages me to

TAKE A LOOK, IT'S IN A BOOK, THE READING RAINBOW . . .

My voracious appetite for reading can be traced back to many episodes of Reading Rainbow. I can still hear the voice of the man narrating KNOTS ON A COUNTING ROPE. Alas, I shall simply have to make up for it by buying more books. . . so maybe it's not such a terrible thing after all.

Though I must add, having been a 'teacher' in various capacities and reading over essays with ATROCIOUS grammar and spelling, it does sadden me that an already crumbling education system doesn't have the outsourcing that is Reading Rainbow. Heck, I know some 25 year olds who could benefit from a few hours with Lavar Burton.


3. Snow Leopard is mine!


That's right, it's mine!! And I can't wait to install it! My Friday evening will consist of cleaning up (thanks to Don for sharing THIS article) and revamping my laptop and installing SNOW LEOPARD! I love my Mac! And I love all that my Mac can do! And if my Mac was a guy, I'd marry him! Alas, I shall simply have to hunt down a suitor who is as madly in love with Macs as I am. . .

4. My niece started Pre-K!

my 'babycakes' is growin' up *sigh*

For a while her parents weren't sure if they were going to "bother" with enrolling her in school and OH HAPPY DAY—they DID!! I cannot tell you how much I value education. Even if it is at a ghetto school in the projects. . . we'll work to get her to a better school soon! But for Pre-K, I'm pretty alright with it. :D

5. TV Premieres are just around the corner!!

Which ones have made my "TV Show Schedule?"
These ones:

(Bones)


(Lie To Me)


(One Tree Hill)


(CSI:NY)

Burning Down The House

Things are really heating up here in Seattle!

This morning I turned on the TV to watch the news (a rare occasion indeed) and the forecaster guy (i'm pretty sure that's the technical term for his position) was all sorts of excited and was like:

"And today, we may actually break a record! If we top out at 101 degrees, then we will beat the record of 100 degrees in Seattle from 1981!"

And never have I wished so much that i could reach my arm through the tv screen and smack that guy in the face. Seriously? That record breaking 101 is no bigee for this Texas girl, EXCEPT for the fact that, living in Seattle, most places here don't have Central Air, including my house. So my room is a sauna. I actually have to get a cold compress on my head before I go to bed to help me sleep. My little tower fan is working as hard as it can, but this heat is ridiculous. I so wasn't prepared for this. Oh well. At least my boss got me a box fan for my office today, so the shades are drawn, I got the big box fan running and two little mini-me fans. It's so nice to not be drenched in sweat. :D

In other news, I'm pretty bummed that Rachelle Lefevre is going to be replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard for Eclipse. :( Eclipse is my FAVORITE one in the Twilight Saga, and I was really looking forward to seeing Victoria's character step up her game into uber-fierceness. BDH just seems too sweet and innocent for the role. Especially after seeing her in Lady in the Water and The Village and in the Spidey movie. I know she's probably gonna get a lot of backlash from other Twilight fans, and to a certain extent, I feel sorry for her. But let's get real. Rachelle Lafevre is a fiercely bad mamma jamma and she really brings it to the character. I hope BDH can bring it as well.

In otro otro news, I GET TO SEE PARACHUTE AT A MEET & GREET/ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE TODAY!!

After work, I'm walking all 4 blocks to get to Easy Street Records to go see them and I'm so excited! They have an amazing sound and those guys are so funny! If you haven't checked out their website yet, you should. JUST CLICK HERE. I also get to go to their concert tomorrow night at The Crocodile and I can't wait! :D



Well my lappy toppy is in the shop. And it was funny, because Evan, the Genius Bar guy who helped me out was like, "Why did that other Mac Genius ask you to reschedule? That makes no sense. He should have just taken it in then and there." We were laughing so much at so many things, and we got to talk about macs and the upcoming stuff in September (which is when my apple care expires) and it made me smile.

I also got to have dinner with Cindy Jones, who is just such an amazing woman! She seriously refreshes me so much! I love being in her company. AND she made these pita pizza things that I've gotta get the recipe for! They were delish!

Okay well I will update again tomorrow and share some photos and such with you all! Peace!

Possession

So, I took my laptop to the Genius Bar, in hopes that they would be like, "Oh yeah. Well let's get this fixed." Instead, my computer played the perfect angel part and they couldn't reproduce the constant error message that has been popping up for the past week. And by constant I mean every 3 minutes, and once it pops up, I can't do anything else until I CLICK okay. :(

So I made the appointment, went to the Genius Bar and since I didn't have my iPod Shuffle dock with me, he was like, "Well it might be the dock. So reschedule an appointment for the Genius Bar and bring the dock back." So now I get the *privilege* of picking another evening time slot where I can take the 1 hour bus trip out to University Village, go to the Genius Bar, and spend another 40 minutes on the bus ride home. And I even spent the night before backing up all my data on my external hard drive!

I think what made me the most upset was that this message has been popping up so much and like, at random times, so it's highly unpredictable, but still a pretty big presence on my screen. . . and the minute I take it in to the "doctor," it's fine. Just peachy.

It's like this:

Exhibit A> my computer in my home environment:



and Exhibit B> my computer when I take it to the Genius Bar to get fixed:



unbelievable. Thanks, lappy toppy. You made me look dumb. :(

i seriously walked away feeling like this guy:

Crashing

Because your music education is all I care about.

. . . well that and a lot of other things.

Here's the music video release for the song SWIM by Jack's Mannequin.
My art didn't make it into the video, but the video is still AMAZING! So creativo!

Jack's Mannequin "Swim"


In other news, my laptop is sick and I'm taking it in to the Genius Bar to get looked at tonight, so I may not be as frequent with the blog updates if they take her away to get operated on. :(

Let It Be

Okay so I work on a computer all day long, and honestly, sometimes when I've got the system doing like a million things (million meaning 5) like... saving an InDesign document while transferring photos onto the server, while opening a word document, while scanning artwork, while deleting an article off the computer... I seriously half expect the computer to have a pop up alert that says:

Listen lady, I can only do so much at one time...KNOCK IT OFF!

Seriously. Sometimes I sit there, just waiting for it to pop up as the spinny rainbow of death spins madly on. I wouldn't blame it if my work computer just grew arms and hands and decided to give me the finger. seriously. I overwork it. :(

Patience is a virtue. But I haven't completely adopted it yet. :(

And when i'm on my lunch break, checking emails and facebook and twitter and such, I keep refreshing things cause I don't want to miss anything... and I picture again, a little pop up alert saying:

No one's updating, okay. Get over it.

Do you ever have moments like that? I mean, I know if you don't have a Mac, it'll be a slightly lamer version (because I wholeheartedly believe that Dell/Vaios/and the like are less superior) of the alert. Like a box will pop up and say:

Look, I'm a lame computer. I quit.

Just sayin' . . .

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PS: Today is the LAST day to vote for my new haircut! I've already scheduled an appointment at the hairdresser's next Wednesday, so make sure you get your vote in! The poll ends tonight! So far haircut #4 is in the lead. (and yes mom, I already counted your vote for me to just get a trim...but #4 is still winning.)

So, go HERE and vote there---------->

My Life Would Suck Without You

(new T-shirt worn by Apple Store Genius Bar workers)

I just got back from University Village and dropped off my baby... my sweet, sweet, beautiful baby... you know, I really SHOULD think of a name for my laptop. eh. nah. Nothing I name it would do it justice. It is a mighty mighty machine and it has captivated my heart. So help me, if something goes wrong while she's under the knife, I don't know how I will live.

She makes me smile.
She makes my heart jump for joy.
She makes me feel deep love.
She brightens my day.
She brings me delight.
She is a Mac. She is a machine. She is amazing.

Yes. I know. I DID just write a short ode to my laptop. I've got it bad. I think Gavin DeGraw was thinking of my laptop when he wrote "I'm in love with a girl..." ;)

Welp, she's in good hands now. I will sit waiting patiently by the phone, for Justin, the guy from the Genius Bar to call me and tell me that she's all better and can now burn CDs and DVDs once again. I mean, I already owe Justin a great big hug for fixing my laptop so she closes now. If I was that type of person to just do that sort of thing, I might jump into Justin's arms and kiss him uncontrollably for bringing my laptop back to life. But I'm not. So I won't. But it would be funny. He'd probably call security.

I wouldn't blame him.

Until my baby comes back to me... I will resort to less personal computers. *sigh*

Goodbye Love

Tomorrow is a very sad day indeed.  After 3 years of smooth sailing loyalty, it's time to take my laptop to the Mac Genius Bar to get fixed.  My superdrive isn't working on my Macbook Pro, so I can't burn CDs or DVDs... but all of that will change soon my friends!  In the meantime, I'll use the computer at home to update my blog and check emails and Facebook and Twitter and such.  I just hope that those geniuses do the genius thing and don't accidentally erase any of my iTunes.. oooh buddy.. that would be bad.  :(   On one hand, I'm sad that I'll be without my laptop for a bit... on the other hand... any visit to the Apple Store is a fun trip!  And since I'm going after work, I'll probably get to grab din din at U Village, where the Apple Store is.    :D

Meet Me At My Window

As I promised, here are some more pictures of my office! :D The girl in the pics is the girl who I'm replacing. It's sad that she's leaving cause she's so amazing! I love hanging out and talking with her. :D She's moving to Cali at the end of the month and let me tell you...I got some BIG shoes to fill! In any event, she was pretty proud of the work I did today, which is very promising. I'm super excited about learning InDesign and I think I'm getting the hang of it very well!

a further away shot of the office building (the tan church building on the left)


the temp station I'm at for now...with InDesign open :D


random shots around the office. the desk that leah's sitting at will be mine when she leaves. :(





A fun added bonus...this place is full of secret passageways :D okay, not secret really...but I do feel like a secret spy when I go through them :D


Hope you enjoyed the pics! Day 2 rocked!

Brand New World

I HAVE GREAT NEWS!!! :D I GOT THE JOB!! I'm going to be doing layout editing as a publications assistant at Rational Island Publishing! I'm so thankful and grateful to everyone who has been praying with me and for me that the right job would open up! It totally did! I'll be getting paid well, doing what I love! This is a giant answer to prayer and I'm so glad I get to share this great news with you guys!

And to add a cherry on top, I'll also be doing some part time video editing for them, which will only increase my skills and challenge me to embrace more and more creativity! A lot of people have been asking how far it is from where I work, so I figure I'd include a map of sorts so you can see:



The place I'm working at is located in the lower area of the Queen Anne neighborhood and the bus runs straight from my area to the job area...so I only have to take ONE bus!! My neighborhood (Northgate) is the "A" and the job site is "B." And the office I'll be working in has two huge windows where I can see the waterfront and Seattle Center! I start this Thursday and I'm SO excited!

Time 'AVATAR' Time

So my friend Kelley created an avatar for her blogger site "Navel Gazing" and was like, "you should make one... or i can make one for you." So i told her, let's each make one of me and we'll see what we come up with. So here are me and kel's avatars of me! :D

Kelley's Version:



My Version:




I think they both resemble me. :D We're so funny! :D


Here's my version of Kelley:



What do you guys think? Or maybe you want to make one and send me the link to add to this post?

MAC -VS- PC

Yes, it's the big technological debate- SHOULD I BUY A MAC OR A PC?

This is always a hard one because I am a graphic designer and I get a LOT of use out of my MAC. I am absolutely in LOVE with my MAC. It is like my right arm! And one of the main concerns that my friends have when they buy them is that they are not graphic designers and such. But really, I would recommend MAC over PC any day, no matter what your "task load" is. I've used PCs AND Macs before, so I'm familiar with each system. I've even used PCs with Vista on them. And I still vote Mac over PC in a heartbeat! I cannot tell you how much more user friendly the MAC is than the PC. And granted, I know that cost is always an issue, but I'm telling you, it's totally worth it! Another big concern with people is the fact that the Mac does not have the right click on the trackpad. But really folks, it's so unnecessary to have that silly right click button when you can use a 'hot key,' or now, even just a certain touch on the actual touch pad instead of pounding on that clicky button. It's so much faster and so much less complicated. And don't even get me started on the weight of those PC suckers! I had a DELL laptop computer that I used to work from, and let me tell you, I may as well have been carrying around a small child on my shoulders! That thing was so bulky and awkward. I love the streamline design of my mac and the fact that I can store things easily and have such awesome features as Spotlight and Expose and Dashboard, and TONS of other awesome features, just makes me smile so much! Even if you are not a graphic designer, the MAC is just a more superior machine. It makes things so much simpler, if you're willing to break out of a PC mentality and embrace a new way of doing things. Work smarter, not harder. :D

Here are some of my favorite MAC ADS:











I was going to post the latest PC ads, but I'd be ashamed to have them on my blog. They're really lame. :(