rip's really random semi-rational ramblings

The Mac Attack!!

2008-11-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

Whew! It's been awhile since I've made a new blog post... errr like 9 month or so... but hey! I've been busy... and lazy... and dealing with real life... and avoiding real life.... and.. and....

Anyways... I was thinking about Apples... you know... the cult not the fruit. I've had a sort of love/hate relationship with Apple for awhile now and figured I'd spout off a little about it. This is going to take awhile so I'll probably end up splitting it up into a couple/few posts. So here it goes.

The history:

A few years ago, I was able to convince the bean counters that I needed a Mac for graphic/video editing when the company I work for decided to start working with professional printers, graphic artists, and website designers a lot more who always seemed to be asking if we had "that" (whatever vector art/video/logo we were working with at the time) in a Mac compatible format. I was going to just get G5 tower, but at the time my office space was very cramped, so I went for a laptop due to space restrictions. (plus I figured with the laptop I could take it home with me while figuring out how to use the sucker)

The last time I had touched a "Macintosh" was a horrible 6 months working for Apple doing phone tech support during the "Bondi Blue.. what color is your Mac?" era, and let me tell you... Apple spends a lot of money on public relations trying to show that it's not just a heartless company multi-billion dollar company like Microsoft, but at the time I was working there the only thing that mattered was money. Someone has a problem one day out of warranty, sell them a new Apple-care contract at hundreds of dollars or blame the problem on some other company.

(You use an aftermarket logitech mouse? That's why your computer isn't starting up! No, I'm sorry replacing it with your original mouse isn't going to help. I'm sure we can take care of that problem for you quick and easy as soon as you give me a credit card number)

Back then, nothing was really compatible between Macs and PCs. Oh sure there were ways of getting around that (just purchase this $49.99 program that will allow you to save in a Windows friendly format), but in general if you were on a Mac, you did Mac stuff with other Mac users. Then when you went to work and used an IBM, Dell or (God forbid) a Packard Bell running Windows 95 or NT. (ahhh to be able to friggin right click again!!)

And I'm sorry... (this goes out to all those Mac fanatics out there who used to tell me that Macs didn't have any problems compared to Windows) when you work in Tech support you get to hear about a million problems that the iMac had that were NOT caused by the user being... well a user. Sure I got the supreme idiots calling (My dial-up modem isn't working when I make a phone call with my single phone line), but there were a ton of calls like "I clicked print and the screen went black". So bite me!

Needless to say after six agonizing months I was able to find a random dish washing job that paid me a buck less an hour, and let me look at myself in the mirror again.

Fast forward 12 years or so....When I had the opportunity to purchase a new Mac on the Company dime, I of course went with the laptop with the most bells and whistles Apple had. The just released new Intel Macbook Pro topped out with memory (2 Gigs.. holy moly), the fastest processor and the largest harddrive. Cost around $3500! Yikes! When my boss at the time started to flip out, I reminded them that Macs are always twice as much as PC computers, and this was a laptop, which are usually twice as much as desktops. LOL at the time it was pretty much true... well mostly... hey Apple is expensive!!.... Anyways, it was one sweet machine. Definitely the most well crafted laptop I had ever seen. With the brand new OS X operating system and running on an Intel Duo Processor.

Boy had things changed. I hardly recognized the OS and had hardly a clue how to use the damn thing, but I figured it wouldn't take long to figure out. Boy was I wrong. Oh sure, some things were pretty straight forward. Installing programs was mostly simple. Just drag and drop an icon into your applications folder and Poof, it's installed. Of course at that time the switch to Intel processors caused 95% of any free or inexpensive programs for the Mac to break, so if you actually wanted a program to install you had to pay top dollar, but since I hardly new what I was doing and had a company willing to fork out money for software it wasn't that big of a deal.

So I installed a bunch of incredibly expensive programs that I was used to running on my PC. Photoshop, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, etc... And in general was able to open up and work on whatever graphic/video (Final Cut) was needed and save it in a format that the publishers needed. Then within the next year and a half it seemed like all the programs/formats that used to have issues between Macs and PCs were worked out and I found myself hardly touching the sharp looking laptop. Mostly I just got very frustrated trying to do the simplest things that I had no issues with when in the Windows world. Example, renaming multiple files in multiple folders without resorting to a complicated command line routine, or finding free programs that actually worked well. Half the programs I downloaded at the time just plain wouldn't do anything and since Apple have always tried to make things transparent for the user, there was no error messages or easy ways of figuring out what was wrong. Slowly but surely I found myself using the Macbook less and less out of pure frustration. I'd spend more time trying to figure out doing something simple than actually creating or playing.

But most of those perceptions I had about Macs has changed recently.... I'll tell you about it in the next post.

Don't bad things come in threes?

2008-02-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

After I got my car to a shop, dealt with the insurance company and picked up a rental car, I was able to go into work for a few hours. After I got home my wife showed me what a wonderful gift of flowers I had sent to her.

I'm really beginning to hate that Saint Valentine guy.....

I did get a refund, but come on.... I'm trying to figure out where all this bad karma came from...

Not a happy Valentine's Day morning for me....

2008-02-14T21:48:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when someone thinks it would be funny to remove all the lug nuts from the wheels of your car.

Hah... fuckin.. hah... the shop has listed over $1000 in damage already and still counting....... happy Valentine's day to me....

We can't for the life of us figure out who hates us this much.... or if it was just some asshole kids who are stupid enough to think this would be a funny practical joke. Real life is not television.

Mmmmm good!

2007-12-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

And it begins...... the baking of massive amounts of mouthwatering sweets that I cannot eat. My wife is a incredible baker. The gift basket is just a small sample.

Turkey and Bob the Cat

2007-12-17T22:23:00.001-08:00

No it's not the name of a new sitcom on fox, just a description of a couple of update photos.

The kitchen was a success. Thanksgiving dinner was less so, but there was plenty of room for everyone. Wow, two large tables are able to fit into the space. Amazing...This is just a random picture of the majestic "Bob the cat" on our new kitchen table.

Baking up a storm!

2007-11-11T13:42:00.001-08:00

Enjoying the new kitchen. Baking cookies!!

Time to table this kitchen project...

2007-11-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

A picture of the kitchen actually being used. Along with the back of the wife's head and my dorky barely-still-teenage-who-should-be-moving-out-soon son.New huge table and curtains that need ironed and hemmed.

The metal accents on the table match the kitchen faucet and the curtain rod. Which is wild because we got them all at different stores.

It's ALIVE!!!! BWAHAHAHA ALIVE!!!

2007-11-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

With the fog rolling in, on a creepy all hallows eve, the kitchen from hell was officially given life!!

The single-bowl big-ass sink my wife has been waiting for. (notice the large cookie tray sitting flat in the bottom) Someone give me a greasy, burnt-to-a-crisp-stuck-on-foot pot to soak please.....

Warm and inviting was the feeling we were going for, and even though it's not quite complete, I really think we achieved our goal.

And the other side view.... The center island was a compromise between what we wanted and what we could afford. We are planning on extending the top out so we can add a couple of barstools to this side to create a place for people to casually visit while the cook is on the job.
We still have the last bit of counter to do, along with a back-splash mural that my wife is planning on doing and some strategic lighting. (under-counter and some track lights)
Storage, storage and more storage.... the wife is ecstatic.
There is even spots for the earlier pictured cookie trays, and some for some reason some lazy lady named Susan came in and stuck weird looking wire shelves in the corner cabinets.

This is the movable center island with even MORE storage space. If my wife ever says "I don't have anywhere to store this pot", we're getting a divorce.

We still have quite a bit left that we want to do, (mostly aesthetic details) but as of October 31, 2007, we officially have a functioning kitchen back. Only took us 3 hellish months.

So close, yet so far....

2007-10-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

OK, so I didn't get the sink in this weekend... :(
But... I can put it in as soon as we seal the grout which only takes about an hour. Probably won't be able to do it tonight, but tomorrow evening.

Had to order 6 more bull-nose tile because we miscalculated and ran out, but luckily it's for the counter on the opposite side of the room from the sink. The "extra" counter, so it won't keep us from actually having a kitchen soon!! WOOHOO!

Ass-Draggin.....

2007-10-23T18:32:00.001-07:00

We are dragging our asses.... very burned out at this point... but the we can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

The sink is going to go in this weekend if I have to freakin glue it to the wall....

Almost all your base cabinets belong to us!

2007-09-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

Another really long weekend full of work, but all the base cabinets are in place and secured. We even were able to get some of the drawers and doors installed. Woohoo!

The stove and refrigerator are back from their vacations in the back yard and living room. They had a nice time, but are happy to be home.

No counter or sink yet :-( We really can't do a whole lot until those get done.

It this starting to actually look like a kitchen again or what..... don't answer that...

The glass doors don't look nearly so fancy surrounded by the rest of the cabinets. Oh well, we sacrificed design for functionality. My wife wanted a pullout pantry and utility cabinet more than the nice clean look of the glass front doors hanging by themselves.

The big empty boxes are for a pullout pantry and utility cabinet/broom closet.

A peek inside. The wife loves all the drawers and pullout sliding things all over the damn place. I'd probably be more enthusiastic if each and every one didn't have to be put together then installed.

I can say it's 200x nicer than our old 1970's cabinets. Every drawer and sliding door has that "soft close" feature where you just start pushing the drawer in and it closes by itself with absolutely no slaming.

We're finally on the downhill slope. After a bit more installing it will be time for the counter-top (which we are tiling ourselves... yikes) and back-splash (again with the do it ourself crap), but the end is in sight. I'm crossing my fingers that we can get it done in a few more weeks.

Top Heavy!

2007-09-23T23:26:00.002-07:00

OMG! It's starting to look like an actual kitchen!

The line up...

How does a tape mesure work again?

That is so totally level! We celebrate by doing ladder ballet...

And we're off....

Dirty pictue of me screwing...

It's one small step for kitchenman...

The beauty of glass....

Storage space galore!!!

And the other end...

The glass doors look so good, I had to add another picture of them...

Whew! It feels wonderful to actually see progress. Of course there is a lot more to go, but it's another milestone in the project. Hopefully we'll be able to get most of the base cabinets in next weekend.

Ohhh what a nice looking..... errr .... empty room.

2007-09-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, we're ready for all the cabinets.... except... they have to be assembled before they can be installed.... pesky details...

OH CHIT!

2007-09-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

So our Ikea Kitchen order has come in... Holy Moley! There are a lot of boxes..

We had to go through it to make sure all the pieces were there (168 boxes - luckily all accounted for), so we spread it out a little, but it filled a full-size truck bed completely up over the top of the roof and hanging out the tailgate.

Bob the cat say "Meeeyow! That's a lot of crap to put together!"

The wife is excited, but all I can see is how much work this is going to take. I don't think I really understood how large of a project this was going to be until now.... Yikes!

Last bit of tiling...

2007-09-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

The last little bit of tiling...

Going down and getting laid.....

2007-09-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

Tile is going down! Labor day weekend and we have been laboring hard and heavy....

And it starts......

Guess who did most of the work....
Gettin' laid....
A different view....
They killed Kenny!!!

Just grouting left to do. We were planning on having the whole thing done over the three day weekend, but mixing the thinset turned out to be the biggest hurdle and time consumer. If we ever do this again we're getting an automatic mixer. I spent more time mixing up mortar than I did cutting and laying down the tile.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll.... uhhh... whow.... dude... someone open a window...

2007-08-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

Chocolate!! Nobody lick the wall....

If you can't tell, I'm hot, sweaty, tired and half-stoned on paint fumes in this picture...

Let's pretend.....

2007-08-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

sample of what our tile floor will look like... eventually.... (ignore old cabinets still hanging around in the background)

The dogs really do not know what to make of all this destruction. Sadie (the yellow Lab) really doesn't like the floor tile, but then she's a dog, so I really don't take her opinion to heart..... and besides.. she's a bitch. heh

and the first block of the great wall of china has been placed

2007-08-16T16:08:00.000-07:00

After it seems like years of trying to get my wife to decide on what tile she wants, we have a wiener!!

The dark brown is for the counter top and the unusual one is for the floor and backspash.

Holy trashing the batcave Batman!!

2007-08-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we're renovation our kitchen on the cheap. (Means Ikea cabinets and doing all the work ourselves) Everything is a mess, I'm already tired and we've barely started.