Just a couple short but sweet blurbs that simply aren’t substantiative enought to warrant their own blog entries…
* Independence Day 2008 was a tad different than what we had imagined. We did, indeed, travel up to Maryland to see the new condo my Dad and his girlfriend just bought. WOW is it big! You know the apartment in Three Men and a Baby which, although it was in downtown New York, was absolutely huge (or seemed that way when we were twenty years younger)? Similar feeling here — lots of living space, balconies on three sides, an amazing big, modern kitchen, et al. It will be bittersweet when my Dad sells the home in which he had lived for the past 34 years (his girlfriend has a buyer for her home already), but I think this will be a wonderful place for a brand new start for both of them.
The rain and thunderstorms were on and off throughout the day. That, coupled with my Dad feeling a bit under the weather, headed us towards the decision of not heading downtown as per our usual tradition. And it was for the best — we likely would have had to evacuate due to lightning during the evening. Avi was not so happy about this, but we had our own little picnic indoors. And we let him stay up to watch the elaborate fireworks display on PBS (hosted by Jimmy Smits with a funny moustache). It was nice…
* Some of you have been wondering about the Emmy Award winner who helped me break into my car years ago. Apparently it sounds like this was a great story — something similar to the caliber of I was cock-blocked by Meredith Baxter-Birney! Sadly, there really isn’t much more to tell. It would have been nice if the Emmy award winner was none-other than Meredith Baxter-Birney herself, making up for the aforementioned cock-blocktitude from over a decade earlier, but it wasn’t.
Not to negate the talents of our friend Ron (not even his real name), but you likely haven’t heard of him. He and his wife both went to college with socKs where he had focused on television production. Since then, he’s worked at a television station on a pretty impressive market doing production work. His Emmys were local ones, but were won due to his creativity in promoting syndicated shows on the schedule. I’ve seen his demo reel and it’s full of some remarkable stuff.
* Independence Day 1980 was one of the things I wrote about in a recent blog — about my summer camp experience where the entire camp was sent back to their bunks early due to some rowdiness and unruliness at a camp activity. I was impressed that I was able to remember that far back.
But not nearly as impressed as I was to get an email from a total stranger the next day — someone who, in the summer of 1980 was a counselor at the camp and was able to provide me some context as to what went on! Apparently there was a performance from an Israeli dance troupe at the all-boys camp — something which piqued the interests of many of the older kids as they were girls who were (a) not related to any of the campers; and (b) not affiliated with the girls’ camp down the road. Part of the finale involved the troupe leading the campers in the chant of “We want peace! We want peace!” But apparently the older kids started in with “We want a piece! We want a piece!” instead. I now can understand why, at eight years old, I had no idea what was going on.
Also what I didn’t know was that while the youngest kids (us) were sent back to our bunks for the night, the troupe left the camp — at which time the older kids were summoned back from their bunks to the common area and completely reamed out by the camp director who, apparently, produced some fireworks of his own. Good times…
In any case — thanks to you, Mr. T., for finding my blog and emailing me. Nice to know that there are other alum from camp out there…
* Watch for my upcoming special guest appearance on Cereal Wednesday! I’ll be reviewing Cocoa Krispies Choco-Nilla. Should be quite a treat…
* I know that I’m opening a major can o’ worms by asking this, but does anyone have any sound advice to buying a new Windows-based laptop? (Yes, as much as I respect Mac’s OS X and the many flavors of Linux which can be installed, Windows is required here.) The laptop socKs has been using for the past five years is showing its age — the battery doesn’t hold the charge that it used to, it runs rather hot and, inexplicably, the damn thing will suddenly shut off without any warning every so often. So — we’re in the market for a new one — and trying to keep the cost down a bit while getting something that won’t be obsolete by next week.
I’m a big fan of Dell (even though I bet many of you have Dell horror stories). I’m writing this on Dell Dimension desktop machine which has been smooth sailing for a few years. My work laptop is a Dell Latitude D600, and I simply love it. The big question is this: Do we splurge and head for one of the Dell business-line laptops? Or do we stick with their home models? I just happen to like the durability of my laptop, and I don’t know if it runs across all of their lines. Anyone with advice? Let me know…
Oh — and which startup sound should I boot up with?
* “I Love the New Millenium” on VH1: Finished it. Well, finished years 2000-2007. Some cute stuff in there with funny commetary by the likes of Michael Ian Black (and simple annoyances by Luis Guzman and Tommy Chong). But the best commenter throughout the series? Wil Wheaton. He simply gets it. Danica McKellar is a close second…
… and that’s all I’ve got for now…
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21 users responded in this post
I’d recommend the Latitude series over the Inspirons just because the Lats are business-grade parts. I refuse to recommend any other brand than Dell, no matter how many bad tech support experiences I or anyone else has had.
If you’re not going Mac then get a Dell.
Thank you, and good night.
Poppys last blog post..How much longer am I obligated to do this?
I have all Dells in my house, but I know that Toshibas have recently overtaken Dells when it comes to notebook quality and tech support.
And if you custom build it – it doesn’t matter if it’s a Latitude or an Inspiron. 😛 to Poppy.
Michael Ian Black is my favorite, and then Hal Sparks
If you custom build it why the fuck bother getting a name brand?
Buy an alien box and stick awesome stuff in it.
😛 to Adam.
Poppys last blog post..How much longer am I obligated to do this?
Poppy and Avitable: If were able to build a laptop on my own, I’d do it. In fact, the machine I had before this desktop was one I built. I scavenged the drives and PCI cards from my old P///. Took me a while before I could get everything working, but it was worth it for the experience.
And I’m glad I’m not alone regarding the Latitude. I even had good experiences with the Latitude C-series I used a few years back…
I learned something when reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat: apparently, most Toshiba laptops on the East Coast are serviced at UPS’s headquarters by UPS employees with Toshiba training. Saves them in shipping costs and time — since the laptops’ shipping terminates at the hub.
Amanda: Hal Sparks looks a bit creepy with the long hair, but yes. He has his moments.
Well, I meant custom built using Dell’s site, where you can choose the components that go into the laptop, not building it from scratch at home. Building a laptop from scratch is almost the same cost as buying one from someone, because of some of the components that go into it.
Avitables last blog post..Myocardial Infraction
ibm thinkpad (just acquired another one) with the start up that could be vaguely identified as zen-ish bells.
I’m going to sit down in the Dell camp while I sing songs and eat s’mores. I’ve actually had a Toshiba Satellite and while it was a fine machine, it just wasn’t as impressive as the DELL.
The DELL will last longer too…yanno, as long as you don’t drop it in a parking lot somewhere. 😉
Hillys last blog post..Absolutely Barking Stars…
You lost me at Windows…
You did awesome on Cereal Wednesday.
34 years…
I’m stuck on that paragraph.
Talk about bad timing! Jester’s show froze on me and I couldn’t get back in. Can you email me? Thanks!
Never, never, never… buy a DELL. If you must use a Windows laptop, HP makes some very good models. Lenovo Thinkpads are good, but hate the WiFi on them… way too complicated.
martymankinss last blog post..Scooter Sunday #12
Never, NEVER buy an HP.
Anybody else wanna throw a vendor under the bus?
Never, ever, buy a Doll, a Tashoba, a Howlett Peckert, or any other computer that some guy is trying to sell you out of the back of his van.
Avitables last blog post..Stagnant
Avitable: It say “Tashoba” on the box. But inside is Sony guts!
I feel bad for you. You saw Zohan, too, didn’t you?
Personally, I recommend buying Commodore 64. Sure, the connection speed is a bit slow, but then you can play M.U.L.E. and Below the Root natively!
STAY A WHILE, STAY FOREVER! MUHAHAHAHAHAA!
ahem. bye.
Well, if I were buying a PC laptop… I’d buy an Acer. We’ve bought 2 in the last year at the office. One is a big multimedia thing we use for presentations and movies and a bunch of crap like that. The other one we purchased for the manager who runs the 3 outside offices as well as the department that deals with the State of California’s online Death Certificate system. Omar has to have a really good laptop that doesn’t weigh a lot because at the end of the day, carrying it around from office to office, he’s tired.
My outside tech, who is a MS MVP (one of 100 people that they allow into their code), as well as a former employee of NASA, really likes the Acers this year. He and his partner carry the little 3 lb ones. I’m a fan of them. Every time I have to use either of those laptops, they impress the hell out of me. Omar loves his more than the brand new Dell he bought himself at home. He’s pissed he didn’t ask us before he purchased a couple of months before I got him the Acer at the office. They are defo worth looking into. Omar uses both the Acer at the office and the Dell and home and likes the Acer better. He’s not as much a power user as me, but he’s always dead honest in his opinions.
My last laptop was a Toshiba which I loved until it was stolen in Miami. My next one will prolly be a Mac though.
Winters last blog post..Tired of Setup
Okay….dude….you, me and Amanda will have to meet at Starbucks before she heads to college. Deal? 🙂
Do I need to crack the whip, where are my updates? lol
Oh the DELL D600 – the bane of my work life. These are the laptops they are using at my workplace at the moment. They are being replaced by Fujitsu S-Series this year though – small and lovely… well that’s what the training session said. We’ll see…
My brother, however, is dumping his Toshiba Satellite for a Sony Vaio T8300 in Blazing Red because (in his words) ‘it’s so pretty’.
Not much help I know, but at least I restrained myself from coughing out ‘Mac’ and ‘Parallels’ – you got to give me points for that? Right? 🙂
Becs last blog post..Avon Calling.
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