I Have the Power[book]

Thursday was the magical day that I finally acquired my coveted PowerBook. I must admit that thus far I am very pleased. It talks to my windows, and Linux boxes like they are its next of kin, and everything is working out just peachy. I would write a more descriptive version of what I have been doing with it, but that would take entirely too long. Suffice it to say that nearly every minute I have been on it, I have either been installing software, or tweaking it to be just right. I have already purchased a few programs for it, including office—which I am using now—and LaunchBar. LaunchBar is a fantastic program that allows you to launch any program, or webpage you have visited without using the mouse. Basically, you just press a couple buttons to open it, and type in the first few letters of what you are looking for. Then, bam! There it is.

Actually, on second thought, I just remember something that went as smoothly as sandpaper. During my initial testing everything out phase, I tried to get my Airport card to work with my Linksys router. This was not as easy a task as I thought it would be. After doing a substantial amount of research and trial and error I got it to at least see the router. Unfortunately, this required me to restore factory defaults on my router, and then enable upnp, though I’m still not sure why that did anything. But, at that point all it did was see it, then drop it, then see it, etc… After doing some more research on the web, and Usenet I discovered that linksys uses the 802.3 format via wireless (I guess) for conveying DCHP information, etc…however, OS X doesn’t support this, so it just kept dropping the signal. Ultimately, I discovered that if I manually assign an IP, and put in the gateway, dns, and all that good stuff, it works. This means that I have to use two different wireless configurations, one for school, and one for home. Luckily, OS X handles that quite nicely.

Yesterday, Alex, my brother, and I ventured forth into the Grand Haven cinema to see the horror that is Jeepers Creepers 2. Now, you must keep in mind that I did actually like the first movie. However, I did not think that the first movie was good as a whole. It was good in the since that the sum of the good parts was better than the sum of the bad parts. And, the sum of the parts was greater than the whole. Anyhow, the second movie didn’t have any of these complexities. I guess the briefest way to put it would be to say that they took everything out that was good in the first movie. This sequel had no story, no character development, and little personality from the monster. In fact, the monster itself was very cliché. The whole movie felt weak, and was very much a boilerplate horror movie churned out of the bowels of Hollywood. However, I came in with low expectations, so I wasn’t disappointed. I suppose the movie was worth my $6.25, but what it really comes down to is that this is just another crappy movie. Alex did not have such tender, and kind words that I have though. He had nothing but utter distain for this movie. Coming in, not having liked the first movie, I feel that he was bound to dislike this one. But, he had nothing better to do, and he did get a ticket that said “STUD” on it. So, that is something, right? I wonder whatever happened to Alex. I left him in the movie theater parking lot with nothing to do? Oh well.

I spent most of the day today getting my old Dell laptop ready for my brother to take to Ferris. Most of the setup was pretty basic, XP Pro, Office, etc…it was just time consuming. I do have to admit that it irritated me every time he asked me a question like “does it have a floppy drive?” And then, after I had everything setup, we had to get a printer, though I am not sure why he wanted to go with me since the only printer he was interested in was the shiny blue one. I asked him if they only reason he wanted it was because it “looked pretty.”

His girlfriend chimed in “that’s why I would want it.”

The whole thing was a wash; I ended up picking out the little printer/scanner/copier combo from HP. I think it was a something 1210. I don’t know. The main issue is that he is in a dorm, and he can’t have something bigger than a toaster oven. The price wasn’t too bad, and it should work out just fine. Unfortunately, while I was trying to pick a printer one of the Best Buy drones was trying to convince my brother to get a UPS for his laptop, because “you don’t want your power supply to be interrupted.” I am glad that he was wise enough to leave before I kicked him in the head. Anyhow, my brother is all set. I even put all kind of Grand Valley colors/logos on the computer, so that his peers at Ferris can enjoy it all that more. I was inspired to do that after his story of the torment he endured while wearing his GVSU football shirt. Ah the joys be being and older brother.

Hmmm…it looks like I am running out of steam on this entry. Hey, it’s 12:25 AM, which means I am officially in “birthday” time. Though that doesn’t really mean a whole lot since I don’t have any plans to do anything. Hmmm…indeed I really have no idea what to do, though I do feel like celebrating my birthday this year, for the first time in a very long time. I am not sure why, I guess I am just feeling festive. Hey, in a side note, it looks like East Kentwood beat Brother Rice 44-7 in the Silverdome…Saturday. I almost went to that game, I’m almost sorry I didn’t. Any day is a good day for an ass kicking.

Well, I imagine that I am probably pushing/exceeding a thousand words for this post. And, that really is excessive. In retrospect it would probably makes more since for me to post more, less often. But, then again who is policing me. I could just talk all day long through this bizarre medium and no one would stop me. Worst-case scenario, I get a bad comment. Then, the world will end, right? Egad, I am beginning to irritate myself, now, how do I warn myself with iChat?