dead mac.

it seems to be a relatively common situation that it freezes when it wakes up from sleep.

well tonite, it did it again. I went to work on it again and it had frozen. the pixelation wasn’t as drastic but it was visable on the desktop. Totally frozen. About this time I got a phone call so I stepped away from it – and I just came back to it to see that it’s totally shut off. I didn’t shut it off… and guess what? It won’t turn on!!!

wow.

::::

update 10:28pm – I pulled the plug (it was fully charged) and set it aside. But not believing my eyes I just tried it again 30 minutes later, and this time it powered up and all looks ok.

what a rollercoaster!

5 Comments
Woohoo - 5 Comments! Add to the conversation

mac issues

So the whole new powerbook deal isn’t so smooth sailing…. and I’m not just talking my having to relearn shortcuts. I’m talking serious phukage on this powerbook.

I turned this puppy on Thursday and barely did much more than go through the welcome process, set up my email and connect it to the internet before I carefully closed the top (put it in sleep mode) and took it over to my friend Matt’s house, where we had fun geekin out, see?

But as soon as got over there & opened it up to show him, there was this part of the top right of the LCD where all the pixels were all messed up. (no photo of it as we thought it was just some fluke first time thing?!) And then when I tried to do anything – force quit or bring up finder or anything, it was totally frozen. aahh!! So we powered down and then restarted and all was fine – phew!

We had a fun night geekin out & Matt showed me lots of great new things on my new baby. All worked well for those next 2 hours and I left & my laptop stayed over at Matt’s that night since I went to the BoTH for a show & didn’t want to leave it in my car. Then I went back Friday morning to pick it up and geek out some more with Matt, but as soon as I arrived & went over to my laptop & woke it up, and tried to open Mail – it freaked!! and the whole screen did the screwy pixel thing again. This time I took a pic:

Now here’s where it got really bad and thank goodness I was at Matt’s, who’s an experienced & longtime Mac user so he could help me try a few different things. So first when the screen is looking like that – we try to do something, see if finder comes up, or try force quit – but NOTHING works. It’s frozen again!

So we shutdown – power back up and then tried to get into the System area to repair permissions. As soon as we do – it gets stuck and freezes again. OY!

At this point, Matt finds his OSX Hardware repair CD (something like that) and we did some stuff off of there – and then used Disk Warrior to further do some cleaning up. All that seems to work & I’m good to go for more geekin out with Matt the rest of the day.

After running a few errands, I came home Friday and didn’t crack open my new Mac at all (everything’s still on my PC, so it’s easy just to hop back on here) until today.

Today I open it up & it has funky pixel stuff AGAIN!!!

and totally frozen up – so I powerdown – and start it up again…. and got this screwy pixel thing happening:

along with an alert message that it couldn’t read the disc in the drive, because I had left a blank disc in there I was going to burn something onto. So I ejected the CD… but after it came out, the system was frozen again. ARG!!!

:*( I’m sad – and I don’t know if I should try to pack it all up & take it down to the Mac store for a new one or what!? I mean, I feel like I just got a lemon here, ya know!?

I’ve literally only used my new powerbook for a total of 10 hours in 2 days and it’s already screwed up majorly like 5 times!!! Total bummer!!!

All I know is, I leave Tuesday and I need to load a lot of files on here before I leave… and I won’t have Matt the power mac user to save the day… crap. crap. CRAP!

5 Comments
Woohoo - 5 Comments! Add to the conversation

Dave Eggers Rant

This is awesome. If anything I emplore you to read question/answer #3 and then continue reading his rant in the addendum… it’s long, but worth every single word. (Some of you may have already read this since it’s a couple years old, but I hadn’t yet and I think it’s excellent.)

I completely feel this way about so many things. Not giving a shit about what people think, being yourself – whether that’s crazy and silly, or quiet and reserved. And I’m always trying to see the best in what everbody is doing… most all artists I try to tilt my head and see their passion in what they’re doing… it might not be something I like, or I may even truly dislike it – and yes, I too have scoffed at times… but one thing’s for sure is that I *always* give a person credit for just gettin out there and DOING something. That’s a helluva lot more than a TON of other people can say!!

It not only takes talent and creativity – but a lot of the time it takes guts to go out there & do what you want! It takes a lot to write a screenplay, and then have others see your vision to actually make it into something (Bravo Aaron!) – or to write a book (and finish it!) and send it off to publishers. Or to schedule a photoshoot and successfully direct the subjects with your artistic eye – or to draw or animate or sew or sing or start a band or anything!!!

I mean, I know we all have our hierarchies – and of course we’re entitled to our lofty opinions about this, that & the other… but for god sake people – START GIVING OTHERS THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT!!! Stop being so f*ing critical of yourself and your peers and so many that are giving it their all to DO something with their lives. It’s hard enough as it is!

:::::

Ya, so Dave Eggers’ rant is awesome. So is Jonas’ rant in Kat’s blog comments… which is where I got the link. Wow, Jonas – that makes me wanna go check out art with you!! :)

:::::

Also, as a side note here… No… unfortunately I am not made of steel and I do still care what people think. Probably way more than others in silly little ways – and in some ways it limits me. I limit myself!! All too often I feel like I get in my own damn way of allowing myself to do the creative things I want to do.

So sure, I still have my very own blocks to work out… which is precisely why I am never shy to give props to others out there doing something. I support them and give praise to their creativity and progress!! I have far to go in this area… but I’m working on it :) One step at a time.

1 Comments
1 Comment so far... click here to add yours

I have so much to tell you…

I still have yet to tell you how great the Rykarda Parasol / Frank Black show was on Tuesday night…

I have to review tonite’s excellent show I just got home from: Pretty Girls Make Graves (and 2 great openers too!)

I have to tell you how much I am loving, loving, loving my new powerbook… (I had nothing to worry about!!) and how I am starting to see the light about things like “If my car was just made by mac, then I’d only have to tap that light & it would automatically go out in 5 minutes” (so that I don’t accidently leave it on for 24 hours like I did lastnight – but it still started tonite, phew!) Oh, and of course it when it did automatically turn off, it would fade out really beautifully. aaaah, maaaaac.

I have to tell you about my special diet – the “get really sick for 3 weeks so you stop eating dairy and stop drinking just so you get better and then get really sad and stressed out and loose your appetite” diet. Holy cow, I look GREAT!! hahaa

But don’t you worry, the lovely, delicious, melty cheddar cheese is calling my name… and the beers and baileys and gin & tonics… awww yaaa – she’s back in the saddle people!!! I’ll get that 5lbs back, dont’choo worry :p

I’m hittin a Sleepy Jackson show tomorrow night w/ Jem & Tania – And I’m starting out at Zeitgeist w/ Rick and his crew – aww yaaaa!!!! I hope it’s warm again tomorrow!

How amazing it is that life can be so enjoyable and my mind can be free of worry just days after feeling like the world was coming to an end. (totally positive thought and me just simply realizing I can’t freak myself out so damn hard…)

And last, but not least, how much I adore my buddy Rick xoxo

There, I guess that pretty much sums it up. Except I’ll give you more full reviews of the shows – and photos/video too!!

Night.

1 Comments
1 Comment so far... click here to add yours

oh my goodness!!!

Ok, I popped open the box this morning! FUN FUN!

However, after running through the welcome stuff, I realized I’ve got quite a bit of work to do to get all my PC stuff onto it – and install everything, etc. oy! But instead of doing that I comfortably have sat down at my PC where everything is already hooked up :) and I started to look at laptop bags again.

Since we’re leaving Tuesday, I gotta hurry up & order one!! Which is a bummer cuz I might have to pay for faster delivery… but what a decision this is!!

I’ve been searching a TON and found this thread that has a huge list of laptop bag sites, in case you want to further check it out. I’ve found a ton of great sites… reviews of bags I’m interested in more than others, etc. Exciting!! But I’ve got to make the decision asap. oy!

Here’s one’s I’m looking at – anyone wanna offer their vote?

#1. Tom Bihn ID Bag combined w/ Brain Cell (extra insurance for accidents!!) – consumer review 1 | consumer review 2 | macmerc review

I’d really love an Acme Bag instead of the Braincell for a standalone carrier (when I don’t need a big ol’ messenger bag). It’s more expensive but oh so sexy!! And I’m not sure it will actually fit in the ID, nor would it be as protective as the braincell… so it would be a longshot. I want the gray with blue circles I think – or the grey flannel :)

#2. McKlein Tech-Lite (on McKlein website) If I bought this, I *might* be able to fit the braincell in it or I could just buy an Acme as an alternative bag!

#3. Tom Bihn Hipster Bag (this one won’t fit Brain Cell or Acme, so it’s just a lightly padded laptop area)

#4. Timbuk2 could combine with braincell, I think. – consumer review1, consumer review2

Vote, vote!! :)

p.s. I posted this in the comments on my initial post with laptop bag links… but I’ll list it here again:

I don’t need to take papers/files, etc with me usually. So really there’s two options here. Have a bag that *just* holds my laptop and then carry another bag with all my other stuff. OR have a bag that carries it all in one. (probably most ideal??) Especially for SXSW (Austin, TX trip next week!!) I’ll probably only want to only lug one bag around, huh?

Lemme just list what else might be accompanying me on a daily basis:

– cell phone

– sketchbook (small one maybe?) & pens

– lipstuff (i never leave home w/o it!)

– wallet/biz cards

hmm, I feel like I’m missing something, but that might be it!

:::::::::::::::::

OK – now to try to hook up my powerbook (of which Eric insists I must name ;) to the internet and start fiddling with connecting my monitor & stuff. woohoo!!

I’ve got quite the little mac posse support group starting… which is great. I’m going to need your help peeps! :)

p.s. this is funny (from boykani)

and this is funny (from kathunter)

funny things are good when you need a smile… so are cute kitties! :)

4 Comments
Woohoo - 4 Comments! Add to the conversation

eeek

yikes! I just saw my email blip out the oldest 10 or so emails I had in my inbox. I’ve been noticing emails disappearing – seems I have it on some setting to delete them after a certain amount of time. (I use IMAP)

YIKES! I thought I had fixed it, but apparently not. I think normally I don’t notice it taking for granted my emails are safe… but since I just had cleared out my inbox and could see the bottom, I could see it delete them right before my eyes. Yes, I’ll be going in & changing that setting!!

3/11 update: weird, now those messages are back. hmm

:::::::

mac update – if you can believe it, I had to go to BAM, then go grocery shopping and then come home & clean for these appraisers who are coming tomorrow morning. (but honestly I didn’t get much cleaning done cuz I got sucked into my computer, on the phone and then finishing up some mockups for a client) So – my new powerbook is STILL sitting on my bed in the box – and since I need sleep, it will have to wait till tomorrow. Can you believe it? I’m sure most of you macheads can’t.

But what makes this fun is now – tomorrow morning is like Christmas! :)

0 Comments
Comment on this post

1 ticket on a time machine, please

If you could go back in time to change something, what would it be?

I started thinking about it and the list just got longer and longer, and the dates started going back further and further.

Now – I know this blog reaches the eyes of some pretty resourceful people… there’s got to be atleast one of you who knows someone that has access to a time machine, right? :)

How much would that valuable ticket cost? $1000? 1 Million? Your Soul?

Now – if you could go back in time… however far back you choose… and you could bring a list of things you want to be sure your new path doesn’t miss on the second round… what would those things be? What would you try to teach yourself about the last 6 months or year or 10 years?

Just one little itsy bitsy thing can change so much, huh? Maybe if that never happened… or that person had cancelled… or if the weather had been different that day…

Life is a mystery.

4 Comments
Woohoo - 4 Comments! Add to the conversation

laptop bag

Ok, I don’t have time to shop for this right now, but in the next 24 hours I’m going to need to buy a laptop bag for my shiny new baby.

Since I’ve never had a laptop, I’ve never been mobile!! So the idea of it just makes me squeel with delight… and getting a cool (not to mention protective and practical) laptop bag is a really exciting part of it all.

I’ve been collecting some links & ideas over the last couple weeks. Take a look & lemme know whatcha think.

Note: I’m mostly only linking to those that will fit my 15″

Style maven’s feedback welcome – as well as suggestions from other laptop owners (have you carried one for years?), you probably have feedback on style / comfort / or links to other places I should look, etc.

11 Comments
Woohoo - 11 Comments! Add to the conversation