The Dark Night of the Soul...

Hello all (one of you).

Apologies again for the lack of updates. I'm like a buggy version of OS X. Eventually I'll give you an update, but it will be far too late to be of any use, and you'll have moved on to better things. (Please note the deep-seated bitterness and resentment directed at Steve Jobs' company...)

While I have been absent from my digital diary, I've been very busy with everything else. Design work has been picking up quite a lot of momentum. The music team has some upcoming events I'm organizing, and I'm travelling to Perth later this month to catch up with some friends. In the meantime, the number of people in our house is droppping each week – my parents have gone to China, my sister is about to go touring in Tasmania (the Tagalong State), and another is house-sitting for a couple of weeks. Things are getting pretty quiet around here.

So things are busy. But apparently there's a lot of that going around at the moment.

To finish my tale of technical woes in the last post - I have given up on the old iBook. It's dead to me (and everyone else). After the logic board started screwing up, I was told that to fix it would cost $400 more than what I bought it for in the beginning.

So I dumped it.


In a spurt of rebounding emotions, I went and purchased, instead, a shiny new MacBook. This was brilliant, as I was leaving to teach at a music conference the next day in Adelaide. It was a beautiful little piece of machinery, and I lovingly named it Mach II. (I couldn't very well have called it MacTop, that would have been disrespectful to it's deceased predecessor!) And, just as denoted in the instruciton booklet accompanying my purchase, me and my Mac were made for each other!

But it was not to be. 7 hours after buying the laptop, as I began to install and transfer progams and files to my new computer, the hard drive failed. THAT DOES NOT EVEN HAPPEN. Out of the box. Completely dead. WHY???

No-one I know has had this bad a run of luck with Apple machinery. It refused to start up, and I was crushed. Of course, at 10:00pm, there's not a lot of technical support available. And Apple's so-called 'Support' site was nothing but a couple of useless html pages filled with banner ads telling me how I should just love that my Mac just works 'right out of the box.' I nearly through my Mighty Mouse through my MacPro screen at that point. I was flipping out, because my flight the next day left at 12 noon.

I rang the store I bought it from at 9:01 the following morning, and told them I was coming in to swap my machine for a new one (which they graciously agreed to. I guess my cash was still warm in their till at the time). So I race to the store, swap computers, keep my fully charged battery of the night before, and begin installing my software and transferring files ON MY WAY TO THE AIRPORT.

This, I christened Mac III, not a full day after its precursor had passed on to the Great AI in the Sky.

So it all worked out ok, in the end. I made it to Adelaide, used my Macc III to its greatest potential in my teaching sessions. I sent important e-mails to clients. And I watched movies with a mate on the flight back.

I also left my iPod on that plane, never to be recovered again.


...


But wait, there's more.


June, 2008: Everything seem to be travelling along nicely after my last debacle with Apple. I was in mourning for my lost iPod, but I was in therapy, and finally starting to look toward the future, when I could buy my own iPhone...

But alas, as with all computers brought into contact with me, something had to give. Again, with my new MacBook, it turned out to be the LogicBoard that finally threw in the towel.

I was lappy-less for about a month, as I waited for the repair shop to get through it's current orders. Fortunately, it was covered under warranty. I didn't pay anything to get it fixed, but honestly - What the heck, Apple? What have I ever done to you? (Apart from dropping many of your products from unsafe heights).

Anyways. The Mac III is returned to its rightful (and possibly dangerous) place at my side. The iPhone is about 3 weeks away from also being in my possession. All is well with the world.


IN LESS TRAUMATIC NEWS...

So apart from all that drama, I'm mainly working from home at the moment. I have some great projects to work on at the moment, and some other job opportunities on the horizon. (I have a meeting with a potential contractor this week, so that's exciting).

I'm off to see the Dark Knight on Friday night, and I am still looking forward to my trip to Perth.

I will try and write again very shortly, as to fill you in on some deep ponderings I have been thinking through in the recent months. I am sure you are all waiting desperately to hear them...

In the mean time, check out some of the things that have been inspirations for me lately – for example, this guy's design work.

And listen to this girl's music.

And watch this trailer.


Type to you soon,