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My old pc has been on the disabled list for a while now. It was completely useless as a gaming machine and almost as useless as a multi-program multitasking machine. Basically, it was great for e-mail and internet browsing. So off I went to the Apple store for a laptop. I decided on a Macbook Pro for no good reason. It’s a nice machine, but I’m thinking I should have done a little more research before plunking down the few grand that was burning a hole in my pocket.

Battery life is shorter than expected. On a good night I get about three hours of browsing time while unplugged. But if I’m playing a game it’s far less, naturally. I am not used to being detached, since I’ve never had a laptop, so I had fanciful dreams of going to the park or even from room to room with my Macbook without having to drag around power cords and extensions. Speaking of power cords, I find it quite handy that the plug is magnetic. No worries about it falling loose from the Mac while charging.

For a seventeen inch laptop, the Macbook Pro is lighter than expected.While it is still tricky to pick up and handle with just one hand, it’s nowhere near as bulky and weighty as the Dell laptops I have encountered. I am concerned about finding a nice pack to carry both my laptop and camera gear around. The length of the Mac ppears to be limiting my choices thus far.

If there is one thing I really hate, it’s that I can’t use the Mac in bed because the screen will not stay open when propped up on the slightest angle. Now, I haven’t had a need to use it more than once so far, but it was enough to annoy me a great deal. So far I haven’t been able to find too many complaints about this on message boards, which leads me to think that it’s not a common issue, or no one else cares about this drawback.

I’m only into my second week of ownership, so time will tell whether I love it or hate it. Thus far I like it, as it enables me that little bit of freedom that my desktop does not.

“Cookie Monster to Big Bird. Do you read me? Over”
“This is Big Bird. Over.”
“I love you daddy. Drive safe. Over.”
“I love you too sweety, goodnight. Over”

Cookie Monster was me, or rather the handle of myself and my siblings back in the early eighties. Yes, when I was young I had a handle. Many kids these days wouldn’t know what the word means unless you can masterfully associate it with the phrase “screen name”. Before the advent of cellular phones and easily accessible and affordable internet, there were CB radios. Using the CB to talk to my dad was easy enough that I had mastered it before age five. I didn’t know my own phone number, but I knew that when I pressed the button and asked for Big Bird, that my dad and I could talk before I had to go to bed at night.

When I was about eight or so, my dad had bought an early version of todays cellular phone, the bag phone, a large cumbersome device that replaced the CB radio in the family. It was cool at the time. Not everyone had a phone in their car, let alone a phone they could carry into the park on picnic day and still be able to call grandma to say hello. But as convenient as it could be, it was a pain to carry around and took up a lot of unnecessary space in the front seat of the truck. That is why, when the handy little mobile phone came about, my dad was quick to trade up for something a little more pocket-sized.

Over the last ten years my dad has gone from one phone to the next, upgrading as new features are introduced or new plans are created to better suit his business needs. I remember he had a Nextel phone with the walkie-talkie feature long before I did. It was amazing and fun to use for messing with his employees who weren’t familiar with my voice. As familiar as I have been with mobile phones for the majority of my life, one might think I would be proficient in using one of my own. Sadly, I fail.

I don’t really like talking on the telephone, in fact I avoid it when I can. But a little over a month ago I found myself at the T-Mobile Kiosk in the mall being smooth talked into my first cellular phone purchase since 2000. I had been happy and cell phone free from summer 2003 until now. I was available at home only, and was able to enjoy peaceful standstills in traffic on the freeway without somebody calling to see if I was the one who forgot to put the milk back in the fridge. I lived my life for me, and not at the beck and call of others. I was disconnected from the world when I left my house, and I liked it that way. Now, I am bound by a tiny plastic object that chimes in with “hip hop jamz” quite loudly to warn that someone is about to annoy me.

The phone is small and it flips open to reveal a color screen with a little cartoon dragon in it. I picked that out myself. In reality, I tried changing the background for an hour and settled for that when my fingers got tired. The phone lights up when I have an incoming call which is pretty neat, but useless since I only get calls from like three people, and generally in the daytime. Maybe if I find myself out at a club I can have someone call me and then dance around waving it in the air like a high-tech glow stick. I have already lost it once, and gave up on trying to change ring tones. I had to have help setting up the address book, that’s how lame I am. I can build a PC but I can’t figure out how to answer a call on my little phone. If only they were as simple as using that CB radio, I think I’d be alright.

from now until september 5, 2005, the museum of science and industry in Chicago is about the coolest place you can spend an afternoon. for the next few months they are featuring the exhibit Game On, an interactive display of the history in video games. you can play several different arcade, console, and portable games from the 70’s through today’s newest releases. in the words[overheard] of a young boy to his mother “mom, this is the coolest place you’ve ever taken me!”

indeed it was as cool as i had anticipated. what i wasn’t expecting was 70 degree weather and sunshine. of all the days i decide to spontaneously drive out to chicago, i had to pick the one day in months that would be perfect to spend outdoors by the lake front. but, as is the role of a geek, i stayed inside on a nice day to spend hours playing games. i had planned on leaving early so i could get there in time to bask in the greatness of all that the museum has to offer, but i woke up late, hit some traffic, and got there a little over two hours before closing. not bad, except that there was a monstrous line of people waiting to get in. the zig-zag queue must have had at least three hundred people coralled like hogs to the slaughter. fortunately it took only forty minutes to meander through and get my ticket. in like flynn baby, at the reasonable price of only fourteen bucks! but time was a wastin’ so i decided to skip all the other exhibits and concentrate on the real important stuff - video games. well, quick sammich first, then games!

as this all took place two weekends ago, i will re-cap what i played to the best of my ability.

pong

galaga

dig-dug

tomb raider

fighting street

tetris

animal crossing

lemmings

some racing game

pokemon

simon

golden tee golf

bubble bobble

some billiard arcade game

some star wars booth game

several racing games on ps2 and xbox platforms

as i mentioned, this was an exhibit to showcase some old games and their transition into the kickass games we have today. from the ginormous arcade cabinets *drool* to the hand-held shiny systems that you can lose as easily as your car keys and will probably make you just as upset, if not more. as you walk through the zig and zag of the exhibit you can’t help but be tempted by all the games. good thing you’re allowed to touch these. it would be a cruel cruel joke to taunt me with games i cannot play. i enjoyed watching the adults walk through with their children and then beating them at all the multiplayer games. a few parents were not obeying the five minute time limit much to the dismay of their children. the museum of science and industry is generally a fun museum to visit, but this was beyond great. i had overheard a few kids thanking mom and dad for taking them to the museum! how often do you hear that from the mouths of babes?

along with having fun, i was tricked into learning some things about the games that i played. for example, beloved over-pixilated tomb raider heroine lara croft was originally pitched as lara cruz. the game was also originally said to be educational. something about problem solving, creativity and discovering how the teensy-waisted big-busted lara can keep her balance while running and firing two pistols at a moving target.

the super ultra mega happy fun time a-number one pokemon was a freak fad. the person who invented pokemon never meant for it to become such an out of control craze that swept the globe and corrupted the youth of all nations. he merely wanted to create a game that utilized the link cable feature for the nintendo game boy. at the time there weren’t many games to use the link that allowed you to beat the crap out of your friends in a hand held rage. pokemon allowed that and became a smash success sprouting cartoons, movies, happy-meal toys and their own clothing line.

that’s my mini review of awesomeness for today. there are only six and a half months left to enjoy it before it’s packed up and moved to some undisclosed warehouse for storage. i’ll be going back in summer to see if there are some different games on exhibit and to show those kids who can dance dance with the best of ‘em.

i bought my viewsonic monitor back in november of 2000 to replace a dead optiquest. i loved my optiquest, my very first monitor purchase. however, it only lasted two years and if i remember correctly it died in very much the same way, minus the abuse you’re going to read about in a second. i traded the dead one in for a brand new $400 19″ E790. i was so excited because i negotiated a super awesome deal, paid only $43, on what i thought was another 17″ monitor. when i got home and noticed the difference, i giggled like a little child who had just pulled off a flawless prank.on sunday morning, well afternoon technically since i got up around 12, i was sitting at my computer researching some information on live rock and posting on the forums when my monitor began to pulse. i lovingly smacked the sides of the casing with both hands. this had worked for the past month or so but not today. palms flattened and arms outstretched, i smacked the side of the casing once again hoping to correct the issue. no dice. i decided to just go with the flow and try not to look at the screen as i typed.

i tried my best to concentrate as i typed through the dimming and brightening of the screen. i’m just glad it wasn’t frequent enough to give me a seizure like sitting in front of bad action anime. after ten minutes of guessing what i was typing i had finally had enough. i thought back to the little video of the frustrated office worker who also had finally had enough, flinging his equipment off the desk and smashing his monitor to the floor with his keyboard. i looked at the screen, looked at my hand, then punched the screen of my monitor with the base of my fist and with enough force to launch an altec lansing satellite speaker from it’s perch atop the monitor to a new resting spot atop a peacefully sleeping kittys tail on the floor. the screen took no damage, but my hand hurt a little bit. at least i felt better - that is until i noticed that the physical abuse had just pissed off my monitor. it continued it’s torture of dim, bright, brightness overload, dim, dimmer, then black. crap.

sunday night i drove through the pouring rain to my parents house for a visit. mom was baking cookies and dad was watching CSI. during one of the commercial breaks i excused myself to take the dog outside. instead, armed with nothing more than a blanket from my trunk, i snuck into my dad’s new office, stumbling over chairs and file cabinets as i made my way back to his desk. ah ha! the prize, a 17″ monitor that he’ll never miss. calling on my years of experience with fumbling around behind computer desks, i easily maneuvered around in the dark and had the monitor and cables bundled up and ready to go in under a minute. i ran through the rain to my car where i placed the booty and was back inside in time to sample a warm batch of cookies and finish watching CSI. unfortunately the monitor i snagged from my parents is kinda janky, but it serves as an o.k. replacement until i can buy a new one.

currently the dead monitor sitting on my living room floor next to the dead tv. i had planned on tossing both into the dumpster, but apparently these things have to be recycled because of the large amount of lead in the glass. so now i have to do some research, because to dispose of my tv, monitor and various other computer equipment is going to cost me close to $50 at one location i found. i’ll keep you posted.