Plug and Play

My first blog post from my new iMac which I've named "April". Plug and play to the extreme. I plugged this beautiful baby in and it sang to me. What a welcome! First the happy mac welcome sound, which I didn't even know I missed until it played, then a welcome show with music. Sing to me. 

Photos soon...

The experience of walking into the confusing Apple store nearly turned me off from buying April but I kept my cool and found a "Specialist" named Zac to help me figure out which Mac to purchase. He was very patient and followed me around, both the store and my thoughts, as I tried to figure out which system to purchase. April has a GIANT 20 inch monitor. Zac was enticing me with the 24 inch one but this was already over-kill. 

Buying a Mac feels totally self indulgent, and you know what, I'm ready for a little self indulgence. Today I filed my divorce paperwork and to celebrate I'm nurturing my inner-creative by purchasing a creative computer. 

I use to be a Mac person. For college graduation my parents bought me a Classic. The screen was so small I had to scroll back and forth to see a full sentence. It was best used for Tetris. Then my first job in California introduced me to the big design type systems, perfect since I was working at CopyMat in Salinas the Design Center Manager. That was ions ago. 

I had a big old Mac for a long time until I sold it at a yard sale in Oakland. I think the year was 2000. Actually, not that long ago. But the nine years between then and now were when the Mac got fancy. Selling my Mac I instantly felt out of the cool-Mac loop. As the years passed the gap widened. 

In Houston my job with Aurora Picture Show was in a full Mac environment and by that point I was full PC. I instantly took a disliking to that clever Mac sitting on my work desk with all its fancy gadgets and whoo haa. But you know what? I think I was a bit jealous of all the creative stuff I didn't know how to use. 

Here's my chance to get jiggy with it. Where are all the wires and the clunky CPU? Gone! Now to figure out how to download images and why is that globe bouncing at the bottom of my screen?

The nicest feature is that I can partition the hard drive so that it can be a Mac and a PC. The best of both worlds. 

Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, Slipping into the Future

Something came down from outer space and sucked up my time last week. Perhaps a combination of now having a busy consulting schedule and full social calendar. Or, maybe it was a post-Tofurkey daze.

Had a fantastic visit with another long lost friend found on Facebook. This time it was Andrew who worked for me at CopyMat three lifetimes ago when I lived in Salinas. Reconnecting after all these years and catching up on our various adventures was fun. Plus, I exposed him to some San Francisco Bay arts and arts folks and he fit into the scene.

Glowing Teens

My friends John, Maureen and I were I East Palo Alto this evening to observe and help. Volunteer at a teen program called GLOW. It is a college planning series for teens that are high achievers but from economically challenged families. Tonight's session was all about student loans and believe me. If I had had this advice I wouldn't be carrying some tremendous student loan debt.



What was most wonderful and brought tears to my eyes was the first question the facilitator asked the teens, please tell us your dream college." They each were able to immediately share the school of their dreams. I was so impressed. We were also asked to share the school of our dreams and I was surprised that Rode Island School of Design was my response.



I was shocked that through the course of the evening I had learned so much about student loans and financing that I was able to work with two young guys to explore the best financial aid options based on financial obligations.



The highlight was when they asked us what we studied, what our first job was out of college and what we do now. They were so impressed that I studied Cinema/Photo, English and Arts Management and especially liked that I had worked at CopyMat. Who knew that would be considered cool some day.