— Top-notch quality at a fraction of the cost.			The 29th As much as I like Jaguar, I hate the fact that Apple ditched the Happy Mac that appears at startup for their logo. I had the same type of reaction when they changed their rainbow logo to the monochromatic/candified version. I have to admit that I do like it much better that way as it fits with the overall branding scheme Apple has developed. But the Happy Mac? Why couldn't they just leave it alone? It's a tradition to see that smiling face every time I boot up my Mac. But while the grey Apple logo and nifty loading cycle animation are very aesthetically pleasing and minimalist, it just seems very wrong to have killed Happy Mac. I guess there's a way to hack the system to replace the Apple logo with whatever icon or image you like so I may try to do that. I've never been much for messing around with source code and such. The Terminal makes me nervous, and ResEdit was kind of intimidating but I managed to hack my Explorer browser throbber. Perhaps I'll have my good ol' Happy Mac back on screen soon enough! The 28th After spending almost an entire day over the weekend cleaning up files, backing up files, cleaning my office, etc., etc. I finally was ready to clear my head and the space around me of all that clutter and junk, and installed my OS X Jaguar upgrade. I've only had it for months just sitting on my desk, waiting to be installed. Now if I can just get a bunch of programs I use daily to work in Jaguar then I'll be ready to switch over completely. It's such a sweet OS, I only wish I could get a little more support for certain drivers and whatnot. But I did the most minor dabbling in the Terminal and I have to admit that I thought I was going to destroy my Mac just by opening the program. I think I'll keep my ventures into "command line land" to a minimum. The 23rd I went to have my hearing checked today and my ears examined (way too early in the morning for my liking though). I hadn't had a test since 1996 and they showed me the results which indicated that my hearing in my good ear was getting better. In fact, they said that ear was in "pristine" condition and had the hearing of a teenager. Strange. Yesterday when it was bloody cold, I was leaving the post office and this guy coming out right behind me saw me pull my scarf up over my face and just asked how far I was going—I can only assume he wanted to give me a lift somewhere. I didn't have far to go so I didn't take him up on the offer but that's one great thing about a small town like this—people are friendly and helpful. That is unless you're one of the many rednecks, assholes, dickheads and idiots I know of. Then you're just a redneck, asshole, dickhead or idiot and I'd rather not talk to, see, deal with, pass by, and/or associate with in any way ever again. The 19th MacPhee and Nicole brought over their brand new Monopoly board tonight to have a game. As far as I can remember, I've never one a game of Monopoly unless it was when I was a kid and we never knew what the hell we were doing. In any case, after two and a half hours the game was over and yours truly won his first game! A historic night indeed in our world of board games. I have pictures of my winning wad of cash, and of my two destitute opponents which I will post someday when I get them developed. In the meantime, I have a digital snapshot of the end result. Nicole was eliminated by me first and then MacPhee was forced into bankruptcy soon after. When all was said and done, MacPhee's cash and properties were handed over to me and they went home while I figured out my final standing. It was the first time I won so I wanted to savour the moment. After getting all of his mortgaged properties, I even went so far as to pay the $850+ mortgages and the 10% fee on top of that. Taking all of that into account, I was still left with $2532. I owned every property except for Pacific Avenue, and had a bunch of hotels on the light blue, red, and the coveted Park Place/Boardwalk combo. A sweet night indeed. The 14th I have a washer. I wash my clothes. I have a dryer. I can't dry my clothes because until today there was no hookup. It was supposed to have been installed before we moved in but, like many other things, it was not. And even if it was, there's no dryer outlet so until that's installed as well I'm forced to march back and forth to my parents' place with my wet laundry to get it dried. All I know is that there's going to be a big stink put up if the landlord doesn't pay up for services to get the dryer I just bought up and running. The 13th It's been a while but I'm suddenly getting ideas popping into my head like I used to. Hopefully this will keep up and I'll be able to actually do something creative. If I didn't have to cook, do laundry, clean, and work then I would be able to get lots of things done. I guess I'll just have to quit my job and move back home. I wouldn't mind being unemployed and having no responsibilities for a year. The 12th Xmas is over, the New Year is here and now I've come up with a new design for IR. I really should be changing this every couple of months but who has the time? Not I. I've been meaning to update this page for weeks now with some things that I'm sure would have been very, very important but I keep putting it off in typical procrastinator fashion. One thing that I've been meaning to write about is this commercial I saw when I was watching The Price is Right at my grandparents' over the holiday break. It was for one of those beds—the Ultramatic. Usually these commercials have an old guy or woman showing how good they are for old people. The remote, the diagrams, the free COLOUR TV offers, the number for the free catalogue and video. This one was different though...very different. It was this young woman in the bed, talking all sexy-like with "romantic" music in the background. The bed was all covered in satin sheets and she was in her young woman-style PJs. She'd talk about how good the bed was, how well you'd sleep in it but would snuggle up with the pillows with these little porn-esque moans. It was really quite disturbing because I pictured all of these old people watching the commercial with mouths agape wondering if this could be the "bed for them." These horrible images of old couples in these kinky positions aided by the adjustable bed's positions assaulted my mind. Then an adult diapers commercial came on and all was well again.