Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Turn on the lights, brush away the cobwebs…

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Sorry I haven’t been around as much as I should be. I seem to have lost my way this month, with a NaBloPoMo fail and a definite shortfall of Mingling and Blog Hopping. I’ll play catch-up as best as I can, but I think I’ll forego any more attempts at NaBloPoMo until fall!

As you may already know, Freya’s training and trialing has not been a source of joy and wonder lately. A vet visit didn’t turn up any physical causes for our training and performance issues, but I didn’t have any lab work done at that time. I’ve been debating with myself about having a thyroid panel done. Her last one came back normal not quite two years ago. But she will be seven years old in November, so is now edging up to senior status (noooooooooo, she’s still my puppy girl), so at this point, maybe it is money well spent rather than a long shot. Hypothyroidism is also one of the only non-fatal things I can think of that could cause mood swings, hyper-reactivity, and weight gain (in her case a more subtle inability to get back to her ideal weight… hmmm… a problem for me, as well). Anything else I can think of is either much scarier, or else points back to me sucking big time as a dog trainer (this is actually the most likely possibility).

Speaking of health tests, I still need to get Axel in for his OFA cardiac clearance. I have been holding off in hopes of a cardiac clinic being offered at a nearby show, as the cost savings would be very significant (try at least 50%), especially if the clinic is also doing Dopplers. Since there have been no known heart issues with his parents or siblings, and I don’t have any immediate breeding plans for him, I guess it won’t hurt to hold off just a bit longer.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m going to mention it again anyway since it’s one of the things that has been eating up my time this month. Please think about subscribing to The Total Rottweiler Magazine. I am currently a volunteer (unpaid) proofreader and copyeditor for TTRM so I do admit some bias as I tell you it’s well worth checking into if you have any interest in Rottweilers and dog sports.

So that’s the short version of what’s been going on. I have a backlog of Freya training videos to analyze and comment on, as well as a couple of hopefully more informative short rally obedience-related videos that I’m editing in iMovie as time permits. I hope to also have some Axel frisbee video soon. On the technology side, I have some MacBook and Sony Reader thoughts to post. Oh, and I did manage to fit in the upgrade to WordPress 3.0 as well.

I know it isn’t supposed to be a main focus for this blog, but I still have some TV breaks that I never posted. Lucky for you all, some are no longer timely so you won’t have to read them, but at some point I still plan to tell you why Glee is the devil. I’m sure I’ll have at least a few new TV breaks once Rescue Me and Mad Men start up again on June 29 and July 25, respectively.

Drawing the line… is there even still a line?

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My recently-purchased MacBook is now fully loaded with all of my most-needed software and “stuff.” Since I opted to go with the not-newly-updated and much less expensive MacBook rather than the whiz-bang new-Mac-smell of the just-updated MacBook Pro, I won’t bore you with a long review. I’ll just say that it’s a nice and logical upgrade from my trusty but aging iBook G4, at a great price ($882 out the door, which is less than the original purchase price of the iBook) and it’s lighter to carry to work as it’s quite a bit more compact. See?

As you can see, I am giving up FireWire, which I used exactly twice (we have some FireWire portable hard drives that we use at the office, which can also be connected via USB), and an internal modem, which I don’t think I ever used.

Now, after thinking about what’s on my Mac and what’s on my PC, I’m wondering about something else.
[Read more…]

Laptops everywhere!

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So on Saturday, I mentioned how nice it would be if a large-screen MacBook Pro fell out of the sky to replace my aging iBook G4.

Well, that didn’t happen, nor did $2,500 fall out of the sky so I could go and buy one myself. But I did get an email earlier this week advertising an instant rebate on the 13-inch MacBook, putting the price well into a range where the money could fall out of my own wallet without too much stress. I took that as a sign that it was indeed time to replace the aforementioned aging iBook G4.

So before picking up my newly repaired pretty red VAIO laptop from the SonyStyle store, I made a stop at Micro Center to buy the MacBook. Yes, I know, the buzz says that an updated version of the MacBook Pro is imminent. I suppose I could have waited for that, but that would just circle back around to needing more money than I wanted to spend. The MacBook brings me up to speed and into the Intel zone, and I don’t feel I’m sacrificing too much for the lower price.

If you don’t visit here often, you may also be asking why one person needs two laptops. Technically, you should be asking why one person needs four laptops, since I haven’t actually gotten rid of the iBook or a totally aged Compaq laptop running Windows 98 yet. But I digress. A long time ago, I told myself that when I was able to comfortably afford to have both a PC and a Mac, I would. That happy day arrived, and I don’t ever intend to be without one of each again, unless things really go to hell in a handbasket.

Now that I have a Mac (and a PC, for that matter) that will be able to handle it, that brings me back to my whole inner debate about Adobe Creative Suite 5. If the business can justify upgrading CS2 to CS5 for my use, I’m guessing it will be a $600 upgrade. That will happen only if our major clients also do the upgrade.

If there is no business reason to upgrade, it will be on my dime. Then I’ll have to decide whether I want to upgrade at all (cost $0), upgrade my Windows version of CS4 (I upgraded from CS2 to CS4 a year ago, so guessing at a cost of about $600), or purchase a full new Mac version of CS5 (guessing at a cost of about $1,800). Yikes.

I’ll be watching the CS5 announcement on Monday, April 12, with great interest. But the actual product release date hasn’t been given yet, so there is some time to continue this inner debate. I’m personally guessing summer 2010 for release. Let’s see what happens!

(NaBloPoMo | April ’10: 8 of 30)