Chroder.com

Time is flying by these days. A week goes by and it feels like an hour (well, perhaps not quite that fast). But alas, time for another blog entry. I don’t think anyone ever reads this thing other then that weirdo Danny (I kid, Danny, I kid! You’re not that weird). But I still like to write down my thoughts sometimes. Besides, it’ll be cool in 20 years to read how dumb I am now.

First things first. I am not blond! I’ve got dark hair. I normally wouldn’t care, but damn Floris and his mindfucks. I’m convinced there’s a conspiracy going on. If you don’t chat with us (#vbfans on irc.vbulletin-chat.com) then you’ll be completely confused right about now. Call it an inside “joke” if you will. Just remember: never trust a Floris. Their mind games are usually crude, but their persistence guarantees that once in a while, you’ll get truly mindfucked. Moving on…

As you know, I got my iMac 24″ in November. I think I expressed my satisfaction with the purchase a couple blog posts ago, but I just need to reiterate. The iMac is the best tech investment I’ve ever made. I’ve been using it exclusively since I got it. I’m about 99% Windows free. My old PC is now serving as a CentOS home server (which I still need to bug Derek or adb as to how the hell to get it working properly!). The only time I use Windows now is through Parallels to test something in IE or cleaning viruses and spyware from my parents laptop. In fact, I’m so happy with my iMac I decided to take the plunge and buy a MacBook as well. It arrived a couple weeks ago, and once again, I am not disappointed. It’s very very cool. (Note: I know I sound like a total fanboy, and that’s probably true! But the thing that always prevented me from getting a Mac before was fear that I’d regret it. I know a Mac isn’t for everyone, but I know a lot of people who it would be great for but they still use PCs because they see it as their only option.)

I ordered both Apple products by phone since I needed to pay via wire transfer (no credit card, and couldn’t get parents to put it on theirs as it needs to be in my name for my business). The first time, for the iMac, was a breeze. The saleswoman was totally awesome. The second time, for the MacBook: not so awesome. I had a feeling something was up just talking to the guy. You know, like he didn’t really know what he was doing. I put my order through just fine, went to the bank, did the wire transfer — seemed okay. Then about 5 days later I get an email from Apple saying I still owe more money for taxes. I was enraged. I called up Apple and told the woman who answered about the situation; my main argument being that I have to pay to do wire transfers, and I wasn’t going to pay more because the dumbass on the phone didn’t include sales tax. At the end of the day, they agreed to pay for the wire transfer. Not exactly the outcome I had wished for, but better then nothing. The whole ordeal still made a 5-7 day shipment take about 3 times that. In retrospect, if I fought harder, I think I could have got more out of them. But she had such a nice voice, and she kept saying sorry. Damn Apple! I was fooled by the puppydog-eyes, but audio version!

Speaking of money, I got my first spend-more-then-you-have card. AKA a credit card. I only requested a $500 limit, and I vow I will never ever spend more then I have. Ever! My sister is in so much debt now it’s not even funny. A college loan plus a handful of credit cards, all maxed. I don’t ever want to be in that situation. But it’s so damn easy to spend money when you have a credit card! Visa is accepted everywhere. Before I was limited to purchases through PayPal, which is getting easy enough these days, but now I’m only limited to $500 at a time. In the first 4 days or so of having the card I slapped about $400 on it. Though I won’t do that again, most of the things are tools I need for work (SmartSVN for example). But still, is there such a thing as too easy?

Also, who watches Hereos? 24? Criminal Minds? Battlestar Galactica? Rome? CSI? Prison Break? House? The Unit? The Office? Bones? LOST?! Oh my, my TV schedule is packed. I never used to watch much TV, but my “TiVO” has changed my life. All these shows, at the tips of my fingers. Mmmmm.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks. Come back in a month or so for another edition of Chroder’s Useless Commentaries.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 10th, 2007 at 7:44 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.