The Mac Love Affair Continues.......

And I'm not talking about the hamburger lol.....

I've had my imac now for over a year and have had a couple of little quirks happen, but nothing detrimental. I love it still and certainly don't regret 'crossing over'. This morning however, my computer wasn't asleep and I couldn't even restart it! I felt sick. I have extended Apple Care, which is warranty for another two years, but still. It's not a good feeling. Primarily because I don't have an external hard drive. Because I'm not on a PC anymore, and problems are virtually nonexistent, I've been lax with backing up my photos and my music. They are of course my main concern. So I realized, I'd finally have to use my external hard drive research and go and buy one ASAP. Added to that I realized that my darling, owed me money, so I knew I could go and get something. After I did the groceries this morning, I saw dear Bunny and told him I was heading out to buy some external memory storage. I had looked into the Time Capsule, Apple's external hard drive and was amazed at its capabilities. Needless to say the price was a bit of a sticking point - nothing Apple makes is cheap. I went into Myer to talk to the staff there. I was very happy to see there is now a Mac guy working there, the equivalent to the US Apple Genius, but their title is nowhere near as pretentious here. The guy was very pro Time Capsule (of course). He was busy and then I went over to check out the other EHDs and the Apple guy came over and waxed lyrical about all the features of the Time Capsule. It's also a router, which means when I get a lap top, it can have wireless internet!!

I ordered the smaller one!

Time Capsule uses Time Machine to run it. It's an amazing program. The initial backup takes many hours, at least over night for the amount of data I have, several days if you have loads more than me. If you're interested, here's an overview of what it does.

I don't have it yet, because it was out of stock. I also ordered iLife 09 which looks fantastic. I love that suite of programs. iphoto is fantastic, and imovie is good fun too. I had actually read that imovie06 was a far better program, and I managed to still find it to download it for free. It has lots more features than imovie 08. I'm hoping that imovie 09 will be a big improvement. Judging by the previews and examples it should be. I also got a new wireless mouse today. There are lots of bad reviews about the Mac Mighty Mouse, but I love it. I love how it feels in my hand, and it works really well. It did take me a while to get used to, and, until I knew how to set it to have right click as well, I was rather lost. Now having one without a 'tail' is just fantastic. The lead was always annoying me.

Because I had time and I was on my own, I was able to 'play' with a Macbook too. I was very impressed with how well it worked. I found touch pad to be easy to use, and it was remarkably fast. I'm glad I am teaching my Digital Photography Class again because it means I can pay off these things - plus they are a tax deduction for me too. I won't be able to get one probably until the middle of the year, as I will have paid off my camera by then.

The young bloke who served me in Myer, (not the Apple guy) was telling me he had a PC laptop and when it 'died' he was going to go with a Mac. I asked him why? It's always good having an opinion of someone who actually works surrounded by these machines (PC and Mac). He said they are just superior. They work better, they last longer! Always nice to know that you make wise decisions, when someone reaffirms what you believe. Not that I need to justify my choice, but an unbiased opinion carries weight with me.

My girlfriends husband has a Mac, his is a few months older than mine. He just bought Time Capsule a few weeks ago, and it's already helped him out hugely. They have loads and loads of videos from their young children, stuff that's far too precious to lose. He is one of the few people I know who has a Mac. He works huge hours, and I don't see him often, so all his info is passed through his darling wife, who is not computer savvy at all, and it results in the funniest conversations. She's always telling me what he's done, but of course is stumped when I get all excited and start asking questions. Thankfully she is very patient with me, and always remembers to ask her husband, so she is a messenger of all our "MacSpeak". I respect his opinions, so base much about which product to get etc on his thoughts and purchases. I'm just glad he doesn't have an iphone lol......

I came home, had lunch, tidied up and then walked to Billy-Joe's school to pick him up. It was an hour round trip and in the heat of the day, no mean feat. Actually when I told DB that I'd walked, he asked how I got to the school in the first place........I said I walked. He was very impressed! I'm not sure how far away it is, but the hills are deadly. My hip fared okay, but got a bit clicky on one hill that just went on forever. It was really nice to spend the walk home talking to Billy-Joe. We clash so much sometimes, it's nice for us to have this one on one time. It's really precious actually, because we come together, not as equals, but as friends, that just want to hang out together. So it's nice for me too, not to always have the 'parent' hat on. I wanted to walk him home too, in case he ever has to walk himself. I'm still not 100% happy with letting him cross roads on his own, so I taught him the things to watch out for as there's one really busy road he would have to cross. The trip home was quite an eventful one actually. We were walking along the path and Billy-Joe jumps and yells 'Snake, snake'. I wasn't frightened, but couldn't see it in front of me. Billy-Joe continued to yell so I started to walk backwards, not realizing the snake had come out of the grass again and was behind me!! Then I saw it. This green tree snake, (the snake was smaller than this one, but it gives you an idea) but so agro, it wasn't funny. He had his skinny little head about 4 inches off the ground and he was not a happy boy. I just moved away......... Billy-Joe was petrified, and I wasn't too bad, probably not as bad as when I see a huge huntsman inside my house actually.

I cooked a delicous pizza last night. I'll have to update my recipe blog. Actually I've got a few recipes I need to write out. I've taken the photos, but doing the recipe is always of course more time consuming.

Scrapping tonight and my brother, wife and my nieces are coming tomorrow night for a BBQ, so a lovely weekend ahead.

I've exercised heaps this week and am starting to feel much better about my weight. Probably have only lost a little, but it feels good to do something positive, rather than just stressing about it.