iLove.

If I'd had any idea just how awesome it would be, I wouldn't have put it off so long.

Don't get me wrong, I had no doubt it would be pretty damn schweeet, but it's seriously amazing!

I put it off and put it off, holdin' out for the next bigger/better model, 'cause it wasn't six months after I got this MacBook that the newer/bigger/faster ones were out. I'm still very happy with the MacBook though...

I kept telling myself I'd order my iPod direct from Apple in a few more months. Just a little longer. Just a little longer. Playin' with Scott's iPod and takin' a closer look at almost every one of 'em that turned up in any of the pawn shops just made me want one even more -- and every time I'd hassle with my cheapy-no-name-SD-card player, I'd think about it a little more. I didn't want any of the little ones that I'd been lookin' at; I wanted the big one, the 80-gig, but I just kept waiting and putting it off. You know how I am -- there are very few situations where I'll go for the small or medium if there's a bigger one available. I ain't buyin' no six-cylinder pickup truck, I almost always go for the "large" fries even though I know I shouldn't... I was holdin' out for the "big" iPod, I really was.

And then Saturday, we stopped by the Pawn Shop on a whim and as I was lookin' at that ten dollar MP3 CD Player thinkin' I could toss that in the F-250 and not worry about it, and then I saw it... A 30-gig black one with a nice little yellow pricetag on it. I can't believe I almost missed it, but there it was, and as soon as I had it in my hands, I had to have it, so Merry Christmas! Yup, that's right, it's June and I hadn't touched Last Year's Christmas Money yet -- if you'll remember, I bought the Hearse in October of '05 with 2004's Christmas Cash; 2005 got dropped off at the bank shortly after Christmas of '06. See? That makes it real easy to justify spendin' a little money on myself! Wait... I'm always spending money on myself... Oh, screw-it, it's not like I'm lettin' bills go or something.

I had no idea how freakin' cool it would be! Music, Video, easy to use, no hassling with "find folder menu" and all that crap I had to go through every time I turned on that SD-card player (or every time I turned it back on after it had frozen and I had to pull the battery to re-start it). I had no idea the iPod had Solitaire in it. Solitaire! And I'm also stunned with the "notes" option; the first thing I did was put my Hotwheel/Matchbox "inventory" file on there -- so now when I'm standin' in a store tryin' to remember which ones I have or don't have, I can reach into my purse and it's right there. I'm stunned. Positively stunned.

I didn't get the "big" one this time, but it was such a sweet deal, I couldn't pass it up -- and I still might order a brand-new 80-gig one of these days too!

I am definitely a happy customer!

More later... _\,,/

Recycling?

Okay, I've Go0ogled, but so far come up empty. Everything I've found so far that mentions actual recycling for old computers is about actual recycling (not finding strange new uses), like gettin' rid of tires. I'm lookin' for a re-using kinda thing, like makin' sandals out of those old tires...

Ya see...

One of those big Bondi-blue Mac 17" displays quit on us this afternoon. Not that I'm really worried about being down one, 'cause I've got four or five more of 'em; it's just that I hate to just toss it into the dumpster.

Way back ten years or so ago, there was a guy in Tulsa who made these nifty little aquariums out of the old Mac Color Classics (and I'm guessing he made 'em with a few others of the same shape) -- A cool idea if I ever saw one, he'd really put the stuff together with the glass/lexan/whatever shaped to fit perfectly where the screen would have been and a light to shine on the fishies and even a built-in aquarium pump inside the shell of the old computer with an original-lookin' cord comin' out the back. I remember meeting him while I was with Pete, and I got to see a couple of the aquariums at Computer Warehouse over on 41st Street -- but I'm not even completely sure that store is still there or even still in operation. There was talk of turning dead laptops into Ant Farms or Picture Frames, but I don't think anything ever became of it.

It hasn't been too long ago that I discovered the perfect recycle-ish use for my ol' Packard Bell from Pre-Y2K; it makes a perfect little stand to get my iMac up off the desk where I'm not scrunched over lookin' down at it.

There's got to be some "cool" re-use for this big blue-n-white plastic shell, other than target practice or bridge-bowling. I don't completely rule out bridge-bowling though - heh, it's good & heavy, probably heavier than my dead microwave that I tossed over the edge a few years ago, so I'm sure it would make a nice crash & splash, but it's Mac Stuff! Even Dead Mac Stuff is cooler than a garage-sale microwave, right? And besides, if I'm gonna "recycle" the thing, tossin' it off a bridge and into a creek probably goes against the whole idea of recycling to cut down on garbage anyway.

It's a little too big for a reasonable piggy bank and a little too small for a reasonable bookshelf, so I'm thinkin' more and more about the aquarium idea, but I've been told that tearin' into a monitor can zap-yer-ass even if it hasn't had power to it for quite a while...

Maybe if I can just get the plastic shell off & save it and then pitch the rest...

Maybe...

De-lurk, comment, e-mail; especially if you know where that guy went! ;)

More later. _\,,/