Late Thoughts on Macworld Expo

I know that Macworld has already come and gone and all the hype has already died down, but I still never got a chance to express MY views on the new product announcements on MY website. So without further ado, I give you MY opinions. iWork has been long rumored and now confirmed, which excites me. I have yet to order my own copy, but I soon will. I have high expectations for Pages and see it as a fun replacement for Microsoft Word, but there are still features of Word that I would miss when using Pages. For example, I use Word's notebook mode frequently for taking notes and audio annotations in my classes. Then there is Keynote 2.0. Nothing earth-shattering there, but given the need to create a slideshow presentation, it will most devinately be my tool of choice. iLife '05 was a bit more exciting, although I was disappointed at the $79 price tag. I'd only be buying it for the new iPhoto and GarageBand capabilities. Luckly I qualify for discounted educational pricing, which makes the upgrade only $59, but that's still a lot compared to the $49 iLife '04 package. Mac mini seemed to be everyone's favorite announcement, and I could definately see myself buying one of these down the road. I wish Apple sold it with a built-in TV tuner to try to win market share in the digital video recorder department, as the mini would make one cool media center PC. I could also see myself buying ANOTHER Mac mini somewhere in the distant future to be installed in my car. Yes, this would be excessive, but where's the fun in being conservative with electronics?! Geeks have to go all out. One more thing: iPod Shuffle. I still have mixed feelings about this one, but I definately want to get my hands on one for some real world testing. I'm thinking it would even make a great gift for people. I hate to keep bitching about Apple's prices, but at $79 for the 512 MB model, it would be twice as tempting! I'll shut up now, and maybe at the next major trade show I'll try to get something posted that day or the next, not two weeks later!

Ghost Hunt

I went ghost hunting tonight. Accompanied by Michael and Tyler, we set out to the cemetary on 7th Street. I did manage to capture one crazy image that I cannot explain. See for yourself. I will post my high-res version soon, shot at 1600x1200. This was shot with a Canon PowerShot S50.

Back to Work

My two week period of slacking has ended. Tomorrow morning I must return to work and (try to) be a productive member of society. We had a fantastic time in downtown Albuquerque on Friday night. Jason, Tyler, and myself went to The Anodyne and Burt's Tiki Lounge. The live music was great (Gingerbread Patriots being my favorite act) but the TV show "Land of the Lost" took the cake. It was playing on the TV behind the bar and I couldn't get enough of it! Around 1:00 AM we set out to eat our first meal of the year at The Frontier on Central Avenue, only to discover the 24/7 establishment was CLOSED! We went a few blocks down to a Denny's, where we waited and waited and waited for our food. As we were almost finished, we witnessed two guys get jumped in the parking lot by about three or four other guys! They don't call it "Albucrazy" for nothing! That night, I also sported my new Domo-kun hoodie from J-List and three complete strangers noticed it and commented me on it. Way cool! Thanks for the kickass hoodie, J.D.