This week I hit the road for two days to visit some branch locations for work. No majorly important work, just maintenance and small computer upgrades. Yesterday I was in Mobile, AL and once I finished I drove to Destin, FL. I arrived in Destin at 3:30, an hour before the store is supposed to close yet the door was locked. Thinking I was in the eastern time zone and my phone hadn't updated yet I didn't think anything of it b/c I thought it was 4:30. So I left, checked into my hotel and went to get some dinner. After finishing I asked my server if the time was 4:30 or 5:30. It was then that I was informed I was still in the central time zone and it was only 4:30. With nothing to do I visited the local wal-mart to pick up a few snacks then retreated back to the hotel.
Being in Destin and a huge lover the beach and the ocean you'd think that I'd make my way to the serene calm beach and relax for a while... Instead I stayed in the hotel room and watched college basketball for the remainder of the night. When I'm in a foreign place by myself I tend to turn into a hermit. I'm married and I love my wife very much so my male instincts of going out to meet a girl are surpressed and I entertain myself in others ways.... By this I mean watch basketball. There's no season I love more than basketball season. No matter the day or the time chances are I can find something basketball related on television and I love it. After watching Lousville struggle with Arkansas for most of the game I realized that when Kentucky plays these two teams both games are going to be hard fought, good games. The cats are also going to have their hands full with UCONN and if they ever meet Kansas or Michigan St they better be on the top of their game.
Now here it is 9:45 in the morning and I find myself again sitting outside of the branch location b/c no one is here. It's partially my fault since I never called the employees down here to inform them of my visit but could have sworn the their were at least two people that worked here. I don't know how long I've been sitting here but I'm not leaving until I get my work done. I have to go to Dothan, AL before going home and there no way I'll be coming back to Destin anytime in the near future. I just hope that they get back from their delivery run soon.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Mac Laptop Woes
Yesterday I left for work and left my MacBook Pro on the table for my wife to use. She called me in the morning and said that the screen was black. The computer was on, but it was black. I went through various trouble shooting fixes, such as pressing the F-Keys to adjust the brightness (b/c on the MBP's you can turn the brightness all the way down to nothing if you'd like), restarting the computer, closing the lid, and opening it. Very basic stuff, but I figured one of those things would have to the screen to come back on. It didn't. My wife exclaimed that it was only two years old and it was a Mac and was just supposed to "work" like I always say they do. I agreed, however much of an Apple fan-boy I am I do realize that things break. Now Ally is boasting about her Toshiba laptop running Windows Vista. It's hard to explain the difference in hardware failure and software failure. This is more than likely hardware failure.
I spent the time immediately after doing a few online searches about this issue and found some bad news, some good news and then more bad news. The bad news is, in MacBook Pros manufactured between a certain time period a couple years ago the screen going out was a common defect because of the NVidia video cards installed in them and apparently it happened a lot. The good news is that Apple is aware of the issue and will fix the problem for free even if the computer is out of warranty, which mine is. The more bad news is the computer has to be less than two years old from the date of purchase to get the free fix and I'm just a couple months over that time period.
So, I did a little more searching and found that I can hook my laptop up to another Mac and access its hard drive by using a FireWire cable between the computers. Luckily I work on an iMac at work. So I'll be able to back up my files to an external hard drive, then see if I trouble shoot the sleep settings of the computer. That brings me to another possible cause of the black screen; a corrupt sleep setting on the MacBook Pro. I'm hoping, praying, that I don't have to send it away to be fixed, b/c I don't have the money to do that right now, and also, this laptop, is. my. life. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have it. I'd of course get a new one eventually, with the AppleCare Extended Warranty this time, but I don't have the money for that either.
After I get a FireWire cable I'll be trying like hell to fix my beloved 15" MacBook Pro.
Wish me luck,
-B
**UPDATE**
So none of the above options worked for me... I couldn't even get the iMac to read the laptop drive as an external hard drive. I called my local authorized Mac service store and they'll charge me $100 for a diagnostic. Then if I want them to fix it they drop the diagnostic fee and just charge me parts and labor. Since I can't get Apple Care and the laptop is WAY out of warranty I think that's my only option. Unfortunately I'll have to wait to do this since I'm broke... or put it all on a credit card. I just hope that it's not mother board issues. If it is, there's no use in fixing the computer. I'd be better off buying a new one. SUCK!
I spent the time immediately after doing a few online searches about this issue and found some bad news, some good news and then more bad news. The bad news is, in MacBook Pros manufactured between a certain time period a couple years ago the screen going out was a common defect because of the NVidia video cards installed in them and apparently it happened a lot. The good news is that Apple is aware of the issue and will fix the problem for free even if the computer is out of warranty, which mine is. The more bad news is the computer has to be less than two years old from the date of purchase to get the free fix and I'm just a couple months over that time period.
So, I did a little more searching and found that I can hook my laptop up to another Mac and access its hard drive by using a FireWire cable between the computers. Luckily I work on an iMac at work. So I'll be able to back up my files to an external hard drive, then see if I trouble shoot the sleep settings of the computer. That brings me to another possible cause of the black screen; a corrupt sleep setting on the MacBook Pro. I'm hoping, praying, that I don't have to send it away to be fixed, b/c I don't have the money to do that right now, and also, this laptop, is. my. life. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have it. I'd of course get a new one eventually, with the AppleCare Extended Warranty this time, but I don't have the money for that either.
After I get a FireWire cable I'll be trying like hell to fix my beloved 15" MacBook Pro.
Wish me luck,
-B
**UPDATE**
So none of the above options worked for me... I couldn't even get the iMac to read the laptop drive as an external hard drive. I called my local authorized Mac service store and they'll charge me $100 for a diagnostic. Then if I want them to fix it they drop the diagnostic fee and just charge me parts and labor. Since I can't get Apple Care and the laptop is WAY out of warranty I think that's my only option. Unfortunately I'll have to wait to do this since I'm broke... or put it all on a credit card. I just hope that it's not mother board issues. If it is, there's no use in fixing the computer. I'd be better off buying a new one. SUCK!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Unfinished business...
I am the worst when it comes to starting a project and not finishing it. I've known this for a long time, however, recently it's become amazingly apparent that I am perhaps the world's worst procrastinator. I blame not finishing projects on the lack of time I have in a day to actually work on them. I blame it on my crappy nine to five job that keeps me locked in a box all day babysitting people who don't know how to use computers. I blame it on my wife, not her directly but the fact that I love to spend time with her and would rather do that more than anything else. I blame it on the fact that I don't actually have an office at home I concentrate in (my office is the kitchen table, sometimes it's the coffee table and floor). I blame it on my crazy imagination that never stops working. I'll get an idea for something, get those ideas on paper, get so far in the creative process until I think that it can be better, set it aside for a day or two to think it over, then either come back to it and change it so much that it's barely recognizable to the original idea or never come back to it b/c I've thought of something else. That last one is probably my biggest problem.
Currently, I have two projects sitting on the desk behind me. Many variations of two different sketches for two very different ideas, both of which I've started final comps on the computer already and both of which I'm already thinking of ways to improve them. Should I redraw the sketches until I get something on paper that looks exactly like what I want the final piece to look like or should I just continue down the same road and not be 100% happy with the outcome? If I start over, I need some more supplies: vellum paper, more 2H and 4H drawing pencils, maybe a light box, better ink pens for the final sketches, etc, etc... If I don't start over and try to improve upon the designs already on the computer I'll always know the potential the ideas had, then wonder had I started over I could have met that potential. These are personal projects for which no one is paying me to do them or demanding they be done by a certain time, in a certain format to someone's crazy expectations. However, at the same time even though no one is paying me to do them, shouldn't they still be completed in a timely manner, in a format that I prefer and meet my crazy expectations?
The best example of me not finishing a project is my wedding photo album. I was married in June of 2006 and the agreement that I had with our photographer is that I was to get all of the photos up front on DVD so that I could design the album. Now, November of 2009 I still haven't sent him the files for the album. A few months ago I really got crackin' on the design work and busted out two thirds of the book. Now I only have two sections left but sorting through the tons of reception photos scares me to death. My wife and I have already narrowed the photos down but I'm pretty sure I'll have to make some editorial decisions to leave out even more. Once I finish the design work I have to go through the agonizing process of attempting communication with the Loch Ness Monster of Central Kentucky wedding photography. I've already sent numerous amounts of emails and left plenty of voice mails without anyone from the studio to even confirm that the correspondence was received. One step at a time I guess. Finish the design, then worry about getting in contact with them.
Another project is a video that I took for my best friend's 30th birthday. I flew home and surprised him, got much of the trip on video as well as still photographs and said that I would edit it all together and give him a copy on DVD when complete. That was at the end of May this year. Again, I'm almost finished with it, I just have to put music behind the photo montage and export the damn thing.
Organizing my massive digital music library is another project. I've been working on this one for years and only denting it every few months. I have a lot of music that I've digitized to my iTunes library but even more stored on a external hard drive has yet of finding it's place in the library.
What I always feel the worst about are projects that my wife volunteers me for. Most of time I I don't get paid for it or if I do it's never very much and even worse, I usually don't want to do it in the first place but my wife has told someone "Oh, no problem, Brice can do that." The most recent is a holiday ad for her mother's in-home pet sitting business. She always uses images of our dalmatian and since her clients have come to recognize Trinity's pictures in her ads she wants to stick with that theme. Since I'm the creative one (and Ally is forehead deep in studying for the NAVLE) it's on me to at minimum provide my mom-in-law with some photos. Again, this is voluntary and worse of all I didn't volunteer for it. If I don't do it I make myself and my wife look like a douche for not following through on her word.
At least by writing this I've given myself a good starting point for picking up where I've left off. Maybe I should start with the mother-in-law's holiday ad and just get it knocked out, then worry about the other stuff later. Here's to hoping I get everything finished by the end of the year so I can start with a clean slate come January One.
Later,
-B
Currently, I have two projects sitting on the desk behind me. Many variations of two different sketches for two very different ideas, both of which I've started final comps on the computer already and both of which I'm already thinking of ways to improve them. Should I redraw the sketches until I get something on paper that looks exactly like what I want the final piece to look like or should I just continue down the same road and not be 100% happy with the outcome? If I start over, I need some more supplies: vellum paper, more 2H and 4H drawing pencils, maybe a light box, better ink pens for the final sketches, etc, etc... If I don't start over and try to improve upon the designs already on the computer I'll always know the potential the ideas had, then wonder had I started over I could have met that potential. These are personal projects for which no one is paying me to do them or demanding they be done by a certain time, in a certain format to someone's crazy expectations. However, at the same time even though no one is paying me to do them, shouldn't they still be completed in a timely manner, in a format that I prefer and meet my crazy expectations?
The best example of me not finishing a project is my wedding photo album. I was married in June of 2006 and the agreement that I had with our photographer is that I was to get all of the photos up front on DVD so that I could design the album. Now, November of 2009 I still haven't sent him the files for the album. A few months ago I really got crackin' on the design work and busted out two thirds of the book. Now I only have two sections left but sorting through the tons of reception photos scares me to death. My wife and I have already narrowed the photos down but I'm pretty sure I'll have to make some editorial decisions to leave out even more. Once I finish the design work I have to go through the agonizing process of attempting communication with the Loch Ness Monster of Central Kentucky wedding photography. I've already sent numerous amounts of emails and left plenty of voice mails without anyone from the studio to even confirm that the correspondence was received. One step at a time I guess. Finish the design, then worry about getting in contact with them.
Another project is a video that I took for my best friend's 30th birthday. I flew home and surprised him, got much of the trip on video as well as still photographs and said that I would edit it all together and give him a copy on DVD when complete. That was at the end of May this year. Again, I'm almost finished with it, I just have to put music behind the photo montage and export the damn thing.
Organizing my massive digital music library is another project. I've been working on this one for years and only denting it every few months. I have a lot of music that I've digitized to my iTunes library but even more stored on a external hard drive has yet of finding it's place in the library.
What I always feel the worst about are projects that my wife volunteers me for. Most of time I I don't get paid for it or if I do it's never very much and even worse, I usually don't want to do it in the first place but my wife has told someone "Oh, no problem, Brice can do that." The most recent is a holiday ad for her mother's in-home pet sitting business. She always uses images of our dalmatian and since her clients have come to recognize Trinity's pictures in her ads she wants to stick with that theme. Since I'm the creative one (and Ally is forehead deep in studying for the NAVLE) it's on me to at minimum provide my mom-in-law with some photos. Again, this is voluntary and worse of all I didn't volunteer for it. If I don't do it I make myself and my wife look like a douche for not following through on her word.
At least by writing this I've given myself a good starting point for picking up where I've left off. Maybe I should start with the mother-in-law's holiday ad and just get it knocked out, then worry about the other stuff later. Here's to hoping I get everything finished by the end of the year so I can start with a clean slate come January One.
Later,
-B
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