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RIP Steve Jobs

February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

This is a large post made up of the smaller posts I made around the intertubes regarding Jobs’ death and its impact on me.

First, G+:
“Yah. A man I didn’t know died. And it feels like he was family. Steve Jobs’ vision absolutely changed my life. Mac changed my life. I wouldn’t have found my inner geek or learned graphics or even met Nick.

A man I didn’t know died today. And I’m pretty damn upset.

Thank you Steve Jobs, for your brilliant gifts to the world. And for your influence on my life.

RIP Steve Jobs

-Angela
Mac geek since 1995”

And the G+ follow up:
“I know many people don’t understand the reaction to Jobs’ death. It seems weird that the death of a CEO would matter. I didn’t expect it to matter as much to me as it did. I was surprised to have a strong reaction, actually. But when I started enumerating the things that I have today that I would NOT have had w/out Apple in my life the list got pretty personal. Lessee: my career, my life path, my HUSBAND. All these things are pretty much directly connected to that little Happy Mac. That is NOT an exaggeration.

So, for all the snarky bitches who’ve been talking about my “crazy cultist” goings on: FUCK YOU. You know who you are and YES I noticed. You’ve dropped (more) in my estimation of your character. Expect to see much less of me on various media and in person. If you had any passion in your sad lives, you’d understand. But, OH, nevermind, Hoarders is on. /snark/”

That was pointedly at the FB bitches who thought I wouldn’t see the thread. I did.

For the record, I think that putting flowers at Apple stores is a bit odd, but people react in different ways. They did that for Princess Diana and I didn’t get it then, either. But I do understand all the tributes and thank-yous going around the web.

It’s not the hardware. Or the stores. Or even the man himself. It’s the brave forget-the-past attitude. It’s the crazy innovation. It’s the ideals that Apple represents that move us.

It’s that little Happy Mac that changed the whole course of my life. THAT is what we’re talking about.

Some people are too shallow to get it. That is abundantly clear. But I tell you, moronic comments like “He was not a nice man.” really hack me off because a) oh, did you KNOW him? b) can you cite examples? c) NO ONE is talking about him PERSONALLY, duh.

I didn’t know Jobs. I’m not sad for him personally, I’m sad because now Apple will just be another tech company run by a boring old dude (and good gods, Tim Cook is boring and dry and corporate. ::shudder::). Once Jobs’ ideas/products have all played out, there will be no more. That light of innovation is gone. He most certainly is the Edison of our time. The bitchy people that won’t acknowledge that are actually the ones who are playing the Mac vs PC card, not the people that appreciate Jobs for what he did for the tech industry. The Mac vs PC debate is irrelevant. As are the bitchy posts. (And last time I checked, Apple is worth more than MS, so you can suck on that.)

The bottom line is that we are not Apple “cultists”. We are people who have honestly been affected by that Little Happy Mac. We are people who have no problem paying more for hardware in order to get the elegant OS. And most PC users have an iPhone in their pocket, so YOU are Apple “cultists”, too.

How do you like us now? ;)

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MacPro Goodness!

I write this from my new (to me) MacPro. It’s VERY fast! And I’m also using the oh so vaunted Chrome. I still don’t like it. Guess I’m just a Mozilla girl. Twhirl finally died. It just will not run. WAH! I’m using Echofon, which is ok, but I really prefer having separate windows for each Twitter feed. Dammit, Seesmic. Why did you drop Twhirl in the first place? You suck, Seesmic.

Nick is home from work today. He’s not been feeling well. I’m not either, really. I’m kinda stuffy and achey. I didn’t sleep all that well. Bleh.

I delivered a 10 minute long rant to Nick last night about why I think DC and Marvel suck. I shall try to recreate it here. The next post will be about that.

The chick at Centennial Park turned out to be a passive aggressive CUNT. She’s one of those who will say whatever you want to hear then turn on you when your guard is down. Typical Southern Female. Gahroce.

The Friends of Dekalb Animals website is pretty much done. It turned out nicely and the ladies love it. Yay!

I got some GREAT skullies at the con in Nashville. There was a jewelry show in an adjacent building that I couldn’t resist! I spent $60 on really cool beads and some sterling findings. This guy had mounds of strung beads for $3 each! WAHOOOO! So, yah, we made a grand total of $29 at that shitty con and I spent $84 between the beads and some presents I got for my girlfriends. I think I may be done with cons run by this particular organiser because he’s not organised, he’s a no receipt, no set prices, no set times kind of guy. I don’t like that. We were told the con ran 10-5 on Saturday, only to find out at 4:30 that he decided it’ll run until 7. When I called him out on it, he said “Well, didn’t you look at the website to see who the guests are?” NO, no I did not look at the website because I’m a fucking VENDOR and I don’t give a shit who the guests are! This guy can’t even be bothered to send out a goddam email to the people who are paying him for the privilege of setting up at his shitty cons. It’s just rude and careless and I think I’m done with him. There are some other up and coming cons that I think I’d rather get in with than this guy.

Hmm, I think I need to hook up my external speakers. I don’t think Nick did that when he set the MacPro up last night. ::geek geek geek:: :)

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Weather, politics and comics

The weather has finally broken and sweet relief from 90º days has arrived. AH! Even today, at 62º and rain is wonderful! I’ll take it! It’s always this time of year when I think that the NW wouldn’t be bad… But then I realise that it’s like this most of the time and MEH. It’s gotten too hot down here in general, but I like having 4 distinct seasons. I do wish La Niña would give us a break in summer.

Politics in the mornin’! It astounds me that so many dumb people (as represented on FB) STILL think Obama is doing a good job. WUT? How completely stupid do you have to be to believe that? Magical thinking much? He is a president who has accomplished exactly jack and shit. He has reneged on undoing the Patriot Act – twice. He can’t speak in front of a crowd at all without his Teleprompter. He’s never had a job fer chrissakes!! He wants to “tax the rich” to “even the field”. Oh, really? No, it sounds to me like take from the rich and give to the poor. Rich people do play the system, no doubt, so why do we not change the system? Fair Tax would stop that happy crappy. But this is not about leveling anything. This is about creating a nation of takers who don’t work and live on the dole (or who work for the government, same thing). UK, anyone? This is about crippling small business, making a hostile corporate environment and celebrating being a lazy fucker who lives on welfare.

While on the subject of lazy useless people, I’d like to piss off all the “disabled” assholes out there who have been “disabled” their whole lives and refuse to work. You know who you are. When I was growing up, I never knew anyone in their 20s who didn’t work. Now, it’s commonplace to see TEENS on disability. WTF? Hells bells, I had a BLIND friend who worked at Wachovia until he got too sick and had to go on disability – which he hated. When did being a lazy fucker on the dole become fine? When did it lose its stigma as a bad thing and something you tried to avoid? I must have missed the memo.

On the other hand, I know someone who has a real illness and is currently on disability while he goes to college online. He’s about to graduate. Which shows gumption and pride in his abilities. He’s not going to let his condition limit his choices in life. Bravo!

So do not tell me you “can’t” work. That is bullshit and you know it. Do something. Open an Etsy shop. Go to school. Find a way to be productive. Hell, even being a blogger is something! Geeze.

We have a convention next weekend (Oct 1 & 2). It’s in Nashville. It should be low stress. We’ve got our booth pared down to just a few totes and we’ve got the Square set up, so we’re good to go. I hope we make at least a little money. The comic is trundling along. We are in a slow period with dwindling ideas and lack of motivation. I hope the convention will get us cranked back up.

In other news, I’m working on a site for a local animal rescue group. I hope they like what I do and I hope they make lots of money for the pets. I’m also going to start volunteering for Centennial Olympic Park one day a week. Nick thinks I need to get out more. I probably do, but MEH. ;)

We are also planning a trip to CA to see Nick’s family in October or November. I look forward to seeing them, but not to the plane ride. Fucking TSA. ::sigh:: I’m gonna end up in jail if they fondle me, I just know it. Grr. Fucking useless harassment security theatre violation of my fucking rights… grumble, grumble.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on around here. What’s going on with you guys?

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Apple of my Eye

[In the 10 years since Steve resigned, Apple has, indeed, lost the innovation and become a company that makes appliances. There are no professional level Macs under $4-5k. The new units (MB and iMacs) run on PHONE chips. Nothing is upgradeable or even fixable. Apple is a sad remnant of what it was, as far as I’m concerned. I still love Mac, the iPhone and the Watch, but I’m using a 12 yr old Mac Pro because I can’t afford $4-5k for a new one. I refuse to use a trashcan Mac. I am also not interested in a non upgradeable iMac that runs on a PHONE processor. So, here I sit, with old equipment because Apple has stopped making real computers. I am disappointed in Apple as a user, but they do a good job paying the stockholders, so yay? That is really what has happened. Apple is all about stock prices, which making appliances keeps HIGH, not being the best computer company in the world. Hence the name change from Apple Computer, to just Apple. Sigh. – Aug 2021]

So, Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. It is the end of an era. I know as long as Steve is alive, he’ll be there, laying plans for more innovations and surprises. But when he finally succumbs to the various illnesses he has, I think that will be the end of Apple as we know it.

Yes, Tim Cook has been Steve’s right hand man for years. Yes, Jonathan Ive is the brilliant designer who took Steve’s ideas and made them real. BUT. Neither of these guys are the ones who THINK UP the mad schemes in the first place. Tim Cook has a reputation as a quiet, rather staid man. That does not make me think of INNOVATION. It makes me think of Microsoft.

Which is where Apple will end up when Steve’s ideas have been plumbed and there’s no more Steve to come up with a computer that “looks like a flower” (iMac circa 2002) or an iPod, iPhone, iPad… You get the picture. Yes, I’m sure Steve’s got plenty of innovations in channel and will keep it that way as long as he is able. But when he’s gone, he’s gone.

It makes me a bit sad to know that I will most likely see Apple grind slowly to a halt and become a useless behemoth like Microsoft. But I’m pretty sure it’ll happen.

I just hope it happens slowly enough that by the time Apple is dead, I won’t care because I’ll be too old to use a computer anyway.

In the meantime, Apple is still my brand and I wouldn’t dream of using anything else.

Viva la Apple! And long live Steve Jobs! :)

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Referrals, Knoxville con and more!

I love digging through referrals. Let’s see what weirdness awaits us this time:
– Someone from the Securities and Exchange Dept. in D.C. perusing my Smashed Cauliflower recipe.
– Lots of recipe hits, as usual. Is Italian Chili that hard? Man! Tons of hits.
– A google.de hit for Nina Hartley.
– Cox in Las Vegas! Hi, Heather!! :)
– COOL! Someone in Derio, Pais Vasco Spain translated a post into Spanish with Google translate! It seems to work VERY well! Look at my site in Spanish.
– Lots of Budget, Bibi Chen, Neat Receipts and Atala, as usual.
– The obligatory Dragon*Con sucks and Heroes hits.
– Rendi’s comment seems to lead many searches for her to my blog. Meh!
– And last, someone from Comcast biz office is very interested in my blog, apparently.

We will be in Knoxville for a small con this weekend, the Knoxville Comics and Anime Con. I hope it’s a good show. The tables are pricey for a small show and this is a test to see if it’s worth it. My guess: probably not. We shall see.
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