everyday is d. day

best sports interview ever

fresh from a spectacular crash that eliminated him as one of the favourites to win a motorcross event, the young man was followed off the track by an eager reporter who prefaced her question with a lot of superfluous preamble--no doubt for dramatic effect. when she finally got to the question of "what happened out there?" He answered simply simply "I crashed." brilliant! No beating about the bush with a bunch of meaningless drivel and rhetoric; the honesty as stunning as his impact.

and now introducing.......a problem

my macbook has been making ominous sounding noises for awhile now. reminiscent of a playing card passing by bicycle spokes. round and round. tick-a, tick-a, tick-a, tick-a.  it begins the protest not long after i boot it up and gets progressively worse as i set to my emailing, FBing and surfing. could fry an egg on the thing. i confessed that i sometimes have the thing on my lap. he shot me that look of disappointment. i oughta know better. i quickly qualified my statement by saying i knew that it wasn't a laptop, but a portable computer. it helps to know a bit of the lingo. but seriously, who isn't tempted to rest any one of these on their lap?

i've been putting it off as long possible, since my current necessary austerity forces me to, but when my charger went or its ability to charge i decided to get a genius to look at it. i already pretty much knew that i was going to have to replace the charger, having tried every sort of "fix" i could find that might remedy the situation. in his opinion i need to spend about $250 (most of the cost being labour). i asked him "so what if this part gets replaced but i still have the same problem?". his answer didn't reassure: "well then the problem is probably much worse--the logic board--and it might not be worth repairing.....". hmmm, if you ask me, no one computer component should cost more than the original computer itself. perhaps it is intentional and by design, who knows. it did occur to me that had i gotten that apple extended warranty i could have had the repair done under warranty and every time i think about it i cringe. stupid stupid. i missed insuring it by a day. a day! the lesson i've learned: don't wait, budget for the extra few hundred dollars at time of purchase, save yourself a world o' heartache and money. 

i wonder, did my computer noticing me covet the new sexy green offering by apple? don't laugh. i swear technology senses our flagging loyalty as well as any person does. i remember when i carried around a palm; long before the iPhone and the blackberry i saw the new model come out and drooled over the prospect of the newest offering to come over the horizon and almost on cue, my palm started to hiccup and belch and i spent countless hours assuaging the device, reinstalling and recovering data. 

having said that though, as technology goes, i count myself really lucky. i think i've got some fairly good technology karma.  i've read message boards where people have had huge problems getting their computers, peripherals and doodads to run, much less perform for any amount of time. the timing of this particular problem, however, is terrible.

well.......burn my britches!

lately, since escapist drama has been either reruns or not stimulating nor escapist enough, i've found myself watching the american channels that have dedicated all of their airtime hours to the  the current financial crisis all around the world. it's all doom and gloom in the eye of the downward spiral. it's utterly fascinating as well, because my life is affected as well. i was having some difficulty landing a decent job before the economies of the world tanked out, but now it is all the more exquisite, timely and relevant. everyone is paring down, consolidating or even worse, closing down shop.

at the moment on the screen is a two person panel, presumably, "experts" in their particular fields answering the host's questions about how to survive the job market in the economic downturn. they even went live to a job fair where a gentleman asked a question about what to do when your savings had been completely depleted. they deferred to the second panelist. her answers were so patent it was laughable. i could have answered that way. give us the secret, not the endless pap that is insulting.  i'm sure we've had a lot of bubbles form and burst in the many hours rumbling around the internet trying to find a job, any job, to survive. her solutions cost money. substantial money. she banged on about educating yourself which doesn't come for free and updating your resume. the last time i inquired--which was very recently--the cheapest you could get away with a resume re-write is about $150. of course, this is in Canada. perhaps in the United States, things are different, and these services are offered for free! the second panelist was more grounded in reality. like i said the program was broadcast from the US. But what struck me in particular, is that all of this stuff is common sense. there's no re-inventing the wheel; nothing new or revolutionary. i came away with no new nuggets or inspiration after an hour or so of viewing.

the irony is that this is the collateral industry that has been created by this recession and it's booming. it seems seems to me that it doesn't matter if you are well informed or not, because most of what i am hearing is completely inane and it like most news shows these days, even with all the time devoted to the topic, they only scratch the surface. the 5 W's are not satisfied. there are of course, a glut of informed economists who, if you listen closely, are merely regurgitating the same information ad nauseum. it's purely a debate of sorts. every new bit of financial crisis and chaos provides yet more fodder for the current situation and the dissemination and analyzing of it ceaseless and relentless. but it is mostly pratter. endless chatter saying nothing.