items from the mind of an idiot savant

not fit for print

Actually there’s a fly in my Apple Store.

That wild and crazy guy of a coworker of mine posts: One Word….

I finally had some time to tend to my PowerBook lower RAM slot failure. My good friend Niels Eike and I swung by the Apple Store @ the Glendale Galeria Friday after work.

We showed up at about 7pm and headed straight for the Genius Bar. I was told to put my name on sign-in sheet. There was an iBook at the end of bar set-up just for digital sign-in. I was also told that I could sign-in from any computer on display anywhere in the store. Someone was already in line in front of me waiting to sign-in, so I walked across the store to sign-in at another system. I clicked on the Genius Bar logo, and crashed the first system I tried. I moved to the next system and after filling out the sign-in form, I got a Web server error. I guess I crashed the Web application server. I headed back to the bar to sign-in on that iBook since it was available.

The genius bar actually has a nice sign-in system, when it works. After you put your name on the list and give a brief description of your issue, your first name and last initial are displayed on a large screen behind the Genius Bar. You see the list of all the people waiting in line to see a genius and you can see your name on the list and how far away you are from having your number called. They also give you approximate wait times and all that jazz.

After about waiting 30 minutes, my name was called.

Even though I wrote my complaint down in the sign-in form, I was asked what the problem was. I explained my story. I expected that the [let's call him a technician, since I'm insulted by the implication the "genius" is superior to me in any way] technician would want to verify my story and make site that the issue was a result of user error or anything was not Apple’s fault.

Jason White, the technician, looked at the System Profiler to see that no memory was in the lower slot. Jason then shut down my laptop and opened the RAM cavity to make sure I actually had memory installed in the lower slot. As expected, he fetched some replacement RAM in order to test that it was not faulty memory. He put the replacement RAM in booted up the system. Sure enough, the System Profiler reported no memory in the lower slot. This should have been enough to validate my claim, but Jason was not satisfied.

He tried another set of RAM. Same result. And a third set of RAM, with the same result. This should have been frustration enough for me to act out in some way, but I didn’t. The whole time I was making casual small talk, and being patient. Niels was starting to get a bit antsy. He walked away to get away from the mess, and blow off some steam. It was getting late, and our friend Gerald was due to meet up back at Niels’ place sometime between 8 and 9. It was just after 8, and Gerald doesn’t have a cell phone, so we couldn’t tell him we were running late. Niels was calling around to see how he could get word to Gerald.

BACK TO JASON!

Mac Genius Jason White finally acknowledged the faulty hardware. [I think it might be a bit annoying and condescending if from now on I sarcastically refer to him as "Mac Genius Jason White"].

Mac Genius Jason White explains Apple would cover the repair under warranty and that I have two options:

1. I can have them send my PowerBook to the repair center in Texas. This option would take about a week for the powerbook to get there, get repaired, and get back.
2. I could purchase ProCare for $99 for 1 year, and that would make me eligible for in store repairs.

I use my PowerBook every day at work, and It’s not really ideal for me to be without for a week or so. Since my PowerBook was still functional, I asked Mac Genius Jason White if I bought the ProCare could I keep my PowerBook while the part was on order. He said that was cool, and that he would call me on Monday to let me know when the parts came in. I could keep working normally, and I would bring it in for repair, and they would fix it, and return it within 24 hours. That’s kind of a sweet deal when you think about it, except that it cost me $99+tax.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t just getting completely ripped off in having to pay this $99+tax. I asked Mac Genius Jason White a few questions.

Mac Genius Jason White sold me the ProCare, gave me my ProCare Card, and order the replacement motherboard. He gave me his business card, and wrote my repair order number on the back. Mac Genius Jason White told me he would call me on Monday and let me know when the parts come in and when I could drop off my PowerBook.]

I EAGERLY AWAIT YOUR CALL Mac Genius Jason White!

For those of you don’t know, I am the president of my condo’s homeowners association. I’m also the treasurer, and I do some of the secretarial duties. So basically I’m in charge and I do almost everything. This is sort of illegal and not really appropriate for me to be doing all that.

You might be wondering why am I doing all this. It’s rather simple really. Nobody else around here is willing or able to help out. There are a few people around that help a bit here and there, and I have one neighbor that I can count on to do a lot of the legwork.

But this isn’t really about who’s doing what or about giving credit where credit is due. This is about those people who aren’t doing anything.

I’ve come to the conclusion that generally the people around here are selfish, lazy, and rude. I’m going to skip all the details to prove all this, and simply say the following:

This building is my home.
This building is their home.
They live in my home. I live in theirs.
Everybody needs to start acting like we live together and we are a community.
Everybody needs to start working together to make this place a better place to live.

Have faith in me and may ability to affect change. I can and will make things happen. With their help I can make bigger and better things happen than what I can do on my own. If they resist me they will loose. If they join me they will have something to rejoice in.

I know you’re reading this. YES YOU! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for spying on me?

I know when I started writing all this shit down, that eventually someone I knew would read it. But do you have to rub it in my face?

I’m just some guy, trying to live my life. Big fucking deal that I’m sharing some of my thoughts and feelings with you. What makes you think you’re so goddamn special? I’m sharing this shit with everybody.

What’s with you people? I didn’t disrespect you, so why would you disrespect me?

Don’t take all this personally. It’s not just you. It’s all of you combined. Just ease up and learn to get along, and stop being so confrontational. What’s the point?

For the past 6 months I’ve had players, coaches, owners, management and league official stop by my house and blow smoke up my ass about how if they don’t make a deal soon, the season will be in jeopardy. That soon turned into the season is in jeopardy. And ever since christmas all they’ve been telling me is if they don’t settle by the end of the week, the season is lost.

Will you just cancel the damn season already. I’m sick of checking Yahoo! Sports to see if there is or isn’t going to be a season. Some of us fans have had to resort to running simulations of the season on computers. Will EA Sports NHL 2006 even come out? Will it end up being a golf game or a wrestling game?

Well, just like the last girl that strung me along for months on end with the worst case of blue balls, I’m telling the NHL to either suck my dick for hours on end and clean my apartment up while I’m napping, or drop dead.

Even if you we all kiss and make out right now, I ain’t watching. You’re all a big bunch of babies, and I don’t have time for your shit!

How many years of topless intermission ice girls do you think you’re going to have to put on for you to make this up to me and re-spark my interest.

To all y’all “GET STUFFED” as they say!

just testing things, but when I have something to say I might just put it here, or not. IT’S MY BLOG, AND YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH IT, so there!