No, really, I'm not dead. No, really!

Seriously, I'm totally not dead.  Okay?  Good.

NaNoWriMo is a bust, not because I couldn't have done it, but because I couldn't do it with swine flu + work craziness + Thanksgiving.  Whatever!  I got halfway through.  Not bad in half the time.

I will soon be a Mac user at home.  I have very, very conflicted feelings about it.

Happy feelings:

- SO pretty!  I've always been really impressed with the overall design of Macs, as well as the ways in which the applications in the operating system match so well.  So sue me.  The aluminum body and glass trackpad and screen are gorgeous, too.

- I didn't realize that there would be a way to activate right-clicking; I am so excited because I thought I had to give it up.

- If it's broken, I take it to an Apple Store.  Easy.  No way am I bringing it back to the repair shop, the one that failed to fix my laptop.

- I know everyone's going on about 7, but I'm an XP person, and I don't want 7.  Sure, I've never tried it, but look at you being really nice and not judging me.

- I'm looking forward to the desktop, and the ways in which I can create storage spaces (folders, etc.) without cluttering the desktop.

- Since there IS no low-end Mac, even though they're pricey, I know I'm getting a well-made computer that'll last me a very long time.  I just heard from a reliable source that HP ranked number 1 in computers that would crap out three days after you buy one.

Unhappy feelings:

- One of the innovative designs for Mac?  No mouse buttons (either on a trackpad or on their new Magic Mouse).  They're really proud of that.  I am displeased; I've had trackpad tapping turned off ever since I got my first laptop about 4.5 years ago.

- Kosher Beef has pointed out some ways in which Apple, as a company, kind of blows.  He put it in a very, very true way: Microsoft is slimy, but they sort of acknowledge their sliminess.  Mac's all, "Oh, we're happy and shiny, and we're all about YOU and the environment!  We're not slimy!"  But they ARE slimy; all this mess with apps being rejected, for example, is slimy.

- Kosher Beef's other excellent point: Mac operating systems only work on Macs, whereas other OSs work on multiple kinds of machines.  That seems kind of weird to me.  After all, Windows works on Macs.  Come on, return the favor. You will still make money.

- I spent $500 trying to fix a $1000 computer that's not quite 2 years old.  What a waste.  And my HP is very pretty, too.

- Loki is not going to ever, ever understand that this is a pretty new computer, and he cannot sit on it, poop on it, molt on it, or scratch it.  Essentially, birdeh is going to have to learn NOT to go on the computer.  He didn't learn it before; I doubt he will now.  Ugh.

- Macs are sort of advertised as ridiculously easy to use for people who have trouble with computers.  First off, that's bull, because my grandmother had to switch back to PC.  Second of all, with the exception of my second laptop fucking itself over into non-workingness, I'm not terrible with computers; I've been using my 4.5 year old lappy for months now with no problem.  I just such at torrents and illegal fun stuff, is all.

And last but not least (perhaps it's most):

I hate, hate, hate commercials for Macs.  Hate them.  They are not funny.  They are smug.  They are pointless: why are there two white men talking about how different they are?!  I kind of want to write to Apple and be like, "I bought a computer from you because it's my way of paying you to take these commercials off the air, thanks."  UGH.

I should get my external hard drive (and free printer with rebate!) this week, and the computer sometime next week (I just don't want it to arrive on Saturday because it's being shipped to the Institute; everything is because no one's home to sign for it).  Once I get the external, I'm going to begin the long, involved, painful process of making sure I get everything off of my dead computer.  Just in case I find my Vista disk when I clean my room this weekend, I need to get everything safe.  If Vista fixes all of the problems I was having ... well, then I have a nice, small, portable PC lappy which I can take places, as well as a second back-up for when my clunky lappy back-up farts out.

Then I'll get the rest of my stuff off of clunky lappy and make sure I've got everything.  Then I can cancel GeekSquad online back-up, which I got on shiny PC lappy when I realized it might die; the lappy wouldn't stay on long enough for everything to get backed up, and the back up would often make it crash.  Interesting.

And then gorgeous new Macbook Pro lappy will arrive, and I will install a twitter application and Pidgin and Firefox, and then make sure everything is all nice and clean, and then I'll begin the long and involved and painful process of getting all of my important crap onto the new lappy.  I'll leave some things behind on the external, but I've got a lot of docs and music.

Phew.  I wonder what work I need to do today?