Adventures in purchasing

So, for my birthday I got myself a refurbished 20" 1.8 iMac G5. My old G4 tower could only run OS 9, was crashing every hour or so, and the fan had begun an intermittent grinding/whining sound. Still it took Rebecca 2 days to convince me to get it. The only reason I did was because Power Mac Pac had it on sale for a really great price. I've gotta say I love it! The 20" screen just blows me away. It's quiet, runs like a top, and I'm out of the dark ages now that I'm running OS 10.4. Buying the thing was a bit of an issue, tho'.

I was checking around online for a good deal . Rebecca got an iBook from Power Mac Pac a few months ago and they were great. When I found that they had a huge stock of refurbished 20" iMacs for $1395 with Apple Care and RAM upgrades to 512 included I really couldn't say no. When I got there I had them out in an extra 512 of RAM. When I got to the register they tried to charge me $1595 plus $100 for the RAM. Then when Rebecca pointed out the ad again (she had seen the sales guy looking at the deal online to verify 5 minutes earlier) they lowered it to the ad price but then tried to charge me for the Apple Care. Finally we got it all sorted out. When I got home I found that instead of having the full gig of ram I expected, I only had 768- they had never upgraded from the original 256 like the ad said. When I checked online to read the fine print, they had changed the ad say the price was only available online. I decided not to raise a fuss about $50 worth of RAM since I was so happy with everything else and wanted to get my nifty new computer set up.

As a footnote, when I tried to register my Apple Care it got kicked back. The computer was refurbished 4 months ago and Apple has a 90 day limit from the date of manufacture (or remanufacture). I'm in the process of dealing with Apple and all seems sorted now after I faxed in my receipt.

Happy birthday to me...

And a sketch x-posted to DoodleLand

Home again, home again

Well, San Diego was fun for the whole crew, but it's nice to be home. If you do ever have a chance to visit San Diego save your money and avoid Sea World, the Zoo, etc. and just visit the city. La Jolla is a great place to stroll around and the cove is beautiful. Pacific Beach is a lot of fun and the water feels great this time of year. Balboa park is also great to stroll around in and there are the museums if you get the urge. Just remember the sunscreen, especially if you're bald...(ouch)

For those who are interested, I set up the sketch community. Here's the link- DoodleLand.

Now I've got to get back to work...

A call to like-minded individuals

Hey guys and dolls, I'm leaving for San Diego over the weekend, but I had a question before I go--

I always have trouble motivating myself in the sketchbook department. I always feel like if I have time to draw I should spend it working instead of "doodling". Not a healthy attitude. Would anyone be interested in a sort of moderated sketch community with a weekly theme? For those of us who need some sort of external driving force to keep interested I thought seeing the way different artists interpret the same theme would be a great reward. If there's a good response I'll set something up when I get back (around the 14th).

Ego Surfing

Reviews

Good reviews are happy things. Reviewers seem happy (or at least not unhappy) with the first issue. The art is getting good reviews all around which is unexpected but double-plus good.
Some links-
Ain't it Cool News
Silver Bullet
Buzzscope
The Fourth Rail
Comixtreme
The Pickytarian

For those of you unaware, DC's Catwoman forum Is a great place to hang out and argue with people who don't agree with you about Catwoman.

Gearing up for the 4th. Celeste has never seen a proper fireworks display, so we're heading out to Cascade Locks for the day. It's been ages since I did the family 4th of July thing. Makes me want to go out and buy an ice cream maker.

We're going to be in San Diego next week. Not for the convention-- we're going a week before to spend time with the part of my family that lives down there. The last time I took a proper vacation was our honeymoon in 1999. It will be a challenge to leave work behind.