Working in an automotive dealership

I work in the parts department of an automotive dealership.

Let’s get this over with quick: that part you just paid for your vehicle, you know, the one that you paid $150 for: the actually cost is probably $50.

Hell, maybe less than that.

Outrageous, right??

Well, guess what? Those shoes you are wearing probably cost a fraction of what you paid for them.

The only difference is you really wanted those shoes. You really didn’t want to pay for that part. You had to. You had to take your vehicle to the dealership.

What else would you do? Let it sit? Just not use it?

No. You need it, so you have to pay to get if fixed.

GET OVER IT.

I am sick and freaking tired of people bitching about how much parts cost.

IT’S A FUCKING BUSINESS.

What part of that don’t you fucking understand???

Parts are not free.

Someone made them. It cost money to make them.

Just like everything else.

Don’t take it out on me, cause you have to spend money maintaining your vehicle.

What did you fucking expect?

That it would be maintenance free for the life of the vehicle? That it would run forever?
You wouldn’t have to drop a dime into it???

Well guess what: you do.

Get over it.

Where have I been?

I can’t believe it’s been this long since I last posted. What happened?

Have I become bored with my blog? Nothing exciting to say? Or just too freaking busy?

All of the above I guess.

For some strange reason, I kept thinking that when I post to my blog, it has to be something exciting, something that will catch the eye.

What the hell was I thinking? Haven’t I seen other people’s blogs? They blog about nothing. The mundane, the usual, the boring.

Hell, I can do that too.

Then I thought, well, I’m not that good to write about something Apple related ALL the time.
And that kept me away too.

So, I’ll just blog about whatever the hell I want. It’s not like anyone’s reading it anyway!!

It finally (duh) hit me to just blog about what I know. It doesn’t have to be mind blowing stuff.

So I’ll mostly blog about my job, my life and technology.

And Transformers, and football, and X-Files. ARGHGHH!!

Stay tuned.

Or not.

My brother’s Macintosh

I just took possession of my brother’s old Macintosh.

My brother was seven years older than me, and he died ten years ago this month.

When he passed, I took all his disk (diskettes?) because I wanted to see what he wrote.

My brother was a novice writer, I guess you could say. He loved Baseball, and wrote a newsletter about the Baltimore Orioles.

He published it. By published, I mean he would mail it out!

I don’t know why it took me this long to finally take home his Mac.

Life is funny. My brother, as far as I can remember, always had a Mac. Growing up I wasn’t into computers at all.

Here it is, not yet even two years ago, that I bought my first Mac!

The Macintosh is a PowerPC Macintosh Performa 6400/180.
System software 7.5.3

Man, that OS is taking some getting use to! But, since it is a Mac, it’s not that hard to figure out. Just different obviously from today’s OS.

It’s pretty wild using that old Mac. It’s like going back in time.

I haven’t read much about what he wrote, but the little I have is pretty cool.

It’s funny how so much alike we are after all.

Just took some time to find out!

7 days until the iPhone is released!

What at first seemed like such a long wait, seems to be coming to a head. The iPhone will be released next Friday.
As stated previously, I have taken that day off.
I was thinking about arriving at the AT&T store at 4:30.

Who knows what to expect? Some say you should have no problem getting the iPhone. Others say there will be mad lines.
I have no idea.

Since I’m taking the entire day off, maybe I’ll get there around noon time just to see what’s up.
If there already is a huge line, I’ll get it some other day!

If there is no line, I’ll go back at 4:30.

Until then everyone is speculating what the data price plans will be.

This I don’t understand.

Sure, I am very curious, but anyone with a Smart phone/PDA should have an idea what it will cost.

Data plans range anywhere from $10-$45. Possibly more.

I’m guessing most who have questions about this are those who do not have a Smartphone/PDA.

They, obviously, will be in for a shock.

But for me, I’m paying roughly $40 for my data plan with my BlackBerry, so I’m sure it won’t be much more than that.

Stay tuned.

Online forums

I don’t remember the first forum I became a member of, but I’m thinking it had to be a football forum.

I love the NFL. It is probably my, no, it is my favorite past time.

So an NFL forum was probably my first intro into the online community.

I would browse the forums mainly to get information/news.

I would occasionally post a comment or two, but mainly I was what is considered a lurker: someone who browses the forum, but doesn’t post.

I’m blogging about forums because, to me, it is funny how people use them.

The first, of course, is the forum bully. No, that is not the official term, but we all have had run-ins with them.

Someone who feels the need to harass a fellow member/poster for whatever reason, and does so only because it is not a face-to-face confrontation.

In real life that “bully” wouldn’t even dream of starting a confrontation, but because he/she is “fighting” through their keyboard they have the artificial confidence to do so.

Then there is the “numbers” forum poster. Again, probably not the right term, but you get the point.

I didn’t even realize there was this type of forum poster until recently.

You’ve seen them I’m sure.

Someone who will post a short sentence in a thread, that basically, doesn’t contribute to the thread.

Recently in one of my favorite Apple forums,macrumors, I have run across one of these.

It seems like in almost every thread, he will leave a short message, that doesn’t really offer much.

You know, like “I can’t wait!” Or something like that. I mean, I have done that once or twice, but in every thread? NO.

And of course he has like 5,000 post. Seriously. And most of them are short messages that don’t add much to that particular thread.

So apparently, there are those who just like having it known that they have a ton of post.

I don’t get it, but I guess that is a good thing.

iPhone release date: June 29th

OK, so this isn’t breaking news. I do have to work you know!

Anyways, this is great news. We finally have a release date. But, what now?
Not that this news is anti-climactic, but now I’m in some kind of pause mode.

I’m relived that there is a release date, but what do I do now?

Do I start a thread about what I’m going to do until the release?

NAH.

But I am wondering, when the iPhone does come out, will I still blog?

I mean of course I will right after it comes out, and for a good while after.

But what then?

Will I still frequent the Mac/Apple sites that I’ve been on non-stop for the last couple of months?

Not that the iPhone is the reason I have been on the Mac/Apple forums.

Reading countless threads, contributing some of my own.

But, the iPhone has brought the Apple community together.

These are exciting times. Not everyone is madly in love with the iPhone.
Some pan it. Heck, some even hate it!

But we’ve pondered, theorized, wondered, predicted, just about everything there is about the iPhone.

I can thank the iPhone for swaying my decision to publish my very own blog.

Not that anyone reads it, but it feels good to do it.

Now I really can’t wait till WWDC!!

I feel a blog entry coming to me!!

Why I switched to Mac

My first desktop PC was a Gateway PC. I don’t remember the model. I think it was a 300 series, but I’m not sure.

I took good care of it. I had Virus, Spyware, protection. I eventually got a Internet Security Suite for it, which had everything in one.
I performed scans often, checked for updates once a week, if not more.

Disk Defrag, Disk clean-up. I performed all the maintenance.

Then, one day, the hard drive crashed.

I turned it on, and heard an uneasy clicking sound, then nothing. I don’t think I saw the infamous BSOD (Blue Screen of Death.)

Just a black screen.

I called Gateway (though I stupidly had not bought a service plan.)

He told me,  from what I told him, it sounded like the hard drive crashed.

I couldn’t believe it. It was just over two years old! And the hard drive crashes?

And of course back then I didn’t back-up my PC. I know, stupid. But of course, I do now. I didn’t lose much, well, a lot of pictures,
but that was about it.

So, for some reason, I decided to buy another Gateway.

I searched and searched and came up with their Media Center PC.

Everything built right into it. No tower. The hard drive, CD drive, everything in one piece. I thought that was very cool
and it was relatively thin. Nothing like the huge CRT monitor.

This time I was ready. I bought an extended service plan.

Like my previous Gateway. I performed all the necessary maintenance for it.

Then about two years later (see a trend here?) when I turned it on, it would start to come on, then stop.

Again, disbelief.

I called Gateway, shipped it to them, and received my PC back in about a week or so.

When it came back, there was no letter, note, or anything, describing what was wrong with it, or what they did to correct it!

I thought that was very strange. The PC worked, but why wouldn’t they tell me what was wrong with it?

So I decided to email them and ask them what was wrong with it.

They had no answer. Something along the lines of “one department not communicating with another.”

I was irate. I wanted to know what was wrong with it, since it had only been a little over two years old. And why wouldn’t they tell me?

So after several emails, they finally told me it was a faulty power supply.

Geez. Was that so hard to tell me?

Then about year later, yes it finally happened: The Blue Screen of Death!!

Angry, shocked, pissed-off, I called Gateway.

He walked me through the steps, and I got it back up running again.

But I had had enough.

Why was this happening? I could see if I didn’t take care of my PC’s. But I did. Probably better care than a lot of people.

So, since I couldn’t depend on Gateway, PC’s in general, I bought a 17” iMac G5.

What a difference! No worries. That is the best part of owning a Mac to me. It simply works!

It does what it is suppose to do, and it is DEPENDABLE!!

No worrying about viruses, spyware, etc, etc, etc,.

And, it is fun to use!

So maybe I’m more of a Gateway hater, then Windows hater.

Perhaps, if I had bought a Dell instead of a Gateway, maybe, just maybe I wouldn’t have the two iMacs I have now.

But, I doubt it.

Apple computers: Reliable, easy to use, fun to use.

That’s why I switched to a Mac.

iPhone Quick Reference Guide

I found this while browsing the Apple Training Series on Amazon.
iPhone Quick Reference Guide

I sent this info to a few Apple Blogs, but they never posted it.
I thought someone might be interested in it besides me.
Yes, I pre-ordered it!

Waiting for the iPhone and Transformers

I cannot wait for the iPhone. It consumes me. Seriously, it does. Which is kind of sad, I know.
I can’t remember the last time I eagerly awaited the release of a product.

It was probably a Transformer, over 20 years ago!
My mom would take me to Toys R Us. I would run to the Transformers isle and stop there for a second and just be amazed.

To me it must have looked like hundreds of Transformers. Which one would I buy? How many would I buy?

I’d pick up all the different ones and practically drool over them.

I’d take them home. Close my door and play with them for hours.

Which is probably what I’ll do when I get the iPhone.

First I’ll take pictures of the iPhone, still in box, unopened.

Strange? I would have thought so too, had I not recently read Leander Kahney’s book, “The Cult of Mac.”

In it he describes how Apple fans would have unpacking ceremonies for friends and family.

Fans would take pictures and/or video tape the opening of an iMac.

Well, I won’t video tape it (I’m not a Mac Zealot yet), but I will photograph it.

It’s official: I am a Mac fanatic.

And I’ve always been a huge Transformers fan. I simply LOVED them.
HELL, I still do.

So how great is this: the iPhone in June, and the Transformers movie on July 4th?

What an amazing two months it will be.