Dave and I just got a new MacBook - the black one - with OS X Leopard 10.5 installed. Well, I’m the primary user. (Ha.) After a few hours of familiarizing myself with this stunningly beautiful piece of technology, all I can say is, Wow. I can’t believe I waited so long to get a Mac. I’ve used Macs in school growing up and for one summer as a graphic designer, but I never seriously considered getting one for personal use because it was always too expensive and incompatible with PCs. Now, it’s the best time to get a Mac. Everything is compatible (just like the commercials say), and all the equivalents to PC programs and functions are not just prettier - I think they’re better.

These are my first impressions of my new MacBook.

The packaging is so pretty, I’m tempted to keep it for its own sake. The computer comes in a slim square box with a plastic handle. When you slip open the cover, the first thing you see is a square rounded-corner piece of Styrofoam with the words “MacBook” engraved on it. Leave it to Apple. Once you remove the Styrofoam, the MacBook presents itself nicely wrapped in a smooth coverlet. Underneath, there is a flat square box that containing a user manual and software CDs. Everything is square! The first page of the user manual contains one line: “Congratulations, you and your MacBook were made for each other.” Trying to play on my emotions like how the light “pulses” instead of blinks, eh?

I plugged it in and Dave sat with me the first time I turned it on. After an impressive “welcome” montage, the display sat still with the Finder window open, waiting. I clung to Dave’s arm and whined, “I’m afraid to use it!” So silly, but this computer is just so nice that I was afraid of ruining it somehow. Dave brushed me off with an “eh” and started clicking everywhere and installing programs. I sat there, dazed.

Then, I discovered just what I needed - Switch 101. It’s Apple’s step-by-step tutorial on how to make the switch from Windows to Mac. I proceeded to begin reading every page from the beginning and discovering that the Mac is not such a mysterious machine after all. It still has all the same components as Windows, just named and organized differently. Apple has an amazing web of support for everything - switching from a PC, iTunes, iPhoto, how to set up a wireless network, etc. Unlike Dave who likes to learn a new skill by trial and error, I like to read all about it before doing anything.

The most exciting revelations have been that I’m not sacrificing any efficiency by giving up my PC. For example, PC keyboards have both Backspace and Delete keys, Backspace for deleting backwards and Delete for deleting forwards. The Mac keyboard only has one key named Delete. When I blogged on Dave’s MacBook Pro in New Orleans, it was driving me crazy that I couldn’t forward delete. But I learned through Switch 101’s nifty comparison chart of common Windows habits and the Mac equivalents that you can forward delete by holding down the Function key while pressing Delete. This was news to Dave, who doesn’t like instruction manuals. Also, on the PC keyboard I use the Home and End buttons a lot, and the Mac equivalents are Command+Left Arrow Key and Command+Right Arrow Key - how logical!

The one thing that I don’t think I can get used to is not having a right button for the mouse pad. Hence, I plugged in my Microsoft optical mouse and it’s working just fine. Except, the movement of the pointer is strange. There is a delay or slowing down when you’re trying to pinpoint the thing you want to click. The pointer moves fine in large movements but is poor for the precision movements. Dave tells me the same thing happened to him with his MacBook Pro, and I just need to get used to it. Grrr.

Tonight I learned about the most impressive “replacement” of all - iPhoto. On my PC, I was using Google’s Picasa 2, and I loved it. When I first started using it, I irritated Dave with all my rantings of “I love Picasa, omg, it is so awesome how it’s easy to rename the files and do touchups and organize! Goodbye, ACDSee!!!” Of course every program has its flaws, but Picasa came pretty near to being perfect for my non-professional digital photo needs. I was skeptical that anything could rival it, but iPhoto certainly does. My MacBook comes with iLife ‘08 (iPhoto, iTunes, Garage Band, iDVD, and iMovie). I watched the whole iPhoto tutorial and can definitely see the tricks they took from Picasa’s bag. All the tools that Picasa is known for (straightening, a variety of effects, one-click color and exposure editing, albums), iPhoto has emulated perfectly. Even some of the button placements are the same. I could be wrong about who copied whom, but who cares! Apple has not given me a single reason to regret my switch and that’s all that matters to me right now. (The MacBook isn’t cheap, of course.)

I’m sure I’ll be sharing more about my PC to Mac switch as I continue to unpack everything my MacBook has to offer. If I sound gushy and excited, that’s because I am. No more ugly interfaces, struggling with the wireless networks dialogue box, finding and installing drivers, and so on. I get to come home from my Windows XP work computer (force-configured to display the dull Windows 2000 theme) to this:

Dave and I just spent 8 hours playing Rockband on XBox360 with some of my co-workers. I kid you not. We started after lunch and took one 30-minute break for dinner. It is the most addictive and fun game that I’ve played in a while. Dave took to the “guitar” and I took to the “drums.” We both are able to play songs on the Hard setting now. My co-worker is lending us Rockband until her XBox gets fixed. After they left, Dave and I played by ourselves for another hour trying to beat songs that we couldn’t do earlier in the day. I can’t believe how fun it is. We’re planning to buy our own set. (After my right ankle heals. It’s really painful now from hitting the drum’s foot pedal nonstop.)

The songs are, as the name suggests, all rock songs. A lot of the songs are lesser-known songs of popular bands like Nirvana, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Fallout Boys, and Stone Temple Pilots. Some are hit songs like Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden, and some are songs most people have never heard of. But you can buy more contemporary and popular songs off XBox marketplace, and they are constantly coming out with new songs. If it really takes off, they will have new songs debut on the game platform before CD or radio. That would be bizarre, eh?

You can create a band with your teammates and go on tour, play rock offs, and earn points to spend toward new outfits and tattoos the the like. As you get better, you can hire a band manager, sound team, and bodyguards. This is the billboard for the band we created -

Dave and I when we first started to learn, before we realized our natural tendencies were for the opposite instrument -

That night we ate at Morton’s Steakhouse, where I had the best filet mignon I’ve ever tasted -

Then it was to the French Quarter to hear our favorite brass band (I’ll put up a video I took tomorrow) -

Oysters Round 1 (before I got grossed out - the big ones that did me in were three times the size of the one in the foreground) -

Beignet Heaven (picture of the best New Orleans snack pastry here) -

1. Oysters are gross. I’ve always been afraid of them until last year when I tried charbroiled oysters at Drago’s Seafood restaurant. They were grilled with butter, garlic and parmesean cheese, and they were delicious. This trip, they were the first thing I ate, then I ate another plate yesterday. But then I started getting grossed out by the really big oysters which started looking like globs of snot that popped hot liquids in my mouth. 

2. New Orleans is one of my favorite cities. I don’t know how it happened, but this city has really gotten to me. I’ve randomly been moved to tears, while listening to the brass band, so proud of their art, or admiring beautiful photography shot around the city, or hearing the female hymnist’s angelic voice at St. Louis Catheral mass, or seeing the water lines on the houses hit by Hurricane Katrina, still abandoned with their front lawns crazy with weeds. There’s something special about this place. And it’s not really the food that attracts me - it’s hard to find food that won’t guarantee heartburn. Maybe having lived in the reviled urban sprawl that is most of Los Angeles and Orange Counties the last 10 years, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by a city so unique in its history, culture and architecture.

3. I can actually forget about immigration law. When I’m in the daily grind, my mind is working overtime and overactively. At work, I have to remind myself to take deep breaths as I rush from one task to another in a neverending race to get cases done. When I come home, I’m still thinking and talking about work, and it takes a couple hours of TV to get me normal again. That could explain the tendency to veg on weeknights. But remove myself from the office, and I am still a person with interests, ones that have nothing to do with my job (gasp!) or bettering myself. I’ve spent a lot of time consuming stories… an audiobook and a whole TV series that I’ve seen before. I guess I’m still prone to distracting myself and keeping my mind engaged rather than being alone with my thoughts. Which leads me to…

4. Even when I have tons of free time on my hands, I don’t really choose to spend it with God. My life feels like it’s on fast forward. I don’t really slow down to go deep into the Bible or into journaling. I used to in law school when my life was more regimented. I even had a second desk in my room especially for quiet times. But journaling has pretty much stopped since I got married. I write maybe once every couple months. I used to write every day. I’ve never prayed every day. I had wanted to use this vacation, specifically the hours that Dave would be attending the conference, for some soul-searching and to get back on track with God. But instead, as soon as I woke up I would put on my iPod or pop in a DVD, or rush to a bus tour. This tells me it’s not about finding the perfect environment; it’s about removing the distractions. I need to go less with feelings and impulses and more with what I know is right.

5. I learned to use Dave’s MacBook Pro, and I like it more and more. Dave and I fantasize about “going Apple” and we’ve started by changing out the cheap stuff like our router and keyboards. For this vacation, I decided to leave behind my tiny Dell Inspiron laptop and take my chances with an alien system. The first few hours were frustrating as I had trouble navigating between programs and figuring out whether a program was even running. Typing and toggling between windows was excruciating because I kept trying to use Ctrl or Alt instead of the Apple button. I’m still very disturbed that there is no “delete” key that will allow you to delete to the right of the cursor. I use that key a lot when I type. Eh, I’m sure I’ll get over it. Now I’m really liking the elegant desktop and simplicity. It sure beats my laptop at work which, despite running Windows XP, forces the Windows Classic theme on each machine. Talk about institutional.

OK, time for bed. Tomorrow it’s back to Pasadena and getting ready to refit myself into the cog wheel. 

The last time we were in New Orleans was in August 2007 for my new attorney training. We were here for a week and while I was in session, Dave wandered around the French Quarter and explored downtown in search of photo spots. We never expected to return, much less within one year. So it has been surreal walking around the same square mile we stayed in last summer - the hotel we’re in now is literally down the street from the one that hosted my conference. It has also been exciting to do the things we didn’t get to do last time because we mostly hung out with my co-workers who were more interested in food, drink and dancing than music or culture. Last time we went to the aquarium the day after the conference, and I wasn’t that impressed except that I got to pet stingrays and see a white gator. This time, we’re going to listen to live jazz, take some kind of tour, see the Garden District, and explore the French Quarter more thoroughly.

The best surprise/reprise has been finding a street brass band that I had been sad to leave behind without knowing their name or finding a CD with music sounding even remotely as awesome. Last year we were walking out of the French Quarter along the famous Bourbon Street and were getting ready to turn left on Canal Street to return to our hotel when we heard a cacophony of drums, trumpets, and tuba. For the next half hour, we stood transfixed by a group of young black guys blasting the coolest melodies and rhythms out of three trombones, two trumpets, two drums, a tuba and a saxophone.

Well, who do we see when we walk the same route last night? A familiar looking group packing up their instruments underneath a hand-drawn poster that declared, To Be Continued Brass Band. I looked them up and it turns out they’re on Wikipedia and have their own website named after the documentary being directed about them, From the Mouthpiece on Back. I couldn’t wait to go back tonight and hear them, and sure enough, they play every night at the same corner. There are video and sound clips on the website. I joined their mailing list so that I could be notified as soon as a CD comes out. Yes, I like them that much. It’s the perfect blend of funk, classical, jazz, rap and hip hop.

Tomorrow, I think I’ll try for the Hurricane Katrina tour. It was nice vegging out in the hotel room today but I’m starting to feel like a lump. I should have some interesting photos to share. 

Now, apart from the obvious violation of copyright law, what is going on here? Am I supposed to be attracted to attending the conference which will make me more manly? The movie 300, as much as I like it for its entertainment value, is not exactly congruent with the goal of Christian conferences. It is a movie filled with graphic violence, sex, and primal definitions of manhood.

The line from the movie, “Tonight we dine in hell,” is referenced in the image. But it is altered to state “the cafeteria” instead of “hell.” As adept as I may be at identifying Christian symbols and allegories, I fail to see the cleverness of this reference. Are they referring to dining with God the King at the wedding banquet at the end of time? Is the speaker going to speak in a cafeteria? Is “cafeteria” a euphemism for “hell”?

At the bottom, the title of the movie is altered to “Gideon’s 300.” Ah, so this is the bibically correct reference. It alludes to Judges 7 where God chose 300 men to accompany Gideon to defeat the oppressive Midianites. Still, if you read the story, apart from the number of the soldiers, there are no other similarities. The men were chosen by God because they lapped the water scooped in their hands rather than bending down to drink. They did not actually kill anyone. They surrounded the enemy camp, blew trumpets, broke jars, and shouted “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Then the Midianites killed each other. No kicking people into round pits of death. No decapitations and dismemberments. Clothing (implied).

I don’t see anything about dining or eating in the passage.

Conclusion: This advertisement attracts attention with its shock value but is otherwise useless. I wouldn't want to be distracted by thinking about the movie 300 while I sit there listening to a sermon. I don’t really want to associate a bloody movie with one of the triumphant moments in the Bible. Then again, the Bible sometimes is bloody and violent. Maybe the gore of 300 contrasts usefully with Gideon’s bloodless victory. Maybe Larry Walkemeyer is a really good speaker. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to think this deeply about this ad at all.

Nonetheless, I have taken the opportunity to try out another company when the opportunity presented itself. And since my former college roommate got married last summer and had both a wedding shower and bachelorette party, resulting in many photos, I decided to use Blurb to make her a gift photobook.

Why Blurb? Its website is really nice, and it has a self-publishing emphasis. That is, once you make a book, you can put a price on it and sell it to your friends or the public. There is also a community on Flickr dedicated to Blurb. It’s not limited only to photobooks, either. Once you think of it as a self-publishing tool, the possibilities are endless. You can publish your portfolio, your blog, recipes, poetry, or children’s stories.

Similar to MyPublisher and its BookMaker software, you put together your Blurb book using proprietary software called BookSmart. It was pretty intuitive and easy to download and use. It loaded rather slowly on my computer, perhaps due to the size of my images. I made a 7×7 inch hardcover book, and I found that the software wasn’t that good at centering the images to focus on the important points. I had to go in and manually adjust the photos so that people’s heads weren’t cut off. The look I was going for was full-bleed images (or as close to full-bleed as possible), and the software did a pretty good job of showing off my photos without distortion.

If you don’t want only one photo per page, there are different layouts available depending on the number of photos you want on the page, up to 12 collage-style or set off from each other individually. I think MyPublisher’s software has more variety of layouts depending on number of photos. You’ll notice a lack of scrapbook-type layouts and elements, such as crooked alignments and flowery backgrounds. This is a company geared toward artists and writers.

Shipping costs can be onerous with Blurb, which calculates shipping individually by the details of your order. My 20 page 7×7 inch hardcover book costed $8.26 to ship to Pasadena, California at the slowest speed, UPS ground. My book costed $22.95 to begin with. If you buy in bulk, like at least 10 copies, you get a 10 percent volume discount on the cost of the books.

I think making a wedding photobook with Blurb might have been neat if it turned out professional-looking and wedding guests could order online, making things easier on me. But honestly, who would want to spend $30+ dollars on a photobook of someone else’s wedding? If I were going to give someone a photobook, I wouldn’t want them to pay for it.

Below are some shots of my Blurb book before I gave it away. Let me just say off the bat that I am disappointed with the print quality of photobook services in general. I’ve seen my friends’ Snapfish and Shutterfly calendars and photobooks, and none of them rise up to the quality of the cheapest thing imaginable – a Costco print. The main draw of photobook services is their convenience and the novelty of having your photos in book form and their uniqueness as gifts, not the sterling photo quality.

That said, I was blown away by the cover of the Blurb book. The inside print quality was whatevers, but the glossy, vibrant and professional cover was very impressive. The two inside flaps are perfect for inserting personal messages. This sets Blurb apart from other photobook companies. You can even print your own title on the spine of the book – how much more book-like can you get?

The cover:

The cover spread out:

Inside:

As you can see, the cover is great but the photos are less than sharp. There’s always a flatness or dullness to the printing. The inferior quality, I’m told by an insider of the photobook industry, is due to the use of Indigo printers, which are an advanced type of inkjet printers designed to print double-sided pages rapidly and economically, so that companies can sell books at a reasonable price to consumers and ship them quickly. The speed needed for a quick turnaround is and was crucial to the photobook industry’s success, but it is also what compromises the quality you’d see in prints from Costco, Kodak, or Target.

Would I use Blurb again? The jury’s still out. I need to try the other services. I’ve got my eye on Picaboo, Shutterly, Snapfish, and SharedInk. (But that glossy cover…that’s hard to beat.)

So, here is the list –

1. I am an avid gamer. I like playing even more than my husband. I am two star-levels away from beating Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. I’ve beaten Kameo: Elements of Power twice and recently downloaded the power pack so I can play harder levels. I love Gears of War.
2. I am deathly afraid of bugs. Unless they’re really tiny, I will not kill them. I get Dave to do it.
3. I grew up in Maryland. I’ve even been told I have a Maryland accent, whatever that means. It doesn’t feel like my home anymore, now that I’ve lived in California the last 10 years.
4. I don’t like shopping. Let me qualify that. I don’t like shopping for clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup…basically anything that will go on my face or body. It stresses me out to no end. On the other hand, I like shopping for food, household items, furniture, tech items, books, CD’s, and gifts.
5. I will watch certain movies or movie scenes over and over. I find the weirdest things really funny and will rewind and watch them a few times until Dave says “OK, enough!” (always in Mandarin, for some reason). Some examples are: in Fellowship of the Ring when Bilbo lunges at Frodo’s ring and his face turns Gollum-like as he hisses loudly; in Bourne Identity when Jason Bourne falls down the atrium between the stairs in a tall building and breaks his fall by pulling a bad guy under himself at the last moment; in Deadwood when Al Swearengen snaps “Don’t repeat back to me what I just said in different words!”; in 24 when Jack Bauer barges up to an innocent guy opening the door to his SUV, flings him to the ground, barks “Don’t get up!” and drives off while rock music blares in the background. Movies I’ve watched 5 times or more: The Incredibles, Mean Girls, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
6. I am a compulsive organizer, but I’m also lazy. This results in a strange state of chaos at home, mainly in the closet upstairs where I never put away the short sleeves and now I don’t need to because it’s spring again, and the dining-table-turned-work-table strewn with mail, books, magazines, and receipts. On the other hand, the kitchen cabinets, pantry, and drawers are immaculate. And every few weeks, I’ll change around the configuration of things, e.g. switch lamps or move corner tables, and I never have to consult Dave who has conceded that I am far more superior at organizing.
7. I have filled over 20 journals since elementary school. From age 15 to 20, I wrote in my journal every single day before I went to sleep. Lately it’s dropped down to one entry every month or two. It used to be my main source of catharsis. Now it’s TV. (Sad.)

So there you have it. I now tag Angel, Batman, Eugenia, Joyce, Kevin and Linda, Jess, Dina, Jeremy and Sam. I re-tag Katy who was previously tagged by Blinkdagger.