Need I say more?

woman in starbucks : [sees me w/laptop] "Are you using the Wireless Internet?"

me: "Why, yes I am."

woman: "I can't get mine to work. Do I have to plug in somewhere or something?"

me: "No, hence the name...."Wire-Less"

woman: [notices the cord leading from my mouse] "But you have a wire!!! Right There!!"

me: "Er...that's my mouse."

woman: [not yet satisfied] "And another one on the other side!!"

me: [trying not to lose patience] "Yes...those are my headphones"

woman: "Oh. Okay. Well, I don't know why I even have a laptop if I can't get online"

**ack!**

Plein Air

Today I decided that the only way I would have time to paint is to make time to paint.

So, I got up extra early, did my client work and scheduled some time in the afternoon to set up my easel at the beach.

I love plein air painting [painting outside in nature] the most because it gives me the most realistic view of colors, lights and darks. It can be peaceful [depending on how public the place] but it can also be a platform for idiotic comments from passerbys.

Sometimes it's nice to interact but a lot of the time people offer unsolicited critiques of the painting while it's clearly in progress or say something stupid like "Can you paint ME in the picture?"

Today, however took the cake. I thought I was being stealth, hiding in the shade, far away from the busy sand near the picnic area.

Of course, some guy has to come up and see what I'm doing. This conversation started out okay--he was talking about people following their dreams and how great it was that I was out there doing what I like to do.

It started to go downhill when he explained that he was working on a reality show about 'people who do what they love' [interesting concept, but i think that dead horse has been beat senseless enough already].

The "piéce de resistance" was when he said something to the effect of wanting to pursue a life of doing what he loved so he could [and i'm not kidding] "Piss Happiness and Shit Rainbows" every single day.

I guess I just never thought of it that way....

Statistics du Jour

Number of iPods sold: 20,000,000

Number of Cell Phone Minute usage last year: 1,100,000,000

Population of U.S: 296,084,478

Population of China: 1,307,289,432

Starducks

You just never know what you're going to find in Starbucks--just beyond the mocha-dopa-frappawhappa-chino.

Along with the laptops, occassional business meetings and baby strollers...every so often, Starbucks attracts the town wierdos.

I realize that wierdo is probably not the most P.C. term [maybe I should say 'socially challenged'?] but I can't think of a better way to put it.

This woman comes into Starbucks alone and loudly annouces her presence. Everyone sitting here is making a strong effort NOT to make eye contact but she keeps on talking anyway.

She goes on to shout that it's too cold in here ["HEY, can you TURN that A/C DoWN?!?!]--that she brings her own coffee for 50 cents b/c it's ridiculous that they would charge you two dollars--that women today are lazy...."They don't want to clean or cook or do nuthin..."

She points out emphatically that she is not lazy [except, maybe in the bathing department] and THEN goes on this whole tirade about how all women are sluts and "sleep with men before they are married" and that "12 year old girls are sleeping around and that if she had a daughter she would KILL her"--and THEN--much more information that anyone here needed...

She shouts, "I'm PURE--62 years OLD and I didn't LIE down for NO ONE!!"

And then she leaves.

Lovely.

Greenwich Produce

It's bad enough that Greenwich Produce---my favorite asian market had to go out of business. For years, it was my primary source for gorgeous and exotic fruits and vegetables [relatively cheap].

I could find fresh lichee nuts, pomegranates the size of grapefruits---grapefruits the size of soccer balls [alright, fine--that's a slight exaggeration] fresh FIGS, three kinds of MANGOES imported directly from heaven and those tasty skinny purple japanese eggplants.

I guess they could no longer afford their rent--you have to sell a lot of frisee to keep your digs on Greenwich Avenue.

To add insult to injury--what goes in it's place? Not a cool coffee house. Not a juice bar. Not even a over-priced boutique worthy of only window shopping. What goes in?! Another BANK!!!

That's so depressing.

Free Speech

For the first time in my life I had a bumper sticker on my car. Last year, before the elections--I put a Kerry sticker on my car hoping it could somehow help the cause.

After Kerry lost, I placed a new sticker, right over the Kerry tag that read: "Someone Else for President".

Today, while I was in the gym, someone slapped their own sticker on MY bumper that read: "I Am Proud of My Conservative Values".

The person who put it on is very lucky that it's so hot out b/c it came off really easily.

The funny part is that whoever put it on must have been plotting this for a while--it's not like someone randomly drives around with an "I Am Proud of My Conservative Values" bumper sticker, all ready to go in case they see something liberal that they don't like.

Or maybe they do.....

Le Tigre

So I FINALLY get Tiger on my machine. I can SYNC my phone--play with my widgets ;) and now get my horoscope, the cheapest gas prices in town and the weather anywhere in the country right there on my desktop. Neat.

It's so nice to have my phone book back. It's sad--back in the old days, when phones were either attached to the wall or a big box on your desk, I used to memorize phone numbers. I was almost glad to get a busy signal so it would give me a chance to redial the number a bunch of times and remember it. Now, with speed dial and phone books and all that, I hardly remember anyone's phone number anymore. Not to mention that people no longer have standard extensions--with cell phones and VOIP everyone has some crazy number.

alright, back to work....

thank you jules for reading my blog :)

The Loop

Anyone out there who works with technology on any regular basis surely has run into 'the loop'. You go to do a simple thing, like for instance, update your address book and suddenly you are caught up in a vortex of technological issues--and the loop.

It was a seemingly simple task. My phone was no longer charging properly--it seemed that the connector was now defunct. The phone was 6 months old--apparently a lifetime for phones. I waited another day or two only to see that my phone was really acting funky. I call tech support and they have this tricky piece of colored paper in the back of the phone that changes color based on moisture exposure. Somehow my phone must have been exposed to moisture [i'm not really sure how] so they would no longer support it. Adding insult to injury, the rep even went as far as to say "The phone is not made for under water use". [YES, i reAlIZE that]

Anyhow, so I order a new phone. It's cool, it has a built in radio [FM only] which comes in handy for morning runs so I can listen to Howard Stern and be available for early morning clients at the same time. I pop in my SIMM and think my address book will be updated. Nope. Not compatible.

Okay, fine. I'll just update it in iSync--have needed to do that for a while anyway. Nope, not compatible with Panther. OKAY FINE, I needed to upgrade to Tiger anyway, so I get a copy, pop it in the Superdrive and *whirrrrrclick* it ejects.

? Ejects? Strange. Pop in Fight Club--ejects. Season 2 of Three's Company--ejects. The very disk that I made on this drive months ago---EJECTS. Call Apple tech support--says drive is toast.

Interesting, b/c I just REPLACED this very drive in January. OKAY FINE--so I call the folks who fix it--Apple only warranties the drive for 3 months. I beg Apple to honor the damn thing, [this is my 9th mac and i've been working with apple since the 80's, can't you do something???] they do and they order me a new drive.

So, the problem should be solved, right? Not quite. I got to the Authorized Apple Support folks who keep the mac all day. They pop it in and the BRAND spanking NEW drive doesn't work!!! They order a new drive. And I wait. Still no Tiger, still no update to my address book. A week later, I break down and order an external drive. It writes 16x AND can make a GRAPHIC laser etched imprint ON TOP of the CD so that's pretty cool. I hook it up, upgrade a bit of software, only to find out it's not compatible with most things in iLife--which means I need to use a different software package to burn DVD's and can't even WATCH a MOVIE b/c iDVD won't recognize an external drive. I can, however, supposedly [and I really hope so] install Tiger.

So, this is my loop. Not that much fun. I'm trying to stay positive about it. I suppose I've learned a lot about my computer and that maybe what I REALLY NEED is just a new laptop. Any one of those funky 30" flatscreens. Maybe it will be Christmas in August afterall.

Back!

Okay, so I officially have no excuses on my lack of bloggingness. Back from the honeymoon....which was amazing ....and back to sitting here in Starbucks catching up on my workload. It's amazing how many laptops have migrated here--and how many different businesses are now mobile. So, anyway--back a week, might be over the jet lag by now. The 12 hour direct flight [from NYC to Papeete, Tahiti] wasn't really that bad. Air Tahiti gives you a flower to put behind your ear [everyone in Tahiti wears 'em] an eyepatch and earplugs for sleeping and the best part: socks. That was thoughtful--it was the one thing I'd wished I had but didn't wear w/my flipflops. Every seat had a screen--7 movies, videogames etc. kept us entertained and I tend to be a good sleeper on trains, planes and automobiles.

Cool little puddle jumper [more like a taxi with wings] from Tahiti to Moorea that was literally a 9 mintue flight. I should be posting pictures---and will once I get my act together.

People were really nice in general...landscape was lush...water was amazingly crisp and clear with lots of sharks and stingrays [more about that later] and tons of tropical fish. More life than anywhere I've seen.

Okay, back to work for me but at least I'm back on my blog. Photos coming soon....