Double DS Lites
Originally uploaded by grabbingsand.
We planned. We saved. We purchased.
And it took some doing. Our local Circuit City was fresh out of the little gems. So was Best Buy. We were resigned to making our acquisition through Amazon when Nikki had the brilliant idea of checking availability elsewhere.
Our store didn’t have them, but the City in Gwinnett had at least one in stock. Maybe two. So I called and asked. Guy on the phone said they had exactly two left, but he couldn’t hold them. If we wanted them, we’d have to buy them online and arrange for in-store pickup.
Easy. Mostly. (more…)
Anyone who has visited my office has said the same thing: “How do you do anything with all of the freakin’ icons on your desktop?” My answer has been only vaguely defensive. I just use the desktop as a work area. Doesn’t everyone use their desktop as a work area?
Come on, why call it a desktop if you don’t treat it like a … ?
Okay. So maybe they have a point. Or a few points. I get busy, what can I say? So this afternoon, I made some more folders, dragged like with like, deleted a lot of unnecessary icons for rarely used applications (or spent files for already acquired bittorrents) and pulled all that was left to the side.
Then I spent a small amount of time in Photoshop with an image of the Ninth Doctor.
The result is rather stark, but clean. Additionally, I tweaked the theme colors in XP. I’ve kept them at factory standard since install.
We’ll see how long it remains this way. Maybe if I get into a regular habit of posting my desktop for public consideration … or maybe if all of my other bloggetting acquaintances did the same, then we’d all keep ourselves tidy, eh?
(Post yourself, suckers. I tag you all.)
Update: For those who might want the Doctor Who wallpaper, download it here.
Nikki’s getting her hair done.
I’m on the other side of the mall. As one might expect for a Satruday afternoon, the Apple Store is full of potential commerce. Off-hand, I’d guess there are about 60 people in here. The sonic atmosphere is a mix of stacked conversation and indeterminate ambient music.
I’m posting from the new MacBook Pro. The black one. Already, I can see how others have complained about the keyboard. The keys are no longer up against one another. There are little plastic valleys between every key, kind of like an old accounting calculator from Texas Instruments or Radio Shack. As a result, my fingers keep skidding into the void.
It’s hot, too. Admittedly, black adds a certain hotness, but I’m being literal. The keyboard itself is warm to the touch. It could just be due to how long the poor thing has been sitting here, flat against the birch veneer of this table, but I’m pretty sure that my four-year-old iBook doesn’t give off this much heat … not upwards through the keys, anyway.
Enough of this. Time to move on down the mall.
Thank you, Apple Store.
My World of Warcraft account will remain active until August 8, but after that … I’m done.
Later, I’ll have more to say about my brief return to World of Warcraft, the community therein, the potential that remains, and my not-bitter-at-all (really) reasons for leaving.
As of 11:29pm, the “Yes” column for creating Johns Creek (or is it John’s Creek?) is towering over the “No” side, nine-to-one. So tomorrow morning, we’ll wake up … well … right where we are. A win means that Johns Creek will incorporate, yes, but not officially until the first week of December 2006. And as it was explained in last night’s town hall meeting, the name change will not affect anyone’s postal address. 30022 will still be considered Alpharetta. At some later time, Johns Creek can petition the USPS for recognition. Hopefully, that agenda item is scheduled sometime after resurfacing the crumbly streets of our neighborhood.
In other results, it looks like Casey Cagle is going to maintain his 56% of the vote for Republican candidacy over fellow leiutenant governor wanna-be Ralph Reed. Good. Then the plan worked …
I Voted. Finally.
I got to our local polling precinct at 7:10am. Not on time, not early, but as this is a primary, ten minutes post opening should be reasonable. But when I got there, this stocky fellow in a security guard uniform barks from the sidewalk that they’re not ready.
“Who’s not ready?”
“Them in there. They’re still settin’ up the stuff.”
He grumbles and shuffles across the parking lot to his waiting truck. So I wait as well, flipping through the first few pages of The Economist and listening to Morning Edition. When you wake up to NPR, get ready to NPR and drive to work with NPR, you see the story patterns very quickly. At the top of the hour, all the features repeat. At the halves, I think, you get another news update. Finally, after seeing another frustrated citizen walk out and into the lot, I get out of the car to see for myself.
Ocee Elementary smells a bit like the Science Building at Berry. This isn’t entirely a bad thing.
“It’s going to be a bit longer. She hasn’t shown up yet.”
Who? “The precinct manager.”
With that, the already frustrated poll worker drags another bulky case of electric democracy down the hallway.
I decided to wait until after work.
—
Around 3:45pm, I walked in. Registered. Inhaled. Exhaled. Voted. Got my sticker and left by 4:00pm.
So now I’m refreshing the Secretary of State and AJC/Fulton Results pages. Just like watching a pot, waiting for the boil.
As mentioned, we will be voting next Tuesday on the creation of a city called John’s Creek. We’re eligible to vote due to our address. By a factor of maybe ten or fifteen yards, our house is just inside the proposed new borders of John’s Creek. As far as the ballot is concerned, we’re Area A.
Yes, there is an Area B. They have the additional option to annex into nearby Roswell, but that vote won’t come for them until November 2. It seems likely that the Area B folk will vote “No” on John’s Creek.
So where is John’s Creek going to be? That’s a difficult question to answer. There’s a map available on the coordinating website, but the link only seems to cooperate with Internet Explorer. Beyond that, the map image is a rather roughly presented drawing that is only legible at about 600%. See?
The big green thing in the center that looks a bit like a sea turtle in mid-swim? That’s John’s Creek. If you cross your eyes a bit, the shape is kind of pleasing in a purely Rorschachian kind of way.
(Hmm. After some consideration, it looks more like a jaundiced flying squirrel wearing a purple fez.)
But none of this helps you or me figure out just where I’m looking. Google Maps and Photoshop to the rescue!
There! Now you can see that John’s Creek will stretch from McGinnis Ferry on the Northeast to Old Alabama Road on the Southwest with some rather odd connecting points in-between.
The funny thing … in a way that’s not exactly funny … is that the new city’s namesake, the creek itself, is located mostly just to the north of the green blob, to the right of that top pointy bit.
And it’s in Forsyth County. We live in Fulton.
