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Don’t bother me for awhile… I just got an Apple MacBook Pro!

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I did it. Finally. It’s my first Apple since the Apple Macintosh that I owned in college (1988-1989?). I admit that I was waiting to see what Microsoft shipped with Vista. I really wanted it to Wow people and make things interesting. But I’m not surprised that they didn’t. Paul Graham’s essay Microsoft is Dead was the final kick in the ass for me — I instantly knew that I needed to make the shift, to hell with the minor inconvenience of learning a new system. And, funny, the last thing that happened with my Sony Vaio before I headed off to the Apple Store? It froze in Outlook. Ha!

How’s this for an Apple upgrade?


Photo from Flickr – gesteves

Word of the Day – Elegant

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I’ve found myself using the world ‘Elegant’ more and more — it’s just a fine word.

If you’re the owner of www.elegant.com, I’d like to talk 🙂

Definitions:

Urban Dictionary – Engineer slang for a very clean or innovative way of solving a problem. i.e. the opposite of a kludge. “While only requiring 20 minutes to code, Bob’s automated porn cataloging app was some of the most elegant work his boss has ever seen.”

Dictionary.net – Elegant El”e*gant, a. [L. elegans, -antis; akin to eligere to pick out, choose, select: cf. F. [‘e]l[‘e]gant. See Elect.]

1. Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste; characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of composition; an elegant speaker; an elegant structure.

A more diligent cultivation of elegant literature. –Prescott.

2. Exercising a nice choice; discriminating beauty or sensitive to beauty; as, elegant taste.

Syn: Tasteful; polished; graceful; refined; comely; handsome; richly ornamental.

Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

New JibJab Funny Movies — the Great Sketch Experiment!

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Hello everyone… I know that I haven’t been posting lately… have just been incredibly busy commuting back and forth to Santa Monica, helping JibJab with some site marketing/traffic stuff, and getting them ready for today’s new JibJab content launch, which brings me to…

The Great Sketch Experiment!!!

I’m almost too tired to type the explanation… but the Great Sketch Experiment brought together 6 of the best undiscovered comedy troupes in the country with legendary comedy film director John Landis (‘Animal House’, ‘Blues Brothers’, etc.) to create 6 hilarious videos that you can watch online at JibJab, and then vote for the winner! The winner will get a $10,000 distribution deal with JibJab and all voters are eligible to win one of 100 Animal House DVDs sighed by director John Landis!

Geeking at Madrona Pub

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My wife was working late tonight, so I took advantage of my freedom — I grabbed the laptop and headed up to Madrona Eatery and Ale House — enjoyed a yummy swiss cheeseburger with mushrooms (yes, very, very healthy) and some IPAs, and reveled in my nerdiness. What’s amazing, and so inviting, about my little Madrona neighborhood is:
a) high-quality hi-speed internet at the Ale House
b) the character who just stumbled, ranting, out of the pub… 🙂 (no, it wasn’t me)
c) I ran into three different friends during the 2+ hours… Chris from Unitus, Michael, who lives in my neighborhood, and a new friend who was geeking on his laptop at the bar, on Second Life.

I asked him about his Second Life experience, and he told me he’s actually writing a book about Second Life. That immediately spurred a conversation about my recent blog posting, and then I encouraged him to get the Seattle Second Life meetup started… I think we have our organizer.

It is great to be able to strike up conversations with locals — I love small towns in big towns.