wow, no meaningful posts since easter, awesome. only like, 800 things have happened since, so yeah, i dunno where to fuckin start, heh.

last month i got a nice big tax return, so i decided to replace my 5 year old linux box with a mac mini. so far, it's really worked quite nicely. it's actually funny cuz i've got the mac and win boxes running side by side, and ever since i got the mac i've been using it for IM and email as well as downloads/torrents, like the linux box was designed for. so the XP box is kinda just relegated to playing music now and then and some general file organization assistance. i don't think i can qualify for someone who's made "the switch" quite yet, but i would certainly recommend an affordable macintosh to anyone.

i never really thought i could say that with a straight face, but it's true. from a power user standpoint, mac os x really does combine the sexiness of XP (well, quite a bit more actually) with the functionality of a linux box, and that's highly appealing to me. somehow apple's made it possible for both a power user like myself and a casual user like my mother to thrive in the same environment.

i've always been a bit of a softy for overly sexy GUIs, which is why i've always preferred XP over older windows versions, it just looks better, despite what some say. so it's no surprise that i find os x's graphic scheme, aqua so damn appealing. it's just sexy in my opinion. and with a unix backbone, i'm sorry but nothing in kde or gnome has ever looked this good.

so yeah, with the minis going as cheap as they are these days (no, not as cheap as a PC by any means, but still) i'd highly recommend trying out a mac for anyone's next average idiot home box. i just installed OS X 10.4 tiger last night, and it really just improves the experience even more. but enough blowing sunshine up apple's ass, i've helped their stock enough the last month.

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haven't really done all that much epic in the last month. alayna and i have done some activities here and there to keep entertained. we've really gotten into a routine every weekend here without anybody really saying anything. she comes over to my place like 6pm friday and doesn't go back to her place till maybe 8pm sunday. so we've kinda already had a taste of living together, since she's officially moving in at the end of this month. we're already starting to bring some of her stuff over here and figuring out where to put everything, so it's creeping up on us.

we're seeing a lot more of the positives in it than the negatives. both of us know it'll take some readjusting here and there, but we realize it's time for us to take the next step in our relationship. things have gotten a little stagnant in the past few months, and i think a lot of that is due to our growing weary of dating so long without upping the commitment somehow. our honeymoon phase is certainly over at this point, and i think that's relatively easy to tell, but you can't blame us for being eager to live together since we'll have been together for 3 years this august. we know we'll be living in my allen apartment at least till probably august '06, and we're assuming at some point before then we'll have determined that yes, we can live together successfully and we'll be engaged.

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as far as how i've been biding my time lately, i've obviously ramped up a lot of my sitting around at the computer time with my new toy here. that phase should wear off here soon, so maybe i can move on to other things than collecting tech news RSS feeds and reading message boards.

i know i rant about it all the time, but i have to admit tv overall this season has been phenomenal. a number of new shows have kept our attention all season, and it's been fun. my pick for best new show of the season is without a doubt lost. it's the show i look forward to the most every week, even without being able to get ABC in high-def. i'd put grey's anatomy as my second best. i'm always a sucker for compelling medical dramas, and it seems an apt replacement for a rapidly declining ER. desperate housewives at times wanders a bit aimlessly, but it's still entertaining tv. i dunno what the hell happened to NBC recently, but their american remix of the office has been terrific. i'm sure i'm in the minority by thinking so, but i thought that show was insanely funny, and did an excellent job in capturing the same vibe as the original BBC version. sadly, it's ratings were just dreadful, so i don't realistically expect to see it back next season. overall, here's what i gave a shit about this tv season, meaning i either watched it or archived it:

sunday - the simpsons (fox), arrested development (fox), desperate housewives (abc), kelsey grammer's sketch show (fox), grey's anatomy (abc)
monday - 24 (fox)
tuesday - the amazing race (cbs), scrubs (nbc), the office (nbc)
wednesday - lost (abc), alias (abc), eyes (abc)
thursday - survivor (cbs), ER (nbc)
friday - numb3rs (cbs)

things will actually continue to be good following the above season finales. it's great to see family guy back on the air, and even american dad could be good. i know i'm not the only one thinking this, but the simpsons is really barely entertaining anymore. tivo'ing old eps from the 90's seems to always net funnier results. assuming alt.binaries.tv.big-brother hooks us yanks up with down under feeds, we'll follow big brother 5 australia for another season. what's funny is that there's prolly 300 people maybe in the states that follow this show, but we love it. amazing race seasons should continue this summer, as well as the obligatory stateside version of big brother, hopefully for its last season.

that should keep us plenty entertained, but just in case things are slow i got the first couple seasons of 24 and alias to catch up on. seems like i should have started watching those back in '01, but with the glory of the tv dvd, what's it matter?

i've spent a bit more time in front of the cube lately, trying to work my way through paper mario. got a little burnt out on katamari damacy and EA NHL 2005, but i'll return to those soon. with the generation gap we're in, hot games are coming out a lot less these days, which should help me hit up my stash for a while. lately it looks like the gamecube's market presence has just plummeted, so it's not exactly the hot system anymore. doesn't really matter, still have an assload of cube, ps2 and pc games left to fuck around with in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

hopefully, i can lose a little interest in such a pretty GUI long enough to go do other things besides surf and giggle, heh.

--j