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Mavericks?!?

Work thankfully wasn’t terribly busy today, so I—along with probably every other Apple-lovin’ geek on the planet who was able to—watched the live feed of Apple’s WWDC keynote today. And like everyone else who saw it, I have a few opinions that—since this is my blog and I’ll write what I damn well please—you can take or leave as you want.

OS X 10.9

Mavericks? Really? I lived in northern California—on the coast, no less—for sixteen years and never even heard of Mavericks. Apple, you couldn’t have come up with just one more cat name before moving on to OS XI? In my opinion, that was just plain stupid, considering 10.9 doesn’t appear so radically different from 10.8 that it would justify a whole new naming convention. I think you jumped the gun here, guys.

I was secretly hoping that when Craig Federighi took the stage he’d look at the crowd and say, “I know a lot of you will be disappointed, but there will be no OS X 10.9.” After the huge  sigh of disappointment from the audience died down, he’d smile,  point his clicker at the screen and say, “Say hello to OS XI!” And then unveil the most amazingly redesigned OS since X itself appeared—and only then with a new naming convention in place. That would’ve been the Apple I’ve come to know and love.

Sadly that didn’t happen. I guess we’ll will have to wait until next year.

Needless to say, I was underwhelmed by 10.9. Yeah, there are a couple new features (including much-improved power management) that I’ll undoubtedly find useful, but on the whole the presentation was a major snooze-fest.

Will I upgrade? Duh!—if only for the better power management.

Mac Pro

“Can’t innovate any more, my ass!” ~ Phil Schiller

Amazing. Beautiful. I couldn’t decide if it was plucked from the core of a crashed UFO or if it’s a Cray Mini-Me. Once again, Apple does what Apple does best and it sort of made up for Maverick. I applaud their vision. But with the overall downturn in desktop PC sales, is anyone paying attention? Will the new Pro be a smashing success? Only time will tell—as evidenced by how quickly the cheap self-destructing knock-offs appear on the market running Windoze 8.

iOS7

I love my iPhone. I love my iPad. But like many have said lately, let’s face it—the OS that runs those amazing devices is looking a little long in the tooth. While iOS7’s fresh coat of paint—while undeniably beautiful—is less than the wholesale reimaging I was expecting, but the new feature set is everything I’d hoped for. I’ll be upgrading my devices the moment it’s available.

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Every time…

…I have to unbox some cheap-ass piece of black plastic Dell crap at work, I come to appreciate Apple and its aesthetic, quality, engineering, and packaging all the more.

 

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CHRISTINA!

Bring me the laundry basket!*

*This phrase grew from the infamous line in Mommie Dearest where Joan yells, “Christina! Bring me the axe!” into something my last housemate in San Francisco and I used to say to each other when we ran across a picture of some hot guy. It started out as “Bring me a sock!” [to jerk off in], but if the guy was super hot it became into “Bring me the laundry basket [full of socks]!”

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A Question for My Denver Area Readers

One of the things I miss most about Phoenix are the healthcare providers I had there. My Primary Care guy was amazing. My Ear-Nose-Throat physician was supposedly one of the best in the valley. My eye doctor was outstanding. Heck, I even liked my dentist. And working for the company I did down there, I had the added perk of only a $50 copay to any of our emergency rooms and any procedure I had performed at one of the hospitals didn’t cost me a thing.

Unfortunately, my luck in Denver hasn’t been as good. While my Primary Care physician is decent enough, he’s geographically undesirable. And since he only knows other doctors in his general area, that means anyone else I need to see (like an otolaryngologist for my yearly checkup) is also an hour drive from home. I found a decent eye doctor in Glendale (based on a referral I got through this blog a while back), so I’m hoping I can do the same again for my other providers.

I need a suggestion for a good primary care physician in central Denver/Glendale or the Greenwood Village/Lone Tree/Littleton area. Also a dentist. And if any of you have a therapist you can recommend, that would be great too. (With all that’s happened during the last six months, I’m reaching the point where I think I need to start seeing someone—at least until the mother-in-law moves out.)

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One Of My Favorite

…photos from my dad’s collection of pictures he took during World War 2.

The one in the middle front, and the one in the back about to throw the ball, please.

I remember when I was a kid I used to get all tingly looking at this. Is it any wonder?

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Movie Review

Ben and I saw INTO DARKNESS Saturday afternoon and I have to say I was blown away. I love love love the Abram’s reboot of the franchise. He manages to remain faithful to the core—the “soul” if you will—of the mythology yet breathes new life into the stories and characters in unexpected ways.

My only fear is that with him now becoming wrapped up with Star Wars, he won’t have the time to do any more Trek movies, and that would be unfortunate.

Instead of rambling on at length about how awesome I thought this film was, I’m just going to copy verbatim what one of my readers posted on his blog because it sums up my own thoughts exactly:

GREAT!

INTO DARKNESS is not only the best of aaallllllllll the Star Trek movies, it is one of the best action movies in years. GO SEE IT! I’ll be seeing it again if I get the chance. I’ll leave it at that but for one more thing:

INTO DARKNESS breaks almost all movie rules:

  • Sequels are not as good as the 1st.
  • Reboot/Remakes are not as good as the original.
  • Sequels which are reboots/remakes suck!
  • Remakes of great movies are never as good as the original.
  • Remakes of great movies which are also reboots are never as good as the original.

I had forgotten/didn’t know the main plot for INTO DARKNESS so I’ll not reveal it here but it took until 40% through that I realized what I was seeing. [And when I did, I giggled like a schoolgirl; it amazes me that they’ve managed to keep it quiet for so long—VR] When the action stopped the plot moved forward and the interaction among the characters was just as entertaining.

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I’m Sure It’s Not…

…the first time either John Barrowman or Stephen Amell have found themselves in this situation. Maybe not necessarily together, but still.

Or maybe I’m just projecting.

I can just imagine the off-screen kidding that must’ve gone on during this scene—especially with Barrowman involved.

Sigh. If this is any indication, Arrow looks like another show I should probably be watching.

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