Being Amber Rhea

I’m actually using OS X more frequently. I’m much happier with it now that I’ve installed WindowShade X and FruitMenu. These are great little pieces of shareware that are well worth their registration fees. The windowshading effect was one thing I *really* missed from classic MacOS; it annoyed me the way minimized windows would zip down to the dock in a Windows-esque fashion, and once you got three or four of them down there, you couldn’t tell what’s what. An example of them taking a step backwards. But now, all is well! (Mostly.) I’m getting things customized the way I like. And Opera for OS X is fabulous. Now if I could only have my Application Switcher, OS X would be near to perfect. ;)

This certainly doesn’t mean I’m becoming some hardcode OS X proponent. Heavens no. But at least now it doesn’t leave such an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

Screen shot

Last day of class tomorrow. I also have further comments about the MIT program and whatnot, but they will have to wait. Adios for now.

I think these computers can sense my hate for them. -But no, that would be ascribing them too much intelligence. I am once again in the CS lab, putting my final program on a disk. Even though they were able to run program #4 just fine, which I built on my iBook, I don’t want to take any chances, because this is the final program and there won’t be any opportunities to make up for things that don’t work. Anyway… once again, cryptic bluescreen errors while copying files to a floppy, random illegal instruction errors when opening windows, etc… These things have happened every time I’ve come to the lab, *except* last week, when Chris came with me. He sat there beside me and maybe his presence reassured the computers in some way.

Did I not tell them not to use large images on their web sites? Did I not stress (and demonstrate) the problems and irritations associated with large images? Have they not experienced this slow-loading themselves at some point? My lecture, in one ear and out the other. Oh well, that’s all I can do.

I have so much I want to ramble about! Last night after I got off work, Chris and I went to a party at Shana’s new apartment. She’s yet another Borders employee who will be quitting soon. And she and her boyfriend just moved into Park Place, where we used to live – and which is now under new management, so their experience should be better than ours. Anyway, it was an enjoyable time.

I guess the biggest news is to do with the MIT program. I think I mentioned before that a Dr. Jay Aronson has been made director. (Hopefully just as an interim director; with each new email he sends, I like his attitude less and less. Plus he doesn’t teach any of the MIT courses, as far as I know.) Apparently, we’re having an orientation on August 14th (a mere five days before classes start) and will be able to register on the 15th. At least, that’s what I gather from the jumble of emails he’s sent. (He’s created an “MIT 2003″ listserv and has been sending messages to it like a fiend, which often contradict one another.) All his emails have this condescending and dictatorial tone to them. He seems to think we’re all clueless undergrads, sitting around wringing our hands and not knowing what to do with ourselves. I posted something to the listserv about my teaching position and how it might or might not work into the spring 2003 curriculum, and he sent back this lengthy exposition about how “graduate school is a lot of work” and “teaching might look easy, but it’s not” and “outside commitments are not a good idea” and so on and so forth. A nice sentiment perhaps, but I have to pay bills and eat. He also sent an equally condescending reply to a message Matt Steward had written about electives.

Speaking of electives, I’ve been in touch with Dr. Lloyd Rieber, head of the “Studio Experience” in the Dept. of Instructional Technology, and have been given permission to register for a class called Design and Development Tools, as my elective. It looks really cool, and most of it involves working independently on a project. Dr. Rieber has been very nice and very helpful, and to tell you the truth, based on my limited contact with both of them, I’d venture to say that Dr. Rieber would be in a far better position to head the MIT program than Dr. Aronson. (Of course, Dr. Rieber’s department is totally separate – it’s in the College of Education – but still, he’s the kind of personality the program could use as a leader.)

Oh well, what the hell. We’ll see what happens.

In other news, I went to the College of Family and Consumer Sciences yesterday and met with Chas and the other people I’ll be working with. I filled out paperwork and was given “the tour”… they have four labs, one of which has Macs. (Chas and Mark [the network administrator] are pushing to turn one of the labs into a Mac-only lab, with all flat-panel iMacs.) Chas gave me a Lombard Powerbook G3 to take home and inspect, to see why OS X 10.1.5 won’t install on it. I’ll be starting there “for real” the second week of August. :-)

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From: Chris Rhea [chris@bmb.uga.edu]
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 11:42:59 -0400
To: Amber Rhea [amber@tangerinecs.com]
Subject: You and Rush

Guess you do have something in common with ol' Rushy..

From the G-List...

Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 08:12:57 +0000
Subject: Comments on Apple and Steve Jobs by Rush Limbaugh
From: Ron Ward

for anyone interested, Rush Limbaugh had some blistering commentary about Steve Jobs and some of his business decisions.. For what it's worth, I think Rush is correct on this. There has been no bigger supporter of Apple products than Rush. In fact, it was his constant endorsements of the iMac and G-3 some years back that convinced me to make the switch to Apple. He is constantly talking up Mac products and has been a Mac user since his program began on the radio 15 years ago, and has never been paid a dime by Apple for his endorsement of their products. Jobs is a huge supporter of our former President and his political bias won't allow him to advertise on one of the most successful programs on the air today. Shareholders should be concerned about this. You can read the article in case you are interested: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_071802/content/right.guest.html If you've ever listened to the program or tuned in to the web cam, he is telling the truth, there is a 22" cinema display and apple servers next to it that would be nothing but free advertising. One word from Rush about buying a product, and his listeners buy it. Sales of that bed he refers to jumped almost 200% after he formally endorsed it and said he used it at his home. That's a proven fact with every sponsor he's had on his show. Not a single one has lost money on advertising with him. It has nothing to do with one's political philosophy, it's about making money for the shareholders and getting the most bang for your buck and Jobs seems to be missing the boat here. This is not a political endorsement or an endorsement of the Rush Limbaugh program or his philosophy, just my honest opinion about doing something that makes good business sense.
Ron Ward
G List Nanny
Austin, TX

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From: Amber Rhea [amber@tangerinecs.com]
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 12:08:52 -0400
To: Chris Rhea [chris@bmb.uga.edu]
Subject: Re: You and Rush

Did you read the article? I am so sick of that old worn-out 5% market share line. Like market share is the only thing that matters. You don't hear people griping about market share in any other industry, because they realize that it's only a small piece of the big picture.

Rush may be a Mac user, but he's certainly not, as the author of that silly book I read put it, a "Mac person".

Plus he keeps referring to OS X as "System 10". [sigh]...

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From: Chris Rhea [chris@bmb.uga.edu]
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 12:27:05 -0400
To: Amber Rhea [amber@tangerinecs.com]
Subject: Re: You and Rush

Actually, I didn't read the article, but I'll reply anyway. Well, market share certainly doesn't mean anything about the quality of the product. But the point is that they want market share to be higher because that means more Mac users, which means better support for mac software, as in you might see the Mac version come out at the same time as the PC version.

Ok, I just read it. He may not be a "Mac person", but he does have a point. Jobs doesn't advertise with Rush because of politics. However, Rush is right that whatever he sponsors, it sells. Rush listeners are fanatics that will do whatever he says. If Apple were to advertise with Rush, it won't be the end of the PC, but there will certainly be a lot more Mac users. But apparently Apple will continue to be elitist and choose their customers rather than the other way around.

I just wish Jobs would make up his mind. Does he want the company to grow or not? Sometimes it seems he's satisfied with 5% share, like he can say "we may not have a lot of users, but our users are really special". (Which is somewhat true considering a recent JD Power survey that found Mac users are more professional and generally smarter than PC users). But then again, there's the new wave of marketing appealing to PC users...

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From: Amber Rhea [amber@tangerinecs.com]
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 13:07:37 -0400
To: Chris Rhea [chris@bmb.uga.edu]
Subject: Re: You and Rush

Mercedes holds a 1.4% market share. Volvo holds less than a 1% market share. You don't see anyone complaining about them being likely to go out of business anytime soon. With Apple, it's especially ridiculous, seeing as how they've weathered the storm for years, continually having billions of dollars in cash in the bank, when PC companies are folding or laying off people left and right. (Packard Bell, Digital, etc...) Plus, it's a big mistake to unfairly pit Apple against the entire PC industry as a whole, the *combined* market share of every PC company against Apple. That makes things look just a *little* bit skewed. Apple is continuing to make profits when lots of PC companies aren't.

And the Mac version *does* come out at the same time as the PC version nowadays, that hasn't been a problem in years... 'cept maybe in games, but who really cares about games? And there's always Virtual PC.

Last night at work, when I got there and Mandy was leaving, she said, “Thanks for covering my shift, Amber – I owe you a drink! If you’re not too tired after work, come down to the Engine Room and find me – I’ll be in the DJ booth!” [which I guess is why she needed the latter half of the night off.] I stammered some fake excuse about having to study for a test, and then added, “But I might take you up on that some other time!” It was so awkward! Dammit, I hate that! I don’t want to seem rude or aloof or snobbish; but I’m not going to go to a bar and have a drink. Even if I were to go and just have something non-alcholic to drink, the bar itself is half the problem; they’re always so goddamn smoky and I can’t breathe and it messes with my contacts (which have been giving me trouble lately anyway). Once again I’m left asking… why couldn’t she have said, “I owe you a coffee“?

More to come. But for now, I need to go outside and get some fresh air.

Well, I saw Claire Foggin this morning, and I got everything straightened out. I was pleasantly surprised – she wasn’t bitchy, there was no stupid red tape, it was nice and easy. She said, “I see in your records that you did complete all requirements in May, and the confusion arose because of the reason you said – that you’re taking an undergraduate course this summer. I’ll go ahead and send a notice to the registrar’s office that you’ve graduated.” Yay! :-)

Tonight I am covering half of Mandy’s shift at work, from 8:00-midnight. I work with Scout. Eek. I’ve never closed with Scout before. Fortunately, the way my schedule has been, there’s never a day when I work with her for more than two hours at a time. (She leaves soon after I arrive, or she has that day off.) She intimidates me. But she intimidates everyone. I’ll just try to let it roll off of me. And hopefully I won’t be stuck at the register all night tonight (though I wouldn’t put it past Scout to order me up there). In my spare moments, I’ve been organizing the computer books section. It was really in a sad state of affairs. Now it’s starting to look a little more navigatable (is that a word?) and organized. No one better screw it up again after I leave!

I think it’s going to rain. That would be good for the flowers.

My indoor plants need some TLC.

The bird in the begonias has moved to another nest, or something. The baby bird wasn’t in there yesterday! Guess he was old enough to fly after all. But I’ve been hearing them cheaping out there, so I know they’re still around.

I got an email from Chasity McWilliams today; she’s the lab manager for the Mac computer lab in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Back in May, she and I had corresponded and discussed the possibility of me working there in the fall. She emailed me this morning and said the budget got approved so it’s all good to go, and she’d like to meet with me sometime this week. So I’m going over there Friday morning to fill out the necessary paperwork and stuff. Yay! :-D I won’t be working very many hours – probably no more than 15 hrs/wk – because I won’t have time, but I’m very excited about working in a Mac lab. I told her I’d be available to start the second week of August. Yay again! :-D

A Dr. Jay Aronson, who is now the director of the MIT program, wrote me back (Dr. Brohman had forwarded my email to him). (Did I even mention this before?) I don’t think I liked his tone; he seemed very condescending and even arrogant. But whatever. At least I now know that someone *is* in charge over there, however unorganized they may or may not be. Dr. Aronson said he sent out another email to everyone in the program, but I haven’t received anything. Hmmm.

I am very eager to register for classes. I know what my schedule will be *pretty much*, but some of it is still up in the air, and I’d feel a lot better if it were all solidified.

I am trying to work on this week’s labs for my class, but I honestly have no clue what I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve just been sitting and staring at the assignments, making absolutely no progress. Could ProgramLive be more obtuse??

Turned in Program #5 today. (Haven’t gotten #4 back yet, so I don’t know if they were even able to run it. But I managed to make the .mcp file for #5 on a Windoze machine in the lab.) She assigned Program #6, the last one, which will be due a week from tomorrow (the last day of class). I think I’d rather work on that than these inane labs.

I don’t think I’m even going to lab tomorrow morning; I’ll go Friday. Instead, tomorrow I’m going straight to Claire Foggin’s office at 11:00. Bitch better be there.

Last night at work I saw something that I found greatly disheartening and slightly amusing in a “black humor” sort of way, though I guess I shouldn’t have been all that surprised… Lucky: The Magazine About Shopping. Yes, that’s right, there is a magazine about shopping. Two people bought it while I was at the register. Welcome to America! Jesus H. Particular Christ. More and more often, I think about moving to Canada or Europe. The long, cold winters keep me out of Canada (though that socialized healthcare sure is tempting) and I guess part of me is just plain scared to take a big step like moving to Europe, away from friends and family. (Never mind the embarassing fact that I’m not fluent in any language other than English, and my Spanish leaves something to be desired.) But who knows where the road may lead in this life. Chris and I may end up across the Atlantic one day. Or not. We do know one thing, that after I finish grad school (if I even *start* – but I digress) we’re going back to NYC for a while.

More and more I feel happy and contented with a life of simplicity, what some might call “minimalist”, but which in fact is just uncluttered and not filled with a ton of unnecessary crap. You should see some of the crap people buy at Borders – and it’s a *book* store. My head might implode if I worked at Spencer’s or Carlton Cards or something. The general American public pisses me off and, depending on my mood, makes me sad. But I try not to let it get to me. I try instead to concentrate on what I’m happy about in my life, what I have to appreciate – the things that really matter.

Sometimes thoughts float in and out of my head about not having enough time on this planet, in this life. I know it sounds ridiculous, because I’m only 22. I’m not supposed to be thinking of such things. These thoughts would be appropriate for a 50-year-old, not someone my age. So I try not to dwell on them, because I know it doesn’t do any good. But there’s so much I want to experience, so much I want to *do* and *see* and enjoy, that sometimes I just find myself wondering if there will be time, and more than that, if it won’t all end up going by in a blur. If this will soon all be a memory and I’ll be sitting in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere remembering it.

I hope not. Fortunately, I am *aware*, and I am in control of my life; that’s not the course I want to let my life take. And even though one day I might be sitting in a rocking chair on a porch somewhere, I hope to have no regrets, and Chris will be there with me, too.

I don’t know if this makes any sense.

Yesterday when I got home from work, Chris had the sweetest surprise for me! He had gone out to American Eagle and bought me a skirt that I’d said I liked when we were there a while ago! To be honest, I had forgotten about the skirt, which makes it all the more special and sweet that he remembered and did that for me! :-D He is the sweetest thing ever. I’m so happy we’re together… I think we’re very lucky. But before I start gushing even more, I’ll stop… but I couldn’t let that go unmentioned! :-D

I can’t say I’m surprised, but… haven’t heard back from Claire Foggin yet. Instead of getting extremely pissed off, I’m having to calm and center myself in a Zen-like fashion. Oh well, my best shot will probably be just going to her office hours this Wednesday anyway (if she actually decided to come back from vacation). I find that talking to people face-to-face often cuts out a lot of the BS factor you’d encounter over the phone or through email.

As per usual, I’m working tonight 5:00-midnight. Wednesday night I’m covering half of Mandy’s shift, 8:00-midnight. Shouldn’t be too bad, just four extra hours (or $24… ooh). The other day a customer in the cafe was appalled to see the “No tipping” sign. “That’s bullshit!” he yelled at me and Shana. We were like, “Yeah, we know.” And I found out from Dave that that’s not a company policy or anything – it’s a Scout policy. Goddamn Scout!! I can’t stand people who take themselves waaaayyy too seriously.

I need to get my ass in gear and start studying for my CS final, which will be on August 2nd. Yes, it’s still about two weeks away, but according to my calculations, I have to make a 76 on the final in order to get a B in the class. That might not sound so bad until you remember that I made a 67 on the midterm. [sigh]… Well, the fifth program is due tomorrow, and I’m sure to get a perfect or near-perfect score on it, as with all my other programs. I haven’t gotten the fourth one back yet, though, because I didn’t go to lab Friday. I’m curious as to whether or not it was a BFD, since I saved the .mcp file from my iBook. Oh well, they can kiss my Apple-lovin’ ass.

(In the past five minutes, three cars have blown their horns randomly while driving down Milledge Ave. Why do people do that?? I don’t understand it.)