the weblog of m.kelley

“…I’m gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it ’til
I satisfy my soul ”
Today on the largest consumer day of the year, I did my part. After selling off a lot of my drum collection, I ordered an iBook from Apple. Refurbished unit, 600MHz, a lot faster than the 250MHz G3 I had and the 200MHz 604 PowerComputing system I’m using now. I would have purchased the 700MHz with a Combo drive, but one drum set hasn’t sold as of now, so that money wasn’t there. But, it’s purchased and should be here next week.
All of this got me thinking….the last new computer I purchased was in December of 1994. Almost 8 years ago exactly. For about $1,800 I got a Compaq Presario CDS 520 486/66 SX with 4mb of RAM, built in monitor, cd, sound, and a 420mb Hard Drive. I thought I got a hell of a deal. I purchased this new laptop for $799 and for another $120 I’ll add 512mb of RAM to it (as a birthday present from Niki). So for about half of what I paid in 94′, I have a system more than equipped to do work from home. More able than I was with the little computer I first had. If I was able to spend what I did in 94′ today, I could have a TiBook or a 14″ iBook. Thanks everyone for buying a computer in the internet boom, so we can get so much more for less.
I remember pricing Macs in 94′…when they were actually in Office Depot and in Circuit City. They were so much more expensive at the time and to be quite honest, none of my friends had one. So we couldn’t trade bootleg (what we old timers called Warez) software. Plus I had just started my first computer job about 6 months earlier and was pushed away from a Mac from our head tech. Plus we didn’t use Macs there (except PR) so I couldn’t use that software on a Mac either.
I used a Mac in school and at an old job. Windows machines were becoming more and more in use at my College so I started to use them. I was always a Mac head, but those mid-90′s Macs were so horrible I was really hoping for Apple to die. I think I was really into the old Pippen concept, but Apple did nothing with it. So I became a boy-genius on Windows and stuck with that until a year or so ago.
(Ok Back on Topic)…What is really funny, is that after spending $1,800 on that first computer, I sold it on eBay this year for under $50. And the Mac Model I was pricing when I purchased the Compaq, is now on the bottom shelf of my computer desk (Next to a faster 6100 PowerMac and a Sparcstation 2 that I got for Free). It’s my bosses computer and she paid about $2k for it…..I found it on ebay for about $10. So I’ve set myself up to use the new iBook for about 3 years and probably won’t get anything higher than $200 for it when I replace it in 2005 for a Transparent Aluminum Powerbook with a 4GHz AMD Processor.

Niki and I are making our pilgrimage to the houses of both of our families. I plan on eating a little bit at each house, then maybe drive home without falling asleep. Taking a nap, then maybe putting up a Christmas tree.
My Thanksgiving wish (or is it a Christmas wish?) is that all of you have a good day. Enjoy time with your family, get away from the computer, and sit back and relax. It’s not that hard to do.
Thanks,
Mike

We’ve been living in this apartment for the past two years. It’s not bad, but the current management has let it go to hell. When it takes three weeks to repair a f*cking shower, that’s when I have a problem. The place is falling apart around us and the people in the other buildings just get trashier and trashier. The ones in our building are nice and pretty quiet. But the building behind us has the drug dealers and just the roudy people.
Part of my problem isn’t really that it took three weeks to “fix” a shower. It’s a big place. But when the maintaince men feel it’s their duty to (during the summer) interrogate my wife at the swimming pool about what apartment she lives in, question me as I put garbage into the dumpster about where I live, and freshen up the flowers three times a day, then it becomes aparant that they aren’t all that busy.
When I say “fix” a shower as oppose to fix a shower, it refers to the fact that our main shower isn’t fixed. It’s patched. And our other shower….my shower, the damn showerhead came out of the wall. I’m not even gonna talk about the rest of the place.
So needless to say, we’re moving. They even offered us the same rate as we’re currently paying. But nope, we’re leaving. We are going back to Niki’s old apartment complex in a very quiet corner….with a manager, a lifelong resident that’s about 80, and another manager living on our level. It’s a smaller place than what we have now, but the cost in savings will help us save for a down payment on a house.
Lee Highway is becoming a very trashy place. We looked at a couple of houses nearby, but just the thought of what we live around now X 5 to ten years isn’t looking good. So while we’re just moving 10 minutes way, we’re hoping that by next year I can say we’re moving even further away and back to North Georgia. In 2001, I could have seen myself live in Tennessee for a long time. But I really don’t see it now. The schools are horrible and the taxes suck. Yes, I’m naive. I know that most cities are like this.
If you can afford it, Chattanooga is a good place to live. Get a nice house and move to Hixon or Ooltewah….maybe even a nice place Downtown. Send your kids to McCallie, GPS, or Baylor. It’s a nice town then. I work downtown and would love to live there too. But it’s just not affordable. Otherwise move about 20 minutes south to Georgia and get a better school system and higher education for free. You pay income tax, but it’s cheaper than the 9.6% sales tax in Chattanooga. $18 per year vs. almost 10% on every item purchased in town. Georgia’s looking better isn’t it.
Now to just get out of this crappy apartment.

The huge media conglomerate Pyra/Time Warner, recently completed their acquisition of General Motors from Salon.
Dave Winer mounts an unsuccessful senate campaign. Winer’s loss has been attributed to a scandalous photo posted on media website slashdot.org, of Mr Winer having a relaxing lunch and laughing with zaphod of Winerlog.
Tara Sue Grubb‘s, NC (I), internet music taxation bill passed, resulting in life sentences for anyone downloading non regulated formats (MP3, MPEG, HTML) on the internet.
Community weblog Metafilter, recently announced their 1,000,000 member, MiguelCardoso3 : the grandson of MiguelCardoso. In the thread announcing the member, members were heard to say “I welcome our 1,000k Overlords”.
The beginning of what has been called “Alzblog” communities have sprung up, as the first wave of bloggers with Alzheimer’s continue to blog about the heyday of the late 20th century weblog communities.
The person thought to be the elusive “Neu” is actually 20th century terrorist, Eric Rudolph. FBI officials found Rudolph in the North Georgia mountains with a 8 x 8 shack complete with satellite internet connections.
The early 00′s web designer/guru to the stars, Jeffery Zeldman, has founded the “Cult of Jakob” in the Tennessee mountains. Tivo stars, Adrian Zimed and Moxie are said to be among the ten thousand members. Ironically the cult’s website doesn’t validate.

Good luck to Adrian Holovaty. He has a new job and is leaving the AJC. Best of luck, Adrian.

I added Dean’s Referrers Script, converted the site over to PHP, and added my blogroll and latest fourblogs.com list to the main page.
That is all.

I finished adding some of the Vegas photos to the photoblog. There are about 8 on the front page with more in the travels section. We really did have a great room the nights at the Bellagio. Hope you enjoy!

I remember being 19 in my favorite class ever, Political Science 101. I sat in a little pack in the back that consisted of 23-26 year-old women. I thought they were a lot older, but it was a fun class. We all did well, but I kept thinking “How in the world can you still be going to school in your mid-20′s?” I’m 28….29 in two and a half weeks and damn I feel old when I start talking about finishing school.
There is an empty void in my life. Is it children? Nope. Not Yet. Religion/Spirituality? Maybe. Education? Probably. Part of the reason I stopped going to college was the fact that I didn’t see the point….still don’t at times. I want to learn something outside this digital corner I’ve painted myself into. I want to learn more….about what I have no idea. English? eh. Engrish? Ha! Journalism? Too old to start now. History? Maybe. Economics? Maybe if I was better in math.
I’m very lucky that my employer has a good policy on educational reimbursement. I’ll have to front the money, but (if I pass) will get the cash back at the end of the semester. Just don’t know where I’ll go to school.
I ran into one of my former co-workers last week at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. She went through the whole 14-month Quest program and now is starting a Masters program in the same way. Food for thought. Spend a little over 2 years learning and get two degrees.

The photoblog has been updated with a new look and the migration to Movable Type 2.5. The only thing I’m having a problem with, is that I’m unable to make thumbnail images when I upload a photo[*update, it's fixed. the mt.cfg file was set for NetPBM instead of ImageMagick*]. Some more futzing is in order. I will have vegas images up soon, and some of my wedding photos (I Know, I Know – it’s almost been a year).

I’m seriously hoping that a sucky band, just didn’t spam my refer logs……..