MACifying your PC

I've been a PC user my entire life. Actually, my experience with computers began in primary school playing "Digger" on my dad's DOS. We also used DOS in my high school typing class, which is really unbelievable when you think about it (I was in grade nine in 1998). But for the last five years or so I've been using a Dell laptop.

When I started my internship at Canadian Living I had to adjust to using a MAC and I quite liked it. This year my dad got his first MAC, a macbook pro, and it's actually like a new child to him. He's in love with his computer! People fall head over heels in love with their MACs!

Being that I'm unemployed, I don't see myself being able to exchange my Dell for a MAC for at least another year. So, in the meantime, I've downloaded a program that allows me to pretend I've already got that snazzy new macbook. It's called Rocket Dock. Much like on a MAC, it allows you to place applications on a dock positioned at the bottom, top or side of your screen. When you run your mouse over the applications, they become enlarged. Windows can be minimized to the dock and retrieved later. I like to keep my dock at the top of my screen so it doesn't interfere when I'm browsing online.

Aesthetically, I love rocket dock. It's obviously very practical but it also looks great. Check it out!

Television can be this funny?

I want to take a moment to applaud a television show so funny it hurts. You know that feeling when you laugh so hard your back tenses up and you have to seek refuge from the source to make it stop? It's simultaneously one of the best and worst feelings (kind of like when your foot locks up during sex). That feeling characterizes It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia in a nutshell, and I mean this in a twofold way. First, the show incites recurrent episodes of laughter so hard it hurts (take, for instance, Charlie's All-American rant in the episode "Charlie goes America all over everybody's ass"). Second, the general feeling you get when watching Always Sunny is a hybrid of hilarity and incredible discomfort. There is nothing PC about this show.

The show follows the self-serving exploits of four remarkably self-involved 30 year olds. The three guys own the Irish pub around which the show centers, and the one girl (a twin of one of the guys) is the bartender. From the second season on, Danny Devito joins the cast as the twins' off-the-wall father. I dare not say anymore for fear of ruining anything. All I can say is I haven't had so much fun with my tv since 30 Rock and The Office...only I think Always Sunny takes the cake!

P.S. Charlie is, without a doubt, the funniest character I have ever encountered (apologies, Jack Donaghy).

Revamping the Blog that Needed More Foresight

Starting over, yet again. Four words that once horrified Charlotte York but actually give me great comfort. What may not give me comfort is the fact that I reference fictional characters on a regular basis. But back to the point at hand.

After yet another lengthy sojourn from my blog, spending months in India, Bali, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Peru and Equador, I am back in Toronto and ready to write! I have left The Good, The Bad, The Weird (aka. South Korea) once and for all. In the spirit of professional writers (one of which I hope to someday be), I will, from now on, write in a more commendable style. I will make use of capital letters and periods (or full stops, for the Brits). I will write in paragraphs rather than rambling clumps of uncapitalized words. I will mind my spelling and my grammar and make use of the thesaurus. As I shed a single tear, I think I'm growing up...

P.S. Please note that the above drawing was made using Microsoft Paint. Who uses Microsoft Paint anymore? I do. It is the laudable writer of yore's feather pen. Quite rightly.