jsplount: April 2009

I've owned my last PC. For about 2 weeks now, I've been getting what's known as "the blue screen of death" just about every single day. I'm willing to bet that just about everyone that has ever owned a PC has experienced this. If you're lucky enough to not know what I'm talking about, its when your computer suddenly makes this audible click, sort of like a PC death rattle, and suddenly pops up one of these:

It makes me want to hunt down Bill Gates and all his minions and beat them to death with my keyboard. Now, I'm more tech savvy than your average Joe. In fact, I consider myself to be pretty dang astute when it comes to computer problems. But after weeks of scouring my brain and the internet for a solution to this problem, nothing has worked. Just when I've changed something and I've been maybe 24 hours without a crash, it hits me again, and always at the most inconvenient times. I'll count myself lucky if I can make it through this rant without a crash. Not only is this inconvenient, but it means its probably only a mattter of time (days? weeks?) before it is simply not usable AT ALL. I could survive without a computer for a time. What I cannot survive without are the 300+ gigabytes of Movies, Music, and Photos that I've accumulated ever since getting this computer. I swear to you, if I lose all that Media, I will not rest until I've brought Microsoft to the ground.

You know what irritates me more than anything? You know whenever your PC has an error, and that little window pops up that says it wants to send an error report to Microsoft about what just happened? Is that supposed to make me feel better? Is there some Microsoft employee sitting at his computer (probably a Mac) thats going to get this message and say, "Hey, this guy's registry has been corrupted, and we just need to send him this update to make him a happy, loyal PC user!" OF COURSE NOT! What is the purpose behind reporting the error to Microsoft if they absolutely, positively will not fix the problem? Thanks, Bill.

I solemnly swear that I will never again own a PC. Say what you want about Apple. Yeah, they're expensive. Yeah, they're built to look pretty. But you know what else? THEY FREAKIN' WORK. Mere has a MacBook, which she would probably agree gets a little bit abused now and again, but you know how many times she's encountered an error that has required her to shut down her computer? I can't think of a single time. It's the most intuitive piece of computing hardware I've ever used. Steve Jobs makes a good computer. Expensive, yes, but at this point I don't care how much I've got to pay to get a computer that works the way I want it.

I'm hereby declaring war on Microsoft and all PC's. Friends don't let friends buy PC. I will advise everyone I know against purchasing a PC and supporting a product that has become obsolete because of a MUCH better, however more expensive, alternative. Long live Apple.

RANT OVER.

Today Mere and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed over to Grandfather Mountain for "Dollar Days", where locals can visit for only $1. Pretty sweet deal, eh?

I've been eager to try out my our new Nikon D60 on some wildlife, as practice for our week in Costa Rica. When there's no snow, winter is sort of a boring time to take photos. Everything is so bland. I did manage to get a few decent scenery shots, however.

In Mere's words, "If I were a bird, this is where I'd hang out."

The highlight of the trip were the animal exhibits. I always try to get some good shots of the animals when we visit, but having a 55-200mm Telephoto lens makes all the difference in the world. The most photogenic were of course Nova and Dexter's cousins.