My MacBook Pro; Part II.
Second post for the month of May and I am NOT DONE with my MacBook Pro, just yet. If I could write about the recent general elections for three posts long, I could probably write ten posts just on my MacBook Pro. It's better than young freckled Caucasian school boys, the colour green, Henrik Preutz's designs for IKEA, Tunku Abdul Rahman [not really]..... the only thing that's better than a MacBook Pro is [are] two MacBook Pros.
I have my Stickies open all the time to write in whatever I feel about my MBP since day one. This is the first essay:
First of all I would like to apologise to myself for not beginning my ownership of a MacBook Pro with an unboxing ceremony. I know it is the most crucial moment in an MBP's life, but it was spoilt by my own ignorance. You see, I thought that there would be a lengthy process of installing Mac OS X, like how it was when I got my Glaucon Fortran. I was too afraid to do it by myself [a regret] so I decided to unbox it half-heartedly at the store.
My mind was really furious, Q saying, "What the hell are you doing? Why are you introducing the MBP to the world in a lifeless shop like this? Shouldn't you and only you be the one to greet it in your own room? You'll lose the factory-fresh scent, you won't have the right to cut the sticker that seals the non-weave envelope which holds the MBP, you'll have other people's fingerprints on everything....." but A was in charge at that time. "I can always pretend that it didn't happen and stage a second unboxing ceremony in my room later". Q shouted, "It wouldn't be the same!!!" but its mouth was quickly duct taped.
So I let that store guy unravel my gift. I got to open the lid and press the power button, and soon, a pleasant montage of the word 'welcome' flew by in all sorts of languages. When it ended, I immediately ask the store guy if it is possible to start all over again. He blankly said, "No, it only comes by once. Another way to see the 'welcome thing' is when you reformat the whole machine and that would take a very long time". I stare at the space between a display of iPod accessories and me, with the duct tape on Q's mouth peeling off, hearing it go, "You suck at life". Almost immediately, A went, "I'll make sure I have my own private unboxing ceremony the next time I get a Mac".
After that, there was no fun at all. I registered my details and saw the first glimpse of my desktop. Then, it went back to its packaging. This was nothing like December 2004. The man [named Hisyam, if I remember] who sold a 15-inch PowerBook G4 to me delivered to my house and helped me installed the OS and we had a Q & A session. At that time, the price of that said notebook was at least RM 2 000 more expensive than the cheapest MBP model today. Not including the price of an Adobe CS software, adding a thousand plus Ringgit. When I received it, I felt that life was unbelievable. I waited for this machine for a year, and even hung PowerBook G4 pamphlets all over my bookshelf to welcome this machine. I named it Glaucon Fortran.
But on Sunday the 13th of April, 2008, I felt nearly nothing. It is like... you know, life goes on. It's just a Mac. I'm going to use it to play music, store digital images, write notes on Stickies, proof-reading my VOX posts, watch DVDs in very rare cases... the things I can do on my iMac. So the latest mystery in my life would be: where's the excitement?
Though, figuring out that mystery is pointless, so I started to have fun with my MBP.
Speaking of 'pointless' and 'fun', the first thing I thought of downloading is MacSaber. Finally! I heard of this hilarious application around the time when the earliest MBP [or was it the latest version of the PowerBook] models are equipped with Sudden Motion Sensor technology [it works to protect the hard disk from getting damaged from falls and knocks]. Some person developed MacSaber, which works with that technology, so that those with nothing better to do are able to have a lightsaber fight by swinging their MBPs around, creating the crazy hums, clashes and 'wwweeuunnggg!!!' sounds a lightsaber would make. This was very very fun and entertaining for the first 2 minutes, before I realised that I am putting my MBP in danger, and it gets boring when I have no one to play it with.
I installed iWork '08 with ease and thought, "I can now make slideshows..... I mean Keynotes, that look better than anyone else's in the world". Then I downloaded Firefox, because I can't accept Safari just yet. I tried out iPhoto by importing some pictures of my latest I Got Shot post and snickered to the coolness of 'pinching', 'sweeping' and other finger movements that my Multi Touch trackpad can detect. After that, I made my first VOX post on the MBP.
Now, march on to Part III!
