Category: Personal
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 253 – My iMac returns
I was happy to get back to work on my 27″ iMac today, instead of my old computer that I used while this one was being repaired. It only took a couple days for Apple to get in the replacement screen and swap it out for me. The biggest challenge was lugging this thing to the mall and then lugging it back home in the rain. Fortunately, the Apple Store employees helped get it back to my car without it getting wet. And now all is good and visible once more, without a big ol’ crack in the way. (And isn’t the screen nice and shiny?)
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 252 – Mr Toad returns… kinda
Oh how I wish this picture was of me standing in front of a newly-reconstruction Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in the Magic Kingdom, ready to board once again. But alas, it is only a facade set up for this weekend’s “Florida Project” merchandise event at Epcot. Regardless, it was still wonderful to see a trio of Toad vehicles lined up, as if ready to enter the magical fireplace in Toad Hall. The facade looked great and brought back wonderful memories of decades past, before the ride shut down in the late ’90s. Yes there’s a version of it at Disneyland, which I happily ride every time I visit there, but it’s simply not the same as what was once where The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh now resides in the Magic Kingdom.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 251 – Halloween haul
Just when I was starting to think I wouldn’t be buying too much new for Halloween this year, Target finally puts out some good new stuff and I come across some great finds at Halloween Express. A couple hundred dollars later, I’ve got all kinds of new goodies for my annual Halloween night fun! But I’m not done shopping yet, as I haven’t been to Halloween City yet and I’ll need to make a couple more visits to Spirit too. Plus, I saw a great floating ghost skeleton thing at Halloween Express that I want, but they only had the floor model, so I’ll probably end up getting it online. Now to come up with a theme to tie it all together… (I’m thinking zombies! They are quite popular lately.) Fortunately I still have around 5 weeks to come up with a plan.
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 250 – Tragic Toys
While browsing around Barnes and Noble tonight, some bizarre-looking toys caught my attention. At first glance, I thought they were Tim Burton knock-offs, with darkened eyes, misshapen heads, muted colors, and plenty of black and white stripes. But when I got closer, I realized they weren’t knock-offs at all, but rather a line called Tim Burton’s Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys. According to the box, the characters are based off of a Tim Burton book called “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories.” I’d never heard of it, or the toys, but now I’m intrigued. It seems the book and the toys have been around for quite a while, but this was the first I had ever seen or heard of them. It seems I’m not as much of a fan of all things Tim Burton as I am of his movies…
365 Adventures in 2011: Day 249 – Poor iMac
I’ve now learned that the glass Apple uses to cover its iMac screens is, in fact, glass. It’s not some space-age high-tech magic polymer that magically resists damage. It’s just… glass. And what does glass do quite easily? Crack. A couple nights ago, I looked to the upper-right corner of my 27″ screen and discovered a massive diagonal crack in the glass, around 5-6″ long. I’m not entirely sure how it showed up, though I do seem to recall gently (and I emphasize gently) bumping the side of the computer with something hard a few days ago. If that was what caused the crack to form, then it was quite the perfectly-placed accidental hit.
Regardless, the computer is now sitting at a local Apple Store being repaired. Or rather, they’re waiting for the replacement glass to come in so they can swap it out for me. If it takes longer than Sunday (which it very well may), then this crack might interfere with the regular recording of this week’s Inside the Magic podcast. We’ll see.
