Jeff's Blahg

That is what I said – Howard Dean Style – after benching 350 yesterday.  That was my goal for the year, so now I can kick back and lift lighter, focusing on trying to get my grip out w/o hurting my shoulder.  Feels good.

Now for a quick report on the Mac Book Pro.  One word: Sweeeet.  If you haven’t tried a Mac, you should.  The major things that I like are: quality hardware, intuitive design in OS and hardware, terminal, good app selection (coming from linux that is).  If you are like I was and just think: eh, Mac is not for me…  then you should think again.

Well… hm, how to start this post? Things change. Big time. Today I bit the bullet and bought a Macbook Pro. That’s right, a Mac. Why do I feel like I am confessing my sins? Probably only because it cost too much money… oh well, sunk cost.

That being said, let me explain the logic behind the decision. As many of you know, I have been a fairly avid linux user for the past year. Before that, it was windows through and through (barf). The last year of my life has been one of love and hate. I love the power of linux, the ability to configure and easily manage things all from the simple command line. The power to do anything remotely that I can do locally… easily. It just works… for server-side stuff. That is where the love gets complicated. The desktop. Now, don’t think that I hate the desktops on linux (Gnome for me). They have come a L-O-N-G way in a very short period of time… and deserve some love from all for that. However, there are certain annoyances that must be overcome:

• X needs to be auto-configurable… with remote displays and projectors
• Give me a decent graphics editing program… please (no, gimp doesn’t count)
• Hibernate is still borked
• Evolution? I mean seriously
• About a handful of ‘other’ apps that make my life easier that aren’t available

Again, this is not a linux hate post. I love it. It is sweet and is getting sweeeeeter. But for me, right now, I need to be productive. I need to spend time doing the things that make me money. I don’t want to spend 10 minutes every morning trying to get my display outputting properly on my external LCD.

Anyway, this IS my first time actually owning and using a Mac, so I’ll be sure to keep you informed on the journey. So far, it has been surprisingly great. Getting apache / php / pear / mysql on has been a cinch.

By the way… all my servers run gentoo linux and I wouldn’t have it any other way… so long as Travis is around.

Off to the right you will see a pic of my innerself… I dressed up for halloween as a stereotypical Def Leppard fan – minus the beer stains on the shirt. Hope you enjoy the views. The full size pic can be seen here.
Also, today I finally got my bench max up where I have been attempting for the last month… 340. The costume just seems more fitting now that you know that right?