I promised myself I’d just finish the damn story today. And maybe at some point, the Cat in the Glass. But FIRST, various and sundry…
1) Thank you for your comments on the MAC vs. The Evil of Dell. So, I’m not sure if you guys realised this by the in-jokes or asides, but Raynie and I are classmates of the same law school that landed both of us in boatloads of debt, and I will stand by her assertion that regularly serviced Dells are actually very decent. And the ones my classmates got (and she’s just a year under me) were still in fine working shape even by the end of school, while my Gateway was receiving end-of-life-care visits by that sweet little Hospice cat. You know, the Grim Pussy who was featured on MSNBC and CNN and CSPAN? I will also admit that my brother has somewhat of a point where laptops and my sister and I are concerned. We’re just baaaaaad at keeping them alive, and crumbing high-fibre muffins over poor Atticus every morning sure isn’t helping. Also, unlike Doola, I have no actual need for a MAC because I don’t do anything remotely designish or arty. I just want one because obviously I’m very Stuff White People Like like that.
But they’re about $500 more expensive than the cheapest Dell! Did you guys know that? That made me quite huffy. Besides, M&Co. rightly brought up the fact that my whole family depends on my brother for tech support (poor Beaker) and while I know he’s capable of handling support on an Apple, the benefit of getting a PC is that the boy has oodles of spare parts and boards and circuitry just hanging about for PCs. So it’s not just a matter of intellectual capability, but the fact that he’s likely to just replace parts with spares hanging around the house rather than requiring shipping to some facility and re-shipping back etc. etc..
2) So I was talking to my friend ANDY DUFRESNE yesterday, and received a little whinging about why I never talk about him on the blog. It’s because you’re just so awesome that I don’t have the mad writing skills to do your glorious personality any justice…is what I would have said, if I had any people skills. Instead I think I kind of mucked about for a reason and ended up saying “no I just don’t want to write about you” and he gave me a pitiful little ”okay” in a voice that said “you can write about your giney to perfect strangers but you can’t even tell them about glorious little moi?”
Anydoodle, I decided to throw him a bone and point out some AWESOME THINGS about my friend Big Bird/Dufresne. But you will only hear about ONE AWESOME thing about him a month, because I’m too fond of his company to put my blog jinx on him. I hope you’re happy, you vainglorious bastard.
The first awesome thing about my friend Dufresne is that he can take a heck of a lot of mockery about the fact that he attended Poshy McPosherson University* without getting all defensive. Which is good, because I absolutely adore ripping on Poshy McPosherson U. as much as possible. On the other hand, he TOTALLY does that thing that all graduates of Posh U. do, which is to work in their attendance at said institution in a spectacularly ridiculous manner. Now, this is the most awesome part of attending Posh U, I think, that you basically get to remind people that you went there almost incessantly. To his credit, he does do it a lot less frequently than other toads graduates of the same school. But even the best amongst us have lapses,and his can be quite amusing.
Completely accurate examples of this phenomenon
#1
Me: So I was making chinese stirfry and…
Big Bird: *smugly* I had some chinese stirfry whilst matriculating at [Posh U.]…once…
Me: Did you? When you went to Posh U? YOU’VE NEVER MENTIONED IT BEFORE.
#2
Me: I was dropping off books at the library and…
Big Bird: *hurriedly* Posh U had the bestest library of all! You were only allowed into the stacks if you had a Posh U ID. I really think it helped being surrounded by so many of the world’s greatest scholars. It totally made my grammar much gooder.
#3
Big Bird: This one time, at Posh U….
Me: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! The place is like freaking BAND CAMP…this one time, at Posh U, I inhaled oxygen, and then I expelled it…
Alright, I will admit that he’s not that bad. His lapses are minor at most, but he still allows me to rib him mercilessly about them. And to be fair, I make as much fun of my schools as I do his.
So I do have to get to some work right now, but please come back later for The Agony and The Agony.
*Reach for the obvious
March 5, 2008 at 8:27 pm
My high school classmate who went to a school that rhymes with Tale does that. Yotally annoying.
When I talk about you to Bob I call you, “Monkey, my friend from law school that I didn’t know until I found her blog afterwards.” He’s all, “I know, I know, Get on with the story.” Then he’s like “Black Eyed Peas who? Will I Am who?”
Must. Get. Off. Interwebs.
March 5, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Yes, but what makes my friend awesome is that I can point it out mockingly and he’ll laugh. But I’m not making it up, right? Aren’t they hilarious? Sweet little Yalies.
March 5, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I don’t think I’ve ever used the word matriculating.
March 5, 2008 at 10:55 pm
My Dell laptop has been chugging along since summer 2002. It doesn’t function so much as a laptop anymore as the screen part is just barely attached to the bottom part (you can see how technically knowledgeable I am with the way I toss these official terms around), and I am constantly amazed that the screen actually works because I swear I don’t see where any of the important stuff attaches to the rest of the computer. BUT, it still functions as a computer even though I can’t carry it around or let anyone else touch it, because I’m the only one who knows how to keep the top from falling off. It died once in law school (when I tried to install Service Pack 2, which I have never done since so some things just can’t be updated anymore), but other than that I’ve had no issues in 5.5 years. (KNOCKING ON ALL WOOD AROUND ME.)
But if I ever get a bonus, I’m going to consider getting a new laptop so that I could take it with me if needed.
March 6, 2008 at 2:07 am
I matriculated at a state university in Kansas and am damned proud of it. Ha! Tell your Big Bird that one.
I will never forget when X told me on our first date that he had gone to IIT-Madras and I was all like “oh? that’s nice” because I had never heard of it. hahahaha
March 6, 2008 at 2:42 am
Cagey, we are K-JD public ourselves over here. A fact we delight in informing Big Bird of constantly.
“Come the revolution, Big Bird, I’m going to be on the frontlines, waving a little pichfork at you.”