Fireworks - Silver

Say hello to Zinedine:

Zinedine has been my very faithful macbook.

He turned six years old today.

A little background:

Six years ago, I had just graduated high school and was at a national speech competition in Chicago. When I made it to the finals, I asked my dad if he would make a deal with me: if I placed in the top 3 at nationals, he would help [I said the word help!] me buy my first laptop, a little macbook.  He agreed.

I placed 2nd.

He straight out bought me the macbook as a combo high school graduation + congratulations present.

The intro to my speech centered on Zinedine Zidane's World Cup head-butt.  The point was that lack of character in split-second moment of decision caused Mr. Gold Cleats to end his career in red-carded infamy and halted France's momentum, leading to their defeat in the shoot out.

Point of the speech: make good choices.

Point of the story: I named my laptop Zinedine.

You've all heard macs rule...and they do.

They're not without they're issues - I am on my third hard-drive, but the mac-built machine is still kicking.

And last November, I accidentally spilled a full glass of water on the little guy.  I mean I picked it up, turned it over and water streamed out from beneath the keys.  "I finally killed it," I thought :(  But thanks to google and my observations at the genius bar, I knew to take out the battery, pull out the hard-drive and let it air dry for a week.  I did it - and it worked!! Zinedine resurrected!

Call me sentimental, but... I've spent so many late nights hovering over those keys.

I mean, to think of myself unwrapping my shiny, new gift at 17 is to imagine a completely different person.

Each crack and smudge and intermittent key is a story.

And a laptop making it 6 years is like hitting 250,000 miles on your car or 120 "laptop years."

Okay...too sentimental, Samara.

The point of the post is another "new" for 2013.

Meet my new MacBook Air:

She doesn't have a name yet.

Yes, it's a lady this time.  [It's too tiny to be anything but skinny-jean clad hipster dude...]

No name yet... I've only had her since Saturday.  But we're already quite happy together :)

Yes, the Airs are as itty as they look on the commercials.

I can't wait to get an awesome case for it. 

E.g... Kate Spade, Michael Kors "envelope," and the Cole Haan satchel. [Someday I'll have an awesome satchel!]

All that to say...

I'm so grateful for my trusty macbook and all the papers and fun times it got me through.

And I'm super excited to have a new little friend.

We shall have some grand adventures of our own now.

Ok... forgive me for going all nerd on you, but I love Apple.

The first computer we ever owned was a Macintosh green-screen from the 1980's. That's the computer on which I played oregon trail (the floppy disc version) as a child. But after, that, it was a long time till I had another apple product.

When I was 14, Mara Baker and I shared a room and she was a gloriously hard-core apple believer. She owned a macbook pro and it was not long before she had converted me. I wanted a mac. Shortly after that, one of my friends at school purchased one. That settled it.

When I was 17, my dad bought me a white macbook as a congratulations for a public speaking competition. My winning speech was centered around french footballer Zinedine Zidane, so to this day, I call my little Mac Zinedine. Well, 4 years and 2 hard drives later, I'm still loving on the same Macbook (and very much looking forward to my next one :).I've converted 3 people (who all used to be Ma

c haters!) to macs and I love it! I understand the argument that there are certain things you can't do on a mac if you're a programer, yeah yeah... but most of us aren't! So we can enjoy our glorious Apple products...

...all thanks to this guy:

Steve Jobs. The one. The only.

As many of you have probably heard, Steve Jobs resigned today.

He was such a pioneer, and he will be missed

A few years ago, I saw this clip--his introduction to the first Macintosh. The bow tie and double-breasted blazer are as far a cry from the black turtleneck as the bulky macintosh is from the slim iphone, but it is Steve Job's Apple nonetheless:

Steve Jobs resignation letter:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come...

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve

Thank you Steve Jobs!

Jesus is soooo good!

No questions. No doubts. You can trust Him!

So, Sunday night, I came home from work and planned to start on my homework straight away. I opened my computer--and it was dead! I mean, the hard drive totally crashed! Non bueno! After a momentary freak-out, I reminded myself that God is good and he is in control.

More than being upset about possibly having to get a new computer or about all the things I lost (I did have the most important stuff backed up)--I was worried because I had no idea how I was going to finish this quarter! I mean, there are papers and online assignments and now I had no computer. Fortunately, I had just 1 month left of my Apple Care, so I made an appointment with the genius bar for the following day. I was just hoping they could do whatever repairs quickly because I didn't know how I was going to do all my homework!

So my mom and I went Monday morning and the guy looked at it and confirmed that it was indeed dead, quite dead. "But," he said, "we can replace the hard drive in about 20 minutes, is that ok?" Wow! Yes, that would be perfect. He started taking the computer apart and said, "Ok, looks like you had tiger. Would you want to upgrade to Snow Leopard?" Hmmm... a hard drive that is two generations newer--sure, lets go with that one. :-)

So he went to the back to get the hard drive while my mom and I were totally cracking up! Then he says, "So, we didn't have the 80 gb replacement, which is what your computer had. So we're going to have to give you a 250 gb one." Ha!

So, I pretty much got a brand new computer that is newer, bigger, and faster--for free! It should now last me so much longer than it would have if this had never happened. Basically, the Lord's "creative provision" is beyond human logic and is so much better than anything we could have planned!

Jesus is soooo good!

No questions. No doubts. You can trust Him! :-)