Getting The Best Start

When 2010 was such a terrible year in every facet I made the decision that 2011 would not be the same. It didn't happen all at once, but I eventually got a job that wasn't great but gave me abilities and skills I didn't have before (which led to the great job I have now), started the most wonderful relationship, and ran 3 half-marathons. When 2012 started (by the way, how is it that you can tell so much from a new year's kiss?) I was confident it would be as good as 2011 was, and it only got better. Now it's ending and I have an amazing job at a fantastic company, my relationship with the boyfriend has gotten stronger and I love where I live and how I live.

Going over my predictions for 2012 from last year, I'm a little disappointed. The Mayan End of Times was no big deal. People seemed to treat it like I've treated all of the past end of times... with a party. The last day of the world was the night my company's holiday party and the group next to us was an End of Times dinner party. Awesome, but there wasn't as much fear mongering as there used to be. I suppose people are becoming more rational. Sigh.

2012 has been the year of Apple. In June I bought myself a new shiny, and in October the boyfriend got me a mini shiny, helping me finally join the world of iPhone (yay!). I bought a heavy duty case for it, mostly because the boyfriend is convinced I'm going to drop it in the toilet or something (to his credit, just the other day I was holding it while standing perfectly still and somehow it leaped out of my hand, but my hyper-aware iPhone reflexes helped me catch it, so there), but I want a thinner case to show off the sexy profile. Cause let's be real: a big part of the reason I wanted this phone was because of the slim, sexy design, and my case lets everyone know that I'm a clumsy fool. Or that I have a toddler.

This month my car and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary and I can proudly say I'm a full-fledged stick driver. Plus, I taught the boyfriend to drive so whose car we take doesn't turn into a who has to drive situation. We took my car on a 2,00+ mile road trip up to Oregon in August and he gave it a couple of sexy photo shoots. 

There were a few sort-of disappointments this year. The main disappointment being I did not beat the 2 hour mark on my half marathon in 2012, and in fact did not even come close. I ran the worst race of my life, coming at barely under 3 hours. Embarrassing. But here's to making 2013 better.

I also took out the piercing I got in 2011, finally admitting that it was infected and just not worth the pain and hassle (and money). Rather than working towards 7 piercings, I'll just stick with the 5 healthy ones I already have and be satisfied with that odd number. Maybe that's me being a little bit of an adult... other people, some of whom are younger than me, are removing piercings because they aren't "adult" so maybe it's not so bad that I do, too. 

This year has been a pain in the ass for birth control. I still had no insurance so had to rely on Planned Parenthood even though I was working full time for all of the year, and it's been really frustrating having to give up so much just to stay un-pregnant. I'm not one of those women who has to take hormonal birth control for medical reasons, so for me it's just to be able to have a normal relationship with my boyfriend and not have children neither of us want. Which seems simple enough, doesn't it?

Also, the fish I got in 2011 died. 

I'm ending the year with almost as much debt as I paid off in 2011, which is OK because I have the money to pay it off, but have been saving it for an apartment deposit. Once I have my moving situation settled it'll be paid off in no time. Making pretty good money helps.

So what's going to happen in 2013? One of the first things will probably be moving. This will be a terrific milestone for me because I haven't moved since late 2010, a feat I never really thought I'd do (one thing that stayed the same from 2011 to 2012 was not moving). Now that I'm working 4 blocks from my current apartment I have no reason to leave - especially since I love the neighborhood. So finding a place that likes dogs will be one of my first tasks. My second task will be to start training for my 5th half marathon - the 3rd annual Safari Park Half. This time it's for rhinos! I'm so excited to run for the guys I love. My third event will be my first time as a bridesmaid! All of those activities will take place before June, so I have no idea what the second half of the year will hold, but I'm really excited. If the first 6 months tell me anything, 2013 is going to be another great year.

My resolution will be to redesign this blog, host it myself, and write 10 posts a month. I want a new name, a new home, and a new look. I would also like to do some of the same things for the food blog, even though that's still relatively new... Also take that blog a little more seriously and write a lot more. 

I would like to write about some of the other things that happened in 2012, things not directly related to me, but when I think about what the world was focused on this year (rape, shady politics, genocide, taxes) it mostly depresses me.

So here's to a fantastic 2013, to all of those in my life old and new, to those who had a great year and those who had a not so great year. May 2013 be one of the greatest years. Cheers!

I Haz An iPhone

Pretty much my face on my birthday.

I finally joined the iPhone club. I've been a part of the Mac club for many a year, starting out with the pride and joy that was my very first, plastic-encased PowerBook (I loved that thing), and part of the iPod club a few times over with my iPod Nano (Christmas present), iPod touch (freebie) and now my iPod shuffle (for running). And now I have an Apple phone. 

Hooray!

I've wanted one of these almost since it first came out (the first one was ex-pen-sive, and an unnecessarily high price tag makes things less attractive). When I found out that the iPhone 5 was only $200 I was sold. (For clarification, yes, $200 is still a ton of money for a phone, but the cheapest phone I wanted was $150, so "only" is accurate.) I was interested in the iPhone 4 but by then 4G had already come out and I wasn't willing to invest in a phone system that was already on its way out. And I'd just bought a phone I thought wasn't going to be as shitty as it turned out to be.

And because the boyfriend is awesome and has a paycheck that makes him want to spoil the girlfriend, he got me the shiniest, newest phone for my birthday. Eeeee!

It comes, however, with somewhat of a caveat: AT&T. I swore up and down when I left AT&T/Cingular that I'd never go back. But you do things for love. I didn't want the iPhone 5 badly enough to leave T-Mobile on my own, but getting a family plan with the boyfriend did the trick. We agreed that at the end of two years if AT&T sucked we'd look into other carriers, an agreement that works for us both. And T-Mobile was kind of pissing me off.

My shiny new phone did come with a little hiccup: like I do any time I get a new electronic, I let the battery run out completely the first use. It took more than two days, a very impressive feat. But when I went to plug the thing in to give it a good, full, first charge, nothing. I left it plugged in overnight and it got about a 15% charge, and leaving it plugged in at work kept that charge but didn't seem to do much in the way of adding to it.  A quick trip to the Apple Store (as quick as a trip to Fashion Valley can be) fixed it and I walked out a few minutes later with a working cable. Yay! Gotta hand it to those guys: no paperwork, didn't have to sign anything, didn't have to "check out" or verify the registration of my phone. That's nice.

I'm obviously still learning my new phone, but there are some clear differences I already see between the iPhone and my old Android. The camera, for one, is fantastic. Not only does it have a flash, but it has a front facing camera, which is a pretty sweet little tool. Not surprisingly, the first photo I took was of food and my first two Instagram photos (yep, on there now) were pets. Being able to talk to my phone and tell it to dial a number is also a cool trick. It synching with my computer and my Google account to keep everything up to date? Convenient. The 4G LTE is worlds faster than my shitty phone on a 3G network, and checking Facebook isn't a pain in the ass anymore.

The keyboard is spot on, though auto-correct isn't as intuitive, but that may be because it doesn't know my style yet. It's also a hell of a lot larger than my old phone, but still a hell of a lot smaller than the boyfriend's new phone (HTC One X, partially because he can't rely on a shitty maps app), and way smaller than the other phone I was considering, the Samsung Galaxy S3, which might as well be a tablet as far as my little fingers are concerned. I have yet to use the maps app, but I'm not really concerned about it: I don't use maps very often and we jokingly decided that he'll be the navigator since I'm usually the driver. 

All in all, I'm really happy to have an Apple phone to go with my Apple computer, and to have a phone that I can still fit in my hand. Not to mention, I'm the only one I know with this phone, the only one with the newest phone on the block, something that's never happened. I feel so hip. Plus, I got it a pretty orange case, so it's extra hip and less prone to damage from the accidents I seem to have and to prevent the soft aluminum from scratching (did it need to be so light that you swapped steel for aluminum?). Even so, it feels really sturdy, like it'd live if I drop it. Not that I intend on dropping it... but it's something I do.

In Which I Spend A Lot Of Money

It's so purdy!

This is officially the first blog post on my new MacBook Pro. Four days ago my new computer arrived, all matte and shiny and perfect, and now I will finally do the thing I bought this for: write.

(Ignore all the jokes from well meaning friends and *ahem* the boyfriend about how all I ever go on the computer for is Reddit and Facebook... cause there's this. I blog, guys!)

Starting in April of 2011, it took me about 6 months to pay down my credit card debt that I'd carried since my months of unemployment after college once I got a job that paid me enough to do so, then 2 months to save enough for a down payment on a new car (which was originally being saved to repair the old one), then 2-3 months to save up for taxes, then another 2-3 months to save the amount I needed for this computer and my year's worth of premium car insurance. Then, I had to wait two months because Apple was about to update the MacBook Pro. I waited a long time for this, and saved an impressive amount of money in the last year (all in all more than $8k... I live so damn frugally), and I finally have the one thing I wanted just because. I did need a new computer, but I did not need a Mac. I wanted it because I loved it. And now I have it.

So, I'd wanted/needed a new computer for quite some time, after the old one pooped out because I dropped it too many times/spilled a full glass of water on it/burned the keys off/could not use it as a laptop anymore or even close the screen.... dude, I don't know why I abused that poor machine so much more than my first computer, which was in great shape until the processor kind of stopped working and was relatively beyond repair (that and The Ex conveniently came upon my next one, making repairs unnecessary). But this one, with it's cute little rubber stoppers on the bottom and sturdy steel frame, will not be so abused.

Pause for a second to let the boyfriend stop laughing (that's right, I can hear you all the way from here!). 

OK, so I'm clumsy. So I spill pretty much everything I try to carry and sometimes can't even walk on my own two feet. But when you spend this much on a machine you tend to make promises, and considering how goddamn long it took me to save up the money for this shiny new toy I intend to keep those promises and heaven help the person who drops this thing, even if it ends up being me.

Promise #1: I. Will. Not. Drop. My. Laptop. Seriously. I won't. I will not set it on the edge of the couch, will not carry it with one hand and a glass of water in the other, will not place it on any precipice where it could conceivably fall, and will not leave it open and unattended for more than a few minutes. I am not the person who can afford buying the shiniest, newest Apple product the minute it comes out so this guy is going to have to last quite some time.

Promise #2: I will keep my clean new laptop clean. It came with a special cleaning cloth, and after seeing how my old one (and my borrowed one... yuck) got super dirty, this one will be kept as clean as possible, especially because this one cannot be taken apart to clean away crumbs. I will still eat as I browse the internet (let's face it, that's just not gonna change), but I will use a napkin, keep the plate far enough from the base, and not write while eating. I'm also not putting on lotion right before using it to keep the keys from getting oily as fast as they did before, and I'm even washing my hands. Seriously. But I'm also compulsive about that sort of thing.

Promise #3: I will not do dumb things with my laptop. I bought AppleCare (not Obama Care, but we'll get to that later) so I have three whole years of safety with it, as long as I don't fuck it up too much. But I will also treat it like a PC, which I always have, and not open spammy emails or otherwise invite trouble.

Promise #4: I WILL NOT allow the cat to walk on my laptop. On the keys because she suddenly needs love, on the top because she hopped up onto the couch, no cat walking allowed. No little kitty hairs getting in between the keys, no sudden pressure on my small computer, no Chloe touching the laptop. Though she did scent mark it last night, which I didn't really blame her for. It does smell pretty nice.

Hence my self-congratulatory post about my shiny, which is officially paid for. I'm a big believer of buying/doing/eating what makes you happy and spending money wisely, and while this was almost the most expensive computer I could have bought it is also the only one that would have made me nearly this happy. Macs might not be right for everyone, but I wouldn't have bought anything else.

Making A Point With Money

The majority of my recent post have been somewhat depressing: between palm oil, poaching, the USDA killing birds, more palm oil, and the economy, there hasn't seemed to be much good in the big wide world out there. People are greedy and willing to do whatever it takes to make a buck or get things done the easy way, the rest of the world be damned.

All of this led to me wondering about the business practices of large corporations... the latest disappointment is from a company I love and have recommended for years, yet now all I hear is Apple buying products from what are essentially slave and child labor companies in China in buildings that work people 12+ hours for pennies and have suicide nets as a standard office amenity. Apple is wildly successful and insanely popular and their young, hip and socially aware following gives Apple the ability to change world business practices, so why support unfair and cruel business practices?

I know the answer, and it's the same reason high quality food companies use palm oil when they know it's low quality and environmentally damaging, but it's depressing. Corporations can make a higher profit margine by saving money on production, and if palm oil and child labor are the means to the end then so be it. It's got me thinking twice about getting an iPhone (and a MacBook Pro) when the time comes... I don't like the other products out there, but if buying from Apple means supporting horrid labor practices I can't feel good about that, and I really, really want to be excited about those purchases. (I know that other computer and phone companies are exactly the same, and that no matter what I buy I will be supporting environmental damage or child labor or some other horrible business practices, but Apple is so popular and believes so highly of itself that it should be above that. A silver lining may be that Apple has now, finally, disclosed almost every supplier for its products, allowing third party auditors to assess the conditions of the factories and create better positions for the workers.)

Last month I bought an American Apparel hoodie because I had a Groupon for half off. I always really liked the styles of the jackets and they seem to last forever, but even still I could never justify paying $50 for a jacket. At $25 it was way more reasonable, especially since the lower quality jackets at Target were $20 this season, and I'm glad the only negative business practice that purchase supported was skanky models and a skankier CEO. But I'm not hipster enough or rich enough to shop there all the time, so Target and Ross it is for the rest of my clothes, which no doubt save money with Chinese slave and child labor (not to mention Target's financial support of anti-gay fanatics).

One of the reasons I want to be quasi-wealthy one day is so I can spend $50 on American made jackets, buy sustainable and organic food at farmer's markets every week and really make an effort to make a difference with my money. And it's sad that doing so requires a certain amount of wealth, but it does. I already spend $8 on a bottle of shampoo (and am looking for new body wash, face wash, face scrub and hand soap), buy high quality cat food, avoid palm oil, get fair trade and organic tea, and only buy sustainable fish when I eat meat, but I know all or most of my clothes were originally made in a sweat shop somewhere, the battery in my phone was mined in Africa and probably cost someone his life, and now my computer (and iPod and likely every other electronic I own or use) is manufactured by little kids or miserable adults in China.

So what am I supposed to do? Ignorance really is bliss. Not knowing, or caring, can make life so much easier. Better, maybe not, but easier.

Apple

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of Macs and Apple products. I never really had a preference when I was starting out with computers; all I really knew was that Macs were twice as expensive as other computers, so why spend the money?

Looking back, I remembered the first computer I was exposed to was a Mac in 4th grade. But it wasn't until I was in 7th grade that my family got our first computer. I have no idea what it was but it didn't last very long. That was the age of AOL and dial-up and me getting yelled at for taking up the only phone line for chatting online with my high school boyfriend. After that computer we got an e-machine, which was assembled by a family friend who was our go-to computer guy. This family friend later told us the computer had problems because we rearranged the shortcut icons on the desktop. I didn't know much about computers, but I knew that couldn't be true.

When I was 18 The Ex introduced me to Macs. He was frustrated with my limited access to the family e-machine so he lent me his old, black, plastic Mac. Six months later I bought my first PowerBook (ironically, I'm using a PowerBook to write this...) and I never looked back. I used that computer for 5 years, all through college and beyond. I loved it because it was mine: I bought it, I used it. But it was amazingly easy to use and didn't have the same problems the family computers had.

Since then I've used a Mac at home and a PC at work, and I just get frustrated at work. Also since then, the company that created that PowerBook has changed the way the entire world communicates. Even if you're a PC person you have an iPod, you use iTunes, you want an iPad and you use or are super familiar with the iPhone. All of these inventions? Steve Jobs.

Also, Pixar. Some of the best Disney movies were great because of the animation Pixar did, which was headed by none other than Steve Jobs. He changed movies, computers, cell phones, music and the way people communicate with each other. He talked about passion, determination and making a difference. It wasn't just a fad or just a popular thing to like Apple products: they were easy to use, intuitive, and endlessly stylish.

The world lost a great person yesterday when he died, but he's one of the lucky ones who was able to live to see his ideas change the world for the better. When I buy my MacBook Pro in a month or so, and when I likely eventually get the iPhone, I'll be remembering the genius behind the person who put all these ideas together.