Fuggin' Computers (Love Hate Relationship)

And this is how Windows7  fucked up my Mac.  (why would you have Win7 on a Mac?)  well i'll get to that in a sec.  This all started a couple of months ago; my email got hacked, then coincidentally (don't think it was related) in a 24 hour period one of my hard drives went bad, became corrupt. I lost a ton of Graphics files, and photos.  Had to pay to get some of those files retrieved. little success... lost a good chunk of work.

Over the past month having software issues,  unexpected crashes, Lockups,  lost files, corrupt files.

when i was with Lockheed Martin everything they did was  PC.   No Macs...Their IT dept feared Macs. I think it would have put them out of a job had they gone to mac.  So most of the Graphic Software i've used since '95 has been PC based;  so years a years of accumulating softwares and upgrades for the PC. CorelDraw, CAD,  MS Orfice.  I actually prefer CorelDraw over Adobe Illustrator...

One of my biggest clients  requires all of their proposal work to the government in a windows based program so i've always needed a PC.  I've been a Mac user for a long time... couple years ago pulled the trigger and purchased a BigMac graphics machine and ran a windows emulator software called Parallels...  you can switch back and forth from Window to Mac,  share drives, printers etc.  

things worked great until about a year ago when either Parallels or Windows XP became corrupt, and had to reload everything.  which was a 3 - 4 day event of reloading applications ,files, locating fonts, templates, brushes, etc.   But after i did all of that it still didn't work right...  drives, printers, scanner  couldn't share... i worked around it by jump drives or emailing files back and fourth to myself just to get it done.  Didn't have the $ to pay someone to fix the problem...

Last week i got an iPhone a late birthday/father's day gift.  who knew the ripple effect this was going to cause in my life.   

to Sync the phone with my Mac required the latest version of iTunes

• step 1 install lastest iTunes.... download complete.... not compatible with current version of OsX. ( i had Leopard)
• step 2 purchase $99  Snow Leopard OS X.whatever 
• step 3 got that loaded and all was fine and dandy till i tried to open Windows/Parallels.   My older version 3 of Parallels is not supported by Snow Leopard.  nor is there an upgrade...  You had to buy the full blown package of Parallel 6.  another $99
• step 4 had to reload everything Windows XP, settings & preferences, software applications, fonts, brushes etc. everything up to Saturday evening was going great, new phone, new operation system, new Parallels...  able to connect to network, print, scan, for both Mac and PC...
• Step 5  tried to upgrade my laptop (Old Macbook) with Snow Leopard OsX whatever,  Not enough Memory to load.
• Step 6 purchase 2gb of Memory $60   installed...  loaded everything on laptop. (Mac only) can't do art stuff on it. just not enough hard drive....
• Step 7 back to the Graphics Machine; tried to upload latest version of WERD and MS Orfice 10  which we purchased 6+ months ago for son's PC Laptop for school.  Ahhhh guess what that doesn't work with Windows XP   you gotta have fuggin' Windows Se7en.  oh sweet Jesus i want to rip someone's head off.
• Step 8 Purchase Win7Pro   $199  load it to Parallels   Ohhh now  upgrade  won't connect to my server - printers scanners, hard drives  if the mac is using 'em...  WTF?   do some searching the web, yeah there are a bunch of issues with WIN/LOSE 7 and Parallels...none of which have been resolved.... you are fucking kidding me?

• Step 9 Uninstall Win7 and start over with Parallels and WinXP... oh yeah... everything seemed great !  opened Corel Draw and then the system locked up... nada..... mouse.....keyboard.... frozen....Powered off...let it sit a minute,  then reboot... 

it wouldn't eject the disk in the drive; so it tried to boot with the Windows disk or something.... got the apple on the screen..... then  Poof.... Blue Screen.... drives chuggin',  but not a damn thing happening....  dead..... I'm dead.....  no fuggin way this is happening!   did some searching the web... similar problems....  got the disk out and got it to boot from the Snow leopard disk... but after 3 tries at an hour each load... the computer almosts get to the desktop....and then Crashes to blue screen....

• Step lost count  so what am i doing now?   waiting on the tech guy (again) who charges me $100 an hour to  try to undo everything i've done.
• step whatever.... purchase gun,  someone must die for this shit!,  But hey my laptop works, and my iPhone is swell... just can't draw on either of those.

F*ck yeah!  This Monday started  middle of last week... I don't have time for this shit!

What's Playing: 99 Problems - Hugo

Summertime...Summertime...Summertime...

Happy Solstice

finally found the photos i snapped during last week's massive storm that rolled thru town. yeah i had misplaced the memory card getting ready for the short track race, so after digging through a dozen or so memory cards i found 'em.

btw, i've posted a shit ton of Short Track Race #2 photos over on the Flickr acct. help yourself

great Father's Day weekend... Friday night we worked on the Downhill course at Paris Mt. (no photos this time) it was too hot and muggy to be lugging a camera around with a bunch of tools.

Harrison and i took a road trip to Georgia to ride Paynes Creek near Hartwell. Andy from Savannah was up at their lake house and Jamie whom i haven't ridden with since last November. These trails are super fun. At the start of the ride i got nailed in the knee by a yellow jacket, nearly ran over a 4+ foot long black snake, then towards the end of the loop, either a stick jumped out and tagged my leg i saw it in the corner of my eye... i was focused on climbing the switchbacks back to the trailhead, and saw something hit me in right calf , the trail was bench cut into the hill so ground level was at about mid calf range.... I thought to myself "surely that wasn't a snake?" then looked down it was bleeding but looked like a scratch but bleeding like a small puncture... weird i didn't really feel anything. and like i said i never really saw what it was that snagged my leg... had it been a snake it was more than likely a harmless black snake.

photos from the ride.

What's Playing: Snake Charmer - Rage Against The Machine

Round-n-Round Greenville Short Track Race Numero Dos

The Kid kicked it last night, Great Job Harrison!

great turn out , not as Hot, not as Dry as Race #1; a bunch of kids and a bunch of women which is very cool, great race, this series is going to be huge!

Kip & Buzz on the Lucky Bike express Gold Devinci Tandem

still not as pretty as my Goldmember

J and H at the Start

Fried green Tomato's

Meeker

Congrats son!

more pix coming soon! promise... just not today :)

have a great weekend.

What's Playing: Thee Ol' Boozeroony - Kyuss

Hey Vancover

A Week in Paradise

A Week in Paradise just isn't Long Enough! Ocean Isle Beach, NC is such a wonderful place. and a week is just not long enough.

It was a great birthday escape!

It was good to be home after 5.5 hours on the jammed interstate. avoided two major road crashes... then we got home to discover we left the freezer door open the whole time we were gone. Nice big a puddle of melted foods and ice.. Ugghhhh.

Back to the Grind. even further behind than i was before i left.

What's Playing: Wayfarin' Stranger - Spearhead