Albatross Rising

Variegated Albatross has changed form into Deathless Albatross!!! Or something like that. Anyway, I got a very giggly and/or drunk voicemail last night from a gal at the computer place (or maybe she was just thrilled that I had Plumtree on the outgoing message) saying that my iBook was back from Apple, so the morning went something like breakfast, shower, go rescue computer. Anyway, not only was that a hellaciously fast turnaround, but I got my original $50 back (!), so the whole buiness didn't cost me a dime. This incident has been getting progressively downgraded; starting at "catastrophe," it then moved down into "problem," and now we're hovering at the brink of "hiccup." The receipt says they completely replaced both the logic board and the HD/optical flex cable, which the guy at the desk said usually comes out to about 600 big ones* on notebooks unless it's under some sort of protection or warranty.

Check out the last line on the receipt, though: OS RELOADED @ APPLE. OS UPDATED. READY TO GO. What that actually means is that they blitzed the hard disk and reloaded it with OSX Jaguar 10.2.8. Oh yes; read the old-skool Aqua-stylee and weep.



So I'm writing this from Safari 1.0.3, on an operating system that is two Major Revisions (read: three friggin' years) old. Looks like this afternoon is going to be spent down at the library with the Albatross, the Kegcellar, and my Tiger install DVD, reintroducing the OS, every program I use, all of my data, and all the various system updates that have come out since spring of '05. I'm starting to see the benefit of something like Super Duper that just mirrors the entire disk, because this is definitely going to take a while. See y'all on the other side o' that.

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* Note for spectators: the Variegated Albatross cost $575.

Better than the disease

What I was DOING last night when I got the message about the Albatross was getting some fresh air outside the Triple Rock before going back in to see MONO. Who, naturally, rocked the damn house. They got up on stage and just unleashed the fury, playing for over an hour without ever saying a single word. Beautiful, transcendent, heartbreakingly emotional stuff, besides being possibly the loudest show I've ever been at. (I was standing about a dozen feet back from the stage, and the speakers moved my clothes. And not just a little; we were talking "brisk day in Cork" levels of wind. I definitely equipped my earplugs.)

Other cool things about the show:
-The person I was trying to go with begged out, but I ran into Jake Bell outside the club, which was very cool. Missed that kid.
-I was looking pretty fierce, thanks to the combination of an artful piece of bedhead, my favorite green shirt, my revived necklace, and my euro-shorts. In the parlance of Laura and Emm, it was a Unicorn Day.
-Pelican was kind of uninspiring, but if you get a chance to see Russian Circles live, you should jump on it. They were fantastic.
-Mono is hot. Especially if you like skinny Japanese boys, scruffy Japanese boys, or tiny Japanese girls who play HUGE BASSCHORDS.