There are several reason why I will not switch to a Mac, and I thought I would outline them right here for you.  I am not a PC loyalist, but there are endless things that erk me the wrong way.

Corporate companies do not buy Macs

I have been in the corporate world for about 10 years now.  How many Macs have I seen: 3.  How many IT people know anything about Macs: not many.  Where do Mac requests go: they are pawned off onto others.

Macs are shiny turds

Sure Macs have a decent operating system, but there are many things going against them (to be mentioned soon).  You can't take a pile of crap, make it pretty, and expect it to be wonderful.  It's still just a steaming pile of pretty crap with users that advocate their butts off (more on the users to come).

The Mac advocates are their converts' tech support

"Macs are great.  You should buy one.  You aren't cool unless you buy one.  Alright I bought one, now what?   Everyone around me knows PC.  How about I ask the person that converted me."

I think I will just stick with pushing PC.  I have enough problems to want to become someone's tech support.  Everyone uses a PC.  Good luck finding help from the people around you.

Mac users are awful

My brother once said, "It's not Macs that I hate, it's Mac users."  Couldn't be more true.  Mac users are like a cult.  It's like the Mormons knocking on your door and trying to get you to convert.  It's relentless.  It's an elite club.  If you don't have a Mac, you are inferior.  It sounds a lot like a religion, doesn't it?

Mac users are defensive.  PC users have at least one thing that Mac users don't.  It's the ability to keep their mouth shut about how fantastically wonderful their computer is.

How about an arm with a side order of leg?

Macs cost a ton.  Steve Jobs said in a previous speaking engagement that Macs are the same price as PCs.  Couldn't be more false.  How about a Mac Pro for close to $4,000.  That's with 1GB of Ram.  Who gets an 8 core machine with 1 GB of RAM.  It's only $300 more for each GB of RAM.  Ridiculous.

Why no viruses?

Because there aren't any Macs. Their market share is pathetic.  The share is growing, which means one thing; they are going to become targets of viruses, and other creepy crawlies that supposedly plague PC users.  The more market penetration, the more likely that someone will become more malicious against your system. 

Is Mac security better?  Probably not, but why would hackers target a small group when they can have their way with an army of PC users.

Would you like black, white, white or white?

You don't like the Mac's style?  Too bad.  There are endless possibilities with PCs.  You can build your own.  You choose your own hardware.  You don't have to wait months and months for a new shiny turd to come out.

Let's face it.  All hardware is made in China anyways.  Stick a fancy cover around it and it becomes a premium.

Games?  What games?

PCs have tons and tons and tons of games.  Macs don't, and the ones they do have suck.

Ridiculous ads

If Mac ads were true, then all a PC could do is Word process and crunch numbers.  Let's face it; PCs can do more.  There is more software, which is everything.  What good is the shiny turd without instructions?

Macs crash too

I have been running Vista since the beginning.  How many times has it crashed: 1.  I walked into the graphic designers cube.  We tried to open an Illustrator document and it crashed.  It proceeded to crash 3 times before I was forced to leave and come back.

More arms, more legs

Want to go from 10.1 to 10.2.  Cha ching.  Want service pack 2.  Here you are for the cost of a library book.  If you argue that those are major upgrades, I completely disagree.  You may get a few new features that are free downloads for PC.

There, I feel better now. 

In conclusion, while Macs are a viable option, please read the post above and made an actual decision based on the facts, not what Jim Jones says to you. (extra points to those that get the Jim Jones reference.)

Edit:  And one more thing.  iTunes is the next "Real Player".  What an awful music interface.

 

Every year the birthday person gets to pick where they want to go out to dinner.  Sue's birthday is tomorrow but we decided to celebrate tonight.  She picked Lucerne's which is a local fondue & spirits restaurant in Rockford.  It was a TON of fun!!  Mark and I had never been there or to any fondue restaurant.

Before going to the restaurant we gave Sue her gifts here at our house.  I made her a card, we got her the movie Queen, and a gift card to Crimson Ridge.  Then we left for Lucerne's.

The meal started out with Wisconsin cheddar and swiss cheese.  We were given a basketful of bread, grapes, apples, carrots, and celery to dip into the cheese mixture.  When we were done with our appetizer we were given a salad.  We were allowed to choose our entre which ended up with us all getting a combination of either steak, chicken, or shrimp.  You then get to cook your meat along with the many vegetables they give to you in hot oil in the fondue pot.  They also provided 12 or so different sauces to dip everything into. 

The best part was the dessert which consisted of chocolate and caramel fondue with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, angel food cake, pineapple, and cherries to dip into it.

We were all incredibly full after this meal.  I hope you enjoy the PICTURES. 

Happy 5th year Anniversary!!  Here is a picture from their wedding and a picture from when we visited them in Boston in late June/early July.  Congrats guys!!

  

The last blog for our Boston trip is for the Freedom Trail.  We went on the Freedom Trail on the 6th of July and met Jeff and Laura for dinner in the North End. 

We did the guided tour of the USS Constitution which was very interesting.  I would have to say that it was my favorite part of the Freedom Trail.  "Old Ironsides" is not really made of iron, but of live oak. 

We decided we wanted to go to the top of the Bunker Hill Monument which is 294 steps to the tiny area in the top.  After coming back down, both of our legs were noticeably shaking.  I would suggest if you visit to go up just once, but I know since I've done it already, I probably won't do it again. 

Paul Revere's House was neat to go into as well, but you are not allowed to take pictures of the inside.  It had three levels in which the top level was bedrooms and the lower level was more of the main living space which included a separate area for the kitchen.

To see the slideshow click HERE.

Overall, we had an awesome time while in New England/Boston.  If we had to choose right now somewhere else to live we would probably choose Boston.  I think it helped that Laura helped us plan our trip and made sure we saw all of the musts of the area.  Thanks Laura!!!  We really enjoyed staying with Jeff and Laura, but then again every time we are around them we have a great time.  I hope you have enjoyed hearing about our trip and viewing our pictures, even though it's three months after the fact.

The night we arrived in Boston we went candlepin bowling with Jeff and Laura.  The pins are thinner and the ball is smaller than in regular bowling. 

In candlepin bowling you get three balls each round instead of two.  The pins aren't cleared from the floor until you are completely done with your turn.  This way you can knock a pin that is already down and it might hit another pin down.  The ball is smaller and it does not have holes in it.  At first I had trouble holding the ball because it is just slightly bigger than my hand, but I got used to it. 

A strike is still getting all of the pins down with the first ball.  A spare is only counted if it is done with the second ball.  If you get all of the pins down with the third ball, you will still get the 10 points but no additional points from your next throw. 

The pictures aren't the greatest because it was fairly dark inside the bowling alley and I used my camera instead of Mark's.  Click HERE to see the slideshow. 

Three of the nine days we were in the New England area we were in New Hampshire at Franconia Notch State Park.  On Sunday July 1, 2007, Jeff, Laura, Mark, and I packed up the car for our camping and hiking adventure.  Laura was kind enough to rent sleeping bags and mats from the air force base for us.  She also was able to borrow a tent from one of her co-workers. 

It rained most of the time we were there, but we didn't let that stop us.  When we got there we set up our tents then went on the Lonesome Lake Trail, which we were able to walk to from our campsite. 

Even though it was raining, we didn't get terribly wet because of the tree coverage.  The weather was cool, but since we were hiking it felt really nice.

On July 2, we hiked the Flume Gorge, Greely Pond Trail, and the Rocky Gorge to Falls Pond.  Luckily it didn't rain a whole lot during the day.  That night it rained a TON.  The rain put out our fire so we hung out in the car trying to keep warm and dry.  It was still a lot of fun even under the cold, wet circumstances. 

On July 3, we packed up camp and drove to The Basin and Kensman Falls.  Mark and I, if not all four of us, were fairly worn out this day so we made it a short day and drove home.

That evening we went to dinner at Summer Shack.  One of Laura's friends was in town so she joined us.  This is where Mark had his first bowl of clam chowder, I mean clam chowda. :) 

Hiking was a lot different than here in Illinois but it still reminded me of Turkey Run in Indiana.  We walked over a ton of roots as you can see in the picture to the left.  We saw a few waterfalls which I really enjoyed.  Hearing the water running over the rocks is very relaxing. 

My first mountain experience was last year in Alaska.  The mountains there were different than the ones in New Hampshire.  New Hampshire had more visible roots because of all the granite in the ground.  The mosquitos did not bother us at all in New Hampshire, but I think it's because of the cool weather that we had.  I actually enjoyed the hiking in New Hampshire more than I did in Alaska.  Part of that could be because I was more in shape this year. 

To see the slideshow of our Franconia Notch trip click here. 

It's about a year late but here are the pictures from Thanksgiving last year.  We celebrated at Mark's parent's house.  After dinner everyone went outside to play football and ultimate frisbee.  I didn't want to play so I took pictures instead.  Hopefully the weather is similar this year and we can enjoy some of Thanksgiving outside like we did last year.

Click here for the slideshow.

When we walked around Boston on our first full day there we walked through a few parks and Boston Commons.  Mark took some amazing pictures this day.  We pretty much just walked around and enjoyed the city and our time with Jeff and Laura.  We hadn't seen them since we were in Alaska a year before so it was nice catching up.

Click here to see Mark's amazing pictures.

While in Boston visiting Jeff and Laura they took us to a hill near their house.  From the hill we were able to see an awesome view of Boston. 

This is the same place where we started out waiting to watch the fireworks on the Fourth of July.  It was raining a ton that day, so we decided that we would head up to the parking garage that Jeff parks in for work.  We were on the very top and realized that we had an awesome view of the fireworks!  The fireworks were absolutely amazing!  We were so close that when the wind was blowing in our favor we could hear the Boston Pops playing.  I'm guessing that they will go to the parking garage for now on for fireworks. 

Click here for the slideshow of the Boston Skyline.

June 30, 2007 we walked through Harvard Square with Jeff and Laura.  This was about the only place that we saw someone that might be homeless.  There was a woman screaming at people that they couldn't take pictures.  We quickly passed her to avoid any confrontation.  Click here to see all of the pictures. 

While Mark and his dad were working on the basement I decided to go through all of our pictures and make sure they were edited.  It took me awhile but they are all edited and ready to be uploaded to our flickr account.  Uploading takes a very long time since we use full quality.  I figured I would post a blog each time there are new pictures. 

The first ones are from our day trip to Cape Cod with Jeff and Laura.  I'm sure you are thinking that you have already seen our Cape Cod pictures.  Well, you have seen the ones that I took with my camera, but now I have posted the ones taken with Mark's camera.  Click here for the slideshow.

Be sure to keep checking back in the next few days so you can see more pictures.  Some of them are from Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year!!  I didn't realize we had these pictures until I was going through them and realized they were there but unedited.

Since so many people seemed to like us adding a recipe to a blog I thought we would do it again.  The other night we made another recipe from one of the Kraft Food & Family magazines.  This recipe can be made the night you want to make it for dinner or you can prepare it and freeze it to cook later.

Layered Enchilada Bake

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cups salsa
• 1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained, rinsed
• 1/4 cup Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
• 2 tbsp. taco seasoning mix
• 6 flour tortillas (8 inch)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 pkg. Mexican style shredded four cheese

Line 13x9-inch baking dish with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of dish; set aside.

Brown meat with onions in large skillet on medium-high heat; drain.  Add salsa, beans, dressing and taco seasoning mix; mix well.

Arrange 3 of the tortillas in a single layer on the bottom of the prepared baking dish; cover with layers of half each of the meat mixture, sour cream, and cheese.  Repeat all layers. Cover with foil.

Cook Now: Preheat over to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake, covered, 30 minutes.  Remove foil.  Bake an additional 10 minutes or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted.  Let stand 5 minutes before cutting to serve.

Cook Later: Freeze assembled uncooked casserole for up to 3 months.  Preheat over 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake, covered 1 hours.  Remove foil.  Bake an additional 15-20 minutes or until casserole is heated through and cheese is melted.  Let stand 5 minutes before cutting to serve.

Serving Suggestions: Top with chopped tomatoes and shredded lettuce.

For dessert we had pumpkin pie.  We originally got the recipe off of a can of Libby's pumpkin, but we have changed it a little bit.

Pumpkin Pie

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• a tiny bit of cloves (we don't like the flavor so we don't add a whole lot)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 can (15 oz) Pumpkin
• 1 can (5 oz) evaporated milk
• 1 pie crust

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl.  Beat eggs in large bowl.  Stir in pumpkin and sugar/spice mixture.  Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

Pour into pie crust.

Bake in preheated 425 degrees Fahrenheit over for 15 minutes.  Reduce temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool on a wired rack for 2 hours.

Serve with cool whip.

Recently, I have gotten back into the swing of playing the guitar.  As you may or may not know, I have a 1985 Gibson Futura that I have played for years.  I have had my doubts as to whether it was a genuine instrument or not.  I just emailed Gibson early this week with pictures to determine its authenticity.  I would have bet strongly that it was a fake.  I was wrong.  I have got myself a genuine Gibson Futura made on October 23rd, 1985 in Nashville, TN. 

It is an extremely rare guitar.  The only place that I can find any information about the guitar is a brief description in the Gibson Blue Book only, describing it as a can-opener style guitar.

Edit:  More information from Gibson: The Futura was a model shown in the catalogs from 1982-84 and had 2 humbuckers with no visible polepieces, 2 volume knobs and one master tone knob, 3 way toggle switch, stopbar tailpiece and Tune-o-matic bridge, rosewood fingerboard, dot inlays and gold plated hardware. Since the serial number on your guitar indicates 1985 I would assume this is one of the last ones made.

Now, on to my new acquisition.  I was out and about in Rockford and decided to stop and look at acoustic guitars.  Jeff Bickmeier always gets me excited about playing every time we get together, so I thought I would give it a shot.  I really had no intention of getting a guitar.  I noodled around a few, and found one that I loved that didn't break the bank.  It is a beautiful guitar with great sound and electronics for when I make it big and want to play on stage.  Everyone, meet the Ibanez AEF37ETCS.


I've been having a ball playing, and am taking lessons starting very shortly.