Flood

Well, I've just done my part to stimulate the economy.

I blog this morning from my shiny new iMac, a juggernaut of processing power with a 1 terabyte harddrive (that's right, people, I got me a friggin' TERABYTE to play with), a giant 24" screen and a totally kick-ass video card. The screen is so large that I'm finding it hard to get it far enough back from my eyes. I feel like I'm sitting in the damn thing. This is a good problem to have.

Why a new computer? Well, it's quite simple, really. I filled up the old one. Turns out that the D300 with its whomping files was too much for my little G5 PowerMac to take. I have about 600 files to transfer and there's no room. Even after two weeks of frantically editing and deleting. "Aw, crap, I have to tell M that I need a new computer."

We debated. There are extra drive slots on the G5 and we could purchase another harddrive and he could install it, giving me more room. Oh, the optical drive is busted, too, though. (This has meant that to get any new music on the G5, and therefore on our iPod, I had to go through this process: take CDs to work, load them on iTunes on my work laptop, find the folder containing the music files buried somewhere in the system, load them onto a jump drive, come home and transfer files from the jump drive to the appropriate directory on the Mac - a royal pain in the ass - and reverse that process to burn anything to CD.) Well, let's go check out how much it'll cost and what it'll take to add another harddrive and replace the optical drive.

So off we went last weekend to the Apple store, post-it note in hand with the private health details of my Mac scribbled on it. Talked to a couple of Mac guys who reassured M that yes, he could indeed install a new drive on his own. "But realize that doing that will only give you more space. Your processor is still old and slow." Yeah, yeah, I got that. I apply one small level change in Photoshop and can brew up a pot of coffee, pour a cup, sweeten it and enjoy half before the change takes place.

One of the guys asked when we bought the G5. I dunno...don't remember...a long, long time ago. If I give you the serial number can you look it up? Sure. Consult post-it. Type in serial number.

The Mac guy made a whistling sound and shook his head. "Wow, man. That's what we call vintage."

M groaned and clutched his wallet, while I grinned like an idiot and began eyeing up iMacs.

We took a week to mull it over and consult the budget. Okay, M took a week to come to grips with buying another computer he knows he'll hate. I was there already.

We went last night and picked it up. Visited Great Grandma in the hospital, ate dinner, came home. Homework, studying. (We are nothing if not disciplined.) After all our obligations of the day were done, I busted into the box. Oh, man, this thing even looks sweet.

After powering up, the iMac asked, "Hey, would you like to transfer your files and settings from your old Mac, you cool Apple person?" (Okay, so maybe I added that last part.) I hit yes. It took about 8 hours, but when I woke up this morning there it was. My new iMac, perfectly set up with all my files, all my music, all my programs, right there. Everything I had spent the last six years tweaking and refining and setting up on my old G5, ready to go. On a giganto screen.

I have a flood of photographs to work on. I am in heaven. I am full of bliss and happiness. I celebrated by loading the new U2 album I bought for M in and cranking it. "October," the Dublin boys' sophomore album (awesome).

O happy, happy day.