Day: April 24, 2009

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Traveling With Miranda

I will be the first person to admit that I haven’t done much actual traveling with Miranda since October! So, I’m really, really, really pleased to announce that at least two, if not three, weeks in May will be lived September ’08-style! I’ve decided to shoot straight up to the Yukon and not try to look for work en route. I’m going to follow the weather. If it’s good, I’ll inch north. If not, I’ll stay put. Arrival in the Yukon is scheduled between May 15th and June 1st. I’m really hope to get in a lot of hiking during this time; July is coming up fast!

There is so much literature available detailing the route that I’m going to be able to really plan my itinerary around free and cheap campsites and also make better decisions about how many kilometres I’ll do per day. I still doubt that I’ll be pushing off May 2nd, but departure day is coming up fast nonetheless and I am giddy!

There is still so much to do that it boggles the mind. 🙂 I am working tomorrow, but off Monday (my choice), which will mean a much quieter (I hope) excursion to Mountain Equipment Co-Op to get the gear I need to upgrade for the Chilkoot hike (I’ll be renting a few items I don’t anticipate needing later).

The sound track of my life right now beats to the tune of Canada’s beloved Stan Rogers. I’ve got Canol Road playing right now. 🙂

Well you could see it in his eyes as they strained against the night
And the bone-white-knuckle grip upon the wheel
Sixty-five miles into town, and a winter’s thirst to drown
A winter still with two months left to go.

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Comparing Apples to Apples

Warning: this post is definitely geeky!

I’ve conceded that I’m going to need a faster laptop when I get up north (yes, departure is technically a week from tomorrow, don’t stress me out! 😀 ). I have a first generation blueberry clamshell iBook that I adore and souped up as much as possible, but it’s too slow to do any real work or surfing with.  I know that I’m going to be extremely dependent on hot spots when I get up north and that I might be without hookups for days at a time, meaning I won’t be able to fire up the iMac. So, I fired up Craigslist and eBay and ran a few searches, confident that I’d have this new laptop thing buttoned up within an hour.

Well.

My first Apple computer was a blue and white G3. Great machine, bought it used from a friend’s brother who spared me from having to actually shop and learn about Macs when I didn’t even know yet if I would be able to convert. Conversion took about a half hour. 😀 So, when all the stars aligned a few years later and I had both the money and the need to update to a new computer, there was no shopping involved. I knew I wanted a desktop all-in-one model and I wanted the biggest screen so I’d be happy watching movies on it. I called up the local Mac store and asked if they had a 24″ iMac in stock and that was that. I adore my iMac. 🙂 What I find interesting is that had I known at the time that I would end up RVing, I would have still gone with the desktop model instead of a laptop. It might not always be convenient to set up and put away the iMac, but since I’m spending a lot of time in one place before moving on to the next this inconvenience is really minor. I do appreciate the irony that my Apple keyboard crapped out and the best replacement I could find was from Microsoft. Apple should stick to making computers and Microsoft to peripherals and then we’d truly have the perfect computer!

But I digress. 🙂

I thought that upgrading my laptop was going to be just as easy, but I didn’t take into account the fact that the clamshell came out in 1999.

Let me add a sidebar here. I’m still using a laptop that came out in 1999, was used daily by someone, shipped from California to Ottawa, dropped by a customs guy at an airport in California, traveled all over Canada and the US with me, and which has cost me a grand total of 175$ including my purchase price in 2005, a new battery, and extra RAM.  I could resell this computer for at least 100$. My G3 was bought new in 1999, resold to me about four years later, and resold again two years after that. I paid 500$ and recouped every penny of that. Unfortunately, some newer Macs have been proven to be slightly less resistant, but those who say that Macs are overpriced when compared to PCs aren’t comparing apples to apples (pardon the pun). In my experience, PCs need to be replaced every three to five years to run optimally and are essentially worthless within months of purchase. Over time, a Mac is truly an investment. You are also much less likely to have problems with a used Mac than you would with a used PC.

But I digress. Again. 🙂

As I said, my current laptop is ten years old. There have been more than 50 upgrades since then!!! I am essentially wading through 10 years worth of material trying to narrow down exactly what I’m looking for. Thankfully, I’ve found some allies who have started the weeding process for me based on my budget and needs. I would have loved to have gone straight to the first generation Intel portable, the Macbook, but I can’t justify a cost of 600$ to 1,000$+ for a secondary computer. I’m also starting to unofficially look around for a tripod satellite internet system, which would just about render the point of the new laptop moot. So, as a compromise, I’m now looking for the deal of the century on the most recent and souped up PowerBook G4 I can find, which makes me laugh because it’s what I would have bought when I got the clamshell had I had not been having the argument I’m having with myself now about the laptop being a backup only! Ah, the infinite progress of technology.

Anyway, I know what I want now so it’ll drop into my lap soon enough. I think it’ll be my first boy Mac. My first three all felt very feminine and got women’s names (clamshell=Beatrice, G3=Victoria, iMac=Margot). I’m leaning towards Kevin. 😀