Archive for April, 2010
Laptop brotherhood
Today is a dedicated clean-up day, in every sense of the word. My parents are visiting me in a couple days so I will be vacuuming, organizing, and scrubbing my entire apartment until it’s lifestyle-magazine clean. But I’ve also been cleaning out my bloated hard drives. While deleting a bunch of junk, I discovered this photo from last year which I had meant to post.
This is my trio of laptops, the oldest one from as far back as 2003. A lot of history and good times in this photo.
How I went from Apple store newbie to lifetime ban in one week
I had planned on reviewing the iPad in my next post, but instead I’ll dedicate this entry to my photo below and an incident that happened today. Review of the iPad coming soon.
(UPDATE: now posted)
As was correctly guessed, those iPads in the photo are not for me. When Apple delayed the international iPad launch by a month, early adopters worldwide started to panic. Since my nearby Apple store initially had plenty of stock, I offered to purchase and ship iPads internationally for members of the NeoGAF gaming forum. I was doing this as a favor, unlike hoarders who were unloading iPads on eBay to cash in on the $150+ markup. Instead, my asking prices were very reasonable, just enough to cover all the tax, international express shipping, and Paypal fees with a little left over for unexpected costs.
So as the pick-up requests came in, I went on multiple visits to the Apple store, buying no more than 2 per day since I had heard there was a limit per person. I found this whole situation pretty funny considering I had never bought an Apple product prior to this madness (the iPod Touch I use at work was given to me by my medical school). But the store recently went completely out of stock. I had one last order to fulfill so an employee helped me place a reservation. A few days passed and yesterday I was sent an email notifying that my reserved iPad had come in. The story begins here…
Apple iPad tease
Today I stopped by my local Apple store and went on a little shopping spree.
Stay tuned this weekend for more info about the photo, along with my impressions / review of the iPad. Believe it or not, this is the first Apple product I have ever purchased. The iPad is a very “wow” device that leaves a strong first impression, but I can already tell that it’s not for me.
What about you? Got iPad?
Cherry Blossom lane
Spring is here at last! With spring comes not only pleasant weather and girls in shorts, but also tons of jealousy-inducing blog posts about cherry blossom season in Japan. I subscribe to lots of Japan blogs and it seems everybody’s having a great time with the sakura flowers and hanami parties. A couple of my life goals: to experience Chinese New Year in Taiwan and to attend hanami parties in Ueno Park, Tokyo.
But even we in the USA can have our fun. Washington D.C., of course, has its famous Cherry Blossom Festival. And I’ve even discovered a random neighborhood close to my apartment that harbors a secret: a small street lined with cherry blossom trees!
