Andy Laub

2008 ended last week, I guess. I feel like I wrote a decent amount, and I had every intention of writing a sort of “year in review” type of post. But I never got to a point where I had the right tone in my head, so instead I present you with this meme I found on the internerd. INTERNERD.

Achievements & Landmarks

What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Lost weight on purpose. Went into debt for a car that I fell in love with.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I guess so, and probably not. They were always a half-hearted promise to eat better and take better care of myself. Also I’m pretty sure I was resolving about a Mac Pro heavily at this time last year.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Uh, our neighbors? Or did you mean emotionally close? Then no.

Did anyone close to you die?

Sort of close. It would be wrong to say we weren’t close at some point.

What countries did you visit?

This one.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Patience.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I don’t think there’s one big thing that stands out, but I’m really proud of the work I did on Over the River and Through the Woods and Sweeney Todd. And losing weight counts as a major thing for me.

What was your biggest failure?

I let things fall by the wayside that shouldn’t have, and got angry way more than I should have.

What was the best thing you bought?

The Mac was the most practical best thing, and the Miata was the least practical best thing.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

What? Not mine, that’s for sure.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

People I thought I could trust. Myself included.

Where did most of your money go?

Toys. Lots of toys.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Grand Theft Auto IV. Driving stick. Singing in public.

What song will always remind you of 2008?

Monsters, by Matchbook Romance. Lame, I know, but it got me stoked for rides at Nine Mile.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder?

Sadder, but I shouldn’t be.

Thinner or fatter?

Way, way thinner.

Richer or poorer?

Richer.

Miscellany

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Enjoying myself. Letting things go.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying. Spending money.

How did you be spend Christmas?

With people whose company I enjoy.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Only on stage.

How many one-night stands?

None.

What was your favorite TV program?

I enjoyed SNL, as usual. Surprise second goes to Prison Break for no reason whatsoever.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yeah.

What was the best book you read?

I don’t know – something that was on the bookshelf.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Stephen Sondheim. The man is a genius.

What did you want and get?

Dollars, which enabled me to get many other things that I wanted.

What did you want and not get?

Resolution. Recognition.

What were your favorite films of this year?

Iron Man, easily. Dark Knight was also enjoyable.

What did you do on your birthday?

Complain. It was a tough day for me this year. That’s what I get for being born on Christmas Eve.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

“Hey, this fits me now!”

What kept you sane?

The internerd. Driving. Acting.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Obama would be a logical answer.

What political issue stirred you the most?

Obvious also starts with an “O”.

Who did you miss?

People I could only talk to online.

Who was the best new person you met?

Somebody who helps keep me sane.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:

Let. It. Go.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I don’t think I can. That’s pretty lame, even for this.

There’s no denying it: I’m a nerd. And there’s no denying it: you are too. But sometimes there are those junctures in your life where you stop and think “I’ve just taken this to a whole new level”. So what I want to know is what are the actions that lead to that realization?

My most recent one: with the advent of the Mac Pro, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in XP playing The Sims 2. I admit, I like to build houses. But a transcendental moment of nerdery was reached when I started scouring back issues of Met Home for inspiration.

It may have also been when I thought that this would be an ideal tool for mocking up a house before taking it to an architect.

• Day -1200: Buy Powerbook G4.
• Day -900: Buy 20″ Apple Display (aluminum).
• Day -600 to Day -90: Decide on an iMac for next machine. Write a number of times bitching about said iMac and how it doesn’t match the Cinema Display.
• Day -90: Finally decide to commit to a Mac Pro, thanks in part to fledgling freelance aspirations.
• Day -30: Mac Pros updated a week before Macworld San Francisco.
• Day -9: Order 2 500 GB hard drives in preparation for new machine.
• Day -7: New hard drives show up. Break down and order quad-core Mac Pro and new 20″ Apple Display.
• Day -6: Display ships.
• Day -4: Display arrives. Computer ships. Order 2 GB of RAM.
• Day -3: Computer arrives in Wisconsin.
• Day -2: is a Sunday. Nothing happens on Sundays; that’s not even a real day.
• Day -1: Computer arrives in Mosinee and sits 20 minutes away from me the entire day. RAM is delivered.
• Day 0: Computer is delivered. Angels sing out (Louise) from the heavens. New hard drives and RAM installed. Initial setup begins. Migration of files from laptop and external hard drive. Delete initial admin account in favor of the admin account imported from old machine. Worry about how long it takes and how it doesn’t seem faster than the old machine. Lament that the displays are not the same color.
• Day 1: Realization that deleting the admin account pretty much screwed the permissions of every file on the new computer. Grapple with options for getting around this. Worry about noise from machine, but then realize it’s actually just the external hard drive.
• Day 2: Post pictures of new setup on Flickr. Immediately afterwords, wipe everything and start from scratch. Fresh install from provided discs. Import admin account directly as the main account (instead of doing it later). All is good. Install Windows via Boot Camp.
• Day 3: Finish up with the initial re-setup, and start actually using the Mac Pro for work. Realize that yes, it is indeed faster (duh). Install Parallels. Uninstall Parallels and install Fusion.

Impressions

I like it, obviously. It’s fast and more than capable of handling everything I give it. I no longer dread working on print-resolution Photoshop files, and I can actually browse Flickr without locking up the browser.

The new keyboard takes a little getting used to but it’s very nice. The decision to move the hotkeys around is kind of strange, especially since the keys used by the volume controls are also the keys used by Expose and Dashboard by default, a problem easily fixed by reassigning the Expose keys. Still though, it’s a strange decision because they overlap and impede functionality in a way not everyone would know how to overcome. With the recent Macbook revisions, all of the keyboards now follow this standard, so maybe we’ll see this addressed in a software update.

Beyond that, there’s not much to say. It’s like my old computer but better in every way, and I can run Windows on it. I’m not sure there’s a downside here once you get past the price.