Mid-January is always a good time to be a Mac user. The annual Macworld trade show is like winning the lottery on Christmas to all the Apple faithful. Every year in San Francisco, a dizzying array of Apple software and hardware developers gather to show off their latest ideas and products. Apple of course is there, headlined by a keynote from Steve Jobs who announces the newest shiny toys and software from the company.
I’m lucky this year as I get to attend Macworld. For years now, for those of you who don’t know, I’ve been an admin for Mac-Forums.com and this year, our parent company, iNET Interactive is flying me out to attend the show and blog about what I experience. Jeremiah and Arthur are flying up from Los Angeles for a few days so I’m also excited to be able to hang out with them.
I’m not really sure what to expect since I’ve never gone, but I know there are some vendors I really want to see, some pretty cool user conferences to attend, and of course I get to be at the Keynote on Tuesday.
There have been lots of predictions but, to be honest, what I want most from Apple are probably two things that won’t be announced at the show:
- AppleTV with a cable TV tuner so it can actually behave as a DVR. Being able to rent movies from the device would also be cool.
- An iPhone without the iPod. When my T-Mobile contract is up later this year I’m going to switch to AT&T so I can get an iPhone. But I really don’t need an iPhone with a music player, I have an iPod. I’d like a cheaper iPhone.
In the end, I’m bound to have a great time. I’ve never been to Macworld and never been to California; should be a lot to see and experience. Now, where’s the stewardess with my breakfast?
While in Virginia over the holidays, Adam and I were driving back to his Dad’s house. We were passing a house with a few horses and I wanted to get out and take a picture or two.
As soon as I got out of the car, the horses came running over to the fence. I think they were hungry, but they were very friendly. It did make taking pictures difficult because they kept following me.
This past weekend, Adam and I traveled to Virginia to see our friend Courtney graduate from James Madison University.
After arriving on Friday, Adam, Courtney and I headed over to Calhoun’s for dinner. While we were waiting for our reservation we went across the way to the wine shop for a little tasting. I bought an outstanding Cabernet Franc that I could “enjoy at breakfast in the Outer Banks.”
Saturday was graduation day and it was filled with interesting times. The president of JMU was dressed in a purple velvet robe with giant silver bling around his neck. The commencement speaker was pretty bad, but when he was done it was time for lunch.
After lunch we headed to Courtney and Miranda’s graduation party and saw many friends and made some great new ones.
Sunday we had breakfast at The Little Grill and met up with a great new friend, Matt, to head off to a local winery. The winery was fantastic and we all ended up with a few bottles before we left. Matt suggested looking for some place for dinner in one of the little towns near the winery.
After walking around for a bit we ended up heading back to Harrisonburg for dinner at Calhoun’s and then an evening of wine drinking and Arrested Development.
Overall it was a great trip. It was awesome to see Courtney’s graduation after she worked so hard and to make great new friends.
St. Louis was a lot of fun, the trip getting there was not. Adam and I arrived at the airport around 7:00 am on Thursday to discover the new ban on liquids and gels and the increased security line that went all the way through the terminal.
However, once in St. Louis all was good. We had a ton of fun with Eric and Kristin and got to see many of the city’s cool sites and eat at a bunch of good restaurants. Adam did a good job of writing up each day there so take a look.
Last weekend Adam and I went to Niagara Falls. I had gone there almost once a year but it had been some time since Adam had gone. We also went with two of my friends from work.
I found a really great two-night deal at the Embassy Suites Niagara Falls for an awesome fallsview room which included a dinner voucher and weekend shuttle service around Niagara. To make a long story short, the room they originally gave us wasn’t acceptible, the second room smelled like the Malboro Man had died in it, so in the end we ended up with a Junior Presidential Suite. Other than the room issues at the beginning the hotel was very nice.
We only had one full day there so we spent some time the first evening at the casino and looking at the falls. The next day we went to some of the crazy museums on Clifton Hill, visited a few wineries, and headed up to Niagara On The Lake. It was nice to finally take a little trip somewhere, I really must do it more often.
This week I have a conference for work so I’ll be gone from Monday until Thursday. All I can hope is that the food is good but the conference resort looks promising.
And this Thursday is my confirmation where I’ll officially become a member of the Episcopal Church.
This Christmas Adam and I went down to be with his family in Virginia. His family is very warm and caring, some may call that “southern charm”, I just call it good people. While we were there we decided to meet up with Jeremiah who was also home for the holidays and have some lunch.
On our way to eat we passed the the factory that was in the process of being expanded for the Thomas Road Baptist Church. I’m not quite sure why Jerry Falwell needs a factory for a church, but it’s his money. I just wonder what he’s keeping in that silo?
