I’m getting a little furrier than usual. I wonder how furry I should get.
October 6, 2008
Priorities.
I am looking into updating my DJ gear. As I have mentioned before, all my DJ equipment is Mac based as I use my MacBook Pro to maintain my music library and edit tracks and I use my older PowerBook G4 to spin using a MIDI controller/sound card combo designed for what I do. It’s a setup that has worked well for a number of years. However, the capabilities of my DJ software is limited when compared to what is available on the market today and the PowerBook won’t support anything much faster. I am striving to build a larger presence in the gay community as a DJ. I have dreams of cranking up the crowd in a larger club and making myself known. By spinning at charity events and such, I’m confident that I can make a positive contribution to the community.
Hence, I search for a new solution.
I am really thinking of going in a different direction with all this. I found a new software program and DJ interface that I really like. It cost a little more than what I use today. I’m thinking of buying a Dell (Product) RED XPS laptop to support it.
Shocking, I know!
There are a couple of reasons that I’m looking at the Dell (Product) Red laptop. First of all, tricked out to the specs I need it still costs only about half of what I have invested in the MacBook Pro and that includes a (Product) Red version of Windows Vista Ultimate. I know other Mac fans will proclaim “but it’s Vista!” but with the economy the way it is, I need to be reasonable with my budget. Plus, the more I use and support Vista for work, the more I actually like it.
Secondly, I feel that Microsoft is doing more than Apple in the philanthropic arena these days. It could be that Apple isn’t as vocal about their efforts as Microsoft (and related entities) is. However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does a lot of wonderful things for a lot of people. And I can’t help but admire that. In addition, both the Dell laptop and the version of Windows Vista that I would run are (Product) Red1. Even if I were to not buy the (Product) Red version of the hardware and software, I would still save half the money that would be spent on a new Mac setup and that money could probably be better used with a local AIDS/HIV charity. Too many people that I know and love are HIV positive and it angers me that the necessary medication is so damn expensive. Plus, more money means more research which hopefully brings us closer to a cure for this disease. There are more important things than having the shiniest computer at Panera and if I can use that money for a better means then that is what I’m going to do.
So now I consider all my options and try to decide what to do. I would really like to hear anyone’s thoughts or experience with the (Product) Red Project or anything else I’ve mentioned in this blog entry.
1 proceeds from (Product) Red support AIDS relief in Africa.
Busy Weekends.
This is one of the reasons I am not a fan of daylight saving time. It is currently 6:46. I am to be to work at 8:00. My body is saying “but it’s dark and therefore we must sleep!” But no, we must drag ourselves out of bed, going against nature because we all know better of course.
I wonder if the world would be a happier place if we lived in harmony with nature instead of railing against it all the time.
I had a three day weekend but I’m not feeling particularly rested. The house is oddly quiet. I guess I got used to having my sister and the baby in the house. We drove them to Toronto Thursday night in anticipation of her flight to Switzerland this weekend so that she could join her husband in Biel-Bienne. We weren’t even in Toronto for 24 hours. I like Toronto. I wish we had time to go into the city and do our thing. But no, the schedule didn’t permit that this time.
Saturday night Earl and I played hosts of another bear night here. It was the busiest yet. The bar was packed and we had no food left. The theme was “OctoBEARfest”. We served brats and bavarian pretzels. Sauerkraut too. The night was a lot of fun. The bear nights are going well. We are going to do another one in December. We also raised a nice chunk of change for a local charity that helps those with HIV and AIDS. I fear that the younger generation forgets about HIV and AIDS. They shouldn’t.
Yesterday I knew it was autumn as I went into some weird happy homemaker mode, washing the sheets on all the beds, organising very odds and ends. I also contemplated baking cookies but then the sauerkraut from the night before started catching up with me and I figured that we had done enough cooking for the weekend. Even though sauerkraut shouldn’t have anything to do with cookies.
