Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Yesterday was World AIDS Day. Many websites were themed in red to commemorate the day. I was on a road trip and did not have the chance to mark this site the same way. I am slightly disappointed with myself over this.

As my friend dave tweeted:

“On this Worlds AIDS day, take time to remember those who have left us, and those that are still here to keep up the fight”

I couldn’t say it any better.

I have my Lenovo PC themed in PRODUCT (RED). The theme is carried over from when I bought the special edition of Windows Vista Ultimate PRODUCT (RED) a couple of years ago. I remarked back then that I liked the fact that Microsoft had a special edition of Windows Vista Ultimate out at the time and that I also appreciated that Dell had special editions of select computers that were also part of the project.

I wish Apple would do the same with a Mac. I know they have a couple of iPods in PRODUCT (RED), but I think it would be much better if they did the same with a Mac.

The debate still lingers in my head a year later. If I’m going to make a statement with my computer, it should be something that I believe in and something for the greater good. I want to make my impression *that* way.

303.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Yesterday I received a small package in the mail. It was an ebay purchase as I had bought some classic Apple Computer stickers to add to my growing collection of all things Mac. There are four stickers in total.

I’m such a geek.

While I have a ton of the white Apple logo stickers around the house, as they come with just about every Apple product you purchase, these are the first of the older multi-colored logo. However, this is not the first time I have had a sticker like this.

In the summer of 1985 between my junior and senior years in high school I worked for the school district with a handful of other folks my age cleaning the school from top to bottom for the coming school year in the fall. It was one day that summer that we learned that one of my classmates had been killed. His name was Bobby. From what I remember he had passed out in the middle of the street, ironically between the volunteer ambulance corps and the local medical center, and had been fatally hit by a car. He had been drinking.

Back when I was in school students had the same locker from grade 7 through their senior year. I distinctly remember locker 710 (with the combination 48-4-42) being my home base at school for six years.

I was given the task of cleaning out Bobby’s locker so that it would be available for any new students joining us in the fall. Bobby came from a fairly well-off family and they had an Apple ][e. One of their Apple Computer stickers was in Bobby’s locker. Instead of peeling it off with the assigned sticker scraper, I carefully removed the sticker intact and transported it home, where I stuck it to my bedroom door. That sticker stayed on my door until the mid 1990s, when my folks removed it during some sort of remodeling project.

I haven’t thought about Bobby in years. We weren’t overly close in school but he was a nice enough guy with a wild streak and I thought he was good looking. He was one of the first in the class to sport a mustache. It’s funny that I didn’t remember any of this until my new stickers arrived yesterday.

I have been reading a discussion on Slashdot about the purpose of ‘Black Friday’. The discussion has migrated into the meaning of the holidays and the tendency for Americans to purchase stuff they don’t really want or need, all in the spirit of giving.

I kind of get that.

One of the contributors to the discussion suggested some gift ideas that I thought I would share here:

• Hire a Maid/House Cleaning service to give the house a good cleaning for your spouse, mother, or other special person

Hire someone to paint a room or fix something on the home of your loved one

• Commission the making of a crotcheted Blanket, Sweater, Afghan, from one of the many people in your local neighborhood who does such crafts
• Hire someone to “Detail” your loved ones car
• Hire someone to “Cater” your Holiday Dinner or Family Get together
• Buy your loved one a “subscription” to yard mainenance/landscaping service for one year
• Buy your father, brother, or other loved one a “Gift Card” for automobile maintenance at the local Mechanic and/or Car Dealer
• Buy locally hand-made furniture (from the Amish or other local providers), like a wooden rocking chair or dining room table, for your loved ones
• Hire someone to “prepare a vegetable garden” for your loved one (turn the soil, remove the weeds/roots etc, get it ready for planting in the spring and/or do the initial planting)