Crocs in the family

Crocs have arrived at Queensbay! And I was their first customer. The first pair was for SP, a pink, or Fushia in Crocs-speak, Beach Croc and to make it special, I added a couple of Jibbitz.

The store in Queensbay is wall-to-wall Crocs of every colour. There are many types of Crocs, from the tough and manly Off Road to the cute and dainty Prima. But there's only one Croc in my sights, and that's the odd looking, clog-like Beach.

SP was really happy with her Crocs and a couple of days later, I revisited the Crocs shop at Queensbay and got myself an orange, or Coral in Croc-speak, pair of Beach Crocs.

So if you see a couple walking around wearing brightly coloured Crocs, it could be us.

How I fsck'ed Serenity

Serenity, my trusty Apple iBook, is never turned off. I close the lid and it goes to sleep. When I need to use it, just open the lid and in about 2 seconds, it's ready for me. So every month or so, I'd do some system maintenance on Serenity because prevention is better than cure. I usually use Onyx to automate the task, but the latest version of Onyx does a disk verification at startup. So during this disk verification, it found some errors on my harddisk!

To be extra sure, I ran Disk Utility's Verify Disk and sure enough, errors were detected on my harddisk and to repair, I had to boot Serenity with the Tiger DVD. Since I didn't have my Tiger DVD handy, I did the next best thing. I decided to fsck (file system check) Serenity.

I don't know the technical details behind fsck, but I knew I had to run it to fix the errors. fsck has to be run at the Console at startup. So I rebooted Serenity and pressed Command+S until some Linux-y text appeared on the screen.

There were instructions on the screen on how to run fsck, and since my harddisk is Journaled, I had to "force" fsck, so I entered at the prompt: fsck -fy

I had to keep typing fsck -fy until the message states that the harddisk does not appear to have any errors. Fortunately for me, I only had to do it twice.

Then type exit and press Enter to resume booting into the OS. Everything looked OK until I found out my trackpad wasn't working, my Bluetooth and WiFi was non-existent! Resisting the urge to scream like a wussy, I decided to try restarting Serenity. Luckily the keyboard was still working and managed to reboot Serenity.

A reboot later, and everything was back to normal. Phew...

And folks, that's how I fsck'ed Serenity.

The fuss over a pen

I remember that moment, so many years ago, when I finally reached the age when I could use a pen in school. All the while in primary school we only used pencils, so when I could use a pen, I felt so grown up. Pencils were for kids. Adults used pens!

We were given a list of things to buy before the school term starts, so my Mom and I went shopping together. On the list was the Reynolds FINE blue pen. This was an all blue pen design, and since it was stated on the list, I had to have that pen. We looked and looked but could only find the Reynolds MEDIUM pen. This pen had a beige body, and I made quite a fuss. I wanted FINE and not MEDIUM. It's stated right here on the paper. FINE, not MEDIUM.

My Mom and I must have reached a compromise because we got me the MEDIUM pen first, and later, weeks later, I had my FINE pen. Turned out, the FINE pen wasn't that fine afterall. I think it was too sharp and wasn't comfortable to write with, so I went back to the MEDIUM pen.

Fast forward to the present, and I still like to browse the pen aisle. So many colours, so many brands, types, varieties and sizes. But so far, I like gel pens the best.

Today I claim an accomplishment! I actually used a pen to the last drop. The very last drop. Usually, my pens would either dry up due to neglect, or had a faulty nib and had to be thrown away, or I'd lose it carelessly. But since I started my journal, I've been using the Pilot G1 Grip 0.5mm - yes, I actually know the brand and model number of my pen - almost daily, and it served me well up to today. Good thing I have a refill handy. These gel pens are expensive, and buying a refill is slightly cheaper than buying a whole new pen.

Starbucks, Borders, WiFi... Wow

Here I am, on my day off, lazing the day away at the Starbucks in Borders. Not many people in Borders, but quite a techie crowd in Starbucks. The free WiFi is really attractive. I wonder if I can get reception at Coffee Bean downstairs.

I don't usually do the "WiFi at coffee shops" thing, so I'm pretty impressed that quite a number of people bring their notebooks to surf. Looking around, I can't help but feel that I have the coolest looking notebook around. Decals and all. Yeah... techie vanity.

One guy brought his whole office - laptop, mouse, french press (!), mobile phone, important looking papers. He's on the phone all the time!

Another guy looks like he's listening to podcasts, is staring at his notebook with headphones on. A girl has her notebook on her lap, a big no no for guys, surfing the internet.

Looks like there are power plugs at strategic places for people to plug in their notebooks. The staff doesn't seem to mind that I pay for a cup of coffee and spend hours hanging around in the store. The logic fails me, but it must work.