Printing Bliss

I know this will sound random and silly, especially since updates here have been so sporadic lately, but I just wanted to say that I love Mac OS X today. I love the way it prints. And I know some people have had problems with this, but it's been great for me. Here's why it's so great:

I just hit "print" in another program. Then I waited for the printout. And waited. And waited. And then I realized I hadn't plugged my printer into my computer. Damn! In the past, this could have been a nightmare—in the most extreme case, I would have had to cancel the print job, shut down the computer, plug in the printer, then reboot. With OS X, I just plugged in the printer (USB), and bam! it started printing. I didn't have to send the print job again or anything. That's obviously how printing should work, but can your computer do that?

(BTW: Sorry I haven't been keeping up here. My novel (try not to laugh) is taking up most free time (I'm up to almost 16,000 words), and I have at least about six other major projects and issues demanding small pieces of me at regular intervals. Things will slow soon, I'm sure, at which point, I'll regale you with stories of law application blues, "Master Law School Report" madness, and maybe even a final burst of LSAT loony-toons. In other words: Don't touch that dial! AI will return after these messages...)

Posted 01:47 PM | mac geek

NaNoWriMo Me

Over the weekend I spent some time in Barnes and Noble, writing my novel. That's right: I'm writing a novel. I have to keep saying it so I'll make it come true. Besides, it's a fun thing to say, and technically it's true. The sort of slippery part there is "novel," but for the purposes of National Novel Writing Month, 50,000 words is a novel, and I'm over one-fifth of the way there. Heck, I'm nearly a quarter of the way there, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. And of course it helps if the 50,000 words all work together somehow, in some semblance of connection, as in with a plot and characters and scenes and whatnot, but it's not critical. I'm not worrying about these things. That's the whole point. It doesn't have to be good, it just has to be.

So I was sitting there in Barnes and Noble writing my novel, and I overheard some guy ask one of the employees this question: "Can you tell me how to get to Borders?" The B&N employee was pleasant, even almost like purposely outgoing and friendly. He gave good directions. And when the questioner walked away, the B&N employee said "thank you." Is that professionalism, or what? Is customer service supposed to serve the competition?

Posted 07:40 AM | life generally