w00t! New black MacBook!

Lucky $@#%@*^! Merry Christmas at your apartment this year. Nifty but not quite as cool, I spy a Diebold sourced server keyboard on the desk too.

I'm guessing the consulting gig is working out well.

MacBook:
A bunch of people from Focaljet (a forum I've kept alive, secure, backed-up, and peppy for 6 years) pitched in. So it is, in fact, a Christmas present from I don't know, 100 people or so. And the guy who collected the funds won't give me a list of contributors, so some of them are pretty anonymous. If I get a list, though, I have a LOT of thank-you letters to write!

Job:
Well, interesting thing, that. Jon knows, but many do not, that I'm a consultant working on-site for one company, but getting paid by another company that does technical consulting. In practice, it's basically temp agency for analysts and IT gurus.

On the 20th, I found out that my contract was getting cut short (end of year) due to budget changes for '07. In a mad scramble I've applied for a bunch of positions. The project I'm on won't be done until April at the earliest, and I'm basically the only one working on the project (which is why they brought me on in the first place)

Well, I guess they company I'm on-site for is not just satisfied with my work, but actually FEAR losing me. They scrambled around looking for any way to get me on-board full time. From the looks of things, I'll probably have a week off for the first of the year, and then go back as an actual associate for the company I've been on-site at (thus, leaving the consulting company with awesome pay and not many traditional benefits, going to a stable career with so-so pay and great benefits)

So the consulting gig is undergoing eminent catastrophic failure, but there's a safety net that's waiting to catch me.

And yes, that's an actual diebold-branded mini keyboard and trackpad straight out of the dumpster from about a year ago. I'm pretty sure you were with me when I found it.

when you got the macbook, i assumed you took in the full fragrance of the new mac smell?  Take a BIG whif and smell the new plastic, of the best type of computer you can EVER buy. (meaning apple of course )

I have had new macs out of the box 4x.  2 of them weren't mine though :/ They were family computers.  But I have had 2 new iBooks within 1 1/2 Years.  First was my G3 900Mhz iBook, and the second was my (currently typing on) iBook 1.2Ghz G4, which apple gave me as a replacement for my old iBook which went in too many times.

New macs will last forever in your mind, I still remember the day when we got our performa 450.  I came home to find the box in the living room.  I unpacked it as the family gathered around to hear the chime  of it startup.

Those were the days when you had to backup your hard drive on over 100 Floppies, that would take all day.

Anyway, i wish luck to you and your Macbook.  Oh, and happy holidays to everyone on the forums!

Oh yes, I definitely took a whif. I acually let my wife extract it from the packaging, she wanted to. She noticed the smell first. Once the cherry was pop...eerrr power button was pressed, it was in my hands

My first 2 computers didn't have hard drives (both brand new, Timex Sinclair 1000 and Leading Edge 8088). We eventually added a 30 meg hard drive (lol) to the Leading Edge. The good ol' days.

Just love those black MacBooks!