All Things Elektronik

Well, I hate that. RMS - the software we use at work for the reservations - crashed, bringing my computer AND the update to my website I was working on with it. I had three big paragraphs written and now I have nothing. So from this point on, I an going to write my updates in UltraEdit and then copy it into the website when I have finished. This way, I can save frequently and minimize the loss of data if and when my computer goes belly up. Unfortunately this does nothing to bring back what I had already written, but I will try to recreate it as best I can.

I must say though that I am not a big fan of this heat we have been suffering lately. People were complaining that the summer was too cold, but not me - I’ll take 18˚ any day over this craziness. I feel supremely fortunate that the SUB is air conditioned and I am not melting at work - or I would not be pleased or alive. But I guess I have to sweat it out like everyone else - except that I think I am doing more than my fair share of sweating - but such is my nature. And as everyone says - It’s not the heat, but the humidity that will get you. So true, so true.

Well, I am in the market for a new computer. I guess “in the market” is not the right term. I would like to purchase a new computer if I had the money. Yes I know that my current computer is only a year old, and it is holding up as a fine machine, but I am not actually looking to replace it. I am actually looking to get a Mac. Yes that’s right, a mac. However, it turns out that Macs, like all high end computers, are quite expensive. If I had the money, I would likely get a Titanium Powerbook, but I would also like something with a Superdrive - which is a DVD-R burner. DVD-R is the format that is most likely (according to my research) to work in an actually DVD player. I might wait until the new Jaguar OS comes out (MacOS 10.2) - I mean, who wouldn’t want an OS called Jaguar. And before all of my friends decide that they don’t want to talk to me anymore, let me just say that as a designer, macs clearly have the upper hand - music creation, video editting, photos, graphics - you name it, the G4 processor is designed to handle that. And now that I do 90% of my development on borg, I really don’t see any large disadvantage to getting a mac.

I did end up going to Elektrik Dreams on Saturday. It ended up being held in Windsor. They had a (free) shuttle running to and from the event every hour for the whole time. I caught the 5pm shuttle which got me there at 6pm and I just chilled out for a bit, reading my book and enjoying the shade and a nice breeze. This was outside - essentially the parking lot, where a number of people had pitched tents. I would have enjoyed doing that, but only if I was with someone else, because otherwise, it would have been kind of boring.

It was about 7:15pm when I decided to go in and see what was going on. After an extensive bag check and a pat down, I made it through security with no problems. I wandered outside to where they had the music going. It was hot outside, which was to be expected and there weren’t that many people around and no one was dancing. So I sat there for a while, wishing that I had come with someone else. But the day passed and around 10pm they moved the music indoors to the exhibition center - and that is when things started to get really good. The music that is. Charife was the first to play at 10 and I don’t think I have ever heard trance that good at any point in my life. They also had a great laser show and the lighting was very good. I danced for a while, but it was still quite humid and I got really sweaty, really quickly. I was also wearing my sandals - not advisible. So I sat down and tried to cool off outside.

I started feeling really tired around 12:30am and I bought a can of juice - which unfortunately didn’t help. As one who doesn’t partake in the energy giving “products” which are available, I was forced to deal with the fact that I wasn’t going to last much longer. Funk Dub played some really good house, but I still preferred the trance from earlier. Just as I was leaving they said that one of the headliners: Paul Johnson wasn’t able to make it (I couldn’t hear why) and his label, Dust Trax had sent DJ Jackson (I think) to let loose with some hard Chicago house. He had just started at around 3am when I decided to leave. He was sounding pretty damn good too from what I heard, but I can’t enjoy the music if I’m asleep on the floor. :) So in all, I missed 5 hours of quite possibly the best music I have ever heard until this point, but I also did get to hear 5+ hours of it, so all things considered, not bad.

If I had to do it again, I would probably rest up at home until 8pm and catch the 9pm shuttle - arriving in time for the good music and then hopefully having enough energy to stay awake for the headliners. Or bring a car and a tent and have somewhere to sleep for a couple hours at some point to refresh myself.

And that is all I have to say for now. I’ll keep you up to date on the whole Mac thing if anything develops - which I doubt will be anytime soon. :)

Cheers, rhuvok