It’s been 3 weeks since I got my shiny new macbook in the mail. Even though I’m in a financial crisis as a result of buying the computer, I can’t say that I regret it. Like I mentioned before, I have been a mac fan for a few years now, one of the few mac fans that didn’t actually own a mac. So now that I finally have a mac, I can honestly say that I love macs even more. wow, that sounds really confusing when you read it back..oh well. I have found a few new programs for the mac that are absolutely amazing. The kind of programs that make you wonder why no one can ever write something so simple and applicable on the windows platform. The first is quicksilver. I had heard about this app before buying my macbook, but I had never used it. Quicksilver is basically an application launcher and real time search app. It indexes your entire computer, similar to spotlight, but it is much more intuitive and powerful than spotlight. For instance, instead of simply launching iTunes, it can actually browse your library right from the onscreen pop-up interface. You can also assign global triggers for any key combination that can control a variety of programs without having the programs focused. For example, I have assigned a trigger to skip to my next iTunes track, previous track, and play/pause. This is very useful, rather than having to maximize iTunes and change the track while you are in another program. To top it all off, the interface of quicksilver is absolutely beautiful, complete with smooth fading and slick graphics. Why can’t you do anything like this on the Windows platform??? The next app I discovered is Omni Outliner, which is bundled with OSX Tiger. This is an amazing program for taking notes in class. It is so much faster and smaller than using cumborsome Microsoft Word. It allows you to create a parent-child system of note taking, with incredible customizable features such as moving text around within the notes, coloring any notes, and creating infinite levels of hierarchy. It is really an amazing alternative to Word, which is outdated and incredibly slow because it isn’t written for the Intel based macs. Any student or professional should really check it out.

I’m sitting in Panera Bread right now writing this blog entry. There is a girl on the other side of the restaurant that is playing World of Warcraft on a small HP laptop. She has the complete getup, complete with the over the head earphones and the boom mic. I was sitting behind her while waiting for my food, watching her fly through the virtual world on the back of some sort of flying horse. I don’t want to seem sterotypical, but I found this interesting because she doesn’t quite fit the mold of the normal WoW gamer. I would have expected to find a geeky male huddled over the screen, barking orders into his microphone. It’s a rainy day here in SO ILL, it has been raining since early this morning, and it isn’t supposed to stop until after midnight. I am heading down to Cobden, Illinois tonight to attend a town meeting for my documentary project. I have scanned a few images, so check back to the photo side of the site tomorrow for some new pics. For all of you who are in the know….be warned, CWS has begun to take hold in Southern Illinois. It won’t be long until it reaches you as well.