Don't you just heart the movement in this? I came across this during my nightly browsing on Blogger, and it caught my attention immediately. The wind whipping through her hair, her trenchcoat fluttering forward... the colours. The lines kinda remind me of the drawings in a Dr. Suess book. This illustration is by The Boy. (Sigh. I wish I could be an illustrator. What a talent to have!).

MACINTOSH PLUS
"Announced in January 1986, the Mac Plus was the answer to complaints that the original Mac was not expandable. It doubled the ROM of the 512k from 64 KB to 128 KB, and increased the RAM to 1 MB (expandable to 4 MB). It was the first Mac to include a SCSI port, allowing for a variety of external peripherals, and was the first Mac to use the now familiar platinum case color (although it initially shipped in beige). The Mac Plus originally sold for $2,600, and was sold to educational markets as the Mac Plus ED." (photo credit: Personal Computing magazine, Dec. 1984)

I guess what's hit me over the head like a huge mallet this past Saturday at the She Wants Revenge show, is that i'm officially old, and i'm just an all-around cranky person. I'm like Oscar The Grouch, furrowing his brow and slamming his lid shut when someone attempts to engage him. It's not that I strive to be -- I just can't contain it in certain situations. I have zero patience for people, I think. Well, maybe it's people younger than me, and/or people less self-aware.

You see, the thought of having to stand through the whole set bummed me out from the get-go. I knew it was going to be a tight fit since it was sold-out. As per usual, one of the tallest guys in the venue planted himself directly in front of me, so I had to watch with my head all cocked to one side, which resulted in a stiff neck the next day, thank you. The same tall guy, his friend, and his girlfriend were all totally tanked and dancing wildly as if they had the room in the world to do so, and kept bumping me and stepping all over my gorgeous, super-pointy Nine West boots. The girl beside me was snapping pics left and right with her camera phone and immediately texting them to her friends with little messages like, "What do you think of this one?," and I just wanted to ask her WHY this live music and this band that she's apparently a big fan of, a mere 10 ft. away from us, was not entertainment enough for her. Can't one just be in the moment?

I was so hot, I thought I was going to collapse at one point. It was so loud, my ears were reverberating and I couldn't stop thinking about how great it would be to have earplugs. The lead singer indulged himself with an oration on the different types of audiences in Canada, reprimanding us that we were not enthusiastically clapping along with him, nor dancing enough. Well how am I going to clap, Justin, with my hands above my head when I can't move move an inch? If I could move an inch, I would... if for no other reason to get away from this guy who while gyrating madly against his girlfriend is essentially gyrating against me, too. How violating! And who would hold my fabulous black-leather-and buckles clutch, pray tell??? There's no strap! It's not gonna hold itself!

a/g says that to enjoy the concert experience, especially in such a cozy venue, one must be sufficiently drunk so as to be unaware of the other patrons. She may have a point there -- that's definitely a feasible strategy... but what if I don't want to be? Do I really have to? Can't everyone just respect their own space and keep within a reasonable perimeter and not flail around with limbs every-which-way, gyrating like animals? I mean, I enjoyed the performance in itself, believe it or not -- I did. I even enjoyed the two openers. Because I heart live music -- I do. I heart discovering new bands, and witnessing a show. But I'm just a grouch, I guess. I am. As much as I dislike admitting it. I'm no longer fun-loving and kick-my-heels-up cuz it's all all-about-me and my reckless abandon. But strangely (hypocritically?), if given the chance to go again, same venue, same band, same crowd, I would go. Because I love the SWR album. Because I love a night out. And I suspect that what I heart more than anything is to complain about being old and cranky. And a grouch. Hmn. Go figure. Now go away.

"In March 1985 Apple introduced the Enhanced IIe. It was identical in every aspect to the original IIe, the only difference being four socketed chips had been changed on the motherboard: 6502, CD and EF ROMs, and the Video ROM. Essentially, the Enhancement was to make the IIe more compatible with the Apple II+ and IIc models.

In January 1987 Apple introduced the Platinum IIe. Changes were mostly cosmetic and superficial, with the biggest difference being that the case color was changed from beige to the then standard platinum/grey color." (photo credit: AppleDesign)

CPU
CPU: SynerTek 65C02
CPU Speed: 1 MHz
FPU: none
Bus Speed: 1 MHz
Data Path: 8 bit
ROM: 16 kB
Onboard RAM: 64 kB
RAM slots: expansion via 1st slot
Maximum RAM: 128 k, with Extended 80 Columns Card
Expansion Slots: 8 proprietary

Video
Max Resolution: 40/80x24 text, 4-bit 40x48, 6 color 140x192, 4-bit 140x192, 1-bit 240x192, 1-bit 560x192

Storage
Floppy Drive: optional

Input/Output
Speaker: mono

Miscellaneous
Codename: LCA
Introduced: March 1985
Terminated: 1993

This byte of Apple's history from Wired's, "30 Years of Apple Products."

It's a "bouncy ball" that makes bouncy sounds as it bounces all over your desktop! It's located in the "Fun Zone" (and aptly so). You can change how it looks, and can even change the sounds it makes as it bounces hither and tither on your screen. (For the record, I did not choose the farting sound. I'm much too mature and sophisticated for that).

Here is a rare example of youth marketing gone right. Fuse TV got themselves a funky, "outside the box" web designer, and allowed the fun graphics, humour, and interactivity to convey their brand, rather than posting lengthy text descriptions with phrases like "cool" and "hot" to describe (at length) how "hip" and "edgey" they are. This site is loaded up with so many quirky and amusing goodies that I was barely aware of the fact that it's purpose is to promote FUSE TV!

"Introduced in September 1984, The Mac 512k was a Mac 128k with 384 kB more RAM. It sold for $3,195, and was replaced in April 1986 by the 512ke". (photo credit: John Greenleigh/Flipside Studios)