What I've Learned in 2008

Esquire is my favorite magazine, and what first got me into the magazine is when I first read one of their "What I've Learned" interviews, where they interview prominent people about the things they've learned in life. So here's my "What I've Learned" in 2008, either through my own experiences or those of friends:

• Do what you want to do, not what you think you're supposed to do or what you think others want you to do. This has been a work in progress for me, as I used to fall into the trap of doing the latter. But this year I've made big strides in this department.


• When it comes to tough decisions, going with your heart can't be wrong.


• The best way I've found to de-stress or clear my head is with good music.


• Sleep is good. If you can make time for it, sleep more. My dad advocates 8.5 hrs—I've found that being closer to that number is better than being further.


• New York is the best city in the world. I've believed this for a while, but now that I'm over a year removed from being a resident, it rings even more true.


• Macs are better than PCs. I've had one of my most frustrating years as a PC user, and finally decided to give Macs a try. It was a good decision. (@MichaelMorrissey–this recent development has no bearing on our disagreements on Apple VS IBM in 5th/6th grade.)


• Always, ALWAYS firmly negotiate a price with a locksmith BEFORE he performs his services. Otherwise be prepared to hear an absurd number.


• When sick, just because you feel all better doesn't mean you're fully healthy yet. Take it slow.

Follow-up thoughts on being a Mac (1+ month in)

Just wanted to follow-up on my previous post with some things I forgot to mention and my impressions now that I've been using my MacBook Pro for over a month.

One of the biggest positives of OSX is no longer having the lame Flash bug I had on both Vista machines I was running. This annoying bug only played flash videos for 2 seconds and without sound. It effectively made it impossible to watch most online videos, including YouTube! It's amazing when things work as you expect them to.

The lack of a right-mouse button on the notebook itself hasn't been as bad since I use a USB mouse at work that has a right mouse-button that works fine (without any configuring on my part).

I was frustrated that tabbing with the keyboard seemed to always skip dropdown boxes. Thanks to writing this post, I forced myself to finally try figuring it out and a google search helped me find some help in changing this. I just activated it so haven't used it in normal browsing yet, but one thing i've noticed is that when tabbing to the dropdown box i don't seem to be able to expand the list of options, only cycle through them. Hopefully there's a way to do that, but i'm too tired to search for that answer right now.

All-and-all, i'm pretty surprised how quickly i adapted to using my MacBook Pro and OSX, and it's amazing how clunky PCs feel to me now. So far, the MacBook Pro has proven to be a more elegant machine, and OS X has not surprisingly been a far superior OS to Windows.

Learning to be a Mac

It's been about 2.5 weeks since i got my MacBook Pro for work, and so far i've been mighty impressed. As a quick background, i've been a PC user since i was 6, and a ThinkPad user for the past 11 years. I absolutely loved my T42 (running the stable and usable Windows XP). Last year i got an X61 running Vista Business and have been very disappointed. I love the form-factor and size of the X-series ThinkPads, but it was crashing constantly, among other issues. So when i got the choice of choosing a laptop for work, my decision wasn't too hard:

• ThinkPads are no longer IBM machines
• I've been punished by Microsoft for way too long already
• Most of the other people at work use MacBook Pros
• I was fairly clueless around Macs/OSX and felt kinda stupid as someone who's supposed to be relatively tech savvy
  

So how's it been so far? Pretty awesome. :)

The goods:

• It is so freakin' fast to boot up, sleep, wake. I remember my X61 took about 5 minutes to hibernate or resume.
• Its sleep mode is so impressively battery efficient (as Paul had told me before)
  
• OSX (10.5.5) is really stable. I've had one or two programs freeze up, but haven't had the whole OS freeze up on me (*cough*, Vista, *cough*).
• Most of the functions are fairly intuitive and logical once you know how to do them, and work really well (i.e.--scrolling using two fingers on the touch pad).
• Seems to be a short-cut key for everything (just need to learn them all; http://www.usingmac.com/2007/11/21/mac-os-x-leopard-200-productivity-booster-hotkeys is a great resource).
  
• Built-in iChat is so easy to use and performs pretty well.
• Beautiful bright screen, good speakers.
• No longer having to deal with Windows.
  

The not so goods:

• I still don't know whether to use control, option, or command when i want to skip to the beginning/end of a line or skip from word to word. I don't think it's even consistent among programs.
• No right-mouse button. Yes i can hold control while clicking, but it's so much slower.
  
• As people have said, the machine does get quite hot.

While i felt really strange about it when i first took my Macbook Pro out of its pretty packaging, i've quickly grown to love it, and to enjoy being among the increasing number of people who "are a Mac".

Sad day in Packers' history

What a tiring week for Packer fans. The anticipation and feeling of near-certainty that Brett Favre would be under center again in Green Bay quickly turning to a skipped heart-beat as Mike McCarthy (coach) and Favre's conversation dragged on and on. And then the dagger. McCarthy and Favre couldn't patch things up and move forward together. A couple of hours ago, it was announced that the Packers have traded Favre to the NY Jets.

While this might make "good business sense" in terms of planning for the future, that's about the only sense it makes. With McCarthy declaring as loudly as possible that the team has moved on with Aaron Rodgers as his starting QB, he drove a chasm between Favre and himself. A gaping hole so large that there was no way for it to be patched up at this point, especially with McCarthy having no intentions of doing so. So now you've put your team in a position where its chances of winning the Superbowl are less than they could have been. For the record, I do believe the Packers are a very good team and will do very well this year. But that's beside the point. In the end, all Favre wanted was a little appreciation. A little respect. After all that he's done for the franchise, I don't think that's asking very much.

I'm growing weary of sport management teams' egos and poor decision making ruining my love for my teams. Take Exhibit 1: James Dolan (owner) runs the Knicks into the gutter and keeps them there for years. Finally with GM Donnie Walsh and Coach Mike D'Antoni there's a ray of hope back at Madison Square Garden. Dolan's left an awful taste in my mouth that won't go away until his family sells the Knicks to new ownership.

I have the same feelings now toward McCarthy and Ted Thompson (GM). From the events of this past summer, they've struck me as extremely egotistical and stubborn. Yes, Favre might have caused their lives some difficulties by retiring and then wanting to unretire, but he's Brett Favre. He's the one that's given everything he had to the team for 16 seasons. He played hurt. He suffered concussions. He had personal tragedies, yet through it all he didn't miss a single game. And that's also the problem McCarthy and Thompson have. That he's Brett Favre, and everyone knew that the Packers were Brett Favre's team. Well congratulations to them. Now they can say it's Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson's team. And as long as that's the case, i'll have the same awful taste in my mouth, and have trouble fully embracing the Packers.

I'll still root for the green and gold, because McCarthy and Thompson will be but a blip in the Packers' storied history. But I'll always be rooting harder for Brett Favre.

Favre VS Packers

I'm sure a lot of people are tired of hearing about the Brett Favre/Green Bay Packers standoff. They must be, because as a fan of both Favre and the Packers, i'm getting pretty sick of how long this has dragged on. I'm posting my thoughts here, and then attempting to read no more about the situation until a resolution is reached.

Frankly, i'm disappointed in the Packers organization. Brett Favre poured his heart and soul into playing football and bringing prominence back to Titletown (Green Bay). For 16 seasons he never missed a game, brought them to the NFC conference championship game, to the Superbowl, and to a Superbowl victory. This is not how you treat your people, let alone a legend and iconic figure in your team's history. It may be different if Favre was hobbling along and no longer the player that he once was. But his performance last season proved that he is still one of the best QBs to have on the field.

Favre is not without blame. You can blame him for committing to retiring in early March and then changing his mind. But Packers' management should've been well-aware that no retirement decision is ever final, especially in sports, especially with atheletes who have been at the top of their sport, and especially with a fierce competitor like Brett Favre. Favre maybe should've left the media out of it and just filed for reinstatement and showed up for camp, before the Packers made statements of their commitment to Aaron Rodgers. Though this thought is just speculation, as i'm sure there's far more going on behind closed doors than most of us are aware of.

Sadly, i've come to the point where i'm fairly disgusted at the Packers management. All Favre wants to do is suit up and play the game that he loves. For the game and team he has never let down, despite encountering more personal tragedies than one person should have to endure.
If #4 isn't the starting QB for the Packers this fall, i just might retire from being a Packers fan. And i won't expect the Packers to plan for me to change my mind on that.