Page 4 of 5

Posted on

Top Ten Reasons I Hate My MacBook Pro

Yesterday we discussed the Top Ten Reasons I Love my MacBook Pro and today, to be fair, we look at the darker side of the MacBook Pro in the definitive Top Ten List of Hates:

1. Heat: The 17-inch MacBook I have runs hot. Because the case is made of metal the heat goes directly from inside the machine to the case and outside right to your hands. I don’t mind the heat so much but, compared to my other Windows laptops made of plastic, I wonder if this burning MacBook metal is a better or worse sensation or if my wondering is merely being sensational.

2. Whine: It seems many MacBook Pros have an annoying high-pitched whine that Apple cannot seem to fix or even make it clear if they think the problem exists or not. I don’t mind the whine so much — many blame it on the new Intel chip in the MacBook Pros and Intel blames Apple and Apple says nothing — because I always have iTunes playing, the TV is on, the radio is turned up and my Vornado fans are blowing full blast. My poor cat, however, refuses to sit on my lap now. The whine hurts his ears and in a quiet room it hurts mine, too. I can’t imagine using this MacBook Pro in a library where quiet is the mandate of the day: I’d be tossed out on my dual-core.

Continue reading → Top Ten Reasons I Hate My MacBook Pro

Posted on

Underage Backstage at Barrymore’s Bar

Barrymore’s Bar in Lincoln, Nebraska is unique. It is located in the backstage area of what used to be the Stuart Theatre. You enter the bar through an alley. The bar entrance was the performer’s stage door when the theatre opened in 1929.

Barrymore’s was always dark and musky and smelling of sawdust and rope. The Stuart theatre is still a performance space with seats and a stage and on the other side of the fire curtain remains Barrymore’s — still backstage — and still thriving with life and ambition and still giving off a strange ambience of being someplace you don’t belong but were always meant to be in the end.

Barrymore’s is where the radio people I used to work with would hang out before, during and after work because the station was on the eighth floor of the same building. If I joined them during the day I always had a pop while those around me would slowly make their way into the slosh. One day my friends and I were hanging out downtown after school and we decided to go into Barrymore’s.

Barrymore’s was an upper class bar. It wasn’t like the bar troughs clotted along downtown where University of Nebraska-Lincoln students would head for the cheapest buzz they could find. The five of us sat down together at a tiny round table. The waitress came over and smiled and asked what we were drinking as she placed a cocktail napkin before each of us. She said drinking in such a way we knew she mean alcohol and not pop or water.

Continue reading → Underage Backstage at Barrymore’s Bar

Posted on

Raised On Radio

At 14-years-old I started in radio in Lincoln, Nebraska as the host of a weekly 10 minute interview show called Unique Youth. I would celebrate kids in the community who were making a positive difference in the lives of others.

Rick Alloway was my mentor and defender. Unique Youth aired on KFOR 1240 — the number one station in the city — and on their FM sister station X103 (now known as KFRX 102.7 after the advent of digital stereo tuners) at 5:30am Fridays.

I was quickly able to move up to weekend air shifts and I steadily worked in radio at KFOR and X103 as well as KLMS 1480 (the call letters at the time were pronounced “Kay-Elle-Aim-Esh-ah!” on air in an old-time classic boss jock performance) and KBHL FM. Later I added television to my resume when I became the teen movie critic on Kidding Around — with hostess Leta Powell Drake — for broadcast powerhouse KOLN/KGIN-TV and those stations had a coverage map the shape and size of the entire state of Nebraska.

Continue reading → Raised On Radio

Posted on

When Drowning is Not Good Enough

There have been rumors swirling since September 2005 that instead of evacuating bedridden hospital patients in the post-Hurricane Katrina aftermath, some doctors used lethal injections to euthanize patients who had previously signed DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) waivers.

Choosing not to leave behind those patients to the chance of a successful rescue or a certain death by starvation or drowning, the very doctors sworn to “First Do No Harm” shattered that covenant with a single plunge of a syringe. December 2, 2005, The Mercury News reported:

Authorities investigating whether hospital and nursing home patients were put out of their misery during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are testing as many as 100 of the dead for lethal doses of morphine or other such drugs. 

Continue reading → When Drowning is Not Good Enough

Posted on

No Safe Haven for Nixzmary

Nixzmary Brown is dead. Her stepfather accused her of eating his yogurt and her alleged punishment was her life in his hands.

Nixzmary Brown

Continue reading → No Safe Haven for Nixzmary

Posted on

Plunging into Death

Two Jersey City police officers, Shawn Carson and Robert Nguyen, were killed on Christmas night when they were called to the Lincoln Highway Bridge over the Hackensack River to help set up road flares to protect drivers from motoring off the middle of a unique “vertical-lift” bridge that had its safety features disabled by a truck crash two days earlier.

Repairs would take two weeks of intensive construction so during that time police officers were called in to shield the public from the dangers of the bridge as it was raised for boat traffic. Some call this kind of bridge an “elevator bridge” because the center of the bridge rises straight up into the sky to allow boat traffic to flow below. Maritime law requires preference be given to commerce boats over motorists. The bridge is raised only at the radio request of boats and not on a predictable schedule. There are no angled ramps to indicate the bridge deck is no longer fit for cars and trucks — the middle of the bridge just disappears up into thin air.

Lincoln Highway Bridge

Continue reading → Plunging into Death

Posted on

Why I Love Jack FM

Yesterday I had to find a new radio station to have on all day since Howard Stern is gone and his old station in New York plans to move from a classic rock format to all talk in January. I looked around all the radio choices and picked Jack FM on 101.1 (be careful if you click that link because you’ll be overwhelmed with loud audio) in New York because I’d heard a lot about the Jack-FM-Format-as-iPod experience.

 Jack FM logo

I love Jack FM because it feels programmed just for me. I get great variety and excellent songs. The “Jack” announcer is annoying and robotic but I listen for the music not for the talk.

Posted on

Why Howard Stern Will Fail

Today is Howard Stern’s last day on regular radio. In a few weeks he will disappear on satellite radio where you will have to pay to hear him. Howard is being paid $500 million over the next five years to fade away and that’s an offer that would be hard for anyone to turn down. I miss the early days when Howard was cutting-edge funny and was the hero of the ordinary person struggling to make it from one day to the next.

Continue reading → Why Howard Stern Will Fail

Posted on

Time and Tide

How long would you wait for someone to meet you?
You have no way to get in touch with the person while you are waiting.

Continue reading → Time and Tide

Posted on

Does Porn Rule or Ruin?

In the August 1, 2005 issue of Newsweek, the rise of Porn Podcasting is investigated:

Aug. 1 issue – Podcasting, that baby medium, is suddenly home to a lot of adult content. Introduced to a mainstream audience just last month, the technology — radiolike programming for your iPod — that was once the chaste province of “Geek News Central” and “Knitcast” is now reddening faces that sport those trademark white earbuds. “No matter what the technology is,” says Andrew Leyden, founder of podcastdirectory.com, “sex finds a way to get involved.”

Continue reading → Does Porn Rule or Ruin?