2007: Year of the Empty Bank Account

Before I get into too many details, I'd like to wish my readers a belated Merry Humbug and a Happy Hangover Day. I hope your last week has been filled with joy, fellowship, and lots of 'walking through the winter, drink in hand'.

The pillaging of the tree this year wasn't quite the cache as it has been in years past, though all I really asked for was clothes. I did however, brave the lineup at Visions on Boxing Day, and walked out with a 40" Samsung LCD high-definition television. I'll be feeling the pinch of that purchase when my January credit card bill arrives.

It has somewhat been a bit of a yearly tradition here at mcfro.blogspot.com that I take a few minutes on the first day of the new year to reflect what I accomplished this year, and what I would expect in the next 52 weeks to come.

Sifting through this year's posts, I have come to the early conclusion that I really didn't accomplish anything, given the astounding few number of posts there have been. I mean, there were at least three months were I didn't blog at all. Like I have said on here ad nauseum, I have been busy -- I've been lazy too, lethargic, exhausted, and unmotivated. It's all derived from worker burnout, and is a big reason why my New Year's resolution is to find a healthier work/life balance. Money can buy lots of things; but it can't buy sleep.

2007 got off to a very expensive start, as I quickly dropped four digits into a newer, faster, and larger iMac, which has, more or less, become a machine I use for audio production. Since the successful resurrection of my derelict iBook, I spend most of my web-surfing time on it instead of the desktop machine. Sure it's not the fastest, but it's good enough for most mundane tasks, and even runs a number of video games quite nicely. The laptop also keeps me out of the windowless basement, which ensures that I see more sunlight -- indispensable for someone like me who goes through mood wings and bouts of depression.

2007 continued with a string of large purchases, as in April I added a third drumset to my arsenal. Price is relative: though I got a great deal on the kit, I still paid a pretty penny for it. I have subsequently spent small sums over the course of the year for replacement parts and upgrades. The Canwoods have also seen a number of gigs already, so they are paying for themselves -- if they haven't already.

An expensive set of concert tickets allowed me to see the Police in concert in Edmonton. After paying for fuel, meals, accommodations, and toys, the trip escalated well into four digits, but it was worth every penny to see Stewart, Sting, And Summers together for the first time in nearly 25 years.

June also saw the most successful blog post on this site, ever. Skeet from medhatblog.com kindly linked to me from the website. Though it didn't elicit comments as I had hoped, it did generate scores of traffic -- over tenfold what I was accustomed to. It even increased my readership -- albeit temporarily. Had I continued blogging regularly, I may have managed to keep those readers, but they have since gone.

I guess this was where I really got lazy. Now that I was generating a great deal more traffic than I had been, I also felt increasing pressure to be delivering work of exceptional quality in order to maintain that readership. That was, to say the least a little daunting. In one hand, the site was beginning to become what I had wanted it to become (popular!). On the other hand, I didn't have the energy to invest the time and effort required to make this site what it was becoming. So I sat on my haunches and meditated on what I wanted to do with this site. The next thing I knew, nearly four months had passed, with nary a post on this site, and all my readers found other weblogs to be entertained by. Thus, the answer became clear -- I'll just write about my insignificant little life whenever I am inspired, and if readership increases, great. If they do not, that's still great too.

The first entry since my 'hiatus', was a review of Matthew Good's performance at Medicine Hat College this November. The posting also generated a fair amount of interest from readers across Canada, including a few views from Mr. Good himself. He didn't drop a note, but he left a trail of bread crumbs that said he had been here.

Musically, 2007 has been a year of transition and flux. The Savoys took an extra long vacation this year, and by the time the band got back together to prepare for this year, it became clear that the band would be falling apart. We have best intentions to continue in 2008, and we are currently auditioning a replacement for BG, which we should know in a week if he is the right guy -- or not.

Tung 'N' Groove also got out of our heads and onto the stage. It took a great deal of rehearsing, and a large number of hefty equipment purchases, but we are now gigging regularly, and continue to build a dedicated following. We have secured a number of dates for 2008, which will be posted on the band's website when I have both time and motivation.

I hope everyone's 2008 is a prosperous one. See you (hopefully) soon.

Dear Santa, er Steve

As it is getting closer and closer to that special day, I figured I had better write Santa Claus a letter and tell him what I would like for Christmas.

Though contrary to popular belief, Santa does not live at the north pole. He lives in Cupertino, California. And his first name isn't Santa. It's Steve.

Dear Steve:

It's MC Fro, and I have been especially good this year. I have never strayed from the fruit company, and continue to believe in the wondrous Macs and iPods you produce. I would like to tell you what I would like to see announced at the MacWorld Expo in San Fransisco this January: An ultra-thin 12" Widescreen MacBook Pro.

I would like to to have Intel Core 2 Duo processors, hopefully with a speed bump. If not, I would be very pleased with 2.16 or 2.33 GHz clock speeds. Even though the screen is 1" smaller than the Original MacBook, I would hope to see the same 1280 x 800 resolution, with support for monitor spanning, thus I could greatly expand my work surface by attaching a large flat-screen montior. I am going to need a lot of workspace on my screen while I finish up DH's solo album.

I require a minimum of 1 Gigabyte of RAM installed, because I will need to run Rosetta, and all the plugins I run while recording under Logic takes up a lot of RAM, so I would hope that RAM can be expanded to a high-capacity like 3-4 Gigs. I would like a high-capacity hard drive, perhaps 160 Gigabytes might be a good starting point. A dual-layer Superdrive would be acceptable to my needs.

A graphics card will absolutely be necessary, and I won't settle for the Intel-GMA 950 processor that steals my RAM. The ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB of RAM is the absolute minimum for my needs, but if you can fit 256 megabytes of RAM on it, I would be very pleased.

The built-in iSight camera is not necessary, but welcome. It is already included in all other MacBook models, so I would expect you would include one in this model as well.

Built-in Wireless technology is already included in all other MacBook models. I am looking forward to using Bluetooth 2.0 with an Apple Wireless Keyboard, and a wireless Mighty Mouse, then I wouldn't have to worry about using the 2 or 3 available USB 2.0 ports for my input peripherals. As for Airport-Extreme, I certainly hope it has the technology to support the 802.11n draft spec. The infra-red Front-Row remote is a cool gadget, and I would probably use it more than I think I normally would.

I know you will include at least Gigabit-Ethernet. I wouldn't expect any less, but it will certainly suit my needs when I need to hook up multiple computers to do all the heavy computer processing when I am mixing DH's album. This goes without saying, but I need firewire on this model. I know it might be a tall order, but if you can spare 2 firewire ports, It would make my life much easier.

The Magsafe power adapter is the coolest invention you have made for portable computers. Furthermore, I would hope all new form factors for your notebook computers will include a magnetic lid, which is present in your current MacBook. It's so much cleaner than having the hooks and release buttons. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about moving parts getting worn or breaking.

I would like to see a thin form factor, and an aluminum enclosure, a 3-speaker built-in sound system as which was present in the old 12" G4 Powerbooks. To keep things straight across the MacBook board, I would be ecstatic if it had that funky blue backlit keyboard.

I hope you can cram as much juice as possible into that thin battery, I sincerely hope I can get 6 hours of battery life out of this model. Weight is also an issue with me, as is portability. If this book could weight less than 5 pounds, I would be ecstatic.

A price point of about $1749 US.

I know I am being rather demanding about my specifications of this small, ultra-thin MacBook Pro. But I think if it were produced, everybody would drool over it. Anyone who had this book in a coffee shop would be the envy of everyone around. I know you and your elves are fantastic engineers, and I know you and your crew can produce something as wonderful as this. If I hear about this product this January at Macworld San Fransisco, my credit card will leap out of my wallet onto my desk like a spawning Salmon. I, of course, would have no objection to finding a pre-release model underneath the tree this Christmas morning.

Respectfully yours,

MC Fro