Magoo, the Mac and the Beast Master

Magoo
It seems Magoo has nine lives, which for this particular pooch is a pretty good thing! As you would know from the theme of my very latest scrapping, we've been facing losing our much loved, furry, four-legged companion, Max. 'The decision' had been made. We were awaiting confirmation from our 'family vet'. GB had organised time off work. Contact with the vet who will eventually come out to our home to euthanase Max had been made. Plans were underfoot. Our hearts were breaking. Then the sun started shining.

Last Wednesday and Thursday there was almost a hint of Spring in the air. That's how much the sun was shining here in Melbourne. You know those Winter days when there is barely a hint of a breeze and nary a cloud in the sky and you want to (and do) throw open the windows and doors despite the near Arctic temperature because you feel joy in your heart as the sun shines in all its glory? Well that's exactly what last Wednesday was like. Thursday ... a little more of a breeze but much the same.

On Wednesday we took Magoo for a  small country drive and picnic lunch and he basked in the warmth of the sun. I think he could feel the sun warming his weary, tired bones. We hadn't seen him as active as he was at our little picnic spot in days. He was enjoying life. Thursday saw him doing not one, but two, yes two, laps of the park on his daily walk. Again, he was enjoying life. Was this just a couple of good days in what had become a parade of bad days?

Our 'family vet' Simone gave us the answers on Thursday. Simone also told us about the 'deal breakers'. As per Simone's advice we're going to keep a diary of his health and good/bad days. Simone also agreed that it couldn't hurt to buy a 'doggie' electric blanket for his already sumptuous bed. Perhaps the warmth of those two days was a sign? Whatever the case 'the decision' has been thrown out with the trash. For now we hope to be able to 'nurse' Max through to some warm Spring weather when hopefully he'll start enjoying his garden again. For now, short of dressing him like the Michelen Man, we're keeping him rugged up and warm and all is well.

The Mac
Well it finally kicked up its heels and rolled over. It was bad enough when before the floors were replaced (doesn't that feel like yonks ago?!) that I was often getting the spinning death star; but when last week (very inconveniently I might add before Purple Pumpkin's first birthday sale!!) it suddenly just stopped altogether and on rebooting all I got was a grey screen with a tabbed folder containing a question mark, I knew that this was it. It was definitely time to make the time to take the Mac to the Mac Doctor for some fine tuning and upgrading. Little was I to know that it would turn out the hard drive had sh*t itself. LOL I'm not sure how else to put that!! Other Mac users will hear me when I say "thank god for my Time Machine"!! That and that the hard drive was covered under warranty so all I need to pay for is labour costs. ETA of the Mac's return? Mid next week I'm guessing. It will be a little delayed because I'm so technologically challenged I've no idea how to actually recover anything from the Time Machine LOL! But the very nice Mac Doctor agreed to recover and restore everything for me at no extra cost. Sigh ... aren't Mac people the best?!

So in the interim I'm suffering Mac withdrawals. I can't access any of my photos or documents. I can't download my camera. I can't play in PhotoShop. I can't print or scan. I can't surf online when I need a distraction to avoid what I should otherwise be doing. Fare thee well online shopping. I miss you eBay. I'm sorry my poor, neglected blog ...

The Beast Master
If I'm without my Mac then how am I posting this?? Good question. I'm in the process of taming the Beast Master!

GB is a PC gamer.  LOL is that the correct terminology???  I mean he is serious about his gaming and even more serious about his PC. It is a Beast (hence the name LOL!). Honest. The tower is huuuuuuge. The screen almost as big as our plasma TV. The keyboard is somewhere amongst a pile of joysticks, steering wheels, speakers and other paraphernalia. In fact GB is so serious about his gaming that not for us a PlayStation, Wii or XBox. Nope. Serious gamers only use their PCs ... apparently. GB loves his PC so much he even has it passworded (is that a word?) so that neither Magoo or myself can accidentally log into anything (like we would) and unintentionally (god forbid) delete something. So, LOL, you can imagine his horror when the Mac died and I declared he would have to share 'the Beast' with me!!!!

Let's face it. I'm a Mac user. I really didn't want to lower myself to using the Beast. But a girl's gotta access the Internet right?! I know I have a seriously good deal with Internet usage on my iPhone but if a girl's going to do what a girl needs to do then she needs more usage than even the best mobile plans. So we started off with GB creating another user on the Beast especially for me. He even went so far as to make it almost look like a Mac by installing Safari instead of Internet Explorer (or whatever it's called!) for me. Was the Beast Master weakening? I think he felt bad for me. But not so bad he didn't breathe down my neck every time I so much as looked at the Beast.

I started to feel bad for the Beast Master, kicking him off the Beast from time to time (and possibly far too frequently) to do my routine Internet 'stuff'. It's not like I didn't have ample opportunity to use the Beast when the Beast Master was at work. After all the Beast Master works shift work. If I wanted to check my emails before I go to bed and the Beast Master wasn't at home, then what was the problem right? But what about when the Beast Master was at home and it was the Gaming Hour? What was happening was blatant disregard on my behalf of the Gaming Hour and unreasonable insistence (again on my behalf) that I had to check my emails before going to bed because yes the world would end if I didn't.

(a)  When had I become so obsessive about checking my emails?
(b)  When had I become so selfish and unreasonable?
(c) Would the world really end if I didn't check my emails before going to bed?

So I backed off. Waaaaaay off. Then the weirdest thing happened. The Beast Master started asking me sweetly, generously, lovingly, "would I like to use the 'computer' (shock horror ... where had the Beast gone?!) to check my emails? To check what the girls were doing on ScrapChat? To check in on FaceBook? To bid on something on eBay?" Okay LOL that last one was a lie!!! There is no way the Beast Master would encourage me to bid on something on eBay!!!! The point is though, somehow, without any intent or manipulation on my behalf, I had started to tame the Beast Master.

I've heard it said that all a woman wants is for her man to cook dinner and give her a 'back rub with no expectations'.

Perhaps all a Beast Master wants is respect of the Gaming Hour and acknowledgement that he is, after all, the Master of the Beast ...