A Muse's GuideFood, technology, yoga and music. . . is there anything else?

So after all the hassle of waiting to get my Macbook Pro (Zappy the Lappy) fixed, between the problems with the zapping, the bad optical drive, the kernel errors, the glitchy mouse after the replaced logic board, the problem has been solved.  Well, the problem with the old laptop has not been repaired or figured out, but yours truly ended up getting a brand new laptop replacement!

I am the proud new owner of a Macbook Pro 15″ laptop (still waiting to name it). Since the Apple store doesn’t keep any old stock in their store, I ended up getting the newer swankier version of the 15″ Macbook Pro!  It has a 7 hour battery life, lighter weight, and a little bit speedier too. Ahh, after all the stress and hassle of having a glitchy laptop, I now have a happy, faster laptop.

So happy that everything worked out in the end. Though the funny thing is, this laptop emits a small electrical charge (zap/buzz) off of its top case as well. I think I can live with that though. I am just happy to have a functional laptop, with all my files, so I can sit on my couch, curled up with a blankie, and mark papers in peace.

Cheers everyone, and have a great weekend.

Deanna

I have been dealing with the Apple Store (Pacific Centre) and the telephone Applecare support centre for the past few months, trying to get my laptop fixed.

It all started with my laptop zapping me when I was typing, and there was always a consistent buzzing feeling emanating from the top case.  I didn’t think anything of it until my keyboard started to become a little more violent with its zaps to my little finger tips (sometimes it actually hurt, and for my fingers that is saying something – I played piano for 2 decades).  So I took my macbook in to get fixed.  The guys at Apple were so cheerful and nice, and I had high hopes.  They replaced the topcase on my laptop, and sent me on my way.  Lo and behold, it did not fix the problem, and even worse, my trackpad was now totally wonky.  So another visit to the Apple store needed to be scheduled.  They then replaced the top case again, and this time the logic board.  Alas, after this fix, the laptop not only seemed to be a little “off”, it was having Kernel errors on a daily basis! I couldn’t win.

After consulting with the Applecare phone support, numerous troubleshooting strategies and testing and testing and did I mention testing, it seemed like the laptop just had a weird problem. So today @nachoman was nice of enough to take my laptop back over to the Apple Store to see what is to be done about it now.

Fingers are crossed that I either get a new replacement laptop or they can find the magical way of making my poor little laptop feel better.

I will keep you posted.

Deanna

Every time I end up at the Apple Store at Pacific Centre, I stand there in the sea of bright orange, light blue and dark blue shirts, that scurry around looking for their appointments to take care of.

Now that I have been there a few times, I know the drill:  Make an appointment a week in advance, show up 5 minutes early to said appointment, then wait for another 20-60 minutes for someone to call your name.  In the 20-60 minutes you wait for a blue shirt to call your name or walk up to you, you eagerly watch all the hustle and bustle around you, hoping somehow that things may be on time.

Typically, I end up finding out that there is an über long wait for my pre-scheduled appointment, and go shopping next door. (Ooh! H&M, Hollister Co, Miss Sixty and more!)

Today was lucky, I only waited 20 minutes. I have to say, either they are getting quicker and more expedient at their booking appointments, or they decided to hire more people to wear blue shirts.

I handed my precious MacbookPro over to the blue shirt guy, who is absolutely cheerful and awesome, and he tells me that I will have my computer back tomorrow as good as new.  I am skeptical, as this is what they told me last month, and not only did they not fix the problem, they made it worse.

(The problem with my MacbookPro: From day one, my laptop has zapped me. It gives me a continual buzzing feeling in my finger tips, though this is nothing new.  I also can reproduce an electrical charge to other objects and people when holding my laptop.  Well, @nachoman informed me that this was not normal, and since I wanted my laptop in ship shape for this term of marking papers, I took  my laptop in last month to get checked out)

I have never had any problems with my Macs over the years, yet this laptop has been giving me grief. Oh well! Alas, I will find out *fingers crossed* tomorrow if they are able to fix this shocking problem (har har!).

Not that you really need to know, but I will keep you updated on my laptop’s status.  As we all know that I am like a lost puppy without my laptop around, leashed to the desktop iMac in my home office.

Have a great evening.

Ciao

Deanna

I have been searching for the past couple months for a good pair of Noise Canceling Headphones. Not a pair of ear bud style ones, but a nice comfortable pair of ear-cupping anti-background noise headphones.

So the search began with trying on one of the most expensive headphones on the market, the Bose Quiet Comfort 15’s.  The 15’s are the newest Bose headphones on the market, and replacing the Bose Quiet Comfort 2’s.  I went over to the Bose Store at Pacific Centre, and tried on these thick cushy headphones, that seemed to just melt onto my head with the weight of a feather.  I turned on the sample music tracks provided by the wall mounted music player, and began to listen to some of the clearest audio I have ever heard.  The salesman for Bose stood beside me spouting off all the technical mumbo-jumbo about the headphones, yet all I wanted to do was listen to the music being played.  Turns out that noise-canceling was not activated just yet on the headphones, which is why I could still hear the salesman blabbering on.

Now, I am not one to just throw $350+ away for a pair of headphones that are simply comfortable and have good audio, I wanted to know what made these headphones so darn expensive.  So I asked. When the overly cheerful and almost robotic sales guy turned on the “Airplane Noise Simulation” of the cacophonous imitation of a jet engine taking off, I couldn’t really see how putting these headphones on would simply make the noise go away.  I doubt even my earplugs I use for travel or sleeping wouldn’t be able to mask the loud airplane racket emitting from the store’s speaker system.

I took the headphones, and put them on my ears only to be absolutely amazed.  The loud track that mimicked ambient sounds of a noisy airplane cabin no longer  rang through my head, nor could I even hear the salesman talking to me.  All I could hear was the gentle guitar strums and crooning of the folk singer on the mp3 playing on the sample audio track.  It was pure bliss!  How did I ever survive without a pair of these.

At a $350+ price tag, I of course wanted to think about this before purchasing these headphones.  Most noise-canceling headphones have a rechargable battery pack that clips into the headset, yet these Quiet Comfort 15’s take one AAA battery to power the noise-cancellation, which will only last about 30 hours worth of listening time.  Sadly, when the battery dies, so does the sound of the music or audio you are listening to.  On the other hand, it is a much better option to just pop in an easy to find AAA battery than have to bother to wait for your battery pack to charge, especially when you are on an 18+ hour flight with turbulence and crying babies around you.  The headset also comes with a handy-dandy carrying case, to protect it from getting broken (and to protect it from people like me, who toss a wide variety of heavy objects into my luggage, not being cognisant of what else I have in the bag).

I was very excited to get my very own headphones, and aye! there’s the rub; There were no Quiet Comfort 15s left in stock.  The store offered to sell me a pair of the Quiet Comfort 2s, and when they got the 15s in stock the store would call me, and I could then go through the hassle of returning the 2s and finally getting my hands on the 15s.  Well, that is simply too much of a hassle for me! I only go downtown once a month or so, and I wasn’t about to make a special trip just to return a set of headphones at a later and unknown date.

Since I now have what you may call a Gold Standard for what I expect out of a noise canceling over-the-ear headphone, I am now in pursuit of a pair of headphones that are comparable to the Bose QC15 headphones, that are in stock either online or in a store.

Wish me luck!

~Deanna