Freightoi

I got me a brand new 17” powerbook. The OS X experience is great so far. Setup is a snap. I was up and running on my wireless network with no fuss at all.

My one complaint is with the dev environment. Xcode is not all that slick. I must say there are many features in Visual Studio
that I’ve grown quite fond of and miss. Nothing I can not work around. But I feel as though I just bought a brand new leather jacket that I have yet to break in.

I studied german in college to fill out some ‘breadth’ requirements. I ended up taking three years of classes and hanging out with lots of native speakers. Many years later I can still speak enough of it to get fed at a restaurant or cast vulgar insults but that is about it.

I’ve purchased some instructional CD’s and am working through them. My neighbors are visiting from germany so I get to practice with them. I’ve gotten reasonably good at understanding commands given to children (they have a 4 year old son).

Still, I’d like to plot down into the middle of the language for a year or so so that I end up at least being functionaly fluent (i.e., able to communicate most any idea in a finite period of time w/o making so many errors that who ever is listening will think me an idiot).

I’m in the midst of a remodel and I’d really like to finish. The entire upstairs is down to studs. Contractors never show up on time and if one slips the others dependent on them slip twice as far.

For now I live in my basement with the rest of my family. Four folks living in two rooms pluss a bathroom.

No kitchen.

Lots of take out.