So, after a lot of adventures, Duke Fleed is here. I guess that the latin say "in nomen, omen", which basically means that every name hids a destiny, fits perfectly all the going.
But, I'm pretty happy with it! Apple is always obsessed by detail, and the MacBook Pro is definitely full of the Apple culture. And, no dead pixels to piss me off!
Tomorrow I will attend BarCamp in Turin. I will speak, with some friends, about the possible evolutions of the blogroll. Interesting, huh? Now that it comes to my mind, I could speak a bit about Vox!
Today should have been the day.
I mean the day I would have finally received Duke Fleed, my MacBook Pro. I have ordered it together with an int'l keyboard for my iMac.
After waiting almost all day, I had to go attending a lesson at the university, so I said my parents to get my laptop. But the courier presented himself only with the keyboard. My parents didn't know that I was waiting for two items, but still asked the man if there was another, since it was pretty clear that the laptop was not there.
He answered that it was the only pack he had to deliver, and my parents took it and immediately called me on my mobile.
I got back to check the situation: the packing list clearly stated that two package were to be delivered. So I called, really angry, both TNT (the courier in charge) and Apple. TNT said that they would have called me back, while Apple said that sometimes it happens, and not to worry for my MacBook Pro.
When TNT called back, they said the delivery man had just forgotten the second package, which will be sent back tomorrow. Impossible! It was written on the packing list, and my mother asked for a second pack. I think the delivery man deliberately tried to stole my laptop, but, since I immediately called TNT, came up with the "oh my god, I forgot" story.
I'm pissed off by the poor reliability of this courier, and of the delivery systems in my country. Absurd taxes, exasperating slowness and theft are making impossible to count on e-Commerce for shopping. I wonder if Voxers of other countries in Europe had same experiences, but, sadly, I think Italy is especially keen on this kind of behavior.
]]>Duke Fleed, my new MacBook Pro, is still in the making process.
At Apple say that it will be ready to ship on Monday the 20th. Nice!
But they expect I will receive it not before November the 29th.
Wow. Nine days is an awful lot of time for an express courier expedition!
I just can't wait.
Just for you to know.
Sometimes I suck. That's it.
This morning I was supposed to deliver an article for one of my university courses.
Since the teacher assigned this work yesterday in the evening, I suppose there was no big deal in delivering it a little later.
But I wanted to send it in time, I wanted to do too much. The article was written in about ten minutes. And obviously, it really sucked.
If only I had taken the necessary time...
Well, I definitely think my next mobile will be a Blackberry Pearl.
I've never had a RIM phone, and I'm pretty sure I won't use the push email function, which in Italy is sooo expensive.
But, boy, this phone is so darn sexy.
I'm. Going. Mad.
This morning I have to study something about how to build an e-learning course, and of course I need concentration.
But since ten o'clock a burglar alarm is making a horrible noise every ten seconds.
Any intellectual acttivity is just impossible.
Dammit!
So, I did it.
I was in need of a laptop computer to carry on my projects everywhere. So, I decided to use part of my relatives' generous gifts to buy it.
And today I've placed my order. It is a Macbook Pro 2,33 ghz with 160GB HD and international keyboard. I'm pretty used to italian keyboards, but I'm starting to think that, when it comes to write code and to use non-localized program (which I use a lot) the international one is a better choice. I wonder what will happen with accents, though.
So, my brand new mac is ordered. I hope not to have screen problems like dead pixels and so on. I'm pretty unlucky with dead pixels.
The little boy already has a name, and a customized HD icon. He will be named Duke Fleed, after the alien prince fallen on earth, from the Go Nagai anime series "Ufo Robot Grendizer".
Man, this year was great.
First of all, the convention was inside the city wall, in the old part of Lucca. We had an hotel very far away, in the middle of Garfagnana. It was simply astounding.
Then I met Douglas Meakin, Dave Sumners and Mike Fraser, which are the band singing most of the cartoon song i listened when I was a child.
As usual, Bishoonen were great, and I had a lot of fun listening to them and joking and jerking around the fair with them. I got just a comic book, this year I was far more interested in games (I bought a copy of Munchkin with the first two expansion pack) and in vinyl designer toys. I discovered a true love for vynil designer toys.
Most of them come in closed envelopes, so you can't know which one you'll get until you open the sealed box. They're great!
The last day was a real tour-de-force. I got a temperature, and Lucca was extremely crowded due to the cosplay competition. As you can see from the photos, there were a damn lot of people in cartoon character costumes. You may assume it's like carnival, but it's in fact a really different phenomenon. Dressing in such strange way is more an art performance, a way of give a love tribute to a character you admire. It's pretty interesting, from a sociological point of view, and less nerdy than you may think.
The return journey was really hard. Four days of cartoon madness, the illness and the sadness for the end made my driving really difficult. Can't wait for next year edition.
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