Around the holidays, many people get what’s known as “seasonal depression.” I happen to be one of those people, however, I do have bouts of depression at other times as well. I have not been mentally present/focused in any aspect of my life right now, to be honest.
I am starting to break through and get back to being the self I like to be. I know other people are struggling more than I am and I hope they can fight it and recover, but I don’t want solely talk about this because there are plenty of blogs that have more helpful insight than I do.
So, to start off, I’ve always been a huge PC person, but secretly wanted to be an Apple girl.
My first Apple product was the iPod Classic. I still have it, though I have upgraded to a larger capacity one. If you have ever used one, I’m sure you’ve loved it. The battery life is amazing and it’s so easy to use. I have also had an iPod touch, but I wasn’t as big of a fan because it didn’t hold much, but I did use it. Now my fiance uses it for his car.
My next purchase was an iPhone 6. Did I intend to use it as a phone? No, not at all. I am a hardcore Android user, and always will be. I honestly got the iPhone because I had a beautiful case I wanted to use. It’s a beautiful case.
However, one thing I had not anticipated was that the crystals would fall off. After the second one fell off (luckily I was able to find them and superglue them back on), I chose to remove the case and use a different one. It’s now sitting with the rest of my rather large Elsa collection.
The next thing I bought was my Mid-2012 MacBook Pro. I happened to be looking on Facebook Marketplace and had seen someone selling one for about $400. James told me that it wasn’t worth it, so I looked on eBay. I found a listing where the person was asking $399 or best offer for the 13-inch MacBook Pro with 8gb of RAM and a 500GB Solid State Drive. We had offered $350 for it, but shortly afterward the listing was gone. We thought that the person had sold it, but within a few minutes it was up again! We discussed it and quickly decided it was worth the $399, so we bought it. I absolutely love it. It’s what I’m writing this blog on at the moment. I have my essential apps on it, like Photoshop, Word, and Calibre. I found a beautiful case for it (can you figure out what my favorite color is?):
Even though I mostly used my Mac because I fell in love with it, I still used my HP Envy laptop set up as a desktop. Not too long ago, I realized it was slowing down a LOT. James says it’s because it’s an HP, but it’s also rather old and bogged down with software.
Again, this came down to Facebook Marketplace. I have been looking at people selling iMacs because I have wanted an actual desktop to replace my laptop. I saw someone selling a 2013 iMac with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB harddrive for $380. It had been looked at by 130 people, so I figured it would be sold already. Messaging them, they had replied that it was still available. I asked if he would take $300 for it, figuring he would say no and we could negotiate a price. He came back saying that he would take it! I got so excited. I told him I would pick it up that night, and off we went. When I got there, he was still trying to wipe the harddrive, but an hour later it was in the back of my car.
Now it’s all set up, and I love it. I have my essential apps loaded onto it and a beautiful Degas painting as the background. I even have it so that my TV is a second monitor like I had with my HP.
I do have to say that I am loving the Apple products more and more. Even though they are older models, they run phenomenally. My only complaint is that a few of my games don’t work on them, but I figured that. The important games do work.
Now I just need to think of a name for the iMac. My HP was Lokey (Loki, but since it’s a computer, I made it key), my MacBook is Vlad (even with the flowery cover). I might go with Grigori, since it’s a rather badass name. Who knows. Any suggestions, guys?
Hey all, Jen here! Sorry that there haven’t been many posts the past few weeks. With the holidays, things got crazy. My parents came to visit from New Jersey and work has been nuts, but now we’re back!
We hope to publish “Uncovering the Phantom” soon. We want to have a few chapters finished before publishing so that if another hectic time happens, we have chapters available for you guys to read. So far it’s looking pretty good, and we hope that you guys will enjoy it.
We also hope to publish some book reviews soon. I just finished a good book called “The Architect of Song” by A.G. Howard. She had also written another book I really liked, called “Roseblood.” K. Leigh would know this book well, as she was the one who bought it for me. As far as book designs go, that has to be the second best book I’ve ever had.
I also did a bad and bought an expensive book. I had seen that Easton Press had published a Limited Edition Deluxe Illustrated copy of “The Phantom of the Opera,” signed by the artist. It’s absolutely beautiful, guys. There are 22k gold accents and it’s in a beautiful slipcover. I wanna open it and see all the beautiful illustrations, but we’re gonna get gloves first, so that I don’t ruin it. I will probably do a review once I get around to opening it.
So, I want to know what you guys want to see. Do you want more blog posts? More reviews? If reviews, are there specific ones you’d like to see? Just let us know! We love hearing from you guys.
I don’t know about you guys, but Christmas is always very stressful for me. It’s not so much the money aspect, though when I didn’t have a job I was upset at not being able to buy presents for people. My main stressor is trying to figure out presents.
See, the hard part is not only picking out the right present, but also figuring out if they might already have that item. For example, if someone collects the Funko Pop figurines, of course you want to buy them one to add to their collection. Then you’re faced with the dilemma of picking out one that they won’t have. If you get them a double, will they return the gift? I know that they could exchange it for one they don’t have, but then it’s just not the same.
Then you have the people who are impossible to shop for. My father, for example, is the hardest person to buy a gift for. If there’s something he wants, he buys it. It doesn’t matter if it’s near Christmas or in June. This year, we figured out a good present to buy which I know he doesn’t have but would like, but this is the exception, not the rule. Though if you asked him, the present he wants is for me to finish copy-editing his book (I’m working on it, Padre!).
I’ve even tried Googling gift ideas, but the lists usually have things that are insanely expensive. I love my friends, but if I bought them all of the expensive stuff that I want to buy them, I would only be able to buy for one person. They need to have lists that are for people on a budget.
Luckily, I just finished all of my Christmas shopping. I still have some gifts to make, as I do crochet and knitting, but the stressful part is over.
I want to hear from you guys. What do you do for those who are hard to shop for?
