My current contracting gig allows me to work whatever hours/days I want. As long as the work gets done and you're available when needed, no one seems to mind. Kind of cool. I don't have to travel to an office everyday, so I get to save money on gas (which is good since the hourly rate is less than what I would prefer).
I knew I had to plan an out of state trip to visit my parents. But, not working means not getting paid. And, with the contract being short term, not working for 4 days or so seemed a bit much. My solution: buy a lap top. This way, I can travel, visit, and still work (which gives me something to do while at my parents house.). I'm hoping that my employer will be OK with this.
Well, really, what's the harm? My next assignment with them requires me to work with a team in Cork, Ireland. Will they really care where I'm sitting, physically?
I bought a MacBook Pro. I can set up a virtual machine so I can run all my Windows applications. And, at the same time, learn the Mac OS (because, it's just one more thing to add to my resume).
So far, the Apple Kool-Aid is not so tasty. :-) I'm a lifetime Windows user and the MAC OS baffles me. No, I don't find the UI very intuitive. I keep managing to end up with unwanted icons on my desktop and spending way too much time trying to make them go away. And, I wish the keyboard wasn't so high up on the device. I do have to get a mouse, since I just can't get the fine movement control that I need from the touchpad (I was trying to add items to the Dock and they kept ending up on the desktop. Which led to the frustrating exercise of getting the icons off the desktop. Still not sure how I managed to do that). And the online help, while attractive, isn't always accurate or useful. And, they could use a good editor.
Sigh. I'm sure that in the end, I'll grow to love my Mac. And I'm way overdue on the learning new techy things department. But right now, I tend to growl at my new machine.
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