I'm a Mac

I know, I know... It's been weeks since my last post. I will concede that I am less inclined to do weekly blog postings now that I'm no longer working regularly in the field. My "interesting" experiences are fewer and farther between, and I get just as tired writing about grad school applications as I'm sure you all get reading about them. But I have more excuses this time round, and it all starts with a virus.

A couple weeks ago I was surfing the internet looking for replacement wheels for a dishwasher rack (don't ask) when my trusty, five-year-old Dell laptop sunk into protected mode and sent up notification of a viral infection, a dastardly rogue anti-spyware program that took control of my internet explorer, prevented access to task manager and my registry editor, and made a host of pop-up adds explode on screen. I went through the basics of removal, but to no avail. Not even my previously undefeated Symantec antivirus software could catch the culprit.

I spent three solid days doing everything I could think of to remove the malicious software, finally succeeding in regaining control of my internet and registry editor, so that I could at least use it to submit applications. But all the while the processing speed became slower, to the point where even opening up MS Word was taking nearly half an hour. That's when I saw the advertisement for Apple's Black Friday sale online.

I'd been planning on buying a new laptop before graduate school, sometime in the late spring or early summer, if I were to get accepted someplace. I knew I'd need a faster computer with a larger hard drive to handle the punishment of five or more years-worth of intense studying, report-writing, fact-checking, and online journal-researching. My long-in-the-tooth Dell may be able to keep up for a while, but the threat of it giving out at an inopportune moment and having to rush to try and save things/get a new computer set up all while keeping up with my studies was not a scenario I ever wanted to face. So a new laptop pre-grad school was already in the plan.

Of course, as is typical of my brain, I started thinking... If I was planning on getting a new one anyway, and there is a sale on Macs on Black Friday, and my Dell is struggling just to start, and I still haven't been able to get rid of the nasty virus, then why not now?

Well, the obvious answers to those questions would be a.) because you don't have a job and because it's almost Christmas and because it would be a huge expense, and b.) why wait? Of course, I chose answer b. The Dell had been good to me, but I wanted something with faster processing, better graphics, a larger hard drive, and better customer support. I didn't want to have to deal with antivirus software and system checks and, heaven forbid, another rogue anti-spyware program. Plus, Macs are sooooooooo cool! So I bought one.

So much for upgrading my DSLR. :(

And that, more than anything, is the biggest reason I haven't posted an entry here in several weeks. My Dell crashed and was more or less unusable, then I had to wait for my new Mac to be delivered, and then I had to port everything over and get accustomed to using it.

By the way, the Mac is awesome. I've been running it on battery power for the last three hours, listening to music, watching videos online, and writing up documents, and the gauge says there's still five hours left on the charge. It's fast, it's sleek, it's shiny, and it's incredibly intuitive. The controls take a while to get used to... some of the quick keys are different than on a PC, and the command button is used as opposed to the control button to do things like cut, copy, paste, etc. So it's taken me a few days to find the appropriate keys. But the touch pad is awesome. It recognizes how many fingers you're using and thus allows you to scroll, go back and forth between pages, rotate pictures, and open applications instantly. Very cool. And I've found Firefox to be head and shoulders above internet explorer.

So if you're thinking about getting a new computer, I highly recommend you go for a Mac.

Anyway.... It's been snowing here for the past few days. Not heavily, but enough to make the streets slick. It's been cold, too... down below zero at night with terrible wind chills. It's very pretty down here when it snows, and it's fun to watch the horses run and roll and play and become dusted with coats of white. Not much riding happens with the weather like this, but it's good to have a few days inside.

Watch-- now it will be 60 degrees and sunny on Christmas.

I've completed five of my six (planned) applications, the last of which, for U of New England Place, isn't due until January, although I'll likely try and finish it next week if I can. I'm so sick of applications I could vomit. I found Ivy League School's 1000-word limit challenging, but it was nothing compared to UC Somewhere Else's "4000 characters (including spaces)" restriction. How on earth am I supposed to tell UC Somewhere Else anything in 4000 characters (including spaces)?

Now comes the waiting game. I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Most schools make admissions decisions between February and March, although in some cases it may be as late as mid-April. If I'm a particularly good candidate I should hear sooner rather than later... Schools will often admit their first picks early (late January or early February), then wait until March before sending out the second batch of admissions letters to the rest.

If I'm really lucky, I might even get invited to go a visit a school sometime in January, almost a sure sign that the school is planning on admitting an applicant. If not, I may be on the ropes until April. Occasionally, schools with admit one group of students, wait until they find out how many students are planning on attending, then, at the last minute, admit a "reserve" group of students to fill any empty spots. This happened to my best friend last year, who applied to seven schools' mathematics programs. She was accepted to one school in early March, but didn't receive admissions decisions from several other schools until April, only a few days before the acceptance deadline (April 15th). This left little time for her to decide on a school, and more or less made it impossible for her to visit schools before choosing. No fun at all.

For most of the programs to which I've applied, the acceptance rate is on the order of 10% or less. So please, if you're up for it, think good thoughts about me getting into grad school. I'd really, really like to take my pick of places. Ivy League School, U Big City, UC Somewhere, UC Somewhere Else, U of New England Place, Yet Another UC... they'd all be good. Especially Ivy League School. Or U Big City. Or UC Somewhere. Yeah... one of those. C'mon grad schools! Accept me! Plus, think about how fun it would be for you to read an entry here about me getting accepted to School of My Choice! I would probably even add graphics and lots of these: !!!!!!! and these: :).