sweet hippos

[newmistakes]

If you or I found ourselves in Gabon today, specifically at the Loango National Park, we might see surfing hippos. It’s at this time of year that hippos apparently come out of the forest to swim in the ocean surf here. Nowhere else in the world can you see hippos, elephants, leopards and forest buffalo walking on a white sand beach by the ocean. It

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[schpydurx]

Just rub it in, why don'tchya?

Your trip will not be complete because you're not visiting me.

And while I don't have news as good as yours, I can tell you that on Father's Day, I dod order a 27" Retina 5K iMac with 32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a 4GB video card and a 4.0Ghz i7 that Turboboosts to 4.4Ghz. It should be here sometime next week, just in time for Independence Day.

I plan to stay home the day it is delivered working from home. If anyone asks why, I will tell them that I have ordered a mail order bride and have to sign for her when she arrives.

That won't be far from the truth.

[newmistakes]

So did you get your Retina thingo? It sounds uber high tech (although I'm obviously worried about your suggestion that is a mail order bride equivalent - ewww!! I'm worried about what you intend to do with it!!!)

[schpydurx]

I did get my 5K Retina iMac. It is quite uber high tech.

The reasons I compared it to a mail order bride is that I placed an order and paid a lot of money to have it shipped to me. I don't make the same kind of sweet love that I could make with a real mail order bride, but I do see and use it every day spending many hours in front of it, though that time hasn't really put the machine through its paces.

I bought pixie (that's what I call her) to replace my old, ailing, non-retina iMac. The load times are better because pixie doesn't have spinning platters. One of my informal, un-scientific tests showed pixie to be slower than previous machines, though I may have an explanation for it and need to run the test again after checking some parameters.

[newmistakes]

You have allayed my mail order bride analogy concerns and I am very grateful. I'm sorry your pixie is a little slow but if there is a good reason I'm sure that's okay then :)

[schpydurx]

Yeah, the test was playing Lords of the Real II, an old 1995 DOS-based game in a Windows XP VM. Given how many pixels are on the screen, it's possible that Windows XP just couldn't draw them fast enough, thus making the game feel slower than it has on other Macs I've tested it on when I first got them. It's also possible that I need to reinstalled VMWare Tools in that VM. And yet again it's possible that the particular chip in my machine just doesn't do virtualization well, though I'm not sure what would cause that to be the case.

[newmistakes]

You do realise that most of the technical information you imparted here is lost on me, don't you? :P

[schpydurx]

I like to think of this as a learning opportunity.

"She who hath ears to hear, let her hear what schpydurx saith unto her."

[newmistakes]

That quote sounds very bible-ish, although I have my doubts about you being mentioned in that text.

I'm on holiday and am therefore abstaining from any and all learning opportunities :)

[schpydurx]

Oh ye of little faith!

[newmistakes]

You're right - I'm very proud of my little faith too :)

[schpydurx]

I've thought about nudging you several times and try to coax a trip update out of you. Unfortunately, every time I've had that thought, I haven't been in front of my computer and didn't set a reminder on my phone to do so when I got back in front of one.

At least I know that you're alive and well based on the fact that you replied to my earlier comment. Or, at least, someone hacked your account and donned your writing style: what theoretically possible, I'm not sure that anyone would find enough value in pulling off such a laborious caper.

So, dear Jen, please do tell us how you trip is going, how much sex you've had, what you think about the bits of Canada and America you've seen thus far. We're all a-tittle!

[newmistakes]

Yes, there was a disappointing lack of nudges from you, T!

I'm not in Canada or America yet - I leave on Sunday. I don't plan to have any sex while away thanks very much. I'm not really a one night stand kind of person. I plan on updating about my trip on here. I got a new camera the other day and everything - I think I'm almost all set! And I suspect I'm more a-tittle than anyone else :)

[schpydurx]

I wasn't quite sure when you were leaving to come visit the civilized world. I know you did an itineraryish post, but I didn't recall there being exact dates.

I'd be curious to know if you're jet-lagged when you reach your first destination or if you're so full of energy and excitement that you don't feel the lag until much later.

[newmistakes]

The first time I went to Europe I felt jet-lagged. It took a few days in Vienna before I felt like myself again. But every trip since then has been surprisingly good, jet-lag-wise. I'm hoping this one will be too. Also, I'm going business class and have my own pod thingo with a mattress bed etc. so I'm hoping that takes care of a lot of the usual jet lag stuffo.

[schpydurx]

I won't make any promises, because every time i make a blogging promise, it usually falls through. Bu I did tell you in the past that I had gotten myself a treat and would post pics but never got around to it. (No, it's not pixie, but if you want to see her and you ask kindly enough, I can post a link to the unboxing pictures.)

I'll see if I can't get that posted before you leave, although the rest of my week until the weekend is pretty jammed-packed. (For instance, I have a 10 page paper that's due tonight I haven't even started on I've got another smaller writing assignment also due tonight that I haven't started on.) And I have to remember that you're 15 hours ahead of me and whatever treat I bought myself and took pictures of pales in comparison to the treat that you have bought for yourself and are about to indulge in for three months.

[newmistakes]

I can't make blogging promises for much the same reason.

Can I please see pixie??

I am taking a laptop with me on my travels so if you can't do it in the next few days it is not the end of the world :) Wow, why aren't you writing your paper, T??! You should get to it right now!!!

As for the comparative value/worth of things, that's all relative and therefore incomparable :) I've always found that it's sometimes the less expensive things that give me the most joy/pleasure and your "mail order bride" will undoubtedly bring you oodles of delight :D