Bye Bye Blog

I have bad news.

Last night after having the most amazing night (a boat ride on the Bosphorus with friends followed by a motorcycle ride home), I came home to find my beloved Macbook (which is just got at the end of March) flashing the symbol of a folder with a big question mark. Upon subsequent restarting of the laptop, I've discovered that this is all it will do, although now it seems even the folder is gone, with only a white screen to greet me.

I don't know what happened to the computer. When I left for the evening, my roommate was using my computer to Skype her boyfriend in Russia. She swears that the screen froze while using Skype, and then that symbol appeared. I think there's gotta be more to the story than that, but I doubt I'll ever know what really happened.

I'm stuck in the faraway land where nobody seems to speak English (the Turks I mean), and Macintoshes aren't really the computer of choice here (it still is a PC world after all), so finding someone who can help me fix it seems a bit tough. I did visit the Apple store in Istinye Park Mall but that was a complete bust.

Being computerless makes me quite sad (thank you Dene for letting me use your laptop to write this!) as now I feel all alone over here without the support of my dear sister and everyone else back home.

I shall have to take a break from blogging until I can get this sorted out. Thanks so much for reading, and please do come back once I get everything working again. If you subscribe in a reader (such as Google Reader-- just type www.elventryst.blogspot.com in the subscribe field of your reader) you'll automatically get my posts.

I'll miss you guys tremendously!

xx,
elise

Happy Easter

"Washington Rabbit: 1911" via Shorpy

I had a quiet Easter. I woke up early and went to church with my family. Afterwards, we headed to Cracker Barrel for a nice, country lunch. I spend way too much time on my computer-- today I was composing a letter to my friend using this fun Apple application called Pages. It made my letter look like a newsletter with pictures and other elements. I love all of the wonderful things we can do on computers, although I daresay that I feel the need for power-- I really wish I had Photoshop and Illustrator. I learned those programs in college as part of my Apparel Design degree, and I must say that they really spoiled me.

This evening my brother and I went to the University of Delaware Trabant Center to watch the Oscar-nominated animated film Waltz with Bashir (nominee for Best Foreign Film). It is an Israeli documentary dealing with the war in Lebanon in 1982. Aside from my Lebanese friend, Farah, telling horror stories about that time in Beirut, I'm afraid this is a topic I don't know much about. My eyes have been opened a little wider, and now I will be turning to trusty Wikipedia to see what else I can learn on this subject.

Yesterday I went scouting for more vintage finds. I didn't come up with anything really amazing, but hopefully found some pieces that will fit in well in my store. Check back in a few days (probably in a week) for pictures of my new items and hopefully they'll be posted in the store soon!

On this day, I remember the Lord of the universe who died so that I might have eternal life. Thanks be to God for sending his son to die on the cross for us. He is Risen indeed!

XOXO,

Adam's Apple

A few months ago I reported how I accidentally tripped over my laptop cord while straightening up in anticipation of a new roommate during my sojourn in Miami, Florida. After a series of trips to the Apple store, I determined that my trusty laptop was unable to be fixed (it is a "vintage" mac-- being over five years old-- and the parts are hard to come by), and that I would have to buy a new one or do without.

So, I've pretty much done without. While I was in Miami, my roommate would lend me hers, and since being back in Delaware, I've been using my mother's Dell laptop. I looked at computers, but I kind of had my heart set on a Mac, and they were out of my price range.

Enter my friend, Adam. He works at a store in Manhattan that services Apple products. As it would so happen, they have laptops that they rent out to people while their own laptops are being serviced. After about fourteen months of use, these laptops are sold to make way for newer models. Adam got word that they were selling their stash of rental Macbooks-- a total of eight laptops that are only fourteen months old-- and he kindly called me. As you can imagine, the laptops flew off the shelves, and I was fortunate enough to claim the very last one as my own. The asking price? $500 plus tax. You can say that I got a steal!

I spent the day uploading photos and trying to figure out how this new guy works (it came preloaded with iLife and Microsoft Office, as well as a webcam and lots of fun programs). I feel like I'm starting over as well, since I've been using a PC since February-- it's amazing how quickly our brains forget.

Here's to a lot more posts now that I have my own computer!! Yippee!!!

Edit: I should add that without the help of my dear friends Matt and Corrie, and my sister, I wouldn't be using this laptop right. Matt and Corrie dropped it off for me while day tripping in Delaware from NYC and coordinated a rendezvous with my sister in order to drop it off. I have some of the best friends in the world!