WOOOO HOOOO !!!!!

Apple is replacing my problem-plagued PowerBook with a 17-inch MacBook Pro!!! YAY!!!!! :) :) Details later.

(Posted via cell phone using Flickr.)

P.S. The photo was taken at the festival Becky, Loyette and I were attending when I got the fateful voicemail from Apple. The expression on the caterpillar's face is roughly equivalent to the expression on my face when I heard the news. :)

UPDATE: Here is the voicemail message -- containing the best news I've received via voicemail since, oh, ever -- from Curtis at Apple:


MP3 File

(I've redacted the ending, since it included Curtis's direct-line phone number and my case number.)

Anyway: WHEEEEEE!!!!!!! Dude, I'm gettin' a MacBook Pro!!!

For the uninitiated, you can read about the evolution of my PowerBook problems in this blog category, or view the summation in my manifesto to Apple, which got the attention of the "God level" techs and led to this development.

If you're wondering what took so long to get this resolved, the bulk of the delay is my fault, not Apple's. I sent my "manifesto" in August 2007, and had my hard drive and motherboard replaced in September 2007, with the understanding that my computer would be replaced if the problems persisted. However, although the problems did indeed persist -- the same delays, crashes, etc., reappeared almost immediately, and only got worse with time -- I didn't contact Apple right away because I wanted first to organize my complaints into a coherent update on what was happening, but I was just never able to make the time to do that. First it was football season and Becky was pregnant and I had a new job; then we had a baby; then it was election time (and I still had a baby, and a job); then it was March Madness; etc., etc. So, for one reason and another -- but primarily because of the baby -- I got distracted and let my computer problems fester. Even so, I kept a detailed, if rather unorganized, log of everything that was (still) going wrong with the computer, so I'd have a paper trail when I finally bit the bullet and made the call.

Finally, a couple of months ago, I called Curtis and left a friendly voicemail explaining that things had never really improved, and that I had made detailed logs to prove it. I mentioned a couple of examples of the persistent problems, and asked whether we could move to the next step: replacement. I never heard back. Again, I let it fester. I finally called again in late July, after learning that my hard drive has an irreparable error, and left another message. Curtis's delay in responding to my two messages is apparently due to the "voicemail troubles" he referenced in his message today. But, again, the bulk of the long delay between September 2007 and August 2008 is my fault, not Apple's. If I'd been timelier and more persistent, this would have been resolved long ago. But as I explained to Curtis in my messages, the birth of my firstborn child caused me to be focused primarily on things other than my original "baby," the computer. :)

Anyway... you have no idea how happy I am right now. I was truly beginning to reach my wit's end with this computer. It had gotten to the point where there are some tasks I actually prefer doing on my Windows PC at work (!!). This particular computer really is just a lemon. Aside from all the crashes and bugs, it just seems SLOW. ALL. THE. TIME., like the very guts of the thing are sluggish. And it was unreliable; I could never trust that Safari, or iPhoto, or whatever app I was using, wouldn't randomly crash on me. I never had these kind of issues with my old 12-inch PowerBook (the one that got stolen in L.A. back in 2004), so I know it's nothing wrong with Macs generally -- on the contrary, I think Macs generally are great! -- nor is it unrealistic expectations or over-the-top demands on my part. This particular computer is just a bad egg, for whatever reason, and I'm thrilled to finally be able to replace it with something new and shiny. :) OMG! Yay!!