Goddess, I Am.

Since the release of the iPad was announced months ago, I have been dying to get one. That took a while because I finally decided (after changing my mind a gazillion times and after just as many sleepless nights) to wait for the 3G version. Not only that, I had to literally go through hell and high water just to get one from the US because I couldn’t wait for the local release.

To make a very, very, VERY long story short, I finally had my spanking new 16GB 3G iPad in my grubby hands on the second of July, hooray! I know, I know. That’s almost a full month ago. You’d think I would’ve sent out baby shower invitations in my excitement, but these days, I’ve got very little time to blog, let alone throw a shower for a gadget. (Not that I really would, but you get the picture.)

But I digress. Everyone, meet Agrippa.

Isn’t he gorgeous? ♥♥♥

For anyone who might be wondering why I’ve named my iPad ‘Agrippa’, here’s a little history lesson. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was the best friend and son-in-law of the Roman Emperor Augustus, also known as Octavian, which, incidentally, is the moniker I’ve given my Macbook Pro. Aside from the this little bit of history, Agrippa also happens to be one of my favorite Romans because he’s absolutely brilliant and kinda sexy, for a dead guy. Methinks I couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate name for the iPad.

Moving on, Agrippa is everything I absolutely wanted and needed. I’m not going to go into an in-depth review because the iPad is one of those gadgets that have been reviewed to death. But to sum up my entire iPad experience, all I could say is: “Agrippa, where have you been all my life?”

Much like my first born, Octavian, Agrippa also needs to be outfitted and accessorized. And I’ve been shopping for this gadget even before he got here. Here’s what he has . . . so far:

1. Hot pink Audio-Technica Onto headphones.

I love Onto headphones. I already have a perfectly good pair of white ones that I’ve been using for months, but when I saw this limited edition hot pink pair in an HMV in Singapore, I just could not resist. (I mean really, they’re black and hot pink!)

This baby sat patiently at the back of my closet for almost 3 months, just waiting for Agrippa. I had to keep it out of sight; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to resist it that long.

2. Pink leather folio case, an eBay find.

I love this case, I really do. Mostly due to the pink that its pink perfectly matches the pink on the headphones. (How girly does that sound???) Also, it has this really soft suede interior that’s really nice to the touch.

My only gripe about it is that it opens at the bottom and the iPad tends to slide out somewhat. I don’t use it as much now because it gets a bit uncomfortable. I wish it opened at the side, like a book, which is why I’m now trying to convince The Husband, my shopping police, to let me buy this and/or this. Still, the pink is breaking my heart.

3. Glittery iPad hard back case.

Trust me, it glitters. Those little white dots are actually little crystals, while the black base is faux leather. I found this in an obscure little shop in Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong. The little old lady selling it won’t give me a discount, so I walked away, thinking that I’ll find it cheaper elsewhere (like everything else in Hong Kong). I didn’t, so I had to go back the next day, tail between my legs, to get it. Thankfully, said little old lady wasn’t there because it was her husband’s day to mind the shop, tee hee.

4. Red leather sleeve from Powerpee.

This is my newest acquisition. Because I’ve started using the pink case less and less, I needed a sleeve that would fit both the iPad and its sparkling back case for whenever I go out. I belong to the PhilMUG forums, and this guy, Powerpee (aka Perry), came highly recommended.

I love, love, LOOOOVE this leather manila air sleeve! It’s so classy and soft, and it even smells good! And it fits the iPad with the back case perfectly, too, so it’s everything I wanted. I’m so happy that he had a red one left. It matches the glittery black case to a tee.

(I opted for red because The Husband was starting to look a bit sick from all the pink stuff lying around the house. I had to show mercy on the poor man!)

5. Wrapsol.

It doesn’t show, but Agrippa is completely wrapped – both front and back – in Wrapsol. This was rather pricey and I nearly balked, but it’s absolutely necessary. Now I rest easy, knowing that Agrippa is completely protected from scratches and from me, in general. Tee hee.

6. Apps and Books from iBooks.

There’s only one thing I can say about these nifty little things that make Agrippa an even happier iPad: they’re going to send me to the poorhouse. Strangely enough, it’s the free ones that are driving me nuts, like Harbor Master HD, a bunch of classics from iBooks and my newest acquisition, the Diablo-like Underworlds. Kill me now, please?

And it doesn’t end there – yet. I’m still waiting for The Mother to get me a Camera Connection Kit from Canada (because they’re still overpriced on eBay). And hopefully, The Husband will let me get another purrty folio case that actually opens the right way this time.

But on the bright side, that’s my gadget fix for the year. At least, I like to think so.

Yey! Meream tagged me again! And this was a particularly fun one, too. (Did I ever tell you that I love, love, LOVE tags?)

So here are the rules:

1. Post photos of 7 red things in your home.
2. Tag 7 people to do the tag.

My jewelry box, a Christmas present from mum

Octavian’s Case Logic sleeve

My M&M candy dispenser, a first date present from The Husband

(which may be yellow, if you wish to argue, but what the hell)

My favorite (and only) pair of Havaianas

(It’s quite grubby because I wore it to the bazaar.)

I actually have quite a lot of red shoes, but do not have a single red dress to go with them – just one of my life’s biggest mysteries.

My Sephora sleep mask (from eBay)

A stuffed rat dressed as Cupid, which I named Emile

I named him after the fat rat from Ratatouille, and he’s a Valentine’s Day present from The Husband.

Rose trinkets that a lovely girl named Kathy made for me

The clasp on the bracelet is broken, though. I dropped it in one of my clumsier moments.

Goodness, finding red stuff around the house was harder than I thought! And no, my current icky breakout of acne on neck (well, behind the ears, more like) do NOT count.

I love these photo tags because they give me an excuse to get Caesar out of his case and take photos, which I don’t – no, can’t – do often enough. Like Meream, I kinda want to do this again in other colors. Maybe I will.

I tag Chin, Maris, Kaye, Jen, Kaith, Kessa, and Maria. I hope these gals will enjoy this as much as I did.

Note: I now know how to make frames for my photos. Whoop-dee-doo!

It can’t be any fun being my laptop. I don’t spend my days surfing, or watching videos on YouTube, or even playing games on Facebook. All I do is work, work, and work some more. And don’t get me started on the amount of work I do. Let’s just say that in any given day, I have about 3 days’ worth of work to do IF I do everything manually. Fortunately for me, my boss loves buying me software, so most of my tasks are automated, which is definitely the only reason why I actually manage to do everything that I’m supposed to do every day.

Now, most of these software run on – surprise, surprise! – Windows. My darling Octavian, however, runs on Mac OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard). This means that to be able to run these software, I have to run Windows on a Macbook Pro somehow. One way to do is to install it in something called Boot Camp and choose Windows when I boot up Octavian . . . Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen! Running Windows on its own on a Macbook Pro is like playing a shitty VCD on a perfectly good Blu-ray player – it’s sacrilegious, to say the least.

So as an alternative, I’ve chosen to purchase a software called VMWare Fusion, and this is, by far, one of my best investments yet. VMWare Fusion allows me to run Windows as a virtual machine (I named it Lucius Cornelius Sulla, tee hee) so I won’t have to leave OS X to run Windows applications. This means that I’m actually running two computers simultaneously on one. Add the fact that I’m also running another half a dozen apps on the native OS X system, and I’ve got an extremely overworked laptop. Very few laptops will be able survive such a beating without crashing, and Octavian’s one of those – he’s never crashed once. Rather, he valiantly takes whatever demands I put to him without complaint. Yes, he’s a good boy, that’s why I love him to bits (no pun intended).

Octavian came with a 2GB DDR3 RAM, which was a big deal for me, considering the crap that I had to put up with before I bought my first Mac. Though it’s sufficient to run both my systems simultaneously, I do suffer lags every now and again, which is really a bit annoying when you’re trying to get things done yesterday. I knew a RAM upgrade to 4GB would take care of this, but since the DDR3 technology is fairly new, the chips weren’t readily available locally – and I felt that I had to purchase it from an authorized Apple store/service center to get their techs to install it for me. Unfortunately, there was a 2-month waiting list to order ‘em chips, plus it would be about twice the price of getting it from somewhere like TipidPC or eBay.

Now, for as long as I can remember, the guys at the PhilMUG forums have been insisting that a DIY RAM and hard-disk upgrade was as easy as pie. It’s so easy, in fact, that these sort of upgrades do not even void the warranty! I’ve been toying with the idea of doing it for the longest time. I’ve even watched videos of how it was done, and they all made it look so easy! I’ve always chickened out at the last minute, though. I don’t know what came over me this week, but I suddenly fancied that my poor Octavian was coming down with asthma from all the hard work (the real Octavian was asthmatic, after all) and that I needed to do a RAM upgrade stat! So I ordered a couple of 2GB Team Elite chips from a TipidPC seller, who came highly recommended from ‘em forum guys, on Tuesday. I paid P4,700 (about $100) for both chips plus shipping on the same day, and got confirmation that it was en route to Cebu.

The chips turned up the next day, Wednesday. The idea of opening up poor Octavian sickened me so much, though, that The Husband ended up doing it for me that afternoon. First, he tried to get the screws off with a really old #00 screwdriver that he found buried amidst his old junk. That didn’t really work – 3 of the screws won’t come off!

So we hurriedly took a trip to True Value in Ayala to get a new screwdriver and ended up with a set. This time, Octavian was successfully opened up. The Husband removed the old 1GB sticks and replaced ‘em with the new 2GB ones (there’s two of each). The process took no more than a couple of minutes. He then closed up Octavian, and I re-booted. To my horror, it showed that I only had 1GB of RAM from the 4GB I was expecting! I nearly cried. I did a test using memtest, and yep, there’s definitely only 1GB.

So The Husband opened up poor Octavian again, and sure enough, one of the chips was loose. He fiddled with them somewhat, and they were finally in nice and tight. I booted up Octavian again, and scarily enough, he only had 3GB! By this time, I was definitely in a panic. The Husband opened up Octavian again and removed the chips. We both checked if they were identical, and they were, right down to their 2GB DDR3 warranty stickers.

The Husband had the brilliant idea of trying to isolate problem. He installed just one chip, rebooted, and checked the system – definitely a 2GB. Off came Octavian’s back case yet again, and this time, he installed just the other chip. Lo and behold – it was a 1GB!

So it seemed that the problem was with that second chip. I thought it might have been mislabeled or something, but the guys on the forums believe it’s a faulty chip. I contacted the seller – who was really nice, by the way – and he asked me to send in the faulty chip yesterday so he can replace it. I thought he was going to wait until the chip got there before he sent me a new one so I was resigned to the fact that I’ll have to wait a couple more days, but no, he sent it straight away, the moment I confirmed that I’ve sent the faulty chip. I’m expecting it sometime today.

Right now, Octavian is running on 3GB RAM – the new, working 2GB chip and one of the original 1GB sticks. I have not experienced a single lag since, even when I’ve got Windows running, too. It takes a bit longer to start up (about 30 seconds), though, but that’s perfectly understandable. It’s the actual working time that matters to me, anyway, and a longer start-up time just means that I have more time to get breakfast ready.

With the favorable experience that I’ve had with the 3GB RAM so far, I can’t wait to see what the 4GB would be like! I’m getting stuff done even quicker than usual, too. A happy Octavian means a happy Mommy Iris.

Now, if only LBC would turn up with that chip already . . .

LBC turned up just as we were about to head to the mall to watch New Moon. Once again, Octavian was reopened, and in less than 2 minutes, he was sporting a spanking new 4GB RAM. (Check out the wallpaper. Cute, huh?)

I’ve blogged several times before that my sister designs and creates swimwear. She has since expanded to dresses. Pretty, pretty dresses. Dresses so pretty that you can’t help but look pretty, too.

I am normally a reluctant shopper when it comes to clothes. Getting me to buy a dress, or even a top from any shop would require a significant amount of arm-twisting and praises aplenty. For the past couple of weeks that the little shop’s been producing dresses, however, I’ve been shopping without even batting an eyelash. I’ve bought about 5 dresses and half a dozen swimsuits so far. They all look like I’ve been poured into them – they’re that gorgeous. Why, I didn’t even need my regular weight loss pill to make the frocks look flattering on me at all!

And it doesn’t look like the end of this newfound penchant for shopping is in sight. Is it because she’s my sister? Maybe . . . IF she gives me a discount. But she doesn’t, so I could happily shop from eBay, or Multiply, or any one of the cookie-cutter shops in Ayala or SM. Unfortunately, these shops – online or otherwise – are producing clothes that are less and less to my liking in style, quality, and price. My sister, a consummate shopper herself, has recognized the need for high quality, affordable clothes that actually fit and look good.

You don’t believe me? What can you say about these darlings?

I have this gorgeous number in orange!

She REFUSES to sell me these, says I’ve bought enough! (Right. Like that would stop me!)

I have this in mustard, and I’m DYING to go to the beach and wear it!

If you want to see more, visit Innuendo @ Facebook.

The more dresses you buy, the less I buy. That means you help me hold on to my money. Besides, you can’t let me be the only well-dressed gal in town. Where’s the justice in that?

Owning a Mac is like raising a child. It requires expense after expense, not necessarily because it demands it, but because you always want what’s best for it. I thought my darling Gaius was a handful, but really, it had absolutely nothing on Octavian.

Octavian, by the way, is the Macbook Pro that I upgraded to a month after I got Gaius. Yes, I managed to work up the courage to tell The Husband, and yes, I really couldn’t help myself. Octavian is, without a doubt, the best laptop I’ve ever owned, and I’m completely in love with him, almost to the point of altar-worship.

But I digress. In the 4 weeks that I’ve had Octavian, I’ve bought accessory after accessory. And because Octavian IS a fabulous 13.3-inch Macbook Pro – the first of his kind – most of them do not come cheap.

Here’s the rundown of, umm, ‘damages’ . . . so far:

1. A pretty pink Sumdex laptop bag – P1,850 (approximate $38).

Now, I had a perfectly good laptop bag that I bought for Gaius. I couldn’t bear the thought of Octavian getting a hand-me-down bag from Gaius, however, so I convinced myself that it was not padded enough for skinny, little Octavian (which it really was), and sold it to Chin, who I am hoping is perfectly happy with it.

2. A scarlet CaseLogic laptop sleeve with a fantastic flower detail – P1499 (approximately $30).

I wanted to give Octavian in all his aluminum glory extra protection; hence, the sleeve. Now, I am completely aware that one can buy a perfectly functional sleeve somewhere between P100 (CDR-King) and P899 (the plain CaseLogic ones – no pretty flowers!), and I really was all set to go for the latter. However, I took one look at the red one with the flower in SM, and my self-control ran off, never to be seen again.

From time to time, in the dead of night when it behooves me to take stock of my life, I find myself wondering whatever possessed me at that very moment. But then I take one look at the beautiful scarlet sleeve and how good Octavian looks in it, and all is right with the world once again. Oh, and did I mention it was reversible?

3. A screen protector – P950.

I know, I know. One can get a screen protector for P100 (again) from CDR-King. In fact, I did get one for Gaius. The problem was that it was a DIY install, and it was so badly done that I didn’t want to risk it again.

So off I went to Digital Walker (Digital Hub in some places) in SM Cyberzone where I get a cool 10% discount, simply because I’m a member of the PhilMUG (Philippine Mac Users Group) forums. (I also bought Octavian from them, and Charlie, the owner, gave me discount of almost P11,000, which was a lot more than the usual 10%!) The guy in charge of the Cebu store personally installed my screen protector, and he did it so well that you won’t even know it’s there! There isn’t a single bubble or speck of dust trapped between the protector and the screen itself. I’ve never seen such a stellar screen protector installation in my life!

4. A silicon keyboard protector – P500 (about $10).

My life revolves around my laptop since I work 16 to 20-hour days with nary a weekend free. I even take meals with Octavian on my lap, which makes a keyboard protector an absolute necessity, myself being a scatterbrained klutz.

Thankfully, I found a keyboard protector from China on eBay that’s been made especially for aluminum unibody Macbook Pros. It features black keys on see-through silicon, so Octavian’s keyboard still gets to glow in all its prettiness. Plus, I don’t have to worry about spills and crumbs anymore!

5. A trackpad protector ($9.99) and a pretty logo ($4.99).

It has always been my intention to keep Octavian as bare as the day he was born (or at least, the day he was bought), but when I discovered SkinStyler, my resolve literally flew out the window. After all, how can I resist the oh-so pretty Apple logo of old on Octavian, instead of the newer and oh-so generic white one?

The trackpad protector was a bit of an afterthought. I figured if I was getting something shipped all the way from Malaysia, I might as well make the most of it. I’m very happy how it turned out, though. I didn’t go for the more colorful designs, even when I was sorely tempted to do so, because I figured it’ll look all wrong on Octavian’s original color scheme. The logo is ostentatious enough as it is.

6. A cooling pad – P280.

Because I have so much to do all the time, poor Octavian has to work almost non-stop every day. If he was a Windows-running laptop, he probably would’ve died of sheer exhaustion by now!

But again, I digress. Octavian does tend to get really hot when I run OS X and Windows on VMWare Fusion simultaneously, and I figured he needed a bit of help. I was initially all set to get me a Belkin cooler (P1500), but I’ve been assured that any cooling pad will work just fine. And because I’ve already spent quite a lot in less than a month, I figured it can’t hurt to get a cheap one.

I got a nice, compact, foldable one from Global Village, and so far, I’m very happy with it – at least, until I saw the same cooler in pink at CDR-King. I can’t justify getting another one right now, though, especially with a reason as trivial as color, so I’m sticking to this boring black one for the moment.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Octavian’s expenses are coming to an end. Since I bought the cooling fan, I now need a flat surface to put it on when I’m working on the couch. I have my eyes set on something called the iLap, but I’ve been told there’s a P600 CDR-King version, so I’m going to check that out. Right now, I’m just using Octavian’s box, and it’s so unfashionable, not to mention uncomfortable.

I also want to upgrade Octavian’s measly 160GB hard drive to 500 GB because I’m downloading so many movies and it’s filling up fast. And oh, I want to upgrade my DDR3 RAM from 2GB to 4GB for no particular reason other than I can and it sounds like a good idea. And I will also want another bag or two down the line because one can’t have too many laptop bags, after all.

I swear, if Octavian can go horseback riding, I’ll gladly buy him breeches. Heck, I’ll even send him to college, if he wasn’t so smart already.

Really, with a Mac, who needs children?