This is a paper I wrote for my English class this session. It’s a narrative essay. I’m not the strongest writer but I thought this was a good first attempt. It’s also a story that means a lot to me personally and I’m not sure all my friends would have heard it before.

Making a Connection With Happiness

It was fall of 1998 and the beginning of the rainy season when I arrived in a very hot and humid airport on the northern shore of Lake Victoria in Uganda. Travelling with me was my beautiful bride of 3 months and a team of our friends from our local church. I came expecting to build an orphanage, to feel good about helping others and to experience a piece of African culture. Instead I left with a life lesson I will never forget, that regardless of our circumstance, happiness, true happiness, comes from making connections with the people around us.

After the blurry passing of the first day, burdened with sleep deprivation and jet lag I awoke on Monday morning, full of energy and ready to take on a new experience. This is when I met Godfrey. Godfrey was our driver, and for me, he soon become much, much more. Being the biggest person in our group I always sat in the front of the van we used for transportation. This meant I sat with Godfrey, and as we passed through the strange and chaotic streets of Kampala I would bombard my new friend with a deluge of questions. He taught me key phrases in Luganda, the local language, and pointed out points-of-interest and the history behind them. By the end of the second week, Godfrey and I were inseparable, often to the dismay of my wife. So it was on one particular Saturday that I had gone into the main shopping district in Kampala to walk around. The streets were as chaotic as ever, dirty diesel exhaust settled on pedestrians who scampered across the streets haphazardly, barely avoiding the traffic which did not brake or even slow for them. Distracted with the chaos around me, I forgot myself and stepped out into the road. In an instant Godfrey’s warm firm hand was on my shoulder pulling me back onto the sidewalk just as a van sped by in the exact spot my body had just occupied, I had looked the wrong way. As I turned to Godfrey I felt a surge of emotions, amongst them a really strong sense of happiness, and I knew, that the connection I had made with Godfrey had saved my life and changed me forever.

The team I arrived in Uganda with had been together for almost 8 months. We had done all sorts of training and team building and had grown close. We had experienced the beauty of the Ugandan countryside and it’s people, seen the ravaging effects of AIDS on a parentless generation of children and had been exposed to the devastating hangover of a ruthless military dictator. Despite experiencing all these things, it was the times spent together, in an old undecorated guesthouse on the edge of the city where true connection occurred. The impact of this time is remembered in friendships that were deepened 13,000 kilometres from home. Whether it was sharing a taste of home – a box of Kraft Dinner, encouraging our spiritual growth during a group bible study or the joint efforts in slaying the enormous cockroaches that descended upon us in the evening. It was the connections with my teammates, which provided the true happiness and lasting joy of my adventure.

There are memories in my life that bring an instant emotional response. The children of the Watoto Orphanage Project on the outskirts of Kampala are one of those memories. I would arrive at the orphanage site daily around 8:00AM and work throughout the day in the blistering heat and suffocating humidity. We would stop only briefly to eat lunch and would work again until 5:00PM when Godfrey would come to pick us up and take us back to our guesthouse. There was very little time for interaction. Over the almost 3 weeks that we were there, we slowly built a relationship with the children. Often at lunch they would come and watch me, stroking my white skin or grabbing my arm hair whenever I got close enough. It was a day like that, overcast and humid but stifling hot, that 5:00 came and Godfrey did not come. I had stopped working for the day and we had put our tools away. We waited near the road at the top of the site and the children joined us. I spoke in my broken Luganda and they responded in what English they knew. That’s when I saw the cutest little girl just staring at me; she was 7 or 8, had black braids down to her shoulders and wore the biggest smile I had ever seen. I motioned to her, “Would you like to play?” I asked. “Yes,” she replied with a rewarding smile. So I picked her up and threw her into the air as high as I could. Looks of fear and jubilation all mixed together crossed her face and when I caught her, she looked up at me with her deep brown eyes and asked, “Again?” Not only did I throw her up again, but also I tossed, wrestled and hugged the other 30 children who quickly formed a line at my feet. I realized in that moment, that black or white, rich or poor, Canadian or African, it is the need to love and be loved that binds us together.

My memories of Africa have faded. I don’t recall the rich greens, browns and reds of the coffee and tea fields like I once did. The memories of the bombed out schools are a muted reality and no longer seem as real to me. Pictures remind me of what I saw, but they do not bring me happiness. True happiness does not come from my African batik or my inflated sense of altruism. But rather, when I think of Godfrey, my teammates, or those children, and I remember the connections we made, my heart remembers. And I am happy.

- RoneTyne

Technorati Tags: orphanage, Watoto

So as I blogged about on November 22, I received my new iMac at the end of November. Things were moving along nicely about 6 or 7 days in when I began to notice a small flicker about 1/3 of the way down the screen. Once started it would get consistently worse until you either had to shut it down or restart. I put up with this for a few days while I did some research, and at the time there were just a few isolated reports of this problem with the new 27″ iMacs. So when I called Apple, they offered to replace it or I could take the system in to the nearest Apple Store (which is 60km away) and see if they could help. So not really wanting to send back the new machine I had waited so long for and was just starting to break in, I had tech support make me an appointment and I took in the machine two days later. (On a side note, if you search for “27″ iMac Screen Flickering” now, you will find a ton of reports and sites about it, as well as some videos on YouTube of the problem occurring)

Upon arriving at the Apple Store I was helped immediately and when it came time for my appointment I brought my gigantic box over to the counter and we started. I explained the problem and he turned on the iMac to see if he could duplicate the problem. For me, it had normally taken awhile before I would see flickering and it wasn’t happening every time I used it. As he put a full load on all 4 cores of the processor and tried to see if the stress of a full load would make the problem pop we talked about my options. As had been confirmed previously, because I had reported the problem so quickly I was within my 14 day return period, so I could return the machine for a full refund, get the machine replaced with a new one, or they could order in the parts and replace the logic board at the store. I was also told that if I got a replacement machine I would receive priority since I had a faulty machine. Since I’m not a huge fan of replacing major components in the first two weeks of a computers life, especially one that I paid a pretty penny for, and since, as these things seem to go, we couldn’t get the flickering to occur for the tech’s viewing pleasure, I decided to get a new machine. The disappointing part was that no, he couldn’t set that up, and no I couldn’t keep my existing machine, have the new one sent to the store and just come and swap it out. I had to come home, call Apple and book a return through them.

So the next morning, bright and early I got up and called Apple and initiated a return. How that works is that Apple marks the computer as being returned, they email you some shipping labels to be placed on your return box, and then you contact UPS to arrange to have the item sent back. You have 16 days to complete this. I was assured once again that I would receive priority as a replacement machine and that my order would be placed at the top of the queue to ensure a new machine was back out to me asap. They will not however start the process until UPS has scanned the shipment onto their truck for the return. This scan apparently gets uploaded to Apple and they can begin the magic on their end. So I boxed up my iMac, took it down to the UPS Store here in town. Made sure I had it there by 2:30 well before the afternoon UPS pickup and waited.

So the next day I checked my status, and the return still showed awaiting return, and the new machine was now showing on my web order as “Waiting To Be Produced” with and estimated ship date of Dec 19 and delivery of Dec 22. Now, I waited (with no problem) almost two weeks the first time to get my machine, then had if for a little over 10 days, and now was looking at a 22 day wait to get my replacement machine back, needless to say I was frustrated. But not wanting to be an impatient asshole who won’t wait let things take their course, I thought I would wait to see once the system got updated with the UPS scan if dates would change and things would be adjusted for this “priority shipment”. By the end of the next day nothing had changes so I called Apple again. I spoke with a really nice gentlemen, who listened to my whole story, apologized profusely for the troubles and went about seeing what he could do. He called 5 different departments while I patiently held, reporting back to me his progress as he went between calls trying to get my build date moved up. In the end, with much apology he assured me there was nothing he could do, that there was just not enough parts to fulfill the demand for machines and he had no other avenues to exhaust on my behalf. Frustrated but satisfied and thanked him and went on with my day.

Low and behold the next day I got an email from Apple asking me if I had been satisfied with my recent call to their support line, and that if I still had outstanding issues, to email back with my name, phone number and a time of day that I would like to receive a call back, and someone would call me. I did this, and much to my surprise, someone called. A very nice lady from Texas named Kristen. Now she did call me before I got home from work so she had left a number and extension to reach her at. I called her back on a Friday night, thanked her for her call and asked her to call me. So about 10:30 on Saturday morning Kristen called. We talked about the scenario, she assured me she would do everything she could to speed it along, but that in the end, there might be nothing she can do. She said she would keep me in the loop via email and apologized again and thanked me for my patience etc etc etc. I was going to leave it there when surprisingly she offered to make sure my replacement computer was sent express and refund me any shipping costs from the first shipment, and give me an Apple Online Store $150 dollar credit. I was very impressed that I hadn’t had to yell and scream or act like a bully to get offered any sort of compensation, and even more impressed that I didn’t have to even really ask for it, it was just sort of offered. I took her credit and goodwill and waited.

For the next week not much really happened and I had emailed her to let her know that the defective computer was still not showing returned on my web order, even though according to the UPS tracking information it had been delivered to the Apple Warehouse here in Canada. Again she called me, got all the pertinent details and updated the system manually. She said that she was monitoring my order and would let me know if anything happened.

As it turned out, not much happened until the 11th or 12th of December when my machine went from “Waiting To Be Produced” to “Waiting To Ship”. And finally on December 12th (half the time they originally said it was going to take) my replacement machine shipped. I followed it eagerly from China to Alaska to New Brunswick to Ontario to Alberta. And finally late on the 17th my replacement iMac arrived. Unfortunately due to Christmas I hadn’t had much of a chance to play with it the first couple of days and on the 19th I was putting it through it’s paces when I noticed a slight flicker. It only happened briefly, but it happened. So I sent this email on the 19th to Kristen;

“Hi Kristen,

I received my replacement iMac on Thursday night as per my previous email. This morning I started to see a flicker. It hasn’t come back yet, but I imagine that it is only a matter of time. Please advise whether I need to talk to you, or to tech support. One thing I won’t be doing is sending it back and waiting for a replacement. I would like Apple to send ANOTHER replacement and I will send this back when it arrives. Let me know if you can help with that. I feel really bad because you’ve been so awesome to me. But I don’t know what else to do…. Please help.”

Much to Kristen’s credit, she did call back on Monday morning to discuss and left a message for me to call her so we could make arrangements, and that she would definitely be able to accommodate my request etc etc. When I didn’t call her back right away she called again later that day to see if she could catch me. Unfortunately none of us were home yet and we missed her second call as well. That night Apple released a software patch that was supposed to fix the problem, as it turned out, the flickering was not a hardware or cooling problem but rather a software problem. Some upgraded firmware was supposed to do the trick. So when I came home from work on December 21st to find a message from Kristen letting me know about the patch and to try it and see if it works, I was delighted. Maybe I could have a working iMac without more headaches. As it turned out the patch seems to have worked, and (fingers crossed) I haven’t had any more problems since. I’ve been using Photoshop, Illustrator, iPhoto, iDVD, watching movies and playing WoW on my beautiful new iMac with nary a problem.

To wrap up, I think what Apple has had on their side for a very long time has been the reputation of putting out well designed, well manufactured work horses that just perform. That coupled with a packaging and unboxing experience second to none, I have come to expect a lot from Apple, in fact, when my iMac arrived the first time I was worse than a 5 year old on Christmas morning. But when the shit hit the fan with my iMac it really put my faith in Apple and their products to the test because when it comes to things I hate, being made to feel the fool is almost certainly right near the top. I’m also am not nearly as gooshy and fanboyish about my new iMac as I would have been had it worked from the beginning, and I’m going to be watching Apple a lot closer to see if maybe popularity has brought them back to earth a little bit and made them more like the Dell and HP’s of the world with their best days behind them. But one thing that keeps coming back to my mind is that in the end, Apple made it work, they were respectful, courteous and willing to help whenever I called and almost as importantly, they didn’t make me feel like I had to turn into the Incredible Hulk in order to get anywhere with them. So I leave with these questions and my answers, or at least my answers for right now.

Did having to get a very expensive machine replaced right off the hop take the shine and excitement off a purchase I was very much looking forward to? Why yes, yes it did.

Am I worried Apples popularity might be coming at the expense of their quality? I sure am, when you’re struggling to push millions of something out the door, there’s a sacrifice somewhere right?

Was the care and support I received better than any other help desk, or warranty support I’ve ever had before? It sure was.

Will I buy Apple again? Unless they go to shit, I most certainly will.

Will I recommend Apple to others? Yup, but I will also blog about my experiences as a cautionary tail.

If I could go back, knowing what was going to happen and save all the money I spent, and instead buy a spanky Windows 7 machine for half the price, would I? Nope, still wouldn’t do that.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iMac, Screen Flicker

So I made the plunge and got a tattoo. Something I had been thinking about for 12 years. The design is custom and incorporates different icons from my heritage. So it is a heraldic tattoo. It is still in progress, so here are some photos of the outline.

Technorati Tags: Tim Ashman, tattoo, Wise Guys Tattoo

So I received my new iMac on Thursday night. I was very impressed with the delivery. I ordered it originally on November 7, 2009 with Apple still stating that the new iMac’s (i5 and i7) would ship in November. So I waited, and waited and on the 14th I decided to upgrade my shipping to express so that when it shipped it would be quick, and boy was it. On the 15th the status moved to Prepared for Shipment and on the 16th it shipped from Shanghai. It then went to Anchorage, Louisville, Mississauga and Mount Hope. The morning of the 19th I saw that it was finally out of customs in Mount Hope and figured they would ship it to Calgary on that day and out to me the next. To my surprise, at 6:30 that night, my new iMac was on my doorstep!! Wow, 3 days to ship it across the globe, very nice. I quickly dismantled my computer area, went and picked up a new desk that I bought off my boss and proceeded to set it up. See pictures below:

Set up was a breeze, you literally pull two things out of the boxes and you’re ready to go. The iMac is boxed nicely and is quite impressive when you finally pull it out. With only one wire to connect (the power cord) set up is seconds. I hooked up my time capsule and modem and hid them at the back of the desk behind the behemoth of a screen and was ready to roll.

Once on it quickly reminded me to turn on my wireless mouse (which it then proceeded to recognize and connect within seconds), then reminded me to turn on my wireless keyboard (with pictures in case I was unaware of the location of the power button) and it connected immediately. I then went through 2 or 3 quick screens and it asked me if I would like to copy data from another Mac or Time Capsule to this Mac. Now in my opinion this is one of the greatest things Apple has done with OS X. I selected I would like to add information from my Time Capsule back up and it took me to a blank screen for devices to choose from. I hit the join button at the bottom to get my new iMac on my home Network and within seconds I was connected and my Time Capsule was now showing in my devices list. I selected Time Capsule and continue, then my Macbook drive back up and continue and then I got to a screen where it allowed me to choose which data I wanted to transfer from the Time Machine Backup. I transferred everything except the two kids profiles and voila. It whirled and twirled for a few minutes while it figured out the exact size of the data I wanted to copy, I confirmed that was okay and off it went. This step took about 4.5 hrs so I went to bed. When I awoke in the morning there was my new iMac, with my wife and I’s profile, all our email, dock settings, programs etc. What an awesome experience this has been, seamless, painless and quick. Loving my new Mac!!!!

- RoneTyne

Technorati Tags: Apple, iMac, unboxing

I can’t wait till my new iMac ships!!

Our family was in bad need of new computer, we have one MacBook that we all seem to fight over and a 5 or 6 year old PC that I tend to use in order to keep the peace with my wife. However despite all my tweaking, formatting and reinstalling the PC is nearing the end of it’s useable life. Most days it invokes the sailor version of my lexicon and leaves me frustrated and angry at the lack of productivity I experience when using our POC err PC.

So I decided to break down and order a new computer, but I think we’re going to be a PC free family soon, as I have been fully engulfed in Apple Fanboydom and have decided to convert our whole system over to Mac. So being as Apple came out with new iMacs a few weeks ago, I thought I would get an iMac. Below is a picture of what should be shipping to me later this month, with the stats that I ordered it with.

IMAC 27″/4850-512MB

With the following configuration:
PROCESSOR 065-9233 2.8GHZ QUAD-CORE INTEL CORE I7
MEMORY 065-9264 4GB 1066MHZ DDR3 SDRAM – 2X2GB
HARD DRIVE 065-9411 1TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE
GRAPHICS 065-8981 ATI RADEON HD 4850 512MB
OPTICAL DRIVE 065-9410 8X DOUBLE-LAYER SUPERDRIVE
MOUSE AM065-8412 APPLE MAGIC MOUSE-AM
APPLE KEYBOARD & USER’S GUIDE 065-9381 WL KYBD & USER’S GUIDE
COUNTRY KIT 065-8447 COUNTRY KIT,IMAC 27-INCH

MINI DISPLAYPORT TO DVI ADAPTER-INT

The Mini Display Port to DVI Adapter will also allow me to run my 24″ monitor along side the 27″ iMac =). A very handy feature for those of us who love having massive amounts of screen real estate!!! Stay tuned, I will be sure to post unboxing pictures when it arrives.

- RoneTyne

Technorati Tags: Apple, iMac