I need a new computer.

Posted on Monday, 23 August, 2010 by anmara

But which one???

My much loved Sony Vaio from 2004 with 500 MB RAM and 40 GB hard drive reaches nowadays its performance limit with blogging, emails, picture editing etc. And it is far too heavy to be carried around, plus it has no W-LAN either. However, it has a great screen which makes watching videos on it a real experience. That will be his future, I guess. Unless I find a way to upgrade it, but I am not sure if that works with that model.

So my criteria for buying a successor are:
– getting as much hard drive and RAM space as possible
– a bit smaller format, like 13,3 inch so that I can take it easier with me when traveling
– if possible a good screen (even the brand new Macbook Pro of the boyfriend does not give such a sharp picture)
– Budget? Well, depends – it is the value for money that counts, and if needed I can save up for it for a few months.

These two candidates I really, really like, but I cannot decide between them.

Number 1 – Macbook Pro 13-inch: 2.66GHz

Why?
– because it is a Mac and I like the Macbook Pro of the boyfriend a lot. I could live with one mainly for two reasons: It boots up and closes down fast, no antivirus malaki – and then I love the back-lit keyboard, so you still see letters when typing let’s say in a slightly dark conference room, or you simply don’t fancy switching on the light already on a late summer evening on the sofa at home. You could practically write in the dark.
– I chose this one above the slightly smaller one cos the price difference is not that much, and when I see how much more hard drive space and RAM is required since 2004, then I thought I rather go for the big version, hoping not to have to buy another one again for that reason in a few years. (Or is this reasoning wrong??)

Number 2 – Acer Aspire TimelineX 3820T

Why?
– Hardware capacity and performance comparable with the Macbook Pro above, if not better.
– supposedly a great screen
– Windows 7 allows still access to Office documents with no problem, and writing these
– Half price of the Mac (in that case the price does make me think…)

And being German, I just love this gorgeous video…. Listen to the voice and enjoy the probably best “Denglish” (German/English) product description I ever listened to. It is definitely the fastest (cut) one:

Please – if you do have any experiences, advice on these two or if you know about a third possibility I should consider, then let me know. I would be ever so grateful.

Slow wheelchair? Not anymore.

Posted on Friday, 20 August, 2010 by anmara

Would be really cool if this new vehicle would be available to everyone bound to a wheelchair – if one wants to be able to and physically could manage to go everywhere. Would be another step to more freedom and independence, thinks innocent me who has no experience with this whatsoever.

What do you think?

Who’s talking?

Posted on Thursday, 19 August, 2010 by anmara

This one was taken during a coffee break at Vadstena Castle.

For us it was simply fun because this type of bird (Eurasian Jackdaw) would just sit there, by the side of your coffee board and patiently wait for anything that might drop to the floor, or, more convenient for them, be thrown their way. If you would leave your table for just a few seconds, you can be sure they’ll thoroughly take care of the rests of your cake.

The other special skill of this bird is that it can learn to imitate noises like mobile ringtones or even the human voice.

So – who’s talking then??

A new blog baby is born!

Posted on Friday, 13 August, 2010 by anmara

One that will talk about two-wheeled adventures – only. It is called Elisatravels.com – Why that name? You may check that out yourself over there, please. On this note I’d like to give a special thanks to @Maex for his idea with name finding (“Take the name of your motorcycle!”).

An “About”-page and also the first two posts are online, lots more are being prepared by myself and by my beloved @Swedephotog. He is another motorcycle nerd who is sometimes worse than me in that respect.

Anyway – you have more of a choice now: Wha’ever or Elisatravels!

Hope you enjoy the read either way!

Jammin’ away!

Posted on Friday, 6 August, 2010 by anmara

Yes, I plead guilty. I did not update Wha’ever! for over a month now. Time to let you know I was on holidays, eh?

The motorcycle enthusiasts amongst you might be curious to know that there soon will be a new blog starting just with motorcycle posts. I will be running that one together with Swedephotog, who is equally crazy (if not worse) about two-wheelers.

Why we want to start a motorcycle blog? Well, somewhere we have to post the stories from this year’s 3-weeks-tour down to Northern Italy, don’t we?

Apart from enjoying a great summer tour on two wheels, there was a lot of jamming involved over the last week. Or making jam, to be precise. Redcurrant, blackcurrant, gooseberry, strawberries and all that sh..e 😉 . Very sticky, I tell you, but also very sweet – like a few other things in life. Just very different.

This year’s jam edition consists of:

– Redcurrant with Gooseberry and Whisky
– Redcurrant with Madeira
– Redcurrant with Cranberry Juice and vintage Vana Tallinn 45%
– Redcurrant with Cranberry Juice and Cognac
– Blackcurrant with Grappa (last years consumer’s favourite)
– Strawberry, raspberry, rhubarb, cranberry juice and vintage Vana Tallinn 45%

Raw ingredients in terms of fruits were:

4 kilos redcurrant
1 kilos blackcurrant
0.5 kilos gooseberry
0.5 kilos strawberries, raspberries
0.5 kilos rhubarb

resulting in in total over 30 glasses of jam.

“Sylt” (a lighter Swedish jam to have with i.e. pancakes) has to be added to this list with:

2 kilos redcurrant
0.2 kilos blackcurrant

All in all almost 9 kilos of fruit. Good that I did not think about all this while dealing with it 😉 . But the results are just heavenly – especially when you can enjoy them later on a dark winter night, bringing back memories from that summer… Or so.

Some samples of this year’s range: