Have you ever been driving south on I-99 and as you come into downtown Seattle, wondered what the building on the left with the big SVC sign was? I did, but just recently found out it's a school for graphic design, web design, ad art direction and copywriting. It's called the School of Visual Concepts. After checking the school out online, I decided to take a couple courses. They have ten, five and one day classes available. What drew me in is that it's taught by people who are actively working in advertising and design, not regular full-time professors.

I just finished my first course, called Project Management for Design, which was taught by Matt Diefenbach of Turnstyle. Matt was a cool dude, both very knowledgeable and personable. Proving once again that it's a small world, upon chatting we discovered we had mutual friends. His presentation included a lot of work from Turnstyle, which seems like a great up and coming firm. Afterward I checked out their website and really love their design aesthetic/style.

The following are topics Matt covered:

> Writing great scope-of-work documents for design and advertising projects
> Getting buy-ins from project sponsors
> Writing creative briefs that are actually useful for designers and writers
> Setting up communication expectations for clients and co-workers
> Maintaining production schedules
> Successful client and team meetings
> Building relationships that lead to satisfied clients and more buisness

An interesting component was class participation and interaction. We had case studies where we worked in groups and shared our thoughts. I enjoyed the group activities, but in retrospect realize the quality of the course somewhat depends on the skill level of students in attendance. We had a good group that ranged from people working at agencies or internal creative and marketing teams at manufacturers.

Another highlight was finding out about Onehub.com. Be sure to check it out when you have time. It's a great alternative to using an FTP site to share files. I wish I would have used something like it with Nimbus. I could have just uploaded the webisode communication tools: banner ads, imagery, editorial, videos, link graphics, etc to Onehub.com and provided all the media and sponsors with their own login info. Would have saved me so much time. There are a lot of similar applications out there like Basecamp, but I really like the Onehub UI. Will be using it in the future.

Now that I've found my first course beneficial, it's time to sign up for more. Next will be Design and Build HTML Emails and Brand Strategy for Creatives. Eventually I may step up from one day classes to multiple, maybe some Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign stuff. I know the basics but am self taught and would love to be better. In another life I could be a graphic designer. Overall, I would highly recommend SVC. Maybe I'll see you there…

I found one more video I have to share with you. Remember the band OK Go? They did that viral YouTube music video on treadmills. Well, whether you like their music or not, you have to give it to them for their creativity. Apparently they had some sort of blockage from their record label, EMI, that wouldn't allow them to post the video on more sites than google. Some sort of profit sharing deal. Then State Farm came in and sponsored the video so the rest of the world could see it. State Farm really picked a good one. Check it out!

Have you seen the videos on Vimeo? Wow. I was just creating an account and uploading a bunch of videos for my portfolio, when I started having a look around. I could spend hours watching their content. Made me question if what I was uploading was worthy. I would compare MySpace to Facebook and YouTube to Vimeo. Vimeo is just such higher quality.

So this first video I'm embedding caught my eye because a lot of advertising right now is using the same effect. Where you shoot imagery so that it appears miniature. This is one of the coolest time lapses, shot in Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York. Be sure to go full-screen, it's that much better. This is called The Sandpit.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

This next video is for us nature lovers. It's an amazing film shot from May to November of 2009 in this guys fathers garden. Have some patience and watch the entire thing, as it builds throughout. Also be sure to go full-screen, it really does improve the viewing experience. Enjoy this film called My Fathers Garden.

My Father's Garden from Mirko Faienza on Vimeo.

While the rest of the country may be experiencing a blustery winter, springtime has hit the Pacific Northwest early. I could wear shorts if I didn't mind blinding bystanders with my pasty white legs. I mean it's well above normal winter temperatures. Even nature is confused, as it's mid-February and the flowers and trees are beginning to bloom. The bulbs in the flowerbed in my front yard have sprouted forth a good six inches.

I find it humorous how the term "global warming" is taken so literally by people. How they argue that because 3/4's of the country is getting snow that there can't be global warming. Wasn't it just last year that the East Coast experienced one of it's warmest winters? I remember news stories around christmas where New Yorkers were in their shorts, sunning themselves. They forget about they global warming symptom of wide temperature swings in either direction.

Anyway, before I get sidetracked on global warming, I have two little stories. First, upon driving home from the gym today, I was noticing the cherry trees starting to blossom. I parked on the side street and a nice woman said "hello." She asked if I would like a bouquet of cherry blossoms. I figured why not.

We got to chatting, I found out she was from the Netherlands, then moved to Canada and finally to Seattle. She's lived in my neighborhood for about a year and is trying to build the community. Apparently the area I live in is called ZooZoo? I always just tell people I live at the top of Fremont, sort of the Phinney Ridge neighborhood, but I'm guessing we get that name because we're right next to the Woodland Park Zoo. She is trying to get our community to interact more, sharing tools, services or something to that effect.

Not until later, did I recall her saying something about the fact she is going to try and generate income off of this service. At the time I was passively listening, while thinking about something else. I remember ending the conversation short, taking the cherry blossoms, saying "nice to meet you" and not offering any money. Crap, was the service of trimming the cherry tree, making bouquet's and offering them to people passing by, a way to "generate income" or a nice gesture? I'm hoping it was a nice gesture on a beautiful day, otherwise I must have looked like an ass. But don't they look nice by my bedside table?

I'm going to use the excuse that a kid came to the door this morning to sell magazines, then I gave money to the lady pan handling outside of the grocery store. Maybe by the time I got home and was offered the cherry blossoms, I just didn't think it would be for money? Getting hit up for money all the time in this poor economy may have desensitized me. When she offered, I just thought how nice this woman was to being doing this.

So the other story. I used to live with this wonderful woman named Sarah. She had an orchid that bloomed when we were roommates. She moved out a little more than two years ago and the orchid hasn't bloomed since. But wait! For the first time since she left, it's finally blossomed. The orchid flower is amazing. Have you ever looked at one closely? It is what people call, "a gift from nature."

I'm glad all those times when I thought maybe it was dead, that I should toss it, that I didn't. I think I'll try to take better care of it.

There is a knack to every business. There are communities of people that revolve around some very interesting things. Take people who are bargain hunters, treasure hunters or people who go to estate sales on the weekend. My grandfather passed away a few months ago and my family just had an estate sale, where we sold many of my grandparents belongings.

My grandparents were CPA's, so they had great records, including most original receipts and any appraisals. We hired Chelsea Estate Service to assist in pricing and cataloging everything in the townhouse. In truth, it's an emotional experience. Going through their belongings, picking out what items are special to you and taking them home. Since I have a small house, I don't have much room. I chose items that had more sentimental value.

So how the estate sale is run is rather interesting. First, there is an ad in the newspaper, then people go to Chelsea's for a number. This number reflects what order people can enter the house. Only 25 people are allowed inside at one time. The bottleneck seemed to be the cash register.

My job was to work the front door, handing out numbers and managing the flow of people inside and outside of the house. Oh, that and the community didn't want the street to be filled with cars, so I had to make sure nobody parked out in front. We got permission from the church up the street to use their parking. Lastly, when big purchases were made, I was the muscle to help get things to their vehicles.

Saturday morning there were about 35 people lined up outside the front door. We had about 10 or so people waiting to get in from when we started at 10:00am to about 1 o'clock. As the crowd became more manageable, I moved inside to check out the scene. Everything inside was priced to sell, but people still want to haggle. I didn't see it with my own eyes, but I'm fairly sure somebody took prices off items, just to ask and hope for a better deal in person.

Things I didn't even think about, people would come up and ask for a price. For example, to make it easier for my grandparents to get out of their leather couch, they put it up on wood blocks. A gentleman asked me for the blocks. How much? Um, let me check…

Many of the people were regulars and called each other by name. Or they would talk about seeing them later at the next estate sale, wether later in the day or a couple weekends from now.

The second day everything $75 dollars and under was half off. I was surprised to see many of the same faces the next day. They know the drill. Huge rush in the morning and things moved fast. I think they come on the first day, buy the "must haves" then come back the following day early for the half off sale.

What I enjoyed was talking with people who really wanted what they were buying. They'd want to know the history, who my grandparents were, what type of life they led. It's nice to know some items that have been cherished by my family will now be cherished by another.

I'm not totally done yet. A few big ticket items were left that I'm still currently trying to move. I have a Baldwin baby grand piano, a persian rug, an huge armoire, a dresser with end tables, a coffee table and a mirror. I have them posted on Craigslist. Next I'm going to post them on eBay.

We're in the process of painting the townhouse, which should be just about done, then new carpet goes in and finally the staging. The house will go on the market at the end of this month. It's amazing how much has to be done.

By no means am I a great cook, but I like to think I can hold my own. My main discipline is anything I can throw on the BBQ. Or according to my old roommate Mark, I can heat stuff up with the best of them. I also have my ten or so "go to" dishes when I need to impress, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Luckily for me, a friend of a friend has started a cooking class for men called ManCademy. As the copy states on the website, "it's a cooking class for the common man." Although I hate to think of myself as common, I'm seriously enjoying the classes. Since this is the first go around, it's men, women, married folk, couples and a few single people. I personally enjoy the coed aspect, but can see how it may be less intimidating for guys to be in an all guy class.

The chef or instructor is Chris Smith. His end goal would be to have a cooking show on the Food Network, but for now is honing his courses on some very willing ginny pigs. The first step will be putting together 10 classes and establish some paying students. I'm fortunate to have gotten in on the ground level.

So far we've had two classes, the first on knifes and appetizers and the second on utensils, salads and dressings. It's a great format because you first learn a universal cooking skill, like cutting technics or the basics to making any salad dressing, followed by making three specific items. The class has a great pace, where we first listen and learn, then watch Chris demonstrate, followed by breaking into groups and cooking.

The appetizers and wine during the three hour class also helps move things along. The other key is bringing tupperware, so you can take home what you put together during class. Last time I brought home a chicken caesar salad that I couldn't believe I made. Had to have been one of the best tasting salads I've ever made and it was just a caesar!!! All from scratch I'll have you know.

Lastly, Chris does a great job typing up the lesson plan, instructions and recipies. So far I have recreated two dishes at home to what I consider a success. They tasted great and reinforced the fact I am learning something.

Cooking should not be a chore but a fun activity you can share with your friends and family. I'm looking forward to the next installment of ManCademy.

Was cruising around some advertising sites today and came across this video on pleasefeedtheanimals.com. Upon viewing, I knew it was something good to share.

"The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging to a particular mood of happiness, but in allowing happiness to change its form without being disappointed by the change, for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up." - Charles L. Morgan

I'm generally a happy person. I like to think that I project a happy persona onto others and attack life in a fun manner. Much of my happiness has been from working in a career for which I have great passion and in experiencing success. But as I've gotten older, the success and career has yielded a dwindling return of happiness.

I have worked in the action sports industry for over a decade, mostly in wintersports, where I love skiing and being in the mountains. First at Helly Hansen, then K2 and lastly working for myself producing ski films and webisodes. I have been extremely fortunate. Yet somewhere in the last six months it lost its luster.

Part of it involves working from home. Now that has some serious perks, being my own boss, setting my own schedule, commuting from my bedroom to my home office and being able to go skiing whenever theres powder. It also has some negative aspects. I'm a very social person who enjoys personal interaction, that isn't being fulfilled via my cell phone or computer. I have grown to miss a dynamic, social work environment.

If you ask my parents or people who know me, I've been slow to mature. I've finally outgrown the wintersports industry. I found myself at premieres wanting younger people to be quiet, to stop talking to the person next to them and pay attention. To stop partying so much and get things done. It just made me feel old. A lot also has to do with it being a popularity contest, I think I became tired of trying to project "cool." I seem to place more value on substance than cool these days.

I could go on about the subtleties that brought me to this realization I was no longer happy doing what I was doing, but there is no reason to dwell on the past. Some friends have asked me why in the world I would ever stop what I was doing, but I'm much more interested in discussing what's next.

I'm shelving the G Brand, going to reorganize my life, get in better shape, update my resume, website and portfolio and then look for work at an Advertising Agency. It's going to take me a couple weeks to get everything organized, going through external hard drives and finding particular projects I want to showcase. Plus I have some ideas on how to freshen up this website, which I've done nothing to but blog since launching in October of 2006. This thing has gotten a bit stale.

Going to try and get back to blogging on a regular basis. It needs to become more habit than a chore.

You know, I figure it's a new year, actually a new decade… why not have a new decade resolution to better myself, continue learning and challenge myself in a new industry? To broaden my social network and experience new things. I have so much more I want to achieve in my life and career. The beautiful thing about life is that you can change whenever you want. Tomorrow is a new day with new possibilities waiting around the corner.

Making product videos can be difficult. It's hard to make them creative, entertaining and educational. Draplin and crew manage to make a cool one minute video to promote his different colors of Field Notes. Check it out:

Okay, so it doesn't hit on all three, but it wasn't supposed to be eductional. To order his goodness, go to fieldnotesbrand.com and to check out all the cool stuff Aaron has going on, check out DDC.

I am happy to announce that all my Apple products seem to be working properly again. I've done a few software updates, addressed my font book problem, updated my iPhone apps, contacts, iTunes, and organized all my files on external hard drives. I think I just had too much going on.

A warning to not so savvy design people, don't load all your fonts. I have a ton of fonts due to the different projects I've worked on. I started to update my InDesign portfolio file, but didn't have some old Helly Hansen or my own G Brand fonts activated. So I needed to re-link all the paths for imagery and re-activate the fonts. I used to use Extensis Suitcase, where you can have tons of different fonts for your typography needs, which allows the user to turn them off and on when you need them. Well, with my new MacBook Pro, I didn't have that software, so I just loaded all my fonts into the font book. It's slowed everything down, as I had thousands of fonts loading every time I opened an application.

The hard part is you can't just go back to a default setting, you have to delete font folders one by one. Yeah, slightly time consuming after loading a few thousand different types of fonts. Don't make the same mistake I did.

Anyway, now I'm all happy with my MacBook Pro and my whole Apple family of tech toys. I'm once again drinking from the Apple cool-aide.

As I get older, my body just isn't what it used to be. In 2006, I broke my back but have fully recovered. Occasionally my back still hurts from the injury, but I avoided the knife. I was in real bad shape for a while. Had numbness in my arm and couldn't make my calf muscle fire. But after lots of physical therapy, pilates, swimming, road biking and yoga, I got everything working again.

This summer I fell on my left shoulder, walking away with a level two AC joint sprain. It pretty much sucked, as I got taken out in the final minutes of a soccer game. Some dude took me out from behind, I flipped over, landing on my head and shoulder. It knocked my slightly unconscious, my shoulder was out of socket and I couldn't breath. I went to the Ballard hospital, got X-Rays, some painkillers and a sling.

Right when I was getting back to playing soccer again, BAM, I get taken out again, this time landing on my left shoulder. Same thing happens but not as bad. More of a slight AC joint shoulder sprain. I'm finally getting back to playing again but am doing so with pain. I just started physical therapy again to gain my strength back and try to keep the AC joint in the socket. My left shoulder has a rubbing and clicking to it that swells and hurts after skiing and playing soccer.

Sometimes it feels like I've been rehabbing my body my whole life. But the body continues to amaze me. It keeps healing and getting better. I have to slow down and take it easy to heal, where I usually gain weight and get fat, then I work myself back into shape. When I think back, to all my body has gone through, all the pounding and injuries, it is amazing I can even walk. The human body and what it can do...

So when the Bodies Exhibit came to Seattle, I thought I should check it out. If you go, you will be impressed by what you see and learn. The real life bodies that they have cut up and put on display are crazy. To think thats what's under our skin? Then as you go from body to body, you can read what different organs, glands and elements of the body do. If you pay $5 extra bucks, you can also get a audio handset that will tell you wants going on.

They have both male and female bodies, taking the viewer through the differences and functionality of each. There is also a breathtaking portion that goes over the miracle of life, how babies are conceived and shows fetuses in different stages. Appropriately, they have a warning posted before you enter this part of the exhibit. Some people could be offended with all the fetuses and babies in the womb.

Check out the website for when the exhibit comes to your town. You'll learn cool facts you can tell your friends like, "what's the biggest muscle in the body?" The buttocks. Oh, or "what muscle fires more often than any other?" The muscles in the eye. If you smoke, you can find inspiration to quit, as they show healthy lungs and lungs damaged by smoking. One pack of cigarettes takes three hours off your life.

Be good to your body and your body will be good to you.

It was cool to get the December issue of Freeskier in the mail recently. Look for it to hit newsstands in the next couple weeks. Props to Freeskier for taking a chance on their cover.

Sometime late in the summer, publisher Christopher Jerard had the idea to do an artistic cover painted by Eric Pollard. Within the publication would be a story on our film company written by Pep Fujas (edited by me and Freeskiers Matt Harvey). Pollard took a Chris O'Connell action image of himself and painted it, which as you can see from above turned out really well.

The back cover was another painting from Pollard for Dragon, featuring the Nimbus co-op goggle. Sponsors then ran creative of athletes featured in Nimbus, and in some instances did some co-branding. Nimbus ended up on the front/back cover, cover two/page three spread, an ad for our film Contrast, multiple sponsor ads, plus the story made it an issue I'll keep for the rest of my life.

Not sure how long Freeskier will have the story posted online, but if you want to check it out, click here.

I LOVE putting on events. All the organization, details, creating the buzz, stress leading up to the day of, sending out invites, VIP status, getting on the microphone, stoking the crowd and exhaustion afterward from giving it all you had is gratifying. The Triple Threat World Premiere was a huge undertaking but well worth the effort.

You never know how well an event will go, until the time comes. Nobody knows "what could have been" or how close things come to falling apart except for the people behind the scenes. To the viewer, unless there are blaring mistakes, the event happens just as planned. Especially a couple hours before, I get stressed wondering if anybody will show up.

So what is the Triple Threat? Well, it's supposed to be a three part experience: an art/photo exhibit, film showing and after party. We acquired some ski industry artwork and had action shots framed to be seen as consumers enter the different venues. Then we show two films, Contrast by Nimbus Independent, followed by PBP's Everyday Is A Saturday. Concluding with a dance party featuring two DJ's. We booked just over 50 shows in North America, all starting in Seattle at the King Cat Theater.

I want to share with you what went into making this event/tour happen. First, we have two film companies, with different branding and different sponsors that need to blend into consistent branded communication tools. I worked with a graphic designer at PBP on branding the Triple Threat Tour. We created a new logo, print ads, banner ads, posters, film tickets, VIP invites, web image slates, VIP badges, posters, etc. Can't say I was super excited with the overall creative. It was pretty busy and the colors were slightly off. I'm a fan of clean design with rich neutrals and crisp, accentual bright colors. As you can see from the event poster, the requirements required a lot of info and a logo circus.

We had a lot of people coming to the world premiere so we needed lodging. The next line item was booking hotels for media, sponsors and athletes. I got a great deal with Hotel Max, where most of our attendees stayed. The Triple Threat booked almost every room they had. The overflow and people on a tighter budget stayed at the Kings Inn. Both hotels were located just blocks from the King Cat.

Now for the hardest part of the event… I'm a big fan of the internet and it's ability to reach a large audience. There's no variable cost associated with reaching more consumers like there is with selling a dvd. So I felt we could generate some revenue off of streaming the event live. Then editing the footage and posting it on a microsite for the entire winter season. I contracted out Mobile Rider and Mountain Sports International(MSI) to make it happen. Mobile Rider to build an iFrame and microsite and MSI to come film and transmit the feed via satellite.

I averaged about four hours of sleep a night for about three weeks leading up to the event, beta testing the iFrame and microsite. Why? Well I'm a pretty organized and detailed oriented person. At first I advised against trying to pull this off due to start up costs and the short timeline we had to get things in place. We didn't actually decide to do the live internet stream until a month before. In retrospect, I could have used two to three months to plan this event, not three weeks.

It came close to not even happening. MSI was in Chile putting on another event, when a storm came in and whipped out the only road out. They were stuck. They just got back a couple days before our event. The initial plan was to tap into the King Cat's internet line. I went there and tested their upload speed, turns out the two block radius around the King Cat has old wiring. Not nearly fast enough to stream an event live. So we decided to bring all the satellite equipment and beam the feed. The trick is you need a clear path to the satellite, 180 degrees or South, at a 30 degree angle up across the skyline. Um, we're in downtown Seattle with a ton of skyscrapers? Amazingly there was an angle and it worked out.

We also had about half the normal budget required. This meant not flying out MSIs' regular film and grip crew, but instead having me find people here in or around Seattle. Granted we have two film companies, but all the crew wanted to walk the red carpet and be apart of the event instead of behind the camera. Luckily, I have a pretty good network and found the necessary people.

The event itself was pretty epic. We oversold the premiere, stuffed the theater well over capacity and the production side of the event worked out. It's amazing how things come together. The person responsible for scripting the event arrived with nothing, so Keith Carlsen from MSI and I put it together in a couple hours.

So getting athletes, sponsors and media in the right place at the right time can be like herding cats. We needed them to ride in the limo to the King Cat, walk the red carpet, talk to the talent and be filmed. So I threw down my credit card at the Sushi restaurant, The Red Finn in Hotel Max, and had open bar and sushi for two hours leading up to the event. Ouch, nothing like spending $2,500 and not getting to participate. But this way I could corral the right people at the right time into the limo and coordinate with the production crew at the venue.

It all worked. There was a huge crowd gathered outside, slapping high fives with athletes as they arrived. The talent managed to ask the right questions, the athletes responded correctly plugging their sponsors and projects, the stream worked, everything was live, the crowd cheered and everything went off.

My only regret was I didn't get to participate. I hoped that I could have ridden in the limo with the Nimbus Crew, been interviewed, etc. Instead I had to run around and produce the event. I've been the guy behind the scenes for so long, I don't know if I would have even known what to do in front of the camera. I did get up on stage when Nimbus was introduced and seeing all the people in the crowd was awesome. Tons of people getting posters signed and fighting for SWAG.

I am proud to say it was the biggest world premiere Poor Boyz or Nimbus has ever had, which isn't saying much for Nimbus as we've only been in business for 2 years, but for Poor Boyz it's been 15 years. All the sponsors, media and athletes raved about it. So when the dust settled, the event was a huge success. Every space of the King Cat was occupied by people. The Green Room (VIP room), the bar (which had flat screens showing what was going on in the theater) and even the aisles were packed with consumers.

I have to say a big thanks to the crew at Mobile Rider and Mountain Sports International. It wouldn't have been possible without their hard work on everything. They were extremely professional and a joy to work with.

I don't know how long the event will be available on the microsite, but if you want to check it out, click here. It's ten bucks. I will also post a bunch of images from the event in my gallery section when I have time.

Here's the tour teaser video we put together:

Triple Threat Tour Video Press Release from Gary Winberg on Vimeo.

So besides working for Nimbus Independent, I am working for another ski film company called Poor Boyz Productions (PBP). I feel the success of both film companies are inter-dependent, particularly the film tour we share. To acquire good non-endemic sponsors, these film companies need a successful 50 stop North American Tour.

So as the business manager, besides putting together the biz plan, doing media deals, PR, sponsorship contracts and adding a more aggressive digital aspect, I'm going to be focusing on the film tour. I am also going to try and execute an industry first, broadcast the World Premiere live, streamed on the internet. The two films are rather different from one another. Where Nimbus is more about trying to tell a story, PBP showcases incredible action from the previous season.

The new film is titled "Everyday Is A Saturday," where as a pro skier, each and everyday that they go skiing is like a Saturday to a consumer. Here's DVD box art:

Having seen the film already, I can tell you that there's some of the most amazing action that's been captured in years. Tanner Hall does a pretty good job narrating the majority of the movie, newcomer Dane Tudor shows his diversity ripping both big mountain and park. Then Tim Durtschi closes the movie with what I have to call stunt skiing. The bonk's of trees, spinning and flipping combinations are truly creative. Having seen most of the ski films for this winter season, I can say this one is the best. Here's the banger teaser:

Everyday Is A Saturday Trailer from Gary Winberg on Vimeo.

I'm not going to hide it, I have become a tech dude. Never thought I would get that into technology, computers and electronics but somewhere along the way Apple spoke to me. It all started when I had to make the switch for dealing with large image banks, video files and working with international ad agencies. Sometimes you just have to open Adobe Suite and adjust an image or layout yourself.

So years ago I made the switch from PC to Mac and have never looked back. Everything has been better since the switch. All the stuff you read and hear about has been true for me. No chronic blue screen or application crashes. Well, actually lately I have had a coupe applications shut down.

So I'm happy to announce I just gave my sister my old Powderbook G4 and my G5 tower and cinema display to a friend. Now sitting on my desk is a shinny new Macbook Pro 15" with the new 24" LED Display. I can't begin to tell you how nice it is having everything on one computer. Granted a few items are on external hard drives or my Time Capsule, but the new Macbook is more powerful and faster than my G5 was. Oh so nice. With compressing so many videos, I just needed something faster or I was going to lose any hair I have left.

But wait, I uploaded Snow Leopard and am having the first issues I've ever had with my Mac equipment? What the hell? The display on my 15" MacBook flickers ever so often. Just a quick black screen then right back. It happens more when my external monitor is plugged in but also when I'm just using the laptop by itself.

Then when the computer comes out of sleep mode, sometimes one of the monitors has a light blue tint. The color is all messed up? Where did this come from? The first time I've had problems with any of my Mac or Apple products. My faith has faltered.

Is Apple moving too quick? Are they getting too big and the quality is starting to suffer? I sure hope not and hopefully there will be an upgrade or patch to my situation soon. I may have to make an appointment with a Mac Genius at my local Apple store.