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Well, the 2004 Macworld Expo was yesterday and it was amazing. The keynote address was given by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He took time to reflect on the history of Apple and the Mac and then announced some new and upcoming products. I was most excited by their new application, GarageBand, which is part of the iLife suite. You kinda have to be a fan of audio production-related software to really appreciate it. It basically does all of the same things as a $300 application for around $25. It’s quite amazing. They had John Mayer out to help them demo it and that alone was pretty cool.

They also annouced the new iPod mini, which is a cheaper version of the iPod aimed at the high-end Flash MP3 Player market. People are a little unimpressed with the pricin structure of the iPod line, but I can see a niche for it in there. The basic problem people have is that the price is too close to a model that has 3 times the storage space. You can get the 4Gb iPod mini for $249, or you can get a 15Gb iPod for $299. Who knows how people will react to this…

They also announced a few other new items, but I was mostly interested in GarageBand. 🙂

There’s not a lot new going on right now either (why do I feel like I have to say that a lot on here…). Kristen’s getting into student teaching and spending a lot more time away from home as a result. I’m doing more work around the house to try to balance things out, and it’s going pretty well right now.

We’re getting very excited about the changes Kristen’s teaching job will bring to us when this Fall rolls around. We know that money isn’t important, but we’ve also been living a very tight lifestyle for a long time now and we’re ready for a change. Luckily we’ve had a lot of help from family, it’s been wonderful.

BSF is back in full swing again and I have a renewed interest. The lesson has been somewhat slow at points (at least compared to last years John study) and it was hard to keep going. However we’re now getting into the minor prophets and I’m enjoying it more and more.