Monster Soup

This isn’t Amanita. This is Madame Kamari. Amanita used to watch her mother when giving readings, and I like to think she’s playing a character based on her mother.

In other news (if you don’t follow me on Twitter), my Surface Pro 4 died. Was using it Monday and the screen froze. A little while later, it went black. None of the troubleshooting has helped, and even contacting support left me with little options. One suggestion was to go to the nearest Microsoft Store and have a “technician” look at it. The nearest Microsoft Store for me is in Dallas, 3 hours away. So that’s where I went yesterday. Ended up making it a day trip.

I arrived at the store right as they opened and was soon scheduled for an appointment. While I waited, I messed with the Surface Studio. Still a beautiful and nice screen, but the fact it is tied to a brick of a computer, if it dies, the screen is useless. I have read that there are plans for a monitor-only version set to be released in 2020, and from what I’ve been seeing online, many artists have been asking for this since the Surface Studio’s initial release. Any competition for Wacom is great in my opinion. Prices need to start dropping on these things. Speaking of prices…

My appointment starts off with me removing my sad Surface Pro 4 for its bag, a bag I carefully researched and compared to others before buying (I wanted the best to take care of my investment). The “technician” looks at my device and begins all the troubleshooting I’ve already done 50 times before. Nothing helps. Dead, dead, dead. It still gets power and can light up the Type Cover, but it won’t turn on. She then offers me some options, the same ones customer service gave me. Either buy a (used) replacement for $450, or purchase the lowest Surface Pro 6 at $899. I sat there, deciding what to do. This device was actually my third Surface Pro 4. The first one stopped registering the Type Cover. I sent that one in for a free replacement. The second one arrives with a screen defect. (Half of the screen is shaking and blurred.) They replace that one with the current one. It lasted for two years. The hardware warranty is one year. My luck so far with Microsoft Surface has been terrible. Do I take another chance? Hell no! I look at the person I came with and asked, “There’s an Apple store here, right? I want to look at those.” At the Apple store, I mess with some of the iPad Pros. I really love the Apple Pencil. So much better than the Surface Pen. But it’s not a full computer. Sure, I could run Clip Studio Paint on an iPad, but it’s a monthly subscription on that device. If it were a one-time payment, then I would have bought an iPad Pro on the spot. There are pros and cons with each device, and my mind kept bouncing over all of them. *sigh* So I returned home with my dead Surface Pro 4. I decided to save my money for the new desktop computer I’m planning to build. I will miss having a mobile art device, though, but it’s not a necessity.

I did manage to visit the Kinokuniya store in Plano, TX, something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. The store is smaller than I thought it would be, but it did have some traditional art supplies (painting and manga). I plan to visit the one in Carrollton next time I’m in Dallas (completely forgot about this one, and it’s a MUCH larger store).