Well, dear readers, I really thought I was going to have most of yesterday to myself, but then reality kicked in. Why reality kicked in when in has never done a damn thing to reality is anyone’s guess. I hate when reality kicks in and one of these days in is going to kick reality right back, right in the bum (mub, spelled backwards). I got up at nine and printed out some orders and answered some e-mails and by the time I finished it was almost ten-thirty. So, I went to do the long jog, but it was already so hot and actually quite smoggy, that I cut the long jog short and did only two miles, and even that was a slog. I got back, and began addressing packages. That little job ended up taking most of the afternoon. Mr. Wiring Man arrived about one and began his task of setting up a new receiver and rewiring everything. It was a big job because there were components that I didn’t want anymore, and I wanted positions changed and everything simpler. Plus, it had been over five years since he was last here, and everything was really dirty and dusty – so he completely cleaned and started from scratch. At three, I had to leave to do errands and have a bite to eat. Once back, I finished the packages and the Kritzerland helper attached postage to all of them, so come Tuesday all CDs will be shipped out. Meanwhile, I had to package and ship about fourteen orders. At about seven, Mr. Wiring Man was through and we tested the TV with the new receiver (all HDMI and other wiring now going through the receiver) and everything seemed to work except the digital outs on my ten-year-old CD burner – those seemed to have bitten the dust, although what the dust ever did to those to deserve being bitten is anyone’s guess. He then packed up and left and I watched the rest of a motion picture on Blu-Ray that I’d begun the night before. That motion picture was entitled 2001: A Space Odyssey. I don’t really need to dwell on the film itself – one either loves or doesn’t love it – there’s very little middle ground on this film. I saw it on its opening day in Hollywood, in 70mm and thought it one of the most mesmerizing and spectacular films I’d ever seen. But since the dawn of home video I haven’t much enjoyed the film when viewing it first on VHS, then laserdisc, then DVD, then special edition DVD. All those transfers just didn’t come close to the theater experience. Well, the Blu-Ray of 2001 is unbelievably beautiful – rock solid image, sharper than sharp with amazing detail, contrast, color, and sound (PCM). It’s so breathtaking at times that my mouth was literally agape. After it was over, I took it out and put in Wall-E to check out what its various and sundried sound options would sound like. Unfortunately, my Samsung BD player and my Samsung TV began having a spat of some sort – totally spazzing out. The player and TV are linked by something called BD Wise and Anynet and the player kept hiccupping and shutting down the TV and then the TV would come on again, and then the same thing would happen – over and over again. I put in Enchantment to see if that was okay, but it did the same damn thing, over and over again. I put in Zulu – same thing. I called Mr. Wiring Man and left him a rather annoyed message, telling him he had to come back and figure out what was going wrong – clearly something was amiss. The TV kept misreading what source we were in (HDMI 2 is what’s plugged in), and then the source just disappeared from the list, and it said Anynet was not recognizing the other equipment. I finally shut everything off, then turned everything back on. Whatever was causing the spazzout seemed to have gotten its act together, and I watched Zulu for about thirty minutes and all was working. Mr. Wiring Man will still come out if necessary, but hopefully that was a momentary thing. I just get nervous when everything is working perfectly and then suddenly things go haywire. I have a lot of new stuff to get used to using now – new remotes, new menus, new controls, new settings – and I don’t need any spazzing out, so begone spazzout, say I.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because with all this wiring and spazzing out, I feel wired right now.
Today, my friends, I can only tell you that I am not doing one bit of work. I am taking the day to watch DVDs, listen to CDs, and test out the receiver and TV and player to make sure everything continues to work perfectly perfect. I shall not entertain telephonic calls, shall answer only the most pressing of e-mails, and shall sit around the home environment like so much fish and rest up for a very busy week.
The casting of Nudie Musical continues apace and I’m happy to say that we have our Eunice – Sharon McNight, who did a wonderful job at our very first private reading. I hope to have other casting news in the next few days. The reading is coming up very quickly and I really have to get prepared for the staging of it.
This coming week is going to be very busy, but good busy. I have a meeting tomorrow with the charity people, and I have a bunch of other errands and whatnot to attend to. I have other meetings, probably a casting session, and, of course, shipping out a lot of CDs and prepping the next two releases, which must be announced and ready to go by June 1. Did I just say June 1? Did I just realize that May is over half over? Did it just occur to me that this YEAR is almost half over? And you wonder why I feel wired?
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (smog permitting – will not jog with smog), relax, watch motion pictures, and then, if I’m really feeling okay, I may mosey on over to the DGA to see the Star Trek movie. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I try to not be wired so I can get a good night’s sleep.