Well, dear readers, the computer has come home, and, in fact, I am writing these here notes on it so it’s obviously working. I am in Big Sur – not the place but the operating system. As regards that, everything seems to be working fine. The thing I was most concerned about, which is why I never upgraded to a new operating system was the loss of iTunes. Well, it’s not lost, it’s just under a Music icon and not called iTunes. The entire library came over just fine and as I write these here notes on this here computer, I’m listening to Music to Become a Serial Killer By, which is appropriate since it’s the soundtrack to Seven, a serial killer motion picture with an excellent but dark and depressing score by Howard Shore. Yes, it’s a Shore score and it’s not a bore although it doesn’t make you want to hear more. But let’s just talk about the computer coming home. I got the call around eleven-thirty and was over to the store at twelve. The car wouldn’t lock properly, which was annoying as all get out and I think we all know just how annoying all get out is. So, I started it up again, pulled forward a little and pulled back and turned the engine off. And as I did, I heard the damn CD player whirling around. As you know, I thought I’d solved the problem when I heard that sound the first time, by ejecting the disc in there. What I didn’t do was check to make sure there weren’t other discs in there, but guess what – there were, four of ‘em. So, I got those out of there and voila, the car locked as it should and hopefully that IS the problem solved. I walked to the store (about a half-block from where I parked. The fix-it guy brought the big boy computer out and plugged it in. He turned it on and I really could not believe how fast it fired up – that was a big surprise or, in this particular case, a BIG SURprise. I typed in the computer password, and it loaded the desktop instantly and it looked just like – the desktop save for the new Big Sur background of rainbow colors, which is a nice look. Even thought I’d been warned that I’d have to reload all the apps I had, that wasn’t exactly the case. Zoom was there, for example, and we pulled Dropbox off the hard drive back-up. So, that was good. So, I paid and lugged the thing to my car and came right home and hooked it up and again it fired up very quickly and easily. The first thing I did was get Word to work – that required a lot of steps because I had to log-in to Office 365 and the password wasn’t working, even though I’d saved it and knew what it was. I changed the password and got in and finally got it working properly. I opened a couple of documents but in closing them they saved to the Microsoft Cloud, which is not what I wanted, but that was the new default. That took a while to figure out, but I did and now the default is back to my desktop folder.
And then came Dropbox. I stupidly clicked yes when it asked me if I wanted it to sync my desktop folder and all the other stuff on my desktop – I thought that sounded like a good idea and yet it was not a good idea, as the sync was failing and everything in my folder had a sync icon attached to it. I saw no way to stop it, either. So, I started a chat, and a nice lady spent an hour dealing with it – the solution being that we finally uninstalled it and installed it from scratch. That took care of the sync thing. But what it didn’t take care of was all the stuff I’d “smart-synced” to be online only, so all that Dropbox stuff was eating up my hard drive space. It took an hour to sync everything in Dropbox and once it had I was able to smart-sync all the big folders to “online” only (kind of like putting stuff in the cloud rather than on your hard drive). So, I have 300 gigs left, but that’s less than I had before, which doesn’t make sense, so that’s a question for the senior tech. Despite all that taking up the entire afternoon, I’m sooooo happy to be writing these here notes on this here computer. There are still a few things to look out when and if my senior tech guy finally calls back – I sent him another e-mail and he did promise to gift me a 5T hard drive for backing up. But the most amazing and somewhat frustrating thing of all is that I hooked up the external CD drive, which STILL doesn’t work on this computer. You might recall it was that that caused doing all this stuff that created all the problems with the computer. It works fine on the laptop, so when the senior tech calls, I’m hoping he can figure it out, because I certainly can’t. It doesn’t show up on the computer or in Finder at all. And now, the serial killer music continues with Howard Shore’s Silence of the Lambs. Has one film composer ever composed two scores for movies about serial killers?
Yesterday was certainly a day and by this time you know all about it. After all the stuff I’ve already talked about, I had a Zoom casting session – two actors for Doug’s play, and I said yes to both. Then I hurried over to In-N-Out as I hadn’t eaten anything all day. I got a cheeseburger and animal fries and came right home. For once, the burger was still pretty warm, and it was very good and so were the animal fries. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture entitled M.F.A. starring Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint and Frances Fisher. She’s quite a good actor and she carries the film, which is a female rape revenge picture. It’s short, which is a big plus, and because Ms. Eastwood is so good, it’s interesting to watch. But it stops short of being anything great because it can’t quite find its tone. It makes me want to see other stuff with Francesca Eastwood – this thing was made four years ago, so I’d have to imagine she’s done something since then, although this film was a super low-budget film that was barely released.
After the movie, I did a quick Gelson’s run, just for a little salad, which I came home and ate with some Eyetalian dressing on it. And that was the day and that was the evening.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven-thirty and hopeful of a call from the senior tech guy so we can fix the last of the stuff that’s wrong. Oh, the other good news is that most of the saved passwords came over, too – not all, but most. Otherwise, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll eat something, and catch up on all the stuff I’d let slide. The helper’s mom began shipping stuff yesterday, but of course ran out of boxes and labels, so she’ll have more this morning and will hopefully get all the backlog out and then start on the new titles. At some point, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is more of the same, and then on Thursday we begin rehearsals every day for the singer, with an invited dress rehearsal on Saturday, which we’re doing in a rehearsal hall, although in retrospect we probably could have done it here, since there’ll be less than fifteen people. Oh, well. Then we do the show on Sunday and then I have to prep the two play readings so I’m ready for them.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven-thirty, hopefully get a call from the senior tech, hopefully pick up some packages, pray for some little miracles because I need to alleviate ye olde stresse level or I’ll either implode or explode, I’ll eat, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite motion pictures about serial killers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, so happy that the computer has come home.