Well, dear readers, let’s just cut to the damn chase, shall we? Let’s just get to the damn crux of the matter, shall we? Let’s just get to the heart of the matter, the core of the matter, the matter of the matter. Yesterday was a weirdly unpleasant day and there are no two or even three ways about it. It began with about six hours of sleep again, getting up, hooking up a new CD/DVD drive only to have it not work. And thus began an over two-hour phone thing with Apple, first a normal tech and then a senior tech, who was much more knowledgeable and was in this country. She had me troubleshoot this and troubleshoot that – nothing worked. If you plugged it into the mini mac, either my original Apple Superdrive or the new one, you could hear it fire up, you could load a disc, but it would not appear or open Music, which is what it’s supposed to do when you insert a CD. Now, both worked perfectly in my 2010 laptop – there’s the damn rub. But remember, I could not get the Apple Superdrive to work on the iMac that I had for many years. We restarted, we nuked some unnecessary files, she escalated and talked to someone who asked questions and suggested things we’d already done. She asked if I was willing to do the new operating system just released last Monday – I said not yet because it’s always too buggy at the beginning and I won’t do it myself anyway. She thought that might fix whatever the issue is. But as we did this and we did that, she thinks it’s simply because we migrated using a back-up drive that had everything from the old computer and that whatever was wrong there got carried over. But how do you even isolate or know what that is? So, she’s going to keep researching and we’ve scheduled a callback for next Thursday. She said her people will probably want logs, and that’s fine, too. Also, we’re going to do something about this weird thing that happened when the back house guy was setting all this up for me. It somehow created a shadow thing for the backup drive and while there’s nothing there other than the backup drive icon, it shouldn’t be there, and we want to get rid of it. The bigger issue is if they want me to reload everything from scratch, but I’m not sure how THAT solves anything if it’s still carrying over the stuff from the old computer. Anyway, she was very nice, but after two hours I was ready to stick my head in the oven.
Then I went to the mail place and picked up two small packages and returned the first CD/DVD drive I bought that wouldn’t even plug in to the mac mini – they’ve already refunded me for that. I came right home and ordered fried catfish for food and that arrived in a timely manner, and I ate the two filets in a timely manner. Meanwhile, after five tries to have my seller account reactivated on Amazon, I gave up. I’ll wait out the time because after a month these issues disappear, and I’ll do a new appeal then or I’ll just nuke the account in total because I really HATE the way they do things and treat sellers like they’re war criminals. I then spent some time putting on eBay our best-selling Amazon titles and within minutes of listing them, I got seven orders – I don’t do that in a WEEK on Amazon AND Amazon takes thirty percent of the dough, where as eBay takes around ten percent. If that continues, I’ll just keep adding titles every day and bye bye birdie to Amazon Seller Central.
Then I dozed off for forty minutes, and then finished watching The Siege, an odd movie to see given what’s going on in the USA right now – very prescient motion picture, not only a warning for 9/11 but stuff directly related to what is happening in our cities and streets right now. It’s directed by Edward Zwick, who was a flavor for a while back in the mid-1980s through the 1990s and hasn’t been heard from very much since, at least I don’t think he has. He did make a few moneymakers, I think, but I found him a very heavy-handed director and didn’t care for any of his films that I saw back then. In fact, if I saw his name, I stayed far away. He has made movies in the last twenty years, it seems, including the second Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise, which I don’t recall being as good as the first Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise. Anyway, The Siege does feature excellent performances from Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Tony Shalhoub, and Bruce Willis doesn’t really have a chance because his character is such a jerk, although he does that well. Not a great movie, but interesting to see in light of what would happen just a couple of years later and what is happening now.
Then I had something to eat so I could take pill two, but I can’t really remember what it might have been – I suspect it was two macaroons, since I know I didn’t make anything. Pill three will be taken with the little, teeny-tiny personal pizza, whenever it arrives, which hopefully will be sooner than later. Then I watched the first part of a two-part ninety-minute documentary about a notorious teen hacker who caused many people much grief and who is currently serving a prison sentence. This kid shows not one iota of remorse for anything he did. He thinks it’s all funny. I’ll watch part two after posting the notes but why split it into two parts when it’s only ninety minutes, unless there are more parts to come, which is certainly possible.
Today, I’ll be up when I’m up, I’ll do whatever needs doing, I have a telephonic call with the neurologist, I’m sure there will be things to do and I shall do them, and then I can watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow or Sunday I have a lunch thing – I’ll lock that down today – but otherwise I’m just sticking around the home environment and having a couple of ME days.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora or the Black Bottom, for today is the birthday of our very own newly published author and bon vivant, elmore. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own newly published author and bon vivnat, elmore. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN NEWLY PUBLISHED AUTHOR AND BON VIVANT, ELMORE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up when I’m up, do whatever needs doing, have a telephonic call, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/Blu and Ray/streaming player? I’ll start – no idea. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping that at some point we solve The Curious Case of the CD/DVD Drive.