Personal
"Touched"
December 10, 2008
The other day I had a musical dilemma. I had a song
in my head. And, I couldn't figure out what it was.
There are lots of great resources out there to help with this kind of thing. There are lyric search engines, message boards, and even a Yahoo! Answers page that allows anyone who might know an answer to an otherwise daunting question to chime in with two cents.
My problem was that the song I had in my head had some middle-eastern style chanting as the hook. I couldn't remember any other lyrics. I found, more times than I liked, that just saying "hey, does anybody know what song it is if there's a cool chant and a lot of guitars?" Not as specific enough for help to emerge.
I turned to Jedipan from the message board. If anyone knew the answer, he would. Within 24 hours of asking, he offered a "shot in the dark" answer that happened to be exactly what I was looking for.
It turned out the song was "Touched" by VAST. I heard the song in the trailer for The Beach. That might have been nine years ago. And, here I am, with it rising to the top of my consciousness. Go figure. Great song! I downloaded it on iTunes. Check it out.
There are lots of great resources out there to help with this kind of thing. There are lyric search engines, message boards, and even a Yahoo! Answers page that allows anyone who might know an answer to an otherwise daunting question to chime in with two cents.
My problem was that the song I had in my head had some middle-eastern style chanting as the hook. I couldn't remember any other lyrics. I found, more times than I liked, that just saying "hey, does anybody know what song it is if there's a cool chant and a lot of guitars?" Not as specific enough for help to emerge.
I turned to Jedipan from the message board. If anyone knew the answer, he would. Within 24 hours of asking, he offered a "shot in the dark" answer that happened to be exactly what I was looking for.
It turned out the song was "Touched" by VAST. I heard the song in the trailer for The Beach. That might have been nine years ago. And, here I am, with it rising to the top of my consciousness. Go figure. Great song! I downloaded it on iTunes. Check it out.
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The Lost Art of the Mix Tape
July 31, 2008
I love my iPod. Don’t get me wrong. It’s amazing that
one can walk around with tiny versions of his entire
CD collection, all-accessible at the turn of a wheel.
It’s neat. It’s convenient. But, its advent has
murdered one of out greatest pastimes: the mix tape.
The Philips Company introduced the “compact cassette” to the United States in 1964. It was originally intended for data storage and mainly “dictation” recordings. As fidelity improved, so did the quality and capacity for cassette tapes.
I remember first seeing tapes in the early 80’s. My dad would bring home boxes of these things. Most of them contained meeting notes from work. On one, he somehow dubbed Sgt. Pepper and listened to occasionally on trips. It became a convenient way to listen to vinyl.
Eventually, cassettes were king. I think 1988 was the heyday, but I could be wrong. By ’88, the walkman (a portable, hi-fi cassette player) was just about everywhere. Tape players were common in cars. Even though the compact disc was available, the technology was still a bit too expensive for most.
I remember making my first mix tape in high school, right around the early 90’s. I wanted to listen to a bunch of music that my brother had brought home from college. I didn’t like all of it, just a few of the remix cuts…all of which was on vinyl. So, I made a mix tape. It consisted of a bunch of 12” remixes, some tracks from Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking, and a few live cuts that I had taken off of MTV’s 120 Minutes. I played it into the ground.
Up until CD’s were more prevalent, the mix tape was still quite an effort. Hi-speed dubbing decks were available, but those were only really good for copying entire programs of audio. In order to get the master tape in the right spot, you had to REW and FF quite a bit until you found the song break. It was OK for a few tunes, but filling a 90 minute tape by hand like this took true commitment.
The CD changed the mix tape. Since the CD allowed instant access to any track on an audio program, there was no waiting to cue it up. And, if you wanted to have three or four tracks in a row from the same CD on a mix tape, you could program your CD player to play those songs in a particular order. Bam, instant mix.
With the ease of digital access, the mix tape became less of an archiving tool and more of a means of expression. They were particularly helpful if I wanted to ask someone out. The tape never sealed the deal, but it did set the mood. A given selection of songs can tell someone how you feel.
The only thing better than making a mix tape is receiving a mix tape. I learned quickly that if you’ve had a great first date with a young lady and she slips a mix tape under your dorm room door the next day, you might want to ask her out again. And, if that mix tape has “Moondance” by Van Morrison on it, you really need to stop what you’re doing, pick up the phone, and ask her out again right there. When dealing with tapes, it’s also good to remember that in the early 90’s cell phones were, at best, car phones. You’d need to use a land line to score a second date.
With a good work flow, you could have a mix tape making process down to about two hours. It took a little planning, but it was definitely possible.
Something about the instantaneousness of iTunes playlists makes the current state of mixology not so romantic. Select. Drag. Drop. Play. Yawn.
Playlists are cavernous. However much data can fit on the iPod is how long they can be. Gone is the 90 minute limit. Sure, you can smart playlist a 90 minute limit, but what’s the fun in that.
Every month, I make a new playlist for my iPod. It’s the equivalent of changing out a 20 disc changer, I guess. I’ll usually select whole albums from my favorite artists. Then, I’ll select some featured tracks that I might enjoy. All in all the list ends up being at least a day long. I do enjoy listening to my flavors-of-the-month. But, something is certainly lost in translation. There’s very little focus to the collection.
I do appreciate the newer iPod’s capacity for album artwork. But, the other half of the fun with mix tapes was the packaging. I used to make all kinds of track list inserts for these things, depending on the occasion. Rarely was the supplied card stock used.
Most of the time, when stereo cassette decks, VCR decks, and televisions were connected to the same home stereo amplifier/unit, interesting segues could be inserted into the common mix tape play out. After three or four songs, it wouldn’t be hard to dub in some of Yoda’s wisdom, or some of HAL’s laments. That always made for an interesting listening experience.
Now-a-days, because the playlists are also visual on the iPod, it often doesn’t make sense to include an audio clip unless the video is there, too. That’s really difficult to make work well. As a result, most of my playlists are music only…very few sound effects and movie dialog clips. Not like the old days.
The compromise for me is having themed playlists. Rather than have a great mix tape, I have some great meditation playlists, morning playlists, or “winding down” playlists, metal playlists, or even block party playlists (with a lot of Motown). On a few occasions, I’ll make a mix CD or two, but those are really just truncated playlists. I have a few “master CD’s” that my close friends have aggrandized, but they don’t get played as much as they would have if they were on a cassette.
Do I think we should go back to cassettes? Hardly. The iPod is far too convenient for that. Not being a single guy, I don’t worry about using mix tapes to ask people out anymore. My wife appreciates the “Acoustic Foo” mix (as well as the many other playlists I’ve made for her) just fine. But, I wonder how kids now-a-days can possibly compete with the subtleties of the perfectly crafted mix tape. Maybe that’s what texting is for.
So, what are the elements of a good mix tape? Well, for one, I think the basic length should be 90 minutes. That gives you two 45 minute programs. Pacing is important. You’ll want to make sure your songs have varying tempos. Tempo conveys mood. You should have a good mix of fast, mid, and slow songs.
Personally, I like to come out of the gate with a relatively mellow song. Most of the time, when I’m getting into the car to listen to a mix tape, I’ll start the car, back out, and not get cruising until at least a song into it. I like to pepper the mix with solid singles, great deep cuts, instrumental tunes, and decent remixes.
For kicks, I made a mix as I wrote this. I made it in iTunes. It clocks in at 1.4 hours, which would fit just right on a 90 minute cassette, allowing for flips. This mix would be mainly for my enjoyment, but it also would work fine if other people were around while it was on (there’s not a lot that’s offensive, too heavy, or just not right with these selections).
Anyway, I’m just thinking about the glory days of the mix tape. They were fun.
The Philips Company introduced the “compact cassette” to the United States in 1964. It was originally intended for data storage and mainly “dictation” recordings. As fidelity improved, so did the quality and capacity for cassette tapes.
I remember first seeing tapes in the early 80’s. My dad would bring home boxes of these things. Most of them contained meeting notes from work. On one, he somehow dubbed Sgt. Pepper and listened to occasionally on trips. It became a convenient way to listen to vinyl.
Eventually, cassettes were king. I think 1988 was the heyday, but I could be wrong. By ’88, the walkman (a portable, hi-fi cassette player) was just about everywhere. Tape players were common in cars. Even though the compact disc was available, the technology was still a bit too expensive for most.
I remember making my first mix tape in high school, right around the early 90’s. I wanted to listen to a bunch of music that my brother had brought home from college. I didn’t like all of it, just a few of the remix cuts…all of which was on vinyl. So, I made a mix tape. It consisted of a bunch of 12” remixes, some tracks from Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking, and a few live cuts that I had taken off of MTV’s 120 Minutes. I played it into the ground.
Up until CD’s were more prevalent, the mix tape was still quite an effort. Hi-speed dubbing decks were available, but those were only really good for copying entire programs of audio. In order to get the master tape in the right spot, you had to REW and FF quite a bit until you found the song break. It was OK for a few tunes, but filling a 90 minute tape by hand like this took true commitment.
The CD changed the mix tape. Since the CD allowed instant access to any track on an audio program, there was no waiting to cue it up. And, if you wanted to have three or four tracks in a row from the same CD on a mix tape, you could program your CD player to play those songs in a particular order. Bam, instant mix.
With the ease of digital access, the mix tape became less of an archiving tool and more of a means of expression. They were particularly helpful if I wanted to ask someone out. The tape never sealed the deal, but it did set the mood. A given selection of songs can tell someone how you feel.
The only thing better than making a mix tape is receiving a mix tape. I learned quickly that if you’ve had a great first date with a young lady and she slips a mix tape under your dorm room door the next day, you might want to ask her out again. And, if that mix tape has “Moondance” by Van Morrison on it, you really need to stop what you’re doing, pick up the phone, and ask her out again right there. When dealing with tapes, it’s also good to remember that in the early 90’s cell phones were, at best, car phones. You’d need to use a land line to score a second date.
With a good work flow, you could have a mix tape making process down to about two hours. It took a little planning, but it was definitely possible.
Something about the instantaneousness of iTunes playlists makes the current state of mixology not so romantic. Select. Drag. Drop. Play. Yawn.
Playlists are cavernous. However much data can fit on the iPod is how long they can be. Gone is the 90 minute limit. Sure, you can smart playlist a 90 minute limit, but what’s the fun in that.
Every month, I make a new playlist for my iPod. It’s the equivalent of changing out a 20 disc changer, I guess. I’ll usually select whole albums from my favorite artists. Then, I’ll select some featured tracks that I might enjoy. All in all the list ends up being at least a day long. I do enjoy listening to my flavors-of-the-month. But, something is certainly lost in translation. There’s very little focus to the collection.
I do appreciate the newer iPod’s capacity for album artwork. But, the other half of the fun with mix tapes was the packaging. I used to make all kinds of track list inserts for these things, depending on the occasion. Rarely was the supplied card stock used.
Most of the time, when stereo cassette decks, VCR decks, and televisions were connected to the same home stereo amplifier/unit, interesting segues could be inserted into the common mix tape play out. After three or four songs, it wouldn’t be hard to dub in some of Yoda’s wisdom, or some of HAL’s laments. That always made for an interesting listening experience.
Now-a-days, because the playlists are also visual on the iPod, it often doesn’t make sense to include an audio clip unless the video is there, too. That’s really difficult to make work well. As a result, most of my playlists are music only…very few sound effects and movie dialog clips. Not like the old days.
The compromise for me is having themed playlists. Rather than have a great mix tape, I have some great meditation playlists, morning playlists, or “winding down” playlists, metal playlists, or even block party playlists (with a lot of Motown). On a few occasions, I’ll make a mix CD or two, but those are really just truncated playlists. I have a few “master CD’s” that my close friends have aggrandized, but they don’t get played as much as they would have if they were on a cassette.
Do I think we should go back to cassettes? Hardly. The iPod is far too convenient for that. Not being a single guy, I don’t worry about using mix tapes to ask people out anymore. My wife appreciates the “Acoustic Foo” mix (as well as the many other playlists I’ve made for her) just fine. But, I wonder how kids now-a-days can possibly compete with the subtleties of the perfectly crafted mix tape. Maybe that’s what texting is for.
So, what are the elements of a good mix tape? Well, for one, I think the basic length should be 90 minutes. That gives you two 45 minute programs. Pacing is important. You’ll want to make sure your songs have varying tempos. Tempo conveys mood. You should have a good mix of fast, mid, and slow songs.
Personally, I like to come out of the gate with a relatively mellow song. Most of the time, when I’m getting into the car to listen to a mix tape, I’ll start the car, back out, and not get cruising until at least a song into it. I like to pepper the mix with solid singles, great deep cuts, instrumental tunes, and decent remixes.
For kicks, I made a mix as I wrote this. I made it in iTunes. It clocks in at 1.4 hours, which would fit just right on a 90 minute cassette, allowing for flips. This mix would be mainly for my enjoyment, but it also would work fine if other people were around while it was on (there’s not a lot that’s offensive, too heavy, or just not right with these selections).
- Tom Petty – “Wildflowers”
- Train – “She’s on Fire”
- David Bowie – “Rebel Rebel”
- Thom Yorke – “Atoms for Peace (Four Tet Remix)"
- Bruce Springsteen – “Radio Nowhere”
- Foo Fighters – “Times Like These”
- Toad the Wet Sprocket – “Windmills”
- Dave Matthews Band – “When the World Ends”
- T. Rex – “Mambo Sun”
- Tomoyasu Hotei – “Battle without Honor or Humanity”
- U2 – “Beautiful Day”
- The Posies – “Solar Sister”
- Elton John – “Bennie and the Jets”
- Radiohead – “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
- R.E.M. – “Cuyahoga”
- Miles Davis – “It’s About That Time (Evolution of the Groove Remix)”
- Pete Yorn – “Ice Age”
- The Killers – “Sam’s Town (Abbey Road Version)”
- Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
- Third Eye Blind – “Motorcycle Drive By”
- Justin Timberlake – “(Another Song) All Over Again”
Anyway, I’m just thinking about the glory days of the mix tape. They were fun.
Ribs
July 04, 2008
Eventually, if one is
not opposed to a carnivorous lifestyle, a southern
gentleman is invariably exposed to one of life's
treasures. Ribs. Mmm. What better delicacy can be
enjoyed on Independence Day?
I prefer pork baby back ribs. Some folks like beef ribs with a bunch of BBQ sauce. Some find meat repulsive. Some find it's eating morally offensive. To each his own.
I've been slowly perfecting my own rib recipe. It's a fusion of a Memphis style rib preparation and eastern North Carolina mustard based ribs. Today is the final test of what I think will be my best batch yet.
The thing I've liked about Memphis style ribs is the dry rub. No one is quick to give away their ratios, but most of these rubs consist of 50% sweet paprika, 15% brown sugar, and the rest is an oleo of salts, peppers, dry mustards, and powders. The real secret is in that remaining 35% window. I tried a rub that was 50% paprika and 50% brown sugar and the result was decent...the ribs tasted as if they were coated in candy, but it wasn't the pizazz I was looking for.
My rub for today's recipe consists of the sweet paprika, brown sugar, and equal parts kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, hot oriental mustard, celery salt, cumin, and cayenne. We'll see how it works out, but I have a feeling this will be a great batch.
The rub is only half for me. I used to be opposed to the mustard based BBQ sauce native to eastern North Carolina. Something about it didn't seem right to me. In April, Mark and I played a wedding reception in Columbia, SC that was catered by a mustard based BBQ restaurant. Something about that particular experience flipped a switch in me. I found my self liking the mustard sauce better.
On my last rib excursion, I tried a sophisticated mustard sauce...spicy french mustard, honey, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. It was fair. I'm thinking the real secret to good mustard sauce is keeping it simple: basic, plain-Jane mustard, white vinegar, etc... For whatever reason, this seems to taste better.
And so, the second part of my rib recipe consists of (optionally) pouring the mustard sauce over the ribs just before they are served. Enthusiasts of both dry rubs and mustard sauce would probably find this offensive. Well, it works for me.
On Independence Day, July 4, 1776, King George III wrote in his journal "Nothing Important Happened Today." Well, in addition to the American rebellion against the English Empire, the date is often celebrated by many a back-yard cookout. At one of those cook-outs, one man and his family shall enjoy a nice plate of ribs. That is, if the grill doesn't run out of gas.
Be safe! Be well! Enjoy the holiday.
I prefer pork baby back ribs. Some folks like beef ribs with a bunch of BBQ sauce. Some find meat repulsive. Some find it's eating morally offensive. To each his own.
I've been slowly perfecting my own rib recipe. It's a fusion of a Memphis style rib preparation and eastern North Carolina mustard based ribs. Today is the final test of what I think will be my best batch yet.
The thing I've liked about Memphis style ribs is the dry rub. No one is quick to give away their ratios, but most of these rubs consist of 50% sweet paprika, 15% brown sugar, and the rest is an oleo of salts, peppers, dry mustards, and powders. The real secret is in that remaining 35% window. I tried a rub that was 50% paprika and 50% brown sugar and the result was decent...the ribs tasted as if they were coated in candy, but it wasn't the pizazz I was looking for.
My rub for today's recipe consists of the sweet paprika, brown sugar, and equal parts kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, hot oriental mustard, celery salt, cumin, and cayenne. We'll see how it works out, but I have a feeling this will be a great batch.
The rub is only half for me. I used to be opposed to the mustard based BBQ sauce native to eastern North Carolina. Something about it didn't seem right to me. In April, Mark and I played a wedding reception in Columbia, SC that was catered by a mustard based BBQ restaurant. Something about that particular experience flipped a switch in me. I found my self liking the mustard sauce better.
On my last rib excursion, I tried a sophisticated mustard sauce...spicy french mustard, honey, sugar, and apple cider vinegar. It was fair. I'm thinking the real secret to good mustard sauce is keeping it simple: basic, plain-Jane mustard, white vinegar, etc... For whatever reason, this seems to taste better.
And so, the second part of my rib recipe consists of (optionally) pouring the mustard sauce over the ribs just before they are served. Enthusiasts of both dry rubs and mustard sauce would probably find this offensive. Well, it works for me.
On Independence Day, July 4, 1776, King George III wrote in his journal "Nothing Important Happened Today." Well, in addition to the American rebellion against the English Empire, the date is often celebrated by many a back-yard cookout. At one of those cook-outs, one man and his family shall enjoy a nice plate of ribs. That is, if the grill doesn't run out of gas.
Be safe! Be well! Enjoy the holiday.
On the Trail
July 03, 2008
It's been quite a long
time since I've made a traditional blog entry. For
that, I'm not necessarily sorry. But, I wonder if
anyone really reads this blog anymore, seeing as how
it's been about two months since an entry.
I've kept up the twice-a-month podcast, which, to me, is a more sophisticated form of blogging.
One thing that I'm doing (again), which bares a mention, is that I'm training for my third marathon. I made some training mistakes on the first two. I feel like the third time will be a charm.
The thing that made me want to run a third marathon was just the pure enjoyment of the race. I'm not going into this one thinking that it will fix any of my problems. It won't make my music better. It will be fun, though. That's a good enough reason for me. The marathon I'll run this year will be through Washington, D.C. It'll be great to run past the monuments and just have a good time with the run.
I like having new shoes. Having a dedicated set of running shoes is key if you want to avoid injuries. I have a running partner who is much faster than I am. I hope this brings my time up to a respectable level--we're shooting for 4 hrs and 30 min. The last couple I ran had a few pace runners about. I'll be sure to track one of those 4:30 balloons down.
Living in Greensboro makes training very easy. I heard somewhere that Greensboro has one of the highest acreages of parks and greenways in North Carolina. I can think of several miles of lush greenways a stone's throw from my house.
And so, we're in to week two of our training. Training days make for a great morning. The summer has been kind in the early hours. The milage is around 15/wk right now, but it's sure to go up soon.
I'll see you on the trail!
I've kept up the twice-a-month podcast, which, to me, is a more sophisticated form of blogging.
One thing that I'm doing (again), which bares a mention, is that I'm training for my third marathon. I made some training mistakes on the first two. I feel like the third time will be a charm.
The thing that made me want to run a third marathon was just the pure enjoyment of the race. I'm not going into this one thinking that it will fix any of my problems. It won't make my music better. It will be fun, though. That's a good enough reason for me. The marathon I'll run this year will be through Washington, D.C. It'll be great to run past the monuments and just have a good time with the run.
I like having new shoes. Having a dedicated set of running shoes is key if you want to avoid injuries. I have a running partner who is much faster than I am. I hope this brings my time up to a respectable level--we're shooting for 4 hrs and 30 min. The last couple I ran had a few pace runners about. I'll be sure to track one of those 4:30 balloons down.
Living in Greensboro makes training very easy. I heard somewhere that Greensboro has one of the highest acreages of parks and greenways in North Carolina. I can think of several miles of lush greenways a stone's throw from my house.
And so, we're in to week two of our training. Training days make for a great morning. The summer has been kind in the early hours. The milage is around 15/wk right now, but it's sure to go up soon.
I'll see you on the trail!
Minor Car Trouble
April 04, 2008
Technology Woes
March 25, 2008
I have had every intention of updating my blog more
regularly. Unfortunately, sometimes technology gets
in the way of technology.
For just about the entire month of March, I’ve been using the public library to check my email. The convenience of having a computer in my house had been long taken for granted. I got used to it after a few days.
Around the beginning of March, my wife and I began to notice a purple line running just right of center down our new iMac’s LCD screen. After doing all of the “recommended” fixes for the problem, the purple line persisted. We had just bought one of those new all-in-one iMacs not even two months before the line appeared.
And so, the next step was to take it to an authorized Apple repair center. The nearest Apple store was 60 miles from my house. The nearest AARC was 30; I opted for the closer repair option.
For the minor shortcoming of this computer, I was satisfied that Apple holds all of their products under an automatic one-year warranty from the date of purchase. And, unlike most warranties I’ve purchased, there was absolutely no hassle or challenge to having our computer fixed “under warranty.”
The draw back to this problem was that we recently did away with our older computer; which would have been a great back up in this situation. I have a Mac that I use for studio applications, but it’s much older than this new Mac and it doesn’t go online unless it absolutely has to. Coupled with a rather long wait time (about 3 and a half weeks) I found myself in a stagnant situation with my new blog.
The old blog was entirely web based, so updates from the library would have been easy. This new system (a Mac only system) is not web based. I’m sure I could have figured out a way to update this, but I’m really not that code literate. I like the WYSISWYG method. And so, I waited.
I was finally able to pick up my iMac from the repair center a few days before Easter weekend. I got it home and plugged it in. Wow! No line in the middle. Problem solved. Warranty valued. Great situation, right? OK, now, let’s pick up where we left off by importing some of my wife’s files that are on a CD. When I attempted to insert the CD, it wouldn’t load. Rut-Roh.
And so, after a short discussion with the repair store, I was back in the car going to get this new problem checked out. When I dropped it off, they were a bit defensive in saying “there’s no way we would have caused this problem.” I never claimed that they did…I just dropped it off, politely, and requested that it be expedited because it had just been in the shop.
On Monday afternoon, I called to check in with the repair store…just to see if any progress had been made. The computer was fixed. And, it only took just a few days.
When I picked it up on Tuesday morning, the problem had been solved. It turned out that a wire had been connected improperly when the LCD was replaced. That error was causing pressure on the optical drive. Hence, it didn’t work. The problem was corrected.
I understand that things break down. I understand that things, if they are to be fixed, sometimes take time, too. I also understand that because humans often fix things that are broken, they can also make mistakes. And, because I’m in a fantastic mood today, I’m not really upset with having to drive all that way to get my Mac fixed. It is fixed. What is done is done. All in all, I appreciate the facility’s honesty.
And so, until this thing breaks down again (which, I hope isn’t for a while) I hope to update this blog more often. Thanks for reading. Have a fantastic day!
For just about the entire month of March, I’ve been using the public library to check my email. The convenience of having a computer in my house had been long taken for granted. I got used to it after a few days.
Around the beginning of March, my wife and I began to notice a purple line running just right of center down our new iMac’s LCD screen. After doing all of the “recommended” fixes for the problem, the purple line persisted. We had just bought one of those new all-in-one iMacs not even two months before the line appeared.
And so, the next step was to take it to an authorized Apple repair center. The nearest Apple store was 60 miles from my house. The nearest AARC was 30; I opted for the closer repair option.
For the minor shortcoming of this computer, I was satisfied that Apple holds all of their products under an automatic one-year warranty from the date of purchase. And, unlike most warranties I’ve purchased, there was absolutely no hassle or challenge to having our computer fixed “under warranty.”
The draw back to this problem was that we recently did away with our older computer; which would have been a great back up in this situation. I have a Mac that I use for studio applications, but it’s much older than this new Mac and it doesn’t go online unless it absolutely has to. Coupled with a rather long wait time (about 3 and a half weeks) I found myself in a stagnant situation with my new blog.
The old blog was entirely web based, so updates from the library would have been easy. This new system (a Mac only system) is not web based. I’m sure I could have figured out a way to update this, but I’m really not that code literate. I like the WYSISWYG method. And so, I waited.
I was finally able to pick up my iMac from the repair center a few days before Easter weekend. I got it home and plugged it in. Wow! No line in the middle. Problem solved. Warranty valued. Great situation, right? OK, now, let’s pick up where we left off by importing some of my wife’s files that are on a CD. When I attempted to insert the CD, it wouldn’t load. Rut-Roh.
And so, after a short discussion with the repair store, I was back in the car going to get this new problem checked out. When I dropped it off, they were a bit defensive in saying “there’s no way we would have caused this problem.” I never claimed that they did…I just dropped it off, politely, and requested that it be expedited because it had just been in the shop.
On Monday afternoon, I called to check in with the repair store…just to see if any progress had been made. The computer was fixed. And, it only took just a few days.
When I picked it up on Tuesday morning, the problem had been solved. It turned out that a wire had been connected improperly when the LCD was replaced. That error was causing pressure on the optical drive. Hence, it didn’t work. The problem was corrected.
I understand that things break down. I understand that things, if they are to be fixed, sometimes take time, too. I also understand that because humans often fix things that are broken, they can also make mistakes. And, because I’m in a fantastic mood today, I’m not really upset with having to drive all that way to get my Mac fixed. It is fixed. What is done is done. All in all, I appreciate the facility’s honesty.
And so, until this thing breaks down again (which, I hope isn’t for a while) I hope to update this blog more often. Thanks for reading. Have a fantastic day!