Always More to Want

It's been a frustrating evening. Other than sleeping in, going to see The Simpsons Movie, a little work on Wikipedia, research on the origin of Mickey Mouse, shopping, reading Doctor Who: World Game and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, watching several Tenth Doctor episodes and downloading updates for my new computer (Oh, is that all? You know, the usual), I've mostly been editing Mages of Mâvarin all day. I've made progress, but it's been a tough slog, mostly because MS Word keeps giving me an endlessly rotating blue circle and a "Not responding" message. This has happened at least four times today. Arrgh!

There are several issues involved, most likely, and I can't really blame the new computer for any of them (she said defensively). For one thing, I've been updating my word count table for Mages, which tracks words and page numbers of each chapter. Reasonable thing to do when editing a novel, right? But this document is a Word file with an Excel spreadsheet embedded in it, and it's always been a troublemaker, going back at least to my first laptop, if not the iMac that predated my return to school. Once I edit that embedded spreadsheet, there's always a good chance that Word is going to soon stop working. I've tried recreating the file, but it doesn't help.

So that's one problem. Another is that I'm working in MS Office 2003, which is only vaguely compatible with Vista. If I can get it working properly, I get out of spending $130 on Office 2007, for a while at least. Meanwhile, I should at least update my copy of Office with any downloads that might help. So I've been to the Microsoft web site, and checked for updates. Now I'm downloading 14 updates, 188.9 MB worth in all. Since I'm on dial-up, it's going to take a while. Overnight, probably.

And that's the third issue, because getting a nice new computer does nothing for the fact that my connection to the Internet is more of a leaky faucet than a firehose. As I download these updates, the modem and phone line struggle to get messages through between America Online and my AOL software, between Microsoft and my copy of Explorer, between Google and my copy of Firefox. There's also an issue with RealPlayer and possibly Windows Media Player, the latter of which I haven't tried yet. The BBC web site has claimed several times, even before I started this big download, that I don't have the software to play their video clips. Is it a firewall issue, or my slow connection, or a missing plug-in? I'll figure it out, but it's clear that the slow connection is the biggest issue right now. Well, that and the unresponsive Word docs!

It's kind of annoying, this dissatisfaction with my Internet connection and Word's unreliability, coming as they do at a time when I've just spent $600+ on a new computer. Can't I be fully satisfied, just for a bit? Apparently not. I suppose even if I got Office 2007 tomorrow, and John hooked me up to the cable modem at last via the wireless network I bought months and months ago, I would find something else I really need. Darn it.

Meanwhile, though, I've gotten Mages edited through Chapter Six, which is where I left off in my previous edit. When I got to the uncompleted scene with Darsuma and Fayubi's spirit, I basically skipped over it. I'll wait until I get to the other scene like it in Chapter Nine, and then decide whether to expand or cut or merge. But I reworked some dialogue between Rani and his grandfather, found some characters whose names weren't on my master list yet and added them, renamed the tributary that flows around the Palace (the Daga, as in Onondaga), and tightened some wording here and there. And my Lopartin glossary is coming along nicely.

There are a number of things I'd like to have done online tonight, including an entry for the fiction blog and checking out Pat's contest on Here, There, and Everywhere, which ends tomorrow. But I'll be lucky to get this entry to post, much less load other people's blogs while that big download is going on. Heck, I've had the AOL Welcome page fail to load numerous times over the last few days! But if I don't get roped into taking another friend to see the current Harry Potter film, I'll try to get to it tomorrow afternoon. And maybe, if both my brain and the computer cooperate, I'll get that letter from Jace to Sandy written tomorrow evening. Meanwhile, good night!

Karen

Schroedinger's Computer (Sort Of)

I had a completely different entry planned for tonight. I've edited the photos and everything, but I can't get at them right now. So instead we're going with my B material: the story of how I snagged this:


And what I've been doing since getting it home.

I first saw this deal on a SONY VAIO laptop when I was taking pictures for the Round Robin Photo Challenge last week. It was only $599.99, with no rebate to mail in. I wasn't initially going to buy it, or any computer just yet, but then the Compaq started failing ever more spectacularly, and I knew I had to replace it. So Tuesday at lunchtime, I went back and checked out the possibilities at Best Buy. The SONY was the obvious choice. Over a a gig of RAM, 120 GB of storage, and a screen about an inch wider than my old one.


So tonight after work I told John I was going to go buy it. Off I went to Best Buy on Broadway near Wilmot. It took a good 15 minutes to get a sales guy, during which time I noticed that the computer is a closeout, marked down $300 from $899.99. Then the sales guy told me that they were out of that model. Their computer said they had two in inventory, but he'd looked earlier, twice, and they were nowhere to be found. He also said that the computer showed seven of them at the other location across town. So I went to Safeway, bought sausage, came home, cooked the sausage but didn't eat it, and drove 35 minutes or so to get to First and Wetmore. There, unlike at the other store, I got help right away, from a sales guy and a supervisor - both of whom promptly told me that they don't even carry the SONY model that the other store was sending people to buy!


Well, obviously I got it. How did that happen? It all has to do with the title of this entry. See, as long as nobody actually looked for them at the northwest location, they were simultaneously present (according to the east side location's computer) and absent (according to the northwest sales staff). The Wetmore guys didn't even have a model number to look up, and I hadn't thought to write it down. They tried to call the other store, but, as they predicted, the other store's computer department didn't answer the phone.

Then the supervisor guy climbed up a ladder and started looking at the locked up inventory of SONY laptops - and potential became reality. They did indeed have them. They just didn't know about it! Now they can display one and sell the rest. Good for them, great for me, 'cause I got to take one home.

Now, seven and a half hours later, I'm typing this on the old computer as the new one loads files off the external hard drive. I have no idea how that's going to work out, except that it knows to copy settings and I did copy all the Documents and Settings files to the drive before I started. There will probably be a lot of dupe files from the Maxtor backup program, but better too much than too little. I can clean it out later.

But first I've got to get some sleep!

Karen

I Want...! But I'll Settle For...!

Well, well, well. Not only is it time for the next Round Robin Photo Challenge, but it's actually my turn to suggest the topic! That hasn't happened in over two years! For some reason my brain insisted that the theme for this time is "Gimme Gimme," and who am I to argue with my own brain?


I actually had no idea what I was going to post in connection with this topic, even as recently as this morning. Honestly, no clue. Then I remembered that I needed to go to Safeway and buy cold cuts for a pot luck at work. While I was there I took a few pictures of the store's most tempting case of edible decadence. I'll take one of each, please! But of course I didn't actually say that.


Sure, chocolate and stuff is pretty tempting, but there are other things I want much more than that, things that last more than a minute or two. Most of them are available at Best Buy. It seems I've been complaining for over a year now about the state of the keyboard on my laptop, the worn-away lettering that almost ensures that half the time when I try for an o or a u I type an i or a p instead. Best Buy doesn't carry the cheap roll-up keyboards, but there's a place on their shelves for a conventional one for $19.99. Except that they're usually out of them. Tonight they weren't. And I thought, given the "gimme gimme" idea, maybe I'd indulge myself, $20 worth. It's not as if I don't really need the thing!


Ah, but if I were to really give in to my greed, I could certainly do much better than a $20 keyboard. How about a slightly more ergonomic, wireless one? Only $69.99!



But heck, if I'm going to start spending more than a few bucks on peripherals, perhaps I should set my sights a bit higher. Have you priced laptops lately? I saw one for $599.99 that writes DVDs and has 160 GB of disk space. This one, for $50 more, has similar features. Heck, I'll take it! I don't need the one for $1,399.99. I'm not greedy. Well, not that greedy.

But of course I didn't actually buy the $649.99 laptop, or even the $599.99 one. When I sell the novel, or get a raise, sure, but not tonight. No, I bought the $20 keyboard and another $29.99 four-port hub, because I was out of USB ports again and the wires on my desk were a tangled mess.


So I've redeployed the wires and cords to be less messy, and for now I've got the new keyboard sitting on a towel on top of the laptop's worn-out built-in keyboard. It's wonderful to see letters again as I type.


I think the space bar is a little iffy, or maybe it's the height of the keys relative to my fingers that's throwing me off a little. And for some reason I keep getting thrown into a line above where I was typing, so that the new word gets typed in the middle of a previous one. I don't know whether that's a glitch with the new keyboard, or something I'm doing, or the old keyboard reacting to my pounding on the new one above it. Probably the latter. I'll work it out. If I have to, I'll move the laptop back so the new keyboard fits on the desk.

Now, there is one thing I want more than a chocolate cheesecake, a new keyboard or a new laptop. I want to sell the darn novels. Somebody gimme a contract already! Heirs of Mâvarin currently awaits printing so I can send it off to DAW. And I'm on chapter two in editing Mages of Mâvarin. Yes, I started over. Again.

Karen

Now go see what makes everyone else want to say, "Gimme gimme!"

Linking List

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/

Kerrin - Posted!
A New Day, A New Photo
http://kerrinsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

Janet - Posted!
Fond Of Photography
http://fondofphotography.blogspot.com/

Vicki - Posted!
Maraca
http://mymaracas.blogspot.com/

Nancy - Posted!
Nancy Luvs Pics
http://journals.aol.com/nhd106/Nancyluvspix

Steven - Posted!
(sometimes)photoblog
http://sepintx.blogspot.com/

Brandon - Posted!
A Visual Experiment
http://avisualexperiment.blogspot.com/

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com/

Suzanne - POSTED!
New Suzanne R's Life
http://newsuzannerslife.blogspot.com