July 8, 2004

• Latest News/Things to Do

  
  

  Thursday already. 20 bux in my pocket. (Negative amount in the bank, but whose counting?) Weekend coming up. Cancerboy went in for his fifth chemo yesterday (I’m starting to lose count). Still no change, looks and acts the same, says he’s feeling fine, except for some slight nausea every now and then. We’ve “finalized” the modem we need to get so that  he can hook up his Apple to the internet. We’ve called SBC about twice each (the latest technician doesn’t ever care about the last technician’s “reference number”, they just give me a “new” one). He says he has the “airport” (wireless) card in his new machine, so the router/modem he will buy will replace mine. I’ll hook up the PC in the media room to the modem, and he should be able to “link up” from his bedroom over the “air”. He’s still a little “afraid” of this process, but when the SBC people told him there was no other option (except for setting up a completely separate phone line) he gave in. Poor guy told me he “looked into a lot of “folders” ” on his new computer and wondered what they are for. “That’s where you file your photos, documents, etc.” I told him. “Where do I get the stuff to put in the folders.” (It’s like talking to a baby.) “Look” I said, and showed him just the “Pictures” folder on my machine, which takes up about 60 gigs of space on my removable hard drive. “I can spend hours just looking at the photos I have on my machine. Here’s where I keep my website, and here’s my transcribed work from my “analog binders”.” “I don’t have anything to “put” on the computer,” he remarked. I told him he could “make a CD”, heck, he could burn a DVD with his. I told him I believed the Imac has  CD burning and video capture built in. “You could conceivably hook up a phono or a video cassette player directly into your computer, capture “analog” images as digital ones on your hard drive, and “make your own videos.”" Now telling someone who had a hard time sending a simple email that you can use a computer for digital video editing is like speaking French to a Golden Retreiver (Poodles probably understand French) so Joel is starting to wonder what he will “do” with his computer.

  
  

  I told him he can “get images” from online. He can “watch movies” online. “Read the news”, “communicate with humanity”. “Spend too much time online”. But he has to get online, or else the machine is just another white elephant, which will end up in the garage with all the other misdirected “hobbies” of his, like his bicycle, and camping gear. Poor Joel seems to want to “accomplish” things (other than sitting in front of my bigscreen watching all the channels on my satellite dish all day long, which I guess is “entertainment” to him) now that he has cancer. It’s like that Tim McGraw song, “Live like you were dying”. I’d love to see Joel jump out of a plane, or hike the Rockies. So his next step is to get the modem which will allow both of us to hook up online. I’ve already told him I have some correspondents who have cancer who want to “talk to him”, but he seems to think my “internet travels” are a bunch of hooey. He’s not a particularly “creative” type, and he looks at all the “icons” on the desktop, and wonders what they “do”. This is a hoot, really. There are people at work in exactly the same boat as Joel. Mike, our general manager, just got his “first” home computer. Heck, since 1998 I’ve torn apart and rebuilt three computers, and I still don’t have “what I want”. (But “what I want” always seems to be in the “engineering stage” and not available for sale. I “wanted” to be able to “burn DVDs” when the DVD player was invented, and now I don’t have a DVD burner, and really don’t want to buy one yet because there are still three competing types. (Remember BETA!!! Remember CED!!!! Remember Laserdiscs!!!!!) But it sure would help making my little “internet movies”. I’ve got the itch to put some of my Renaissance Faire footage or Scottish Festival music footage into a video, but as soon as I put another video online, I have to take “Painted Desert Dreams” offline. (To anyone reading who has never visited AllThingsMike that is a link to my latest “offering” with footage shot in 2000 in Arizona and New Mexico, and original music by my friend Jim Zabel.

  
  

  Oh, well, look at the time. Got to get to work. Again. The cycle repeats itself. Can’t wait for lunch.  And now “at work” as if I never stopped typing. (In the future we will send wireless blog entries through our cellphones.) I think this weekend will be a “photography expedition”. I want to go to Catalina, but the cost is somewhat prohibitive, since I would want to stay overnight in a hotel. There’s the zoo. That was going to be last weekend’s “expedition” but I didn’t really “decide” to go until past 1 in the afternoon on Monday, and the zoo closes at 5pm. There is a “botanical garden” at the zoo, the website proclaims, and I love botanical gardens. Would love to take photos at a museum, and the only one which allows that is the Getty. So there are options that aren’t too expensive. Now I’ve got to stop those 30 bux lunches (he says again) .

  
  

  I signed up for a “matchmaking” service at a website called tickle.com. They asked more questions than I have ever encountered in one of these endeavors, and had me take “tests” which reminded me of those psyche profiles I had to take back in college. After all this, I found (as usual) that if you wish to “use” the site, you have to pay. I don’t want to pay for anymore internet endeavors. (I said that before subscribing to this Xanga service, and the Webshots, and the webhosting, etc., etc., etc.) I did get an email however, from a gal who probably already subscribed to the service. I’ll answer her eventually, because I “answer all emails” but she’s 56, that’s four years older than me, and I’m really not “interested” in “older women” from a relationship standpoint after my relationship with Regina, and she was only three years older. (Why can’t I interest some nice young 37 year old, he wonders? Notice I didn’t put “25″ year old, because I don’t consider myself a dirty old man yet) At least the gal was in Los Angeles. Usually I attract women on the other side of the world (gimme that green card ). I am also having some wonderful correspondence with my poet friend, Anne, and hopefully this weekend will begin writing some emails to some of the folks here on this Xanga service who come by to “comment” on these postings. I’ve received some really nice “comments”. Well, it’s now time to go take my walk, and start wondering how I’m going to drop the 7 pounds I just gained back. (“Don’t drink so much beer, stupid, ” the little angel on my shoulder remarks, “and those chocolates you nibble at work have to go”) I know this, but when I drink a few beers, I sleep better, and if I don’t the insomnia causes crankiness the next day. Oh, life, where is thy sting? It’s right here, hurting like hell. Oh well. Oh well. Oh well. (Three times for emphasis.) Out for a fast walk around the block now, and then,….to work.

  • 8:22 am
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