I wiped out y’days file by accidentally clicking on the wrong button. One day I dream that Microsoft will make it very easy to disable gimp features and the misery they cause. Would it not be simpler for the whole world to make special computers for gimps? Or at least create a special button you would need to press each day to activate these so-called shortcuts. Not that I am any standard, but every person I know who swears by those shortcuts is a computer idiot. Some of them actually think they are impressing me by knowing fifty of these keyboard commands.To balance the day, I was in an intellectually creative mood. I love such days, I just seem to wake up knowing it will be a thousand mile an hour day. I read big chunks of the textbook to cash in on the mood. I noted many errors in the text in the process. It could be I am still the only student in class doing the required reading.
The Hippie called, and we walked around his neighborhood so he could get his chores done and bills paid. We rarely walk long and fast enough to get to the aerobic plateau of weight loss. Which guy plays the harmonica now? (It is probably Cowboy Mike, the hillbilly guy who is not keen on playing live gigs.) That may have changed, for he seems to have taken a real shine to the new lady who moved in next door. She is a plump middle-aged hunk of frump in my books, but I can see she might have been okay twenty years ago. Her sister is the waitress slash barmaid at Jakes. Her sister is younger, slimmer and blonder (I hear). Suddenly there is an interest in us playing there.
From just the first few things she said I find her revolting. She sat outside and listened to us practicing and jamming y’day. That hillbilly music would certainly make us a deadly and unusual group to perform at biker bars. She would fit right in, but she is absolutely not my type. She talked about how her ex and her broke up in Homestead. It just seems to me unless some women have invisible talents, they should probably stick with what they’ve got. I’ll wait to see the sister. The Hippie is far more tolerant of such people than I am. Then again, he also has a court order not to associate with them.
As long as Mike is falling for her lines, he will show up at practice. For that reason I told The Hippie we should cash in on his sound as fast as possible. I want to get all our tunes on CD with chords and lyrics. I for one do not underestimate the amount of work required to make up tapes and songbooks for new band members. Give them a CD and let them print it up. The Hippie still lives in a world of photocopies on this one. [Author’s note: as usual, the Hippie got into an argument with the Cowboy and he quit before anything got accomplished.]
I tried to create and fathom the document hyperlinks today. A lot of people think the Microsoft help index is so helpful, and it is in an obsolete kind of way. It gives misleading definitions that are incomplete (in most cases) and assume you know the jargon. The most direct improvement they could make is true examples of every command. I’ve known about hyperlinks for 15 years, but never used them. Following the directions given, you can only create a one-way link within a document with no way to return back to where you started. The commands are there, but not any useful examples. I want my document to link to every spot that contains a certain keyword, not just the first one I bookmarked. Single forward links I could have done in 1990. If there has been any improvements, I can’t find them in the index.
Then the Class of ’05 met up at the Kyojin Buffet in Delray. That is one expensive joint. The buffet is fantastic but it is also $17.00 a plate, my weekly budget for staples. They had lots besides sushi and I had some excellent chicken and vegetable tempura. I had a few incredulous looks because I spontaneously addressed the two ladies at the door when we entered. In Chinese (Cantonese). The gang I was with did not know anyone could tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese, much less joke with them. I said we needed a table for six (pronounced “lawk” rhymes with hawk) men, but I used the term for single men, ‘Yan’. This is not strictly what it means, but good enough for this story. Anyway, the women started pointing at each other and saying they were single. Is this the point to remind you that at first some people in the class thought I was making a lot of things up?
Then, our two Latin guys, Juan and Angelo (I can’t remember his name) split and did not make it back to class. They skipped out, no big deal. This isn’t the army. We loaded the anti-bad stuff applications on the Thrift computer and tested a whack of new features. Mike brought a fancy blank for the CD bay where I removed the non-working drive. Looks snappy. He is still having trouble with that fancy computer he built with every little gadget including a few dozen I've never seen. Like a ”northbridge” chipset cooler. It has fins and fans, just like the CPU, and also some flashing LEDs. It has a see-through plastic case.
These customized types of computer cases are the rage with the gamers. They are nice looking and you’ll see a lot more of them. I had this idea twenty years ago in another form. I wanted some really fancy wooden cabinetry type cases, with real expensive keys. Ivory or whatever is close but not endangered. See, the company president has the same plastic cased computer on his desk as the filing clerk, and I envisioned something in a deep oak or walnut, like they used to have for stereos.
Earlier I had stopped at ABC Thrift to remind Dickens that the computer was on the way. I’ve got it in the car. It is newly reformatted and everything is tested out. It has no software, not even games. Thus, I think I may swing past all the Thrift Stores and ask them to put any donated software behind the counter for me.
The main event at class tonight was Minesweeper. Everybody’s got a system to win, including Mike. That is why I floored them with the trick (the hack described a few days back that indicates the presence of a mine.) A few people around there are beginning to suspect I may know a thing or two in this world. I explained the procedure and that it was in the manual. Finding it was a feat of perserverance, not intelligence. But it still floored them. Rewind to those photos I took of the San Soucy Motel. That classic blues backdrop. They took the sign down. It looks like they cut it off with a torch and threw it away. Another landmark carted off to the rubbish heap. Last, I tested the inverter for charging up the video camcorder in the car and it works fine.
