Some sort (of problem.)
Friday, November 27th, 2020
I’ve got some sort of problem with my desktop machine that I’ve been trying to track down and see what my options are for making it better. Yeah, the machine I’m typing to you on right here.
I think part of the hard drive might be going. And if not that, then the question is: well, what is causing the problems I’m seeing? So I’ve been spending a lot of time googling phrases like “MacOS Error 67050” and “How to replace a fusion drive.”
And then other times (like at this moment) the “stuff going wrong” quotient drops down to zero and I think “maybe it’s just getting better on it’s own,” but the problem there is that these things legitimately almost never get better on their own. Not on a desktop machine, not on a pickup truck’s air conditioning unit, not on…well, you see I have been in this mode a lot lately and the desktop is just the latest place to enjoy this drama.
Five ‘A’s into Wednesday.
Tuesday, November 24th, 2020
It’s the very end of the last Tuesday of November. I had to double-check that with the official calendar on my desktop machine because I’ve been confused before by this month. Too many holidays, birthdays of people we know, and then the whole election thing, which this year seems stranger because we’re not done yet—we’re going to attempt to get Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock up there just enough over 50% in each of their U.S. Senate races because, well, Mitch McConnell, need I say more?
So a lot of the real-world news centers on this alongside coverage of Biden and Harris making relatively quiet announcements from Wilmington, Delaware about which sober, qualified people they’ve asked to join their administration.
And the American media in all its disparate parts can’t seem to keep from reporting on the actual current president (for just a few more weeks) and his attempts to encourage lawsuits and what amount to press conferences with lawyers or lawyer-like people describing what went on at the beginning of this month as something like voter fraud. Except they avoid saying specifically that in court or on actual courtroom documents because, well, they swear an oath when they go into court and you can’t just make stuff up when you do that (as I’m sure they have to explain to their client, daily.)
So I try to distract my political brain by reading reports on the speed and efficiency of the new M1 (Apple Silicon) computers Apple has now released, which definitely have some fine benchmark numbers for the people who discuss new machines by starting with their fine new benchmark numbers to..uh..discuss.
This approach to distraction isn’t necessarily very successful (for me) but I do give it a try. Hope you’re having a good and safe week and your numbers are impressive in their own regard.
Dubious authority?
Monday, November 23rd, 2020
Sammy came across this today while out walking or getting exercise or whatever the heck exactly it it she does. She thought I might be amused. She thought correctly!
Of course, I’d like to think this is the front of Stacey Abrams’ car, but…maybe not.
Midweek.
Wednesday, November 18th, 2020
Okay, somehow these three recent Instagrams are speaking to me at this moment, in the earliest minutes of Wednesday, the 18th of November.
The middle one is from the Upper Peninsula, and shows a sign in front of an ex-restaurant that has also seen better days. The bottom one is from the very early 1980s, when I was shooting lights in the studio in hopes of creating some light bursts that would look good behind a baseball. And the top one is some very old tech indeed, but in fact captured just about a month ago in a program that emulates an early Macintosh down to the last detail.
As far as I can figure out at this moment, there’s nothing that links these three together (except they’re from my Instagram feed and are fairly recent, which is to say since the middle of October when it’s now the middle of November.) Only the falling sign is an actual photograph—the other two are from images I’ve captured in other ways and had lying around.
So when I look back on this in a month or so and say “just what what I thinking?” …well, your guess is and will be as good as mine.
Is it not quite Monday?
Sunday, November 15th, 2020
Yes, I think that’s the case. It’s still Sunday night as I write this. And if I don’t say much of anything at all and push it up onto the internet, then there will be not one but four posts I’ve pushed out that are really impressively content-free while simultaneously agonizing over that state and, when you think about it, there’s a lot of the Internet Out There that has those characteristics.
So I’m fitting right in.
Is it Saturday or Sunday?
Sunday, November 15th, 2020
Well, in this case I know clearly that it’s still Saturday. For another 52 minutes or so.
And then after that, and by the time you read this, yeah, it’s probably extremely Sunday.
Oh, great. I got distracted again and it’s now definitely Sunday.
I seem to get going on a post somewhere in the 11 o’clock hour and then, well, I start moving things around and cleaning them up and, whamo, it’s the next day already.
Which is Sunday the 15th. Halfway through this problematic month!
Not-so-headlines.
Saturday, November 14th, 2020
It’s just one of a bunch of graphics I created at TBS for CNN in the early days of the 24 hour news channel. It ended up on a piece of videotape that ended up as a digital file tucked away somewhere on the older of the two machines here in my office, and I spent some time looking at it tonight, wondering who I did it for and why? Now I’m starting to think it was some sort of headline thing that aired on WTBS, but we already had other graphics for that purpose and…ah, who cares other than me at this moment?
I also spent some time watching a 1989 interview of David Letterman on the NBC show Later, hosted most of the time by Bob Costas.
And then I spent some time (re)reading some of The Cuckoo’s Egg by Clifford Stoll, which I’ve been thumbing through since 1988 or so.
And then finally I had my brain in some sort of place to write this.
Is it Wednesday or Thursday?
Thursday, November 12th, 2020
I thought I had been conscientiously working on this very post, but looking back over the last 45 minutes I’d have to say that I was reading what Sammy wrote, and then what Nancy wrote, and then some other stuff online, and then spent some time earnestly cleaning up some folders on my desktop and…well, what time is it now?
I have no one to blame but myself for these…delays. Interruptions in productivity. Diversions. I’m sorry. What was I saying?
Hello and welcome back.
Tuesday, November 10th, 2020
Tim Cook saying “hello and welcome back” to the amazingly empty innards of Apple Park, or at least to the TV version of the innards of Apple Park.
Because I was trying my best NOT to scroll though every moment of the Twitterverse today I managed to not think about the 1 pm Eastern Apple ‘One More Thing’ announcements until sometime after two, so I went to Apple.com and just rolled the presentation when I was good and ready and I’ll be darned if it didn’t pretty much feel like watching it “live” with most of the world.
After establishing the basics of what the M1 Apple chip was, they went on to show it off in a MacBook Air, a Mac Mini, and a MacBook Pro, any of which you could order today. (You know, the usual outcome of an Apple ‘here’s new stuff’ event.)
Did we order anything? No, no we’re OK for now.
Shadows and light.
Sunday, November 8th, 2020
I sure hope we’re getting back to the place where I don’t feel obligated to write about what we’ve been seeing on the television night after night as we’ve gone through the process of, of what exactly? Voting. And having those votes count for real.
Instead, I can just drop in an image from my walk and say see! There’s something! Ya got your shadows and your utility markings and that kinda twig-like thing near the bottom and…
That has to be better than another frame of MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki pointing at our state on his large computer screen thingie with county returns shown in red and blue.
The Sunday front page.
Saturday, November 7th, 2020
Well, one of them, at least. Posted to the twitterverse by an NYT graphics staffer.
Friday night online.
Friday, November 6th, 2020
Joe Biden on Twitter: I know tensions can be high after a tough election like we just had. But we need to remain calm. Patient. And let the process work out as we count all the votes.
BREAKING: Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has the coronavirus. Meadows informed a close circle of advisers after the election. Also infected: director of battleground strategy Nick Trainer, and up to 3 others high up in the Trump staff.
Jason Johnson on Twitter: Black men and women voted for Biden at a greater rate than any other group of people in America. In fact, Black men voted blue at a greater rate than White, Asian or Latino/LatinX/Hispanic men. They also voted blue at a higher rate than White women. Let’s remember that.
Beto O’Rourke on Twitter: Thank you @staceyabrams for what you made possible in Georgia and throughout this country. The example, the inspiration, the hard work, the selflessness, the generosity towards all who called on you to help. So grateful to and inspired by you.
Difference(s).
Friday, November 6th, 2020
Early early Friday morning, and the difference between Trump and Biden in Georgia is down to 1805.
So at some point, Biden will pass Trump in the statewide return numbers from Georgia. Which is not that big a deal to MSNBC and CNN, but here in Atlanta, it feels like a big deal. It feels like maybe our efforts to get our vote recorded along with thousands of our neighbors was worth it.
Later that same day.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2020
Okay, I’m writing this oh-so-late in the evening on Wednesday. Georgia’s still too close to call.
The late shift.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2020
Well, this is the time of night when I feel (at least) that the folks trying to give you election numbers realize that their job is to also keep you awake enough to absorb them.
Hi, I’m writing this oh-so-early in the morning on Wednesday, where the newspeople are still awake (at least on some channels) and they’re looking at the results from North Carolina, from Wisconsin, and from right here in Georgia.
And, oh yeah, from Pennsylvania, from Arizona, Texas, and…Nevada? Yeah, Nevada.
Windy.
Sunday, November 1st, 2020
We’re having another one of those late fall evenings where the wind outside is rather loud and noticeable. And I usually distract myself from those menacing gusts by paging through the internet. Tonight, two days out from the election, is not a great time to try that.
Two more days.
