Yesterday, I battled with technology and lost. I started off losing to the new Tapco Firewire interface I’d purchased, fighting with it for two hours before finally not using it through for my open mic. Then I had various problems with my mics (the new positioning is going to take some tweaking, and the 2010 I’ve been using probably isn’t appropriate for it) and various problems with my computer (probably caused by trying to get the interface to work) and various problems with my guitar (the plain steel G I used is just NOT holding, I’ve got to look at a couple of ways of solving that issue) and its pickup (the tuner button is dying on my Alvarez)… and then I ended the night by coming back to the house, setting it all up again – and losing to the Tapco interface AGAIN after another three hours. Only this time I reinstalled the driver three times, finally resulting in a blue screen of death and the introduction to some sort of Windows startup problem solver that only kicks in when your machine WILL start but Windows Vista WON’T. Ultimately Windows System Restore was used to return me to a simpler time…
I’m absolutely filled with hatred. Absolutely filled. Absolute hatred.
I think it began with the threat of the Lloyds’ new appliances. I dropped into their place to pick up some things we’d left there for the last little run to Indiana and back. While I was there I checked out their new refrigerator. With colour touch screen controls and a stainless steel exterior, it’s a little too close to the Terminator for my taste. If it had spoken to me gratingly and threatened me and my race, I might not have been surprised, but I would’ve definitely made a run for it.
And so I think all the rest of my technological woes can be blamed on the fact that I’m intimidated by Heather’s parents’ refrigerator.
Technology fail ended at around 4am. I got up because I was sneezing uncontrollably and, at the risk of tmi-ing you, dear reader, then threw the tissues in the toilet. Then I washed my hands, dryed them… and the towel holder promptly fell our of the wall into the toilet.
Incapable of also doing a restore on my wall at that moment, I went to bed.
Filled with hate… hatred filled.
It should’ve been a great open mic, but battling with my computer always puts me in a really, really bad mood – and losing makes it worse. I’m really excited about the possibilities that the interface opens – home recording has been somewhat closed to me ever since my Fostex went up (and even that simply wasn’t a very good solution) – and the Tapco really should open them again. But at this point, generally I’d have returned the device frustratedly.
Unfortunately, or perhaps cleverly, you can’t install the drivers until you open and register the software – and you can’t return opened software. I’m in a stupid catch 22 that I’ll simply have to battle through.
But I think I’ll spend some more time making sure my machine’s backed up properly first.
Ah yes, I forgot that if I mentioned something pro-environment I was a liberal.
In response to being called out on my “liberal viewpoints”…
That’s my point – you can’t ARGUE the big points – and beyond that, you don’t need to. I don’t need someone to try and show me global warming… AGAIN. I’ve never had anyone prove it to me any more successfully than I’ve had the NEXT person DISprove it. I don’t need someone to convince me that I’d like a cleaner car – it’s a no-brainer. I don’t need someone to convince me that I’d like one that runs off a battery rather than gasoline – also a no-brainer. I don’t need my father developed it. I’m part of a NASA family and have worked in the science community. The knee jerk “anti-green politic” response is to point out that that makes me the enemy. I know – because I listen to NPR (where they laugh at people who don’t make it out of high school) AND right-wing pundits (where the educational elite is out to get you) I feel I’ve got a pretty fair opinion of what pushes BOTH sides buttons.
Unfortunately, it also means I’ve actually dealt with hard facts rather than the twisted versions that get communicated by both the right and the left. Yes – there are cycles. Manmade pollutions and such may or may not have had any influence on it – don’t care… too big. That’s why I’m more concerned about the tailpipe in my room – or the hundreds of thousands of them in my city – than I am about light bulbs.
But again – where’d you come up with throwing “liberal” back at me? Did I say it? No – but the moment anyone says anything practical about “being green” or pro-environment, it’s somehow “Liberal”. I don’t get that. I thought conserving was… conservative?
Believe it or not, the government’s got a place. Whether it stays IN its place – I’d argue it doesn’t. If we were to prove that cell phones and WI-FI were ACTUALLY causing brain tumours, no amount of health stamping and rallying would turn us away from the ease of their use. You’d NEED direct intervention. If an asteroid was heading towards the planet and we COULD do something about it, government should totally FORCE complicity with the actions that would deflect disaster. If the only way to do it was forced labour in some plutonium mine for 10,000 people so we could scrounge enough nuclear material to blow it out of the sky – that’s what government is for – to make the decisions that HAVE to be made but are too big for an individual or a smaller community to face…
However, as it approaches the environment, since the government can’t get its act together enough to figure out whether environmentalism is good or bad (with or without a “capital E”), it needs to agree on some other things: importing oil from countries that might just not have what’s good for us in mind is perhaps bad. Energy independence is good. Simply drilling and mining here could help for a little while, but it’s NOT a permanent solution – so work on something in between… as always – the Right side freaks out that we’d do something ENVIRONMENTAL and develop other sources of
someone to convince me that nuclear’s better than coal – and that efficient solar is better than both – it’s a no-brainer. The cleaner the better because I’ve been in Baltimore on a hot smoggy day, and I’ve worked at institutions where I can do the science myself, and I can see how bad air quality can be. I’ve got friends who work at coal mines, and I see what they cough up. And I know the science behind “clean coal” – (yes, just as I know the science behind “bio-fuel, and you’ll note it’s not in any of my chains up there).
What is “green bullshit” in your opening sentence? Didja make a mistake and maybe mean to capitalize that? Was it “capital G green”? The movement? That sure seems to be what you’re talking about – but it’s not what I’M talking about. I can’t stand how the Gores of the world have politicized something what can and SHOULD be a common sense argument. Rush Limbaugh fires back and makes it about personal freedom. You make it too big for someone to see and you take it out of their power to prove or disprove – and beyond that, you create anger at environmental consciousness where I think you MEANT to point your finger at a politicized “environmental movement” that is controlling your movements. In music it’s “indie / independent” vs “Indie / ‘Indie Rock’”, but it’s the same problem. Careful with your semantics.
With environmentalism – it doesn’t need this huge argument. I’ve not discussed stewardship. I don’t care if I’ve got a rainforest for posterity. I don’t care about the exotic toads that are killed by the incursion of cities. Bio-fuels are indeed a farce. However, the knee-jerk reaction of “anything green is bad” is absolutely as pathetic as the hippie reflex to buy anything made out of hemp. Because the argument has been turned into pseudo-science and political wrangling, people can’t see the problems in front of their faces and react in anger rather than with any sort of willingness to communicate or cooperate.
Global warming? Global cooling? Don’t care. Climate change is real – chaos theory steps in and pretty much shows we can’t totally predict what it’s going to do. Now what are you going to do about it? I know you get information from the news and from websites and from whatever sources you get it from. I’ve worked on the GOES project, energy (God forbid we spend money on something forward-thinking!) and the Left freaks out that we’d do something CAPITALIST and ease the pain by using what we’ve got in the meantime (Goddess forbid we do something practical!). And in the process, they completely ignore the middle.
And I’m using energy and environmentalism as the centre of this – but it applies across the board. Whether its torture, or human rights, the death penalty, health care… if it can’t fit on a sign or a headline, people don’t know how to talk about it – and if it even APPROACHES a keyword (socialism, liberalism, environmentalism) the conversation spirals into this idiotic and blind spouting of rhetoric.
That’s what I’m talking about. If you want to be upset that the government is going to tell you which light bulbs to use, get upset about THAT. And beyond that, do something about it. If you’re upset that anyone who thinks green is a “tree-hugging pussy”, may I encourage you towards that aforementioned coal-mining career. That’s about as un-pussy as it gets.
