(no subject)
Oh, I am so behind with everything fannish. This weekend I did something that caused me to lose access to my secondary HD. It all started when I couldn't install iTunes on my desktop and decided it might be a good idea to do an "install repair" of Windows (because my research indicated that Windows "degrades" over the years - man, Microsoft sucks!). Which of course eliminated SP1, which you need to access a HD larger than 137G. Etc. etc. etc. Hours and hours and hours and hours of research and downloading recovery tools and reading forums and tearing my hair out later, I finally fixed it - I'm not precisely sure how. The HD is back and accessible, with its two partitions intact - they have different drive letters now, but whatever. It's made me wonder whether it's time for a new computer - there are now all sorts of things I can't install on the desktop, and it's about 3 years old now - veritably ancient. But then I'd have to transfer 75 applications over to the new computer. Blech.
So anyway, after all that I still can't install iTunes on the desktop, but I put it on the laptop at least - which it turns out is kind of better anyway, because I can bring my music with me! I'm a bit behind on this whole computerized music thing - don't even have an iPod (yet :-D), and until last night I had a total of about 10 songs on my HD. But I went a bit wild with iTunes last night, and now I'm down in NC listening to music while I do this! Wow, how cool! Who knew?! Now I'm all into AAC and MP3 and WMA and kbps, and I've hinted to Mr. JaC that an iPod would be a nice gift this holiday. But it's all very perplexing. How high quality do I really need in music anyway? There are just too many choices.
(And just to bring the topic back to Pros, which is never far from my mind these days *g*, I was thinking about Pros vids a bit tonight, partly because some of the music I downloaded was from vids - I like listening to those songs; they make me all smiley. I've decided that The Who's You Better You Bet would be a great song for a Pros vid. Not that I actually have a vision in my head of what such a vid would look like, or any intention of making one. But the song seems to fit, for various reasons that I'm not going to attempt to explain right now. Hmmm. I wonder what that says about my view of the characters?? *g*)
I also had a bunch of exhausting (mostly emotionally) horse things over the weekend, which had to do with my search for a new horse - a long, slow, emotional roller coaster of a process, and I'm still a very very long way from completing it, or even getting anywhere.
There aren't all that many horses near me that have the characteristics I'm looking for, so I'm having to look further afield, getting videos from people around the country and showing them to my trainer to decide whether any are worth pursuing. None have been so far. But there are two local horses that are prospects. One I'd tried twice already, and this Sunday was scheduled to ride him again. I'm lucky enough to live near Linda Zang, who's one of only two "O" dressage judges in the country (meaning she's qualified to judge dressage at the Olympic level). I've ridden in clinics with her before - she's got an amazing eye for horses. And my own trainer, who's also a native of this area, has known her for years. So I asked whether she'd come watch me ride this horse and give me her opinion. That was scheduled for Sunday.
So Sunday comes. First I'm all stressed about the computer problem, so I leave a little late. I was supposed to ride at 3 and had made arrangements with the horse's owner to be there at 2:30. And Mr. JaC had decided to come along - which is unusual; he's not too involved in horsey stuff. So as I'm driving I get a call - turns out Linda was confused and thought we were scheduled for 2! So she's there waiting for me, further stressing me out. It's not so good to be stressed when you get on a horse - they can really sense it.
I shouldn't have been so stressed - about riding at least, because the ride went great, and I totally forgot about all the computer stuff. The horse is wonderful, lovely, very kind; I'd loved him the two times I'd ridden him and was seriously considering him ... but at the end Linda (and her husband, who was also there and is a horse buyer and trainer) told me, run don't walk away from this horse. She thought the horse, while very nice, just didn't look fully sound; he's only 8 years old, so if he's not sound now I'd have problems down the line. No matter how nice he is, if he's not sound he's going to be nothing but heartbreak. I couldn't tell myself, but this is a woman who has seen and bought and trained so many horses and is respected nationally and internationally - if she tells me, I listen. So, so much for that.
I do have one other prospect right now. There's another local horse I'm interested in, and he was going to be at a show about an hour from me on Saturday, so I dragged friend N (who's also in the middle of a horse search, having had to retire her guy because of a badly torn deep digital flexor tendon) out there at an ungodly hour Saturday morning. Horse looked nice to me and N, but neither of us is experts. So we videoed him. My trainer likes, but doesn't love him; in any event, I'm scheduled to go with her to ride him and give him a try next weekend.
Luckily, Griggs is doing okay, so I'm not really in any huge rush. But I think it's only a matter of time before he really can't do what I ask of him anymore, and I don't want to push him past that. And I don't want to be in a position of searching for a horse after Griggs stops being able to work for me; then I'll feel desperate. So I'm starting to feel a bit of pressure, even though the last thing I want is two horses.
Sometimes I'm tempted just to quit the whole thing. Blech.
So after all that, I still had to find a way to fix the computer, then I had to rush through the week getting ready to leave. As a result, I feel entirely disconnected from all things fannish - I'm behind on my email returns, I woefully neglected a very fun beta, I've barely skimmed LJ, and I have so many things to upload to the archive - though I've at least tried to keep up with crack_van recs, since my tenure ends soon ....
So this is just a little reconnection post - more for my own benefit, to ease me back into it, but also to let anyone who's interested know that I'm still here. Not good timing, I know, right before Thanksgiving .... But now's when I finally feel more calm. All I have to do now is bake 3 pies for tomorrow, which is very fun for me, and then do fannish stuff for the rest of the week - watch eps and read and archive and LJ! Yay!
So anyway, after all that I still can't install iTunes on the desktop, but I put it on the laptop at least - which it turns out is kind of better anyway, because I can bring my music with me! I'm a bit behind on this whole computerized music thing - don't even have an iPod (yet :-D), and until last night I had a total of about 10 songs on my HD. But I went a bit wild with iTunes last night, and now I'm down in NC listening to music while I do this! Wow, how cool! Who knew?! Now I'm all into AAC and MP3 and WMA and kbps, and I've hinted to Mr. JaC that an iPod would be a nice gift this holiday. But it's all very perplexing. How high quality do I really need in music anyway? There are just too many choices.
(And just to bring the topic back to Pros, which is never far from my mind these days *g*, I was thinking about Pros vids a bit tonight, partly because some of the music I downloaded was from vids - I like listening to those songs; they make me all smiley. I've decided that The Who's You Better You Bet would be a great song for a Pros vid. Not that I actually have a vision in my head of what such a vid would look like, or any intention of making one. But the song seems to fit, for various reasons that I'm not going to attempt to explain right now. Hmmm. I wonder what that says about my view of the characters?? *g*)
I also had a bunch of exhausting (mostly emotionally) horse things over the weekend, which had to do with my search for a new horse - a long, slow, emotional roller coaster of a process, and I'm still a very very long way from completing it, or even getting anywhere.
There aren't all that many horses near me that have the characteristics I'm looking for, so I'm having to look further afield, getting videos from people around the country and showing them to my trainer to decide whether any are worth pursuing. None have been so far. But there are two local horses that are prospects. One I'd tried twice already, and this Sunday was scheduled to ride him again. I'm lucky enough to live near Linda Zang, who's one of only two "O" dressage judges in the country (meaning she's qualified to judge dressage at the Olympic level). I've ridden in clinics with her before - she's got an amazing eye for horses. And my own trainer, who's also a native of this area, has known her for years. So I asked whether she'd come watch me ride this horse and give me her opinion. That was scheduled for Sunday.
So Sunday comes. First I'm all stressed about the computer problem, so I leave a little late. I was supposed to ride at 3 and had made arrangements with the horse's owner to be there at 2:30. And Mr. JaC had decided to come along - which is unusual; he's not too involved in horsey stuff. So as I'm driving I get a call - turns out Linda was confused and thought we were scheduled for 2! So she's there waiting for me, further stressing me out. It's not so good to be stressed when you get on a horse - they can really sense it.
I shouldn't have been so stressed - about riding at least, because the ride went great, and I totally forgot about all the computer stuff. The horse is wonderful, lovely, very kind; I'd loved him the two times I'd ridden him and was seriously considering him ... but at the end Linda (and her husband, who was also there and is a horse buyer and trainer) told me, run don't walk away from this horse. She thought the horse, while very nice, just didn't look fully sound; he's only 8 years old, so if he's not sound now I'd have problems down the line. No matter how nice he is, if he's not sound he's going to be nothing but heartbreak. I couldn't tell myself, but this is a woman who has seen and bought and trained so many horses and is respected nationally and internationally - if she tells me, I listen. So, so much for that.
I do have one other prospect right now. There's another local horse I'm interested in, and he was going to be at a show about an hour from me on Saturday, so I dragged friend N (who's also in the middle of a horse search, having had to retire her guy because of a badly torn deep digital flexor tendon) out there at an ungodly hour Saturday morning. Horse looked nice to me and N, but neither of us is experts. So we videoed him. My trainer likes, but doesn't love him; in any event, I'm scheduled to go with her to ride him and give him a try next weekend.
Luckily, Griggs is doing okay, so I'm not really in any huge rush. But I think it's only a matter of time before he really can't do what I ask of him anymore, and I don't want to push him past that. And I don't want to be in a position of searching for a horse after Griggs stops being able to work for me; then I'll feel desperate. So I'm starting to feel a bit of pressure, even though the last thing I want is two horses.
Sometimes I'm tempted just to quit the whole thing. Blech.
So after all that, I still had to find a way to fix the computer, then I had to rush through the week getting ready to leave. As a result, I feel entirely disconnected from all things fannish - I'm behind on my email returns, I woefully neglected a very fun beta, I've barely skimmed LJ, and I have so many things to upload to the archive - though I've at least tried to keep up with crack_van recs, since my tenure ends soon ....
So this is just a little reconnection post - more for my own benefit, to ease me back into it, but also to let anyone who's interested know that I'm still here. Not good timing, I know, right before Thanksgiving .... But now's when I finally feel more calm. All I have to do now is bake 3 pies for tomorrow, which is very fun for me, and then do fannish stuff for the rest of the week - watch eps and read and archive and LJ! Yay!