Tuesday, May 27, 2008

"Pardon my adjustments..."

Just to be upfront, my blog posts may be rather spotty for yet another day or two as I've kind of run into a pickle...and I ain't talking no baby gherkin, either...more like one of those giant ones you can buy (or used to could) singly in a bag of vinegar based juice that you can snack on for an eternity (flashback to being a kid in Columbus, GA where I'd go to the local 7-11 and get one of those pickle bags for $0.25, I think...).


My desktop computer tower is, well, now 'dead'. I had noticed a couple of months ago the CD and DVD drive bays weren't working properly, and later weren't working or even recognized on the computer utilities tree. Operated around that; but last week an older problem returned where one of the hard drives would loudly and shortly SCRAAAAATCH and freeze up solid, with a hardboot the only fix possible. It got more frequent the end of last week, and then Sunday it would do it within 5 minutes of start-up.

Turned off the power...let it sit a bit, then thought I'd try and reseat the suspected drive for good measure, and that kind of grew the big pickle real fast: the start-up screen wants boot-up device to be inserted (I had been prepared to reformat anyway as I'd backed up the bulk of my information and programs)...the kicker is, of course, the computer can't 'see' either of the drives, hence I can't even boot up from them. For now, I'm stuck dead in the water, like a masted sailing ship far out to sea, whose trade winds have moved and left me in a big, big doldrum.

So, in hours of Sunday's frustration, I've shifted duties over to my laptop, which I was not going to use as a main computer, but too bad now - I've tapped it into knightdom. I did install my audio recording program on it, Adobe Audition 1.5, and I can process music professionally as I did on my tower; however, my sound card for microphone input seems far too inadequate to record directly through the computer's mic input, forcing me to now go record into an independent device (and far superior, anyway) and simply import that file into the laptop program. That will be today's experiment. Got the goods, just got to take the time and focus to figure it all out.

I say all that as I have a stack of things I have to tend to computer-wise, especially with my flutes and sound files of them....and these delays while I shift strategies has me uncomfortably backed up. In the midst of my frustrations must be an 'answer' that will ultimately improve and streamline my recording efforts...and where I'll be thankful for the Universal 'push' to move me over to the other side of the stream.

Quiet apologies go out to any of you who may be patiently waiting on various types of info from me...I have to believe I'll make bigger strides today, now that I'm passed yesterday's 'realization' that I'm, in a word, screwed...at least for the moment. And until I can get comfortably readjusted with all these recent 'issues', this blog may be a little quirky for a few more days. (As if it weren't quirky already!)

Off to the land of forecast data for now....wheeeeeeeee!!!

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