My new iPod Nano:
It’s not exactly new anymore, more like newish. I forgot to post about it. I like the new iPod Nano much better than my old iPod Video. Of course it can’t hold as many songs, but who needs to carry around more than 2,000 songs? And the cool thing with the new Nano…if you shake it, it shuffles the songs! Yay.
Here’s what’s left of my old iPod:
Seriously, do not even ask. I’m not discussing it.
Switching to my new laptop has been more difficult than expected. Most of the struggles have not been related to PC vs. Mac issues though, but just the difficulty of switching to a new computer when my whole life was on the old one. Until this week, I did not have Microsoft Office for Mac, which meant that I still had to use my PC a lot. Now that I have this software (plus iWork), I will be able to transition more fully to the new MacBook. Still, I can’t just put the PC in a closet because it has Photoshop on it and other photo-editing software that I can’t afford to buy for another computer. Grrrrrrr.
As you know, this is my second MacBook. This one seems to be working fine, with no obvious problems. I hope I’m wrong, but I do wonder if the first computer I got was refurbished? Perhaps it would be illegal for the Apple Store to engage in such dirty tricks. I’m probably just being paranoid, but students do get a hefty discount and, well, I’m sure you can connect the dots in my thinking process.
For me, making the PC to Mac transition hasn’t been bad. [I do have a few Mac-related problems that I've listed below if anyone can help.] If a person has a lot of PC-specific software, then switching to a Mac might not be cost-effective. I have two expensive CD-ROM dictionaries — one is British English, the other is French. They won’t work on a Mac, which is a huge bummer. If I had lots of expensive software like this that would be rendered useless on a Mac, I may hesitate about making the switch, but for me, this is not really an issue. I use my computer mostly for word-processing, internet, photo editing, movie watching and music. These are all very basic things. As long as I have access to MS Word, I can easily use a Mac or PC — it really doesn’t matter. I know not all computer users are in this position, but it’s worked out fine for me.
Yesterday I read an article on the Sydney Morning Herald website about the launch of Google Street View in Australia and all the controversy it’s causing. Until I read this article, I was only vaguely aware of Google Street View. This afternoon I logged on and within a minute, found footage of the house where I spent many of my growing-up years, seen above, which included the exact address. I also virtually explored the whole neighborhood, as if I were riding around in a car.
Is it just me, or is there something seriously wrong with this? I think this is a horrible invasion of privacy, not to mention the fact that it’s just…CREEPY. I really wonder what purpose it serves? Why do we need these images instead of just a map? Besides the issue of basic privacy, Google Street View is a valuable tool for stalkers, voyeurs and criminals, including terrorists. Just think, if you’re a burglar you don’t need to case the joint before breaking in — just log on to Google Street View and get all the info you need.
My second MacBook in a week. I hope this one’s a keeper.
I’ve used one of my Paris sunset photos as my wallpaper. This view from Pont Neuf always makes me happy. It calms me down when I’m fretting over not having a right-click on my mouse (arrggghhh!) and searching, fruitlessly, for any sort of delete key. FN + backspace — that’s it? Oh, come on! Is this a British thing or a Mac thing?
It’s really cool, however, to have a built-in webcam and microphone. It makes Skype calls super fun - no headset! On the downside, now that people can see me, I have to brush my hair.
So I bought a new MacBook last week. I was very excited…until the next day, when it started malfunctioning. I would put it to sleep and sometimes it wouldn’t wake up. I couldn’t even get it to turn back on unless I held down the start button for about ten seconds or more and then it lurched and sputtered to life. The computer would behave as if it had crashed and would completely restart. Whatever I had on the desktop was gone. Not only that, but some of the things I had been working on had disappeared…erased…vanished forever into the abyss.
I called tech support and this very sweet Indian guy walked me through all sorts of things, involving unplugging the computer, removing the battery, restarting it, pressing down four keys at once, erasing files, etc. At one point we deleted what I considered to be a rather important system file. The guy told me not to worry, that the Mac would “regenerate” it. I asked him how it was possible for the computer to recreate by itself a file that was damaged and deleted, but he said “that’s the magic of a Mac.” The scary thing is that I think he meant “magic” literally. Creepy.
So after the call with the tech guy (who wasn’t really a tech guy, but just a dude reading out of a manual — by the way, he sounded completely panic-stricken, as if he were a 911 operator and I was bleeding to death) so after I talked to him, the computer worked for a while, then started malfunctioning again. So the next day, I just put the effing thing back in the box and pulled out my Dell. And it stayed in the box all weekend and yesterday.
I planned to return it to the Apple Store today to demand a brand new one. I don’t want it serviced, I want a new one. I erased all the files I had on it, everything I had painstakingly downloaded, etc. And then I waited for the laptop to malfunction again so I could return it to the store in that state. Otherwise, why would they believe me when I tell them it’s not working? So you can probably guess where I’m going with this. The stupid computer won’t malfunction on command. All day I’ve been putting it to sleep and it’s been waking up just fine. I mean, what’s going on? Has it spontaneously healed itself using its magical powers?
Tomorrow it goes back to the shop.
I have to get my MacBook ASAP. Today, Norton Anti-Virus effed with me for the last effing time.
I want to buy a new computer. My current laptop is exactly three years old and it’s starting to slow down. I even get the blue screen of death occasionally and the whole thing shuts down. Being a computer moron, I don’t really know if this is a worrisome development or not. I know it can’t be good. I’ve known so many people whose computers have crashed at the 3-year mark, causing them to lose everything. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. To be honest, I also fancy a newer, faster computer. This one takes ten minutes to boot up! And it’s very heavy and not comfortably portable at all.
The computer I have now is the best I’ve ever owned by far. It’s a Dell Inspiron 6000 and has been utterly fantastic, except for the drawbacks I just mentioned. [I know other people with Dells who have not been so lucky.] But I am seriously thinking of switching to a Mac, something I SWORE I would NEVER do! It’s the end of the world!
I mentioned in an earlier post that my identity had been revealed on the internet by accident. The problem was temporarily fixed…but now it’s back again. And you know, I don’t have high hopes that it will ever be truly fixed; at this point, it’s like trying to un-ring a bell. The damage is done and it’s not the first time something like this has happened. My name is not common, which means if a person searches for me in Google, they’ll find my blog quite easily — hence the worry. I never intended for this blog to be linked to my real name. Anyway, my gut tells me I need to protect myself in other ways now because I’ve been a bit reckless. I’ve hastily deleted sections of certain posts (which I hate to do) and put password protection on others. I’m just doing what I can right now until I figure out a better plan. Given my lack of sleep, that may take a while!
Anglofille turns two years old today! For the record, it’s pronounced: anglo-FEE. Or at least, that’s how I intend for it to be pronounced. If you say it differently, I’m not going to sue you.
Today on Anglofille’s big day, I decided I’d read through the archives from start to finish. It was quite fun at first to read my old ramblings [though the writing was pretty bad]. Damn, I was really feisty when I started, even more than now I think. After Samuel Alito was confirmed to the Supreme Court, I posted something long and rabid titled Welcome to the Christianist Republic of Ameristan.
Anyway, I was having a merry old time, reading along. Then I got to Paris. I read through September 2006 and had to stop because it was upsetting me too much. It wasn’t just what I wrote, but that I immediately remembered how I was feeling when I wrote it. So my trip through the archives came to a halt. Some other time, I guess.
Everywhere I go, people keep talking about Facebook. I’m serious. In restaurants, shops, etc. I’m not entirely sure what Facebook is. I get hits on my blog from it, which perhaps means there’s some sort of campaign out there against me. In a shop the other day, some of the customers were chatting about Facebook. I asked them, “What’s the big deal with Facebook?” And they told me it was great, that you can use it to find old friends and people you grew up with.
Ah. Well, if I were interested in keeping in touch with people I grew up with, I wouldn’t have moved thousands of miles away from them at the first chance I got. And I certainly wouldn’t have moved to a different country. So, uh, no thanks Facebook. That sounds like my idea of Hell.
Before you dash off to the electronics superstore, be sure you’re making an informed decision. Perhaps I can help. Let’s pretend you have two options:
A) buy an Epson printer
B) withdraw the money needed to buy the Epson printer from the bank, then set your cash on fire and watch it burn into a pile of ash
If these are the only two choices, I heartily recommend option B. Yes, it would suck to watch your money literally go up in flames. But based on my own personal experience, the end result of option A and option B are exactly the same — and option B will cause you a lot less aggravation in the long-run.
A blast from the past! I currently have 22, 090 messages in my personal inbox. These are all messages I’ve read but haven’t deleted. I delete my messages sometimes, but sometimes I forget. Ahem. Luckily, I still have 62 percent of my storage space available on Yahoo.
I just went back to look at the oldest message. It’s from February 2003. The subject line is: “People are talking about you.” It was from one of my grad school classmates — I was studying for my MFA in creative writing at that time. People were quite scandalized by me and my political views for some reason. I went to school with a group of the most politically unaware writers you could ever imagine. Some dolt in my class even wrote a mean-spirited editorial about me and my fiery and feminist graduate lecture for her local NPR station. As a result of the furor surrounding that whole thing, a 60-something classmate called me the “Susan B. Anthony” of our grad program. God, I had forgotten about all that till just now. Good times.
I just deleted 1500 spam blog comments (without reading any of them) and 1800 spam e-mails from my blog account (once again, without reading them). If you left a legit comment or sent me an e-mail and it went to spam, I apologize for missing it. It wasn’t personal, I promise. I will try to go through the spam every few days from now on, though I resent having to deal with spam and may just keep bulk deleting it. What really creeps me out is when my e-mail password appears in the subject line of the spam e-mail.
I haven’t posted much this week because I am busy finishing up my class from hell. And work is crazy. I’m convinced there are numerous people out there — on both sides of the Altantic — who want to see me go bonkers before Friday night rolls around. The odds right now are 50-50.
Also, it’s tough to transition back to my normal fare after my recent posts on the murder of Dua Khalil Aswad. I have felt such horrible grief for this woman who I never knew. It affected me terribly for days. And my reaction surprised me. The news is filled with horrors on a daily basis. We obviously must distance ourselves from such things or we wouldn’t be able to function. But Dua’s story affected me in a way that few other news stories have since 9/11. I am taking steps to turn my rage and sadness into something productive, something that will make a difference for women. I will write about that soon. If you want to see a picture of Dua as she looked in life, I will link to a page in a moment that includes a photo of her and news stories. But please note that there are a couple of disturbing images on this page, so please take that into consideration before clicking through. Link.
Finally, thank you to The Vol Abroad for tagging me with the Thinking Bloggers Award! I’m very flattered, especially given how much her blog makes me think. You know, she was the first blogger who linked to Anglofille, which was very exciting for me when it happened. I felt like a real blogger! I think now I am supposed to tag five bloggers who make me think. Hmmm, that would be tough. There are so many. Maybe I’ll just accept my award and be happy!
There’s now a nifty new contact form on the About page. I erased my bio because I’m writing a new one and I noticed that as soon as I erased it, the 5,000 spam messages I get per day advertising penis enlargement suddenly stopped flowing into my inbox. What a blessed day that was. I don’t really need to make my non-existent penis any larger, thanks very much. So I hope this new contact form does the trick. You have to answer a simple math question in order for your message to go through — something like, “what is 13 +2?” So it looks like I won’t be hearing from the penis enlargers or those who can’t add. I can live with that.
The aforementioned problem in RSS is fixed, thanks to a plug-in installed by Emily. Seems the problem was indeed a quirk of the new WordPress. I don’t know why I’m so nice to you subscribers.
And finally, welcome to all my new readers from China, who are landing here via this blog that linked to my post on female infanticide. That blog must be pretty darn popular. Greetings!
I love the new WordPress upgrade. Autosave! Ahhh!
If you subscribe to this blog via RSS, then you probably noticed that you have to click through to read some of my posts. What a major imposition! Oh la la. I think this might have to do with the aforementioned upgrade. I’m working on it…
And finally, one of my friends wrote my real name in a blog comment recently and I didn’t notice it for a few days, until someone pointed it out. Oh la la. I don’t care if people know my name, I just keep it off this site for professional reasons. So I hope you all like my name. You’re probably pronouncing it wrong though.
I hope you like my new look! You know I’m obsessed with changing things. And I kept my previous blog design for nearly a year! (The photo header changed from London to Paris, but that’s it.) A year is a long time for me to stick with anything. Since I started this blog a year and a half ago, I’ve moved three times. (Well, moved two times and been forcibly removed once.) And I am currently packing for yet another move. So it was time for the blog to change too.
The fabulous Emily took my notes and brought my ideas to life. I’m not sure how she makes sense of my insane ramblings, but she does. (I’m sure you can just imagine what it’s like working with me on something like this!) I didn’t want a completely new look because I like my overall design scheme, but I felt it was time for a cleaner, more streamlined appearance.
With my old layout, you probably noticed I was very bad about updating the Word of the Day and Photo of the Day. It was a bit of a pain, to be honest. But now I have a little space over there where I can post anything – words of the day, photos, quotes, books I’m reading, recipes, grocery lists, vicious gossip about people in my blogroll. I won’t change it everyday – just when the mood strikes. Of course, those of you who subscribe to this blog via RSS will miss the excitement. And you’ll also miss all this lovely lavender. There’s a whole lotta lavender on this site now – white space has been banished! Lavender is soothing for the soul. Let it wash over you. Ahhhhhhh.
As if all this excitement isn’t enough, there is one more change that will be happening shortly. The Eiffel Tower photo will be replaced by my original photo of…Big Ben! Yes, that’s right. Three weeks from today brings the return of Big Ben. Mark your calendars.
[Yikes, three weeks from today? I’ve got sooooo much to do. Damn these international moves.]
Go to Google and type in “French Military Victories,” then hit “I’m Feeling Lucky.” This is what comes up:
An arc-en-ciel spanning the sky above Paris, from the Ile de la Cité, above the Louvre and the Tuileries and the Place de la Concorde, touching down behind La Madeleine. It was so enormous that it couldn’t be photographed as a whole. The left half faded quickly, but the right side, pictured here, was intense and bright and lasted for so long that it defied belief.
A few weeks ago I was looking for a sign. I rounded a corner and I saw a rainbow appear and then vanish very quickly. Rather unbelievably, once again this evening I was looking for a sign. And I think I found it.
That’s Paris, full of surprises.
I never thought I’d stay away from the blog for so long. I have a lot to say, but for now I’ll just stick with photos. The words will come, eventually, in their own time.
[Video]
Beangreen left a comment on my previous post that sort of sums up my life at the moment. I love it when my friends leave comments on my blog. Unlike my blog readers, they just cut right to the chase — and use obscenities when necessary.
I think I need a bit of a hiatus from the blog. I need some time to sort out my life. If I do this while writing my blog, my life becomes entertainment. That’s not healthy for me at this time.
I’ll be back in a bit, I hope. Be well.
xx
But I could never see the point of tuna and sweet corn...
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