Tidbits

*I began this post almost a week ago before things went really hairy around here, so I'll give you the beginning and continue on from that point.

The bone marrow people think I'm a low risk donor, so they've decided that I'll move on to the testing phase of pre-screening. This means I have to go have blood drawn next week, which surprises me because this whole process has already taken a few weeks. I would've thought it would be faster since the sooner someone receives a transplant, the better, right?

William Gibson looks like a hippie farmer. Now, it's true that I've seen pictures of him before. But I'd never seen him in person till last night, and he looks and moves a bit like a hippie, and a bit like a farmer. I've met a few farmers before, and they have that same kind of look haunting their faces - I'd always thought it was a result of the unreliability of their business. After all, for a farmer, no matter how savvy a businessman you are, you're still at the mercy of the weather to some extent. This seemed to always inject a look that was one part concern, one part resignation into their faces.

But maybe I don't really know farmers that well. All I know is that Gibson had that same kind of look and could've passed for a praire farmer except for the retro-vintage Converse on his feet. Oh, and his writing is really cool!

One of these days I'd like to take a computer course that would explain to me in a bit more detail how this machine that I use every day, that I sometimes feel chained to, that frustrates me to no end at times, works. Just as I was starting this post, I ran into a problem that kept shutting down some of the functions of my system.

Now, I'm not afraid of trying to fix stuff myself, so since web access wasn't one of the problems, I googled the error message. The most prominent answer was that I'd picked up a virus, but as I kept reading, the only "people" claiming this was a problem were all pointing me to the same software - that I could purchase for the low, low price of $49.95 - that I could buy. So I had to wonder about that one, especially since I run virus scans fairly regularly with a product that I've been using successfully for years.

The other solution to the problem was to enter the registry and delete the files that had corruped. Now, I've actually done this before, even though for a non-techie person like me this is a scary venture, but I had a good set of instructions from several sources (including MS themselves) and it was successful. Only this time, the only instructions included were to erase a particular kind of file, whose designation was not provided. This meant I could go into the registry, but I'd have no clear idea which files I should delete. Not something I'm ready to mess with.

Logically, reformatting the hard drive to original specification should restore the corrupted files in their original form, yes? Yes. It did. But it also meant I had to back up all my data files, then reload them all (a process not quite complete) as well as reload all the additional software that I use (another process not quite complete). In consequence, I have been uploading but not producing much for the last few days. I guess there isn't an interesting observation there. Just some kvetching.

I have a greater appreciation for the time and care that goes into the production of a television show, or any other video production. Over the weekend, we shot a 20 minute segment for one of our elearning programs. It took about 10 1/2 hours.

Of course on a tv show, there are multiple cameras, so that if you change locations, you don't have to haul one set of lights, camera, monitor, associated cables, power units etc. to the new location as we did, which would make the process faster. And you would easily access backup equipment if a malfunction happened instead of having to drive across town to check that the equipment was indeed working. So we might have been able to finish a bit faster, but not by much. It is certainly a time-consuming production.

It was also really neat to see two professionals interacting in that kind of work environment. The talent and the cameraman we used had worked together before (in fact the talent was the person who recommended the cameraman to us), and the easy shorthand that they fell into was fascinating to watch. Perhaps it's just that film still holds a fascination for me that I was so impressed, but I was.

We're nearing the end of our semester at work (yes, we're off kilter from every other institution around us), which means students are starting to get desperate. I have one who is trying to do 10 weeks worth of work in 2 to catch up. Every time before this when students have tried to catch up like this, they've failed. But this guy just might make it - a week in and he's still on track. I'm rooting for him to do it, if for no other reason than to restore my faith in the human ability to transcend difficulties. Other students however are asking for bonus assignments to make up work done 6 weeks ago. Maybe I'm a hard ass, but I'm saying no. I've got better things to do than dream up additional work for them when they should've done the original stuff.

There you go. That's part of what's been going on lately. But it looks like things will slow down now, so I'll post a bit more often, at least for a little while...