August 8, 2008 at 11:52 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
When the Olympics are held in the United States or Canada, or London or Australia, the overridsing feeling an observer gets is one of desperate, depressing commercialism.
I don’t know, there’s a certain too-rigid structure in China - but there’s so much history, tradition and they treat things seriously - other than the military. It gives the Olympics more heft in my eyes.
So at this moment on the USA Network I am being introduced to women’s fencing and it’s the sabre competition. I won’t go into the usual complaint that coverage is to USA-centric, but I do wish there was a much more rounded approach to coverage. After all, this is a gobal event.
I fenced in college for one elective. I loved it becauxe of my reach. The riposte and perry and lunge, words we all know and use - bu tnot in there correct context.
In the padded suits they all look larger than they are.
I want to watch the womnen’s sccer USa vs. Japan but I’m pretty sure I’m going to fall asleep befor eit starts r soon after. i oly had about 90 minute sof sleep last night.
I didn’t bother watching the Opening Ceremonies. It’s seriously boring, and its one occassion where still photos rule over video.
I’ll post more on sources n how to follow the Olympics that come from different countries, as well as the best of the best. ….
UPDATE - Groan - they just showed three American victories in a row - and nothing else in fencing. Now it’s to women’s air rifle. .. And what’s with all the women’s events up first?
UPDATE2 - Ah, I forgot. Watching on DISH Network there’s an enhanced interactive element to the coverage, including athlete bios, medal counts - eventually and video highlights and more. I don’t have a phone line attached so I miss a lot of enhancements that are offered through that.
The University of Alaska-Fairbanks has one of the best rifle programs in the USA? Who knew.The G,S,B medals are about to be awarded from this air rifle competition. They’re shooting at a target about half an inch across from 33 feet away. Awesome.
May 26, 2008 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’ve been offline all day as my Mac went into a safe mode.
Of course, I didn’t even know it had a “safe mode.”
Anyone who followed my last live moment online last night before my Mac shut down involuntarily would have seen me type in something along the lines of “oops just spilled whiskey and coke and it made my keyboard act funny.” Except there were typos due to the keyboard acting funny. I’d press a key and other letters would come up.
So, I went to bed last night not quite knowing whether I’d lost everything. I did have a fan running high speed with the open iBook leaning against it. The screen itself did work and the keys that made the screen brighter and dimmer also worked, so I was hopeful.
Today is when it actually turned on - but only in safe mode. But looging in required me to type in the password and that wasn’t working. I brought a spare keyboard down, and I’m typing on it still.
Safe Mode meant that everything but iTunes and Airport worked. I couldn’t go online. Not knowing what would happen if I turned it off again, I spent a few hours backing up 14 GB worth of photos and documents that I couldn’t afford to lose if I wanted to keep my sanity.
Having done that I lifted the keyboard panel up one last time with the computer now of and cleaned up the detris that has been there. It looked there was some lingering dried W&C around he battery.
I didn’t get into the guts of the computer to clean because that to me is a last resort step. The Caps Lock button has a light and that wasn’t working. That’s how i could quickly tell something was still wrong. Took a breath and turned the iBook on again.
I had a flashing blue globe within a square; something I’ve never seen before in the 12 years I’ve owned Macs and the 14 or so years I’ve used them. So at that point my back up was sounding like an inspired move, but then the rest of the log-in process engaged and I didn’t need to log in.
My wallpaper showed up and then the rest of the process took an extra long time, just enough to extend the worry.
And then boom, the Internet popped back on - and it works.
It was the wrong circumstances to be offline, but I actually enjoyed not being online. I had a couple of other computers in the house I could have logged on, but the backup was more important.
I typed this first so i could let the “outside world” know what was going on in case the computer fritzes. Now I check my e-mail ….
