Electronics Weekend

For those of us who think that reading the manual is for chumps, there are certain programs that make one’s head hurt. Garageband is one of those programs. You can’t just go in and make things happen, or at least not any things worth happening. The so-called manual I have only tells you how to take instrument lessons (?), but that at least inspired me to hook up my piano (I’ve got a Yamaha Clavinova) and download the drivers and whatnot. I proceeded to play a fairly simple line and then sat on the comfy chair subbing in different sounds until I got something that wasn’t totally embarrassing. I then sent it to MB and O’C. We now call this “The Theme from TVFT.” You’ll hear it when Episode One: Clone Coaches is posted. Meanwhile, I gotta get a better manual.

Having time on my hands this weekend (for the last time, as noted previously, until Thanksgiving), I then was inspired to install Roller Coaster Tycoon on Vegas Elvis (which, by the way, now has that as its official name, which I do not intend to change again). I remember all the happy hours spent building coasters and paths and cleaning up vomit and whatnot back in the day, and wanted to revisit that simpler time of my life. Went into Fusion, which had an update, which I installed, then I tested TRPC, which still works (whew!), then I noticed I hadn’t installed the update a couple of weeks ago because I was afraid that it wouldn’t work and I didn’t want to go to Yale with an Elvisian brick, a thought that obvious no longer bothered me (screw you, Pups!), then I installed RCT, which ran ass backwards for about 15 minutes until I finally gave up and uninstalled it, followed by half an hour of trying to get the right display settings back. Again, something tells me that a dabble in the (unfortunately non-existent) manual might have helped, but time is short. I’d rather spend it cursing the darkness than lighting candles. When I started out in the personal computer game, they packed manuals into the box like nobody’s business. Nowadays, the box is smaller than the computer they put into it. Elegant, but intellectually unsatisfying. Oh, well.

A note, by the way, on computer/video games. I love them. I buy them. I install them. I never play them because I don’t have the time. I’m a born sucker.

I did pop into an Apple store over the weekend, on the hunt for an improved backpack for Vegas Elvis, but instead ended up with a more compact speaker set for tab room use, one that fully connects to the Touch (which has a different connector than previous iPods, meaning that it will play but not charge on my other speakers, which is kind of moot given that I usually play the MegaPod anyhow and not the Touch, but logic is not informing any of this discussion, obviously). Drop by at Yale and I’ll play you the new Los Lobos Disney album, which combines two of my favorite things (really). They do an especially kick-ass Ugly Bug Ball… The smaller speakers mean that my new Hardware Engineer won’t break her back lugging it around, as she might have previously. You see, I look out for my students. I keep them fit and healthy so that they can carry all my stuff week in and week out. Not for me the faint of heart, the weak of limb. I make ‘em tough and I keep ‘em tough. It’s a Sailor tradition.

I did bid a fond farewell to the Babycakes portion of our program over the weekend. I will no doubt refer to Babycakes henceforth on a regular basis, but not to the exclusion of all else. If they had been Acme Baked Goods or Vassar Pastries, of course, you wouldn’t have heard a peep out of me. But at the point where they became Babycakes, well, who could resist? Not me, not by a long shot. That’s just the way I roll…

(“That’s just the way I roll?” I don’t write sentences like that. Who am I, and what have I done with Menick?)