Good Times!!!

Yesterday I was walking out of my house with two of my most prized possesions, my thinkpad laptop and my old pentax SLR camera, in my backpack. Snow was starting to fall, and I misjudged how slippery the driveway was (it's rather steep). In a lightning flash, I was on my ass. I fell pretty hard, but got up easy enough. I thought for a second about my laptop, but the Thinkpads tend to be pretty tough. I laugh at how flimsy Dells are, with their plastic cases and crappy hinges. I tend to be a bit cavalier with my Thinkpad, because it's reputation for toughness almost encourages me to.

I got a burrito at Anna's Taqueria (my favorite place to eat, which is fortunate, because I eat there upwards of 5 times a week) and then got on the train at Porter to go see my friend. I pulled the laptop out of my bag. I was expecting that it would start slowly, that I might have to restart it once, because sometimes when it gets jostled, it seems to get forgetful.

I turned it on, but as I was waiting for it to start up, I noticed something unusual on the display. Radiating from a center spot in the upper left hand side was something that looked like a radial crack in a car windshield. And as the computer came on, it became clearer. Yes, I had totally fucked my monitor. I think what happened was that the prism part of the camera (the part you look through) hit the monitor when the camera hit the ground. The camera was a little dented there, but now is quite dented. Luckily, the camera seems to be working fine. But if one of them was to break, I would take the camera, which cost me $130 instead of the computer that cost me $1600.

It slowly became clear to me that I was screwed. Small parts of the screen still worked, but for the most part I couldn't see anything. I always believe that any electronic device can be improved by smacking it, hard, with the palm of your hand. Which I did, and which made those small, still visible areas go completely apeshit.

My screen now resembles some sort of technicolor nightmare. Only by the good graces of my friend, who gave me an old computer monitor that I was able to hook up to the serial cable on my laptop (thank god for serial cables), am I able to type this. I keep habitually looking at the monitor on my laptop, but everytime it makes me want to cry.

I called IBM customer service tonight. I was sort of expecting that the would do something to help me out. I bought the computer partly due to their great reputation for customer care and ruggedness. I got someone on the phone in Atlanta who was all business. I told him what was wrong and he told me that it would cost $895 to repair.

$895.

I shit you not. Just for the monitor.

This was something of a bad day. Not that it didn't have some good points, but I had the general feeling that I was totally and completely fucked. I thought maybe I would have a way out of this, but really, I can't see one. My incredibly generous father offered to give me $400 to help me out, which embaresses me, but which I will probably take. But still $495 is an amount of money that yesterday I didn't have to think about spending, which amounts to more than half of what I have in the bank. And what I have in the bank is exactly equal to my credit card bill.

And so thus is life. Lessons learned: I started a new job recently and was stressed out about staying. I didn't want the job but they basically begged me to stay. And so I did, but I didn't know why I was. Now I know, I need the money.

Other lesson learned: I spend too much time using my laptop. I think a little time off will do me good.



- posted by Paul @ 6:16 PM 3 comments

 


Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA October 2004

- posted by Paul @ 7:02 AM 0 comments

 
I downloaded a song from the late Elliot Smith's new album called Twilight and it's truly one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. Of course it only magnifies the tragedy of his suicide, but regardless, it surely is up there (or eclipses) any of his other songs.



Haven't laughed this hard in a long time
I better stop now before I start crying
Go off to sleep in the sunshine
I don't want to see the day when it's dying

She's a sight to see, she's good to me
I'm already somebody's baby
She's a pretty thing and she knows everything
But I'm already somebody's baby

You don't deserve to be lonely
But those drugs you got won't make you feel better
Pretty soon you'll find it's the only
Little part of your life you're keeping together

I'm nice to you, I could make it through
That you're already somebody's baby
I could make you smile if you stayed a while
But how long will you stay with me baby

Because your candle burns too bright
Well, I almost forgot it was twilight
Even if I think that you are right
Well, I'm tired of being down, I got no fight

You're wonderful, when it's beautiful
But I'm already somebody's baby
And if I went with you I'd disappoint you too
Well, I'm already somebody's baby
Already somebody's baby

- posted by Paul @ 8:53 PM 0 comments

 
Since it's been so long, all 1 of you out there reading this (mom), here are four pictures from my recent traipses through Maine.











- posted by Paul @ 1:45 PM 1 comments

 
The Funniest thing ever.

god, the british. geez.



- posted by Paul @ 10:12 AM 0 comments

 
I know, it's been a long, lonely time. I'm back in Maine, I've escaped the horror that is my hometown and I'm sitting quietly getting my emails organized. Not that exciting, but it's the truth.

Tomorow I'm off to the Madellin Islands off the coast of Prince Edward Island. Maybe I'll get a chance to hit Cape Breton too, if I'm lucky.

And now, a picture of a rabbit with a pancake on its head.


- posted by Paul @ 6:46 AM 1 comments

 
Haven't posted in a while. At the moment I'm sitting in my car with my laptop laying against the stearing wheel, working off some wifi signal from I-don't-know-where. I'm working on an article and need to start selling it quick before it gets old. I'm in my hometown and generally I'm remembering the reasons that I don't live here anymore. Bad music, big cars, mean people. It's good to remind me once in a while though.



- posted by Paul @ 8:50 AM 0 comments

 
The infamous The Week In Craig

- posted by Paul @ 6:43 PM 0 comments

 
I'll blog the cool live steam sites I find as I'm researching the story I'm doing on the Long Island Live Steamers:

A live steam builder in India

Livesteaming.com seems to be the largest site on the internet.

The Ladies of Live Steam I bet you are!

Train Mountain These people are pretty serious.

- posted by Paul @ 2:57 PM 0 comments

 
Holy Crap!!

I got boingboing'd again. I'm on a roll here.

I also have a new web page. It's still in development, but most of my writing and a few good photographs are up at the moment. Everyone seems to like "F is For Fling" I gues it's a good place to start.

I'm back in Boston for a few days, working on doing some interviews for some radio projects, finishing the web page and seeing friends. On Friday I'm in NY interviewing some of the guys mentioned above who build big model steam engines and then ride around on them. After that? Who knows? The moon?







- posted by Paul @ 1:05 PM 0 comments

 
Short post today as I need to get the hell out of the house. I've indeed been to hell and back again with lonliness up here in Maine, but I've come out the other side and I feel like I could stay here indefinitely if I needed to. I'm having a nice time again. It's getting cold though and I'm going down to Boston on Tuesday I think and on to Long Island on Friday.

I got my scanner working finally and scanned in some pictures from Mike Nebbia's collection, the man who owned my parent's house in the 80's. Here's one of a boat launching in the "center" of Pembroke.



- posted by Paul @ 9:43 AM 1 comments

 
Breakthrough

As in, I think I had one today. I got up this morning relatively early and sat in bed streaming This American Life episodes (over dial up no less!) while working on my web page. The amazing thing is that I actually got the web page somewhat operational today. It's pretty rough and there are a couple of things that I don't know how to fix that make it look pretty amateur, but it's there and I even got my writing up there. Thank frigin god.

And I think I went through my total cycle of loneliness. There was the exhiliration of being here by myself when my folks left and then the coming to terms with how quiet it was and then the "holy crap I can't believe how lonely it is here and how little I am getting done and what the fuck am I doing with my life" part. And then today there was the "hey, I just made a web page, that is somewhat functional, I've always wanted to do that" part. And I took a ride to get some groceries, shot up some film and felt pretty happy.

Today is the one week mark for me being here alone, and I'm quite please with myself that I have survived on my own for a week without going totally bonkers. I've kept myself fed, I've learned a few things and I've overcome a few challenges. I have specifically not gotten everything I wanted done, but I have done some things, and that is a lot better than doing no things. I also learned things that I didn't anticipate learning, like why I want to learn how to use slower film, how screwed up DreamWeaver (trademark, trademark) is and how I kind of suck at photoshop.

It was a good day and I don't have to fool myself into thinking it. I can also say that the more public radio I listen to, the happier I am.

Peace out.

Today's got two pictures, one of best friend C taken the last time I saw him-possibly making an obcene jesture:


and a guy from "the islands" fitting himself in a small plastic box on the streets of Boulder:



- posted by Paul @ 4:06 PM 0 comments