Challenge,  Misc

We’ve All Been There…

New Computer Day…

And it seemed like such a good idea at the time this morning. I must have been short of sleep, because I don’t take drugs. And I don’t drink, at least at that time of the day.

I bought the new computer, a big and powerful Mac about three months ago for work on the Make 100 Challenge I am doing. I loaded all the Adobe Suite onto it, loaded fonts, loaded the Microsoft office onto it, and did very little else with it, mostly doing some learning on InDesign and other small stuff.

But I always intended to move it into the main position in my office (I have four active computers and two second screens in my office. My writing computer is on a desk to my left, my main computer is on the main desk, the other two are on a side desk, so I am surrounded on three sides by computer screens.) I wanted to set up a second screen on the new computer, move email and everything. But with the workshops, email is a nightmare to keep track of. I’ve got a great system, but moving that system to the new computer was flat going to take time.

Did I give that thought before I decided to do this move? Not this morning I didn’t.

So after recording the first week of the Writing Westerns Workshop, I still couldn’t get the sound fixed on the old computer. Recording on the old computer and running it through the old IMovie program caused the sound to only come through on one track. And wow have we spent time trying to fix that until we finally discovered it was the old Mac.

So frustrated (yup, that’s a great mind-set to start a major project), I just moved my old computer to where the new one had been sitting and moved the new one into the main place on my desk. I had to go to Best Buy to get a few connections to get the second screen up and running, but that part was smooth.

The email part actually turned out to be smooth in the set up as well. And a lot of Google help got me to figure out some of the email tricks on the new computer. Still going to take a long time to get into shape.

So I am doing this blog on this new computer now. And I will record the new Pop-Up here and use that to learn the new IMovie program.

And I will record the first few videos on the new Licensing Transition, since we are starting our path at WMG, so I need to get that recorded and on there.

And with weekly assignments done, I will use this week to start working on the new email program and get the challenge stories read and back to writers.

So it was a long day. Still got my steps in, still watched a little television, but mostly just worked on setting up this new computer.

And I didn’t smash anything. So a really, really good day when it comes to switching out an old computer for a new one.

 

6 Comments

  • Mark

    I feel your pain, Dean.

    Post a picture of you holding a beverage with the new iMac and a Vegas nighttime background, and caption it the ‘Genius Bar’ 😉

  • Harvey Stanbrough

    Dean, Good job on not making it through the day without smashing anything. (grin) Takes time even for an SF writer to learn that things are reversed in the world of automation. Smash an automated thing, it wins. (grin)

  • Kate Pavelle

    Apparently it worked… I don’t see a problem 🙂 It’s not like you sent out a newsletter to your ARC Team with a preorder link instead of BookFunnel link… like I had only yesterday. Massive brain-fart. Awesome readers letting me know in droves. Sigh.

  • Céline Malgen

    Switching computers is indeed always a pain. So good for you if it wasn’t too bad this time.

    And thanks a million for making the switch if it means that the stereo will work on the videos you record from now on. It will be much more comfortable to listen to you that way, especially with headphones.

  • T Thorn Coyle

    Hooray for stereo!

    I’m glad you figured out the sound issue. It means I can listen with my earbuds in! I had to give that up because of the mono track.

  • Mark Kuhn

    I’m sorry, Dean, but through the blog entry, you sounded like you had everything under control. A little chaotic, but under control.
    Then you wrote, “And I didn’t smash anything.” I almost hit the floor laughing.