A lousy night’s sleep. 8.50 am: Into town to purchase almond croissants, a wired computer keyboard (for when Bluetooth fails on boot-up … as it has), and pick up prescriptions. Even the bland ordinariness of life lived routinely is of inestimable value. The Park Runners were out in numbers, grimly circuiting the length of Plas Crug Avenue like cars on a Scalextric track. Are ‘caution runners’ those who run with due care and attention?:
9.45 am: Back into the studio to attend to computer matters. I sighed even before embarking on the project, in the full knowledge that one solution would likely beget another problem. And, I’m still learning Windows 10, after years of being a Mac user. (I was a late convert to Apple. It was rather like exchanging Roman Catholicism for Anglicanism.) The intuitions are not yet ingrained; therefore, I proceed by trial and error rather than by following a hunch. Phase 1: Fix Bluetooth keyboard malfunction [Tick]; Phase 2: Purchase Activation Key for OS, and activate [‘I did it; I did it!’]; Phase 3: Contact Adobe (‘scammers’) to inquire about purchasing Creative Cloud. (BIG sigh!) The site is now in Ukrainian (*?!*!!**?). Phase 4: Download MS Office 2019 from the university’s site [Tick]. Office, in my experience, has got progressively worse with every subsequent version; Phase 5: Install sound software [Tick]; Phase 6: Configure MS Office on my phone, and test the network (across PC and Mac) [Tick]. Why do I need a notification that reads: ‘There are no notifications at this time?’
The rain fell apathetically:
A recent purchase; one that has been very useful on my peregrinations between the School and Old College, when I don’t have my iPad. Mobile technology turns us into mobile workers. The former promotes, rather than facilitates, the latter. Devices and apps encourage us to ‘get productive’ (that’s to say, ‘work harder, anywhere, everywhere, all the time, NOW!’). I’m sympathetic to the idea that they’re tools for a certain type of social engineering:
After lunch, in between a WhatsApp exchange with my lads, I continued to bring the new computer to heel. When I was their age, I contacted my parents only once a week … and then only if there was something significant to report. I can now appreciate that they just might have liked to talk to me about the ‘nothing much has happened[ness]’ of my week, rather than not hear from me at all.
On walking with a friend:
4.45 pm: ‘Shut down.’
