Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

That moment when the mac mini that holds all your stuff doesn't start. You push various combinations of buttons, nothing. You begin to think of how old the computer is, how it's been on 24/7 for four or five years, all the stuff you keep in it (but that is kind of secondary in that it is all backed up). Reset SMC. Nothing. Leave it till after I've had a shower and a first coffee. Then, unplug everything from the USB ports, press the button... and it starts. Phew.

I was hoping this week-end would be a little more sedate than last. It was -but not by much. On Friday I went to Glitch, a little 80's night in a pub in darkest Hackney -all of which doesn't sound very auspicious but it was a good night with much dancing and catching up with friends old and new -and an encounter with someone from a previous life, something good, someone with whom it was good to reconnect.

Saturday brought lessons and a computer repair job. I hadn't done that for many years and then after sorting out a pupil's Mac she has been recommending me to people. This was the usual 'my laptop has become very very slow'. On checking it, trying to run a browser, MS Word and a couple of other things on 2 GB memory in these times wasn't going to be blazing fast in the best of cases. Then, looking into it, I begin to find start up items for the infamous MacHelper and Genieo -of course the machine was slow. It is often said by mac fans (like myself, although I'm not remotely as.. ardent as I used to be) that there are no viruses for the Mac and this is technically true -but there is quite a bit of malware out there, that often relies on our being off guard or on the same sort of instinct that tells us that our numbers will win, this week it is going to happen. Or that the nice man from the email really is going to give us a few hundred thousand pounds if we keep that couple of million for him, we only have to give him these advance and our bank details.

I left the computer half way through sorting it out, having replaced the slow spin hard disk for an SSD and having 8 GB to replace the original 2 later. Went to some birthday drinks at the Camden Black Heart -I've said this before, I'm off rock pubs. Anywhere where you have to shout to get heard and strain to hear what the other party says is not a place I want to stay long. Ok, so I'm getting old. From there I went to Yesterday's Shadow at the Pack and Carriage and danced a bit and conversed some more. On Sunday I had my nightmare lesson, which I survived ok, then a lovely little gathering for Sunday roast with people at the Water Rats. I didn't know most of the people but it was a very good afternoon. Came back to try the 8GB again (it hadn't worked the first time, not a good idea to try to do this kind of thing at 3:00 am after a night out) and this time it worked. Good thing I don't have to get up early on Mondays and work early.

Given that my working day seemed to have collapsed, after signing in for a couple of music tutors' agencies I found myself wasting time playing with the face-tagging feature in the new iPhoto 09. It kept asking me whether almost everybody was untermensch. ( And it reminded me of this.... )

My MacBook refused to start up this morning, with clicking sounds coming from where the hard disk is. This is a generally not very good sign. Iand it is not a very convenient moment to have to go spend eighty or ninety quid on a hard disk drive at this point.

Anybody want a guitarist for their wedding, bar-mitzvah, funeral, investment bank dissolution ceremony? Can also provide a duo singing mournful songs about the destruction of the universe and the binding fate of the human condition... :P