My Oscar

Oscar
Well, not really mine. The division I work at just won their 9th Oscar, and to celebrate they sent it around to the division offices so everybody could get their picture taken with it. In spite of the fact that I had nothing to do with it, I sat down at the table. Of course, I wasn’t allowed to actually touch it or anything – the photographer and her assistants handled it with rubber gloves on so it wouldn’t need re-polishing.

I guess I should answer this

A few weeks ago I did one of those “guess the tune from the first line things. I guess it’s time to post the answers. Any ones that commented managed to figure out will show as strike-outs, and ones that nobody guessed are not. The answer follows in <em> tags (italics). This is where you all get mad at me because I’m not good at deciphering lyrics.

The rules, as quoted from Eminy’s LiveJournal:

You know the rules: 20 random consecutive songs from my library, first lines given here (or second lines if the first contains the title). You identify the song, and I’ll cross it out. Googling is cheating. N.B.: Items in square brackets are instrumental only, included here to preserve the consecutivity principle.

  1. I have to swear by Almighty God Guns On The Roof, The Clash – Rob G
  2. When we were young, we pledged allegiance Stones In The Road, Mary Chapin Carpenter
  3. All you pretty women, bring it to my home Bring It to Jerome, Bo Diddley
  4. [skipped one in Bulgarian]
  5. I’ve been [loved?], down in the delta How Long Blues, Odetta
  6. Her eyes they shone like diamonds Black Velvet Band/Galway Shawl, 4 To The Bar – Ayana C
  7. Dust falls on the empty halls of my old school Within A Mile Of Home, Flogging Molly
  8. Well, you could see it in his eyes as they strained against the night Canol Road, Stan Rogers
  9. Men and people will fight ya down (Tell me why!) Exodus, Bob Marley – Ian York
  10. [Bach keyboard concerto]
  11. [Red Shingle Bay, Many Hands]
  12. He started out to be a tugboat man, but he never got the hang of a ratchet bar Steamboat Whistle Blues, Bob Bossin
  13. [Something from Green Linnet]
  14. Many’s the day I took for granted, breathing the air that silenced some The Kilburn High Road, Flogging Molly
  15. Ships may come and ships may go, as long as the sea does roll Jolly Roving Tar, Great Big Sea – Becca
  16. Now come tell me Sean O’Farrell, tell me where you hurry so Rising of the Moon, Shane McGowan and the Popes – Ian York
  17. [Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus]
  18. High speed drift on a prairie road, hot tires sing like a string being bowed SteelSilver Wheels, Bruce Cockburn– Ian York
  19. Well I’ve got a friend who’s a man (who’s a man?) Hateful, The Clash – Rob G
  20. [Duologue, Rare Air]
  21. I was a miner, I was a docker Between The Wars, Billy Bragg – Becca
  22. [Marion Livingstone, Rare Air]
  23. There’s a noble fleet of whalers, a sailing from Dundee Old Polina, Great Big Sea – CMD
  24. In the merry month of June, when from my home I started The Rocky Road To Dublin, The Irish Descendants – Fnord Prefect
  25. [skipped first line]He had a little tavern by the strand Yarmouth Town, Great Big Sea – Laura
  26. [Infernal Dance of King Kashei, Stravinsky]
  27. [Water Music, Handel]
  28. [skipped first chorus]Said – said – said: I remember when we used to sit, In the government yard in Trenchtown No Woman, No Cry, Bob Marley – Ian York
  29. [Trumpet Concerto, Wynton Marsallis]
  30. [The Pigeon On the Gate, Casdh An tSugian]
  31. The island, it is silent now, but the ghosts still haunt the waves Thousands Are Sailing, The Pogues – Ian York

It’s HERE!

Vicki called me this morning to say she’d just signed for the laptop. Which surprised me, because as of this morning the FedEx site was still saying “Expected delivery 11 March before 11am”. I managed to contain myself and work until 4pm instead of heading for home immediately.

I tried installing the RAM first, but that caused it to go “BEEP BEEP BEEP pause BEEP BEEP BEEP pause…” I figured either I’d seated it wrong or it wasn’t as compatible as the Kingston RAM chooser said. So I put back the factory RAM and started it up. I used the “suck all your data and apps off the other machine” target mode thingy, and it was up and running in an hour or so. Then I installed the new RAM and this time it worked. Then I started a Time Machine backup.

I tried a few apps to make sure they worked (iPhoto is a newer version than the one I had before, and it looks pretty good. Photoshop still works. MacStumbler exits immediately. iTunes works, and this time I remembered to de-authorize my old computer before I wiped it.) Then I wiped my old computer and reinstalled Leopard on it.

While various things were going on, I actually watched an episode of Torchwood without it turning into a slide show or skipping bits . In the past, I’ve always had to stop everything, including Time Machine, or it would be terrible.

After the Time Machine backup finished in a mere 3 hours (instead of the 8 that a similar full backup took on my old computer), I closed the lid and installed the iTopper skin. It looks awesome and I’m going to have to take some pictures and write a full review. It wasn’t easy to install – I think I did something wrong with the soapy water mister and things stuck hard without me being able to slide things around, and it was really hard to get the top sheet off. I also think I didn’t get all the bubbles out in the end because of that, but it’s so light coloured that I can’t even see them so much as feel them.

Anyway, it’s a thing of beauty, and a joy for at least another 3 or 4 years.