No car, computer going down at worst time - but that kid George has talent!
Thursday, June 23, 2011 at 10:47AM 
I am now in my third day without a car. Once again, Margie has gone off to town to help take care of Kalib and Jobe, this time because Jobe fell a little under the weather for awhile and Jake's job took him out of town. I am a person who likes to drive, but, whenever Margie has gone to town for a few days I have not really been bothered by the lack of a car.
I have my bicycle, and this time of year I bike every day, anyway.
So I just get on the bike and go.
When I get to Metro Cafe, that means I go inside instead of through the drive through. I suppose I could go through the drive-through and then drink my coffee as I pedal my bike, but I don't want to.
So I go inside. And once there I shoot serious, brilliant, studies like this one:
Looking out the Metro window from the inside, Study #3671: Claudia pays for her coffee with a credit card.
Within 8 minutes of posting this, I expect to receive a call from MOMA in New York, offering me $42 million if I will just let them hang a print of this in their hallway for three days. That ought to take care of a few problems I face, and allow me to blog full time and make my new electronic magazine.
Branson always wants to ride my bike, but he is too small for it. Today, Carmen told him to stay off it because he might scratch it. "This bike is already scratched up," he answered.
It's true, too.
Yet, today, I absolutely needed a motor vehicle. I had to take this computer to the shop and see if I could get it fixed. I have been working on layout and writing tasks lately, but now I must switch gears and get into photo processing for CMYK offset reproduction.
My computer has lost all its power and speed. When I am working in Lightroom and in Photoshop, It grinds to a near halt and the Mac color ball spins and spins and I just about go crazy waiting for it. And I will be working with large, high-resolution files - 100 mb each.
This morning, after drinking coffee and working through the night, I went to bed at 6:40 AM, then got up at 9:53, borrowed Caleb's truck and hauled my big, heavy, Mac Pro over to Machaus.
Then, after my afternoon coffee at Metro, I pedaled my bike back home, exchanged it for Caleb's truck once again and headed back toward Machaus.
I had to be there before six and I thought it would be no problem, but then I came upon this cop in the road, directing traffic because the stoplight was out. Maybe that lineman in the background above is trying to fix the problem.
The cop was not nearly so efficient as the light is, when it works, and after five minutes, I was still sitting there. He had sent the oncoming left-turn traffic through twice and everybody else at least once, without even letting us move. So I was worried that I would not get to Machaus until after 6:00, but I got there at 5:55, so it was okay.
Bruce at Machaus did find one thing that he fixed and it helped, but he did not charge because he had a feeling the overall problem was not yet fixed.
He was right. This computer is still dragging like crazy, especially when it comes to Lightroom and Photoshop. And I have over 300 images to prepare for offset. And if this computer malfunction costs me an average of 10 or fifteen minutes wasted time for each image - which, in fact, it is doing and sometimes more... well... make that times more than 300 and you see the problem that I am up against.
I do not know how I am going to deal with it.
It is time for a new computer, I think, but I don't have the money at the moment and even if I can find it soon, which I believe I can, rumor has it that Mac is about to release a brand new, top of the line, powerhouse computer with the pending Lion operating system and it would be stupid to buy a new computer just before that one comes out.
What do I do?
What can I do?
Nothing but slog through it, I think.
Day and night. Slog through it until its done.
All the time, wondering why I have to get stuck inside during the time of long light?
This is George Rasputkov, the aspiring young photographer, and I first met him when he was a boy and I would be out walking our now deceased dog, Willow. George was one of a group of children whose parents were immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Block and they all loved Willow.
"Willow!" they would shout when they saw us coming. Then they would come and pet Willow and wrap their arms around her and she loved it.
She was an attention hound, that dog.
Tonight I met him again as I was out pedaling my bike home from the Little Susitna River.
Now he is grown and he loves photography and wants to become professional.
He showed me a few of his pictures on his LCD and his iPhone and he is good. He has the talent. I complimented him on what I saw. "I give the credit to God," he told me. He said he is Christian. I do not yet know the history that brought his family and so many others here from the old Soviet Block, but I think that has a lot to do with it.
Now we are Facebook friends, so, when I get the chance, which won't be until I get this project out of the way, I will give his work a good study. Surely, I will look at it right away, but study will have to come later.
Yet, generally speaking, it really only takes me a glance to determine whether or not I like a photograph. My first glance at George's work proved pretty positive.
Reader Comments (4)
Bill, hope you are safe - the quake news got me worried... do let know
great studies...i hope getting your computer fixed will not be to much of an inconvenience and cost
Hey, Bill. Have you tried (or has the guy at Machaus suggested trying) upgrading the amount of RAM you have in your computer? You've got a *lot* of photos, and a *lot* of *big* photos on your system; the spinning beachball may indicate that you've reached the max on system memory and your programs are having to swap out memory pieces to keep your photo db open.
Another suggestion I've heard is to rebuild your photo database. You'd have to investigate that more; I don't know how to do it.
Anyway, upgrading the RAM would certainly be a lot cheaper than buying a new computer.
cawitha - yes, as you know from the email I sent you immediately after you placed this comment, that quake did not pose any danger to us here in Wasilla.
Twain - thank you, but it is looking ever more as though it will be impractical to fix this computer and that I must by a new.
OmegMom - the Machaus man tested the RAM and I have done some RAM experiments that he suggested, all to no avail. At this point, after many hours, probably adding up to days, lost, it appears that the computer is just nearing the end of its life.