Howdy.

I'm a crabby ass bitch today and I thought - hey, the blog might enjoy this. 

All foolishness to blame, really.  Plaguey doubts and irrational fears.  Too much celibacy, not enough hope.  I need a nap, some exercise and a bowl of edamame with sea salt and also, to not be ovulating.  Which is to say, give me a day or two.

I never think of myself as a PMS kind of person - in childhood, the mother's cycle was the undercurrent of our lives and I never saw myself that way.  But there is no denying I go optimism-shy on a couple of pretty specific dates and when I was out with mom for a few weeks the only days I had real trouble coping were the PMS days.   People talk about it like you should just pull up your socks and cope, but it is far more insidious than that. 
There may be a chance that I am a little bit like my mother after all, but if you tell her I said so, I'm afraid you'll have to be killed.  Nothing for it.

The big event of the weekend was that I accidentally deleted my iTunes library.  I'm new to the Mac thing and am constantly being hamstrung by the non-expectation of automation. The conversion has begun though - I used someone's Windows machine recently and found it EVER so clunky.  My brother just got a Vista laptop and his wife a Macbook and during the get to know you process he had this to say:

I find my experience with Dell a disappointing shadow of the customer service machine they were the last time I purchased a computer from them – I guess all the jobs have been shipped overseas.  Regardless, the computer is quite awesome and working great – despite a few glitches of the new operating system which I am told will work themselves out with a few hundred upgrades over the next few months......In an annoying parallel to my frustration with the Dell people, S. went out and bought a Mac after getting jealous of my new computer, and following a week of playing around with her parents Mac during her recent visit home. While I fight with marginally lingual tech support, the Mac people are all about “can I come to your house and help you set it up, …oh e-mail, sure we’ll help you set it up….oh, yeah we can transfer all your files for you and convert them to out much less complicated computer language.....can we have a group hug, Mac Users Unite….blah, blah, blah…….” Bunch of hippies!.

Which completely cracks me up.  And on balance I am happy to align myself with the hippies.  Though the Macbook does not feel near as sturdy as the old Vaio* and I don't generally care for the sleek Mac aesthetic (I got a Kandinsky for the top so I don't have to look at it.)  And he reminds me that I should maybe call Mac about the remaining file transfers I have to do, rather than wander in the wilderness as Microsoft has conditioned me.   

I imported my music files in January and have been deleting extraneous .wma files as I found them. I prefer MP3 (spare me all input on the subject of file quality and compression, etc.  I do not care and I can't hear the difference.) for its universality but turned out to have a number of cds that had been imported in the Windows specific format.  This is the thing that kept me from Mac & iTunes for so long - it is beautifully integrated as long as you stay in what David Pogue at the NYTimes calls the "walled garden" that is the Apple experience.  I didn't want to.  Keep your damn Kool-aid.  Also, I hate that backspace and delete are the same thing.  Drives me crazy.
But I've given up.  My Windows based tech knowledge was all seat of the pants and has been made obsolete in the last few versions of Windows and really, I am middle aged now.  I hate to admit it, but I just want it to work and be simple and the Mac integration is so satisfying I don't care any more.

I'm going to be able to wirelessly and automatically do back ups AND play iTunes on my stereo.  Because I will be able to play iTunes on my stereo I am not sure at this point I even need to replace my MP3 player, which is full to the point of crashing.  I have the bitty iPod for the gym and the playlists are so easy to swap out it takes five seconds.  (These people are marketing geniuses and I feel a little bit like I've sold my soul, but you know, do I really need one?)  Also, I'm in love with Adium for chat (iChat didn't quite make the cut, not cross platform enough).  Photobooth is enormous fun.  I even love Apple mail, though my heart's desire is for a GMail style email software.

That's if I had playlists left at this point, of course, because I believe I did mention that I DELETED my library.
It took me a long time to clue in to the fact that iTunes was organizing the iTunes Music data files using the info tags.  Because really, the computer doing the work for me is outside my experience.  So I kept sorting files the way I liked them and then finding them switched back, which lead to some bad links and double listings.   And then there were these data files left from the .wma deletions which lead to some more double listings in iTunes, one dead song, one live.  Untidy.  Inelegant.

I spent the weekend going through my cds, adding in anything that was missing or a bad file type and about 2/3 of the way through all the clutter started to annoy me.  No sweat.  I will delete and re-add the library. 

So I did delete and then I went to add to library from iTunes Music and dudes, there was nothing there.  6500 song files.  Gone.

Huh.

I looked in the garbage can and they were all there, but no longer in their album and artist files.  Just 6500 songs in a pile.  If I had a brain I would have said "Undo Delete" but my sinking heart and rising gorge prevented this simple option from occurring to me.

Instead I highlighted them all to drag them back into a file, despite the horror at the idea that I would have to manually sort them.  It would be simpler, if depressing, to re-rip every disk. 
But then what of the downloads? 

Lost in my despair I did not drag, I clicked.

And Finder informed me that it could not open file XX song title 12.mp3 because it was in the garbage and I should remove it and try again and please click OK.

Which I did.  Only to be told that it could not open file XX song title 11.mp3 because it was in the garbage and I should remove it and try again and please click OK.

Which I did.  Only to be told that it could not open file XX song title 10.mp3 because it was in the garbage and I should remove it and try again and please click OK.

And so on. 

And so on.

And I realized that it would try each file individually.   There was no Yes-to-all option.  The was no Esc.  And I was too scared to do a hard reboot for fear of data loss.

Click OK. Wait for process. Minutely adjust cursor to sit on new button.  Lather Rinse Repeat.

Do you know how long it takes to do that 6500 times?  More than five hours, that's how long.  And I did it because it is still a damn sight less time than loading every cd in again and cheaper than re-buying the downloads.

Then I dragged them all into iTunes Music and added them to the Library again, and bless its little people-pleasing heart, it sorted them back into albums and artists.   And it is fine.  Works perfectly, all there, pretty as a picture.  It even re-found all the album artwork for me.  You know what I am now?  A Mac person.  If I had deleted the files in Windows it would almost certainly have bypassed the Trash because the data chunk was so big and you know what I would be doing?  Re-ripping my CD collection and swearing.   When the desktop goes I'm getting an iMac, and Parallels or some equivalent to run the knitting software I have that's Windows only.  And maybe Apple TV when it comes time to go High Def.  And, and, and.....

I'm getting one of these this week.   I think it is much safer that way.

* The tragic demise of which I still mourn.  That was a computer I loved, genuinely loved, the tiniest computer in all the land.  It was a sweet pretty thing, though limited in speed and memory by its size.  If I could put Leopard in the Vaio?  That would be PERFECT.  Can you do that?  And get the camera all integrated and stuff?  I bet not.

 

Comments

[Lisa]

Crap. Why did I have to read this two days after I got my new Dell set up and blew away my entire iPod contents??? Gone, gone, gone. The good news is that I still have iTunes on the old computer, so I can at least burn a CD to rescue the purchased songs. Theoretically, anyway. So I'm happy for you. Feh.

BTW, congrats on starting a sock (reading posts backwards, so you haven't written about it yet.) And, yes, I have one of those stupid stash-reducing blogs, on which I'm about to admit defeat. Can I quote you when I finally throw in the towel and concede that I'll NEVER stop buying stash, so I'm just going to darn well enjoy it?

[Dr. Steph]

I'm sorry about the ipod problem. Shit.

I love that gel skin thing. Nifty.

[Rebecca]

As a diehard Mac user, the delete/backspace distinction in the only thing I prefer about PCs--but I've finally discovered that function + mac delete = PC delete, and now I love Macs without reservation.

[Rebecca]

As a diehard Mac user, the delete/backspace distinction in the only thing I prefer about PCs--but I've finally discovered that function + mac delete = PC delete, and now I love Macs without reservation.

[KimB]

I have so enjoyed reading your blog. Entertaining and pro-Mac! I went iMac a bit over a year ago when I found myself on the phone with Dell tech support - in India, no less - for more than 8 hours to repair my Windows OS. It's a wonder I didn't chuck the desktop right out the window in fewer than 8 hours. Lo and behold my ever so wonderful husband bought me an iMac for xmas. A lovely little unit all in one piece on my desktop. And so much easier to use. And tech support is just down the street in my local mall! They actually speak real English there!

His VAIO just passed about 2 months ago, and I've been trying to talk him into a Macbook Air ever since. Heck if he doesn't want one, I sure do. Meanwhile he's battling Vista on a cheapie laptop.

Thanks for one of the most enjoyable blog reads in ages.

[Jennie]

Would it be annoying to say "Yay, from another MacHead"?

I'm glad it did the right thing with your iTunes files. That is excellent.

I work on Windows machines at work and if that's not enough to cure someone of having it at home, I don't know what is.

[Jessica]

Ah - you drank the kool aid - now it's all over for you! Kidding aside we are an all Mac family and I would never go back to Windows. I have to work on one all day and it drives me a bit batty. So glad you didn't have to rerip everything - I think I'd have had a heart attack but then I think we have about 18,000 songs in iTunes right now...

[maggie]

yep...I switched over last October. Never used one before...so far I love it, but I'm having my issues with the simple things...like deleting a bookmark, took me 2 days to figure it out, but I like the challenge....just need the time to spend with it. Enjoy yours!

[Tsock Tsarina]

Hmph. Vaio-Schmaio. The tiniest computer in the land was Shtinky, my dear departed Toshiba Libretto, no bigger than a VHS tape and barely any heavier. (Yeah, they're making 'em smaller still now, but if they're so small only a dog can hear them do they still count as usable computers?) The TARDIS, its Fujitsu successor, is also commendably tiny, if a fraction bigger in every dimension. I wouldn't trade it for anything. (I hope you notice I am not even mentioning the Mac.)

[Risa]

Welcome to the hippy group. I joined up last year when I replaced my Sony Vaio desktop with the iMac. Loved it so much that I added a MacBook in December. I couldn't push Parallels more for those windows apps that you just can't replace. I have MS Visual Studio development suite running on my iMac using it which makes me giggle no end. Having just been handed a brandy new Dell with Vista Ultimate on it at the office, I happily return home to my macs.

[Deborah C.]

If you're using Sweater Wizard, I seem to recall that Carol (the programmer) said something about coming out with a Mac version sometime soon; there's already a Mac version for Sock Wizard. Not being able to use my Wizard (Sweater, Sock and Math) programs was what made me not want the Mac, but if the Wizard programs are available for Mac users, that may change!

[Michelle]

I bought my first Dell back when customer service was based in the States, too, and the difference between then and now is really amazingly huge. But I was an Apple girl first, so leaving my Dell by the wayside and getting the iMac was like going home. Now I think my next computer is going to run Boot Camp or whatever it is so I can run Windows as well...but that's mainly for gaming purposes.

[LauraJ]

A moving story of great suspense and happy ending. How did you find Gelaskins? WAY cool.

[Frankie]

To lift your heart, though I'm sure you already know - Doctor Who starts again on Saturday at 6.20pm (yes I'm counting), and Rose is back at the very end of the trailer...

[Kellie]

I got burgled 2 weeks ago and the best thing to come out of it was my replacement laptop - I swapped from a Dell Inspiron to a Macbook. Love it but the learning curve is steep - you said it perfectly; "I'm new to the Mac thing and am constantly being hamstrung by the non-expectation of automation."

[Baraka]

Dear Enchantress, you have inadvertently stumbled into the land of Mac-ness, where your every thought is subliminally transmitted to your obedient machine, where you will never again see the blue screen of death, and where your ears will be treated to the "bong" upon arising. Welcome, former stranger... did you bring your wallet?

Actually, it's not that bad - what you don't spend on phone bills to tech support in Uzbekistan you can save for your next system upgrade.

[kmkat]

I was thinking of you today."I wonder how Juno is, haven't heard from her blog lately." Glad to know you are okay, albeit bitchy.

Mac Mini user here, #2 son has older iBook (I think), #1 son just ordered himself a new MacBook Pro (I think). Poor DH is the only Windoze user left. The walled garden ain't so bad, really.

[Wendy]

Aw man, y'know the MS recycling bin has a feature that restores everything to its previous place.

But I want a mac too.
I tell myself that maybe my ipods would stop dying so frequently if only they were talking to another apple, and when they die, so tragically so frequently so unexpectedly so regularly so right before long roadtrips...it's nice to be able to just walk in hand it over, wait while they fiddle with it, then get a new one. Which you then have to get charged and formatted and synced. Assuming you can get an appointment. For all that, I love their commercials (Justin Long is so cute! I loved "Accepted"!) and the Cult of Mac is strong, and their marketing materials so glossy and I want one...

[Ken]

Oh, sigh. I'm trying so hard not to spend money all the time, because really, I'm like a frackin' money sprinkler during a drought, and the buck has to stop somewhere. Then Juno has to go and link to Gelaskins, and not just any skin, but a Kandinsky skin. Deep sigh. I hear a sprinkler firing up...

My Macbook likes being white (no matter what others might think of Apple's sleek aesthetic), but my iPod is just itching for a Kandinsky makeover. Not Farbstudie Quadrate (because that would be copying, right?), but Composition VII. It's more what I think of when I think "Kandinsky" anyway. The mail can't come fast enough.

Welcome to the light side!

[Marilyn]

I'm so glad you got them all back, even though it took 5 hours.

I have a Dell I got about a year ago. I HATE DELL. Forget about their "customer service" even if you buy the customer service thingy. And like you, I've hated Macs for years, in the beginning because of the product but then just on principle. And for about 6 months I've been thinking that my next computer will be a mac. Like you, I surrender.

[Beth]

I, too, recently converted to the Church of Macintosh, due to the impending death of a Vaio, and have been relatively blissed-out ever since. The thought of bringing Vista into my house made me nauseous, so I had no choice. The only problems I've had have been Microsoft's fault, or one was quickly and efficiently remedied with a short Genius Bar appointment. And speaking of bars, after visiting the Genius Bar I thought that if all bars were Genius Bars, I'd have a much better time in life, and celibacy wouldn't be as much of an issue for us.

[jackie]

ahh, I didn't click - I see you are getting a time machine. Good idea.

[jackie]

Second the Time Machine comment. Get yourself a nice big external hard drive and set up Time Machine. You'll not lose any files again. Not that you did this time, but oooh, how close.

[Sarahfish]

Wow. My heart did that little flutter-beat-pat-pat-pat thing when I read that there were 6500 files in there. Oh no! I'm so glad that you were mentally able to hang in there for the 5 hours of click, click, click... I wouldn't have.

Agreed on the Mac thing, though! I just got a macbook a few months ago, and it's been wonderful. Completely eclipses the Dell I used to have which would chug away dolefully whenever I asked it to do something for me. Too many photos and knitting patterns I think it said...

[Marin]

I believe you are fueling my Mac lust.

As for other lust, vis-a-vis "Too much celibacy..." *sigh* You have my sympathies.