Not for me though. No Edward R. Murrow I.
The biggest piece of news I have is that I've added Florida to the list of states where Life As We Knew It is nominated for a young readers' award. A librarian there was kind enough to let me know; thanks to my lack of Murrowhood, I hadn't found out on my own.
After several days of anguish and soul searching, my mother has decided to stay put. Then again, I was the one in full anguish and soul searching mode. My mother gave it some casual thought and opted for the poison she knows.
I've lost all sound on my new computer (don't tell me to check the mute button; I've checked it 9,620,112 times, give or take a few million). Actually, I lost all sound on it a while ago, but devoted much of this afternoon to trying to get it back. Failure, failure, failure.
Purely by accident, I caught about 10 minutes of my absolute favorite Summer Olympics event- trampoline-which makes me wonder how much of it was on and I never happened upon it. Nothing against hour long interviews with Michael Phelps, his mother, his sisters, his coach, his first grade teacher, and all the people who've interviewed Michael Phelps, his mother, his sisters, his coach, and his first grade teacher, and therefore merit hourlong interviews discussing their interviews, but couldn't NBC have spared fifteen minutes of prime time for trampoline? I only get to watch it once every four years, and it's the best sport ever.
Michael Phelps seems like a very nice person, and I really don't begrude him his eight gold medals, but I'm kind of looking forward to six months from now when people will struggle to remember his name. I'm glad my last name isn't Spitz, but at least it's memorable.
I sent my editor a revised, full of intertwining, summary of the possible third book, and she's pondering it. A sensible blogger would wait until her editor actually tells her something ("I love it." "I hate it."), but then again, sensible bloggers know when their books have been nominated for awards in Florida and have sound on their computers and can figure out to the minute when trampoline is going to be on TV.
Le sigh. I bet Edward R. Murrow always knew when his books were nominated for awards in Florida and how to get sound on his computer and when trampoline was going to be broadcast on TV. Then again, he didn't know enough to quit smoking, so maybe he wasn't so sensible after all.
11 comments:
Hi Susan, I was in Borders in So. Portland, Me. today and I'm happy to report that they restocked your books and even featured d&g for special notice. I turned the LAWKI books round so that the front was showing!
My family's laptop lost sound for a while, and it turned out that there was a volume knob (on the computer, not the screen) that had been rolled down. Hope this helps!
-Haley
Hello, this is the bunker lady again. I was wondering -- were any of my ideas helpful? Or did you find me too much of a pest?
Hi Linda Jacobs, Haley, and Anonymous Of The Bunker-
Thanks to all of you.
Thank you Linda Jacobs for your stealth promotion of LAWKI. I do it myself (always checking nervously to make sure no one notices).
I'll check for a volume knob on my computer, Haley, although I'm not optimistic about finding one. I spent a fair amount of time this afternoon looking at the computer, while playing with wires (my cat Emily thought this was the best thing ever, and risked strangulation several times).
I'm always grateful, Anonymous, for suggestions people make in comments and e-mails to me. Ideas feed ideas. Of course, I don't know how my editor feels about the newest version of the possible third book or how I'm going to feel if she doesn't care for it, so I'm trying to keep my brain cells under control and focus on other things, like my failure to catch much trampoline action on TV these Olympics. The important stuff!
I was able to catch some Trampoline on Saturday morning/afternoon quite by chance. And then there was a tiny bit of the finals earlier this week. You might be able to view it online depending on your connection/computer. I wasn't able to find a direct trampoline-only link. But if you scroll halfway down the page, you'll find a "search video" section where you can choose trampoline from a long list of sports. 18 videos came up when I searched.
Hi Becky and thank you. I'll give it a try tomorrow when I'm feeling a little more relaxed. Trampoline on the computer is better than no trampoline at all.
I'll try to find the sound on my computer tomorrow also.
Have you noticed how much I've been thanking people around here? There are reasons for that. All of you, with names or with anonymouses, are just terrific and I am so appreciative of you.
I'm very glad I began this blog, lo these many moons ago, and I'm very glad that you've shared the experience with me.
Hi Beth, regarding your sound problems--I hope you don't have a Mac because I know nada about those...Assuming an IBM compatible, and Internet Explorer...try checking:
1. Go to the website of your sound card manufacturer and download the most recent update for your particular card.
2. Do a Windows Update www.update.microsoft.com and get any hardware updates, IE updates, Windows media, etc updates.
3. Double check speaker wires are firmly in place.
My best guess is the sound card updates and Windows Update will help.
Sorry to hear about your mom. I know how hard it is to watch over and worry about a mom who is both tough and fragile at the same time.
Take care!
Hi Librarian D.O.A.-
I'm going to devote a certain amount of this afternoon to trying to locate the sound on my computer. I considered the possibility it was the speakers that were at fault, and somewhere I read you should put on the headset instead to see if that made a difference.
Alas, it didn't.
I'd be more confident about the sound card if I knew what the heck a sound card was. I sure hope it's something that can be fixed by magic and doesn't involve my actually pulling out part of the computer and pushing a new part back in.
Oh well. I'm sure my cat Emily will be more than happy to help me. And if neither she nor I can solve the problem, I'll just have her meow during the various figure skating routines I'll watch via the internet. She can be quite musical at times!
Beth, an easy way to check your sound device manufacturer is to right click on the small silver speaker icon in your system tray (bottom right of the screen, where the time is displayed).
Right click, select Open Volume Control, and the name of the sound card will be at the bottom left of the new box.
While you're there, in case anyone else uses your computer, make sure they didn't check the "Mute All" box, or turn all the volumes way down. You never know.
Good luck.
I went to high school with Michael Phelps, he wasn't very nice. Hopefully he's grown up a bit since then.
Hi Erin-
I love high school gossip.
I'm always intrigued by teenagers who are dedicated to a sport (especially not a team sport). It's one reason why I find figure skating so intriguing.
But I hope Michael Phelps has gotten nicer since he's grown up. If he hasn't, then it's going to be that much harder for him to deal with the level of success he's achieved.
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