Lappy 486

My new used computer arrived yesterday. It's a MacBook 2.4gHz, black. Blacker than the darkest night. Blacker than the black market, the black Visa, and Ultradark Material. I've named it Strindberg.

Setting up this computer is reminding me of how integral (pernicious?) computers can be to the home life. Currently I'm syncing my iPhone, calendar, contacts, all that stuff. Earlier I set up the external iTunes library, the MIDI controller, the wifi. Imported Firefox passwords. I still have to do the printer--but who prints these days anyway? It's remarkable to think about how much stuff we have that is now dependent on the computer. I don't listen to cd's anymore.

Telling Strindberg to find the iTunes library on my external hard drive has given me the opportunity to poke around my mp3 collection. There's the usual "oh I haven't listened to this in years" but also the occasional "oh lord no need to own this anymore". My favorite is discovering music I didn't know I owned. There's Ani DiFranco in here? And when the heck did I get six Tortoise albums? The Erykah Badu album I'd forgotten even existed ("Worldwide Underground"). An entire Tom Waits album that, because the tracks didn't have an album name listed, never appeared when I sorted his music (probably "Swordfishtrombones"). Harry Potter 1, 2, 3 & 6. A single INXS track ("Suicide Blonde"). What the heck is Hollertronix?

Now I'm excited to dig through my photograph library. What bizarreness will I find there? "Hey what's in this grainy old shot? Huh... looks like some sort of grassy knoll..."