Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King Hiring the DVD of the Two Towers so you can catch up with the so-called story - three pounds and seventy-five pence. Pay-and-display car parking ticket, valid for three hours only, purchased on the understanding that you'd have to be pretty unlucky to get snagged in that 20 minutes you're not going to be covered before you leave - three pounds. A pair of tickets in the slightly more expensive part of the cinema to avoid contracting DVT from sitting in the cheapseats for over three hours - fourteen pounds. Confectionary and fizzy beverages, with a recommended retail value of around a pound, stupidly bought from the cinema instead of being smuggled in from the supermarket next door - six pounds and ninety-eight pence. Parking ticket, issued in that 20 minutes between the pay-and-display ticket running out and leaving - twenty pounds. Total: forty-seven pounds and seventy-three pence - that's about NZ$ 130. If I went around taking money off people like that I'd be locked away for robbery, but Peter Jackson does it and they'll probably give him an Oscar. I'm afraid those films have ended up doing nothing for me - other than making me want to go to New Zealand even more than I did before. I suppose, for their genre, they're probably exceptional, and they did look very pretty, but it would seem that that genre is not for me, and eleven hours of pretty is more than I can handle.

I'm half way there - I purchased Panther yesterday and installed it last night. Adobe's Creative Suite went on board too, and everything looks absolutely delicious. I noticed, though, that I'd purchased the wrong Macromedia MX 2004 version - needed the one with Flash Professional on it, so as soon as I make the swap all that software'll go on and I'll be good to go. It's warm here in Auckland - it's just started raining; or straining to raining more like it. In the last week I have been described as: - guarded - aloof - like a lady cop - polite - having a "tough kiwi accent" I dunno.. I'd love to see me from someone elses eyes it's amazing how one's perception of oneself can be so misaligned with what other people see. See, what I know I am is: - will talk endlessly about myself on less than a glass of beer - that beer being consumed in any one of a number of less than snobby bars - although "spread 'em" is in my normal, daily vocabulary, my memory doesn't permit me to police anything - I was repremanded for being rude, for goodness sakes - the kiwi accent *does* sound harsh. I was reading about scientists trying to find out why the Maya civilisation suddenly disappeared, and about an expedition to discover Atlantis. That, along with the Beagling and Rovering of Mars makes me think people are looking for somewhere else to live. It's not so difficult to leave home, it's not so easy to move towns, changing your country-of-origin pulls at lots of heart strings - how the heck is anyone going to be able to leave their Planet behind in favour of another? Human Anthropological Separation Councellors might be the next *big* thing.

The Plan:

Today was to be *such* an awesome day. Today was the day I was going to pick up my software. I'd ordered it through MagnumMac, and although it was ready to pick up on Monday, today was the first time I had the time to get over to their store and get my hands on all my new software boxes and their delicious insides. I'm not sure I like shopping for anything more than I like shopping for computer related stuff. Buying fully licensed, boxed sets of software is something I really enjoy. To celebrate, I had breakfast afterwards up at the Atomic Cafe (at 121 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby) and read the new New Scientist magazine, and then went to Magazino to look at the design mags I refuse to pay $49.95 for. (managed to find a primo car park right outside too) <voice="ericcartman">sweet!</voice>

The Implementation:

Upon arriving back home, I put on the Jazz CD I've been listening to lately - a 2-disk compilation of female jazz vocalists - and settled down to install my lovely new software. I took great delight in deleting all the old software. My new stuff was all full versions, not upgrades, (with the exception of the Word for Mac software) so I cleaned out that Harddrive like a crazy woman, dragging folders of Photoshop and Illustrator and Flash into the elasticated dock trash can and then emptied the trash. The great thing about Macintosh computers is that when you delete something, it's really deleted. First up, Windows Office for Mac. That went relatively smoothly being an upgrade of software I had purchased year-before-last. Next I decided to install the Macromedia MX 2004 suite. Putting in the disk, double clicking the "install suite" icon, my computer told me I needed MacOS X 10.2.3 or newer, and I didn't have that on my computer. I checked and sure enough, I only had MacOS X 10.2! <voice="ericcartman">you're breaking mah balls here</voice> I exhaled and thought, "That's okay. I have Panther ordered, and can pick it up at the end of the month when I was planning to pick up the laptop. I can wait, I'm patient." Reaching for the Adobe Creative Suite Premium Edition I decided to be happy enough with installing this delicious set of tools. Opening the lovely new branded Adobe box, and putting the CD into the drive - the same message appeared "You need MacOS X 10.2.3 or newer to run this software" <voice="ericcartman">goddammit!</voice>

The Conclusion

All of which would be perfectly okay if I hadn't DELETED the software I already *had* on the computer in a Random Act of Blondeness. And no, I can't find my Photoshop6 CD to reinstall it so stop asking. Now I have a computer, devoid of software I need to work-from-home unless I need to type something like, Oh, I don't know.. my resignation which I've already done so grrr.. I have NOTHING to WORK with!

Lesson Learned:

Number One Rule of Software Installation: Never attempt software installation while you have your period. There was a prior incident while installing the new office stuff - I thought I'd deleted all my email and email addresses that caused a minor panic attack/self mutilation session but of course, I hadn't done any such thing. It was all a storm-in-a-teacup, but it set the mood for the entire session. I'll get Panther on Monday. Its sitting at Magnummac with my iBook. I'm just half-pie-mad at myself for being a dilbrain and half-way mad at Magnummac. When I bought the stuff I said "I have mac os x, is that compatible?" and they said "YES" and they should've been smart enough to ask, "which version" because they're mac people and all, and it's their *job* and stuff. THIS is the trouble, in my opinion, between marketing using version numbers, and marketing using cute names for software. THIS would also *never* have happened if the Electric Box Company kept more customer-friendly hours-of-work.