back from Portland

uh,for about twoweeks now. In this entry: CTA, Portland Oregon, computer stuff.

Updating my previous couple posts: the CTA Tattler blog, because of stories like mine below (as I've inferred from a Chicago Tribune article about it, that referred to the particular CTA snafu I experienced and the resulted blog posts), has started some kind of live CTA delay/reroute/whatever news feed (with no official connection to the CTA, but it's something that CTA employees themselves will probably use--it's easy for upset passengers to forget that often the drivers/station workers don't know any more than we do about what's going on during delays)--which is a wonderful idea, although utterly useless to those of us whose only high-tech personal gadget we carry around is a digital camera, and who have the misfortune to be stuck with fellow passengers (see my story below) who are completely apathetic about finding out about the delay they're experiencing.

Christ, that was just one sentence.

I did get to check email once during my Portland trip, a couple hours after I arrived there, at a coffeeshop that gave 15 min. free Internet to customers, which I learned about from a cool guy I met on the Greyhound into town. I didn't think I had time to post to the blog then, and I very much wanted to go back during my short trip but the place was closed (Sun. early evening) when I tried. I've never posted to CoD except from my home computer. it's not just that I wanted to post from Portland, it's that I wanted to post from what's got to be the smallest coffeeshop I've EVER seen. There's seating for about 5 in front of the counter, and maybe 2 more outside. Trust me, the place is tiny. The owner was very friendly and the drinks relatively inexpensive. The store is called Wired on Burnside, as it's on Burnside, a few blocks west of downtown (21st or 22nd?).

Anyway. I'll post SOME things about the trip here, but I'm really planning to write a zine about it--all in one sitting at a coffeeshop, as I've done once before. (For a zine called, of course, Coffee-Fueled Cliche.) I would have done it by now but I also need photos and...(long boring explanation deleted) I can't download/print my photos at home right now.

I've been hit with numerous computer troubles. My PC's hard drive was nearly full before I left , and the first time I turned it on after I got back, it came on and then--poof!--shut off and couldn't be turned on again. Power supply trouble, I heard, and my wonderful boyfriend came over (shortly before an important deadline, I might add) and spent the day transferring the hard drive into the Mac. See, I had a PC and Mac (left behind by my former roommate, who owes me a five-figure amount for back rent/bills, by the way) side by side on my desk. I used the PC for all my data--word processing, photos--and for AOL dialup. And the Mac for DSL, which doesn't work on the PC, but the Mac isn't attached to my printer, so any Internet stuff I wanted to print had to be put on disk and transferred to the PC. It was an okay setup, but as of last Sunday, the Mac has both Mac and PC hard drives in it.

Anyway, since then, I've had at least a couple other problems that limited email access, so I've been even worse than usual about it. And I still don't have a way to download photos or print anything, and I hope I can get it all taken care of soon so I can several shorter zines I've been planning done.

Some of the computer problems were easily fixable, which gave my boyfriend excuses to make fun of how technologically inept I can be. I've resented this, of course. But then when he was here this past weekend, he helped with my CD player (a Hello Kitty boom box, sad but true) and I realized, I've been having serious trouble with it for weeks because...it wasn't on a flat surface.

He was kind enough not to gloat about that.