Don't bother me

[austin_dern]

I was having trouble getting to sleep last night; nothing distressing, just ordinary occasional restlessness. But as I was coming closer to sleep, there came a little humming buzzing right over my ear, from a small winged insect flying around me. It's so very disheartening to be woken up to the realizing you're stuck in one of those awful 1950s Popeye cartoons Famous Studios made when it was apparently trying desperately to get out of the cartoon business and into manufacturing baked goods. Fortunately I didn't have to destroy my home to deal with it; I just maneuvered the bug out my door to the living room, where it was dealt with by my population of itinerant geckos. At least I'm assuming geckos do something about flying insects. It wasn't bothering me today.

While I was at class Olympus called me, and left no message. But I called back and after some searching the woman explained they'd done the work on my camera even though they hadn't called me with a diagnosis or a request for approval. Their bill, they estimate (I don't know what there is to estimate with the job done) is S$93.45. I asked what they determined they had to do, since just changing the internal battery -- which is what I assume would cause the problem of losing nearly all settings when the normal batteries were changed -- shouldn't be that expensive, I'd think; did they have to change the circuit board? They put me on hold to check (this was about the third time they put me on hold this call) and the recording was a Midi of Greensleeves.

When they got back to me, a man this time, he reported they'd replaced the faulty zoom button. It'd been a bit flaky, balking and freezing up mostly when I didn't have time to fiddle with it. So that's repaired now. ``Splendid,'' I said, since I'm the sort of person who still says `splendid', ``but what about the battery problem?'' He said I'd have to bring my own batteries in. ``I mean the problem I brought the camera in for, that it was losing my settings when I changed my batteries.'' I'd have to bring in my batteries and see how the camera performs. I'm going in tomorrow; I have the feeling there's going to be another anecdote out of this.

Trivia: For his electric telegraph Samuel F B Morse was made an honorary member of the Archaeological Society of Belgium. Source: The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage.

Currently Reading: The Wreck of the Penn Central: The Real Story Behind the Largest Bankruptcy in American History, Joseph R Daughen, Peter Binzen.

Comments

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

You know you're living in a foreign country when you have geckos in your home....

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Or Florida. But that's a foreign country too.

o/~ I used to be undefended / alone and unbefriended / now that I've been blended / I'm four times more splendid o/~ --4th Planet Blend, "New Blend 1999".

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

They're just a nice little bit of decoration, coming and going as they please, and moving with remarkable speed if they think I might step on them. Come in all sizes from palm-size to dime-sized. Now and then one drops onto something, so far not yet ever into a drinking glass.

[rcoony.livejournal.com]

Could be worse. Last month while visiting Findra, I watched that new CGI Popeye Christmas special. I don't think I need to say how it was. I think it was on right after something I did want to see, and then I stuck around to watch that because, well... Honestly I'm not sure why.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh.. yes, I remember seeing production stills from that, and feeling somewhat queasy. I may have to see it, just for Really Bad Movie completeness' sake. Grab a copy if it hits the 99¢ stores, will you? ^_^

I really should rewatch the Robin Williams film sometime. I've only seen it once, on its release, and I recall really enjoying it - quite a small epic of a production. Of course, that's looking down a few years' worth of rosy spectacles; and I shan't lay claim to any perfection in taste, either, being pleased to own a copy of Spiceworld.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'd heard of the CGI movie, and I think I saw a copy in a Suncoast video when I was home for Christmas, but really had no desire to pick it up and see what was going on. My feelings are warming towards the Hanna-Barbera effort of the 70s -- they were at least verifiably trying -- and even to the 1960s King Features stuff, which was so badly done as to attain a sort of grandeur.

The Robert Altman movie is, by the way, fantastic throughout. It's out on DVD -- a tragically minimal Paramount production, naturally, but they expected the movie to be one of the all-time smashes so there are a lot of reference books you can dig up in the used book stores, if you can find one that goes back to 1980. Something like The Popeye Story is maybe better than commentary tracks.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

when it was apparently trying desperately to get out of the cartoon business and into manufacturing baked goods

So that's what Eisner's master plan was!

"but what about the battery problem?''

"He didn't tell me at first, oh no. First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver! Then he told me."

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Famous Studios output of the 1950s? They didn't even manage to be quirky in their production errors. I think at one point they started xeroxing entire scenes -- not walk cycles or stuff, but just whole segments of cartoons for use in ``new'' non-clip cartoons.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

whew! it wasn't me!
If I flap around your head, you'll know it :D
*and be thoroughly flufft*

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, you'd be rather more overwhelming flying around me. Also, I have to suspect, quieter; the bug had a hum at just the right frequency to resonate in my skull.