Ptorchwood Ptales & Ptimely Pthoughts

Thank you toshiani007 for buying me my userhead for another year. I let it lapse cause LJ has been a bit of a pain lately, but I haven't made the move over the Dreamwidth complete. So you all are stuck with me for another year, LOL - though I'm hoping to figure out this dual posting thing at some point.

Also this round of redisourcolor is open for voting: http://redisourcolor.livejournal.com/70295.html  There are 5! stories - it looks like we're back in action. I'm having a tough time picking my favorite - which is to say that they are really good and very original in nature. Go, read, and vote for your favorite. 

Saw my last opera of the season last night, and it was a doosy! Handel had to have been on drugs when he wrote Rinaldo. It's an opera crackfic! The story is sillier than a troupe of dancing weevils, was written with visual special effects (the sorceress flies in on a chariot drawn by fire breathing dragons (Myfanwy would approve), and there's really amazing harpischord music. Two of the three(!!) castrati roles were sung by countertenors including the incomparable David Daniels. I swear there was some pretty heavy slash inferences going on.  Featuring a very unusual set. a bunch of athletic dancers and some very physical comedy moments -  it was a great ending to the season. 

I'm off to pilates, then some more house cleaning and a drabble to write - and then I want to start on a book. 
The Coffee Traders my BFF lent me. We're going to Belgium and Holland for a couple of weeks in May and the book should get me in the mood. Then I want to reread at least a couple of my old van de Wetering mysteries. I'm not a huge fan of Poirot, so if anybody has a suggestion for some good Belgium fiction, written by Belgium authors,  I'm game. 

First I want to thank toshiani007,  owensheart,  littleni,  and scifiangel for my dragon pals for Myfanwy. You are the best!!

My new computer is up and running and is working well after some drama (see below). My monitor speakers will not work with this computer. Right now I have horrible left-over computer speakers from the dark ages that were to be thrown out at work. So I have sound. Painful, awful sound, but sound nonetheless.  

There are two solutions, but both cost $. Of course they do. Does anything life not come with a price tag?

I could buy new computer speakers. They will never be as good as professional speakers, but I'm sure for some outrageous amount of filthy lucre I can get something that won't offend my delicate little ears. Probably for about the same amount of money or maybe a little more I can get a new inexpensive mixer and use my speakers. But...(there always is a but, isn't there) given that my new sound card is not specific for audio recording/playback - the old speakers may not sound as fantastic as they sounded before. Meh! 

If I get new speakers, I'll need to get rid of the old ones. The market is flooded with people selling stuff (not surprising given the economy)  but I could get something for them. I just don't know if I want strangers coming to my house, (you already know I'm a privacy/security freak), and they weigh about 33 lbs (15 kg) each. So shipping should be fun.

I just managed to remove the sound card from my old computer - now I have to figure out if I can use it with the new computer and whether that will be better/worse for audio. 

So new speakers or old, new sound card or old, mixer or not? For someone who has to examine every option, rinse, repeat, this is going to take a while. And everyone has an opinion - so if you know something about this (or even if you don't) feel free to weigh in.

I spoke to a sales rep from the place that configured my recording system years ago. He thinks buying the mixer is the way to go.  He'd get my business either way, so its not a matter of making a sale. My sys ops pal at work (who also did music recording in past years) recommends getting rid of the big speakers and getting good computers speakers. His feeling is that if I want to record again in the future, I should start over and invest in a really good mixer and new speakers. My dad who is an audiophile (and electrical engineer) says - keep the speakers. My mom says - they are very large and take up too much space (she's right) get rid of them. I have to admit that the tiny bedroom this stuff is in looks a lot bigger without monstrous speakers on stands.

And I haven't even tried to load my old Photoshop Elements 3 on the new computer yet. If it won't work, then I'll need to upgrade to Elements 10 for a mere $80. Having had a computer which required no repairs in 10 years and I haven't bought new software for in almost 8 years, I'd forgotten what a money pit they can be the first few months. 

Now for the Drama!  As you know Teddy is quite an excitable cat. When I pulled everything apart earlier this week he was curious but not a problem. When I was putting everything together Friday night he began to race around the house. I think his internal dialog went something like this: