Ptorchwood Ptales & Ptimely Pthoughts

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:

Just some new pics here of my furkids. I worked from home today - I'm in charge of evaluating some new vendors for my employer and the proposals are massive so I needed some uninterrupted time to read them through.  Teddy and Ida helped, but their criteria were a bit cat-centric.


Teddy doesn't care if the cost estimates are soft, just so long as the binders are as well.



And Ida, bless her furry little feet, doesn't get that 'that word doesn't mean what you think it means.'


 

OMG it was hot here yesterday. Like 97 degrees. Can you say hot? My parents came over and we had a belated Father's Day celebration. I was in Scotland on the 'official' day, but hey I did call. I am the GOOD child, LOL. I was supposed to go over to their house but they decided to come over (much to my surprise - they aren't overly fond of Teddy and Ida). Teddy actually slept on Dad's lap. And I didn't get a picture of this historic moment of Teddy behaving and my father not trying to stay as far away from him as possible. Meh.

Speaking of Scotland - of course we saw castles, and churches and battlefields - but really, the squee moment for me was visiting a farm that still herds sheep the old fashioned way:

The only problem was that all the dogs wanted to get in on the action.


Feeding the baby lambs, squee!!



Enjoying a little malt wisky at a distillery.


Ok, one castle cause you asked so nicely.


I'm seeing a play with my bff this evening and going to a picnic tomorrow out in the burbs. Today - going to finally get my bike out and get it in order (notice I didn't say I'd actually ride it) and then I am going to hang out this afternoon and work a bit on my trip pics.
 
And of course don't forget to read and vote in round 18 Redisourcolor story contest: http://redisourcolor.livejournal.com/50319.html   Voting ends Sunday, July 3rd 2011, 2300 EST.

You may recall the post I put up in late January about the two elderly cats in need of a home.
http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/84105.html

    

Good news! they have wonderful new home with a couple who live in suburban Chicago. I don't know how they hooked up with Virtually Home, but I wanted to thank everyone who passed the word along, tweeting and boosting the signal as they could. A wonderful ending to a very sad story.

I haven't seen OwensHeart around on LJ for over a month.  I know she was having some Internet connection issues around Thanksgiving.  Has anyone heard from her? I'm concerned and would like to know if she's OK.

Thanks.