Pesky Technical Difficulties

Well, finally, it's finished.

Every time we go on a cruise, I come home and first publish my journal entries, so I have an illustrated narrative of the trip and then I sort through the photos and put together an album of the best of the photos (or the ones I like best, quality notwithstanding).  It has taken me months to get around to choosing the photos for this cruise book.

I could make this a really boring entry by telling you all the problems I encountered trying to make the book, but suffice it to say they were all of my own making and inability to figure out instructions, but required 2 on line chats with nice customer representatives named, first, Sameer and then Rakesh, who managed to help me figure out my questions.  

Part of the last problem was that I had a Groupon for a really good deal on the price and I wasn't sure how to let the order form know that, but ultimately that part I did figure out myself and my ~$50 book cost a little over $12.  It should be here in a week and a half.

After I got that sorted out, it was time to address my Audible.com problem.  I needed to find out how I could download two books I had purchased in the proper format, since the format Audible assumed I wanted was too advanced to play on my antiquated iPod.

This required a phone call to Audible and the nice man there (whose name I didn't get, but who did not speak with an Indian accent) walked me through the procedure, which was, to quote the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, so simple I should have been able to figure it out myself.  In an instant, I had my previously ordered books downloaded in the right format and the default setting changed so I don't have that problem again.

Then I ordered a new David Baldacci audio book.  With Audible, I get one free book a month, and today was the day that my account was credited with my free book.  I downloaded the book I wanted, only realized too late that I had ordered the abridged version and I didn't want the abridged version, I wanted the complete unabridged version.  So I called Audible again and the nice person this time just did it all over the phone for me.  In seconds, my first order had been deleted and the complete version was now ready for download.

About this time the two previously purchased books had downloaded and it was time to move them to my iPod, only iTunes wouldn't let me because it said that they had been purchased on two different accounts.  That prompted an e-mail to Audible, and I just got the response now, which I am going to need to contact them about because I tried what they suggested before, and it didn't work.  But I will leave that for tomorrow!

Sometimes I think I just have too damn many gadgets, but I enjoy them all so much (when they do what I want them to do!)

Tonight we went to the Sacramento Community Theater's Broadway series so I could review Rock of Ages, a musical I had zero desire to see.  It's shows like this that make me wish I had paid attention all those years when my peers were dancing to rock music while I was collecting the crooners.  Even my lively musical likes were novelty numbers like "Lollipop," or folk songs (of the Kingston Trio variety, not meaningful singers like Pete Seeger).

I still remember the first time Elvis was on TV.  I was staying with Peach and we went to her friend's house.  She was 16, I was 13.  All her friends were oohing and aahing about Elvis (they may have screamed--I don't remember), and I was sitting half in and half out of the house petting a dog, totally uninterested in the man who would become the King of Rock and Roll.

So when shows like this come around I feel woefully inadequate to give it a really comprehensive review, but I'll give it the old college try.  After fearing that I was going to end up with a headache from the noise, in the end, I liked it more than I expected to -- though admittedly that isn't saying much, since I expected to hate it.