365 True Things: 34/Technology

Well, after all my foot-dragging yesterday, just as I was about to tackle the photo selection process—really!!!—what should happen but, my MacBook Pro . . . it didn't exactly die, but the screen (whose antics the last few days—occasional fields of blue, line patterns doing the jitterbug—I'd been ignoring . . . I am very good at denial) mounted some spectacular pyrotechnics and summarily shut down. When I tried to restart, I got a cute little message to the effect of, Forget it.

Although that's been my go-to computer lately, it's okay: I have another, an iMac—from maybe 2007, 2008?—that works just fine. [Rapping on wooden desktop.] In fact, it's the one connected to the printer, with the appropriate driver, so I was intending to turn to it anyway. It's got a big beautiful screen; it's in my pleasant office. I'm not even sure, come to think of it, just why I migrated to the kitchen counter with my laptop. But that's a question for another day.

So: Before getting down to photo selection, I decided to take the MacBook in for diagnostics. Turns out mine, from 2011, is one of the machines that Apple recently launched a replacement program on for faulty graphics cards. Well, that explained things! Or so the tech and I thought. But when we ran a video check, it came back clean: no problems. Weird, because when I first brought it into the store it did a little throat clearing and the tech could see exactly what I was experiencing. We both fully expected a big fat FAIL.

So I've left my MacBook at the shop. Maybe on a second diagnostic run-through it will fail, in which case Apple will replace my graphics card for free—or so I understand. It's not often that I hope for negative test results, but this time? Definitely. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Speaking of fingers: When I got home, I turned to photo selection. First I did a quick tour through my New Zealand photos, picked out a few possibilities—landscapes all—then started browsing my Maryland/Pennsylvania/New York State/Virginia shots from last year. And I ran across some hands: Lincoln's hands, Eleanor Roosevelt's; the smooth hands of a Giacometti statue in the National Gallery. And that reminded me that I've long wanted to do a series on that subject. I searched Flickr more carefully, cursing myself for not taking keywords more seriously, and lo and behold, I found exactly fifteen, plus a shot or two of feet. So. The show has taken shape.

I inventoried six 17x22 frames and ten 11x14, all ready to swap new prints into. Good. Then I checked my paper supply. One unopened box of 17x22 paper, check. But the three boxes of 11x17 Photo Rag I thought I had? Two turned out to be empty, and the third held exactly one sheet of paper. Dammit.

I had to call Charlene and ask for a week's extension. I then placed an order for two new boxes: one hundred sheets. They're scheduled to arrive between May 7 and May 11. Since we're hanging on the 10th, I am now keeping my fingers crossed on this too: that the earlier date is met.

And when the paper arrives, I still have the printer gods to appease. But I'll wait until next week to worry about that. Again.

[Update, later that same day: The test failed! I have a new motherboard! And I didn't pay a dime. I guess there will be no brand-new MacBook Air in my immediate future....]