sundries

[rm]

What my mother had for me did turn out to be money from my grandfather's estate. Not a huge amount, but enough that I can buy a new computer, which I've needed to do for at least a year, and definitely go to Britain with Patty (Cardiff!) in April and then put the rest responsibly into savings.

All of which means I need to make some computer decisions. I have no idea what I want, but I'd like to do this before Dragon*Con. There are pros and cons to both Macs and PCs for me (I'm only looking at laptops btw). Uses are Intnernet and word processing mainly. Needs to not get cranky about things like PowerPoint and Photoshop, and if it's a PC has to run Access (don't ask) well. If it wouldn't kick the price too much higher, video editing capabilities are of potential interest. Ideally wanting to spend around $1300 or less, but willing to go higher for some random convincing reason.

My father's self-publishing "empire" continues apace. But, he's decided to do a book of all these vintage pinup photos he's collected from 1910, and I told him, yes, I can help promote that! So maybe my father finally has a good plan. He's also doing a book of his photography -- it's 50 years of New York City stuff, and he's got a good eye, so that might be something I'm willing to help him out with too.

We talked about Mad Men a bit. My father's first job was at BBD&O in 1955 and he worked at J. Walter Thompson during the era of Ehrlichman and has some pretty chilling stories about all of that. He was shocked by how much I remember of Madison Avenue from my childhood. It was pretty interesting, and he should be racing to write this stuff down, not all this other stuff he works on.

I finished the essay -- an hour and a half late, but hopefully the editor will be forgiving.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

No idea, this is all SUPER random right now. Basically Patty had a paper accepted at a conference down in London and I was like "I should tag along" and she was like "I'll be working" and I said "well, I'll go to Wales or something and then we can do the weekend in London" and that's about where it stands now.

There's also the I don't drive factor, combined with my INSANE friends who think I should learn to drive for this trip, which both makes Perfect Sense and is also Probably A Really Bad Idea.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Well, it's one of the best places in the world for not-driving. Best public transportation EVER.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

If I'm still in the UK at that point, I could easily pop down to London to meet up ...