A Week of Setbacks, but the Portland Freelancer Goes On

Do you ever have a little stretch where the wheels seem to come off? That's what these last few days have seemed like to me. First, my wife did something weird to her new Apple computer. Actually, let me rephrase that in general terms: If you are at your new Apple computer and you get a long auto update thing combined with trying to listen to a song from Apple, and the download starts taking over a half hour, and something else goes wrong, do not, I repeat do not hit Force Quit. Otherwise when you turn on your computer you will get just a gray screen with an Apple and a spinning little wheel. It will be so frozen it will not even get to the blue screen.

Now for the good news: My wife talked with Apple 3 times and reinstalled her operating system from scratch, and her computer is now back. Whew.... There is something involving holding down the power button on the back while pressing the C key, then letting go of the power button while keeping the C key down, that breaks through a freeze like this. Of course! It's so obvious now.

Second, I found out my friend Lisa is no longer touring with the Decemberists. My sister had gone to see them in Alabama and since I had seen Lisa that morning in a coffee shop here in Portland, I began to wonder what was up. It turns out there was a different direction taken and she's not with them anymore. That really bummed me out as these gigs do not fall from the sky like rain.

Third, my site meter froze so it looked like I had zero hits for most of yesterday despite being linked from Jack's site. I look at things like that as a sign to get out.

Fourth, I got hurt on the Imus deal. Not as badly as the Rutgers women's basketball team, but my routine included staying up past Leno, switching VCR tapes and taping Imus on MSNBC. Then I'd play through the tape during other parts of the day, often switching to it during the timeouts of other shows. Let me finish this post with this subject:

Racism sucks. Imus's comments were racist and indefensible, even if I wanted to defend him on this, which I don't. But there was a lot of good stuff on that show, and I will have to listen on WFAN on the computer which is a pain because you can't fast forward through the commercials. Imus did a lot of good politically with his grouchy act and we're living in a time of Today Show fluff where basically the media is a lapdog of the corporations that own it. Sorry, but I loved the way Imus challenged the powers that be.

One person who must be thrilled Imus isn't on MSNBC anymore is Dick Cheney. Nobody went further than Imus in calling out the VP for his horrendous mismanagement of our foreign policy. Perhaps the most scathing Imus comment about Cheney's courage was after Saddam had been hanged. Imus noted Saddam's strength in facing what has to be the ultimate scary scenario. He also speculated that Rumsfeld would probably face it with similar tough guy courage. Cheney though? Imus said Cheney would fold up like the trembling little punk that he is. Cheney would act like a crying little kid. I think Imus was right, and I think it was a valuable insight, but let's face it: This is not a discussion you would get on the Today Show.

Tell me where else you can repeatedly hear the Vice President of the United States called a war criminal? Mike Malloy's show on Air America? Well, Imus got farther inside the beast than Mike Malloy ever will, and Imus did it with a lot of laughs, plus he was on TV. How much power did Imus have? After hammering Cheney for years on Iraq, Cheney still showed up one time to do the Imus show. That's the type of clout we need our media types to have.

So it's been a rocky week, but screw it. I was made for these times. I eat setbacks for breakfast. Every change is an opportunity and moping is for losers. In the words of our beloved President, "Bring it on."