Laptops and "Cowboys"

Well, I picked up the new laptop today, and while it wasn't as screwy as I'd feared, it still took me about three or four hours to get everything back up to where I could work with things. The new proportions of the windows and software are annoying -- windows too big, text too small. Of course, if one tries to increase the size of the text, then it's too big. (There's just no pleasing some people.) On the other hand, one of the pieces of software we use in Surfing is FUBAR, and I'm hoping I can go in Monday and check the program settings from my desktop and make it work. It's software I've had this same trouble with before, and it eventually worked, but it just bugs the hell out of me.

Oh, on the way home tonight, I had just gotten off the freeway when the guy two cars in front of me decided he needed to make a u-turn right then, so he slammed on his brakes and the car in back of him (and in front of me) almost rear-ended him. What the first guy didn't realize was how narrow the road is there, and he had to back up (almost into me) to make the turn, which of course almost caused a collision with the guy heading in our direction. I assume the jagoff was on the phone; they always are . . .

Pidge and I had a surprisingly heated discussion tonight on whether Brokeback Mountain is a western. (It was prompted by an email exchange on the same subject at work today.) I said yes because if you asked the man on the street what it was about, he'd say "Gay cowboys," and cowboys=westerns. I'm not saying it's only a western, but it's that among other things. Pidge got huffy because I was acting snotty and superior, and used the old "you haven't even seen it, how can you classify it?" argument. (Which is, of course, an argument that falls apart as soon as movies starring, say, Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell are concerned; their presence assures crapitude, even without being seen.) I think we ultimately agreed to disagree.

Watching the Olympics tonight (sidenote: Something I noticed from talking to Pidge's father was that people who have participated in the Olympics almost invariably refer to them as "the Olympic Games"), I heard the phrase "Olympic fortnight" at least twice. Is NBC trying to class up the joint by going all Britspeak on us?

Realized last night that I almost have Mrs. Bob Cratchit fully cast, seven months before rehearsals start. Have only three roles to cast (well, five; but I have two offers out). Never had that happen before. Also realized the set won't be too horribly difficult, so I probably won't need major design help. (This doesn't apply to the lights, of course.) Speaking of my directing career, I dropped by Hillbarn yesterday (we'd borrowed a telephone from them for Miss Daisy), and was honestly impressed by how they're improving the joint. Hope I get to work there next season. Have to send another email.

While it's been a wee bit of a relief to not have anything hanging over my head now that Daisy and Don Juan are closed, it'll be odd tomorrow to have nothing hanfin over my head. Looking forward to it -- and I'm almost guaranteed to have as many people here in the living room tomorrow as there were seeing Don Juan.

And on that note, I'm outta here!