Saturday, August 26, 2006

[writing from Heidi's computer]

I have a fine ol' laptop. It handles most functions pretty . . . well . . . handily. However, it's currently exporting a ten-minute Image Sequence from Final Cut HD (this means that it's converting each frame in the project into a bitmap so that the DVD authoring house can make a glass master) and it's showing its age.

See, I started the export yesterday morning and as of this moment, it's only completed 46-fargin-percent of it! This hurts my feelings. Seriously, I take it a bit personally when my stuff doesn't come through for me. Don't we all tend to anthropomorphize our possessions just slightly? For instance, my jeep - it's old, it's got a lot of miles on it, it's rusty in the undercarriage, it jounces and bounces over every seam and crack in the road . . . I'd love to get a new, more fuel efficient car. But then, I see it sitting there by the curb, loyal and faithful like an old dog and my heart does a little flip-flop in my chest. Trading it in seems cruel. How could I have considered such a thing? Shame on me!

So it is with the Lappy. I find myself rooting for it, like a parent cheering for his uncoordinated child - "Go get 'em, sport!" And then, when the child turns over the ball to the other team (who promptly scores) or misses a goal or trips on his own shoelaces and the pack laps him as he struggles to regain his feet, the hot tingle of embarrassment rises up along with shame for feeling embarrassed and my voice cracks as I yell "You can do it!"
Well, maybe not quite that dramatic, but every time I check the progress and it hasn't budged at all, I groan and throw my hands up in the air. "You're good at so many things - why can't you do this?"

We'll see how long this takes. I hope it doesn't last until Monday.

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