p e n g u i n d e v i l

What? I just found out that Kurt Vonnegut died! How the? Brain injuries and not lung cancer? Well, I guess since he died right about the time we went to the hospital, it is understandable that we missed the news… Maybe that explains how little Elinor is such a curmudgeon right off the bat. But still. Man. Okay, so his novels are a bit silly, but they pretty much are the bedrock of my teens and early 20’s and I had just started looking at them again a month or so ago. I know he was old and all of that, but it’s still a shock. Like him or not, he was the American Novelist of the 20th Century and though his books got well removed from any regular sense of Literature, A Man Without A Country was a great work.

“And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, ‘Kurt is up in heaven now.’ That’s my favorite joke.” “

The moment has come. The new drive has been received and installed. Thoughts? Well, I am quite glad that dvd’s and cd-rom’s are now within the reach of my humble old computer again (speaking of old, you know you’ve had a box too long when you open it up and find a third hard drive inside that is not even hooked up… Where/when did that come from?), so hopefully (and also now that the little girl is sleeping more at night) I will get some good movies in. Speaking of good movies, I was surprised with the positive mentions that the recent QuiT movies (the Kill Bill’s and Grindhouse) got over at WWdN. Maybe I shouldn’t be? But I like WW’s blog and I can’t stand QuiT. But maybe I’m just letting my dislike of the fellow and his intentionally ironically derivative material (and worse of all, trying to attach his name to every cult Asian action film he can) stand in the way of enjoying some pure entertainment. Well, whatever.

Anyway, other aspects… This drive I put in is a Pioneer-DVR112D from New Egg. So I now have DVD-R and DVD-RW capabilities. Which I didn’t have before with the stock Apple Combo drive that I replaced. All for under $40. It is startling how much the prices have come down on these things… So that was a good surprise. Another funny surprise, after I got it all reassembled (not that it’s any chore or anything), I realized that the stylish curves of my MDD wouldn’t let the tray open! Well, a quick removal of the drive and a prying off of the front of the tray and all is well, but it certainly was a bit of a surprise.