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We had another good meeting of the WES Group last Wednesday. The Guild property was awash with activity in preparation for a Garage Sale on Saturday. The library team were meeting as usual but also sorting spare books for the Garage Sale. Phyllis and I snagged the last two on-site parking spaces and several members had to hunt for street parking, not easy with a building site in the block and tradie vehicles parked all along the street. Barbara Mullan showed us maps and photos from her trips to villages in NE India. For me the highlight was the superb collection of textiles she has accumulated along the way. It was no small feat to bring them along and pack them up again at the end.
We did, however, leave the place very clean and tidy.
That night I captured the moonrise (unrelated fact!).
Because members of the Guild Executive were working alongside our meeting we learned that when the Guild’s new laptop arrives for the Gallery we will not have access to it, but the old one is being gifted to our group. This will work for a while but has spurred me on to explore the possibility of projecting from a laptop to a portable monitor so we can gather more intimately around a table. Much of my week has been spent exploring this, talking it over with our WES computer guru and two knowledgeable OfficeWorks sales assistants.
On Saturday morning I purchased an 18 1/2” monitor which connected to and operated directly from a laptop without needing to be plugged in, obviating the need for electrical testing and tagging, which was proving very difficult to organise. An hour later, while at the Guild’s Garage Sale (with Noisy Miners making their presence felt), I learned the Guild had several tagged and tested powerboards into which it is permitted to plug untagged equipment. After a bit more consultation with our guru, I returned the monitor and swapped it for a 27” one, better for group viewing.
On Sunday I plucked up courage to try the monitor. I got it assembled OK but the connection to my Mac proved elusive. While the HDMI cable fitted, the laptop and cable didn’t recognise each other. I tried the trouble shooting instructions, but no luck. I found it disheartening
In the meantime, my coffee machine showed the cleaning sign. When I tried to follow the instructions, it displayed both the 'change filter' and the 'descale' signs- contradictory. I changed the filter, but nothing else changed. The manual says these two symbols together mean the machine is cold and needs wrapping in a blanket! The apartment temperature was 23C. I turned it on and off several times. It now indicated the bean container was empty. Nonsense! Further disheartened. Now I had two machines not working and speaking foreign languages. I did get the washing done, a couple of plants potted, chicken Marylands marinating, rice cooked and in the fridge to dry out.
On Monday I took the coffee machine back to Jura for service. There were varying opinions from the 2 sales assistants. I refused point blank to take it home to try any of their ideas. The machine awaits a technician. At the moment I don't care if I never see it again, and my plunger is getting a workout.
Last night, after dinner for 7, Fionn enthusiastically tackled the laptop to monitor connection, and achieved it in about 6 minutes. It appears the spare USB converter I keep on my laptop prevented the monitor cord connecting to the adjacent port. Once we removed the Comsol USB converter, the monitor was happy to connect via the adjacent port and, after a bit of work with an awkward control toggle on the back of the monitor, we were in business.
I was over the moon. Fionn is my hero! I played with it for a bit after the troops left, but haven't yet tried to do it from scratch. Tomorrow Margaret and I are getting together to sort it out, and hopefully finish confident we can reproduce a display at the Guild from both an Apple and an Android machine. I have not as yet removed the clear film from the screen, just in case...
I did, however, after dropping off some Art works at Pack and Send for my brother, trek to Spotlight and buy fabric, webbing and buckles to make a carry bag for the screen. Am I insane?
Fionn also tried on my supersized beanies for me. He has a reasonably large head.
With Georgia's help we figured out the largest one (the not-a-teacosy) would be improved my folding the band in half. I'm going to stitch it down so it stays in place.
The 16 ply knits quickly and is certainly warm. These are anticipating more walkers next year.
I found time this afternoon to sit in the afternoon sun for half an hour doing Wordle and a couple of other puzzles. The balcony is feeling good at the moment.
I feel relieved and thankful that I have support from family, friends, finance and businesses to keep following ideas. I fear (literally) that I am losing my grasp of changing technology and that will limit my output. That's scary, but help is obviously at hand.
For now I shall try, in my small way, to keep disturbing, in the hope of improving, my little bit of the universe.
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