My life is weird

[briarwood]

Sis and Mum finally put up our tree last night. The tree looks very drunk!

I have no idea how that happened. We never have a real tree, BTW, so it's the same tree as last year. I've put the tree up several times myself and there's no way it could bend like that. I have a horrible feeling it's the floor beneath it that's moved...


After struggling for months to beat the last fic I wrote out of my muse, in two weeks I've got nearly 8,000 words done for my sequel to Dreamwalker. I need to slow it down though; I have many other things that need my attention. (I think maybe I'm motivated by deadline: my OU course starts next May and I suspect that'll be the end of my fic writing for a while. Or, at least I'll have to slow it down a lot.)


My PC problem shows no sign of resolving itself. I finally gave in and took out the new hard drive (I installed it as an external drive instead), but the CD drive is still not recognised by the PC. Neither are the USB sockets in the front of the PC which I think use the same connectors though, oddly, the memory card slots on the same panel still work fine. It's like the computer is deliberately trying to confuse me.

I have another problem which is kinda irritating: I can't play videos in QuickTime. Or, at least, not the iTunes videos. I get the sound, but no video, just a green screen. Movie trailers streaming online still seem to play. (And yes, I have the latest version of QuickTime.) I know iTunes is using this snazzy new codec, but that's supposed to be part of the latest QuickTime, so what's going on? Even stranger, a couple of music vids I'd previously downloaded from iTunes, and which used to play fine, are behaving the same way.

Sigh.

Comments

[lexin.livejournal.com]

I've got a similar problem with my tree - I've owned it for several years with no problems, but this year it's developed a drunken list to the left. I think it may be in its final year.

[morgan32.livejournal.com]

Aw, now you've spoiled my fun ;-) I was kinda enjoying being the only person in the household who can build a sober tree.

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

You've given me an Ah-HA! moment... QuickTime is playing buggery with the main computer at work all of a sudden - it's grabbing all the graphic files and making itself the default prog for them... it's annoying the hell out of me - but at least now I know it's almost certainly something to do with the latest update - so with luck they'll patch it. Soon!

I love the sound of your drunken Christmas tree... I wonder what your family did to it while you weren't looking? Don't ask!

[morgan32.livejournal.com]

Yeah, QuickTime will do that. You can reset that in the preferences, but it tends to bugger up again with each update.

I dunno what to make of the tree...but at least I'm not taking the blame!

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

With some vids and Quicktime, I get video with no audio, but if I try them in Windows Media Player ( I have the Mac version) they usually work properly. I have no idea why.

Just a suggestion.

Good luck!

[morgan32.livejournal.com]

I guess it might be different on a Mac, but WMP won't play files downloaded from iTunes on a PC. Or at least, my version won't - the file format isn't compatible.

Thanks for trying, though :-)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Maybe I couldn't do it with iTunes downloads either. I've never tried that, because those play with iTunes. Mostly I've been able to do that with things I've downloaded elsewhere.

Good luck!