Synergy

Yesterday was Sunday. Etta was completing her last day of training at the Italian restaurant Quartino, while I relaxed and enjoyed my first day off at home in July. After completing something like 100 blog posts, I turned my attention to setting up my new monitor for my 2007 PC laptop and then controlling both that and the Imac with the same mouse and keyboard. I had to set up a program called Synergy – the problem was that I did not have an extra mouse, and when I set up Synergy on the “guest” computer (to be controlled by the “server” computer) I then had to click “start,” and unplug the mouse, to plug it into the the “server” computer. Everytime I clicked “start” and unplugged the mouse the program crashed. I took a break and went up on the roof and bugged out. I heard all kinds of wild ambient sounds. Then I realized it was Pitchfork Music Fest in Chicago. When I got back to the dual screens (Quake 2 duel screens!) synergy had magically started to work.

Chef Andrew of Frontera Foods replied to my Xoco report excerpted in the last blog post with the comment, “Nice sneakers reference!” I was impressed: Chef Andrew was the only one who noticed! Here is the relevant passage from the script:

“Do you have the item? – No. – Fifteen seconds. – Can you guarantee my safety? – Where is the item? – Can you guarantee my safety? – Five seconds. – Yes, I can guarantee your safety. – Bish, he’s lying. – Hang up. They’ve almost got us. – He’s lying! – Hang up, Bish! Hang up! – He’s lying! He’s lying! There’s gotta be a way to cut a deal. Too late. If we had the box, yes. Without it, no. So let’s get this friggin’ thing. – I don’t know where it is. – What did it sound like? – No idea where they took you? – No. They threw me in a trunk, drove around in circles. It could be miles away, underground, in a sky-rise. Forget it. – Bish, what did it sound like? – What? The road. When you were in the trunk, what did the road sound like? Well, I don’t… Highway. A regular highway. Did you go over any speed bumps? Gravel? How about a bridge? – Bridge, yeah. – Four bridges in the Bay Area. Was the Golden Gate fogged in last night? – Yes. – Did you hear a foghorn? No. – Scratch the Golden Gate. – That leaves three. What did it sound like? Did you go through a tunnel? I’m not… No. Scratch the Bay. That leaves two. San Mateo and Dunbarton. What did it sound like? Lower. Lower. There was a recurring sound. Like seams in the concrete. But further apart. Yeah. – Now what? – Bumps. Rough ones. – Railroad tracks. – Yeah, yeah. A right on Antrim and a left on . And then what did you hear? – A cocktail party. – What? Drove through what sounded… It sounded like a cocktail party. There was chattering. It was right at the end. Great. Now we got to look for a cocktail party… …on the other side of the railroad track. What’s the exit where the railroad tracks are? Crescent. Mother, stay on Crescent, get off at the reservoir. Okay. There’s a cocktail party at the reservoir? Yeah. Yeah. Very good, Bish. Remind me to make you an honorary blind person. Great. Where’s this road go? Nowhere. Looks like it ends right around that hill. – What’s behind the hill? – Nothing. It’s private property. Private. Forget it. It’s a toy company. Toy company, my ass. That’s laser fencing.”