Three Days
All images shot with the GFX 50S and GF 110mm f/2 R WR
On Friday, my Mac gave up.
On Saturday, I rebuilt the entire workspace.
On Sunday, I stepped into a thick white world.
It began normally enough: after my morning routine I shot some images to accompany a new Dissection post that was otherwise ready to publish. I then had an online session scheduled for 10am—enough time to edit the pictures, finalize that post’s layout and reply to a few emails.
The beachball first reared its colourful head in Capture One; more so than usual and enough to make me wonder what was going on. I beach-balled again in Safari, then in the Finder...something wasn’t right. But probably nothing that a fresh restart couldn't fix.
I was ten minutes away from my 10am appointment.
The iMac chimed, the apple appeared, then the progress bar, moving along right up to about midway. And then nothing. I tried safe boot—still no go. Eventually, I got the machine booted up in recovery mode, ran Disk Utility and was told everything was fine. Sure. I restarted again and the iMac went into a loop, something I’d never seen: restart, stall, display a message about a failed restart, self- restart, repeat.
By this time I’d apologized and cancelled the session. By this time I was also sweating bullets as reality was cruelly setting in: I’d be doing a Facebook Live event in less than a week. I needed to buy a new computer.
...
Saturday Journal
I have an M1 MacBook Air. It’s the first time my main computer is a laptop since the days of the 12” Powerbook G4. Loved that little guy. Events unfolded quickly yesterday: with all stores closed due to lockdown, I fired up the Apple Store app. I wanted an M1 Mac Mini, which meant I’d also need a screen; more complexity, more headaches, more decisions. But there was a bigger problem: every single Mac I looked at was listed as unavailable for pick-up (I figured Apple wasn’t offering pick-ups) and they all offered delivery dates at least two weeks away—a catastrophe given my upcoming schedule. Then, almost out of spite, I fiddled with a MacBook Air’s configuration settings: max ram (16 GB on M1 machines), 1 TB SSD drive...and boom! Available for pick-up today at Apple Dix-30. What?? I looked at Cynthia...
Minutes later I’d tapped BUY. I’d selected a pick-up time slot.
At 2:30pm I was back home with a new Mac.
I never stepped out of the car.
Today, however, has been intense. The Air includes TWO Thunderbolt 3/USB-4 ports. That’s it. And this accounts for charging as well. Two slots and I have two main drives, two backup drives, an audio interface/mixer, a midi keyboard and a video switcher to connect. On top of the occasional SD card reader and mobile drive.
But after much trial and error, tons of failures and consecutive waves of despair... I’ve succeeded. It turns out my RAID drive was actually USB-C, and it included a hub. My old iMac only had USB-3, so I’d forgotten about that. This setup isn’t giving me maximum throughput from the Thunderbolt 2 drive, so I may add a powered dock eventually—certainly before the next big video project. I’ve found the product already. For now, however, it’s fine.
The iMac eventually fixed itself too. Like magic. Obviously, I can’t rely on it, but I’ve turned it into a server for the external backup drives, freeing up a port on my MacBook in the process.
The M1 lives up to all the accounts I’d read: all my software works, even apps that need Rosetta (looking at you C1). Even Logic plug-ins work (Waves, Arturia and others), which is no small feat. I’ll eventually get an external screen, but I’ve re-configured Capture One and Logic Pro for dual-display using the iPad; I don’t dislike this. Time will tell.
Tonight I looked at my workstation. The transformation is stunning—every bit of gear has either moved or disappeared. You never know what the next day will bring.
…
Sunday Journal
It snowed. Much less here than in most of the province, but it’s the heavy kind—sticky and wet. Sculpting snow.
I shovelled the driveway, cleaned up the car. Picked-up the camera when I was done.
It’s January.
I guess life IS brand new, after all.
