The story of what's been delaying Retun to Pennsic

So here's the story: My first delay was in getting the video tapes converted to digital media. I had to wait until the money came in to do that. The money came from a new job I acquired. This proved to be a double-edged sword. The job got me money, but took my time.

I also came to discover that my computer has a hard time using Adobe Premiere when there are too many files being drawn from and when the project is too long. I got the idea that a laptop would resolve some of these issues, being as it would have a new OS, more memory, and be portable, allowing me to edit when away from home.

Santa Clause bequeathed me with a spanking new MacBook Pro, which then put me in the dilemma of wither learning a Mac-compatible editing program like Final Cut, or using Windows on a Mac so I could continue editing with Premiere. I chose the latter.

At first I was told to use Parallels to install Windows, so I bought the program and installed Windows, then Premier, then noticed that Premiere was running a little wonky. Someone then said the boot Camp was the way to go to install Windows on a Mac.

The trouble is that the latest version of Boot Camp only works with Windows 7, and I only had windows XP. So a friend provided me with a copy of Windows 7.

But when using Boot Camp, one should back up one’s files. The external hard drive I was using did not have enough space to hold all the files on my new MacBook, so I was burning disks to open up the space. Then one day the external hard drive failed.

The troubleshooting guides led me to research file recovery companies. After recovering form the cardiac event that the prices they were charging gave me, I head from a friend that it’s possible tat you don’t need “file recovery,” it could just be a simple hardware problem.

It turned out that the USB jack had broken off of the circuit board, the disk itself was fine, so the company that sold me the HD provided me with a dock. But the HD would not fit into the dock. They said they would provide me with a new casement, but forgot to get it to me until I called them a week or so later. Again, the HD did not fit, but I figured out that I needed to detach the little circuit board on which the USB input jack had been attached, and then everything fit just fine.

Then it seemed that I could no longer simply move the files from my MacBook to my HD, so I had to burn disks. It took me a while to figure out how to burn disks on a MacBook. In fact, I wound up using an XP program and doing the work in windows through Parallels. Then it looked like the disks were blank after burning.

Both of these things turned out to be false alarms. I figured out how to move the files, and that the disks were not really blank. In any event, I finally got all my files backed up and was ready to run Boot Camp and install Windows 7.

What followed was a continuation of the Kafka-esque nightmare that has been plaguing me. I shall spare you the minute details, but merely say that it involved having to burn and re-burn disks, load drivers onto one thing and then another, a search for some internet access that would not stall out during a download process, and two late nights at the Apple store.

Now it looks like I may have to plunk down about $300 one way or another; either to buy a new copy of Windows 7 so I can load it onto my MacBook so I can continue editing in Adobe Premiere, or to buy a copy of Final Cut, render what I have done in Premiere already, and learn how to use Final Cut as I go.

And I hope to have something to screen by the end of the month.