Good morning, there’s nothing like a complete tech disaster to take your mind off what a load of bollocks we were in Europe the other night.
My iMac remains mostly banjaxed, sadly. I spent all day yesterday installing, reinstalling, repairing and crossing my fingers hoping that something I knew wouldn’t work would work. It was a bit like when I had my very first computer, a ZX Spectrum, and we’d copy games onto cassettes and share them around school. The sound quality of the copies was so dodgy that most of the time the games wouldn’t load but sometimes … just sometimes … if you let it run and left the room you’d come back to a nice surprise.
There was no surprise yesterday, unfortunately. The disaster was compounded by the fact that my back-up is corrupt. The files are there but I can’t restore from that drive. Anyway, some late night Googling led me to a post on the Apple site which said that certain iMacs made around the time of mine can suffer hard-drive failures and I’m guess this is the issue, or part of it at least. Free replacement, apparently, but free doesn’t make up for what a pain in the hole this is. I feel like they should throw in a complimentary iPad.
“That jacket is super smart, Andrew!”
“Thanks iPad!”
You forget just how much of your life, how much of what you do and need to do, is contained on these machines. So, my advice to all of you today is check your back-ups, make sure they work, and then back-up your back-up before backing-up that back-up off-site. In the cloud. Up a hippo’s minge. Wherever. You’ll thank for me it later.
Of course the other solution is that we eschew our dependence on technology and revert to a simpler lifestyle where we can no longer be hurt by these pieces of plastic and glass and stuff. But then how would I know what 5 things I’ve learned from watching a football match, or how Twitter reacted to a certain event in which I have only a vague interest anyway? It’s just so damn hard.
I should also say thanks to Arseblog reader Mark Blondal for help and guidance throughout the fraught afternoon and evening. Just a nice reminder that the online world we exist in isn’t completely populated by screeching wankblasters, and for the most part there’s a fellow Gooner out there ready to give you a hand if you need it.
Thankfully the day itself was one of those quiet ones, where not much happens because of what went down on Tuesday night. Maybe I’ve missed it in all the tech drama but there wasn’t even the ‘We have to learn from it’ kind of stuff that we usually get. Not even Johan Djourou would have gone there after what happened against Olympiacos.
“I know I’m your personable go-to guy for the in-house video stuff when we play like eejits, but there’s a limit, fellas. I’m a footballer, not an actor. I was not trained at RADA. I have but a scarce knowledge of Stanislavski, and I did not study under Lee Strasberg of Stella Adler. I am but a simple Swiss-Ivorian, a Swissvorian if you will, and you are making my life very difficult. Leave me be, I say. Leave. Me. Be”
*Throws cloak over shoulder and departs for the dressing changing room*
Today the manager will meet the press and they will ask him more questions about David Ospina and Petr Cech and he’ll probably get grumpy or deflect them or refuse to answer and then there’ll be more stories and headlines about David Ospina and Petr Cech. The bottom line is that if Ospina was a selection decision, rather than one enforced by injury, it’s one he got wrong.
It’s not to say that Ospina was at fault for the defeat, clearly there were two other goals conceded for which he could take little blame, but when you leave out your number 1 keeper for a must-win game and the number 2 keeper chucks one in, that’s on you.
What will be of more interest is how he sorts things out ahead of United on Sunday. Reports of training ground bollockings and giving the players a stern talking-to are all well and good but unless we see the fruits of that against United on Sunday then it’s just more noise. You’d like to think that defending like that in midweek will redouble our defensive efforts against a team looking to put some distance between us and them, but you just never know – this is Arsenal, after all (sentiments nicely expressed in Tim Stillman’s column this week).
Anyway, we’ll know more later on when the press conference takes place, so we’ll have all that, team news and more over on Arseblog News throughout the day.
Time now for this week’s Arsecast and despite all the Mac misery I endured, with all of the software and equipment I needed attached to it, I still managed to cobble a podcast together. It sounds a bit weird in places, but hey. This week I’m joined by Rory Smith from The Times to talk about Arsenal’s midweek exploits, Arsene Wenger’s record in Europe, why teams seem to be able to figure us out, the manager’s faith in his players and more. There’s something of a dearth of the usual waffle though, because of the day I had but it’s something, not nothing and that, as my father often told me, is better than a slap in the belly with a wet fish.
You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download the Arsecast directly, use the link below the player, and if you are a regular listener via iTunes, if you would be so kind as to leave a review/rating that would be greatly appreciated.
Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS
Right, just a reminder that there are still some tickets for the Arsecast Extra LIVE on Monday evening. You can get tickets here – hope to see you there.
Now, I have to go spend another day trying to sort out my Mac once and for all. More from me here tomorrow.
Unless the machines get me.
