Mercury in Retrograde...and some random thoughts

(Picture from astrologyzone.com)

MCO Lockdown 3.0...4.0...whatever. Day 2.

It's also the month where Mercury is in retrograde.

I just looked it up as I was writing this, the period where Mercury is in retrograde is from May 29th until June 22, which means we can expect many things going bonkers during this period. Well, it clearly has, hasn’t it? We are, after all, in lockdown so that definitely screwed everybody up. However, the lockdown also gives us an opportunity to really reflect on one’s life in general (which is also recommended during this Mercury retrograde period). But while doing that, it also seems we have to be prepared to deal with the little things that go wrong; hopefully we don’t lose our heads in the process.

Here’s a classic personal experience of Mercury's retrograde effect on technology:

I had to move everything from my teaching studio to my home for my online lessons, which means readjusting my entire workflow to work from home. Thankfully, this wasn’t my first lockdown rodeo, so I could plan in advance what were the things I needed to bring back for that set up.

I got set up just in time for my first lesson in the morning, and ran all the necessary audio tests with the audio set up that I’ve worked with hundreds of times. A few minutes after I started the Zoom session (and asking my customary “can you hear me?” question) suddenly the entire audio connection just stopped working. From the outset, it seemed that all the cables, audio interface, sound settings, were working properly, but Zoom is just not picking it up. Took me a few minutes to tinker with software settings, then resorted to restarting the entire computer.

Of course, that finally worked. Until of course, the “loop back” feature on my audio interface didn’t seem to work, even though I’ve used this feature this computer many times. I gave up on that eventually and resumed the lesson and used other ways to conduct the lesson,

On to my second student. The same problem happened. The audio stopped working. Restarted, and it finally worked...somehow. Funnily enough, my student also had his own problems with his gear while the lesson was going on. After a few minutes of tinkering around, we finally made it to the lesson.

It’s just Day 2. Good luck.

Some random thoughts to fill my quota of writing for a daily blog:

~ Having a family of cats in the house has really kept us sane throughout this whole pandemic season.

~ After a long spell of eating out/delivery, home cooking is THE BEST!! And my wife is an amazing creative cook of healthy food (with minimal salt, sugar, oil, etc). It’s ridiculous how much goes into outside food. It’s super yummy, but sometimes too much super is really not super at all.

~ Finding topics to write about for a daily blog is....challenging.

Ok, it’s 12:00 AM the next day. Technically I missed today, but it’s still 2nd of June in outer countries.

Have a good one, and stay safe.

~ JC