This jumped straight to the top of my “stuff I can justify buying for some good reason, while secretly preparing for the zombie outbreak” list.
2…
My new Asus eeePC 1000he netbook makes me pretty happy. It took me a little more than a year to talk myself into it, and waiting that long meant that I got a 10-inch screen, much-improved keyboard, and a purported 8+ hours of battery life (YMMV) for about 75% of what I would have ended up paying for a lesser machine in 2008.
Time: Not only on my side, but kinda groovy.
3…
While cleaning the bloatware from the netbook (which I’ve named “The FMA” until I think of something better), I dug about for the tools I wanted to turn the thing into an open source/freeware writing machine. OpenOffice was a no-brainer for word processing and MS-Office-friendly output, but I MUST bring your attention to Write Monkey.
Write Monkey is a full-screen … I was going to say “word processor”, but it’s both more (a writer’s tool) and less (a text editor). The creator promises a distraction-free writing experience, and that’s what you get: just you and the words on a black screen. Word count display is optional, as is a “Write or Die” timer. It has a few nice options hidden in the background that I’m not going to spoil, and an all-keyboard-commands style of interface that I absolutely love; I wrote my first stories on ProWrite 2.0 for DOS 3.1, and this this feels like coming home. (It also has a solid “export to doc format” function that works quite well.)
My current favorite part? The Repository screen, where you can hide all the bits you haven’t found a place for in the story, yet. Brilliant.
4…
What else did I put on there? A bunch of game-rules PDFs, VLC Portable, bookmarks to Slacker Radio and Graham Walmsley’s Very Fine Dice Roller, and I’m pretty much good to go for everything I’d want to do with the thing. (Full disclosure: I also put LotRO on it, just to see if it would run. It did, and the less said (or done) about that, the better.)
Anyone else have a software app they think the whole world should be using? Lemme know: I have tons of free space and a strong desire to tinker. (Note to self: figure out why you can’t boot to the eeebuntu thumbdrive. :P)
Kate and I had a very fun, relaxing weekend, from which I emerged… totally exhausted. Relaxing != restful, I guess.
Especially when we stay up till around 2am both Friday and Saturday.
Saturday we decided to try out some new characters in Lord of the Rings Online (our MMO of choice) so that we could explore the changes/improvements to the ‘starter’ areas in the game. We were VERY favorably impressed, both with the changes and the characters we made up, and (except for mowing the yard before the rain started AGAIN) played them right up to the time we needed to head over to the Consortium to play Mouse Guard.
I will recount the details of play and the story of our first adventure in another post on another blog, but I will at least say that we had a great time, learned a lot about a game no one had played before, and feedback and thoughts are still coming in from players who are clearly still thinking about the game, which alone is a really good sign. I think we might have found a very good, engaging ‘go to’ game.
Once we got home, we played LotRO some MORE (silly us). Luckily for our productivity levels, these shiny new characters are now in a holding pattern, waiting for the next update to the game (in a few weeks), which will bring a major revision to the area we just reached.
Sunday evening, we hit Home Depot to find out about renting some equipment and priced a new grill, since my old one kind of burst into flame last weekend, in the vicinity of the propane tank hose. Scary.
And that was the weekend. I tried to get to sleep early Sunday, but my allergies kicked me in the head most of the night, so all the laying down did me no good.
What else?
Books. I just finished and really enjoyed The Blade Itself (thanks, Dave!), and I highly recommend it to anyone who asks (and several people who didn’t). I need to pick up the rest of the trilogy, because the first book has a real Empire Strikes Back ending.
I’m currently reading Redwall, which I’m enjoying somewhat less than I’d expected. A perfectly servicable story, but the delivery leaves me apathetic. I doubt I’ll seek out sequels.
Ted Naifeh has a fourth and fifth Courtney Crumrin book out? WHY WASN’T I INFORMED?
Movies. I finally got to share Howl’s Moving Castle with Kate. This is probably my favorite Miyazaki movie (why why WHY do I only own Princess Mononoke, and where is my copy of Spirited Away?), and I’m completely thrilled that Kate enjoyed it as much as she did. Maybe I should buy myself some of Miyazaki movies for Father’s Day. And Courtney Crumrin books… Hmm…
Now then… what’s up for this week?
Toys. I should get my new Asus EEEpc 1000 HE netbook today. (I’m just going to pretend that I never got the non-functional one last week, and that this one just came in on 5-day delivery. *jedi hand wave*) I’m very happy about this – it’s a reward/incentive for diving back into Hidden Things revisions this week, and one that I’ve been putting off for almost a year – a good thing, because the technology has progressed a lot in that time. I’m excited to have a super-portable electronic tool (the netbook weighs about 3 pounds, boasts a potential 9-hours of continual use battery life, and really doesn’t have the ability to have a bunch of games on it — all good things for a writing machine), and I already know that it’s a comfortable machine to write on, thanks to the machine-that-I-didn’t-get-last-week. (*cough*)
Writing. I’m spending some more time with Hidden Things starting this week. A tweak to events early in the book is going to give me about two more days to work with in the story’s timeline, and I plan to use it — I’ve been sketching out what will be going on, and I’m really excited to write it all down — should be another 50 pages of fun stuff, and a nice inaugural cruise for the new netbook.
Music. Irish music festival in Fort Collins next weekend? Don’t mind if I do!
Sleep. My sagging eyes demand that I mention this.
Play. My habits demand I mention this.
And hey… speaking of habits how are those going?
Food things:pretty good. I’m keeping track of what I eat via the blackberry app tied into Livestrong.com, and I’ve been happy with it. I’m down about five pounds in four weeks, which is a nice, steady rate of descent, if a little slower than I’d like.
Earlier wake up time. Pretty much done and done. This morning was pretty painful, but there are reasons for that — in the larger picture, I am now getting up and getting busy an hour earlier every day. I don’t know whether to cheer or cry about it, but it’s done.
Thats about it. What’s the rest of your June look like?
Fighting the ever-advancing forces of Angmar is very serious business. Except when it isn't.
Got the ASUS 1000he this evening. Battery won’t charge. I think I just dropped a big chunk of change to have an new netbook RMA’d. Fuck. #
RMA: fine for later failures, but I can return the thing to Amazon, get my money back, & get a new 1 in 1/3rd the RMA’s time. #asus #netbook#
I’ve been spell-corrected on twitter. Westley told me ROUSes didn’t exist. #
This broken Asus netbook thing really makes me sad. Ironically, I chose this one for the battery life, and it doesn’t. fucking. work. #
Yep. Asus support says I have to RMA the whole bloody thing for this battery problem. (Or… return to AMZ.) Upside: fast suppost response. #
RT @glecharles RT @drewmaniac: Today is #followfriday. Don’t make long lists of names. Give me a recommendation & tell me why. Be USEFUL. #
What? Amazon will send me a replacement netbook BEFORE I send the original back? See… THIS is why I welcome our new robot overlords. #
Anyone know of a word processor that takes raw text and formats it based on ascii symbols, wiki-style? Frex: *bold* or /italics/. #
For #followfriday, I recommend @VeryShortStory, which delivers exactly what’s advertised on the tin. Good stuff. in reply to VeryShortStory#
Re: word processor q: I want a w.p. that does the same thing as GTalk (props: @cyface), so I can write in metapad but ‘do’ formatting. in reply to cyface#
Dear Amazon: you’re not only replacing my netbook, but doing so via 1-day shipping, w/ clear return instructions and apology. *manly tears* #
Rain falling in the afternoon sunshine. Beautiful. #
Adrift: The explosion is followed by howl of hull breach alarms. Yoren whispers he knew I had a plan. He .. http://tinyurl.com/mpodwu#
