Contemplation time

I've been kinda quiet lately. On Wednesday morning my only PC broke, leaving me without any computer, nor access to the internet. I have several projects on the go but all of them require the PC. On Saturday afternoon I got my PC working again, albeit in a "very light duties" mode.

During my downtime I was lost without my PC, knowing it was sitting there but that it was useless. I have been rethinking various things I am doing and may need to thin out again to focus. All of this from Saturday onwards hasn't been helped by the fact I've done something to my hip and am walking like an old man, where every position seems to hurt me. I may need to go see the doc about it, we'll see.

Doing too much

I seem to have a habit of taking on too many projects at the same time, and it appears I've done the same again. I am currently trying to think through three separate business models, several blogs, new PC hardware, and all while learning Ubuntu Linux and trying to find a regular sleep pattern. My folders have mostly been sorted now, my bookmarks have almost been culled to those I actually use.

The little mouse

I've almost finished clearing out my files, with my bookmarks to go so I'll be starting to blog regularly soon enough. I will be learning Linux itself as well as various packages at the same time as trying to fit into a pattern. My aim is a two day cycle, but I'll see how that goes.

When I left my flat to go food shopping, my eyes were drawn to something small moving on the floor of the communal close......it was a tiny mouse. I don't know much about rodents, so I'm guessing it was a mouse, a young one too judging by the fact that it was about 2 inches long....cute little fella too.

I love animals so I couldn't hurt it, but I figured that it was essentially trapped on one floor, so the best thing would be to encourage it outside where it could find food and shelter. It was kinda funny trying to evict it without touching it, or scaring it.....I turned into a mouse herder with my trainers.

It's now back outside, and should be fine. Part of me thought "it's so small, it must be vulnerable to cats.....or kids" but the more realistic part of me superseded that with "well, it survived fine before it arrived in the close, it'll be fine."

Either way, I hope it is alright. I would have taken a picture but my batteries are flat right now....oh well.

When I'm cleaning Windows

It's amazing how much clutter you create on your PC after a while. I am reasonably strict about my folder layout, and what goes where.....the problem is that I change my system with the next install and don't bother re-aligning everything. It does not help that Microsoft set down the laws like My Pictures, My Music etc It kinda forces you to continue the theme to My Websites, My Videos etc unless you want them to stand out.

The cleaning of my Windows is a bigger job than I expected....it's one of those that puts you off just looking at it, but the sooner it's done the sooner I can get on with things. I've found old Windows files I forgot I had, tucked away in folders inside folders inside folders......that I no longer need. It's more the checking that I don't purge anything important that's taking the time. On the bright side, I am on Linux for keeps now......so once it's done, it can be easily maintained.

Add to this, the bookmarks folders are full of sites I bookmarked on seeing them as a "oh that'd be handy" and forgot what they were....many are Windows specific too, I am tempted to save the few that I use, and wipe the rest for a clean start.....but again, if I take that shortcut I'll end up searching for one in a few weeks that knew I had and is now gone.

I am falling for Ubuntu by the hour, it's just so user friendly. I've found a few useful widgets for the panels and have been able to figure out the basic functions of many of the programs I use. This is a lower priority at the moment as I want to get the Windows cleaned first. I may take a few days from adding any blogs to do this, I'll see how it goes.

More happy upheaval afoot

I've grown increasingly annoyed with Mandriva Linux 2007.1 the more I used it. Mandriva's definition of "stable" seems to include a lot of beta software which frequently crashes or locks up. I only chose it because my first choice Ubuntu didn't find my Speedtouch modem. I tried Ubuntu 7.04 and after some trial and error I got it working. So this means starting from scratch again in the re-adjustment stakes in Gnome instead of KDE. This time I am on the Linux I wanted, and it's not letting me down.

I have been awake close to 24 hours now, and am weary. I've also found a cool new theme and another handy extension for Firefox, which I'll get round to blogging about.

Image sharing issues

Well, since some of my blogs require images to be shown, I've been looking at different options which are easy to use. I have been struggling to get the "upload" options in PhotoBucket, DropShots is a PITA if you're not on Windows. Blogger can upload, but I'm not sure where they go, and linking them to Amazon products is awkward. I'm still working on it.

I am still getting used to Linux, I still have lots of reorganizing to do...but I'm getting there. Most of my blog entries are reposts from my WordPress one. It's a little breathing room while I get sorted. I am also a very private person, so this blog is maybe the hardest of the lot for me.

Aligning my PC for the future

I've had a lot of upheaval in recent weeks. I switched my PC from Windows XP Pro to Mandriva Linux, and have a lot of folder and file reorganizing yet to do. I have lots of files which no longer matter to find and delete. Almost all of the programs I used in XP are not released for Linux, I have to relearn new packages to do the same thing. My Firefox used to be set up for surfing, now I am reorganizing that for working, which will take a while yet too.

I had a blog at WordPress.com but after about six weeks realized they were not the place for me. I also let my blog there get cluttered with too many subjects. This understandably led to my readership falling back so I knew I needed several blogs, it was only a case of narrowing down how many and how to split them up. Finally, this is done.

A quick run down of what each blog is for (as named in the sidebar list):

• Book Extracts - For sharing non-fiction book extracts, mostly PC related.
• Detective Agency - My personal blog, with day to day stuff.
• Extending Firefox - A guide to Mozilla Firefox extensions.
• Mosquito Fart - My technical blog, containing everything Linux, Microsoft etc.
• Novel Extracts - For sharing extracts of fictional novels I like.
• Playing Now On The Tube - My one-stop-shop for YouTube videos I want to share.
• Social Avalanche - My serious political / social blog, where my blogs tend to be lengthy.
• The CIA Monkey - My satirical blog, for those who don't recognize sarcasm without a signpost.
• The Star Wars Journal - My SW blog, mostly concentrating on the Expanded Universe.
  
  

I need to readjust my working practices, and find a pattern. These blogs will start rather irregularly but will find their own flow as I improve, please be patient.