Category Archives: Cyberspace & Technology

Mumbles and Mutters

I want a mouse with a scroll wheel set into it. I use one at work and I love it.

I want an optical mouse. I now hate my mouse cord. I’m still considering a light tablet.

I want to try an ergonomic keyboard. I almost had a free one, but it won’t work for various reasons.

I need to put new lenses in my previous pair of glasses, because now that I’ve started wearing glasses all the time, I take them off and forget them in odd places. My glasses on the coffee table at home do not help me when I’m sitting in an office staring at a computer screen. (Two pairs of glasses might mean I lose them twice as often, but at least I’ll have increased my chances of having an operational pair close to hand.)

The Kim Possible: Secret Files DVD was released this week, as was the second season of Angel, and the second season of 24 comes out on DVD next week. Either studios are counting on the arrival of student loans across North America, or it’s all an evil plot to keep me in abject poverty. (What? You didn’t know that I’m a huge Kim Possible fan? So huge that I want a new cell phone so it can beep like her pager? Yes, I’m a geek. Sue me. How can I not love a show with a theme song that begins, “I’m just an average girl/And I’m here to save the world”?)

I’m tired of slow dial-up, and I want high-speed or DSL.

And the problem with waking up before dawn is that you’re ready to do things like banking and shopping before banks and shops are open. Drat.

So Much For The Vacation

Home again. It feels like I didn’t have a vacation at all.

I tried to have a nice quiet tea-hour with my oldest girlfriend this morning and we were interrupted by the electrician and three phonecalls in and two out. Then I went into work for a nice quiet session of freelance data entry and was drawn into the whirlwind that is the wholesale division. Skippy came over to do battle with newly acquired computer bits ten minutes after I got home. I’m exhausted. I’m in the process of denying the scratchy feeling in my throat and the vaguely nauseous feeling that’s been nagging at me; I refuse to be sick.

Lord Skippy has blended the guts of two computers (“Your chocolate is in my peanut butter!”) and has created a new taste sensation which I have dubbed “BiFrost, Computer of the Gods”. Two hard drives! Two! Muah-hah-hah!

I’m exhausted, so I’m stumbling off to bed. Besides, if I take off my glasses and lose them one more time I think I’ll scream.

Just wanted to let you know that I’m alive. G’night.

Um, You’ve Checked My Server Logs, Haven’t You

Blogger has a new interface. After going through the entire process with that last post, my first impression is that I like it. At the moment it’s not better or worse than the old one, it’s just different.

The best part so far? After previewing your post, you hit the publish button, and a new screen replaces the old one. It says:

Publishing in process.
This may take a few minutes, if you have a large blog.

Do they know me, or what?

Reviewing The Past

More articles have been posted and linked over at Owldaughter’s Read section, including the first chapter from Reconstructing the Past in the Academic Novel: The Concept of Nostalgia in Thatcher Britain. Yes, I know there are hordes of you out there who have been simply dying with impatience to read this magnum opus, and you’ve just been too shy to ask. Here’s your chance for a taste.

It’s hard to believe that I finished this just over three years ago. It’s even harder to believe that I defended it successfully and it was accepted with only three minor changes. t! and I were chatting earlier about successes and accomplishments in our lives, and I continually forget about my thesis, or value it at much less that I ought to. Damn it, I have a bound hardcover book on my shelf with publication data in it, and the title on the cover in gold. I had to sign a release form for Her Majesty the Queen (that’s Elizabeth, not my mother) granting her permission to store a copy in the National Library files. This is huge.

Plus I’ve written two novels, and have two more on the go. My writing accomplishments alone ought to reassure me that I’ve done some pretty impressive stuff in my first thirty-odd years.

Everyone has similar accomplishments under their belts – not necessarily theses or novels, but projects of significance that we would admire in anyone else except ourselves. So why don’t we feel fulfilled?