Darn That Life!

Yeah, just when I figured I was getting things back on track, life interferes. Ain’t that always the way?

Last week’s workshop was on Steampunk. I came away with a better understand of what Steampunk is, and the knowledge that it’s not a genre I’ll be working in much. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, it’s just not my cup of tea.

The class assignments were to create a Steampunk invention, and then use your invention in a story. I have to admit, I found the invention part way harder than I expected. I finally came up with a toaster made of mahogany on the outside, and brass on the inside. It had racks on the inside so you could toast several pieces of bread at once, and was powered by a Tesla coil.

Pretty lame. So I was a little appalled when the next part of the assignment was to write a story around it. The story I started has nothing to do with toasters, it revolves around a hair clip, and I was about half done (300 words in) by the end of the class. Actually, I don’t think anyone finished. We were all still writing away furiously when the class ended. I had intended to finish my story in time to post on Friday, but as I said, life intruded and I just haven’t got back to it. Maybe I can get it done for this Wednesday instead of a poem.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.” Well, that’s my new lap top, in spades. I’d like to mention at this point, I hate Windows 10. A lot. And this has nothing to do with my Apache, I’d be faced with this no matter what new lap top I bought.

I hate Cortana too, who’s not really as helpful as she pretends to be. I hate that I had to create a Microsoft account - what’s the deal with that? I hate Microsoft Edge and I don’t care how much better it is than Chrome for surfing. And I really hate that it keeps telling me that I could make my computing experience so much better if only I would let it track my every movement. Not. Going. To. Happen.

So at this point I kind of have a love/hate relationship going on with my new lap top. But it looks pretty sitting on my desk, and I’m sure that once I get over the whole Windows 10 thing I’ll be writing up a storm on it.

Just don’t count on it happening anytime soon. ;-)

And The Real Winner Is....

So... a couple of weeks ago I mentioned about needing a new lap top and then I whined complained ranted related the problems I was having trying to get the lap top I’d settled on from Lenovo.

Well, I finally got all my money back from them - money they never should have taken in the first place because it said right on their order confirmation email that they wouldn’t until the order was ready to ship - and on the weekend I started researching lap tops again.

I mentioned my computer wish list to a tech savy friend and they suggested I look at a gaming lap top - apparently they’re not just for gaming. So I started looking at gaming lap tops and I really liked what I saw. Lots of power, lots of hard drive space, good screen resolution with anti-glare, and backlit keyboard. They don’t have the awesome battery that the ThinkPads have, but to be perfectly honest I seldom run off the battery for more than an hour or two anyway.

Staples just happened to be having a lap sale so I went over to have a look at what they had and I am now the proud owner of an MSI Apache. And I didn’t know it when I settled on it, but not only is the keyboard backlit, you can adjust the colour - I can make it rainbow if I want! LOL

I’m sure most of you will understand the need for speed and the large sized hard drive, but you’re probably wondering why I’m so set on a backlit keyboard. It’s not because it’s pretty (although that’s kind of a bonus) it’s because the light in my new office isn’t so great, especially when I’m working at my desk.

Of course I won’t know for sure it’s “the one” until I actually use it (they were out of stock but one’s coming from a different store tomorrow). And I have up to 14 days to make up my mind if I want to return it. For me, the keyboard is key. I’ll know the moment I start typing.

In other news....the writing is at least trickling in. I wrote three blog posts last week - haven’t done that in a while. And I wrote two flash stories and one brand, spanking new poem using a brand new poetry form.

Might not be much, but it’s a start. Maybe my new lap top will make me type faster. ;-)