Today

Today has been a weird one. I didn't get much sleep last night and a friend wanted to use the computer while I tried to nap, except she wouldn't shut up while she did it. No sleep later, a neighbor comes up with a computer problem - like a major computer problem. I try everything I know to do on the surface before breaking-down and reformatting the entire thing. After reinstalling a fresh copy of XP, I settle on it needing a new video adapter.

Luckily, he gives me a copy of Office 2003 - he didn't even know what it was! I have been installing add-ons and utilities to Vista Mail for weeks now (it's the subject of an upcoming post on The Cyberculturalist, in fact) but with the sheer volume of mail I get these days, it simply wasn't up to the task and I have been looking into alternatives for months now. I started installing and updating it around 2-3:00 this afternoon...

And that's the easy part; now I have to figure the damned thing out! Not to mention that it's been downloading e-mail on a single account for about the last 45 minutes! I forgot I had it set to leave mail on the server because I was always between computers and nothing would network with Vista. I had to add an account just to get in the damned thing and am about to import from Vista Mail (which will hopefully create all my folders and move the items in the right ones, otherwise I've got over 2000 e-mails to go through - in my personal account, alone!).

It's just part of the whole thing, I'm afraid. I know it takes time away from being here, but Fridays have become our slow day. Saturdays usually crawl, too (I'll probably be around, though). Late Sunday nights tend to generate a slow boom and I could have sworn I recently saw an article on how Sunday was becoming the big blogging night - the night most everyone spends catching-up on their blog reading... of course I can't find it now. Though it takes time away from working, it saves tons of time once it gets done - it's all about the bigger picture of productivity, baby. I didn't get many PRs today anyway, so maybe everyone was laying low.

Watch The Cyberculturalist in coming weeks for more on computing productivity, as I'm going to detail a lot of what I go through to whip things into shape. However, installing and learning Office is probably going to be the biggest (and only real) step I need to take.

I will probably get a late start on tomorrow too, because I desperately need a few hours of sleep! And I don't know that I'm done for tonight, but I have a whole lot to do behind the scenes.

Please check out the Dark Conspiracy @ The Weirding and let me know what you think. While you're there, go ahead and Stumble Upon it, like so many others did this week. Thanks again to everyone! I just wish more people had taken the time to explore past the index page - it's pretty and all, but there's already so much online, and seeing as how the inactive links outnumber the active ones by about 4:1, you know there's more to come.

Just so you know, the boost of confidence really makes a difference. I strive to bring quality content and information to the Web, but it's easy to get lost in the minutiae and convince myself I'm working when I'm really just spinning wheels; the surge of traffic, the comments (even the nasty or negative ones), the incoming links and mentions - all these things are truly appreciated and compel me to get off my butt and get... on... back on my butt and do some real work.

Ah, it started off well...

© C Harris Lynn, 2009