No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet–I’ve just been crazy crazy busy this past week.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, after one BSOD too many, I finally switched from Windows to Ubuntu.\u00a0 I’ve wanted to give Linux a try ever since high school, but I’m not a computer programmer or anything so a lot of it is way over my head.\u00a0 So far, though, it hasn’t been too bad.\u00a0 The most complicated thing I had to do was change the firmware on my mp3 player (an iRiver T10 … yeah, laugh, whatever).<\/p>\n
This is just an initial impression, but it seems that the difference between Linux, Windows, and Apple is a lot like the difference between cooking your own food, popping a frozen meal into the microwave, and paying someone to cook for you.\u00a0 With Linux, you have to at least dabble in the actual code in order to get anything to work, but it works WAAAAY better than anything else (just like real food is healthier than fake food).\u00a0 With Windows, yeah, you can kind of hack stuff, but you’re still at the mercy of Microsoft.\u00a0 And with Apple, you’re basically paying through the nose for someone to hold your hand every time you use your device.<\/p>\n
So anyways, that’s been quite an adjustment, with a steep learning curve that I’m still trying to climb.\u00a0 Hopefully, I’ll get it all figured out before I publish my next book, because otherwise there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.\u00a0 Actually, scratch that–the wailing and gnashing of teeth will happen anyway (heck, it’s happening now!), but if I don’t have it figured out, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth AND a delay getting the next book out.\u00a0 But that’s not going to happen.<\/p>\n
The other thing that’s kept me busy (and really, the main thing sucking up all my time) has been a construction job that the temp agency suckered me into taking.\u00a0 They said it was supposed to end on Monday … but no, it lasted all week.\u00a0 I did learn a lot of interesting things, though.\u00a0 For example, I learned how to take out and re-install a toilet.\u00a0 I also learned that painters are among the most disgusting creatures on Earth, so if I ever want to paint the interior of my house, I’d be better off buying the supplies and doing it myself.<\/p>\n
There were a couple of other things that kept me busy, but I’m not sure how much I can talk about them yet.\u00a0 The most exciting thing has to do with the next issue of Mormon Artist magazine, which should be coming out in about a month.\u00a0 Also, I’ve been working with some other sci-fi indie writers to put together a group promo–more on that later.<\/p>\n
So that’s what I’ve been doing instead of blogging.\u00a0 I’ve also made some progress in Sons of the Starfarers,<\/strong> though not as much as I’d like.\u00a0 Ideally, I’d like to finish the rough draft in about two weeks, which is pushing it but definitely possible.\u00a0 I figure that writing is more important than blogging, so if you don’t see another post here for a while, that’s what I’m up to.<\/p>\n So much for that.\u00a0 I’ll leave you with this:<\/p>\n