There’s so much going on that I have to write three blog entries in one. I’ll make each of them a third the size of a normal blog post, so you won’t be scrolling till a week from Thursday. Same great bloggy taste, but only a third the calories.

Here goes…

Paddytum, by Tricia Heighway

Every once in a while, you read a book that just sits entirely right in your brain. It fits, it’s comfortable, it makes itself at home and weaves its way into your psyche. Paddytum, the début novel by Tricia Heighway, is just such a book. I finished reading it last evening, and I was sorry it had ended. It was a sheer and utter delight. (more…)

I’m not going to tell you all about my computer woes again. I’ve already done that once in the last incarnation of this blog, back when I reinstalled Windows XP after buying a used computer. Suffice it to say that my website/blog has been hacked twice now, and I’m concerned that it was malware on my Windows XP providing someone with my ftp password. What I’ve done has been rather drastic, but it’s been a long time coming. I’ve abandoned Windows XP and am now running Ubuntu 10.04.1 on my computer.

That’s the nutshell version. You probably don’t want to know the gory details.

Of course, this switch of operating systems is going to come with some growing pains. Some of the tools I’ll have to use now will be different from those to which I’ve become accustomed on Windows XP. For example, I’m typing this text in a program called TextRoom, which is similar in basic functionality to my beloved WriteMonkey, but lacks a metric ton of WriteMonkey’s features. I hope that maybe, someday, if I’m very, very good, Iztok will port WriteMonkey over to Linux and allow me the freedom to jump around my document (like a monkey) and quickly export my Markdown formatting to HTML or RTF.

In the meantime, I’ll use the Perl script provided by the Markdown site to convert my text files to HTML and paste the results into my blog posts. It sounds cumbersome, but it’s really only a few steps. Given all that, however, I’d still prefer WriteMonkey. But I’m done with Windows XP, so I’ll have to make do.

But all that’s just an aside, really. I little bit of “What I’ve Been Doing With My Week”. Other than training in the new job, that is.

I’m here to revisit the idea that I put forth in my last blog post: The Voices of Reason Project. (more…)

As often happens, I’ve gone more days than I intended without writing a blog post. This is not unexpected, but I still don’t really much like it when this happens.

It’s been a whirlwind of a summer. I’ve changed jobs twice in a matter of eight weeks, and there’s been a lot of family stuff going on. (This group I created on Facebook tells the tale.) So, yes, the blog, despite the revamp and reboot, has fallen to a lesser priority.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about it. In fact, I’ve been thinking about it rather a lot. My redesign has come from some careful consideration of what’s important to me and what I really hope to achieve through blogging. Having my values spelled out graphically in my header is almost akin to having a contract with myself to actually use this piece of the web to promote the things I feel are important.

So, I’m embarking upon a new project. (more…)