Here’s something I think at least twice a day: “I should post an entry about that.”

Stuff, you could say, has been going on. The problem for this journal has been that I rarely have both time and inclination to write about it. When I have the time, I usually have something better to do. Sometimes that “better” means “more fun,” but just as often it means “which actually needs doing.” Laundry comes to mind. Catching up with friends is a good idea. Taking out the garbage should be done regularly. Cleaning up my physical and electronic spaces in general needs doing frequently before things get out of hand. And, so on.

Never mind life itself getting in the way. Personal stuff, work troubles, financial ups and downs, they all take their toll on one’s available time and energy. I haven’t even been playing games much lately. I log into City of Heroes/Villains once a week, maybe twice on a good week. I played Space Empires V for a little while last week but I haven’t touched that game since Sunday morning. There’s the bulk of what I play anymore, folks.

Since I’ve been out of touch, and since the entire point of this journal is to aid my memory in the days ahead, here’s one of my patent-pending bullet-point run-downs. My recent life, in a series of dots.

• Let’s start with the big stuff: The nature of my relationship with Kylanath has changed dramatically. We’re no longer dating, but we remain friends. What will happen in months to come is anyone’s guess. So far this looks like a very healthy move for both of us. Further thoughts on this development will be revealed once I finish collecting them in a semi-coherent form.
• Thanks in large part to meeting monthly performance goals at work recently, I have a “new” laptop, actually a used HP nc8230. I named it “Abstraction.” Its main features include 1.5 GB of RAM, a nice wide screen and built-in WiFi. Over the weekend I discovered that it’s just barely powerful enough to play City of Heroes/Villains with respectable performance if I dial the effects settings down. Sweet! (I mentioned buying a mouse for the laptop in an earlier post, but yesterday I paid for the machine so it’s actually mine now.)
• Stardock released WindowBlinds version 6 at the beginning of this week. I’m a big fan of their Object Desktop suite, at least the core parts of it, so I simply had to play with the new WB version. Yes, fiddling around with that has eaten some of what might otherwise have been writing time, gaming time, anime viewing time or image processing time.
• Speaking of image processing: I have some rotation banners to make for both of the forums. I haven’t forgotten, folks. It just needs doing. I might even eke out some time on Saturday for exactly this purpose.
• At work this week I made one of those little suggestions that comes back to bite one in the hindquarters in a hurry. I pointed out that since a) we’re seeing more of our clients running Windows Vista on their workstations, b) I’m the first point of contact for end-user support for most of our clients, c) I have next-to-no practical working knowledge of Vista, and d) running Vista as a virtual machine under XP is what could best be described as a “bad idea,” I should convert my office workstation to Vista and then run XP as a virtual machine for those times when I really need access to that operation system. My bosses agreed. Oh boy. So, now, my workstation is running Vista and I have most of the things I need (and the things I want) installed. My thoughts on Vista itself will have to wait for a later posting, however. (Yes, I have a lot of writing to do.)
• NaNoWriMo is next month. I just want to assure everyone right here, right now that I will not be participating. There’s just too much in my queue at this point for me to believe that I could be ready in time, and no way would I go into it unless I could be completely caught up on my existing obligations and tasks.
• WordPress released version 2.3 a few days ago. I’ll probably upgrade this journal and play around with the new version for a few days before rolling it out elseblog. I may or may not decide to play with the “tag” thing. If you have thoughts or recommendations along those lines, I’m all ears. Or, eyes.
• If you’re looking for a good tabletop game that’s easy to learn and doesn’t take hours to play through, pick up Ingenious. I give it my highest recommendation.

That should cover it, I think. Not that I believe I remembered everything I needed to mention, but this looks like most of the highlights… right?

My daughter turns 14 years old today.

I’d complain that this makes me feel ancient, but I’ve been saying that for years now. Luckily, Erica’s such a sweetheart that she still insists that I’m not an old geezer. (Yet.)

She’s done a lot of growing up in the last 12 months and has had to learn a few tough lessons. Okay, so she’s still working on some of them… but at least she’s trying, and there are noticeable results. I’m quite proud of her!

Happy Birthday, kiddo!

I’m taking a four-day weekend, starting today. We have something fun planned for tomorrow, and the rest of the time we’ll fill with whatever forms of rest and relaxation we find appealing.

I should make a point of unloading the camera’s memory, shouldn’t I? Hmm. I wonder if CompactFlash prices have come down in the last year or so…

I set a goal for myself this weekend: Spend a few hours cleaning my bedroom & bathroom. Let’s see how I did…

• The tan computer desk’s main surface and keyboard drawer have been decluttered and cleaned. Even the scanner, speakers and keyboard received a quick wipe-down. One can, for goodness sake, see the entire desk surface.
• The bathroom sink and counter-top are clean.
• I took the roomie’s spiffy new vacuum cleaner for a spin, and boy does my floor look good!

The other computer desk needs a quick once-over, all of the hutches and shelving need their contents thrown on the floor and rearranged and/or tossed into the trash, and then there’s the small matter of my overflowing closet… but I think I’ve done enough damage for one day. I’m taking a four-day weekend after the coming joyfully-short work week, and my goal is to spend part of next Sunday making more visible progress on turning my living quarters into somewhat less of what many parental units around the world and over the years might refer to as “a pig-sty.”

Not, mind you, that I normally live in filth. Just… clutter. Lots of clutter.