I’ve had my old laptop for… wow. Since the days floppy drives were considered indispensable. And although technology continued passing it by, my laptop never let me down. It continues working like a charm, except… Well, except the case is cracking. And pieces are starting to fall off. And the hard drive is so small, I have to delete old emails in order to receive new ones. And–

So finally, after year(s) of suspecting I needed a new laptop (and much ridicule from my friends, who insisted I needed a new laptop) I finally ordered a new one. Overnight shipping and everything. Went all out.

(Natch, there’s a part on backorder, so who knows when it’ll arrive…)

How about you? Do you write on a desktop or a laptop? Old or new? Or maybe an Alphasmart or handwritten on paper? Ever think about upgrading? Or are you an upgrade junkie?

This weekend, while giving a workshop on Websites & Online Marketing to the STAR chapter of RWA, I entered into a friendly little bet.

(Or possibly a snarling, I-will-get-you, just-you-wait-and-see competition… hard to say.)

With challenge in her eyes, a friend of mine informed me that she bet she could write her novel by the end of February. (Yanno… 5 weeks from now.)

As I hadn’t yet recovered from the heart palpitations sparked by my own mid-March deadline, I opened my mouth and said, “Oh yeah? I bet I can finish mine first.”

To which my friend casually responded, “You’re on.”

Ack! It’s on!!!

How about you? What are you working on? Got any deadlines, self-imposed or otherwise? How are things going with that?

Me!!!

When Mozart passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Mozart was buried.

Terrified, the drunk ran and got the town magistrate to come and listen to it.

When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, “Ah, yes, that’s Mozart’s Ninth Symphony, being played backwards.”

He listened a while longer, and said, “There’s the Eighth Symphony, and it’s backwards, too. Most puzzling.”

So the magistrate kept listening; “There’s the Seventh… the Sixth… the Fifth…”

Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, “My fellow citizens, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just Mozart decomposing.”

I was reading a Science and Technology article on my google homepage today (warning: it’s in Spanish) that claims every two times you Google one of your burning questions, Google produces the same amount of CO2 in answering as is produced when heating up a cup of instant coffee. (This is not a knock against Google, whom I’d marry if it was a he.) Google, in fact, was quick to point out that just the mere fact of having your computer connected to the Internet at all (whether you’re Googling or busy cursing at Spider Solitaire) produces even *more* CO2 in the same amount of time as any two Google searches. Given that there’s 200 million Google searches in any given day–and a whole lot more of other ‘net shenanigans going on whilst not Googling–that sounds like a helluva lot of C02.

Given the technologically addicted nature of the world at large (and myself in particular) however, I’m not sure what we can/will/should do about it…

Thoughts?

P.D.
In response to the question about the gender of the cow… The cow was actually a cow-cow, not a bull. (So… a “she”.)

…was just chillin’. Sometimes it’s like that. I’m not exactly sure why or how cows escape from barbed-wire enclosures to wander the (somewhat populated) streets, but it seems to be just one of those things that happens.

(And other times, you can’t even drive a car down the road because an entire contingent of cows is blocking your path–but usually somebody’s herding those cows into another field. Again, for what reason, I don’t rightly know. Exercise?)

Ah, Costa Rica, how I miss thee…

Thanks so much for all the awesome congratulations!!! Your squees make me squee even more!!!!!

Ginormous SQUEE incoming, bright and early Monday morning… be here to be the first to know!!!