Heck with it. Chatty nonsense posts are better than no posts at all.
Besides which, things are going… I hesitate to say well. They are going. Like life usually is, it’s complicated. I have faith, though, and that’s gotten me through worse places. I’m safe, warm (ok, Texas in summer. Cool! I’m cool!), and dry. The kids are all the same. My husband is harried with last minute housework as the Nut House is being put on the market this coming Friday – y’all keep him in mind, won’t you as he tries to get all the details to mesh? – and he’s had an offer on the little house already. When this logjam breaks, it looks like it will do so with a quickness.
The new job is going well. I’m coming up on my last week of training, and after that I’m on my own. Having had this month will make such a difference, and we didn’t know if I’d get that. So it’s good.
This last week I was a social butterfly, and although I’m kind of peopled out today, it was a good time. Went to a book signing and bought a book and saw friends. Met people there, too, new ones and online folks made real. It’s a nice feeling, like going to a con, only smaller and shorter. Then I got to hang out with some friends, lunch, and take in the biggest game store I’d ever seen. I’m still processing that. I didn’t buy a game. I bought a roll-up chess board, since the Little Man will play chess with me. I also bought minis, but those are for art. No, it’s not that I’m going to paint them (although I plan to do so eventually), it’s that I’m going to use them as photo props. Like this, which was posed in a plant on my balcony, then run through a few filters with some overpainting to make the figure pop off the background.
I have a half dozen little figures, including an itty-bitty dragon, so this should be fun. Also, it was cheaper than the other toy I looked at yesterday, and reluctantly decided was a Bad Idea. That would be a very old Kodak camera (I looked at a Kodak Junior, then a Brownie), which would be a lot of fun to dabble with… but no. It’s not something I need to do now. Maybe when we have a house and I can retro a darkroom for developing. In the meantime, I shall play with the camera I have more often.
I miss my long easy walks in Ohio. Here, I’m in such a congested area it’s hard to get to a park, and the timing is off. I can walk after work, but only if I want to court heat exhaustion. I can’t safely walk after dark where I live. Getting up early enough to do it before work is, well, I’m lazy. I do manage a little exercise but it’s not the same as a walk with camera in hand. That will have to wait until fall I’m guessing.
On the other hand (gee, there are a lot of hands. Don’t ask where they all came from…) I’m staying busy enough with some graphic design work and trying to write that I don’t miss being outdoors much. The extra income has been a blessing, and if I can keep this story in my head talking to me, I might actually get something done for the first time in months. Which is why this post isn’t going to be long. I’m about to mutter imprecations at my laptop, get it off my desk, and go write on the balcony while it’s still cool enough to enjoy.
I need a *(&&^ dock for this thing so I don’t have to unplug a jillion cords…
Comments
10 responses to “Undocking”
Display and keyboard and stuff causing the issues?
I got a lot of use out of a silly little powered USB for the bluetooth and the wifi and the mouse and the keyboard for when I was using it with a desk, rather than on my lap. $5 WalMart buy.
Was told you don’t want to get a multi-USB thingie that is USB powered, because laptops aren’t made for that kind of draw off of it.
My brother just got a refurb Dell and got a full on REAL custom-to-the-model docking port. 😀
Oh, that would be a nice think to have! I have a powered USB hub, but I run a monitor, plus speakers, so I’m unplugging 4-5 cables every time I want to wander off with the laptop. Really I should budget for a desktop and have two machines for reasons. *sigh* need to write more to justify that, though.
With your art-ing, you could probably very easily justify something like these guys:
https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=z440&N=601272810%20600566987%20601272818%20100019096&Order=1
They take a special kind of memory, so it’s usually cheaper to get all you want off of the refurb guys, but they’re easy to work inside, easy to upgrade, and you can get a TON of processing and memory for under $500, $600 with the hit-by-a-truck insurance. (the offerings change regularly, FWIW, but we have three of these Z440s. Mine’s got a 3.50GHz CPU and 32GB of RAM and a four year old gaming video card. (Video cards are LUDICROUS right now, though.)
Then the wear and tear on the laptop, which is objectively more expensive, is done on the big, tough, cheaper machine. And WHEN one breaks, you have options.
Also, the desktop is an entertainment system. 😀
When I got the laptop, I shopped for one that would handle the art. So I have a (refurbed) Asus RoG Strix Scar. I do want more onboard memory, though, as I seem to eat that…
That’s right, you’re the one that was geeking out along with me over the best CPU to look for with graphic intensive use, it was something like an i5 was (at that point, at least) the sweet spot for new enough to be awesome but not to be expensive-because-new or expensive-and-might-be-lemon-prone.
Yep! This is an i7, with Nvidia card. It does get hot when running a render, so I have a cooling fan pad for it now. My son just saw the comments and got all huffy at me for not saying I was thinking about a desktop. LOL! I told him it’s because it’s a thought, not ready for action. Now he wants to build me one.
*laughs and claps*
Yep, gotta love the geekery….
You are still settling in– I learned by living in a desert area (LV) that going outside in the summer is a no-go. You have to take your walks either early morning or late night or do what the seniors do– mall walking. The seniors here walk the apartment hallways.
My grandmother suggested mall walking. There’s one not far from me, I haven’t been in it. I’ll have to try that.
Sounds good! Sorry we didn’t make it down!