05 December 2005

Too many thoughts for a single title

--I have gadgets galore but none of them are the perfect solution to my blogging dilemma. All my best ideas seem to come to me while I am at work or on the road. I've tried jotting down notes on paper, I've made furtive posts from work, and I've tried typing the post on my Palm and uploading it when I get home. The Palm thing works the best, but it is not a model with a thumb keyboard and typing a long post with a stylus is a pain. If I had a PDA with a thumb keyboard and internet service that didn't cost me an arm and a leg, that would be perfect.

--In my circle I am the computer guru, but now I need a guru. I wish I had someone (in person, not online) who could walk me through the setting for my BitTorrent that would give me the optimal performance. I am able to download stuff but I don't think I am getting the speed that I hear people mention on tech shows. There is a wiki out there on the subject, but I've read it four times and I don't understand what to do.

--God will smote me for my selfishness, I'm sure. One of my coworkers asked me to teach her how to knit socks. She showed up with the right needles but the wrong yarn (she is knitting the Blueberry Waffle Socks). I dug into my stashette and pulled out the only two balls of Cleckheaton Tapestry that I had. Some time ago, I heard that Australian knitters think of Cleckheaton the way American knitters think of Red Heart but I knit my best socks ever with this yarn. I was loathe to part with it, and so I think I did a bad thing. As I was giving it to my coworker, I made a joking comment: "This is my favorite yarn, so I expect to see some socks come out of this." That was last Thursday. This morning she brought it back to me, saying that she was knotting it up terribly and all she could hear in her head was me saying this was my favorite yarn. Scaring the new knitter -- what unknitterly behavior! The good news is that she took the original yarn and used it to practice the technique. She was really struggling with purling, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that she knit four inches of the leg over the weekend.

--Christmas shopping is a little off-track right now. ABM went to the Black Friday sale and got a couple good deals on a laptop (for us) and a desktop (for the kids), but we still haven't really made a dent in their lists. Yes, a desktop is a big item but we were going to get that anyway so we still want to get them each three or four small items. As usual, we won't be shopping until the 15th which feels like the last minute for me.

Luckily, several of the items on M and ABM's lists are things I can get at home without worrying about whether Fed Ex will show up on my doorstep before the 25th. ABM has several CDs that he would like me to download. M wants me to set up her computer to play DVDs and find some more interactive fiction for her, both of which are free items. She also wants a digital camera and an MP3 player, which she may get if ABM upgrades his PDA before Christmas. His Zire 71 would meet both of those requirements and she has already been eyeing so I know she would be glad to have it even if it isn't new.

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