Where do I go?

I've been busy today!  I added the "Links" section to my blog, so you can see the places I visit when I'm surfing the web.  The thing is, while I have close to a hundred blogs that I check out on a regular basis, I rarely comment on any of them.  It's not that I don't like what I see - on the contrary!  I love what I see, and I keep going back for more.

Unfortunately, it seems like most bloggers post either during the day (while I'm at work), or at night (while I'm asleep).  There's nothing inherently wrong with these times (she says as she types tonight's blog at 11pm).  Because I work in a medical office, we've got a fairly tight internet policy.  While I can get away with reading one or two blogs for fun while I catch up on the latest medical news, I can't read all of the ones I want, and I certainly can't wander off and comment on them.  When I do get a chance to make comments (usually after work), a lot of what I wanted to say has already been said, and I hate to comment with something like, "Yeah, I agree with Mr. X!"

What does all of this mean?  Well, it means that the awesome people that I admire probably have no idea who I am.

Except for Lisa and Laura Roecker. They know who I am now.  *squee!*

Do you know who they are?  You should go check them out!  Now!  Go!  I'll wait here until you get back.

Welcome back!  Did you have fun over with LiLa?  I'll bet you recognize the book below (since you clearly followed my directions and went to visit their blog!).

I went out and bought this book just after it came out (on March 1st).  Turns out, I wasn't the only one. Another friend of mine, who is friends with Lisa and Laura on facebook, posted a photo of herself buying the book at our local bookstore, and I commented on the photo, saying that I had bought it, too.

Next thing I know, I wake up the next morning with a friend request!  How cool is that??

Really, though, I think it's more than a little awesome that someone (well, two someones) that I have been admiring for months thought it would be a good idea to contact me.  And it certainly doesn't hurt that they're uber-talented.

I'm planning to start (and finish) The Liar Society this weekend.  I would have started it the same day I bought it, except I had three other books in progress, and that's my upper limit for multiple-reads.

Oh, right, there was one more thing!  The new list of links is a work-in-progress, mostly because I follow so many blogs that I can't stare at the screen long enough to put them all up at once.  Because it's so long, I don't think that many people will just go to that tab and start looking at all of them, all at once.  So what I'm going to do is, every week or so, post a blog about these other blogs, and why I follow them.  That way, you can a) get an idea of what they're about and b) get a bit of an idea about what I like to read.

Until next time, blogglings, have a nice weekend!  And don't forget to visit Lisa and Laura Write!

Delayed posting

Who would've thought that getting online would be so difficult?  I had to go out and buy a new piece of equipment, because, despite the number of bloody boxes I had, none of them would actually make my internet talk to my computer!

I had an access point, which talked to my bridge, which talked to Shane's bridge, which talked to Shane's router, which connected to the modem, which connected to the internet.  It turns out that neither an access point nor a bridge is able to talk to the modem on its own - so I went out and bought a router.  Of course, then I had to make the router talk to the computer and the modem at the same time... so tonight's post is offline, about all of the fun of getting online!

But if all goes well, I'm going to have a completely stable internet connection, without being tethered to a wall!  And I should also be able to get my Wii online, which is exciting... I think that my folks and I are going to go out and buy some Wii games that we can play together online, and have a family game night at least once a month - I'm looking forward to that!

I'm sooooo looking forward to being online!!

I got it!

I got internet access!!  Woot!!

Of course, now I'm going to spend the next... long time... figuring out how to make the wireless connection work, but that's okay!

So the better post will come tomorrow, once I've figured it all out.  But yay!  Stable internet access!

Internet and offices

My internet ran away... but I think it may be back enough to blog if I'm fast!

I'm trying to get cable internet, but it's more challenging than one might think. The biggest hurdle is actually getting the darn thing... I don't want to sign up online, because I want to try to get cable plus internet, but all of the deals online are for cable packages that have way more television (and cost way more) than I really need. It appears that you can get a basic cable package if you go to the store, but the only store I've been able to get to is closed on the weekend. I really don't want to take time off from work, just to go get cable. So I'm working on finding another location. We'll see how the search goes tomorrow.

However, I can't spend much time looking for a cable place tomorrow, because I have to clean! I've got my awesome shelves up now, and I should have most of my downstairs craft stuff organized tomorrow. I really need to finish cleaning up down there, because my dad will be in on Monday, and my mom will be here on Thursday! I'm super-excited about seeing them again (haven't seen them since Christmas), and I want the place to be presentable. I figure if my room, the guest room, the bathrooms, the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen are in good shape, it'll be okay that my office is a bit of a disaster, and the laundry room is overflowing with crap that I'm trying to find places for. At least, I'm hoping it'll be okay. Actually, my folks are pretty cool about that sort of thing. I'm the one who's a bit neurotic... and I actually can't work in my office if it's tidy, oddly enough. I can't handle working in the dining room when it's a mess, but the office has to be a bit (or a lot) crazy.

I'm sure tomorrow's blog will be nice and boring, since all I plan to do is clean... maybe I'll get the dining room tidy enough that I can take the laptop down there and write... or maybe I'll keep the office messy enough that I can stay up here and write!

Mmmm... Chrome...

It turns out that I'm a big Google fan.  I'm a little bit surprised by this, mostly because when I first started using the internet, there was no Google.  My first preferred search engine was Yahoo, my first webmail was some little company that no longer exists, my first browser was Netscape Navigator, and I don't think anyone had really thought much about blogs, much less created something like Blogger.  Wow.  I just looked at all of that, and I feel REALLY old. One of the first things I downloaded was a .txt file of the script for Monty Python and the Holy Grail... I'm sure you can find that very easily as a PDF now.

I digress.  As I was saying, I'm a big Google fan.  I didn't expect to be.  I stuck with Yahoo search for a really long time, but finally realized that Google was just as good, if not better, and the Google homepage was much more pleasant to look at and navigate through.  I've had Hotmail and Yahoo mail accounts, but I love my Gmail account.  Again, it's pretty and it's easy.  I'm a smart cookie - I can manage with just about anything that's thrown at me, but I don't like having to fight my way through my inbox if I can avoid it.

Now, I've discovered Chrome, Google's web browser.  I like.  I've been playing with different browsers lately - IE came on my computer, of course, but I got an updated version of Netscape, I've tried Safari, and a couple of others that I can't think of off the top of my head.  I wasn't really happy with the whole tab thing in IE when it first came out, but I've become accustomed to it.  I really enjoy the Chrome setup, though.  It was beautiful to set up - it automatically snagged my bookmarks and favourites from IE.  The startup screen gives screenshots of recently visited pages, so if I've been searching around for something but can't remember the site where I saw it, I've actually got a visual reminder of where I was.  This works well with my visual memory :)

I feel like a corporate whore... but I really am impressed with most of the products associated with Google.  So congratulations, Google!  (I didn't mean to write an ad!  Really, I swear!)