WRITE SOMETHING!

I've just added a new category for my blog: Whining.  Something I try not to do much, but today I'm doing it.

It's not that I don't feel like blogging.  It's just that I don't feel like blogging at this particular moment, and that's a problem.

My internet connection at home isn't working right, so I can only go online at my parents' house.  So right now, I'm sitting at my mother's desk.  I've checked my email, read a few choice blogs, and updated the PPJ homepage.  I wasn't planning to come here again tomorrow, and I have plans for the afternoon, so if I'm going to write any new blog entries, I have to do it NOW!  I can't wait for inspiration to come in the middle of the night.  I need to get inspired before 1:30 pm.

Only I'm really tired right now after being up very late last night doing homework with DL.  I'm also hungry and nothing in my mom's Atkins-friendly cupboard really works with my meat-about-once-a-week food preferences.

The real problem here, the elephant in the middle of the room, is the fact that my computer needs to be either upgraded or replaced.  I got my PC as a Christmas present some years ago.  I couldn't afford to buy myself a computer then, and I can't afford to buy one now.  But maybe a little more memory or something will get me back on my feet.  I have no idea how much that would cost.

In the meantime, read about the 95/10 initiative on the Democrats for Life web site.  It's a demand-side (mostly) approach to reducing the number of abortions in this country.  And read about Brandon's poverty challenge in conjunction with Africa Malaria Day.  And find out where you rank in the Forbes 6,000,000,000 over at The Gutless Pacifist.  And Xpatriated Texan has some good stuff about the history of the progressive movement.

I'll be at home.  When inspiration hits, I'll have to write my ideas down on (gasp!) paper and blog them Saturday or Sunday.  See y'all in a couple of days.

UPDATE -- I've discovered that I can use the old dial-up connection and it doesn't run at a snail's pace and crash constantly.  Would that still be consistent with the idea that the problem I was having with the other connection (DSL with built-in firewall, virus scan, etc.) was memory-related?  Anyway, it's good to be online at home again.  I'll get interrupted every time we get a phone call, but I can live with that for the time being.

Comments

[Michael B]

What do you know about your computer? What kind of processor does it have? How much RAM? What size is the hard drive? What operating system are you running?

[Benjamin]

I tell everyone to buy more RAM - but that's mainly because I work for a DRAM company.

It's relatively cheap at the moment, which is good for you, and not so good for me....

[Michael B]

The only other suggestions I have would be to check for ad-ware/spyware type stuff. Spybot 1.3 is free and does a pretty decent job although it's not exactly intuitive. You also need to get some kind of firewall up, I use Sygate Personal Firewall and it comes in a free edition as well. Finally, if you run Windows then go to the Windows Update site and let it take however long necessary to download all the "critical" updates. And if you want a free virus-scanner then try AVG. Sorry I don't have the links here but you can find all this stuff via Google.