Life Viewed Through an Amber Focus

My laptop has been repaired and is ready for me to pick it up. The sooner I can abandon this monstrosity that calls itself Windows8 the better. So I will have my good keyboard back just as my broken finger has healed and I can type again, at least for patches of time, without having to favor it too much.

How much writing I'll actually get done is up in the air. I've got two litters of kits due in the next couple of days and one of the mother's is a first timer, 1 litter of kits that we will start weaning tomorrow, one pair of rabbits to be bred tomorrow if I want the kits born before it gets too cold, and 3 of the three week olds have to be treated every day 3 times a day due to weepy eye. Fortunately it is only in one eye on each of them. Unfortunately they are too young to be isolated, but there has been no spread from the one in Piper's litter and there are 2 in Sweetie Belle's litter, but no signs on her other seven kits.

I am figuring that Serenity will probably kindle a litter of 8 or 9 like her sister did from a breeding with Leo and Lola will probably kindle a litter of 6 or 7, since she is more like her mother Piper. It's hard to say with Lola though since this time she was bred to a different buck. Our current rabbit population is at 36 and I can see it hitting 50 by the end of the weekend. We do have one litter that will be ready to go in another week or two. And some that will be ready to go in 4 to 5 weeks.

Anyhow, there is a lot of work ahead for me, plus homeschooling, but I am going to try to sneak some time to myself for writing. I want to finish The Watchmaker's Daughter as much as people want me to finish it.

And chapter nine of The Watchmaker's Daughter has been sent to beta.

And in better news, it looks like they were able to repair Cordelia (my laptop) and I will have her back soon if I am reading the Geek Squad updates correctly. Oh, I hope so. Clara is okay, but Cordelia has a much better keyboard. Plus Cordelia is Windows 7 and Clara is Windows 8. It's sort of like the difference between the 9th and 10th Doctors and Eleven. I love the former and the latter has some neat bells and whistles, but there's a lot of stuff I just put up with because it's either that or stop watching the show.

Come on, Best Buy. How long does it take you to recover my documents, spreadsheets, music files, downloads, and photographs? I haven't written in weeks. I want my stories back. Especially the ones I was in mid-chapter on. *sighs* I hate Windows 8. Am ready to be having my Windows 7 back now, please, too. Of course they can't even send my Win 7 computer in to be fixed until they recover my stuff, which they said they could do. They accessed it right there in front of Chris when he took it in. I guess I should try to be more patient. It did sit there for 3 weeks before it even got to the store, but still. 4 days even on a holiday is a long time to recover what is not an extraordinary amount of material.

School starts tomorrow for R and Wednesday for T. R is a senior. T is homeschooling again for 8th grade.

With the computer down I've been reading a ton of novels.

The Host, which I actually really liked, despite the fact that I hated Twilight. Alien parasites have taken over the majority of humanity. Told from the point of view of a parasite whose host's mind does not go away when she is infected.

One Second After which covers the life of a small mountain town and private college for a year after an EMP takes out the electricity and technology. No easy outs and people die. Very realistic.

The Diary of Pelly D., a teenage war diary found in the ruins after a war on a future colony on another planet.

Maelstrom, the second in the Twins of Petaybee series. Always fun to revisit the sentient planet and her selkies.

Legend, a far future novel where the United States no longer exists (and one side claims it never did). The Republic is a harsh military regime purposely inflicting plagues on its population so it can one day take over what it calls The Colonies (the last of United States after flooding took out several portions of the east coast). One military brat and one street brat find their lives forever changed when they meet and figure out the reality of what is going on.

Glow. Two generation star ships headed towards a new planet. One has been unable to reproduce and so steals the girls off the other ship, killing many of their parents, and stranding the boys alone with no adults and a failing ship. The girls fight to get back to their own ship after the older ones have had their eggs stolen and a couple of them are shot. Very intense. Looking forward to the sequel.

And I'm currently in the middle of Divergent and starting Deluge (the 3rd in the Twins of Petaybee series and the 6th in the Petaybee series as a whole). Divergent is a fascinating read, though I don't really think society in a post-apocalyptic New York City would ever set itself up this way. People do not fit this easily into categories. Well, the main character certainly doesn't. In the real world, people would resist being pigeon-holed this way, or being told they could never see their families again if they chose a different personality path than their parents or siblings. But I still really like the book and am reading it voraciously.

Just got word from Best Buy that my beloved Sony Vaio is considered totalled (I think they call it a junk out) and they are going to replace it with something comparable or give me credit for an upgrade if that is what I want to do instead. Dang it, I want my baby back. It had the best keyboard I have ever had, which may not sound like a big deal, but it really is. Ease of key strokes is one of the major things for me because I type so much. Plus I just renewed my anti-virus and I don't think that is transferrable. Grumble, grumble, grumble. I should be jumping up and down because NEW! FREE! COMPUTER! But I just hate change when it comes to hardware. Software I will jump on the band wagon for. And also, my one time use Office won't be transferable, so I will have to make them give me one. Or buy the physical copy, which can be installed on five computers, I think. I mean in succession, not at once. Maybe I should do that anyway. *sighs* I am really, really, really glad now that I paid extra for the super deluxe maintenance agreement.

I will go in after my appointment tomorrow and see what they have. I hope I can find something I like.

Taking the computer into the shop again. Screen busted. Don't know how long it will be this time. Hopefully not long since it is just a replacement and they shouldn't have to wipe and replace. I don't know if I'll be able to be on much or write much because of it.

They said it could be up to 8 weeks to fix the other laptop since there are 3 things wrong with it and they have to send it to Seattle, so I said screw that, I am not going that long without a laptop. We bought me an inexpensive Asus ($379 plus tax) laptop. The keyboard is awesome and just like the keys on my Sony, so great for mega typing speed, and it has a ten-key pad, just like my Sony. It was the only keyboard I really liked in the under $500 set. Once I get my Sony back, this one is going to be the backup computer for everyone, since someone or the other's is always going down. It's 18 months same as cash, too, but I will likely just pay for it when the bill comes. I have been setting aside money for a little bit anyway in my computer fund.

I have spent the last couple of hours getting stuff installed. Still installing stuff actually, but Kaspersky anti-virus is on and yahoo messanger and tool bar so my basics are in place. Probably will be for a few more hours. I need to put on Open Office still and MalWare Bytes and MegaUpload and Firefox and a codec and Winamp. I will probably get another copy of Office eventually, but for right now the other will do.

Hopefully tomorrow, or maybe even tonight, I can get back to writing because LoF is spinning around in my head right now like crazy.

I am finally taking the laptop in to be fixed tomorrow. I have been babying it along, but I give up after it decided to turn the screen pink and green. I am so glad I got the "drop it in the bathtub" service agreement. They have to fix anything that is wrong with it no matter what. And no, I didn't drop it in the bathtub.

So anyway, depending on if I can pry either Chris' laptop or T's netbook out of their hands (which is doubtful) I probably won't be on much until it's fixed. Hopefully quickly. Especially since the old laptop with the improvised D key is being stupid, too. I am on such a writing roll right now I hate to stop, but I'd hate it even more if the laptop dies an early death.

I had to swipe my son's Netbook to send this post. I am hoping to get it off in the next couple of hours so I can send chapter 3 to beta. I have been fighting with it for most of the day, because it keeps hiding itself somewhere else. But I think I finally have the damn thing cornered.

Yay!  I have my desktop back that I love so dearly.  I had to search back through a couple people's journals and finally found it in 2008 in someone's journal.  I adore it to pieces and thought I may cycle through some other ones, I always come back to this one.  It goes with this icon and is so full of the pretty .  It just makes me happy.  I am still in the process of downloading all the programs that I lost.  It's going along slowly but surely.  I'm still hoping I can get my pictures off Edison4 when Chris comes home.

I have decided that Office 2010 is a pretty decent program.  It's not the different from 2007 yet that I can see.  It does seem to allow for active web content and I'm not sure it had that before.  I was able to import all of my Works spreadsheets to Excel without any problems.  I haven't transferred any documents over yet except Leap of Faith.  I'm doing that for now so that I don't get tempted to work on something else when I really want to finish this chapter.

Everyone is still sick here.  It sounds like a house full of barking seals.