Writer's Glut

Those of you that follow this blog or even stumble upon it from time to time may have noticed a span of a couple of weeks were nothing was written by me. I thought I might take the time to explain.

A couple of weeks ago I ran across the story on Miss California and how she might lose her crown. It was followed by her retaining the crown and the young lady being absolved of the controversial pictures and comment/actions on gay marriage. To my mind, this was the fodder for something interesting especially Mr. Trump’s comment that "If her beauty wasn't so great no one really would have cared."

To be honest, it was too fertile a story. I have limited time to write this blog and the first day I had it about 2/3s written when I ran out of time. That was fine, I would finish it the next day I told myself.

However the next day, I found I had a different angle on it and did some more research and started to write the new (different) blog only to run out of time. But that was fine, I now had what I wanted to write and could finish up the blog the following day.

This went on for two more days!

Each time I found myself looking at this story from a different perspective. In the end, I decided to lay it to rest and look for something else. Then I got very busy and was unable to get back to it until a couple of days ago.

But all of this put something in perspective for me. If I had just finished the blog story the first day it would be done. I might have changed my mind the next day, but that could have been a different story to tell.

There was a time I thought there was just only so much one could write about. Once you have written about it, you were done. There was nothing else to say. I figured this must be where writers got writer’s block.

So I learned that one can have too much to write about and that one can have so much to write about that one can be undecided about what to write. I think I’ll call it Writer’s Glut.

The answer is to just write. Get it all out there, say what one meant to say AND then get on with it.

Speaking of glut, if you are tired of Fragmentation glut, the solution for this is Diskeeper. You don’t have to worry about Diskeeper being a glut on your resources. With InvisiTasking, you don’t even notice it is there.
Find out more here: http://www.diskeeper.com/blog/post/2008/12/01/Diskeeper-2009-is-Here!.aspx

What's the Buzz?

293 kids are in Washington for the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week. That sounds like a great time for them. And maybe a rough time as well. Let’s face it; they are going to spend the week trying to prove they are smarter than the other 292 kids. They are going to have to spell words like “"phonasthenia" (weakness or hoarseness of voice due to enunciation that is too high, too loud, or too hard or from fatigue). I mean how much fun can that be?

There of course will be all of the parents and teachers there rooting them on, pressuring them to be perfect. The winner will take home some $40,000 in cash, scholarships, and prizes. That’s a lot of pressure for a kid who is between the ages of 9 – 15. I am sure that none of the parents will bring to bear any additional pressure. I am sure no parent said, “If you don’t win, I don’t know how I’m going to send you to college.”

But then, perhaps I view these spelling bees with distrust due to my own lack of spelling ability. Perhaps it comes from my own lack of success in the spelling bees in school that I participated in. Usually, I was one of the first to go. I’d get a word like “receive” and wonder if the “i” went before the “e” after “c” or if that was except after “c”.

My one time getting to the end of the spelling bee was the first time I was in a spelling bee in grammar school. I had somehow made it to the final two spellers. It was me and the smartest girl in the class – who was also the prettiest girl in the class as far as I was concerned.

We each got fairly easy words the first time through the final round. I kept looking at the girl (Claudia was her name) and thinking she was just about the cutest girl I’d ever seen. At that moment, I knew in the depths of my being that I could win this spelling bee. I also knew I just could not stand to see her lose. I was new in the school and had not been classified as yet (you know nerd, jock, trouble maker etc.) and this was my chance to be a “smart” kid!

I got my word – automobile, I looked at her, I thought about the word. I could only think about her blonde locks and blue eyes. I rushed into it, a-t-o-m-o-b-i-l-e!

She had won. She turned to me and stuck her tongue out at me and gloated. So I lost the spelling bee and the girl at the ripe old age of 8.

So forgive me if I have nothing for distain for spelling bees. If I laugh at kids, parents and teachers caught up in the merriment of the event. It’s not that I know any better, it simply a bad case of sour grapes.

A Tough Day

Yesterday was a fairly sad day for my sports teams. Derek Fisher of the Lakers got a 1 game suspension for his aggressive action against the Rockets in game two of their playoff series.

A short way away in Chavez Ravine, home of the LA Dodgers, Manny Ramirez was found to have taken an illegal substance and will be vacationing for the next 50 games. For the Dodgers this is a tragic loss.

Much has been made of each of these two suspensions in the media. Manny Ramirez got the lion share of attention with good reason. He is a big name in LA and in baseball. But the bigger story for me is how each team will respond to these losses.

The Lakers so far have been a little shaky against the Rockets. The Rockets have played them tough and look to improve on this with the next couple of games in Houston. Will someone step up and take up the slack for Fisher? Will the Lakers as a team step up and play to their potential? Or will they allow the Rockets to dictate the terms of play.

The Dodgers have a similar situation only multiplied by 50. After all, Manny revived the team late last year to lead them to the conference title and a first round win over the Cubs. Can they continue to push runs across at the same rate they have been? Can they maintain or improve on the lead they have in the Western Conference or will they drop down to the level of the rest of the West?

It times that this that smell like opportunity to real competitors. They know that when someone goes down, everyone needs to fill the vacuum left behind. They know that the loss will signal to the competition that they are on the ropes ripe for the knockout. They know that by not going down and punching back will not only surprise the opposition, it could very well scare the hell out of them. Like Rocky not going down for Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.

You know, seems to me we could all do with more of this attitude in our everyday life. Are things going poorly with your marriage? Step up and make it better. Is work getting you down? Ok, make things better there yourself. The economy is sucky? Figure out how to succeed in spite of it.

The tough will get going and they will succeed. And if all of us do the same, then we all win. That is human nature. To survive. To make it. To continue.

Diskeeper continues to work even when you don't. It's tough on fragmentation.
Read about InvisiTasking here: http://www.diskeeper.com/defrag/InvisiTasking.aspx

Moving Day(s)

The past few days I have been moving from one office to another. That’s one of the fine things about working. There comes a time that change is made for better or worse and with that is necessitated moving. Such was my lot this past week.

First thing to move was my computer. In some places one moves to a new place and a computer comes with the space. In my case, I have had the same computer for a long span of years (yes years). I like my old computer. It does what I need it to do. It is set up the way I want it set up with the software I want on it set up the way that I want it. It runs great. I keep it well maintained. (And yes, it runs Diskeeper).

Well moving the computer went smoothly. So smoothly, I decided to add a second monitor. That went quickly but I found that I did not like the how the second monitor displayed (too dark). I got some fast help from our hardware guy and the next thing I knew, I had a new video card in my system. This was fine with me as I did not like the previous video card.

Now the dual monitors are displaying much more to my liking. However, I have now burned a day in the process. I still had all my other stuff to bring over. An now I learned something. We print way too many things especially when we want to pass it on to another. I swear I had a mile of paper sitting here and there. I have no idea how it all fit in such a small space. After getting rid of 7/8ths of a mile of paper, I proceeded to move my 1/8th of a mile paper along with my sponge brain, my wind-up robot dogs, a bowl of candy, and various other items of equal significance to my new office.

Now I had to direct the building guy on where to hang my plaques, certificates, cork board and white board. He got the cork board up and had to run off to handle an emergency.

Meanwhile, I now have my assortment of toys, equipment, supplies and of course my 1/8th mile of paper to put away. I quickly saw that the important papers I brought, perhaps were not so important. So now I am going through this pile of paper and I manage to get it down to 1/32nd of a mile of paper. Wowie! (the shredding company is going to earn their money the next time they are here.)

So I sort everything. File everything. Arrange everything. I am now in business. Again!

However, I notice that for some reason, I have fewer toys that before. Bummer! Yeah, I have work to do, but my to-do list contains in it one important item. Get more toys.

Want your old computer to run as well as mine?

See http://www.diskeeper.com/

Is It Good For You?

We all have pet peeves. For some of us it is careless drivers (insert your own name for them here). For others it is noisy kids, or in-laws or nosey neighbors. I must admit I have some pet peeves. Most recently, I have found a new one. It is people who say, “It’s all good!”

Ok, maybe I’m too much of a pessimist or maybe I get too literal. But when someone says to me, “It’s all good”, I often ask, “Oh really, the war in Iraq is all good, how about the kid that just got kidnapped or perhaps the way prescription drugs are being abused by kids and adults? Is all of that GOOD?”

Right about then, someone mutters about what downer I am and it’s just a saying, you know…

You know, they’re right. I have this idea that we should say what we mean and that we can get overly glib about what we say. I guess I really wonder if this new catch-phrase is representative of how we currently close our eyes to what is going on around us. This world is no-where perfect and there is much we can do to fix it starting in how we treat each other. I just don’t think we will really do so if we take for granted what is good and what is not.

There’s lot of good stuff. My kids when they play sports or even better when they mind their mother. That’s good. When high school kids reach out to their neighborhoods and clean them up or help the elderly, that’s good. When people get together to build a house for low income people, that’s good. When my boss’ baby smiles and laughs at me for no good reason. That’s good.

The way that some products really work the way they are supposed to work. That’s good. Like Diskeeper.

See what others have to say about Diskeeper at:
http://www.diskeeper.com/products/reviews/search.aspx

What’s Important?

Seems like I have no idea what’s important any more. As a kid, I always knew what was important to me. Sure it was all focused on me. That’s a kid’s world where everything revolves around them. For a kid, that’s ok.

Well, seems like the House Energy and Commerce Committee's commerce, trade and consumer protection subcommittee hearing has some important stuff to discuss. Is it how to protect the consumer from poorly designed electrical components that kills its' users, or setting up more equitable trade between us and other countries so that our dollars don’t mostly flow out of the US?

Nope. It is college football.

Yep, lawmakers are pressing college football officials to switch the Bowl Championship Series to a playoff series. Orrin Hatch of Utah, put the BCS on the agenda for the Judiciary's antitrust subcommittee this year. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas has introduced legislation that would prevent the NCAA from labeling a game a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff system

Any one that follows college football has an opinion on this. If you had a local team you felt should have made it into this series, you probably have a fanatic opinion on this.

But is it important?

Rep. Joe Barton noted that the BCS should drop the "C" from its name because it doesn't represent a true championship. “Call it the 'BS' system," he said.

Am I wrong in thinking that this brouhaha with Congress is the real ‘BS’?

Today's important stories revolve around:

• Congress approves $3.4 Trillion budget
• the Swine Flu (health care)
• a diet aid that kills it’s users (the FDA)
• A war in Iraq
• A war in Afghanistan
• A car maker declaring bankruptcy
• Mexican drug lords moving to New Mexico
• Immigrants push for reforms at May Day rallies.
• Home prices drop 18% in Feb
• Losses From ATM Skimming (capturing data off customers' bank cards at ATMs) Total $1 Billion a Year.

This does not include any of the bigger picture stories that simply did not make it into the news recently.

Maybe there are more important things that Congress could be doing instead of figuring out the BCS. But that’s just me. I obviously don’t know what is important anymore.

Diskeeper knows what is important।

See what Windows IT Pro has to say about why Diskeeper is important: http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/49072/disk-fragmentation-more-than-just-a-performance-killer.html