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Weekend Things
Jan. 6th, 2013 08:26 amIt's been a relatively relaxing weekend for the most part, so I can't complain. The weather's been weird the last few days, so I'm not entirely sure if/when it'll rain. However, it's been a bit on the cold side so I get to rock my wool coat I bought in Paris, so it's not a total loss. ;)
So Saturday started off with a trip over to the Marina! It wasn't exciting as it sounds, of course...this was to drop books off at the Fort Mason SF Library bookstore, and to also drop off a handful of clothing and other things at the Goodwill up the street. This in the process has greatly cleared up a lot of space in Spare Oom, which is always a good thing. Now I just need to get rid of a few boxes and also put a few things up online for sale, and the room will be even clearer. Yay clean room!
After that we did a bit of shopping and came home with another new toy--this here new laptop we picked up at Best Buy to take place of the sadly-departed Lenovo. This one's an Acer Aspire M, which I'm REALLY liking so far. I'm happily embracing the Windows 8 that came with it--as everyone's saying, there's a bit of a learning curve with it, but it's relatively easy to pick up after some playing around. I figured out rather quickly that if you use the oft-forgotten and ignored Windows and Menu buttons down at the bottom row, you can do some deft moving around. I also chose to go with a touch-screen. I don't use it as much, but it helps when I'm navigating various places. I can see how some people who've been using older Windows versions might be worried or annoyed by it, but it's not nearly as bad as everyone's making it sound. Just like any other computer, you can tweak a lot of it to fit your tastes and uses.
Yesterday I made good with my whiteboard schedule and spent some time with my new toys! I spent a good hour with the synth, which did come with a user guide, but is more of a schematic than a booklet on "nifty things you can do with this here box of knobs and buttons". But as one does with such toys, I just turned it on and started fiddling around with the settings. In the process I somehow created a Nine Inch Nails-like beat with weird noises, which was kinda cool. I'm thinking once I understand this little thing a bit better, I should be able to do more with it. I do like how it has a headphone jack so I'm not bothering Emm in the other room, but it also has a built-in speaker as well so I can use it as background if I want to, say, play my guitar along with it.
After that, I pulled out the tablet and started toying with that again. For some reason it was being very touchy and not exactly working the way I want it, but I think it's partly due to me just being so new with it. Test drawing #2 ended up being one of my made up maps I like drawing. It's not the same as doing it on paper, but I can get used to it. I think one of the things I need to get used to is the placement of the tablet. They suggest you place it so it lines up with the monitor (this way your movements will be mirrored on the screen), but I found that having it off to the side a bit worked just as well. It'll take some getting used to, but the learning curve is pretty easy. It's just a matter of getting used to it.
Today is a bit up in the air, as I'm not sure if we're actually going to do anything outside (plus there's football!). Later on in the day I'll be working on Walk in Silence and doing a bit more playing with my toys. I do need to get MS Word up and running on this laptop, so I will most likely do that today as well. So if anything, we'll head to the gym, have lunch, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing, watching games and playing with our toys. I may even get some writing done too!
So Saturday started off with a trip over to the Marina! It wasn't exciting as it sounds, of course...this was to drop books off at the Fort Mason SF Library bookstore, and to also drop off a handful of clothing and other things at the Goodwill up the street. This in the process has greatly cleared up a lot of space in Spare Oom, which is always a good thing. Now I just need to get rid of a few boxes and also put a few things up online for sale, and the room will be even clearer. Yay clean room!
After that we did a bit of shopping and came home with another new toy--this here new laptop we picked up at Best Buy to take place of the sadly-departed Lenovo. This one's an Acer Aspire M, which I'm REALLY liking so far. I'm happily embracing the Windows 8 that came with it--as everyone's saying, there's a bit of a learning curve with it, but it's relatively easy to pick up after some playing around. I figured out rather quickly that if you use the oft-forgotten and ignored Windows and Menu buttons down at the bottom row, you can do some deft moving around. I also chose to go with a touch-screen. I don't use it as much, but it helps when I'm navigating various places. I can see how some people who've been using older Windows versions might be worried or annoyed by it, but it's not nearly as bad as everyone's making it sound. Just like any other computer, you can tweak a lot of it to fit your tastes and uses.
Yesterday I made good with my whiteboard schedule and spent some time with my new toys! I spent a good hour with the synth, which did come with a user guide, but is more of a schematic than a booklet on "nifty things you can do with this here box of knobs and buttons". But as one does with such toys, I just turned it on and started fiddling around with the settings. In the process I somehow created a Nine Inch Nails-like beat with weird noises, which was kinda cool. I'm thinking once I understand this little thing a bit better, I should be able to do more with it. I do like how it has a headphone jack so I'm not bothering Emm in the other room, but it also has a built-in speaker as well so I can use it as background if I want to, say, play my guitar along with it.
After that, I pulled out the tablet and started toying with that again. For some reason it was being very touchy and not exactly working the way I want it, but I think it's partly due to me just being so new with it. Test drawing #2 ended up being one of my made up maps I like drawing. It's not the same as doing it on paper, but I can get used to it. I think one of the things I need to get used to is the placement of the tablet. They suggest you place it so it lines up with the monitor (this way your movements will be mirrored on the screen), but I found that having it off to the side a bit worked just as well. It'll take some getting used to, but the learning curve is pretty easy. It's just a matter of getting used to it.
Today is a bit up in the air, as I'm not sure if we're actually going to do anything outside (plus there's football!). Later on in the day I'll be working on Walk in Silence and doing a bit more playing with my toys. I do need to get MS Word up and running on this laptop, so I will most likely do that today as well. So if anything, we'll head to the gym, have lunch, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing, watching games and playing with our toys. I may even get some writing done too!
