I'm in love.

Meet Spike.



Yep. I got a netbook. I've been wanting one of these for years ... in fact, I've been wanting one of these since even before they were available to the masses, before I even knew they actually existed - I just knew I wanted as small a laptop as I could get, one small enough to actually carry around with me easily (without lugging a big case, and weighing me down). When I bought my second-to-last laptop, I complained that I couldn't get a smaller one. When I bought the current laptop (after the second-to-last one got stolen), I searched for the smallest one I could find (or, well, afford - the Sony Vaio was a little bit smaller, but it was $1,000 more, and I wasn't willing to pay that).

But even then I kept saying, "I want something smaller, a little mini laptop, something about the size of a trade paperback."

Apparently I wasn't the only one, because not long after that netbooks began appearing on the market. When they began to be more widely available, I eyed them enviously. But the prices were still a little more than I could justify spending on something I didn't really need, and initially they were pretty weak - with, like, 8GB hard drives and very little memory.

Lately I've been hunting them down online again, and found this one for only $280. That was a price I could live with. It's an Acer Aspire One. I've done hours of research, and read dozens and dozens of user reviews, and overall everything I've read has been very positive, so I decided to go for it.



A comparison shot - and remember, my Toshiba was the smallest laptop I could find at the time, so it's way smaller than most 'normal' laptops as it is.

So far I am thrilled. This thing is fantastic!!! It does everything I need it to do, with no problems. I didn't plan to have everything in the world installed on this one - I mainly wanted it for portable internet access and word processing (like working on a book). I was planning to leave my memory-hogging programs (like my complex photo editing software) on my main computer, which is fine - I don't need to have that with me all the time.

Although if I wanted to put it on the Acer, I could - the thing is almost as powerful as my main computer. It's got a 160GB hard drive (my main laptop has a 230GB hard drive, of which I'm only using a fraction as it is) and 1 GB of memory (my main computer has 2GB, but the Acer's is upgradeable to 2, though so far I haven't seen any need). So I can't really think of any use I'd have for it that it's not going to be able to handle.

Yep. I'm in love. This thing is totally awesome.

Baby Blanket Update

I've been steadily slogging away at Baby Blanket The First. Here's the progress.


I put the coffee cup on it for a size comparison, when the Poo decided to show up and pose, which is a better size comparison, so there ya go. (Of course I'll wash it before sending it off to the parents-to-be).

It's coming along. I'm thinking a couple more rounds, and it'll be done. I'd like to make it good-sized, so it can be used for several years, but ... realistically, it's a baby blanket, and too large is going to be useless initially. So I have to try to strike a happy medium.

I have another project going, the Illusion Scarf, but I haven't had much time for it since re-joining the band. It's all I can do to fit in fiddle practice and baby blanket knitting. But that's okay - at least I'm busy doing things I enjoy. (As a bonus, it keeps my mind off the job from hell when I'm not actually there).

Catching Up

I haven't been posting much - I've either been busy, or extremely lazy.

Christmas was really great - for the first time in several years. Then, I took a mini-vacation the week between Christmas and New Year's, taking vacation days on Wednesday and Thursday. That rocked and I'm very sad that it's almost over.

New Year's Eve was nice, too - we had a small get-together, nothing big, but it was fun.

New Year's Day was a real treat ... I didn't get up till noon (very rare for me), and decided to sit on the couch and knit. While looking for something to watch on TV, I found a channel that was having an all day Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon.

Whoa. I used to be a BVS nut - when I first discovered the show I didn't have cable, and I even got cable just to watch that show. I hadn't seen it since sometime before the show ended (it had gotten kind of strange after Buffy died and was brought back to life, and I think I moved and didn't have cable again), but sometimes I thought it would be fun to see it again (the earlier seasons), and had searched for re-runs before, but never found them.

So I was pretty psyched, and watched it all day long. Literally. From noon till 9:00 that night, just sitting on the couch knitting and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Weird.

Greg was much more productive, as he began sprucing up the downstairs bathroom with some great artwork:


He says he's no artist and has never done anything like that before, but - well - you couldn't tell by this. It looks absolutely fantastic!

Saturday there was a band practice, and this is new news to some. My brother and nieces did something really awesome this Christmas. They gave me my sister-in-law's electric violin.



It wasn't even my Christmas present, they just wanted to give it to me, because they said that no one was going to play it at their house, and they'd like to see it find a home where it would get played and enjoyed.

Well, they did. As I've been known to say repeatedly in the last week, this changed everything. First of all, it is so much easier to play. Second of all, there is so much more one can do with an electric violin - achieve different sounds and like that.

We'd talked about me rejoining the band on several occasions, playing fiddle, but I was always reluctant, for a bunch of reasons. I didn't think I was good enough, I often still had the acoustic fiddle sounding like a screaming cat. Amplifying it was tricky - I knew I could get a bridge mic, but I didn't have one, they were expensive, and I was concerned about how it would sound (maybe just like a much louder screaming cat?)

With the introduction of the electric violin, I've lost the screaming cat sound, and since it's made to be powered, there was nothing new or extra to buy (well, not that had to be bought ...). It has a very nice sound, and I found I could play a lot better than I thought I could (because I didn't have to mince around trying to not sound like a screaming cat). That's not to say I'm all that great at it, but it sounds better than I've managed to date, I think I'm more or less acceptable, and with steady practice can improve on that.

As for nothing that 'had to' be bought, well ... I'm already eyeing my own amp and effects pedal. What can I say ... it's too fun. So, I'm back in the band, and working out fiddle parts to as many songs as I can. But it's a good time, because I'm not the only one ... we have a new drummer, who is just learning all the songs, and most of the songs are changing a lot, so basically everyone's learning them anew. It's sounding great so far, and is only going to get better from here.

I think that's all the updated news, so I think I'll go rest my fingers. Five hours of playing last night took their toll. But I'll work up to it, I'm sure.