3 Months Later ....

Well at least it isn't 3 years later !!!

Christmas came and went as it does every year like clockwork. My new computer is finally here, it arrived today and I also picked up a new monitor for it from PC World near us. I got a Samsung Curved 27" monitor. Really cool and so much larger and clearer than my previous monitor which resides up the loft currently.

I chose a Lenovo Gaming Desktop, the Idea Centre Y900:

i7 6700K 4.0 Ghz CPU (also known as the Skylake I believe)
16 GB RAM
256GB SSD
2TB HD
CD/DVD rewriter
GeoForce GTX 980 4GB Graphics Card.

Tool free upgrading to 64GB RAM, 2 expansion bays for another 2 Hard Drives up to 2TB each, second graphic card slot to allow upgrading to dual SLI graphics.

To name but a few.

I think I'll sign off here as my nails are too long to type accurately with and until then doing so is a major chore.

This Must Be A Record ...

Even for me! It's been over 2 years since I lasted posted and of my 'free' blogs via blogger this was the one updated last.

Life has been changing a lot for me once again. I opted to use this blog as I felt, and still feel, that this one is the most 'me' one I have. Kind of hard to explain that but let's say it is the most 'true to the real me' of the blogs I have both here and elsewhere in cyberspace.

Still Using My Note 8.0

I've had, and been using  my Note 8 for almost two entire weeks now. While I had notes covering the first  week on a daily basis I didn't get around to posting the polished complete articles here. Family got in the way so to speak. Not that I'm complaining about spending extra time with my three nephews.

In fact just thus afternoon we had all three boys here, we had to pick up the middle are from a "Battlefield" party, the boys spent the majority of the time on the Wii U playing the new Lego Superheroes game that came out on Friday here.

This is about the fourth Sunday in a row we have had at least one, if not all 3, of the boys here. This is the Second or third due to my brother and his wife going Christmas shopping.

Tomorrow is my brother's birthday and he will be 39 years old. The next Monday will be my middle nephew's birthday and he will be 9. We bought my nephew the Transformers toy that he asked for but have also got him the boxset of Ironman movies which he loves. The Movie boxset Is an added surprise for him.

As for my coverage of my Note 8.0?

Well I have quite a bit of background notes and will use it in my future article. l use my note every single day and I think the chances are good that I have found my perfect tablet for productivity.

Day 2

Today was Day 2 with the Note 8.0 and it got it's first real 'field trip' when I had to take my nephew to his guitar lesson  this evening.

Day 1

It's day number one with my Galaxy Note 8.0 which I bought as it seemed, from all reviews and reading up on, to be the tablet I was looking for which seemed to centre on productivity.

It's Been Awhile

I will never give up my love - and dream - of writing. Unfortunately my health problems are intent to keep from fulfilling any literary goals.

Future Plans

I am carefully deciding on my timetable, or as I like to call it my fluid rota, for the coming year.

I have decided to concentrate my limited resources on a couple of blogs, I have opted to choose one personal blog as well as my book blog as well as my disabled blog Invisible Me. As for the last of those blogs I will only be updating that one very occasionally as I've decided only to host well thought out articles concerned with living like a disabled person on this blog.

I decided to choose The Crimson Writer as my personal blog cause this was the anti-thesis of my book blog The Crimson Inkpot, sort like the blog of the person behind the blog so to speak.

Due to the unpredictable nature of my health and its associated disabilities I cannot be assured that I will been good enough health to ensure regular updates, hence the need for a more fluid timetable.

The last thing that my health needs is for me to unnecessary stress on myself trying to adhere to a very strict timetable. While I know I need the structure to help me in some sort of organised order I need to be sure I don't over do this and result in the putting too much pressure on myself and as a result not post anything except apologies for not posting.

Out of Control

I really have to get all these blogs under control ... I want to keep things as simple as possible in the coming year. So I will select a couple of blogs that I will post to. Probably here and my Invisible Me blog where I talk about living as a disabled person. Also using my self-hosted book blog as well. But I will be relaunching my book blog early next year and gradually adding to it through out the year as regularly as possible. I'm aiming for regular posting rather than as often as which was part of my problem keeping it updated, also this placed a lot of unneeded pressure on myself which made it harder for me to actually relax and write.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and Santa was good to them, and if you don't celebrate Christmas personally I hope you had a good time as well regardless.

Seasons Greetings

So Christmas is fast approaching once again and in a week we will be getting ready for the last ‘sleep’ before Santa as the children’s programmes keep informing us.

This coming week will undoubtedly be the busiest for myself and my family, what with getting ready for the actual day, finishing shopping for stocking fillers, finish wrapping (started doing this this afternoon!), delivering wreaths to my family graves, three different graves at two different cemeteries (which is scheduled for Wednesday), grocery shopping for the festive break (scheduled for Sunday the 23rd, the 23rd being our preferred day leaving Christmas Eve for preparing food and any emergency items we need to rush to the supermarket for before early closing time).

And those are just the tip of the iceberg for the coming week, also tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday are childminding days when we look after my youngest nephew then put him into his nursery class at 1pm. Also my youngest nephew has come down with a stomach bug which is a shame as he is just getting over a horrid cold.

Also my eldest nephew is going into the hospital on Thursday to have an operation on his big toe, he has a horrid ingrown toenail which is causing the toe to become continually badly infected. It’s an in-patient appointment for a short operation which means he goes in early (around 8am actually) and hopefully will get out in the late afternoon at the latest.

Also on Thursday (or Friday) depending on my schedule (with my eldest nephew going into hospital that day we might have the school run and feeding the eldest two that afternoon/night) to drive across town and hand in our (my parents and I as well as a couple of small things on behalf of my nephews) presents for our aunt into her house as well as pick up the bags she generally has. Not all ours, mostly gifts for my three nephews, my brother and sister-in-law as well as our own from her to save my Dad struggling home on the bus with multiple bags of gifts.

So all in all a busy busy week!!

So hopefully it will be worth it on the day(s) to come.

So if I don’t get back to you before then, have a great holiday season regardless of your religion or beliefs on the season, I wish you all well and hope you have a great time.

Walking

Well my Mother's Curry's order of the Samsung Chromebook is walking from the Royal Mail Distribution Centre in Yorkshire up to my area of Scotland. It was sent out last Wednesday from Curry's and arrived at the Yorkshire Centre late Thursday and hasn't moved since then. Today is the second full working day that it's been 'processing' at the Yorkshire Centre, no idea when they will stop 'processing' and actual move it on it's way.

Hopefully it will finish 'processing' and be delivered before Christmas Day as it's a present.

Still Here

Well, I am still here, still around but unfortunately I am experiencing computer problems. First my desktop without warning wouldn't switch on one day, after being away for almost a month it was returned to me with a new PSU (power supply unit) on the inside of the tower itself replaced. The PC is working but I am experiencing a lot of blue screens/crashing whenever I go to shut down my computer every night. Half the time I get the blue screen and the PC totally reboots and has to be shut down again. When this happens it takes up to 30 minutes from initial shut down to the actual shut down occurring. If it does work first time it takes at least five to six minutes to shut down. So not working greatly.

Writing

The RA in my hands and wrists have been joined with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. All in all not good news for someone who is mourning the loss of her ability to write.

A writer who can't physically write. Not the best formula, is it?

I've been playing around with my new 'toy' my pocket Kodak camcorder, but that doesn't help me write do is?

I am thinking of maybe getting Dragon Speaking software when I get my 10 year endowment policy payout later this year, as well as a good microphone to dictate with. I don't know. As the only place I can use such software properly would be in my bedroom using my mother's laptop. Luckily said laptop resides in my bedroom and my mother brings it downstairs into the lounge when she wants to use it.

She said she would rather it get used daily by me than sit in a bag and only getting used a few time a week at the most when she felt like playing games or surfing the net.

I am using her laptop to edit the videos from my pocket cam as it has a higher RAM and larger hard drive than my desktop so it should handle any editing much more easily than my older desktop could. Also it helps to have a quiet room to edit and our lounge is the main room in the house and the TV is on most of the day even if just as background noise.

My hands are beginning to hurt quite badly so I will sign off here for now. Hopefully I'll post a heck of a lot sooner next time!!

Still Alive

Well I'm still alive just am having difficulties typing. Last week at the Occupational Therapist's assessment she tested my hand strength and found I had less than 10% of the strength I should have.

So on top of the hand exercises she gave me I also have my shoulder ones, the ones for my lower limbs and my spinal ones.

It's a nightmare trying to fit them all in.

Monday Blues

Well I suppose there is a lot of school children experiencing Monday Blues as they begin their first full week back at school after the festive holidays.

On one hand it doesn't seem so long since Christmas holidays began and on the other hand Christmas seems more than two weeks and odd change ago.

2011 went in what seems to be a blink of my eye, and if the first week of 2012 is anything to go by, 2012 is so far shaping up to be exactly the same.

No real news today but I needed to test out my typing on my new keyboards as I still haven't used it much since setting it up Christmas Day, I am trying to type something every day even if it's just to actually do some typing. Exercise for my hands as it would be.

2012

Well it's 2012, I would say Happy New Year but am almost a week late to do so on this blog. Remembered to do so on my book blog and other blogger blog so at least I didn't forget altogether.

So what to post about today? That's the question. But it's easily responded to given what I've observed, and been personally exposed to, on forums I like to visit.

I don't mind newbies making mistakes especially given I was one once with forums, also on a big intimidating and confusing forum mistakes are to be expected. One I don't like, and what annoys me more than wrongly placed threads/questions ever could, is rude moderator whether they be actual mods there or self-appointed ones.

Testing Testing

I had some trouble earlier using Blogaway Android App and lost the whole post I had written when an error in trying to post it to my blog caused it to fail. So here goes again!

It's Me Again

I'm back again. I've had a few more minutes to play around with my Kobo Vox and will eventually post a full review of my personal experiences with this device.

I have wanted for a while a colour tablet to use at night in bed rather than struggle with my iPod touch's small screen before turning in or when I am suffering from insomnia, something I suffer from a lot given my medical problems.

I originally bought a cheap 7 inch android tablet for this purpose but found it too heavy, the touch-screen too slow and resistive, and the charge lasting too little time that made me have to charge it continually to completely meet the function I purchased it for.

Kobo Vox has arrived

My order with WHSmith arrived just minutes before I left to take my youngest nephew to nursery school so luckily I was in to accept the package.

According to said package it was sent out yesterday by Parcel Force 24 but at least I don't have to arrange for someone to be home for the next 48 hours in case it arriveth.

Due to the fact that the workman my brother was expecting tonight texted that he would arrive at around 3pm rather than in the evening our plans for this afternoon had to be totally reorganized. Instead of picking up all three boys from their relevant schools the youngest is going to football practice with his dad after school while the two eldest get picked up by their grandfather and then travel by bus home where I am currently awaiting the workman's arrival.

My brother is due home after football practice, so some time between 4.30 and 5.00 pm and we can head home once he arrives.

I had a short time while having my lunch to play around with my new toy and found it instinctive and easy to use. The touchscreen was very responsive and the update to the software took less than 10 minutes to do and then I logged into Kobo and downloaded by meagre library there.

I will check out more of the android side tonight and see about downloading the Kindle app which works with this device by all accounts and also downloading an app which allows me to import my other epubs from other sources.

I will also play around with the browser etc., as well as already installed apps to see how it all works out.

Order Sent

I woke up this morning to an email from WHSmith to say that my order had been sent out by my chosen delivery service. I opted for first class courier, the most expensive shipping method, hoping that three things would be obvious:

Still Not Sent!

Well, I currently have two orders outstanding with WHSmith online, one for a Kobo Touch Reader as well as a Kobo Vox Reader and another on behalf of my Father for a case/wallet for the Kobo Touch to give to my Mother for Christmas.

Both orders have been sitting on 'Ready to Send' status since half an hour after placing said order. Finally I searched down an explanation on the website about how long it takes to dispatch an in stock item and found the following explanation of the term 'Ready to Send':

• Ready to Send: Your product(s) are ready to be sent to you and will be sent shortly.

Well, both Kobos have been sitting on this message/status since before 2pm on Friday 25th November and the second order has been since before noon on Sunday 27th November. Not exactly 'will be sent shortly'.

I thought as only weekdays count in their delivery schedule even for those using a courier service that my order had missed the pick-up on Friday but would be picked up by the courier service today as the next working day after my order changing to the 'RTS' status. Apparently not!

Once an order is ready to go and just needs handing over to the chosen delivery service like this I believe the next working day is long enough time for this to happen especially with in stock and ready orders.

Hopefully my order should be sent out tomorrow, any backlog from weekend orders should be cleared by then for packaged and ready orders shouldn't it?! That should give them enough time to send them out as clearly they are sitting ready and waiting in the warehouse.

Unfortunately due to my mobility problems going all the way to our only outlet of WHSmith is out of the question for me and that's even if they had the relevant items in stock when I got there. I know in the case of the ... well case ... the 25% off discount of the price was only available by online orders. So that one had to be placed and ordered online with the warehouse. 

Fingers crossed for tomorrow again.