resolution #7 continued
I have ordered a new computer! It's going to arrive at my house, in manchester, four days before I need to hand in my thesis, in oxford. So the 'get a new computer to write my thesis on' idea didn't work out so well. So currently I'm doing all my writing on the family computer, which seems reasonably well-behaved these days, because typing on my laptop is still an experience akin to one of those Hades punishments (you know the ones? Like the guy who has to push a rock up a hill but the rock always falls down. Or the people who get water out a well but the buckets have holes in. It's like that. I have to write a thesis but the computer keeps turning off. Anyway.) But when the computer gets here, it's going to be amazing, because it has all kinds of things like RAM and ROM and a Hard Drive and a working CD drive! And it comes pre-installed with Ubuntu, which is great because firstly this hopefully means everything will work on the first go and I won't spend the first week constantly on the phone to Will saying "The computer knows it has a wireless card but some other bit of it doesn't OH WHY OH WHY DID I EVER SWITCH TO LINUX I don't know the first thing about computers", and then Will hates me. That won't happen. Everything will work. Hopefully. And secondly, I don't have to pay 60 quid or whatever it is for the privilege of having Windows Vista which I would intend to get rid of as soon as possible anyway.
And thirdly of course: I will be FREE FROM WINDOWS!!!! A HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Which I have decided is an evil piece of software designed to curtail your freedom made by THE MAN. And to be honest I don't really have particularly good reasons for thinking this; it just seems to be the impression I have created for myself. I don't know, I just don't like the way it does things like block mp3s because it's decided the might be 'dangerous', when clearly that's not why they're doing it, they're doing it to fight piracy. And I like the idea that with linux when something goes wrong with my computer, or I'd like it to do something a little differently from the way it does it, I'll be able to go in and fix it/change it myself. Which is perhaps horrendously optimistic of me seeing as I don't know any programming whatsoever. (I can make things bold or italics in html. That's all I can do.) But it would be nice to feel I can do it. And I just get the feeling that a lot of memory and expense is being spent on doing flashy things like making the screen go black and white when I log out or providing an animated dog to look inquisitively at me when I'm searching for files, that I don't really have any need for really.
Me: Doing the right thing, for not particularly good reasons.
Anyway my new computer is going to have all its keys and not switch itself off if you try and play flash games or type, so it's still a good purchase.
These are the things I'm going to do once I've got a new laptop:
Finish my bloody thesis
But after I've done that, and the not particularly exciting task of transferring all my files from the old laptop, I am going to do the following:
Watch Spirited Away like a dozen times
Make lots of mix CDs and give them to everyone I know
NEVER EAT AT THE COMPUTER
Learn how to program shit
In other news, I think I might be getting a toothache. I kind of hope I am; I had a toothache a couple of years ago and the only way to block out the pain was to think really hard about something else, so I spent my time furiously concentrating on my maths or philosophy. It's a great work motivator; I could do with it for my thesis.
(Disclaimer: Mark isn't sure if the pain he had in his tooth was actually the same thing as the thing people call 'toothache' when they say how bad toothache is, so possibly he does not know what he is talking about and is belittling the plight of toothache sufferers everywhere. If this is the case he apologises, and if he does ever get real toothache you get to rub it in his face.)
Actually thinking about it I bet it's just that I haven't been using the sensitive toothpaste for a while.
And thirdly of course: I will be FREE FROM WINDOWS!!!! A HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Which I have decided is an evil piece of software designed to curtail your freedom made by THE MAN. And to be honest I don't really have particularly good reasons for thinking this; it just seems to be the impression I have created for myself. I don't know, I just don't like the way it does things like block mp3s because it's decided the might be 'dangerous', when clearly that's not why they're doing it, they're doing it to fight piracy. And I like the idea that with linux when something goes wrong with my computer, or I'd like it to do something a little differently from the way it does it, I'll be able to go in and fix it/change it myself. Which is perhaps horrendously optimistic of me seeing as I don't know any programming whatsoever. (I can make things bold or italics in html. That's all I can do.) But it would be nice to feel I can do it. And I just get the feeling that a lot of memory and expense is being spent on doing flashy things like making the screen go black and white when I log out or providing an animated dog to look inquisitively at me when I'm searching for files, that I don't really have any need for really.
Me: Doing the right thing, for not particularly good reasons.
Anyway my new computer is going to have all its keys and not switch itself off if you try and play flash games or type, so it's still a good purchase.
These are the things I'm going to do once I've got a new laptop:
Finish my bloody thesis
But after I've done that, and the not particularly exciting task of transferring all my files from the old laptop, I am going to do the following:
Watch Spirited Away like a dozen times
Make lots of mix CDs and give them to everyone I know
NEVER EAT AT THE COMPUTER
Learn how to program shit
In other news, I think I might be getting a toothache. I kind of hope I am; I had a toothache a couple of years ago and the only way to block out the pain was to think really hard about something else, so I spent my time furiously concentrating on my maths or philosophy. It's a great work motivator; I could do with it for my thesis.
(Disclaimer: Mark isn't sure if the pain he had in his tooth was actually the same thing as the thing people call 'toothache' when they say how bad toothache is, so possibly he does not know what he is talking about and is belittling the plight of toothache sufferers everywhere. If this is the case he apologises, and if he does ever get real toothache you get to rub it in his face.)
Actually thinking about it I bet it's just that I haven't been using the sensitive toothpaste for a while.