twas the day before Christmas
The Sororal Unit came down from Virginia for an early Christmas celebration, so this last week was a flurry of family get-togethers, dinners out, and recuperating from my thesis defense.
I got all my presents early, and it was a truly lovely haul that made me feel all tingly. I got things that I needed, things I didn't realize I needed, and enough cash that I could treat myself to some necessary luxuries like warm flannel sheets and a rainfall shower head.
From the Sororal Unit I got a desktop computer system that she picked up from a friend who was moving, and thus liquidating his home computer lab. It's a nice little gaming system with a decent-sized monitor; I just have to replace the hard drive (Ubuntu tells me that it has many bad sectors and that it could drop dead from Fail at any moment) and get a more comfortable keyboard (very important for someone who is typing during most of her waking hours).
It didn't come with any software loaded beyond Windows XP and Chrome, so I installed Ubuntu on it and then went on a downloading frenzy for word processors, web browser, ebook readers, and other things. I'll probably write more on my experiences as a newb Linux-user at some point, but so far I am very pleased with its usability.
From my parents I got all of Fraggle Rock on dvd and a fabulous cookbook published by the Culinary Institute of America. I forsee making heavy use of both of them.
I got all my presents early, and it was a truly lovely haul that made me feel all tingly. I got things that I needed, things I didn't realize I needed, and enough cash that I could treat myself to some necessary luxuries like warm flannel sheets and a rainfall shower head.
From the Sororal Unit I got a desktop computer system that she picked up from a friend who was moving, and thus liquidating his home computer lab. It's a nice little gaming system with a decent-sized monitor; I just have to replace the hard drive (Ubuntu tells me that it has many bad sectors and that it could drop dead from Fail at any moment) and get a more comfortable keyboard (very important for someone who is typing during most of her waking hours).
It didn't come with any software loaded beyond Windows XP and Chrome, so I installed Ubuntu on it and then went on a downloading frenzy for word processors, web browser, ebook readers, and other things. I'll probably write more on my experiences as a newb Linux-user at some point, but so far I am very pleased with its usability.
From my parents I got all of Fraggle Rock on dvd and a fabulous cookbook published by the Culinary Institute of America. I forsee making heavy use of both of them.