Breaking Silence

Maybe that should be the title of my TV show, "Breaking Silence"...  I seem to have to do it enough.

But...well, the usual excuses.  Work.  Work.  More work.  For which I should be eternally grateful.  It's paying my bills.  And letting me indulge in a little system grabbing.

I have switched almost entirely into Windows usage.  Not sure when that pendulum will swing back in another direction.

I have an interesting collection to play with at the moment.  I've been using a factory-refurbished Thinkpad Edge 531 with a Core i7, running Windows 8.1 as my work computer.  (I wanted a 15" screen for that.)  As my knockabout personal "notebook" computer, I've been using a refurbished X1 Carbon with an i5, 4 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD, also running 8.1.  I managed to get incredible deals on both of those system (particularly the Carbon, which I couldn't have touched otherwise.)

And, right now, I'm typing this on my "birthday present", which is a little Thinkpad X120e.  About 2 years old now, with a dual-core AMD E-350 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB HD.  Running, believe it or not, Windows 7 Professional.  It literally just looks like a miniaturized Thinkpad.  I think I got infatuated with this model after seeing the slick Lenovo "tour" video  awhile back.  (Yeah, I am that pathetic.)

Trapped here "on assignment", as it were, for several weeks at a time, Ive not had much to do but play with my computers.  I've truly, truly fell in love with Microsoft OneNote.  I truly think this is one of the best programs in the world for someone as discombobulated as I am.  And why Microsoft doesn't push it more, I don't know.  I'm beginning to think this is the Microsoft equivalent of HyperCard.  An utterly awesome program that the parent company can't get its head around, and horrifically neglects.  (OK, a bit overly dramatic.  MS does vaguely seem to know they have OneNote.  And Steve Jobs didn't neglect HyperCard, he killed it because he saw it as a John Scully project...)

So, here I sit, playing on my miniature Thinkpad, fantasizing about traveling the world.  Fantasizing about being some grand tech writer type.  Fantasizing about the cute little redhead standing at the bar...

Uh...maybe I better quit while I'm ahead...