So I wanted to be able to get something done on that front while I waited to get my computer back, and was busy grousing to myself that the other computer was the one with all the software licenses. This gave me a chance to use Google Docs. I’d never done so before, and I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s not going to get me to abandon what I normally use, but it’s fine in the short term.

It also reminds me that I’m a little crazy for having a program just to do outlines. And despite that program, I’d let my outline of the text fall off in the past few chapters and I was flying blind. Without the main text though, I’m outlining the last eight chapters finally, which should speed things up if it is anything like when I was last working with an outline. Not my most efficient use of time, these past few weeks, if loosing my primary computer forces me to get cracking.

Also, as a PSA for the few people who read this in Minneapolis: (and some who may be coming into town for the wedding) Dreamhaven is moving. What does this mean? They’re not looking forward to having to haul all their stuff, so for this month there is a big sale. Used paperbacks are 75% off original cover price, with a minimum of 75¢. That means most books are under a dollar in their used section. A lot of the comics are 10¢. The other day I walked out with a pile I could barely carry for just over $15. You should check it out if you are in town.

It was shockingly well spent, causing me to think, for the 800th time, that computers are as much a curse as blessing when it comes to getting things done. Sure, it’s easy to say I couldn’t write as fast without one, but I would almost certainly be writing more. The worst is the RSS feed. That thing just kills my free time.

What did I do while you were all writing your Slash/Slash fiction? I read, a lot, mostly the pile of magazines and half finished books that sit in the living room. I also planned several things that I wanted to write. In general, I just felt that my time was getting sucked away less. That might also be because I’m no longer on the night shift. And then the computer came back, and it was back to life as usual on the highways that man built…

I’d love to say I’m back, but me saying I’m sitting down to write more is like the Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter.

Random aside: Why does the BBC World news theme sound so much better than the theme for All Things Considered? Maybe because it isn’t shitty?

Anyhow one of the things I wrote about back then, was how I wished there was a service, either a little program (the sort of thing that would now go in the OS X dashboard) or an email service, that would aggregate all the bands I wanted to track so I would know when they were coming through town. A lot of bands had sign up lists, but it was not consistent, and usually they would just send out a big tour schedule. I’m lazy and I wanted it to feel personal.

Well, yesterday the good folks of Fabulist let me know that such a thing now exists. Tourfilter, and here I link the Twin Cities portion, but it’s there for a bunch of other cities. Lets you track who’s coming to town. They send you email notices and if you want to, you can post it to your blog. And oh, what’s this I see? It can integrate with iCal and thus end up in your dashboard. Now I have even less excuse for why I don’t go to all those shows I miss.

really… If that’s the big deal, I find it hard to get excited with that pricing scheme. That would be $15 for something that must be lower res than a DVD, (which would take hours for a cable modem at off peak times, or the fastest speeds for dsl). Plus it’s only marginally more ‘on demand’ than going to the damn store, or putting it at the top of my netflix que. Then five dollars more if I want the small version that I can take with me? Or 10 if I just want to use it on the ipod? That sounds like something for koolaid drinkers and people who want to say “but it’s high tech!”

I would hope that this is just another fake and that I am just wasting my time.