New laptop ... I miss my old one, but I guess it was time for a change

So I had to buy a new laptop (the one in the Amazon ad is close, but not quite it) because while working on Taste Buds on the TV side, my old laptop started eating files.  Eating files in a really disastrous way.  I would be working on files, save them, then not be able to open them again.  When it happened the third time, I was just about ready to cry.  I was house-sitting that week, and boy, would it have been a way less stressful week had I just been able to use the one laptop and that's it.  It was a Friday, so I drove across town to come home, work until 2:30 in the morning to finish what I had to do so it was ready for Monday.  But then it wasn't that it had to be ready for Monday, we had actually PLANNED to work that weekend because of late script deliveries and whatever else.

Just a note that next job, I am charging double time for working weekends and evenings past 7 p.m.  Even if that just means it's greater incentive not to have my plans cancelled left, right and centre.  If you want to be a time vampire, it's going to cost you.

I've been able to get away with just using my desktop, using other people's computers (thank you Sean J and Mark), but unfortunately, unless it's your own computer, it's kind of like driving someone else's car.  You're really afraid to do stuff in it, just in case you trash it.  On Monday, I had a punch-up room with some hilarious folks (3 of whom I really quite adore from previous gigs), but I'm thinking now that I looked like a boob because I wasn't typing as fast as I normally do, and since there were no delete or home/pg up/pg down/end keys, navigation was a little spotty.  That, and the wireless mouse with a delay ... cripes.  I must have looked slightly inebriated.  Which sucks especially, because I was a little excited after hearing my typing test results (more on that later), that I type at 103 wpm with 99% accuracy.  Apparently, the average is about 40.

ANYWAY ... so now I'm all geared up.  It's just a matter of getting used to this keyboard, where the shift key is a little too far to the left, and the return is a little too far to the right.  I keep hitting the keys adjacent to those, but I think with things like blogging, which help me type straight on, I'll get used to the keyboard soon enough.  I miss my old laptop, I really do, but when you're only keeping a half hour of battery power, it's time to go.  I miss that keyboard; I miss the functionality of the keyboard, because you could press the blue function key and get certain parts of the keyboard to act like a number pad.  I also remember getting used to the shift key, but that's not to say that I can't do the same with this one.  Maybe it'll just mean that my pinkies will be a bit stronger than the usual nothing that they are.

I'm also getting used to Office 2010.  I was sporting a real dilemma for about 24 hours there, because I couldn't decide whether I wanted one registration ($120) or the full package which comes with 3 ($160).  In the end, I thought that there's no way I'd be able to sell off two registrations, and plus, who knows what would happen to those two in the land of Ebay or Kijjiji.  I might find myself with some subpoena for piracy that wasn't my fault.  So I bought one, which makes me feel a little ripped off, but I didn't have much choice.  That's another thing - I totally would have gone Mac for this laptop, but didn't feel like paying $1500 for something that's not going to be my main computer.  It might become my main computer until my next writing room so that I get used to the keyboard, but really, I love my Mac too much.

Actually, getting MS Office 2010 was a bit of an adventure in itself.  I opened the box for the registration key, then realized that whoops, it was not 2010 pre-intalled on my machine but 2007.  Luckily, they let you convert the trial version, but crap, the Canada-based link wasn't available.  And then the Microsoft customer service chat representative really wasn't helpful, giving me US (geo-blocked in Canada) links.

Now that MS Office 2010 is installed, I'm slightly intrigued as to what new features it holds, although quite irritated by this Ribbon nonsense.  Instead of having shortcuts and drop-down menus so that you have more page space and nice little toolbars, you have tons of options which you're sort of forced to keep on the screen.  But like a big nerd, I've been going through the keyboard shortcuts list from the Help Section, and learning what I can to make things easier for myself.  Like splitting the screen with Alt+Ctrl+S.  Oooooooh.  And now I realize what I have to add to my Auto-Correct list in Word.  See?  Customization.  Love it.  That's also the difference between Office 2007 and 2010 - you can customize that damn Ribbon too.

I've also been doing quite well at Ribbon Hero.  Find it in the Help section.  It's not a bad way to learn the program.