a day late
[eta: this was a password-protected post previously. say that five times fast.]
hi there ;) so.. it’s an odd feeling writing behind a (login) screen. ha, it’s easy to forget how darn public the internets is (and i worry about that, about how much i put online), but then put up a little screen and all of a sudden i feel so much more freeee and i think i’m speaking to just a few friends in my kitchen. which is an equally unrealistic viewpoint, but still, a good feeling. cozy.
anyhow, for the big move, there are some things that i will not leave behind, such as my laptop, camera, my spinning wheel (well one of them at least.. i’m thinking of selling the other, my first, sigh, but it really hasn’t been touched in months and months), and so on. but there are a ton of papers and files that i don’t want to take with me but i also don’t want to leave behind, in fear that i’ll lose track of them forever. google docs to the rescue! or at least scanner + google docs. the scanner is currently in the mail, can’t wait until it arrives. once it does i will be scanning anything that moves!
like any good archivist, i have worries about relying so much on one backup source/repository, in this case google. seriously, i’m up to my eyeballs in the whole google portfolio: gmail, google docs, i dropped bloglines a while back and am now exclusively google reader, picasa for photos and video, and now i’ve become really attached to google bookmarks in the last few months. i can’t help it though, their products are just really good and you can’t beat the price.. happily, there are nice alternatives like dropbox, which i do intend to use now and then, especially after seeing how clean a format their photo slideshow is, but for the most part, google docs is what i’m using to backup all my files. i’ve set up a multitude of folders, tagged them all, plus i love that there’s a thumbnail option for viewing documents, so i can scan the images i’ve uploaded super quick. so, here i have old college papers i want to hold on to for whatever reason, my resume and library work i want to keep, like booklists and program descriptions i worked especially hard on, but also some family photos and documents, and next, once that scanner arrives, i’ll scan in basic health documents, banking info, and family files, and so on.
oh, btw, in terms of electrical items, in bolivia the voltage is opposite what it is here – which i always reverse in my head, so.. 110 here and 220 in bolivia? well whatever, you get the idea. ;) – so i’m trying to limit the need for any converters. they’re a pain in the butt and i remember all too clearly that unwanted whiff of oh-no-i-burnt-out-my-electrical-gadget smell from my childhood and i want to avoid any repeats of that if possible. thank goodness apple in all its wisdom has a range of 110-240 v, and i was happy to find out my new little dell netbook does as well. the new scanner is usb-powered, hurrah, as it my backup external hard drive, so now all i need are some usb-powered speakers and i’ll be happy hardware-wise.
lastly (for today ;) ), i have a dozen or more great cookbooks and i can’t bring them all with me. there’s talk of my mom at some point sending a crate of stuff to bolivia, including her baby grand piano, so if she does that, i’m ready to beg one of my sisters to grab various books and boxes and stuff them in that crate. until that time comes though, i’ll have to make do with just a few cookbooks at most – i’m thinking deborah madison, one bread-making book, and.. hm, the third choice will be hard. anyhow, imagine, technology-wise, how happy i was to discover this site: onetsp.com. it’s amazing. no ads, free to use, and simple and practical – just a repository for recipes, that’s all it is. sure, i could have used google docs in some way, or others have used that evernote site, or allrecipes built-in recipe keeper, but i love these little diy sites and can i say again how simple and clean the interface is? i’m a sucker for a clean interface. so far i have a couple dozen recipes in there, and i’ve already cooked about five in the last few weeks, probably due to the handy extras they keep throwing on, like a shopping list function, and a neat mobile version of their site. i can’t say enough good things about it.
so, a bit rambly, and wow, long post, but that’s that. i’m backdating this post to yesterday and i’ll post another one, with pics ;), for today. i’m determined to have a post a day. even if it’s a day late, ha. happy monday ~ only a week of work to go, yikes!
{ posted 4 April 10, under techno-babble }