I started a new job this week as a temp for an agency.  I’m hoping it will turn into something permanent.  I now get up at 5:30 because I am not someone who can get up and rush off to work.  I like to ease into my day.  I usually get up, fix a pot of coffee, have a quick breakfast, check my email and then shower and get ready.  I also like to get to work a little bit early.  Even though my workweek didn’t start until Wednesday, by Friday, I was exhausted.  On top of the new job, I was gone three nights this week and it looks like I will be busy Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night again this week.  I had hoped a regular schedule would allow more time for writing.  So far, it hasn’t.  I am planning to use my planner this week to schedule writing time.  I am a strong believer in the ‘write it down, make it happen’ idea. 

So I have to confess, except for my blog, I haven’t written anything this past week.  I have had another adventure though besides the new job and it is what I’ve decided to share with you. 

When this big change in my life came up, I knew I was going to have to look at making some changes with my writing.  One of those changes was what I planned to use.  I first noticed the netbook last year when I participated in Nanowrimo.  A few of the members of the group I belonged to had them.  I didn’t instantly desire one but I did think about it.  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted one. I do like the convenience.  It’s about the size of a book.

Up until now, I have been using an Alpha Smart Neo.  I do like it too.  I like the convenience and the fact that a set of batteries can and has lasted for years.  But the one thing that swayed me to think about changing is that with a netbook, I can save it on a flash drive, save that on my desktop and then print it out.  With the Neo, I have to hook it up and let it print onto a Word page and hope it doesn’t do any funky while it’s doing it, and it has occasionally.  I also think it’s nice to be able to format and see more of the page than four lines at a time.  So after selling my lockboxes and an extra all-in-one, I had enough money to buy the netbook.

Here is where my adventure begins.  This all started a week ago yesterday when I went to Best Buy to buy a netbook.  I had stopped in several times over the past few months and had an idea of what I wanted.  I had my eye on a D**l so I purchased it. I have to admit, I really liked the look of this one.  It looked just like the larger version but smaller. I paid to have the Geek Squad set it up and because it was too late in the day, I had to arrange to pick it up on Sunday. 

I picked it up the next day and brought it home.  I tried to connect to my wireless modem but it wouldn’t work.  So I called Qwest.  They were very helpful and walked me through re-configuring some stuff.   Eventually we got it going.    Before we hung up though, they gave me D**l’s direct number in case I had further problems.  That should have been my first warning. Unfortunately, I had to go somewhere so just shut it down and left. Next time I turned it on, it wouldn’t work.  So I called D**l.  They told me they could help me but it had to be registered first.  Since I couldn’t get it connected to register, they told me to call Best Buy and have them register it for me and then they could help me out. By then it was too late to get anyone at Best Buy. 

The next day, I called Best Buy and the Geek Squad had no clue.  They said they couldn’t register it for me.  They said to bring it in and let them look at it.  Well I wasn’t a virgin to owning a laptop; I do have an older one that worked right away without any hassle. So I grabbed everything and en route to Best Buy, I decided maybe a D**l wasn’t for me.  Best Buy was great they understood and were more than happy to credit me and let me pick out something new.  I did end up with an HP.  The salesman at that time mentioned that they had a joke about the number of D**l netbook returns and they thought it was because the consumer wasn’t intelligent enough to figure out how to do it.  When I related my story, they said that maybe it wasn’t the consumer and maybe D**l.  Best Buy wasn’t aware that D**l used a totally different system to connect than anyone else.  I learned that little piece of information from Qwest.  Well to shorten this story a little.  I got the HP netbook and it works just fine.  I plan to spend this afternoon at either the library or coffee shop and get back into my story.  I will have made some progress by the next time I post on this subject. I do plan to participate in Nano.  I am calling it my outlaw version of Nano.  I don’t plan to start a new story but take this one and add my 50,000 words to it.  Hopefully I can have it nearly completed by the beginning of November.  Well…that’s my plan.

 For now, how is your writing going?  Have you run into any snags and how do you deal with them?  Do you use a desktop, laptop, Neo or a regular pen and paper?  Do you have a routine you need to get into to write?  Want to share some of your writing methods? I really would like to hear from you.

 Watch for tomorrow’s post, an interview with Donna Ball, the author of A Year on Ladybug Farm.

 Until next time,

 Virginia